We're going to continue, like we said, this series that
we've, titled The Real Jesus.
We're in search of the Real Jesus.
Because if we know the real Jesus, then we can actually be able to
follow the real Jesus and be able to show our world the real Jesus.
Cuz there's a lot of, uh, false images and portrayals and, and really incorrect
or misunderstandings about who Jesus is because of what, , has been portrayed or
what has been lived out or spoken of on social media about those who follow Jesus.
And so we are studying Jesus out through the letter written
by Luke, who was a doctor.
And it's really a biography about Jesus' life and his ministry.
And so if you have the app or, , you're just joining us online for the first
time, we have a OC Church of Christ app.
We also have a little handout on there that you can get a little background
about the information when it comes to the, what we call the Book of Luke.
And so we're making observations of what it means to follow this real Jesus.
And so, so far we've learned a number of things.
We've learned today that Jesus will wrestle you, he'll put you in a headlock.
All right.
But we've also learned that the real Jesus is powerful.
That he's not religious but righteous, that he's a world changer who has
welcomed and welcomed interruptions.
The real Jesus challenges our worldviews.
The real Jesus shows us how to love God and love our neighbor.
And we saw last week the real Jesus gives us a voice.
And so today we're going to see how the real Jesus is full of grace
and truth, full of grace and truth.
Pray with me, father in heaven.
It has been encouraging from the singing songs to hearing wan share, uh, the
insight and perspective to hearing Donna share how you have been, uh, working
in her life to hear, uh, recently here Savannah, and how you, uh, in introduced
yourself and now is transformed and, and continues to transform her life.
And God, we're amazed at Jesus.
As we sing songs, as we think about the profound mystery of Jesus and who he
is and all that he does in our lives, God, we are humbled and we are grateful.
And Father, I pray that today as we see Jesus's truth, we see Jesus's grace,
grace, we, we are in awe of you, God, that we are inspired by you, that we
will make decisions whether to be small or, or really life-changing decisions in
order to align ourself with your will.
We pray in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Turn over in your Bibles to Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12.
But before we actually go to Luke chapter 12, uh, we're going to step
out of Luke for just a quick second and look at this verse in John chapter one.
And this is a verse here in which they're referring, it's talking about
Jesus, and it says, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen this glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from
the Father full of grace and truth.
This scripture has been so profound to me throughout the years because it says
Jesus was full of grace and full of truth.
He wasn't 50% grace and 50% truth.
He wasn't balancing grace and balancing truth in his life.
He was a hundred percent truth and a hundred percent grace.
And that's incredible to think about.
You know, it means that Jesus has compassion well at the same time,
has as much conviction as possible.
And we are on a zoom call and Rusty talked about, you know Jesus, he reminded
us Jesus is the lamb and the lion.
He is the lion of Judah, as it's mentioned in scripture, but he's
also the Lamb of God, meaning that he also has peace, but he also has great
humility as he's the sacrifice for it.
So we see his grace, but we see the victory.
We see him being king as he's also in this metaphor, the lion of God as well.
And so again, Jesus, unlike you and I, is full of grace and full of truth as well.
And so he has such great pity upon us, and he wants the world to be
saved, but he is also going to speak some truth to us as well.
And so let's go on over to Luke chapter 12.
Let's look first at a little bit of some of this grace.
This just stood out to me the other day, and so Jesus starts
to talk about his return.
You know, Jesus came and he came to save the world, but he will return.
And he says in this para boy, he says, be dressed.
Verse 35, ready for service.
And keep your lamps burning like servants, waiting for their master
to return from a wedding banquet so that when he comes and knocks, they
can immediately open a door for him.
It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.
Check this out.
Truly, I tell you, he will dress himself to serve.
We'll have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.
Did you catch that right there?
Jesus, right there is saying, okay, Gus, I, I, I'm gonna come
back and here's what it's like.
Here's what's gonna happen when I come back, is that I'm gonna take my servants
and I'm gonna actually take on the role of servitude, and then guess what?
I'm going to serve and wait on you.
How incredible is that the master coming and serving the slaves?
You've never seen that before, have you?
. I mean, that's incredible to think, wow.
What grace did you deserve for the King of Kings to come and
somehow serve you in his coming?
No, this is what we call amazing grace, isn't it?
But let's continue.
We're gonna jump all the way from chapters 12 to 14 here.
We're gonna jump over to chapter 13.
Brothers and sisters, are you still with me here?
Now we're gonna get to some truth here.
