The scripture reading today comes from the book of Luke, chapter 12.
Please follow along in your bulletin.
Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together,
that they were stepping on one another,
he began saying to his disciples, first of all,
Beware of the laven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy,
but there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed,
and hidden that will not be known.
Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard,
in the light and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.
I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body,
and after that have no more that they can do.
But I will warn you whom to fear.
Fear the one who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.
Yes, I tell you, fear him.
Are not five sparrows sold for two cents?
Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.
Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Do not fear.
You are more valuable than many sparrows.
And I say to you, everyone who confesses me before men,
the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God.
But he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man,
it will be forgiven him.
But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit,
it will not be forgiven him.
When they bring you before the synagogues,
and the rulers,
and the authorities,
do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense,
or what you are to say.
For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour
what you ought to say.
This is the reading of God's Word.
How's everybody doing?
Who made it in before they got poured on?
Because I saw some people just running.
I looked up, and all of a sudden it was dark,
and it was like just pouring out there.
And so you get an extra blessing if you made it in the rain, right?
You get an extra, extra blessing if you made it in the rain without getting wet.
So that's even no one else gets that, I understand.
That's okay.
Okay.
We are looking at this passage.
My question is,
when you heard Kelvin read the passage for today,
did you have a lot of questions about that passage?
If you're honest, you have a lot of questions.
I mean, there's a lot of things.
It's the passage where pastors don't like to teach it or preach it.
It's one of those passages that you get in there and you're like, wow, there's some really hard stuff here.
There's some really difficult stuff.
The way the room is configured, I might just walk back here and grab somebody.
This is interesting configuration.
But you read this passage and it's hard.
There's some tough stuff here.
I said, those last five verses, there's some hard words going on there, right?
When I was praying about this passage for the last couple weeks, I had a lot of things going through my mind.
One of the thoughts or these images I experienced, it kind of flashed me back to 1999, 2000.
So in 1989, I'm getting old, 1989, 1900.
A couple of friends and I were teaching in mainland China.
And we thought that we wanted to do something fun for the Chinese New Year.
And so we had this bright idea.
It was me and two other, another guy and two girls and our team.
We were in Tianjin.
And we had this bright idea.
We said, hey, let's take a vacation for the Chinese New Year.
Let's go to North Vietnam.
So this is 1999, North Vietnam.
And that sounds like a really neat place.
Sounds like a fun place.
We've never been there.
Let's do this.
Let's see what it's like.
And so we could speak Mandarin.
And so we went to Beijing and we went to the North Vietnamese embassy.
And the Chinese guard at the front let us in because we spoke Mandarin.
We walked in there.
And the guy came to the front desk.
And there's two pictures of the fathers, the father and the father in the back.
And the army officer came there.
And so we're still speaking Mandarin to him.
And we say, yeah, we'd like to visit your country during the Chinese New Year.
And he started asking some questions.
And finally he just stopped and he looked at us and he goes, what country are you from?
And we said, we're Americans.
And we just want to come check out North Korea because we've heard so much about it.
And we just want to experience your culture.
And all of a sudden the guy looked at us and he stopped speaking Mandarin and he spoke English.
And he said, perhaps we will not have tourism in our country this year.
We took that to mean that they didn't want Americans into North Korea in 1999.
And so we ended up going into Cambodia, which was also just weird.
I've said before that if I were going to write a book, probably the first chapter of my book would be the dumb things I've done in my life.
I would use stupid, but we're not supposed to use stupid in our family, right?
So the dumb things I've done in my life.
And chapter one, the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life would be this story here.
As we were walking into Cambodia, there was still this conflict going on with the Khmer Rouge and the government fighters.
In fact, when we went into Phnom Penh in 99, they had just built this kiosk with the skulls.
And there were actually skeletons still in some of the schools where they were torturing people.
And so we said, let's fly up to Angkor Wat.
Now, I've never been to Angkor Wat and I haven't been there since then.
Now I know it's this big resort area with casinos and all that.
But back then it was just an airport and a village.
And so we flew up there and we didn't know what we were doing at all.
So my wife is very glad that I wasn't married to her at this time and that I was a single guy.
And so we came into the airport and we just walked out of the door and this little boy grabbed us and he said, do you need a place to stay?
We said, yeah, we need a place to stay.
We don't have any place to stay.
We need a tour guide.
We want you to show us around Angkor Wat.
He said, okay.
And so something should have clicked in my head because we drove into the village of Siem Reap and there were army units everywhere.
There were soldiers guarding the bridge.
There were machine guns set up.
There were mortar emplacements.
There were just soldiers everywhere.
And we ended up staying in this guy's house with his parents.
And about 12 o'clock at night, all of a sudden the sky was lit up with machine gun fire.
And there were mortars going off and just everything was just chaos.
And the only thing we could think is, okay, we're going to get kidnapped.
We're going to get kidnapped and someone's going to sell us for a lot of money because we're a Westerner or whatever.
And that night we slept.
We got very little sleep.
And we made it through the night.
And the morning he took us to Angkor Wat and we were walking around this temple complex and it was beautiful.
We walked out the back of this temple complex and we ran into this UN mine sweeping team.
Okay, so there was a Swedish guy.
