Matthew 17:22-27

[0:00] Good morning. For those of you I don't know yet, my name is Dave.

[0:10] ! I'm one of Shoreline's pastors.! Walking with Christ and seeing what he has to say and what he does and the life he lived on our behalf.

[0:37] And today we're going to see where he's headed. Let's pray together and ask his blessing on this time.

[0:52] O Lord our God, we need your help. In every hour, in every way, and in every circumstance.

[1:03] And we need you. By the power of your Holy Spirit to open our eyes. To see and understand this passage.

[1:16] To open our hearts. To not only Lord to obey and to submit to it, but Lord to find joy in it. Father, will you excite our hearts to what you are calling us to in this?

[1:36] And will you be glorified in that? Father, make my words clear. And are minds attentive and sharp to your word? Father, we pray these things in the matchless name of Jesus Christ, our King.

[1:52] Amen. Our passage today is Matthew chapter 17, verses 22 to 27. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.

[2:14] And they were greatly distressed. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two drachma tax went up to Peter and said, Does your teacher not pay the tax?

[2:26] He said, Yes. And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax?

[2:39] From their sons or from others? When he said, From others, Jesus said to him, Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, Go to the sea and cast a hook, And take the first fish that comes up, And when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel.

[3:01] Take that and give it to them, For me and for yourself. This is God's holy, inerrant, and inspired word.

[3:12] May his spirit add blessing to its reading. Now, the first thing you might be thinking, When you read this passage, Is the first thing that I thought when I read this passage, What is going on here?

[3:28] What does this mean? In verses 22 and 23, We see that Jesus is heading to the cross. And we saw at the beginning of chapter 17, Really, that Jesus has turned, And now his steady gaze is in Jerusalem.

[3:45] From here until chapter 20, We're going to see Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. And then for the remainder of the book, We're going to really just see one week.

[3:59] Chapters 21 through 28 are just going to focus on One week of Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem. And so in verse 24, We see that they're headed south from Caesarea Philippi, Back to the Sea of Galilee.

[4:14] Capernaum's on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. And then they're on their way south, All the way to Jerusalem, Where he'll arrive in chapter 21. Now, there's a tax going on here in verse 24.

[4:26] What's that all about? This is not the Roman tax. This is a Jewish tax. In fact, it's a patriotic sort of thing In the minds of the Jewish people.

[4:41] Even when the people of Israel were home, Away from the temple, The priests were mediating on their behalf. Every day there were sacrifices going on in the temple. And so when they were at home, There were still sacrifices being made Between the people of God and God himself.

[4:58] And someone had to support all that. The priestly duties, There were daily sacrifices, There was incense being burned, There were lamps being lit, All on behalf of the people of God. And so the people of God paid a tax, About two days' wages thereabouts, For an average worker, To the temple, In order to make sure that that went on.

[5:19] And the Lord established this All the way back in Exodus chapter 30, When he brought them out of Egypt, And was heading into the land. And so basically what happened, Males over 20 had to pay about a tax Of two days' wages each year To maintain the office of the temple.

[5:36] And that's the scene that we're looking at. What happens in the midst of this? Well, they ask Peter, Well, is your teacher going to pay this tax?

[5:47] And he says, Yeah, yeah, sure. And then he goes in to the house, And what does Jesus say to him? He has this odd question. It's almost a parable, right? But from whom do the kings of earth Take toll or tax from their sons Or from others?

[6:09] How would you answer? I'd be like, I don't know any kings. I'm sorry, right? Well, kings exempt their own families from tax, right? It doesn't make any sense to tax The royal treasury, Which is the wealth of the children, right?

[6:21] To supply the royal treasury. It's nonsensical. It would be moving money from one pocket to the other And wasting your time. And so when the temple, The palace of God, Has a tax, Jesus is saying, I'm the son of the king of that palace.

[6:43] And he's saying that he's exempt. He's free from that tax. That's what he says, the sons. He is the son of this king. He's free of that tax. But, what does he do?