And so as you look at Jesus, no matter where you are at, no matter what
gospel you read, no matter where you're gonna see a lot of grace and you're
gonna see a whole lot of truth, and they're not competing with one another.
They're actually coinciding with one another.
You say, well, how can that be?
Let's read Luke chapter 13, verse one.
He says, now, there were some present at the time who told Jesus about
the guidelines whose blood pilot had mixed with their sacrifices?
Jesus answered.
Do you think that these guidelines were worse sined than all the other
guidelines because they suffered this way?
I tell you no, but unless you repented, you too will all perish.
Or those 18 who died when the Tower of Salom, uh, fell on them, do you
think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?
I tell you no, but unless you repent, you too will all perish.
Sounds really gracious, doesn't it?
No.
That's some hardcore truth right there, isn't it?
That's some hardcore truth that's not, uh, what's he trying to say with this?
Here's a clear call for repentance.
He says, you either repent or you perish.
Repent means to make a decision to change, obviously in the context, to
make a decision to change for God, but in per the Greek word, and same
what it means in English means to be destroyed or no longer exists.
So we can either repent, change for God or we're gonna be
destroyed and no longer exists.
Welcome to Sunday service.
So Jesus here has a clear call to repentance.
And repentance is a hard but needed truth.
It's a very difficult but absolutely necessary truth, you know?
And if he doesn't speak this, then people will think then, and you and
I will think now that it's okay, and therefore we won't repent.
And therefore, what will happen, we'll perish.
Now.
Would you want that to be the case?
Hey, I didn't know.
Why didn't you tell me?
Because it was gonna be too hard to tell you, because it might ruffle
your feathers a little bit because I'm just so full of grace that I
don't wanna give you the real truth.
Would that have been the Lord that you would've appreciated,
loved, respected, and wanted to?
No.
You see, but Jesus has grace and he has truth, and even in this
warning, there's grace presence.
Think about that for a second.
I love you so much that I'm gonna tell you something so that you
won't suffer the consequences.
Sounds like grace doesn't.
It sounds like, Hey, I'm giving you some favors, some unmarried favor
and kindness of God, even though you don't necessarily deserve it.
But I wanna give it to you because I want you to have this relationship with me,
and I want things to go well with you.
So even in his hard truth, there's still this amazing grace right with it.
And that's the motivation for the hard truth.
I remember one time I was, uh, uh, early on in our marriage, uh, I was talking
with my friend and one of my best friends, and also one of my mentors at the time,
John Markowski, and I don't remember all the specifics of what we were talking
about in our, about, I was sharing about our marriage and, and, and with him.
And, and he started giving me some advice.
And it was something along the lines of, I, I wasn't either valuing cor,
I wasn't showing, my appreciation wasn't taking her on dates.
So something along those lines where I, I, I, I wasn't doing something
that I needed to do as a husband.
And he said something along the lines of, Hey, Marcel, if you don't do this, if you
don't grow in this, this will lead your wife to something else and what you say,
and it sunk in, you know, there's a whole lot of truth in that statement.
I was like, yeah, she's a great Christian woman, but if I'm not doing my job as
my husband to love her and lead her.
Then I'm going to lead her to something or possibly someone else.
You guys get what I'm saying?
And so that was a hard truth, but why did he do this?
He said it because he didn't wanna see that happen in my life.
And so I can get mad and offend, man, I'm done with you.
You are no longer my friend.
I can say thank you in prayer flees.
So many years later, Creon will say, I think he repented.
You know what I'm saying?
Or at least he repents every six months.
But we see even here, Jesus talked about the judge.
Don't say in church.
In fact, let's continue church.
Are you still with me here?
Yeah.
Then Jesus went through the towns.
We jumped down in villages teaching.
As he made his way to Jerusalem, someone asked him, Lord, are only
a few people going to be saved?
What an interesting question that is.
He said to them, no, everybody's gonna be saved.
Why would you even ask such a foolish question?
Don't you know I'm a God of love?
Oh, that's not the verse that's on there.
Okay?
Alright.
He said to them, make every effort, huh?
To enter through the narrow door because many I tell you, will try
to answer and will not be able to.
Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you
will stand outside knocking and plea, sir, open the door for us.
But he will answer, I don't know you or where you come from.
Then you will say, we ate and drink with you and you taught in our streets.
But he will reply, I don't know you or where you come from, away from me.
All you evil doers there will be weeping there and nasty in her teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
These are the forefathers in the faith and all the prophets in the kingdom of God.
But you yourselves thrown out.
