Matthew 8:18–22Scripture
Matthew chapter 8 verse 18 says this. Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to get away from them. That's not what it says, but it's pretty much what it says, which is really, and I'll just I'm should probably just read this, but I i'm going to make a couple statements as we read through here I think are pertinent. See, our culture today says crowds, let's stay there. Jesus says crowds, let's go away.
What is he saying here? This is really interesting. It's fascinating. Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teacher, I'll follow you wherever you go, even if you go to the other side." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Do you ever feel like sometimes when Jesus is talking, it's like the teacher from Charlie Brown?
That's kind of way I feel. I'm like, why can't you just say it plainly, man? Foxes have holes. Birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And another disciple said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." And Jesus said to him,"Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead.
It seems insensitive." It is not. It is a question of loyalties. And oftentimes when your loyalty lies with Christ, it seems like a derelction of duties with everything else to follow him.
Introduction
That's the way it seems to the world. It is not, however, the way that it is perceived by Christ. See, we
You cannot be loyal to two things. That's the message of this text.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 2:19
You must be loyal to one thing, particularly if it's Christ. You know, in our world, we believe our loyalty, our loyalties can lie with a multitude of people, a multitude of pleasures, a multitude of things. And Jesus is saying, when I enter into the scene, if you're going to be loyal to me, you will be loyal to no other.
Some of our greatest issues today, not just mentally, not just emotionally, not just in our soul, not just in our heart, comes from trying to divide our loyalties when it comes to our relationship with Christ.
It creates tension in our hearts. It creates tension in our minds and it makes us hearts sick. It's a problem. And so Jesus gets to this place where there's a crowd. And today in our culture, we try to figure out how to create events and church movements and spiritual conferences where the crowds come and then we try to figure out how to keep them happy so they keep coming.
Because we have marked our ourself and our efforts by and the success of our efforts by the amount of people that show up.
Jesus doesn't mark his ministry by the amount of people that show up. He marks his ministry by the amount of faithful followers who follow him wherever he goes.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:58
And so he actually then creates roadblocks and issues and makes it difficult for people to follow him so that he can see really truly who is his followers. There are crowds and then Jesus around Jesus but he's not impressed with crowds. He's not impressed.
The multitudes have gathered around him. People are amazed by his power. They had seen him cleanse a leper. This is kind of the process here. They had seen him heal the centurion servant. They'd seen him rebuke sickness with a word. And because of this, the crowd is growing. And understands the reason that people are like, "What's he going to do next?" Like this is crazy.
The excitement is rising. The movement looked successful. Now, if you had done some stuff that had drawn a crowd, you might be inclined to do the same stuff to keep the crowd. But Jesus has this way of evaluating those who are really with him by doing something a little different. He would heal people and then he would preach a message and they would all leave except for a few.
Here he is. He has healed many people to show his authority that they would value his word. And then he departs to the other side. He leaves the crowd. He doesn't do the same thing to keep the crowd coming. He evaluates who's really with him. And then in this situation that he gives two examples. Now notice in the text, what I love about this text is when it speaks of the two people who do not follow him, who make excuses, he calls them the disciples.
Two disciples come to him, but two disciples don't follow him.
They follow him for the miracles. They depart from him when it begins to cost something.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:18
How many of you have ever been in a situation where you follow Christ and then you didn't really you were told to count the cost but you didn't really count the cost and then the cost came and you had to pay the price for the cost. You know what I mean? And then you were kind of like let me think about it.
I love the Lord but I'm mad at the Lord. I praise the Lord with this hand and raise my fist with this hand. And I'm really not sure where I stand because the cost might be too great. I'm trying to decide what I think about this God I've been worshiping. You ever been there? There is a cost to following him. You will not escape at the cost.
You just won't escape it. How many of you have been in the church for more than 10 years? How many of you keep your hands up? How many of you have paid? You understand there's a cost. You keep your hand up. Put it down if you're like, "no, I haven't I haven't paid any cost." See what happened there? There's a cost to following him.
He gives commandment to depart to the other side. Why would Jesus leave when the crowd is growing?