[6:56] Does he demand his right to be absolved of that tax? No. He pays it for himself and for Peter.

[7:11] Why? Why? As we walk through the rest of this passage, We're going to think through that together. What I want to stress for us is that What we see here is an example of Christ Laying down his rights and privileges For someone else.

[7:31] And the long sweep of scripture Over and over again Calls us to this same attitude.

[7:43] Into these same works. We are called to follow Christ's example For a whole host of reasons. First is to remove every impediment to evangelism.

[7:57] The Lord has called all his people to share the gospel. And we need to do that with this same humility. So, I'm not going to insist that you vote the same way as me Before I'll share the gospel with you.

[8:08] I'm not going to insist that you wipe your feet at the door Before I share the gospel with you. One writer put it this way. This is similar to Paul's principle in 1 Corinthians 9 When he said, I have become all things to all people So that by all possible means I might save some.

[8:26] All decisions are made on the basis of what enhances the gospel. And Christ's ambassadors are to surrender their rights for its sake. Right?

[8:37] Friends, the cross is offensive enough. Just the idea of it. The idea that someone had to die on your behalf Because you're not good enough. That's like the gospel at the outset is kind of offensive.

[8:48] Right? And so we need not add offense. And so we will lay down our rights and privileges to be right. To be thought well of in order to share the gospel.

[9:01] Let us not add offense. We're also called to lay down our rights and privileges for others In all the other circumstances of our lives as well. Right?

[9:12] Jesus is completely free. We would expect him here to reject the tasks. Right? This has nothing to do with preaching the gospel. But we see him do the opposite. He submits because he's free.

[9:23] Right? And since he's made us free Well Shouldn't be too big a burden for us To lay down our rights for others as well. Right?

[9:34] We're called Philippians chapter 2 To do To have this same mind about ourselves And we're called To live that out Not just to like think about it But to live it out.

[9:47] Right? Paul says in Philippians 2 Do nothing From selfish ambition Or conceit But in humility Count others More significant Than yourselves Let each of you Look not only to his own interests But also to the interests of others Have this mind among yourselves Which is yours In Christ Jesus Who though he was in the form of God Did not count equality with God A thing to be grasped But emptied himself By taking the form of a servant Being born in the likeness of men And being found in human form He humbled himself By becoming obedient to the point of death Even death on a cross Therefore God has highly exalted him And bestowed on him the name That is above every name So that at the name of Jesus Every knee should bow In heaven And on earth And under the earth And every tongue confess That Jesus Christ is Lord To the glory of God the Father What happens when we don't have that attitude?

[10:54] What happens when we don't live to that calling? When you and I are tempted to stand up for our rights What do we do?

[11:07] We get aggressive Or passive aggressive Depends on your personality I suppose We get indignant How dare this person slight me in this way Not give me what I'm owed We lapse into sort of like fantasy If I only had this Then we start daydreaming about Like what could be for us You know If only things went my way And people gave me my due We get angry We use harsh words Angry outbursts We build resentment We keep a record of wrongs Right?

[11:44] And friends This is every single person Mine Yours Every person on this planet This is our default setting This is how we Just are set That's our sinful setting And I want to actually ramp this Crank it up to 11 real quick And talk about the extreme end Before I come back to Like normal daily living At the extreme end Is abuse Right?

[12:09] Selfishly demanding Our rights and privileges Can lead all the way To every form of abuse It can happen In a couple ways Right? The mindset that produces abuse Probably in two ways Thinking I'm so important Right?

[12:24] That my rights are so absolute That I'm willing to sin To get them Or It's thinking I have the right To something When in fact you don't Right?

[12:37] People assume Like the world revolves Around them I'm sure you know Someone who thinks They have rights That you're like You're not owed that And if we look in the mirror I suspect we will find The same about ourselves Right?

[12:51] And if you're so in love With getting your way That you're willing To hurl insults at someone Or physically harm them That's abuse You don't have An absolute right I don't have An absolute right To my way Your way You're not God I'm not God Only he has absolute authority An absolute right To his own way Right?