People will come from east and west and north and south, and
they will take their places at the feast and the kingdom of God.
Indeed, there are those who are last, who will be first and first who will be last.
Wow.
That's some difficult truth right there, isn't it?
Is everybody gonna go to heaven?
Jesus?
No.
Many are going to try, but they won't enter Is God, me?
No.
Jesus right Here He is not keeping it.
100.
He's keeping it.
1000.
Jesus is speaking some truth.
That's so bold and so incredible and so radical.
Jesus ruffled some feathers.
Jesus said things that not everybody felt great.
But yet he was full of grace and he was full of truth.
Here's the incredible thing here, is that the real Jesus, guess what?
He actually offended people.
I know.
That's crazy to think about.
Not the Jesus that I know who has a picture of him in lambs.
Jesus actually offended people.
Now, he didn't go around and say, Hey, you a bunch of jerks and idiots.
You know what I'm saying?
That's not what I'm talking about.
But his truth offended people.
There's a difference.
Someone like, yes, see, Jesus offended people.
I can't wait to offend that brother right now.
Woo.
That's not what he did.
His truth offended people.
You know Jesus.
I believe if Jesus, the real Jesus was in our American society today,
there would be many, many people who would try to cancel Jesus.
No, not the Jesus that no, yes, he would get canceled, or at least there
would be attempts to cancel Jesus and he would be canceled by both the
liberal and the conservative camps.
No, he wouldn't.
Yes, he would.
He offended.
He was canceled in his time.
He offended people so much that guess what they got ticked off.
They became opponents.
Wait, Jesus had enemies.
Yes.
Jesus.
The real Jesus had enemies.
Wait, the real Jesus actually got killed for what he was saying.
That's some serious cancellation, isn't it, sir?
You see the real Jesus, what I believe would be canceled in our
conservative and liberal camp today.
You know why?
Because every idea and every lifestyle isn't okay with God.
Ooh.
Not all are gonna go to heaven.
Whoa.
That's not what Jesus would say.
That's what Jesus did say.
But then he would also call out the religious people for their
arrogance to hypocrisy their lack of grace and lack of love.
Cnn, msnbc, and Fox News would all be upset.
He'd be on the low ticket banner, get rid of Jesus no matter what side of the camp
you may tend to lean toward, guess what?
He would offend you.
He would offend me, not because he was being me, but because of his truth.
So now the question is, how am I gonna respond to this truth?
Let's continue.
Church, are you still with me?
You might get mad.
You wanna cancel me now?
That's okay.
Luke chapter 14, verse one.
One Sabbath.
When Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisees,
he was being carefully watched.
Let's stop right there.
The Pharisees, at this point in time, in Jesus' ministry,
they're pretty much at odds.
The Pharisees are the religious leaders of the time.
They're your, your ministers, your deacons, your, your, your scholars,
and, and so here they are pretty much opposing Jesus, not all of them for what
we understand in the scriptures, but it sounds like the majority of the Pharisees.
And here Jesus goes to a prominent Pharisees, so it's probably likely
that he's an opponent of Jesus.
But even if he wasn't after this conversation, he probably became one.
But he is around at least a group of Pharisees who are opponents because why?
They're carefully watching him not to study, like mm-hmm.
How does he do this?
Yeah, I just wanna follow.
No, because they're trying to critique him and somehow be able to discredit him.
And he is over at his house.
Did you catch that
he's at his house having dinner?
No.
It could be possible that Jesus went there cuz he just wanted a free meal.
He like, man, all right, y'all go to your house.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Let's go ahead, but think about this.
Do you really want to eat with people that you know don't like you?
You have to be the really, the best meal ever, right?
To go to that, that that house party.
Because even then you're like, man, that steak really wasn't worth it.
Cuz I couldn't stand being around that person.
And then they just annoyed me.
Then we got into this argument, you're like, man, I ain't, I
ain't trying those noodles again.
You, you know what I'm saying?
And so it, the likelihood that he's just doing this to get a free
meal, we can probably scratch that.
Right?
But we see in grace in this, I'm still trying to help you phar.
I'm going to be in your home.
We're going to engage.
I'm going to relate.
I'm going to converse with you, and I'm going to share some truth with
the hopes that you'll enter grace.
So even in this interaction, even in this decision, we see the grace
of God in an extraordinary way.
Church.
Are you with me?
They're in front of him.
A man was suffering from abnormal swelling of his body.
Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath or not?
But they remain silent.
So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way.
Then he asked him, if one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a wellness
sabba day, well, you would not immediately pull it out and they had nothing to say.
