Stumbling Blocks or the Savior — Matthew 17

0:00 I have 15 single spaced pages here to get through today. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. They're double spaced. Scripture passage this morning.

0:14 If we can get this working, we got some technology here. I don't usually preach with technology, but I thought some some of it might be helpful today. Let me see. I was told if I hit the b, it'll make the screen appear. It did.

0:28 It did make the screen appear. You learn something new every day. Scripture passage this morning comes from the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 17. You could turn there beginning with verse 24.

0:50 And when they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the 2 drachma tax went up to Peter and said, does your teacher not pay the tax? And he said, yes. But when he had come into the house, Jesus spoke to him first saying, what do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?

1:19 And 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. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself. And father god, thank you for this word you have for us this morning, which we believe to be inspired, inerrant, and infallible. Pray lord that you would just use me today as a channel for your holy spirit to speak your word to us.

1:56 Pray that the parts of this message which are not from you, people would forget immediately. And the parts that are, that you would... We would carry them forth into the New Year. In Jesus name. Amen.

2:09 It's nice to be back here with you in the last day of 2017. I spoke to you on the first day of twenty seventeen. And I know I said I was gonna give the same sermon again and then give you a quiz, but that's not what I'm gonna do. We have a different message today. And I I will just say this.

2:26 I I'll say this ahead of time. I don't know if this is true of other people who speak here or not, but I tend to speak on the things which are challenging me the most, the things that I have the biggest problem with. So as I am delivering this message, you can get a sense of the things that I have struggled with in the last year, and maybe you struggle with some of these things too, but maybe not. I said to you once before, if you look at church statistics, the Sunday after Christmas is the least attended Sunday of the year. And I see we're actually pretty full this morning, so we are we are bucking the trend.

3:03 But I understand why the elders asked me to speak on the week after Christmas, thinking that they will limit the damage somehow. Right? But anyway, it's good to be here. And in praying about this message, I thought I thought we would we would look at just kind of one big question that I have been wrestling with this year and this is it. Am I more focused on stumbling blocks or am I more focused on my savior?

3:31 And in order to answer this question, I I looked at this sort of well known miracle that is performed by Jesus. And and, at least I I think this is a well known miracle. It's a little bit of a strange miracle. It's a little bit of a strange miracle, but it's fairly well known. And I think that in order to understand Jesus' teaching here, it's important that we just get a little bit of background information on what is happening here.

3:52 So, you know, you do a little research when you're preparing for the morning message, you find out that this this is a tax. So that the... These guys who are supposed to collect the temple tax, they come to Peter and they say, hey, does Jesus pay this tax or not? And the first thing that's important to know is this is a this is a a tax for the temple. This was not a civil tax imposed by the Roman government.

4:14 These people who are coming to collect the tax are not the kind of tax collector that Matthew was. Right? Matthew was sort of... Was... Is...

4:21 In his original calling, he was a representative of the occupying Roman forces and was collecting taxes on their behalf. That is not the kind of tax that's taking place right here. This is a tax for the upkeep of the temple. Every Jewish man above the age of 20 was required to pay this tax. It was established as far back as as Exodus chapter 20 and so so I think that the whole understanding of this passage hinges on the fact that this tax we're talking about was for the upkeep of the temple.

4:57 So, these tax... These these people, these religious... These these Jews come to Peter and they say to him, does Jesus pay this tax or not? And Peter says, yes. Yeah.

5:07 He he he... Yeah, he pays it. But you kind of get the sense that Peter really doesn't know whether Jesus pays this tax or not. I can say... I can picture him thinking, I've never thought about whether Jesus pays his taxes.

5:21 I've never seen him pay the tax, but I... Maybe he does. But, anyway, he says, yes. Jesus pays these taxes. And, and and then he goes to talk to Jesus about it.