[13:16] And so when a toddler Demands to get their own way What do they do? They throw a tantrum Because that's all They're able to do What happens when an adult does it? Demands to get their own way Right?

[13:26] They can do it with adult ways When an adult does it We can do manipulation Or abusive words Or physical harm Whatever we're able to And friends No one ever has permission To demean Or verbally abuse someone This especially can happen Behind closed doors In a family Physical discipline of our children Must never be done in anger To get our own way Right?

[13:54] There's no acceptable amount Of hitting in marriage There's no reasonable amount Of manipulation In friendship If you think you have Rights and privileges How much more Did Jesus Right?

[14:12] The one who formed The molecules in your body Did he rage And manipulate And injure In order to secure his rights Or did he in love Lay them down?

[14:31] And what's more Abusers often claim Rights and privileges That they're not owed Right? I'll start in the church Right? There's such a thing As spiritual abuse Hebrews chapter 13 Verse 17 says Obey your leaders And submit to them For they are keeping Watch over your souls As one As those who will have To give an account When it says that It only means Obey your leaders In the areas Where they have authority Right?

[15:07] I have authority To preach to God The only reason That you are to listen To me And what I'm saying Is because What I'm saying Comes from God's word I have no authority Over your life In terms of Like I can't tell you How to dress I can't tell you How Which neighborhood To live in I can't tell you So many things About I can't tell you Who your permissible Friends are I'm sitting here Telling you Believe the gospel Flee sin Pursue righteousness Share your faith Because that's what God commands That's where my Authority as a pastor And the other pastors Here at Shoreline That's where our authority Springs from And so Things like Hebrews 13 And 17 Mean that you Must obey Your leaders In terms of Where their authority lies We can certainly Give you advice But we certainly Can't bind your conscience And command you To things In terms of If you ever find Yourself As a You know I don't expect

[16:08] That I will bury All of you You know You'll probably End up in Different churches As the Lord moves You around the country And those sorts of things Right If you find yourself In a church Where that's happening Including here Where leaders Are asserting Authority over areas Of your life Where they ought not My suggestion Is this Bring it up To the leadership And give them a chance To confront the issue But if it isn't fixed If that doesn't change Run Don't walk For the door Right God is not God there The spiritual abuser is So that's one way Where people can claim Authority That they don't Actually rightfully have Here's another The Bible is clear That married couples Owe each other The right to the marriage bed However It doesn't say You're entitled to it Whenever you please One spouse Doesn't have the right

[17:09] To demand intimate relations At any moment Of their choosing The Bible is clear That you may Never touch your spouse In a way That they do not Consent to Or You do not have The right to dictate Who else your friends May be friends with Right You're just a Terrible friend If that's the way You're operating By the way Right If you're demanding Right It's okay to request Something of someone else But if you're demanding Rights that God Never gave you You're an abuser And friends If you need help here Right If you're being abused Either physically Or spiritually Or sexually Or emotionally I want to tell you We This church We want to help you What's happening to you Is sin And possibly a crime And God Hates sin And is especially Concerned with the downtrodden The Lord has ordained That governments And families And churches Protect The vulnerable And so if you

[18:12] Need help If you're being abused I want to help you And I didn't mean I didn't say this But elders Wives Can you guys Just stand up real quick I'm putting you On the spot Sorry And Jordan's Next door Elders and And their wives Yeah Could you Yeah Like these These are safe people To talk Like you can come Talk to me But if you don't Want to talk to me I understand That's cool But like Talk to one of these Like Or you probably Know other You guys are good You probably Know other people In the church That And if you don't But like If you don't Know safe people To talk to These are safe People to talk to Right And we will Just please let Someone know What's going on If you need to Get out of an Abusive situation If you need to Heal from past Abuse If you're confused We will help you Or we will get you The help you need And we want On behalf of the Lord To protect you