Why would he move away from what in American culture we love so much and we try to create church movements around it which is momentum?
Jesus is the he is the professional momentum killer. And you have in American culture, we try to create momentum and then keep momentum. And if this isn't working anymore, we create something else to keep the momentum rolling.
We base church movement, church growth strategies on momentum. But
You can create something that rolls downhill that's not godly.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:29
You can create large movements that is not what he intended. So why does he do this? Because Jesus knows there's a difference between bring being near to him and following him.
You can be near to Jesus and not follow Jesus. You can come to church and be faithful in the church and not be a follower of Christ. You can worship and you can sing about him and you cannot be a follower. Track with me? And so here in this situation, we see two people who are near Christ but not followers of Christ.
They're just not true followers. They're not true followers. They're not true disciples.
The crowd wants miracles, but Jesus calls for disciples. The crowd wants help, but Jesus is calling for surrender.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:30
The crowd wants the benefits of the kingdom, but Jesus calls men to bow beneath the authority of the king.
The crowd is worried about themsel. Jesus is concerned about the mission. In so much of our life, we do really truly have a me first mentality.
I mean, you hear it in the second guy. Let me first go bury my father. It sounds noble. The bearing the father part that sounds noble. But notice the demarcation line is me first. Not the Lord first. Not God's will first. Not God's purpose first. Not Jesus first. Not his plan first. Me first, then you. This is a problem. And if you're honest this morning, this licks and touches a part of our lives.
The text confronts every one of us. It asks, "are you following Jesus or are you only close to the crowd around him?"
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:03
It asks, "does Jesus have your schedule?" Listen, your comfort, your future, your family, your plans, your preferences. Does he have your whole life? Or does he have your worship on Sunday and maybe an occasional glance through the week?
How many of you know, you don't have to raise your hand, just think and contemplate with me, that there is an extreme difference between him having your schedule on Sunday and having your life completely. There is an extreme difference between the two of those. Young people, most of you are over here or some over here. Young people today, listen to me.
When you're young, when you're young and you grow up in a family where your parents love the Lord and they attend church becomes a part of your life, whether you want it to be or not.
When you turn 18 and you go off on your own and you go to college, you get to decide how you're going to live your life. And we learned last week that it's high like 70% 75% of young people today grow up in church because their families are believers walk away from the church never to return.
When you come there's a difference
Young people there's a difference between attending because your parents make you and being a follower of Christ
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:57
there's a difference and you get grow up getting used to spiritual activity and so what happens is you begin to view yourself as a disciple and you might not be and you need to evaluate your life and so Jesus gets to this place where he says, "Yes, you've you have." Who doesn't? Who wouldn't who wouldn't be happy for the benefits that come with Christ? Who would not be happy with that? Everybody comes for that.
Everybody loves to feel blessed. Everybody loves to be healed. Everybody loves to be fed. Everybody loves that. Everybody loves a movement. Everybody loves an event. Everybody loves to be excited. But what happens when it cost you something? Yeah. And your parents don't make you continue your walk with Christ. What happens then? He's making us really just evaluate where we're at. Listen, every single person in this room, whether young or old, should be evalu whether you've been in church for one year or three decades. You should be evaluating, are you somebody that's just near Jesus or are you a true follower of Jesus? And I'm not talking about does he have your schedule on Sunday for an hour. I'm talking about does he have your life?
I wrote this week and I don't know if this is theologically accurate, so don't take this to the bank and please don't Facebook quote me on this because i'm not sure. I'm just going to throw it out there into the room. This is what I feel. I think we have an issue today because we don't take faith and apply it to the right thing.
See, in the church today, we have failed by saying, I'm going to say extreme statements, and I'm I'm still working this out. So, can we just can we work this out together, right? And I think it applies to this text. I've been working on this for four months, and I'm still trying to figure it out. But here's what I wrote down, and here's what I'm working out. Faith is not rooted in salvation.