5:30 You know, Peter is now curious. I wonder if Jesus does pay this tax. So he goes to Jesus, and, of course, Jesus, knowing what is in Peter's mind, before Peter even gets the question out, Jesus says to him, Jesus says to him, let me ask you a question, Peter. When earthly rulers collect taxes, who do they collect them from? Do they collect it from their own sons, or do they collect it from other people?

5:56 And, and Peter says, well, they collect it from other people. What king pays taxes? Right? I mean, that seems like common sense. And when he says this, Jesus says to him, then the sons are free.

6:08 The sons are free. You don't have to pay. However, not to give offense, not to give offense, go to the sea and cast in your hook and take the first fish that comes up. When you open its mouth, you'll find a shekel and that's what we're going to use to pay this tax. So here's the question.

6:49 I got roped into this program, but now I kind of like it. It's called The Crown. I don't if any of you have seen that or not. This is a pretty good show and it is it is, I I don't know, roughly historically accurate biography of the queen, right? And I tell you one thing I noticed about this program is the queen never seems to pay any taxes.

7:09 I never see a scene in this show where people come to her and say, hey, queen. I guess they wouldn't address her like that. That's how I would address her. Hey, queen. The palace needs some repairs.

7:20 We need some new windows. You need to get some new carpet. It's time to pay up. Right? That never seems to happen.

7:26 Right? Because she is the queen. Right? She is the she is the person for whom the palace is there. Right?

7:31 So the kings do not pay taxes. And yet, and then so Jesus is saying, I don't I don't need to pay this. Don't need to pay this tax, but we're gonna pay it anyway. So why is he doing this? Right?

7:45 He could have... I I think he could have very justly refused to do this. So even though the temple was ultimately his. Right? And Jesus, in fact, is described as the living temple of God.

7:56 He is actually going to some great lengths. He performs a miracle, in fact, to limit offending people. He graciously is submitting to paying this tax in order so he can accomplish his mission at the appropriate time. Now, it's like a little bit of a Greek lesson here. Here's this word here's this word in the Greek, scandalizo.

8:21 I don't know if that's how you pronounce it. Is that how you pronounce it? Where's Josh? You're my Greek guy. Is that how you would pronounce that word, scandalizo?

8:28 It sounds kind of Italian to me. Scandalizo. Right? But this is supposed to a Greek word, and this this word pops up when he says, so as not to give offense, as not to give offense, that word, scandalizo, is translated as causing to stumble. Jesus is essentially saying that he and his followers do not have to pay the temple tax, but they're gonna submit to it anyway for the sake of unbelievers.

8:55 In other words, there are times when it's better to submit for the sake of witness. Now, the way that Jesus pays this tax, I think is kind of interesting. Right? I mean, to say the least, this is an interesting way to pay your taxes. In fact, some people have made fun of Jesus, Christianity, because of this account in Matthew.

9:22 And they say things like, well, well, this is the only time that Jesus ever performed a miracle for his own benefit. Right? He didn't wanna pay the tax out of his own money, so he performed a miracle to get some money out of a fish to pay his taxes. Right? So the people have made light of Jesus for this.

9:37 You know, they've sort... They say this is a kind of trivial thing, but that is not what's happening here. I think what is happening is we are seeing Jesus identifying with us in his humanity, knowing that as we are going to have to submit to earthly rulers, he is also going to practice this kind of submission to show us how this is supposed to be done. But in submitting, he is also going to exert his deity. Right?

10:05 He is gonna submit and pay this tax. He doesn't have to, but he's gonna submit in a very particular way that confirms that he is no mere mortal man. Someone once said, and I neglected to look up who said this, but it wasn't me, but this is a great little quote. In the midst of submission, majesty flashes forth. This is not about Jesus creating money out of thin air.

10:32 Right? That would be kinda silly. It is about Jesus identifying himself with us and at the same time performing this sort of multifaceted miracle. If you think about the chain of events that would have to happen. Right?