We'll stop right there.
We see grace for this suffering, man.
But we see truth for everyone involved.
He goes, and he is like, he, he heals this man and, and he asks this question
like, okay, if any one of you, I believe, he's like, come on guys, let's be honest.
Like, like, like, are we really, we're really, you guys
are really upset about this.
If you had your, on your animal, if you had your, your, your child, if they felt,
would you not help them on the Sabbath?
Like, let's be real fellas.
To me that's the context and, and the attitude that Jesus had.
Like, come on guys.
And so again, he's showing them, he's trying to help them see the
truth of who God is and the grace that God wants to extend to all.
And then he goes and he tells us parable, this is so funny.
I mean, again, he's in this house and he goes, we won't
have time to, to read it all.
But he goes, and then he tells write a, a parable, right?
About how, Hey, you guys need to be humble.
He sees everybody and they're like trying to find out where's the seat of honor?
And he's like, oh, okay.
You know what?
I'm just gonna go ahead and I'm just gonna tell this parable and show
him, Hey, you need to be humble.
in the man's house.
If you come to my house, you start telling parables to me, trying to convict me.
Guess what I'm gonna do, man?
You get about my house.
Disrespect me in front of baby girl, baby dog, baby boy, you out your mind.
Karina, don't ever invite them over.
. Lock the door.
You know what I'm saying?
And let's move cuz they might try to shoot me afterwards.
You know what I'm saying?
Sorry.
Anyhow.
I know.
See how my mind goes.
All right, here we go.
Luke, chapter four, verse 12.
So right after this, he says, then Jesus said to us, so when you give a
luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, or your sisters,
your relatives, your rich neighbors.
If you do, they may invite you back and so you'll be repaid.
Make sense?
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the cripple, the lame, the blind.
And you'll be blessed.
Although they cannot repay you, you'll be repaid at the
resurrection of the righteous.
Wow.
You see Jesus's great grace and compassion and love on the outcast.
Of society, the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
And he goes on and he talks about, somebody asks a question like, Hey,
what's it gonna be like in the, at the feast of the Kingdom of God?
And then Jesus starts to tell this parable and he says this some something
interesting in verse 21, cuz he uses some of the same uh, uh, uh, ideas.
He says, go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the
town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.
You see, this was really, truly incredibly radical for
those in first century Judaism.
His call to invite to dinner, the poor, the crippled, the lame, and blonde,
and then also call those sane to be in the kingdom of God was radical.
It's a radical call today.
We wouldn't naturally think those would be the ones who would enter the kingdom of
God, but especially back then because he.
These were the ones who were seen to not have God's favor, the poor.
They weren't blessed by God.
How do you know?
Because they're poor.
It's the rich who have God's favor.
That's how they viewed it.
The crippled, the lame in the blind.
Well, guess what?
They were considered to be cursed by God.
See, they are in this condition because either they sin or
maybe they're parents sin.
Somebody sin along the way and they're, therefore God has cursed and that's
why they're in his predicaments.
And what does Jesus do?
He lifts these people up.
This is who you should be valuing.
This is who you should reach out to, and these are the types who will
actually enter the kingdom of heaven.
That's incredible.
This is radical, but that's radical What grace of God.
In intertwined in, in between with this hardcore truth, but yet we see this great
call and the need and the understanding of the grace of a loving God.
And then we continue in verse 25.
Brother and sisters, are you still with me here?
Yes, sir.
Again, as we can see throughout all scriptures, throughout all of Jesus
life, you see grace and you see truth, and they're not competing.
We see this in Luke 1425.
We see some really, uh, most of us are very familiar in our, in our
fellowship of churches with this passage here, let's read it, large crowds are
traveling with Jesus and turn into them.
He said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and
children, brothers and sisters, yes.
Even their old life, such a person cannot be my disciple.
Okay?
That was me learning from last week.
Bilingual service.
That was Spanish.
Okay?
Means what did you cash that.
There you go.
I'm just saying, man, you just grow so much in the kingdom of God.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm speaking languages.
This is Acts chapter two.
Here.
Come on.
Here we go.
Wait a second.
I gotta hate my mama, my daddy, everybody, myself.
If I don't, I can't be your disciple.
Yep.
And many people try to minimize this.
Well, the word means love less The word doesn't mean the Greek word hate.
Doesn't mean love less, it means hate.
But the context helps us to see that this is uh, uh, uh, uh,
um, uh, uh, what do you call it?
Not uh, we call it exaggeration.