[19:12] And to serve you Now Also If you're sitting here And thinking Oh my goodness I have been Demanding rights To which I have No right Privileges That I have not Been given And I've been Sinning in order To get them The time for Repentance is now You can talk to Those very same People And we will Help you With God's Strength To bring Darkness to Light To confess And repent And restore And heal The damage You've done Now Abuse is that Extreme end Right That's what we've Been saying What does it Look like For us to Lay down As Christ Has called us Our rights And privileges In all the Other things Of life A lot of Parents in the Room So we'll Start there It is

[20:12] Really easy For parents To be like Okay These kids Are infringing On my right To personal Time And personal Space And personal Sanity Right Kids require A lot Of time And attention How do you React when Those things Time And space And energy And sleep And sanity Are taken From you I'll let you Answer that For yourself Consider it Right Parents Are called To lay Down That personal Privilege And train Up their Children In the love And instruction Of the Lord Let's just Consider one Aspect Of parenting And how It would look Like to lay Down Our Rights And privileges When we Think about Our children's Behavior In public What is

[21:15] Our attitude Towards that Do I Come To that Battle Considering Chiefly My right Not to be Embarrassed By your Behavior In public Right If I Demand That right If that's My attitude If that's My concern I will Either Crush My child Cruel Under Like Overbearing Levels Of discipline Or I'll Just wait Until their Teen years And return The favor Right Why Do we Discipline Our children Right Not So that We can Avoid Embarrassment Not For our Own Reputation Christian Parents Correct Their Children To train Them up In the Love And Instruction Of the Lord It's For Them Not

[22:16] For us But if Our Parenting Choices Are Driven By Our Reputation Not Our Child's Sanctification That's Sin Right We can't Have this Attitude Of Oh I'm A Teacher I Can't Have a Kid Behaving That Way Look Bad On Me Or We're A Homeschooled Family Right We've Got a Standards To Upheld Right Can't Behave Like That Or Or Me I'm A Pastor Pastor's Kids Can't Act Like That Right If That's My Attitude And Also Thank You I've Never This Is A Word To The!

[22:48] I've Never Heard Anyone Here Say To One Of My Kids Like You're A Pastor's Kid What's The Matter You Know Like Thank You For That That's Nice Like If My Child's Behavior Is About Me Then I'm Not Parenting With The Heart That Christ Has Called Me To Where He Wants Me To Say Okay My Kids Behavior Is A Window Into What's Going On In Their Heart I See Sin Or I See Selfishness Or Hurt Or Fear Disciple Them Right That's The Attitude To Which Christ Calls Us Lay Down Our Right To Not Be Publicly Embarrassed And Discipline Might Look Very Similar In That Situation But The Heart With Which You Do It Will Change It Radically What About With Our Neighbors What Does It Look Like To Lay Down Our Rights And Privileges There Right Well There Are Probably A Bunch Of Intro To Really Like To Have Their Right To Peace

[23:48] And Quiet To Not The Right To Not Get Entangled In Other People's Mess Right But The Lord Has Called His People To Be Hospitable Right And That Will Lead Us Into Evangelism Right For This Other Person's Good We're Going To Return To This One In A Little!

[24:13] Hospitality What Does It Look Like To Lay Down Our Rights And Privileges In Marriage Oh My Goodness This Is Like Parenting Right There's There's So Many Things We Could Say About This Just One Thing Who Here Has Not Heard Of The Five Love Languages Really Nobody Has Not Heard Of It That's Kind Of Amazing!

[24:36] So It's Like A Personality Inventory Like You All The Different Kinds Of Inventories Right So Just In Case You're Fuzzy On It Or Rusty On It Or You Were Embarrassed To Be The Only Person Who Didn't Know It In The Room That's Fine Everybody Feels Loved In Different Ways Right And So Gary Chapman In His Book The Five Love Languages Identifies Five Things Gifts Quality Time Words Of Affirmation Acts Of Service Physical!