10:45 So, think about this. Somebody's walking along the lake and he happens to drop some money in, which is exactly equal to the tax for two people, and some fish has to swallow that coin. Well, not swallow it, just has to sort of get lodged in their mouth. Then it has to swim over to a different part of the lake, and then it has to be the first fish that Peter catches. Right?

11:05 I mean, this is this is clearly miraculous stuff going on here or we could say, this is the literal fulfillment of this passage from Psalm eight. You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You put all things under his feet, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the seas. So this is this is very remarkable. You you you start to think about what is going on here in paying the taxes is that Jesus is fulfilling is fulfilling this prophecy.

11:52 You gotta catch the fish, and it's it's gonna take care of us. And you gotta think Peter's thinking, don't know about this. But but he does it anyway, and and he... And the miracle is performed. You know, ultimately, everything we have comes from God.

12:04 We we would agree with that. Right? But there are times when God wants us to be active participants in the process. You know, you can't just sit around and expect the Lord to rain down your salary. I don't think that's gonna work.

12:18 It reminds me a little bit... So there was this account in second Kings. This guy named Naaman. You remember Naaman? He was the leper.

12:28 Right? So Naaman the leper... He's got leprosy. And he he... Praise to God.

12:33 Deliver me from this leprosy. And so God sends Elisha to him. And Elisha says, hey. Here's what you gotta do, Naaman. You wanna be cured of your leprosy.

12:42 So what you gotta do. Gotta take a bath in the Jordan River. And Naaman says, that's disgusting. No, he doesn't say that. But he's he's thinking this.

12:52 He said, I'm not gonna bathe in that river. There's a lot of other cleaner rivers around I could take a bath in. This is what he's thinking. What Naaman says is, what he what he actually says is, behold. It says Naaman was furious at this response.

13:06 Go swim in the Jordan River. Naaman was furious and went away and said, behold, I thought the prophet will surely come out to me and stand there and call on the name of his god and wave his hands over me and cure my leprosy. This is what Naaman thought was gonna happen. This is how god cures lepers. The prophet comes along and prays and does the hand waving and I'm healed.

13:28 Right? I'm not gonna take some bath in some dirty river. Now, of course, you know, later, Naaman realizes, well, I don't know if Elijah tells me to do it, I better do it. And he and he does and he gets he gets cured. But, God is always hearing our prayers.

13:45 It's just the way that he responds isn't always how I would expect him to, and sometimes he wants us to be very active in the process. That's why Peter is fishing here for the tax money. So anyway, this brings us to our first point. There's only two points today. Right?

13:58 You could be thankful for that. There was a third point. I cut it out entirely. You can thank me later. Here's the first point.

14:05 Jesus avoids giving needless offense. There are times when Jesus' message is offensive to people, but he limits the needless offense, and we should too. And if you don't believe that, there's a few there's a few there's a few extra verses you could think about for that. The people of Capernaum did not yet believe that Jesus was the son of God. That's the issue here.

14:35 If Jesus had refused to pay the temple tax, which he had a right to do, those people would have seen him as irreligious and profane. And so he waives his royal rights. That's what's going on. But at the same time, the disciples who knew that he was the son of God needed to know that he was not diminishing his deity by submitting to pay this. Peter needed to know on what grounds is Jesus paying this tax.

15:08 And the followers of Jesus today need to be reminded not only of his divinity, of his divine claims, but of this example, that we don't always need to insist on our rights. And we can yield those rights when otherwise we might be misunderstood and cause needless offense. That's what I mean by am I more focused on the stumbling blocks. I don't mean like stumbling blocks to my own faith. I mean putting stumbling blocks in front of other people's path to Christ.

15:41 I'll give you a little example of this because I know this is hard to hear, especially as Americans. Right? I want my rights. So I have this little card in my wallet which allows me to carry a concealed weapon. And I got that because I took the right classes and I passed the test and I am a...

16:00 I'm generally a law abiding citizen. And, and so I could I could... You wouldn't know. I could have that on me right now. Yeah.

16:09 You don't know. Right? Because it's concealed. But I don't always carry a gun around with me. Right?