He might have been Finnish.
I can't tell.
They all look alike, tall, blonde hair.
And he was directing four Khmer guys and they were basically sweeping the field for mines.
And so we started talking to him and he showed us the mines that they were uncovering because Cambodia is one of the most heavily populated bombed mine places in the world.
And as we were talking, his walkie-talkie went crazy.
And he picked up his walkie-talkie and he's listening and he's yelling.
And we were just sitting there and we're like, okay, this cannot be good.
And he says, we have to leave right now.
And we said, why?
He says, a Khmer Rouge unit was just seen.
They're sweeping back into this area.
They've heard there's some foreigners here and they're looking for you.
We have to leave right now.
And we said, okay, where are we going to go?
We're going to go through this minefield.
And we said, what?
He says, we're going to go through this minefield.
He says, watch me wherever I step.
Put your feet there.
Know why?
Okay, so we're in the middle of this chaos in this jungle.
The Khmer Rouge are rushing in.
We're following this Finnish guy followed by four Khmer minesweepers.
And we're walking through a minefield.
And all I'm thinking is mines everywhere.
Mines bad.
Where's that guy's footprints?
And stepping in those footprints.
But we made it out.
When I think of today's passage, it's all about mines that we as Christians walk into every day.
Sometimes we don't know we're in the middle of the minefield.
Sometimes we're playing ball or basketball.
We're doing stuff within the minefield.
But the passage today is all about disciples.
Luke 12 is all about Christ followers.
It's all about disciples, people who are following Christ.
And what Christ is going to warn us and his disciples is that there's mines all around you.
Be careful where you step.
Because you'll get hurt.
Now in Luke 11, we haven't been there for about five weeks.
We're going through Luke as a church.
We're halfway through right now.
So we're about a year and eight months old.
We're halfway through.
So in two years from now, we'll finish Luke and we'll start something else.
But in Luke 11, remember, there was this scene.
And Jesus was having dinner with these Pharisees.
And it got intense.
I mean, it got really intense.
In fact, it got so intense that the Pharisees walked out.
And in their mind, we're told in Scripture, they want to kill Jesus.
That's all they're thinking about is we are going to get rid of this guy.
He's dangerous.
He's terrible.
We're going to kill him.
Now at the same time as he's having this conflict with the religious leaders of his day,
all the people are flocking to Jesus.
All the masses were told in Luke 11 and Luke 12.
The word there, myriads, is the largest word in Greek.
It means 10,000 people.
It means at least 10,000 people, maybe more than 10,000 people.
So all these people are flocking to Jesus because they want to hear of this young teacher who's come in,
and he's basically taking to task all the religious leaders of the day because everyone knows that the Pharisees are corrupt and they're no good.
And you have to understand here that as the people flock in in this passage,
it's becoming very difficult to keep being a disciple of Jesus.
On one hand, it's getting dangerous because now they know that the religious leaders, the synagogue, and everybody is out to kill Jesus.
And if you're with Jesus, you are in risk of getting killed.
So the disciples are worried, and some of them are actually falling away because it's becoming too difficult to say,
I follow Jesus.
The pressure in their workplace, the pressure at home, the pressure in their community,
it's just getting so high and so difficult, people are falling away.
And they say, I can't say it anymore.
Every time I say it at the bank, people laugh at me.
Every time I say it at school, people think, well, you must not be educated because everyone knows that Christianity and science can't interact with each other.
And so you have this group of disciples who are following Jesus, and they're sneaking out the back door
because they realize that pretty soon the cost is going to become very difficult and very high for them to follow Christ.
On the other hand, you have this mass of people that are coming to visit Jesus.
I mean, if you read the Luke 12 passage, the way Luke, the physician, very detailed, is writing it,
he's almost describing it like a rock concert.
He's saying, there's a rock concert, and 10,000 people have come to see Jesus perform.
And there's so many people that they're crawling all over each other.
I mean, literally in Greek, that's what he's saying.
They're stepping over each other to get to Jesus.
They want to hear him talk.
They want to hear him do miracles.
They want to see him perform.
They want to see him fight the Pharisees.
And so there's this atmosphere like Woodstock where everybody wants to be with Jesus.
And in the midst of this, Jesus sees all of these things happening.
And he knows what's going on in our hearts.
And he knows what's going on in the disciples' hearts.
And he pulls them aside.
And he teaches them a lesson about what it means to follow him when things are difficult and when things are good.
Are you with me?
Am I making sense?
Do you know where we're at?
And so if you go to your passage in Luke, we look at this passage here.
So the disciples are being pulled away.
Things are crazy.
And in Luke chapter 12, verse 1, we read these first passages here.
Jesus is going to warn his disciples.
He's going to warn us about something that we need to be careful of.
He's going to warn us that we're going to walk into this minefield.
And this minefield is going to destroy us.
And we're not even going to know that we're playing around in it.
Verse 1.
Under these circumstances, after so many thousands, the Greek word is myriads, the same word in heaven, myriads and myriads of angels,
at least 10,000 people are gathered together.
They're stepping on one another.
And he pulls his disciples aside.
Now he's speaking to Christians.
And he says this,
Beware.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Now the word beware is very intentional.