[25:10] So Much And If You Know What Makes Your Spouse Feel Great Do That Thing For Them Right That That's The Idea Of The Five Left Wages And This Applies To Every Relationship In Our Lives Says Chapman Which Totally Makes Sense So You Can Love Your Spouse Better If You Know What Moves The Needle For Them Is The Idea Now Of Course There Are Lots Of Other Ways To Show Love For Your Spouse Than Five I Hope You Know That But Here Is Where We Can Get Tripped Up In Our Own Lives What's That For Those Five Love Languages Right Do Not Learn The Five Love Languages Or Any Other Personality Inventory Blah Blah Blah So That You Can Demand Your Preferred Love Language Right You If That Is Your Attitude Towards Them You Are Totally Turning It On Ted Right And Demanding A Right That You Don't

[26:10] Have Learn Love Languages Or Any Other Thing Like That To Educate Yourself On How Better To Love Your Spouse Right If You Start Demanding Your Preferred Love Language You Ceased Using That Tool As A Christian And Started Using It As A As An Unbeliever What Does It Look Like In The Life Of A Church To Lay Down Our Rights And Privileges For Others We Actually Put That In Shoreline's Membership Affirmation So If You're A Member Of This Church You Have Agreed To This Statement I Am Not A Member Of Shoreline Only To Be Served I Am Here To Serve In Line With How The Lord Has Gifted Me Shoreline's Leaders Are Charged To Equip Me To Do The Work Of Ministry Ephesians 4 I Will

[27:10] Invest In Ministry In Ways Appropriate To My Life Stage And Circumstance We We We We Can Apply This In So Many Places In Our Lives Right Even Even Driving Right Right I Have The Right Of Way And Actually If This Is A Flashback To Driver's Ed Right If You Remember The Laws Are Not Written So That You Have The Right Of Way They Actually Say Who Must Yield The Right Of Way Never Says That

[28:16] What Would It You Can Tell The Difference Right Between The Kind Of Leader Who Is Leading For Their Own Sake Or The Sake Of Others Right I'm Sure You've All Had A Boss Who Was In It For Themselves And A Boss Who Actually Cared About You You Know The Difference Swabs You Know Right The Difference Between A Cadre Who Thinks You Are Their Play Thing And One Who Actually Cares That You Can Make It Right As A Cadet There's No Mistaking It This Principle Applies In Every Realm Of Our Lives Friends Work And Friendship Our Neighborhood Every Sphere Of Human Relationships Now How Great Would It Be To Live In A World Like That Where

[29:17] People Joyfully Lay Down Their Rights And Privileges For The Sake Of Others And Have That Happen To Them In Return Where Spouses Thought Always Of The Other First Where We Always Considered Others Higher Than Ourselves How Much Conflict Would Avoid How Much Suffering Globally Would Be Alleviated How Much Would Human Flourishing Increase Don't You Want To Live In A World Where People Deferred Or People Considered Others First Laid Down Their Rights For The Good Of Others That's What The Scriptures Are Prompting Us To The Only Problem We're Not Like That You're Not Like That I'm Not Like That And Neither Is Anyone Else We

[30:19] Can't Just All Agree Let's Start Today Right And That'll Solve All Our Problem Everybody Just Think Of Other People First! That's Foolish Idealism Right And That's Why People Have Tried All Sorts Of Other Solutions Right You've Probably Heard Of Utopian Communes Right Okay We All Have This Idea We're All Going To Agree To It We're All Going To Live In You The Country Somewhere They Always Fall Apart Right People Have Tried To Do This With The Coercive Force Of Government But Have You Ever Heard Of Long Term Successful Communism It Can't You Can't Change People By The Force Of Government And It's Interesting That The Most Successful Governmental Solution We've Found Capitalism Is Actually Built On Leveraging Self Interest Right It Kind Of Works But It's The Very Opposite Of This Ideal We Cannot Create