Um, um, hyperbole to emphasize the points.
You saying guys, in comparison, if you were to compare your love for me and
your love for everything else, it's gotta look like you hate everything else.
He says, if that's not the case, guess what?
You can't be a Christian.
What I thought I had to do was believe that was a song we heard.
Yes, that's part of it, but true belief is this type of relationship with Jesus.
He goes on and says, and whoever does not carry their cross and
follow me, cannot be my disciple.
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower once you first sit down and
estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it for.
If you laid a foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it
will ridicule saying This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.
Or supposed the king is about to go to war against another king when he first
sit down and and consider whether he's able with 10,000 men to oppose the
one coming against him with 20,000.
If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still
a long way off and will ask for terms of peace In the same way, those of
you who do not give up everything you have, cannot be my disciples.
Salt is good, but if it loses it's saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
It is fitting neither for the soil nor for the manure pile.
It is thrown out.
Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.
He has strong convictions about what it means to be a Christian.
He says, here is the standard, here is the cost, here is the
call, here is the sacrifice.
And wouldn't have enough time to break it down.
But overall, the way I'd like to see this is that G is saying he's either
gotta be Lord of all or not at all.
He can't be Lord of most.
It's like being mostly pregnant.
You either pregnant or you're not pregnant.
There's no, I'm kind of mostly pregnant this week.
You know what I'm saying?
That's not the case.
And so either Lord of all, meaning master, ruler, supreme authority, or
he's not at all, and Jesus has to be number one even over yourself and family.
And we follow him on his terms.
And if not, he says, it's not like you won't be my disciple.
It is that you cannot be my disciple.
Because when it comes down to something being tough, instead of you following me
with your cross, you're gonna put your cross down and go the other direction.
And so this is a truth that is very challenging, but it's a truth
that's rooted in grace and love.
I want you to make it to the end.
So I'm not gonna sugarcoat things so that you'll be deceived and then quit later on.
I'm gonna give you the fine print and I'm gonna enlarge it and I'm gonna put it
out in the front, as opposed at the end.
I want you to experience this grace, but there's a spiritual battle
and you're gonna have tough times.
But here's what it's gonna take to overcome.
If you abide in me, you see, Jesus is full of grace and truth,
compassion, and conviction.
He's the lion and the lamb, and it's not either or, but and in both.
I remember Dave asked you, sir then, and I was like, wow, I wish
I woulda heard that my whole life.
It was just, it was a different context, but I was like, that is so true.
It's not either or.
He's either the lion or he is the lamb, or he is compassionate, or he is con convict.
He has conviction.
No, it's ands in both.
There's grace, there's truth, there's compassion, there's conviction,
there's the lion, there's the lamb.
But our western society sees Christianity as one or the other, doesn't it?
Whether in our religious circles or our non-religious circle.
Christianity's all about some right or wrong rules and and dos and don'ts, or
it's all about this kind of shallow love.
Just accept everything.
BC Jesus gives encouragement, inspiration, he gives hope in his
message, and also truth of what it means to follow him in the ramifications.
If we don't, you see the real Jesus and real Christianity have conviction
and love and pity at the same time.
I don't choose it this time and then I have to choose
something else the next time.
I have 'em both at the same time.
There's grace and there's truth, and so what does that mean for
you and me, brothers and sisters?
Well, we gotta follow Jesus example.
We gotta be gracious and truthful, gracious to people
who don't know the real Jesus.
Why would be critical and, and, and, and, and say demeaning things to people
who never signed up to follow Jesus.
That doesn't make any sense.
We need to be gracious to those who have not decided yet to
follow Jesus, and we need to seek to love people like Jesus does.
Again, he was in the home of the Pharisee extending grace,
but yet he shared some truth.
We need to be truthful, to share the good news with people who don't know Jesus.
Speaking truth to those in the church with reminders of how much Jesus loves and
also the proper response to Jesus' love.
But I don't know about you, but this can be hard cause the tendency is to
be either or or try to balance the two.
That's my tendency.
Is that yours?
Or we can tend to just go with the side maybe we're naturally prone to, or
the the side that excites us the most.
Hey, I love that, that grease part, the grace part about Jesus.
So I'm just gonna roll with that, but then never speak truth.
Well, I love that truth part.
So I'm gonna follow that.
But yet never extend grace.
You know, I know for me, uh, when I, when I became familiar with the
real Jesus, I was like, man, I never thought about this lion part of Jesus.
I love that Jesus, let's go.