16:16 Even though I have a right to do so, right? There's some places I can't. Right? I can't go into a school, but there's a lot of places I can and and sometimes I do, but but sometimes I just waive that right. I said, I don't need to carry a gun with me, right, when I go to visit my grandmother.

16:31 Alright. I waive this right because in in claiming my rights all the time, I might cause other people to stumble. And you know,

16:44 this is this is a this is

16:46 a tough balance. Right? Because I don't wanna come off as saying that Jesus is somehow being tolerant. Right? That's a big word these days, be tolerant of everybody.

16:54 Jesus doesn't mean tolerant about sin. There's a balance. Right? Some people are gonna be offended by everything. Did you know that?

17:02 Some people are gonna be offended by everything. You probably knew that already. And I'm not... I'm saying don't worry about those people. There is a, there's a new...

17:11 This is not not not that new, but some of you do use the Internet and you use the Google search engine. It has this feature called predictive search. You know what I'm talking about? It's where you start to type in what you want to find out on the Internet. And as you're typing, Google, which has this massive database of other things people have searched for, starts filling in your sentences.

17:31 Starts to fill in your sentence to try and help you. Oh, that is what I was searching for. Right? So if you start typing in when is, Google will fill that in automatically with like Easter or daylight savings time. Right?

17:43 Because those are the things that people have searched for a lot. By the way, I have tried to implement this with my own family, very poor results. I think my wife would prefer if I did not try to do predictive search on what she is asking me about. That's just free advice for you young men. It doesn't work very well.

18:04 Anyway, you if you go to if you go to Google, if you go to... After the service, guys, you go to Google and you type in 2017, the year, you know what Google fills that in with? Everybody got offended. Everybody got offended. Clearly, have been searching for this all across the country, right.

18:29 It's just a symptom of the fact that we are a very offended people. So some people are hyper offended. I'm not gonna worry about about those people. I I'm talking about doing things that would cause needless offense to others. Because the gospel, let's face it, is offensive enough to unbelievers without me adding fuel to the fire.

18:55 The gospel message is just offensive enough. It's offensive because it confronts sin. It's offensive because it says, your natural being is bad. You need to throw off your old self and become something new, and people are very offended by that. That doesn't mean it's not true.

19:19 Right? There are there are all kinds of messages we hear that are offensive and yet which are still true, things that are hard for me to hear. Some of you know doctor Reese. He's a good dentist, over here in Westlake. And, the last time I went to doctor Reese, he took some x rays and he gave me a very offensive message.

19:34 He said, all your wisdom teeth need to come out. I said, well, alright. Give me a second, doctor Reese. I gotta go. I gotta go to the bathroom and think about this.

19:46 And if I ever see him again, he's gonna remind me about that offensive message. But, you know, it's still a true message. And and this is this is the problem. The problem comes in when Christians start to add needless fuel to the fire. There are issues about which we are so passionate and which may be legitimate claims.

20:09 But I'm not gonna open a conversation with an unbeliever about that. Right? I'm not gonna make that typical of my conversation. I'm gonna direct people to Jesus. I have I have said to my wife before, I don't like church signs.

20:26 This is just something I need to get over, I guess. I just I just do not like church signs. I think they're all silly. I'm glad we don't have one. We joined a church up in Michigan because they don't...

20:36 Not because they they don't have one. No. I'm just thankful they don't have... Every time I drive by one, see these silly messages. Do you need a lifeguard?

20:45 Ours walks on water. Okay. Sign broken. Message inside this week. I I just just can't do it.

20:56 I just cannot handle them. That's okay. That's just my problem. I need to get over that. But sometimes there's a different category of message coming from the Christian church, which is not just maybe silly, but is actually could be offensive.

21:09 Sometimes it's inadvertent. I'll let this one sink in for a minute. Can't wait to show up for there on Sunday morning. We love hurting people. Wait a minute.