It says put your mind to, think about, study, know where it is, and not only do that, but avoid it.
Avoid it.
And so he brings his disciples together.
And he says this huge word picture.
The minute they heard leaven, they would have thought back to Exodus when all of the people of God left Egypt.
And they're to bring no leaven with them.
Leaven is this microbe.
It's this yeast.
It's a microorganism.
I mean, if you're a cooker, you know what it does.
You stick it in dough and put water in it.
And with sugar, and I tell, if you're at my home and I was telling my kids what I would say is,
you put this little creature inside the dough, it eats, and then it poops.
And its poop is gas, and the gas makes the bread rise.
Right?
That's what's happening.
So next time you eat leavened bread, you think you're eating bread with poop in it.
Right?
Little da bien.
Right?
Okay.
So anyway, so you're eating this leaven, and when Jesus uses that word for leaven,
he always attaches it to Pharisees, and leaven is almost always a bad thing.
Leaven is this small little thing that you can't see.
It's like a mine.
It's something that you don't know, but if it's there in your life, it does a lot of damage.
It changes, and it can hurt you, and it can destroy you.
And in this case, Jesus says that what it will do is it will make you a hypocrite.
Now, Jesus is going to tell his disciples three times to beware of leaven.
The first time he's going to say, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, because that's hypocrisy.
The second time he's going to say, beware of the leaven of the Sadducees, because that's materialism.
And the third thing he's going to say is, beware of the leaven of Herod,
which is political power in the misuse of friendships, because that will destroy you.
And so these mines are laid out there, and he's telling his disciples,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, because this leaven is hypocrisy.
Now, hypocrisy, to be a hypocrite, is a very interesting Greek word.
It's very, very old.
Actually, to be a hypocrite, all it meant would be to be one who speaks.
And the word hypocrisy, actually, all it means is to be one who is answering.
But that Greek word moved from being something that was in a monologue or a dialogue in a play
to being something that was done in acting.
And so now, when the people heard this word hypocrite,
immediately what they would understand is someone who wears a mask.
And so if you went to a Greek play, there wasn't a lot of costumes,
there wasn't a lot of fanfare, there wasn't a lot of backdrops.
It was barren.
But whenever somebody changed character, they put on a mask.
And in Greek, you would say, he is playing a hypocrite.
He is acting outwardly, what he's not like on the inside.
He's wearing a mask.
He's acting a part.
He's conforming to the values that everybody expects him to in his world, in his family.
He's a chameleon.
He changes who he is.
He's trying to fit in.
He's trying to make people think, to believe that there's something that they are not.
Have you ever met anybody like that?
He's inconsistent.
And what Paul says and what Jesus says about hypocrisy is that it is always deliberate.
It's always on purpose.
And that we use our words and our actions either positively or negatively to determine what people think about us.
Now, Jesus is going to talk about it a couple times here in this passage and later on.
Actually, he's going to use the word hypocrisy and fear four times.
And he's going to say, the reason you and I are hypocrites.
And let's just get this out right away, okay?
I'm not speaking because I'm not a hypocrite.
I'm speaking because I am a hypocrite.
And for three weeks, I've been struggling with this passage.
Like, okay, God, show me where I'm a hypocrite.
Show me where I'm acting hypocritical of people.
Show me where my actions and my words are hypocrisy.
For three weeks, I've been doing that.
You only get to do it for 40 minutes.
But Jesus wants to show us that there's a huge danger if we do that.
And if we do that, we lose the gospel.
We lose the power of walking in the spirit that God has given us.
And so he's going to talk about this struggle that we have.
And at the core of this struggle is this idea of fear.
He's going to say to you and me that we all fear something.
We all fear something.
We either fear man and the things around us or we fear God.
I mean, there's not two other thrones in our life.
There's one throne.
There's one center.
There's one heart in our life.
And Jesus is saying to his disciples, he's pleading to them as they begin this journey as disciples,
he's going to say, hey, you either fear man or you fear God.
And you need to be careful of who you fear because if you fear the wrong thing,
you're walking into a landmine field and it's going to destroy you.
Is that clear?
I mean, I want to make sure that there's no unclearness here.
Because sometimes my wife says that wasn't very clear.
And she's totally right.
I love you.
But I want to make sure this is really clear.
Because what Jesus is saying here is that you and I fear.
And this fear drives us to become hypocrites.
And it causes us to change our life and to change our actions.
And when we walk into the boardroom tomorrow, we're either fearing God or we're fearing man.
When you walk into your classroom as a professor or a teacher,
either God is on the throne of your life and you're fearing him,
or you're fearing your students, the administration, the people who pay your salary, you're fearing them.
When you walk down the street as you're living life, going to Lan Kui Fung,
or wherever God has you meeting people and being missional and sharing with them about Jesus in your life,
wherever that is, you're either fearing God or you're fearing man.
And whatever you fear controls the destiny of your life.
Do you see why this is so important?
I mean, everybody's becoming rock stars.
Everybody's getting popular.
Everybody's going towards the disciples.
They all want to be with them.
They're the in crowd.
Everybody wants to hear what they have to say.
And Jesus says, be careful.
Because when you get popular,
you tend to fear people
more than you fear God.
Be careful.