And then I saw, and people would share it, like, Marcel, yeah, we
appreciate your conviction, but we don't feel so much love at times.
And I feel like a couple years ago, I swung the pendulum.
I'm like, man, I don't feel like I share anything that's truthful anymore.
And so there's this constant battle.
But again, Jesus was full of truth and full of grace.
So if we follow, well, first of all, if we know this, then we have a better
chance at what following this, living it out and showing the real Jesus to others.
We'll have more victories and we'll imitate him and become
more like him in our character.
And that's the beauty of the scriptures and the beauty of the church is we help
each other to be able to attain to this.
Let's get real practically here as we close out.
So here's our action step in prayer for the week.
So here's what we're asking just for this week here, if you
wanna continue past hallelujah.
But here's the action step and the prayer for this week here.
It's a communal prayer and a communal action step here.
Number one, here's what I ask you to do.
Memorize that verse John one 14.
Say, well, why memorize that?
Because then it'll be on your heart and your mind to be full of grace and truth.
You'll remember Jesus has grace and truth that says you're is.
You're in that situation with so and so.
This week you'll have that grace and truth in mind.
And you know what?
Maybe even for fun, whoever can recite it come on stage.
We'll go ahead and have a little prize next week.
So there you go.
All right.
Come on, Chad Hoffman.
All right, let's see it there.
All right.
And number two here, prayer this week.
Pray daily.
Just every day this week, next seven days, that each member of our church can
reflect Jesus's grace and truth this week.
That it won't just be you, but it'll be all of us.
The real Jesus is the lamb and the lion.
He's full of grace and full of truth.
He's full of compassion and conviction.
He's the complete human being and the followers of Jesus.
We must heed his truth, follow his truth, and share his truth while extending grace.
We close out in John one 14.
The word became flesh and made his joying among us.
We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from
the Father full of grace and truth.
Amen.
Wasn't worth it.
Cuz I couldn't stand being around that person.
And then they just annoyed me.
Then we got into this argument, you're like, man, I ain't, I
ain't trying those noodles again.
You, you know what I'm saying?
And so it, the likelihood that he's just doing this to get a free
meal, we can probably scratch that.
Right?
But we see in grace in this, I'm still trying to help you phar.
I'm going to be in your home.
We're going to engage.
I'm going to relate.
I'm going to converse with you, and I'm going to share some truth with
the hopes that you'll enter grace.
So even in this interaction, even in this decision, we see the grace
of God in an extraordinary way.
Church.
Are you with me?
They're in front of him.
A man was suffering from abnormal swelling of his body.
Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath or not?
But they remain silent.
So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way.
Then he asked him, if one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a wellness
sabba day, well, you would not immediately pull it out and they had nothing to say.
We'll stop right there.
We see grace for this suffering, man.
But we see truth for everyone involved.
He goes, and he is like, he, he heals this man and, and he asks this question
like, okay, if any one of you, I believe, he's like, come on guys, let's be honest.
Like, like, like, are we really, we're really, you guys
are really upset about this.
If you had your, on your animal, if you had your, your, your child, if they felt,
would you not help them on the Sabbath?
Like, let's be real fellas.
To me that's the context and, and the attitude that Jesus had.
Like, come on guys.
And so again, he's showing them, he's trying to help them see the
truth of who God is and the grace that God wants to extend to all.
And then he goes and he tells us parable, this is so funny.
I mean, again, he's in this house and he goes, we won't
have time to, to read it all.
But he goes, and then he tells write a, a parable, right?
About how, Hey, you guys need to be humble.
He sees everybody and they're like trying to find out where's the seat of honor?
And he's like, oh, okay.
You know what?
I'm just gonna go ahead and I'm just gonna tell this parable and show
him, Hey, you need to be humble.
in the man's house.
If you come to my house, you start telling parables to me, trying to convict me.
Guess what I'm gonna do, man?
You get about my house.
Disrespect me in front of baby girl, baby dog, baby boy, you out your mind.
Karina, don't ever invite them over.
. Lock the door.
You know what I'm saying?
And let's move cuz they might try to shoot me afterwards.
You know what I'm saying?
Sorry.
Anyhow.
I know.
See how my mind goes.
All right, here we go.
Luke, chapter four, verse 12.
So right after this, he says, then Jesus said to us, so when you give a
luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, or your sisters,
your relatives, your rich neighbors.
If you do, they may invite you back and so you'll be repaid.
Make sense?
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the cripple, the lame, the blind.
And you'll be blessed.