21:23 No. Or, this one. I don't know if you can see that from where you're at. Don't let worries kill you. Let the church help.

21:32 Right? So this is why I don't like these signs. Right? You're driving past, you see that sign, you say, what is this religion all about? So there's so there's that example.

21:41 But then there are more serious there are more serious church signs, which are sort of representative of a particular message in Christianity. And it's a message that has some truth to it. But the way it is portrayed, I think, gives needless offense. Here's this one. This is a little...

21:57 Don't know. It's hard for you to see that with the lights on. Too hot to go to church? What about hell? Oh, boy.

22:04 That just is so loving right there. I just just love that one. Or how about this one? I kissed a girl and I liked it. Then I went to hell.

22:13 Wow. Can you just imagine Jesus singing that, can't you? What what is the point of this kind of thing? Right? I mean, maybe there is some...

22:23 I'm not denying. Right? So there is a hell. Right? And we should be warning people about it.

22:29 But the way we do it, I think, sometimes needs some consideration. Let me look at Romans chapter 14. Romans chapter 14 verse 13. You guys know this verse. You guys know this verse.

22:42 Let us stop passing judgment on one another. Yeah. Well, good luck with that one. But it's what we're supposed to do. Let us stop passing judgment on one another.

22:52 Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. Or this one. I love this quote, which I think is from D L Moody. Although I've I've saw it on the Internet attributed to various people ranging from Moody to CS Lewis to Winston Churchill. So I just picked Moody.

23:10 I think this is probably something he would have said. The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it. I'm not gonna pull out my protractor, say look it's it's off, it's crooked. You are crooked. Yes.

23:23 Or to spend your time denouncing it, you crooked stick, but to lay a straight stick alongside of it. Just to lay the straight stick alongside of it. Problem is is that most Christians, like most people, like a good argument. I really like to argue with people. I will confess that to you.

23:42 Sometimes that is a... Not a very holy thing, but we do like a good argument. And we're usually pretty good about telling people when they're wrong or bad. I'm quite good at that myself. Not proud of that, but, you know, sometimes that can even seem like the gospel message.

23:58 I've told you this before. So, I am a mathematics professor at Michigan State, and the main math building is called Wells Hall. And outs... Wells Hall opens up onto a major crossroads on campus. All thousands of students passing in front of this building every day.

24:13 And in good weather, it is the place to be if you have a message to proclaim. And everybody with a message is there proclaiming these ideas to all these students. There is one person in particular, he's been there for years, and he's called the Wells Hall preacher. And the Wells Hall preacher is the most detested person on campus. He is the butt of all of the jokes.

24:37 And and he brings it on himself to some extent because as the students are going to class, he is yelling at them. They're all on their way to hell. That's his message. I haven't heard him mention Jesus one time in all the years that I've been there. And I pass by him all the time.

24:53 Every time he tells me I'm going straight to hell. So nobody likes the Wells Hall preacher. And then there's another group of people that show up on campus from time to time and that's the Gideons. I don't know what you think about the Gideons or their theology or or what, but I'll tell you this. Those those guys and most of them are like in their eighties.

25:13 These are these are some elder statesmen. They're just there passing out Bibles, and they are the kindest people. And you see the students talking to them and laughing, and, you know, they're wishing the students good luck on your exams, and the students are bringing them coffee from Starbucks, and and these Gideons are passing out thousands of Bibles. I am astounded at the number of Bibles these guys give away. And if even 1% of the students reads the Bibles that they are given, that's a large number of people that are into the Word of God.

25:44 So there's two ways of pointing people to Christ, I guess. And I'm just asking, are we more focused on the stumbling blocks or are we more focused on the Savior? Here's a little quote from John MacArthur talking about this passage. He had every right to refuse to pay. Talking about Jesus.