Because when people start liking you,
which isn't a bad thing,
you're going to change how you act
and how you dress
and what you say
because you want to keep that popularity.
And Jesus is saying,
be careful.
Be careful who you fear.
Maybe you could ask yourself these questions.
These are questions I've been asking myself
the last three weeks.
Are you a people pleaser?
When people come and ask you to do something,
do you say, yeah, I can do it,
even though you know you can't do it?
I mean, when you look at your schedule,
is your schedule overcommitted?
Do you have a billion things you're doing this week,
but none of them have a focus,
none of them have a purpose?
They're all just things that people say,
you need to do this,
you need to do this.
Do you answer yes to everything?
When people ask you to do something,
do you say yes?
Question two,
do you second guess your decisions?
Do you make a decision,
but then you change it
because you're worried about
what people are going to think?
Come on, girls.
I like the pink outfit.
No, no, no, I should wear the blue outfit.
Now, this never happens in my house,
but I've heard that it does happen
with women in households.
Guys, you're the same way.
Do I wear this tie?
Do I wear that tie?
What's the power tie?
What is going to give me
the most respect in this boardroom?
What am I going to do?
How am I going to dress?
And Jesus says, be careful.
Not that that's necessarily a bad thing,
but if you do it out of fear,
it's a terrible thing.
Do you struggle with peer pressure?
Is it important what people think about you?
Do you struggle with family pressure?
When your family says,
we need you to do this,
do you go, okay, we'll do that?
When your family sets up this agenda
of things you need to be doing
and how you need to be doing it,
do you drop everything
even if you already have your own family?
Do you struggle with,
as a 35-year-old guy,
your mom still coming into the house
and making your bed
and doing your laundry
and putting groceries
in your refrigerator?
And your wife looks at you and goes,
you know, I really hate it
when your mom comes in
and rearranges all the furniture.
Can you tell her not to do that?
And the guy goes, oh, man, oh.
Yeah, I wish I could,
but you know, it's my mom.
I can't do it.
Do you struggle with that?
And finally, the question is,
are you worried about your self-esteem?
Is self-esteem critical for you?
And how you answer all these questions
determine what you fear.
There's a lot of talk in America nowadays
about bullying and schools and Internet
and the interaction of peers
among our children
and in the American papers,
and I think it's a little here,
the big thought is peer pressure.
And when we talk about our high school kids,
we say there's a lot of peer pressure.
As adults, we use the words differently.
We don't use pressure,
but we say people-pleasing.
We're not under peer pressure.
We're under people-pleasing.
But what Jesus is going to say in this scripture
and what God's word says
is it's called the fear of man.
And hypocrisy is always a bad thing,
that it will destroy you,
it will destroy your life,
it will un-gospel you.
You won't understand what the gospel means
because you're so worried about living lives
the way people want you to live it.
And in the passage,
Jesus gives us four ways
to detect hypocrisy in our life.
He says four things
that you need to be aware of.
If you experience any of these four things,
or these are things that you get yourself
out of the minefield,
if you're about to walk into the minefield
of people-pleasing,
think about these four things.
And these four things,
he says to his disciples,
these things will change everything.
In verse two and three,
he says this,
but there's nothing covered up
that will not be revealed.
That word revealed is a word
that only can be associated with God.
And so what he's saying there
is there's nothing covered up.
It's this word of like,
you dug this deep hole,
10 feet deep,
you put something in it,
you buried it up,
and you say,
no one will ever find out what's here.
But Jesus says,
God will come around
and he will reveal that.
So there's nothing covered up
that will not be revealed.
There's nothing hidden
that will not be known.
Accordingly,
whatever you have said in the dark
will be heard in the light.
What you have whispered
in the inner rooms,
in Greek it's the secret place.
What you've whispered
in the secret place of your house
or of your heart
will be proclaimed,
shouted,
yelled out from the mountaintops.
And so the first warning
that Jesus gives us,
he says this,
if you're tempted
to be a hypocrite,
if you're being tempted
with fearing man
more than you fear God,
remember that whatever is said,
whatever is hidden,
eventually God will bring out
into the light.
Now in this passage,
he's saying it in a good way.
He's saying it to his disciples
who are worried about
what people are going
to think about him,
who are worried about
whether they're making a difference,
who are worried about
whether they leave father and mother
and come to follow Jesus.
Will that make a difference
in the end?
And what Jesus says
to his disciples
and he says to us is this,
keep doing the right thing.
Keep following me.
Keep fearing me.
Keep being a good employee
even though no one else
in the office recognizes
or cares about it.
Keep being a good boss
who treats your people fairly.
Keep being a kind wife
whose husband probably isn't here
on Sunday
and he could care less
about spiritual things.
But Christ is in your heart
and you're loving him,
you're caring for him,
you're serving him
and you wonder,
is this ever going to make a difference?
Because no one sees what I'm doing.
And what Jesus says here is,
yes,
it will make a difference.
because one day
everything good
that you've done,
even though it's been hidden
in the dark,
will be seen.
Honor me.
One day,
I am going to get up
on the hilltop,
I'm going to get up
on the housetop
and I'm going to reveal
everything
of your faithfulness
and your goodness.