Although they cannot repay you, you'll be repaid at the
resurrection of the righteous.
Wow.
You see Jesus's great grace and compassion and love on the outcast.
Of society, the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
And he goes on and he talks about, somebody asks a question like, Hey,
what's it gonna be like in the, at the feast of the Kingdom of God?
And then Jesus starts to tell this parable and he says this some something
interesting in verse 21, cuz he uses some of the same uh, uh, uh, ideas.
He says, go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the
town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.
You see, this was really, truly incredibly radical for
those in first century Judaism.
His call to invite to dinner, the poor, the crippled, the lame, and blonde,
and then also call those sane to be in the kingdom of God was radical.
It's a radical call today.
We wouldn't naturally think those would be the ones who would enter the kingdom of
God, but especially back then because he.
These were the ones who were seen to not have God's favor, the poor.
They weren't blessed by God.
How do you know?
Because they're poor.
It's the rich who have God's favor.
That's how they viewed it.
The crippled, the lame in the blind.
Well, guess what?
They were considered to be cursed by God.
See, they are in this condition because either they sin or
maybe they're parents sin.
Somebody sin along the way and they're, therefore God has cursed and that's
why they're in his predicaments.
And what does Jesus do?
He lifts these people up.
This is who you should be valuing.
This is who you should reach out to, and these are the types who will
actually enter the kingdom of heaven.
That's incredible.
This is radical, but that's radical What grace of God.
In intertwined in, in between with this hardcore truth, but yet we see this great
call and the need and the understanding of the grace of a loving God.
And then we continue in verse 25.
Brother and sisters, are you still with me here?
Yes, sir.
Again, as we can see throughout all scriptures, throughout all of Jesus
life, you see grace and you see truth, and they're not competing.
We see this in Luke 1425.
We see some really, uh, most of us are very familiar in our, in our
fellowship of churches with this passage here, let's read it, large crowds are
traveling with Jesus and turn into them.
He said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and
children, brothers and sisters, yes.
Even their old life, such a person cannot be my disciple.
Okay?
That was me learning from last week.
Bilingual service.
That was Spanish.
Okay?
Means what did you cash that.
There you go.
I'm just saying, man, you just grow so much in the kingdom of God.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm speaking languages.
This is Acts chapter two.
Here.
Come on.
Here we go.
Wait a second.
I gotta hate my mama, my daddy, everybody, myself.
If I don't, I can't be your disciple.
Yep.
And many people try to minimize this.
Well, the word means love less The word doesn't mean the Greek word hate.
Doesn't mean love less, it means hate.
But the context helps us to see that this is uh, uh, uh, uh,
um, uh, uh, what do you call it?
Not uh, we call it exaggeration.
Um, um, hyperbole to emphasize the points.
You saying guys, in comparison, if you were to compare your love for me and
your love for everything else, it's gotta look like you hate everything else.
He says, if that's not the case, guess what?
You can't be a Christian.
What I thought I had to do was believe that was a song we heard.
Yes, that's part of it, but true belief is this type of relationship with Jesus.
He goes on and says, and whoever does not carry their cross and
follow me, cannot be my disciple.
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower once you first sit down and
estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it for.
If you laid a foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it
will ridicule saying This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.
Or supposed the king is about to go to war against another king when he first
sit down and and consider whether he's able with 10,000 men to oppose the
one coming against him with 20,000.
If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still
a long way off and will ask for terms of peace In the same way, those of
you who do not give up everything you have, cannot be my disciples.
Salt is good, but if it loses it's saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
It is fitting neither for the soil nor for the manure pile.
It is thrown out.
Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.
He has strong convictions about what it means to be a Christian.
He says, here is the standard, here is the cost, here is the
call, here is the sacrifice.
And wouldn't have enough time to break it down.
But overall, the way I'd like to see this is that G is saying he's either
gotta be Lord of all or not at all.
He can't be Lord of most.
It's like being mostly pregnant.
You either pregnant or you're not pregnant.
There's no, I'm kind of mostly pregnant this week.
You know what I'm saying?
That's not the case.
And so either Lord of all, meaning master, ruler, supreme authority, or
he's not at all, and Jesus has to be number one even over yourself and family.
And we follow him on his terms.
And if not, he says, it's not like you won't be my disciple.
It is that you cannot be my disciple.
Because when it comes down to something being tough, instead of you following me
with your cross, you're gonna put your cross down and go the other direction.
And so this is a truth that is very challenging, but it's a truth
that's rooted in grace and love.
I want you to make it to the end.