[31:20] This Heart From The Outside With A System These All Fail To Enforce Selflessness Because People Are Selfish And Government Can't Change People's Hearts We Don't Need To Change The System We Need To Change Before We Talk About How The Lord Wants Us To Change Internally I Want To Briefly Mention When It's Appropriate To Stand Up For Your Rights Before We Get To How How Do We Actually Do This When Is It Right For Christians To Stand Firm And Not Just Unthinkingly Relinquish All Of Our Rights First Overall Most Of Don't Have A Problem With Laying Down Our Rights And Privileges And Preferences

[32:20] Too Much It's Not My Problem Might Be Yours But I Doubt It Our Problem Is Typically With Relinquishing Them Too Little Or Perhaps Not At All Ken Sandy In His Book The Peacemaker A Biblical Guide To Resolving Personal Conflict Has A Really Helpful Moment That I'd Like To Share With You He Says In Many Cases It Will Be Preferable For Us To Give Up Rights In Order To Prevent Unnecessary Conflict That Would Detract From Our Daily Purpose To Serve Christ And Spread The Gospel But In Other Cases The Best Way To Advance God's Kingdom Will Be To Assert Our Rights For Example Asserting Rights May Sometimes Be The Best Way To Help Others Learn That They Are Accountable For Their Decisions And Must Pay The Penalty For Their Wrongs Proverbs 19 90 Such Accountability May Help Them Realize That One Day They Will

[33:20] Be Answerable To God You May Also Need To Exercise Certain Rights To Provide For Your Family Or Others Who Depend On You What's He Getting At There It's Always Others Focused Still Right And He Asks These Four Questions That Might Be Helpful In Considering When To Stand Up For Your Rights Will Exercising My Rights Honor God By Showing The Power Of The Gospel In My Life Will Exercising My Rights Advance God's Kingdom Or Will It Advance Only My Interests Will Exercising My Rights Benefit Others Is Exercising My Rights Essential For My Own Well Being Right Like Your Right To Safety That Was The Aside On When To Stand Up For Yourself Right Okay We've Come Through Here Right And We've Seen That The Lord Himself Is Laying Down

[34:20] Rights And Privileges For The Sake Of Others Is Part Of The Broad Sweep Of Scripture Calling Us To Do The Same To Imitate Him And We've Thought A Little Bit About What It Looks Like In Different Spheres Of Our Lives To Start Laying Down Our Rights And Privileges For Others For Their Good And For God's Glory But If We Stop!

[34:44] Here That's Not A Christian Message That's A Pharisee's Message! Equipping To Actually Make This Happen I've Just Given You Dead Law And We Need To Go Past That And Say How Do We By The Power Of God And His Gospel Actually Change On The Inside So That This Is The Overflow Of Our Hearts And Not Just Some Abstract Outside Of Us Legal Demand Right First Think Of The Good Of This I Mean By That Is Contemplate What We Already Asked Right How Great Would It Be To Live In A World!

[35:37] This! We're All Thought All People Thought About Others First Where People Gladly Laid Down Their Rights For The Good Of Others Right God's Commands To Do These Things Like God's Every One Of God's Commands Are Good And Pure And Excellent And That's Why He Gives Them And That's Why The Psalmist Says Oh How I Love Your Law It Is My Meditation All The Day God's Commands Are Good They Are With Me I Have More Understanding Than All My Teachers For Your Testimonies Are My Meditation What The Psalmist Is Saying Is That This Is Beautiful And If We Would Take The Time To See That God Will Honor It And Begin To Reshape Our Hearts To Love And Long And Yearn For And We Will

[36:37] Start Walking In These Paths So First Friends Let us Just Contemplate The Goodness Of God's Command And Second When We Are Tempted To Demand Our Rights And Privileges And Know That We Are Called To Lay Them Down For The Good Of Others Whether It's Our Families Or Our Church Family Or Our Neighbors Or Coworkers Or Friends Or Whoever It Is Ask Yourself This Question What Right Like When we Talk about Rights You know I'm Obed This Right Ask Yourself The Bigger Question What Am I Ode Right I'm Not Ode Peace And Quiet I'm Ode To Be Matthew Chapter 8 Thrown Into The Outer