In Hebrew,
there's an idiom
that's attached to this story
and it's basically
you can't hide the sun.
That if you're shining,
if you're being faithful,
if you're doing what God
has called you to do,
don't worry about
what's going to happen.
It might not seem
like anything's happening,
but what Jesus says here
is don't be a hypocrite,
don't cover it up,
don't stop doing it,
be who you are
because one day
all of these things
you're being faithful
right now,
all of these things,
you're going to be rewarded for.
All of these things
are going to be seen
in the light.
All of these things,
I'm going to bless you
for your faithfulness.
But the disciples
were struggling
and they were like,
well, no one sees
what we're doing.
I mean, we're speaking
the gospel to everybody,
but everybody wants
to do this.
What do we do
when you're gone?
And Jesus says to them,
be aware
that everything you do
will be seen.
Everything you do
will be seen.
Another thing
that Jesus says here
to avoid the minefields,
to avoid hypocrisy
is in verse 4 and 5.
He says to his disciples,
I say to you,
my friends,
it's the only time
in the Greek Bible
that that word
is used,
my friends,
it's the only time
that Jesus speaks it
and what he means there
is there's this
intimate relationship
with him
and his disciples.
There's an intimate
relationship with God
and you.
You are God's friends.
He says,
I say to you,
my friends,
don't be afraid
of those who can
kill the body,
but after that
they have no more
they can do.
But I warn you
whom to fear.
Fear the one
who after he is killed
has the authority
to cast into hell.
Yes,
I tell you
to fear him.
And what Jesus
is saying here
is that you can
avoid hypocrisy,
you can avoid
the minefield
by realizing
that as you walk
with him,
things are not
always perfect.
Because sometimes
stepping out
and saying
I follow Christ
has repercussions
to it.
Sometimes those
repercussions
are financial,
sometimes they're
emotional,
sometimes they're
physical,
sometimes they're
spiritual.
I mean,
we don't ever
talk about that
often in church
because we want
the gospel to seem
sexy and fun
and everything's
perfect and
everything's good,
but what Jesus
is warning his
friends,
what he's
warning us,
is that if we
walk with him,
if we do the
right thing,
sometimes things
will become
difficult.
And that's okay.
Be aware of that.
That same summer
we went to
Saigon
and I was in
this park of
Saigon
1990,
1989,
1990,
and we were
walking with
our friends
and this
little old
Vietnamese guy
came up to
us and he
spoke perfect
English.
I mean,
America still
hadn't normalized
relationships with
Vietnam,
so we could be
there as tourists
but we weren't
supposed to have
American dollars
in there and
we weren't
supposed to do
business there
and all these
things.
And this little
Vietnamese guy
came up to us
in the middle
of this park
and he spoke
perfect English.
And we were
astounded and I
said,
tell me,
who are you?
And he goes,
I was a high
school teacher.
And when the
communists came
in,
they put me in
prison for 20
years.
And after 20
years,
they just let us
go because they
figured we were
too old to do
anything.
And they said to
me,
don't share your
faith.
And I'm
looking at this
guy right there
and he's
speaking perfect
English to us
and I said,
so what are you
doing?
He goes,
well,
I just come to
the park and
anybody I see
who looks like a
Westerner,
I just go up and
start speaking to
them and sharing
with them about
Jesus in my life.
And I was like,
dude,
you spent 20
years in prison.
Aren't you worried
that they're going
to put you back
there?
And he said
this to me,
God's word says,
don't fear him
who can just
kill you.
But fear him
who can,
after he kills
you,
takes your soul
and separates
it away from
him.
You know how
big I felt at
that time because
I'm this missionary
living in China
doing all these
cool things and
sacrificing nothing,
which is okay.
But this guy
realized the
principle of
hypocrisy,
that if you
feel like you
need to change,
if you feel like
the pressure is
intense,
if you feel like
something's going
to happen to you
physically,
what Jesus says
to his disciples,
and every one of
them died that way
except for John,
he says,
don't worry about
those who can
kill you because
all they can do
is kill you.
But worry about
him who holds
your soul.
I thought about
that a lot.
I don't know if
you struggle with
it, but I think
I do sometimes.
I struggle with
thinking that
heaven is here
and now,
that this is all
there is.
And I don't
really think about
what happens
afterwards.
But what Jesus
is trying to tell
his disciples,
what he's trying
to tell you and
me, is that
amidst the
struggle, amidst
the minefields,
amidst the
hardness and
the difficult
times, realize
that your
physical body
will experience
hard things.
But that's
okay.
Because you
have an
eternity in
heaven waiting
for you with
me.
Jesus goes on
in verse 6 and
7.
Again, this is a
heavy passage.
This is like,
whoa!
He says this
to his disciples.
He goes, if
you're tempted
to be a
hypocrite, if
you're tempted
to walk into
the minefield,
if you're tempted
to realize that
I need to be
something that I'm
not, the
sixth, he says
this, are not
five sparrows
sold for two
cents?
Yet not one of
them is forgotten
before God.
I mean, he takes
the smallest animal
in their culture
in a market sense.
that you would
buy two sparrows
for one cent.
You could buy
four sparrows
for two cents.
But they were
so cheap, they
threw in a
fifth one.