So I'm not gonna sugarcoat things so that you'll be deceived and then quit later on.
I'm gonna give you the fine print and I'm gonna enlarge it and I'm gonna put it
out in the front, as opposed at the end.
I want you to experience this grace, but there's a spiritual battle
and you're gonna have tough times.
But here's what it's gonna take to overcome.
If you abide in me, you see, Jesus is full of grace and truth,
compassion, and conviction.
He's the lion and the lamb, and it's not either or, but and in both.
I remember Dave asked you, sir then, and I was like, wow, I wish
I woulda heard that my whole life.
It was just, it was a different context, but I was like, that is so true.
It's not either or.
He's either the lion or he is the lamb, or he is compassionate, or he is con convict.
He has conviction.
No, it's ands in both.
There's grace, there's truth, there's compassion, there's conviction,
there's the lion, there's the lamb.
But our western society sees Christianity as one or the other, doesn't it?
Whether in our religious circles or our non-religious circle.
Christianity's all about some right or wrong rules and and dos and don'ts, or
it's all about this kind of shallow love.
Just accept everything.
BC Jesus gives encouragement, inspiration, he gives hope in his
message, and also truth of what it means to follow him in the ramifications.
If we don't, you see the real Jesus and real Christianity have conviction
and love and pity at the same time.
I don't choose it this time and then I have to choose
something else the next time.
I have 'em both at the same time.
There's grace and there's truth, and so what does that mean for
you and me, brothers and sisters?
Well, we gotta follow Jesus example.
We gotta be gracious and truthful, gracious to people
who don't know the real Jesus.
Why would be critical and, and, and, and, and say demeaning things to people
who never signed up to follow Jesus.
That doesn't make any sense.
We need to be gracious to those who have not decided yet to
follow Jesus, and we need to seek to love people like Jesus does.
Again, he was in the home of the Pharisee extending grace,
but yet he shared some truth.
We need to be truthful, to share the good news with people who don't know Jesus.
Speaking truth to those in the church with reminders of how much Jesus loves and
also the proper response to Jesus' love.
But I don't know about you, but this can be hard cause the tendency is to
be either or or try to balance the two.
That's my tendency.
Is that yours?
Or we can tend to just go with the side maybe we're naturally prone to, or
the the side that excites us the most.
Hey, I love that, that grease part, the grace part about Jesus.
So I'm just gonna roll with that, but then never speak truth.
Well, I love that truth part.
So I'm gonna follow that.
But yet never extend grace.
You know, I know for me, uh, when I, when I became familiar with the
real Jesus, I was like, man, I never thought about this lion part of Jesus.
I love that Jesus, let's go.
And then I saw, and people would share it, like, Marcel, yeah, we
appreciate your conviction, but we don't feel so much love at times.
And I feel like a couple years ago, I swung the pendulum.
I'm like, man, I don't feel like I share anything that's truthful anymore.
And so there's this constant battle.
But again, Jesus was full of truth and full of grace.
So if we follow, well, first of all, if we know this, then we have a better
chance at what following this, living it out and showing the real Jesus to others.
We'll have more victories and we'll imitate him and become
more like him in our character.
And that's the beauty of the scriptures and the beauty of the church is we help
each other to be able to attain to this.
Let's get real practically here as we close out.
So here's our action step in prayer for the week.
So here's what we're asking just for this week here, if you
wanna continue past hallelujah.
But here's the action step and the prayer for this week here.
It's a communal prayer and a communal action step here.
Number one, here's what I ask you to do.
Memorize that verse John one 14.
Say, well, why memorize that?
Because then it'll be on your heart and your mind to be full of grace and truth.
You'll remember Jesus has grace and truth that says you're is.
You're in that situation with so and so.
This week you'll have that grace and truth in mind.
And you know what?
Maybe even for fun, whoever can recite it come on stage.
We'll go ahead and have a little prize next week.
So there you go.
All right.
Come on, Chad Hoffman.
All right, let's see it there.
All right.
And number two here, prayer this week.
Pray daily.
Just every day this week, next seven days, that each member of our church can
reflect Jesus's grace and truth this week.
That it won't just be you, but it'll be all of us.
The real Jesus is the lamb and the lion.
He's full of grace and full of truth.
He's full of compassion and conviction.
He's the complete human being and the followers of Jesus.
We must heed his truth, follow his truth, and share his truth while extending grace.
We close out in John one 14.
The word became flesh and made his joying among us.
We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from
the Father full of grace and truth.
Amen.