26:03 He had every right to refuse to pay just as he had every right to refuse being humiliated and persecuted. But when he willingly emptied himself of his divine glory, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men, he also relinquished the rights and prerogatives belonging to that glory. I think there is deep wisdom in Jesus' five words here, lest we should offend them. It might sound fine and heroic to always be standing up for my rights and tenaciously fighting for them, but I think this passage casts doubt on the wisdom of that approach. Sometimes it may be more gracious to submit than to resist.

26:45 And here's another problem. Here's another problem. Once you take on the reputation of being someone who is always attacking, someone who is always fighting, always offending, always belittling, even your good words are going be tuned out. Here's a few tweets just from a certain group. Praise his name on this blessed Friday.

27:13 Go out and do God's will today. I agree with that. That's pretty nice. That's very encouraging. Romans ten nine, confess with thy mouth the lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that god has raised him from the dead and you shall be saved.

27:23 You shall be saved. Today is our lord's day and we shall rejoice. Hashtag power of prayer. Hashtag pop. I'm not sure about.

27:29 Well, that's power of prayer again. I see. I see. I'm into all this stuff. You say, these are nice messages.

27:35 Right? Who is it that put these messages out there on Twitter? Well, these messages come from the Westboro Baptist Church. I don't know if you're familiar with Westboro Baptist Church or not, but you've probably seen these images on television. Right?

27:47 These are the people that are always picketing at soldiers' funerals. God sent the shooter. You're going to hell. Thank God for dead soldiers. Right?

27:56 You would get this kind of reputation. Who is gonna listen to you when you're saying praise the Lord on this blessed Friday? Right? I know none of us are going to do that. We don't have this problem in this church.

28:06 But it is symptomatic. It is symptomatic of a problem in Christianity. Here's a little different take on this message. I've seen this t shirt, I'm not perfect. I'm just forgiven.

28:15 Which is true. Is true. I'm not perfect. I'm just forgiven. But this is what people actually mean by this.

28:21 This is what some people actually mean. My imperfections are forgiven, so don't waste your time expecting much from me. I'm not perfect, I'm forgiven. So I'm just going to do whatever the heck I want, and you better deal with it. Because I'm not perfect, right?

28:36 I'm just forgiven. It's just another take on it. So that's the first point. That's the first point. God's words from notoriously bad people are going to carry very little weight.

28:48 I'd say to this, particularly young people, you are working right now to establish your reputation. Once established, it is very difficult to change it. It is very difficult to change it. You will work the rest of your life trying to change a bad reputation. Anyway, that's the first point.

29:19 I will say this. We don't want to cause needless offense. But at the same time, you know, I I don't believe that my works get me into heaven. I don't want to just say that I should go out and do good things, and then the Lord will smile upon me. Right?

29:33 And so, one way that churches have have sort of dealt with this issue is that they become very isolationist. We just sort of hunker down oblivious to the outside world. I'm not gonna be a stumbling block. I'm just not gonna do anything. I'm gonna hunker down and wait till the Lord returns.

29:48 And we that there are congregations like that. So I'm going to give you a little alternative here. And that is, instead of focusing on the stumbling blocks, or instead of just ignoring the outside world, we should seek the signs that follow true belief. Now, I'm going read you a verse here. And I know this is going make the elders nervous.

30:10 But just bear with me. If you feel like you need to come up and unplug the microphone, that's fine. I'm just going to read you what the Bible says. I'm And gonna be real careful in our interpretation of it. These these signs shall follow those that believe.

30:26 In my name, they shall cast out demons. They shall speak with tongues. They shall take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

30:40 Megan asked me the other night, what are you preaching about? I said, well, I'm going to say two things. Don't put up needless stumbling blocks. Seek the signs that follow true belief. She said, what are the signs that follow true belief?

30:53 I said, well, it's it's easy. We're gonna cast out demons, speak in tongues, take up serpents, drink deadly things, and, lay hands on the sick. She said, you're not gonna say that, are you? I said, well,

31:04 I... This is

31:05 what the Bible says, people. Right? This is what the Bible says. Give you a little short list here. These are the things we ought to be seeking.