That's how
worthless sparrows
are.
And what Jesus
says to his
disciples and to
us is that
here God has
so much concern
over something
that seems so
small and so
insignificant.
arrogant.
Surely, he's
more concerned
about us.
Melissa,
Henrika,
144,000.
Scientists say
that if you have
blonde hair,
you have 144,000
pieces of hair
in your head.
Ed,
Mervyn,
122,000.
Scientists say
if you have
dark hair,
the average
person has
122,000
hairs
in their head.
Charles,
for redheads,
it's 90,000.
So scientists
tell us that
for redheads,
you have 90,000
hairs in your
head.
Mike,
Kelvin,
some of those
guys who are
losing that hair
right here,
it's less than
90,000.
Okay, God is
subtracting there,
right?
But what the
scripture says
here is that
as you're tempted
to be a hypocrite,
as you're tempted
to act apart,
as you're tempted
to be something
that you're not
because you're
worried about
what people
are going to
think about you
and how they're
going to act
around you,
realize that
God loves you
so much
that every hair
in your head
is numbered.
And not one
hair in your
head can fall
out
without God
allowing it to
happen.
how do you
feel when you
hear that?
I got to tell
you, this is
the hardest
one for me
because I have
so many doubts
about God's
goodness sometimes.
I have so many
doubts of whether
he really
understands,
if he really
sees my future,
if he really
cares amongst
the hard,
difficult times.
I wonder
if he really
understands what's
going on in my
world
sometimes.
But Jesus
says when you're
tempted to
fear man
instead of
fear God,
you cling to
the fact
that God
loves you,
he knows you,
he's always
there,
he's always
involved,
that nothing
can happen to
you without him
allowing it to
happen to you.
And if you
cling to that,
if you understand
that,
then you won't
fall into
hypocrisy.
That you'll
fear God
more than
you fear man.
And that word
fear there
basically means
awe,
and reverence,
and worship.
And Jesus
says when we
walk through our
day,
Lenny,
when you
leave here
with your
family,
and you're
going out
to eat
lunch,
and then
you're
going to
go to
work
tomorrow,
and you're
going to
be doing
things that
no one's
going to
see you
do,
God's
going to
say,
be in
awe of
me.
Worship
me.
Jason,
when you
leave here
and you
go to
China,
and you're
doing what
God has
you doing,
every step
that you
take,
God is
going to
say,
no matter
what happens
to you,
I'm in
control of
those things.
and I
want you
to worship
me,
and love
me,
and be
in awe
of me.
Don't fear
man,
don't worship
men,
don't be
in awe
of men,
but be in
awe of
God.
And if we
keep that
in our
forefront,
it helps us
to see the
landmines,
and it
prevents us
from stepping
on them
and blowing
ourselves
up.
And finally,
the hard
verses,
verses 8
through 12,
Jesus says
this,
and I
say to you,
everyone who
confesses me
before men,
the Son of
Man will
confess him
also before
the angels
of God,
but he
who denies
me before
men will
be denied
before the
angels of
God.
Everyone who
speaks a
word against
the Son of
Man,
it will be
forgiven
him,
but he
who
blasphemes
against the
Holy Spirit,
it will not
be forgiven
him.
When they
bring you
before the
synagogues
and the
rulers and
the authorities,
do not worry
about how or
what you are to
speak in your
defense or what
you are to
say,
for the Holy
Spirit will
teach you in
that very
hour what
you need to
say.
And what
Jesus says to
his disciples
and he says
to us is
that throughout
our life we
have these
options,
we have
these choices
of who
we are
going to
put on
our throne.
Now you are
going to
come back
to that and
go what
does that
mean?
What does
number 10
mean?
I want to
know did
I blaspheme
the Holy
Spirit?
What does
that mean?
Am I
unforgiven?
Am I
unforgivable?
I think it
depends on
where you are
at.
If this is
written to
non-Christians
what that
means is that
God keeps
bringing himself
to you.
People keep
inviting you to
church.
You keep
hearing of
God's grace
and his
mercy.
You keep
seeing how
incredible community
is you keep
seeing the
power of the
gospel change
and transform
people's lives
and even as
that is put in
front of your
face you say
no, no.
No, I
just can't do
it.
No.
I don't want
it.
I'm more
happy where I'm
at.
I don't want
that.
And for those
he says that
on that moment
you close your
eyes you've
blasphemed God's
Holy Spirit
because the Holy
Spirit is the
giver of life.
He brings truth.
He presents
Jesus Christ
to people
and in
saying no
I don't
want that
what you've
done is you've
rejected him.
If you're in a
family of God
it doesn't mean
that you lose
your salvation
but what it
means and
there's a lot
of questions
on this but
what I tend
to think it
means is
that one
day as
Christians we'll
go before
God and
there will be
this panorama
played of our
life.
And every
word and
deed and
action will
be played
before us
and before
God.
And we
will see the
opportunities we
had to make
Christ known.
We'll see the
opportunities we
had to be a
part of his
kingdom and
allow it to
grow and reach
out to people.
We'll see
opportunities that
we had with the
giftings and
the talents and
the money that
he's given us to
make an incredible
impact.
And we said
no.