It is rooted in sanctification. Sean, what does that mean? It means this that
When he has you, he has all of you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:25
If you have faith in Christ, you don't just have faith in him to be covered by the blood. You have the type of faith in him that bows your knee to him as Lord of every part of your life.
It's It's not just I want your blood, but nothing else. You can have my sin, but you can't have my hands.
You can have my sin, but you can't have my tongue. You can have my sin, but you can't have my feet. You can have my sin, but you can't have my wants. You can have my sin, but you can't have my will.
You can have my sin, but you can't have my thought life. You can have my sin, but you can't have my time. You can have my sin, but you can't have my house or my children or my marriage or my attitude or you getting what I'm saying here? See, faith, true faith in Christ, he gets it all completely.
He wants it all. And honestly, he's trying to encourage you because this is the God who heals it all. He has authority over it all. You trust me, you want him to have authority over all the stuff I just listed. You want him to have the authority that you don't want Satan to have it. Can I get an amen on that one? You don't want him to have that.
I love my wife. She's precious as a teacup, but I don't want her to have authority over that stuff.
I think she's sweet. She might be an angel unaware, but she ain't God. You with me? See, in marriages that are beautiful and that are healthy, sometimes the greatest roadblock to your relationship with Christ would be that you give your heart to that you love more than him.
A healthy marriage can become a dangerous one. A healthy friendship can become a dangerous one.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:40
Track with me here because it begins to affect where your feet run to.
What your heart what your heart hopes in. I value JR and our relationship. But if I run to him more than I run to God, we have a problem. We do carry our burdens together and that's healthy. But listen. Sometimes a healthy relationship can become an unhealthy one when it becomes a roadblock to your relationship with him.
We should have track with me. We should have healthy relationships. We should have mentors. We should have healthy marriages. We should have a healthy community in our church. But it cannot become substitute for him. Sanctification. Faith is rooted in sanctification. He wants it all. He doesn't want you to just follow him when miracles are happening. He wants you to follow him completely. Listen,
You cannot place ultimatums and terms before the king.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:52
You must place yourself there knelt down with no terms.
Point 1Zeal that hasn't counted the cost will never endure it
No terms before the king. That's the point of this. Number one, I want to point out three things that become problematic. Okay. In our following Jesus, there are three things that are we identify here in this text. Number one, zeal that has not counted the cost will never endure the cost. This is why he tells you to count the cost before you commit your life to him.
What was it? 19 and 20. Let's just read it again. And the scribe came up to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." He made a declaration before he counted the cost. So then what does Jesus do? He sees his zeal. He doesn't hate his zeal. He doesn't hate on his zeal. He sees beneath the zeal. He sees underneath the zeal. And he points his finger at something underneath the zeal.
You know, some of us will applaud zeal before we have even looked to the heart of what brought the zeal to the surface, right? So here's what Jesus says. Yo, foxes have holes and birds have air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Do you know what you're saying? You have a lot of zeal. You know where I'm going.
You say you want to follow me. You know what this is going to cost you. That's great. You have zeal.
I'm going to the cross. I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be homeless. I'm going to be I'm going to be rejected. I'm going to be denied. I'm going to be sped on. I'm you want to follow me? Best count the cost. Some you know what will prevent you from counting the cost most? Excitement.
I'm not against excitement.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:02
I'm not against it. I just don't think church movements should be built on it. Track with me here. You're like, man, Sean, you're such a downer, man. You're such a down. Just but do you want to build a church? We come sit on tax. Not really, but kind of. Kind of. Because what kind of movement are you really building if you have people who are excited haven't counted the cost?
What are they really excited about? They excited about being healed? They excited about being fed? They're excited about God serving them? Are they excited about the me first? What happens when they realize after following him a little while that this is going to cost them something? What do they do then? I'll tell you what they do. They all run and leave him at the cross by himself.
Track. Are you with me? Counting the cost matters. It comes to Jesus with bold words. Master, I'll follow you wherever you go. And that sounds strong and it actually sounds really spiritual. It sounds like commitment. But Jesus does not celebrate the statement. He tests it. And Jesus says what he says. Fox have holes. Birds have nests, but son of man has nowhere to lay his head. In other words, do you understand what you're saying?