31:11 Instead of denouncing the crooked stick, this is what we ought to be doing. We should be seeking and seeing power over Satan, speaking with new tongues, experiencing divine protection, and healing the sick. Okay. Well, you know there's different ways to interpret scripture. Right?

31:27 And so, I'm I'm gonna give you one interpretation. If you disagree with this interpretation, that is perfectly fine. That's perfectly fine. And there are... There have been good, loving Christians throughout history that have taken different interpretations of this.

31:41 But this is just... In my in my reading of the words of Jesus and how the rest of scripture sort of talks about these things, this is this is what I think we're getting at here. Talking about casting out demons. Acts twenty six seventeen says, I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to god so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. I know when you hear the phrase casting out demons, well, at least what I think of is some person frothing at the mouth, you know, rolling on the floor and let's call in the exorcist and they're gonna cast out the demon.

32:21 Right? And, and of course, Jesus did cast out demons. But I don't think that's the focus here of overcoming the power of Satan. How do you overcome the power of Satan? And you say, well, I'm not gonna...

32:34 I don't know. I'd... I've I've ever cast out a demon. No. I I have not.

32:37 I have never cast out a demon before, but I do know this. Wherever Christianity is established, the power of Satan weakens. We should be casting Satan out of our neighborhoods and out of our churches and out of our hearts. This is in mathematics, what we call an inverse relationship. As Jesus goes up, the devil goes down.

33:00 Right? And this could be true in in your heart as well. Here's another way to cast out demons. Make some disciples. You know, every time somebody comes to Jesus, Satan loses a customer.

33:12 That's one way to have power over Satan. Ephesians six eleven, put on the full armor of gods that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Stand firm against the schemes of the devil. What about speak with new tongues? It's a very tricky one here.

33:30 I'm not going to get into this. I'm not going to get into this issue of, you know, the New Testament gift of tongue. Is it need an interpreter and do people speak with tongues today? You know why I'm not going to get into that? Because it's a needless stumbling block.

33:43 That's why. That's why I'm not going to get into that. I will say this, first Corinthians one fifteen, for in him you have been enriched in every way with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge. Our conversation after Christ has come into our hearts is supposed to be different than it was before. I'm supposed to have a new tongue.

34:05 Right? I'm supposed to... Whereas I used to discuss the things of the world, more and more I should be discussing the things of God. That's the new tongue that I'm going to be speaking with. Luke twelve eleven, when you are brought before the synagogues, rulers, authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say.

34:23 Verse 12, for at that time, the Holy Spirit will teach you what to say. Our words ought to be spirit filled. It kind of reminds me in the... And remember, I think it was in the book of Numbers. These guys, El dad and Medad, do you remember them?

34:39 These guys are, are prophesying. And some people come to Moses, and one of them was Joshua. They come to Moses and say, hey, Moses, these guys over here are prophesying the word of God. You better put a stop to them. And Moses said, you remember what Moses said?

34:53 I wish everybody was a prophet. Are you kidding me? This is a good thing. We should all be speaking the word of God. If I claim to be under the influence of God's Holy Spirit, I should be speaking with a new tongue.

35:07 You know what Jesus said? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. What's in your heart is going to come out of your mouth. You know what's in someone's heart by the words they use. So that's something I'm going to be seeking this year.

35:28 We're not gonna pass any snakes around here. We're gonna drink any poisonous stuff, but there is a certain immunity about the people of God. I know some people take this literally. There are churches where I would now pass around a rattlesnake. And if you did not get bit, that would somehow show that you are faithful.

35:45 I think all that shows is that you're a bird brain. But I guess I don't... I'm sorry. I shouldn't pass judgment. Shouldn't pass judgment on them.

35:53 But, but I don't think that this is really what it's talking about. Now, do have this case. We have this case in in in the book of Acts, right, where Paul gets bitten by a serpent and he just shakes it off into the fire. And I was trying to think if there's a case in the Bible where people drank something that was poisoned and it didn't hurt them. There is that case in two Kings where people ate some poison gourds and they were and they were they were okay, but this seems to be rather the exception than the rule.