And there
seems to be a
sense that we're
going to lose
something.
We're still
saved.
But we're
going to lose
something.
We're going to
lose something.
The passage is
really clear.
you and I
have two
options.
We have
one throne in
our life with
two people to
put on it.
And the
question is do
we fear man or
do we fear
God?
Do we care
about what
others think?
Or do we
care about what
God thinks more?
And I'm not
saying it's bad
to care about
what other
people think.
But what I'm
saying is that
becomes the
idol that drives
you in your
life and it
predicts everything
you do.
then scripture
says that you're
fearing man
instead of
fearing God.
Do we strive to
please others
or do we strive to
please God?
Do we trust God
with everything
that we have
and everything
that he's given
us?
Or do we
trust whatever?
You fill in the
blank.
If you're like
me it was my
family.
It was my
medical degree.
It was the
people I hung
out with.
It was the
bank account.
It was the
280Z that I
drove in
college.
Whatever it is
you fill it in
there.
I don't know
what it is in
your life or
what you've put
on the throne
of your life
but the
question Jesus
asked in his
passage and
what he warns
us about is
that we're
walking into
this minefield
and we need
to be careful
of these
things because
if we don't
we'll become
hypocrites and
we'll fear man
instead of God
and the outcome
of that is
always bad.
It's always
bad.
It's always
bad.
Does that
make sense?
This is a
tough passage
guys because
this is the
only time where
Jesus actually
uses a negative
thing to
reinforce what
he wants us
to do.
It's almost
always positive
do this and
these things
happen but
here he's
saying guys
if you don't
do this
this is what's
going to
happen.
And he wants
us to be very
clear as we
walk with him
and as we
follow him.
So where are
you standing
today?
What do you
fear?
on Monday
when you
leave here
what's the
worst thing
that could
happen to
you?
What's your
greatest fear?
What's the
thing that's
going to
happen in
your place
that the
minute you
leave here
and you've
been worshiping
and everything
is good
and someone
looks at you
and all of a
sudden you're
like whoop.
And it's like
you just shut
down what God's
been doing in
your life for
the weekend or
however long you've
been in
community.
We need to
be in
community.
We need to
be with
brothers and
sisters all
the time.
We need to
have people
around us who
are continually
gospeling,
sharing the
gospel message
with us,
asking us
questions,
challenging us,
encouraging us,
spurring us on to
great and
incredible things.
We need to
beware that
there's a
minefield all
around us and
this minefield is
going to blow up
if we're not
careful and that's
why we need people
around us and we
need to understand
and think every
moment that we go
through our day,
who am I fearing
here?
Who have I put
on the throne
of my life?
Because Jesus is
saying to us,
the minute we
put anybody but
God on there,
we lose the
power of the
gospel.
And what we've
done, instead of
saying it's Jesus
plus nothing is
everything, we
say it's Jesus
plus something.
And Jesus is
telling his
disciples, and
Paul told us
last week, that
if we do that,
we've lost
everything.
every significant
event in my life
that's happened to
me is because for
some reason, I'm
hesitant to share
this, I wasn't even
going to share
this, for some
reason, I took a
step of faith and I
chose to fear God
more than I feared
man.
Now there are many
significant things in
my life when I did
not choose that.
And now as I look
back, I grieve and I
grab onto God's grace
and mercy and thank
him for where I am
now.
The first significant
thing was when I
wanted to tithe.
I was in high school.
I made $50 a week.
I heard this talk
about going on an
adventure with God
and giving money
because it was all
God's money anyway
and that was really
novel for me.
Because I grew up,
it's all my money.
And so I heard this
guy preach and I
said, okay, I'm going
to trust God and I'm
going to take a step
of faith and I'm
going to give my
$5.
I remember that $5.
Up until about 10
years ago, I
remembered the serial
number on that $5.
But I had it written
in my Bible and I
lost that Bible.
But taking that step
of faith and trusting
God changed everything
in my life.
Because it started to
free me from stuff and
from money and it
allowed me to give
freedom to give things
that God has given me
and see his kingdom
multiplied and blessed
and expanded in ways I
never would have
imagined.
marrying Christina.
I saw this girl walk
down this Christmas
conference and something
inside of me, all my
being said, you need to
go and pursue that girl.
I know without a shadow
of a doubt it was God
telling me that.
I don't know.
I'm not always mystical,
but I knew here.
I walked up to my best
friend.
We were roommates and I
said, what do you think
about Christina?
I really feel like God's
called me to marry her or
to pursue her.
I was 33 years old that
time, so I was getting
old, right?
I didn't think I'd ever
get married anyway.
And my friend looked at
me and said, don't do
it.
He said, because her old
boyfriend's coming back
in town.
And I think that they're
going to get back
together.
And so all the guys
around me, all the peers,
all the men said, don't
do it, dude.
Do the right thing and
let her get back with
her old boyfriend.
But there was just
something inside of me
that kept saying, pursue,
pursue, pursue.
And I took a step of
faith.
And we're here.
Coming to China.
I grew up in Montana,
Montgomery, Alabama,
Texas, New Jersey,
and Delaware,
and Colorado.
Never outside of the
States.
I felt God was calling
me to come to China to
work in mainland China.