You don't understand. This man had zeal, but Jesus presses beneath the zeal because zeal is not enough.
Somebody, some people in here are excited about Jesus until he messes with their comfort. They're passionate until obedience becomes painful.
They're loud in the crowd, but they're quiet at the cross.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:00
They want the miracles of Matthew 8, but they don't want the homelessness of Matthew 8. I'm with you in the mansion. I'm not with you in the street.
They want the healing of Christ but not the rejection of Christ. They want the authority of Jesus working for them but not the authority of Jesus ruling in them.
Emotional excitement is not the same as surrendered disciplehip. You can be disturbed in worship and still not be submitted in life. You can sing with tears and still hold back your obedience. You can say, "Lord, I'll follow you anywhere." While secretly meaning, "as long as anywhere does not cost me too much." Jesus does not recruit disciples with hidden terms.
He lays it all out there for them to understand what they're getting themselves into. And when he does, look how many people turn away and don't follow him. He says, "Follow me, but know this. You're going to lose some comfort. You might be dead. You'll lose some approval. People won't like you. You'll lose convenience. You'll lose the life you imagine. Your wants, your dreams may be crushed.
You may not have a place to lay your head. But guess what? You'll have me. And I trust and trust me on this. Trust me on this.
No matter how long I've lived, I guarantee you having him and losing everything else is all you need.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:38
I promise you that. I promise. Let me ask you a question. Is Christ enough?
Point 2Delay that hides behind noble duties still refuses the call
Is he enough? Number two, delay that hides behind noble duties still refuses the call. And another of his disciples said unto him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." This guy doesn't even sound rebellious.
He actually sounds noble. Let me go bury my father. I have duties. I mentioned it earlier. Lord, let me first. Me first. In a relationship with Brooke, she most feels love not when I have a me first mentality.
She most feels loved when I have a you first mentality.
Right. And I become difficult to love when I have a me first mentality. Right, Brooke?
You know what? Well, I just feel like it's just our marriage has just grown stale. Let me tell you, let me tell you something this week. Be intentional about you first with your spouse and watch and see what happens in your relationship.
You can see a picture of how you engage Christ by how you engage those around you is everything in your life and the decisions you make in your life is everything centered around what you get out of it then most likely that's how you engage a relationship with the Lord me first. So here he says, "Let me first go bury." Listen, you can do something noble. You can have a noble duty and hide behind that so that we really can't notice, won't notice that you're really just refusing the call.
This kind of activity happens in life of the church a lot, right?
We hide our refusal to follow behind noble acts.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:40
We do spiritual activity. We engage in spiritual activity so that we don't have to acknowledge the fact that we are actually refusing to follow him.
This is a contradiction. Me first is a contradiction. He calls him Lord and immediately after that he says Lord let me first. You know what Lord means? You all you first. Then right after that me first.
You first. Strike that. Me first. You first. After me. Me first, then you. See how crazy this is? This is the issue. Not burial, not family, not responsibility. The issue is the order. The issue is priority. The issue is whether Jesus is truly Lord or merely a religious title we use while we keep control.
Lord, me first. It's the language of divided disciplehip. And we know this language well. Lord, I'll follow you, but first let me get settled in. Lord, I'll obey you, but first let me secure my future. Lord, i'll surrender, but first let me make sure everyone understands. Lord, I'll serve you, but first let me protect my plans. Lord, I'm going to give you everything, but first let me finish what I want to finish.
Delayed obedience is decorated rebellion. Don't get it convoluted. Sometimes the things we put before Jesus is not obviously sinful. Sometimes it's respectable.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:41
Sometimes it's responsible. Sometimes it's something everyone around us would understand. And let me tell you old people today. You are setting precedents to the young people who are watching you of what being a follower of Christ is.
And some of you are training them up in respectable duties while actually denying his lordship. You are training them to behave as you behave. Acting out virtuous duties but while really not being a father. You have a me first mentality but you put virtuous activity around it.