36:21 I think this is maybe a way to interpret this idea of divine protection. Psalm 34, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Zechariah two five, I will be a wall of fire around her. You know, some Christians get so concerned about their health, their income, their security, and Jesus is saying, you don't have to worry about that. If you're a believer, you have divine protection from God.

36:50 You should just be gung ho for Jesus. Don't worry about this other stuff. You know, something's gonna kill you eventually. I mean, unless the Lord returns, something's gonna kill you eventually. You don't have to worry about it.

37:00 You know, we used to be told an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Remember that one? Now we find out it's not true. An apple a day could actually give you cancer. I guess apples are coated with some kind of pesticide.

37:11 And if you eat enough of that, like a truckload or whatever, that could make you sick. So I don't know. Can you trust the apple? I guess not. How about this one?

37:18 Can running cause cancer? Well, I don't have a whole lot of risk of finding this one out, I guess. But this research says it's unlikely. I don't They're talking about skin cancer. Don't take the right protections.

37:29 All this stuff that we thought we were going to be we're going to say, I'm going eat these apples and go for a jog every day, and I'm going to be healthy. Yeah. And then you get run over by the UPS truck. Right? Just shouldn't worry about that.

37:39 Right? We've got divine protection from god. You should feel free. Serve god with reckless abandon. How about this one?

37:49 Heal the sick. Heal the sick. I'm not sure what to make of this one. Well, we have we have several passages in the New Testament which command us for the laying on of hands and the healing of the sick. I'm not I'm not going to deny that that is a New Testament reality.

38:08 When Jesus sent out the 72 disciples, here was part of their command. Heal the sick and say to them, the kingdom of god has come near to you. James chapter five, is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.

38:28 And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Now you say to me, okay, okay, alright. Have you ever prayed for anybody that was terminally ill and seen them get better? I have not. I have not.

38:45 Maybe you have. I have not. In fact, I've experienced just the opposite. I've I've asked God. I've read this passage from James and then asked God to heal some people who were terminally ill and they still died.

38:56 So I say, what do you make about this? The only thing I can say from that is that our times are in God's hands. It's not random chance that causes sickness, death. All of that is under the control of God. So I'm not going to worry about that.

39:17 But I will say this, when we talk about healing the sick in our churches, there is a physical sickness which we can pray for and anticipate God's healing. But I think it's more important to think about the spiritual sickness. And I think I have seen times where we have prayed for people who are spiritually sick and seen a spiritual healing. And I actually think that's more important. If you think about it, a person who has a weak body but a strong spirit can actually accomplish quite a lot.

39:49 And the opposite is true. If you've got a healthy body but you have a broken spirit, it's tough to get out of bed in the morning. I think about these people who are in the Paralympics. Look at... I can think of these people.

40:00 Right? And look at their bodies, but they have a strong spirit within them. This guy's racing in his wheelchair. This person's skiing with one leg. This guy's playing table tennis with no arms.

40:11 I look at this and I say, that is amazing. They've got a strong spirit even though they have a weak body. So maybe we should be thinking about, you know, be thinking about healings in a in a spiritual sense. We want to pray this year that we're going to be seeing healing in our church. Maybe not a physical.

40:30 Maybe. Maybe we see a physical healing but I think more importantly, that we see spiritual healing. Anyway, these were the two points. I said there was only two and that's the two of them. Jesus avoided needless stumbling blocks.

41:10 Lord, we want to be a redeeming fellowship. Father God, we want the power to come through this congregation. We don't want folks to come here just because we've got great music and excellent preaching. Or we're the best at judging sinners. We want people to come here because in here they find that their sins are forgiven, that the hurts of their lives are healed, that they have power to overcome the enemy, and assurance in their heart hope for eternity.

41:54 In Jesus name we pray, amen.