[37:37] Darkness In That Place There Will Be Weeping And Gnashing Of Teeth That's Not Peace And Quiet That's What I'm Ode Though That's What I've Earned Before Christ Right I'm Not Ode Comfort I'm Ode Romans 6 The Wages Of Sin That's What I'm Ode The Wages Of Sin Is Death I'm I'm Ode If I'm Thinking About What I've Earned And What I'm Ode And What My Rights Are Absolutely I'm Ode Death And Destruction And Despair Everlastingly Because I Didn't Give The Lord What He's Ode Complete Full Obedience And Worship And Praise Forever Without Sin Right I am Ode Only By My Own Merits Destruction But The Immeasurable Love Of God Is Christ Jesus Laid Down His Rights And Took What I'm Ode Death

[38:37] Desertion Judgment The Wrath Of Almighty God And He Drank That Cup That's What Verses 22 And 23 Are About Right He's Going To The Cross Laying Down His Rights Over A Bit Of Money Is Nothing Compared To That Right So When I Find That I Haven't Got What I'm Ode Wrath But By The Grace Of Jesus And Looking Forward To Limitless Peace Perfect Comfort More Riches More Riches Than I Can Presently Comprehend Suddenly Demanding That I Get My Way In Smaller Things Temporary Things Here And Now Seems Rather Petty Doesn't It Seriously Let's Compare What Is The Last Right Or Privilege You Demanded For Yourself You Can Answer That Question

[39:37] Simply By Saying What Did I Get Upset About Last Probably Right In What Did You Not Get Your Way Right And Again If It's Your Right To Safety I'm Not Talking About That Right That's A Different Category But Normally It's About Our Preferences Right Or Our Right To Not Be Bothered Take That Thing And Ask Yourself When Jesus Welcomes You Into His Home His Banquet Table His Kingdom Will You Feel Cheated Then When Jesus Gives You A Perfected Body No More Suffering No More Grief No More Hunger No More Pain Nothing Like That What Will You Think Of This Present Desire Then When

[40:39] You See His Face The Beauty That Exceeds All Others! What Will You Think Of Your Demands Then?

[40:51] How Valuable Will That Right Seem At That Moment? When He Drives Out Every Last Stain Of Sin In Your Heart And Places On Your Head The Crown Of Righteousness Will You Feel Slighted Then?

[41:10] Will You Even Care About It? Or Will You Feel That You Are Blessed Beyond Measure In The Kingdom Of God And His Saints? Will You Feel That It Was A Very Light Thing To Go Without Some Earth Earthly Privileges When Unimaginable Blessing Was Already Yours Right Think Of It This Way And Say You're Down To Your Last Dollar And I Ask You For It What Would You Think About That What Would You Do How Would You React Well That Depends If That Was Your Last Dollar And You Didn't Have Any Prospects Of A Job Or Charity Or Anything To Get More You Would Think Very Long And Hard About Are

[42:30] You But If You Know That We Will Be Glorified With Christ On The Last Day And Forever More Your Reputation Won't Matter So Much Will It Not Today And Friends That's What This Passage Does Verses 24 Through 27 Jesus Sets The Pattern And Calls Us To Lay Down Our Rights And Privileges For God And For Others And It's Preceded Verses 22 And 23 By Telling Us About The Gospel Jesus Secured For Us Every Conceivable Privilege And Blessing By Laying Down His Rights For Us And Friends We Can Lay Down Our Rights Because Jesus Has Already Bought Us Every Possible Blessing And It Can't Be Taken From Us So

[43:31] We Need Not Fight And Struggle The Rights And Privileges That We Are Tempted To Demand Though They Seem Humongous To Us Right Now Are Tiny Vanishingly Tiny Compared To The Hope And Blessing That Is In Store For Us Those Rights And Privileges That We Struggle And Fight And Grasp At To Secure Now Friends They're Temporary Not Only Are They Tiny But They're Temporary They Can Last 80 Or 90 Years At Most Right What He Has Bought For Us Will Last Into Eternity We Cannot Calculate Or Even Begin To Comprehend Their Size Or Their Scope You Can Lay Down Your Rights

[44:31] And Privileges For Others Because Jesus Laid Down His Life For You Take That To The Bank One Of The Ways We Said That We Can Apply This In Our Lives Is By Laying Down Our Right And Privilege To Being Unencumbered By Other People's Mess Where Calls His People To Be Hospitable!