And let me tell you're training young people to behave like you. And you are creating the culture for tomorrow's church by your behavior today. It matters more than just your relationship with God, but you are forming people by how you live.
You're raising children up in your home to be virtuous while denying him with their life.
You cannot substitute virtuous activity while still having a heart that has a me first mentality.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:04
Listen, here's how the enemy works with you. The enemy doesn't come to you and like you should go have an affair on your wife. The enemy doesn't come to you and talk you in to being involved in some kind of scandal. Sometimes what he the way he gets you because he masquerades as an angel of light. The way the enemy gets you is not by getting you to do something horrific.
The way the enemy gets you is by getting you to obey Christ. Just delaying it a little bit.
Are you with me today? Because that'll get you. I'm going to do it. Just not yet. I'm going to give up that addiction eventually. I need another taste.
There is a kind of not yet. That's really dressed up as a no.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:22
Jesus is not cruel. He's not against family. He's not against duty. But Jesus is exposing a heart that wants to place something, even something honorable above the immediate claim of lordship. The call of Christ is supreme. Period. Every other love must bow to his love.
Every other duty must find its place beneath his command. Every other allegiance must come under his throne. Jesus is not and should never be second. Not because he's insecure, but because he's Lord. Don't you dare come on Sunday morning and declare his lordship and make him second on Monday.
It'd be best for you to not raise your hand at all. Right? It'd be best for you to not lift up a melody at all. It'd be best for you to not say amen at all. It'd be best for you to at least sit and contemplate who you truly are.
Point 3Obedience that sets its own terms is not true obedience
Number three,
Obedience that still wants to set the terms is not true obedience.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:39
Listen today. Listen. I say it like every probably month or so, but just track with me. You know, our greatest problem today, we have control issues.
And there's nothing worse than being out of control. That's the way we feel. Yet Jesus comes and says he wants you to lose it. Jesus said to him, "Follow me and let the dead bury the dead." That sounds crazy. He says, "Follow me." That's the command, not think about me, not worship me, not admire me, not add me to your priorities, not fit me into your schedule. He says, "Follow me." Then he says, "Let the dead bury the dead." Now, these are hard words, right?
They're meant to kind of shock you. That's what they're meant to do. Jesus is not dishonoring grief. He's he's not teaching coldness towards your family. It's not what he's doing. He's declaring that the kingdom of God has arrived at this moment in him. And the call of the king carries ultimate authority over every other duty you have committed yourself to. Even those duties that seem honorable.
Let those who are spiritually dead remain occupied, in other words, with a world that is passing away. But as for you follow me.
Jesus is saying,
You cannot answer my call and still keep the right to negotiate the terms.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:22
Track with me. We are grand negotiators. Women, you ever wanted to buy something and you actually thought and contemplated how you might negotiate yourself into getting what you want? Trackle me. Some of the women are like, I just get what I want.
Trying to figure out how to negotiate the terms. With Jesus, there is no negotiation.
I was sitting this week and I can't talk a lot about what I endured this week. So, like the last two nights, I have just basically been comeosse by 8:30.
It was earlier, but I don't I don't I don't want to sound too old, but I'm just saying I was I went through some stuff. We our organization are trying to WA is trying to help prepare people on the field because it's it's getting a little difficult out there. We found out in and one of the training security training for us particularly going into different places and being involved with Bible translation work. One of the things that we're running into is the world is becoming volatile towards believers.
And honestly here in America, y'all in for a wideeyed awakening here directly and all you me first people up in here and that's clues me that was formed by our culture that I ideology that was formed by our culture. We prioritize us. A matter of fact, if you're a believer, you should be treated with all the goodness and the love and the kindness in the world.
You should be blessed. You should be favored. You should be highly favored. You're in for an eye openener because around the world, if you're a believer, you're at risk of being tortured, bagged, tagged, and thrown in a ditch with all the volatility you could imagine. Anyway, I found out in a meeting the last place I went to actually get involved in a Bible translation effort was in Kenya. And 5 miles down the road at a mall, there was a terrorist attack where they killed everybody in the food court, they single-handedly went store to store asking people to come out and they killed them five miles from where I was at. I did know that our hotel had bullet holes in it. So, we thought this might not be a safe place. But I will just tell you, they're preparing us to be in a situation that we before we are in it, we count the cost before be aware of what you've signed up for to follow him might cost you your life.