All my friends, all the
words, all my parents,
everything said, don't
come to China.
China's terrible.
Go to Europe.
Europe's nicer.
But for some reason, I
just took a step of
faith and said, I feel
like God is calling us to
come to China.
And I don't know what it
looks like, but I'm going
to trust you.
And I'm not going to put
on a mask, but I'm going
to trust you and I'm going
to walk with you.
Those three things have
changed my life, but I
know there are many other
things that could have
changed my life.
But instead, I feared man
more than I feared God.
God, my prayer for us as a
church, my prayer for you,
where you're at right now, I
don't know what you're
fearing, but I pray that you
would leave it here before you
leave here.
And you walk in faith and
say, God, I don't know what
this looks like, but I'm going
to fear you.
Can you show me what it looks
like to fear you in my work?
Can you show me what it looks
like to fear you in this
relationship?
Can you show me what it looks
like to fear you at church so
that when I walk in those
doors, I don't have to put
this mask on and people say,
how are you doing?
Oh, great.
Everything's good.
My prayer for us as a church
is that we would hear Jesus'
words and that we would trust
God in the gospel to change
our lives and to turn it into
something so incredible we
could not even imagine instead
of walking in fear of man.
Father, we thank you for this
day.
We thank you for your word,
which is living and active,
and it changes us.
As we look back at the
minefields that your son puts
forth, we realize that so many
times we've made mistakes and
we've stepped on those mines,
and yet you're still there.
You're still with us.
Father, help us to trust you.
You know where each one of us is
that right now.
You know the things that we
fear.
I am very confident that most
of us would never want to share
them in any big group.
But I pray, Lord, that we would
share them with you, that we
would confess them to you, that
we'd repent of these things that
we fear more than you, and that
your spirit would change us, that
your spirit would renew us.
Father, we are thankful of the
mines we've already stepped on, and
so many times we've become
hypocrites.
And still you come towards us, and
you heal us, and you clean us, and
you pick us up.
May we be in a community of people
who know us so well, and who know
our minefields so well, that they
lovingly and quickly redirect us
away from them.
Father, I pray for those in here
who don't know you.
Your word says that they fear man.
And I think if we're honest, we
would say, yeah, that's true.
That there are certain things in my
life that hold me captive.
That I'm a slave to my work.
I'm a slave to alcohol or drugs.
I'm a slave to money and gambling.
I'm a slave to something that has
done a really poor job of being
master in my life.
Father, I pray for them that this
moment that you would speak to them,
that they would trust you in your
goodness and your son, and they
would confess those things and
invite you into their life.
And start off with a new mask.
mask.
The mask of a child of God.
And Father, I pray for our church.
Help us not to be a church who just
gathers on Sunday.
Father, if that's the type of church
we're going to end up being five
years from now, I pray that you would
just shut us down.
Just remove us from here.
Because your spirit has so many
greater things to do in Hong Kong and
beyond than to waste time with people
who just want to do status quo every
Sunday.
Father, help us to see the people
around us who don't know you.
Help us to see the community and the
government and the schools that need
fixing and praying for.
Help us to trust you to be big because
you are and you control all those
things and you have all their hairs
numbered also.
And so as we have this fear of becoming
hypocrites when we leave here, Lord,
help us to fall in love with you more
and more.
Help us to realize the power of your
spirit and the power of the gospel to
change us.
May we be different.
Lord, we love you.
We pray all these things in your son Jesus' name.
Amen.
Hey, we are back here next week.
There are some people with little blue
lanyards around their neck.
They're part of our prayer team.
Don't leave here without having someone
pray with you.
Especially if you're in this issue of
struggling about where you have your heart
focused.
Who's on the throne of your life?
What are you fearing as you walk into
the classroom on Monday or into the
boardroom or as you go on your business
trip or if you do dinner with the
extended family tonight or if you walk
home into your house and it's divided
or you have kids out of control?
The passage here says that God,
God is awesome and big enough for you to
trust him.
That he wants you to do that.
He wants to work in your life.
But he's not going to force himself in
there.
He wants you to surrender to him and
allow him to do that in your life.
And our hope and our prayer is that you
would do that.
All of us, that we'd be a people with
Christ at the center, fearing God and
all of him and allowing him to change us
in Hong Kong.
Father, we just thank you for this day.
I thank you for my brothers and
sisters here.
Again, I just thank you for this place
that you've made available for us.
And we pray and thank you for your
spirit and for your word.
And we pray, Holy Spirit, that you would
change us, that you would come upon us,
that you would convict us of sin, that you
would convict us of idols, you would
convict us of things that we've put on the
throne of our life instead of you.
And that we would surrender those things to
you.
And that your power and your passion would
flow through us and change us.
And that we could trust you because you're
good.
And Father, I thank you for my brothers and
sisters because we do it in community.
And we trust you to change us as a family.
And so we lift up today, we lift up this
week, we lift up Hong Kong, we lift up the
leaders, we lift up the schools, we lift up all
the things going around in the world.
We know that all those things are numbered
and counted and you control those things.
And we trust you.
We pray these things in your Son, Jesus
Christ's holy and beautiful name.
Amen.
God bless you.
We'll see you back here next week.
Amen.