[44:58] To One Another And To Strangers That Could Be A Big Sacrifice For Many There's A Group Of Ladies At Our Church Who Are Reading Through A Book Called The Gospel Comes With He Initiated Our Relationship By Dying On A Cross For My Sins And Through His Sacrifice!

[45:50] He Brought Me Into His Family Do Hear To Hear The Echoes Of Hospitality In That And As A Member Of His Family I Am Promised An Eternal Inheritance Where God We're In God's Presence I Will Be Made Perfect And I love This Is Hospitality Finally!

[46:12] Be Home! Right? The Home That You Open Up To Others Isn't Your True Home! Your Home In Heaven Is! And Finally! Be What a Beautiful Future I Have And It's All Because Of Christ's Sacrifice It Is Through This Hope That I Crave Our Home And Hospitality To Be A Glimpse Of This Future Glory With God In The New Heavens And The New Earth A Place Where Tired Moms Can Come And Encourage One Another And Our Children Can Play With Or Terrorize Each Other A Place Where We Can Have Dinner With Friends And Leave Closer To Jesus A Place Where We Can Babysit For Friends So They Can Go On A Much Needed Date A Place Where Cadets Can Stay And I Am Up With Them Way After My Bedtime Talking About Deep Life Questions Or Just Watching A Movie Is This A Sacrifice Most Certainly Parenting Is A Sacrifice In And Of Itself And Adding!

[47:21] Second In Eternity With God And I Want These Seconds To Have Eternal Value So When I Find Myself Getting Overwhelmed By The Work Ahead Of Me God Convicts Me Quickly That My Heart Is Set On What Is Earthly And Not On What Will Last Christ Sacrificed Himself So That I Will Last And I Need That Reminder Over And Over Again There's A Key Sentence In There She Said It Is Through This Hope This Hope Of The Glory That Christ Has Brought Us And The True Home That Christ Has Bought Us That I Crave Our Earthly Home And Hospitality To Be A Glimpse Of Future Glory With God In The New Heavens And New Earth And That's The Third Thing Right It's The Third Way We Look At It If You Look At The Hope Of The Gospel If It's Really Your Heart's Desire You Won't

[48:22] Want To Leave Future Glory Merely In The Future You Will Want To Bring It Drag It As Much As You Can Into The Present Right Now You Want To Foster These Same You Will Want To Foster The Atmosphere Of Heaven In Your Own Life And Home Today Right So Friends You Can Lay Down Your Rights And Privileges For Others!

[48:52] Because Jesus Laid Down His Life For You Let's Pray Father in Heaven We Thank You And Praise You That Our Great King Jesus Christ Laid Down His Rights To Secure For Ungrateful And Unworthy Sinners The Greatest Of Blessings Better Than Any That We Could Secure For Our Ourselves And Certainly Much Better Than We Are Owed Having Sinned Against You Father Will You By The Power Of Your Holy Spirit Help Us To Contemplate How Good It Is Lord And By That Change Our Hearts And Lord To Compare It With The Weight Of The Glory Of The Gospel And By That Change

[49:52] Our Hearts Lord And Lord Will You Help Us And Desire The Goodness Of Heaven Here And Now And Lord Will You Help Us Will You Change Our Hearts That We Foster That Atmosphere!

[50:06] Even Today Lord Will This Be For Our Joy Lord Will It Be For The Good Of Others And Lord Will It Be For Your Glory We Pray All These Things In Jesus Name Amen