People in America, listen to me today. This is not just it cost you an hour on Sunday. Right?
The time is coming and it is near and it is upon us where it might cost you your life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:37
Mistreatment is coming for your belief system. That's the world we live in. And it is high time we count a cost. And I was in this we like to negotiate. We like to negotiate.
Sometimes you don't get to negotiate. I was in an interrogation thing in front of like 50 people and I was up on stage and I was being interrogated. It was really stressful because there was, you just need to know there was a lot of slapping and throwing into walls. And so it was an intense situation.
And I asked the question, they were asking me, "Why are you here? Why are you here on a tourist visa? Where are you going?" And I asked them, "do you know of any good places to go?" I got smacked, yelled at, and told, "I'm asking the questions here, not you." And I thought to myself, "I want my mommy."
That really struck me as in the evening I was reading through the text and thinking I don't get to negotiate terms with Jesus.
If I come to him, I come to him on his terms.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:02
Some of us deny reading this daily because it is a gigantic book of terms.
I don't get to negotiate this. There are entire denominations that are renegotiating terms.
There are parts in Asia, there are places in Asia right now where they are allowing people to be Christian, but they are actually rewriting the Bible on their terms and they're going to release it for people. Look it up. They're rewriting it now. They're going to allow Christians who are in hiding to have Bibles, but the ones that they rewrite according to their terms.
We are in an interesting day. You don't get to negotiate the terms with him. And so here we have a picture of somebody who's trying to negotiate the terms. He's trying to say, "Hey, I'll do it, but on my terms." And Jesus says, "Let the dead bury the dead." He doesn't let people negotiate lordship.
He does not come to be advised. He comes to reign. He does not come to be consulted. He comes to command Jesus. He does not come for a place on the board of your life. He takes the throne of your life. Which means this. You don't get a vote.
This ain't a democracy. It's a monarchy. He's king. Everybody wants to sing worship songs about him being king until they don't get a vote.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:58
King of kings and lord of lords. Glory. Hallelujah. And then you open the Bible and he says, "Stop sitting."
King and Lord of Lords. Glory. Hallelujah. You with me? True obedience says, "Lord, you decide where I go." True obedience says, "Lord, you decide what I release." True obedience says, "Lord, you decide what I keep." True obedience says, "Lord, you decide when I move." True obedience says, "Lord, you decide what matters most."
The cost of disciplehip is not merely leaving bad things. Sometimes it's surrendering good things to the greatest thing.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:01
This is the hard this is the hardest and most difficult thing you will have to diagnose in your relationship with him because we've gotten busy doing a bunch of good stuff. By the way, notice that he's talking a lot to the scribes and the Pharisees because they're really good at doing virtuous good things. But you know what he calls them? A brood of snakes and vipers.
Some of us are diagnosing our disciplehip on the virtuous things we do. But we do those virtuous things so that we can negotiate the terms. But you serve a king who does not allow negotiation no matter how many good things you do for him. It is Christ above comfort, Christ above reputation, Christ above convenience, Christ above personal dreams, Christ above earthly security, Christ above every competing claim. And this is not just this is not just because Jesus wants to take life from us. It's because he is life.
The call to follow Jesus is not a call to emptiness. It's a call into himself.
The safest place in the world is not where life is easiest. The safest place in the world is wherever Jesus says, "Follow me."
Pastor Shawn Gray · 44:49
All right. In closing, Matthew 8, it shows us two men standing close to Jesus. Here's the picture of these two men. One is too quick and one is too slow.
One speaks with zeal but has not counted the cost. And the other speaks with delay but hides behind a noble duty.
And both are confronted by the same reality. And Jesus does not lower the cost to gain followers. He tells the truth. The son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Follow me. Let the dead bury the dead. Follow me. That's the call. Not comfort first, Christ first. See, some of you some of you have prioritized comfort over everything.
And let me tell you, can I comfort ain't your Lord.
When comfort becomes your Lord, you bow before comfort and it alienates you from the Lord.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:22
You thought that comfort came from.
It's not family first. Well, the Bible says, Sean, that we're supposed to take care of our family. Yeah, but it's not family first. When you prioritize you do, it's possible to prioritize comfort to the degree that it becomes demonic and is no longer godly. You can take virtuous things and shift it from a godly standpoint to a demonic one because you know how you do that?
You promote it above Christ. Track with me here. Whether that be physical, mental for your soul, heart healing.
Does God want you to be healed? You can answer. It's not your question. Does he want your healing? Some of you don't even know anymore. Ultimately, what happens in heaven? You're healed. Every tear will be wiped away. He will heal you completely. You will receive a new body. Thank you, God. It I Let me tell you, my hair is going to be awesome in heaven.
Oh, man. It's going I'm going to rock that joint. I'm going to rock it. I have decided that my hair is going to be so long that I will trip over it. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be I'm going to have a hair. I'm going to have some hair. It's going to be awesome. I will be healed. God wants your healing. But do you know that we can prioritize what seems virtuous and actually what God longs for because he comes and heals. He comes and restores.
He comes and does that. But sometimes we can prioritize that above God. Where do we most see that? I'll tell you where we most see it in this text. In the language. Notice here's how it's so hard to see it. Lord, it starts with Lord. Me first. Lord, we love you. So sometimes people will say Jesus or Moses or the Holy Spirit so that they can really say what they want, my healing first. Track with me now.
It's virtuous, but it's taken the throne. It's a problem.
Not family first, Christ first. Not security first, Christ first. Not health first, Christ first. Not plans first, Christ first.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 49:24
It's hard when you when your plans when you have when you have created plans that look virtuous in an attempt to deny what you know he really wants for your life because then people can't see and correct you for your virtuous plans. Try track try with me. You know why people when they want to do something why they say God told me because you can't argue that it makes anything you want to do virtuous. I'm pretty sure that I can say with 100% certainty that every time somebody says God wants me to do this, it's not true.
That every time it's not 100% true that every time somebody says God wants me to do that is true. Even Satan at the very beginning says God wants you to do this. You heard, you say, but I say that God said this. And just because he said God said don't mean that's what God said. Can you get in? Can I are you with me? It's a perversion of virtue for the sake of you negotiating the terms you want to commit your life to and bow your knee to. This is what we see in the life of these two individuals.
They're trying to cover their disobedience. I'm I'm going to summarize this whole thing with you right here. They're trying to cover their disobedience with zeal and their disobedience with virtuous activity.
The greatest trouble and issue in the life of the church today is people have been here long enough that they know that if they are they show zeal and they behave with virtuous activity, no one will truly know that they're not a follower of Christ. And let me tell you something, God knows.
Ebony might not know. Brooke might not know. J.R. Might not know. I might not know. But guess what? God knows. He knows. Not me first, but Christ first. Christ first. He is your healing. He is your life. And here's the beauty of it.
The one who calls you to count the cost is the one who counted the cost for you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:05
I'll close with this. He knew the cost before he came. He knew the manger would lead to rejection. He knew obedience would lead to Gethsemane. He knew the road would lead to Calvary. He knew the crown would come with the cross.
And he still came. He did not delay. He did not negotiate. He did not say, "Father, me first." He said, "not my will, but thine be done." He followed the will of the father all the way to the cross. So that rebels who delayed, sinners who negotiated, and disciples who trembled could be forgiven, redeemed, and made new. So the question is not, is Jesus worth part of your life?
The question is Jesus worth all of it? The answer is this. The answer of heaven is this. Yes. The answer of the cross is this. Yes. The answer of the empty tomb is yes. So
This text calls us out of the crowd to lay down the conditions to stop calling delay wisdom. Stop calling comfort discernment. Stop calling partial surrender obedience.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 53:18
The king's passing by and the word of the king is clear. Follow me.
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