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Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 830 or 10:30 a.m. If you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, find [email protected] dot. Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Sometimes distance, as you know, can be a really good thing. Distance is a good thing if you're running or maybe if you're trying to hit a golf ball or maybe a baseball. Now, when it comes to distance, though, sometimes distance is one of those things that's just absolutely inconvenient. And I know we've experienced this before, before we adopted Cameron, one of the things that a lot of people, of course, do in adoption is wait. And so the one call you want to see on your phone more than any other call is that of your social worker. So we had waited six months. We waited a year. We had waited a year and a half and no call.
And so I'll never forget, I was on a mission trip, and it was one in the morning. And the only reason I got this call is because my phone was the only place that I ended up getting service was there at that hotel when it connected to the wifi. So it was one in the morning, and my phone went off and it started ringing. And I was going to make sure and see if it was my wife before I ignored it. But I saw on the phone that of all the people that was calling at one in the morning, there it was, our social worker. Now, I don't know if y'all have had one of those experiences where you've been asleep, but you don't want the other person to think you've been asleep. And so, like, you do that thing where you're like, hello? Like, you know, you've been awake this whole time. And so I was trying to sound like I had not been asleep. And she said to me, she's like, andrew, are you asleep? I thought, well, that didn't go well. And so she said, so I've got some really exciting news for you. I was like, okay, what is it? She said, well, a birth mom has picked your profile book.
And so I was super excited. So I go from, like, dead asleep to I can't sleep. In fact, I was so excited, I woke up the person that was on that mission trip with me in that hotel room, and she said, so here's the deal. You have, like, two days, probably before you get that news in order to take that next step. So are you excited? I said, oh, I'm excited. I said, a little bit of an issue.
I'm on a mission trip. She's like, oh, really? Where are you at? And I was like, I'm in Thailand. She's like, Thailand? No wonder you were asleep. It's 01:00 in the afternoon, and it's 01:00 in the morning where you're at. And I had five days left on that trip.
Couldn't change the plane flight.
The main thing I wanted was to get home.
See, sometimes distance is so incredibly inconvenient. But you and I also know that when it comes to relationships, whenever there is distance, usually that's a sign that something's off, that something's wrong in that relationship.
Take, for example, this. If you remember the movie home alone, Kevin McCallister's family is getting ready to go on a european vacation. And what they've also decided to do is to invite their extended family, lord bless them, to come on that trip with them. And so y'all know how it is going on a trip, right? Getting out the door, maybe you even experienced it this morning. It's like you're trying to get the kids and their outfits and everybody looking all nice, remembering socks and shoes, and then you walk in these doors, and then you see people. Everything's great. Everything's great, right? But leading up to that, right, there was real tension. And so that's exactly what's happening in Kevin McAllister's home. There's a lot of tension as they're getting ready for this trip. And that tension begins to spiral in the fact that Kevin's big brother starts to pick on him. And if you remember that movie, the only person they seem to see that does anything wrong is who? Kevin. And so they say, kevin, go to your room, which, oddly enough, is an attic. And so he's distant and far away from his family, sitting up in his room. And if you remember what he talks about, he says, you know, I just wish I was all alone. I wish I didn't have a family. I wish I could just be all by myself. Well, he ends up getting his wish granted, and so he has this distance from them. At first. And if you remember, he loves it at first. He loves the fact that he's got the run of the house. He can eat whatever he wants. He can sleep as late as ever he wants. He can watch whatever he wants.
But then, all of a sudden, he doesn't like that distance anymore because the enemy shows up. So those burglars show up. And when they do, all of a sudden, he doesn't like that distance anymore. I think we all relate, and we can understand there are certain times we might like that distance. But you and I know how the enemy, Satan, oftentimes works, right? It's oftentimes in those moments of isolation that he capitalizes, and it's in those moment we know we need something, but sometimes we just don't know what it is.
Today, as we open up our bibles to Luke seven, we're going to look at how both of these narratives reflect the very distance Jesus Christ overcame to not just die, but to rise again and to cross barriers, to cross lines in an amazing distance to reach you. And I see the reality is every person in this room has experienced distance in some way or another.
And maybe for some of you, what it is, is you're in the same house with somebody.
But isn't it interesting that you can share a house, you can share a room with somebody, but sometimes you feel distant from them. There's times that you can be, like in an auditorium like this. You're on a crowded pew or you're a crowded chair up there. And even though you're around a lot of people, you still feel lonely or disconnected than ever. We know that there's a difference being, like, proximity and having presence with people.
And so when we think of those different distances we've all experienced in life, the ultimate distance that is the scariest, that is the most important to address is distance from God.
And if you're here this morning and you might feel distant from him, here's what I want you to know. You're not alone.
We have all felt those feelings of distance. I think maybe for some of you, maybe you've experienced what feels like a distance from God because of, like, a crisis or a circumstance. Maybe you're going through right now a really hard season.
It's difficult caring for an older parent that's aging and going through a difficult time. It's difficult to care for kids. It's also difficult, especially when there's a crisis thrown in there.
And by the way, if you've ever felt at times, like, where is God in the middle of this, please understand you are not alone in psalm, chapter ten. David, the guy after God's own heart. You know what it said in verse one? David said, lord, where are you?
Why in this moment have you hid yourself on me?
So maybe for you, what it is is an unconfessed sin.
Have you noticed, like, we experience this when we're kids, when we try to keep things hidden?
I've told the folks here at Madison when I. This was back in the bowl cut days, which never need to come back. But when I had a bowl cut, I looked in the mirror, and I was like, okay, this side's a little uneven. Turns out my head's crooked if you ever see me wear a hat. But my hair was uneven, so I got some scissors. I was like, well, I'll just trim a little bit. And so I trimmed this, and then, well, one thing led to another, and there's a picture out there where I look like Lloyd Christmas. The hair is all the way at the top. And so it's not a good situation. And so in that, I was like, I just. Maybe I can stay away from my mom and dad. Well, the reality is, we lived in a 1500 square foot house and dinner was being served, so there's only so much hiding you can do. And even though I didn't want them to see me, the moment that I did go to them, and even though it was difficult to confess, I immediately felt that distance between my mom and dad and I closed. When we confess it, God's not looking around. Like, how dare you? The Bible says he is looking all around this earth, trying to find people to strengthen that. When we confess, the gap between him and I, it begins to close.
But the other thing is this. That maybe for some of us, it's pride. I don't need help. I can do it on my own. Let me tell you, even on our best, most proficient days, we still need help.
We need the help of our lord. We need the help of his son. And maybe for some of us, it's idolatry. You know, I was thinking, for me, this is, like, the main one, where I feel it shows up in my own life. You know, you can if you're not careful. Idols aren't things like a golden statue. It could be a job. It could be a relationship. It could be something you worry about and the danger of idolizing anything outside of God. One man said this. Whatever we idolize outside of God, we eventually demonize. And what that means is that when that person, that job doesn't deliver? Like what in the world? Well, that's an imperfect job. That's an imperfect person. The only person that can complete us is Jesus Christ.
And so whatever it is that you maybe feel distant in. In life right now, one thing we know about that distance, it's something that has to be overcome. But as we look at these narratives this morning, both of them in Luke seven, I hope you can see the distance Jesus travels to you and the things that he will overcome to reach you. Over the past few weeks, Brandon and I have been doing this series, as you can see, called arise to life. We have looked at all these different moments in the Bible where people go from dead to alive. And now we have a moment where there's this servant that was dying, but then you have a widow's son who is dead. And what jesus does for them is exactly what he did for us. When he rose from the grave, he overcame such distance. It was a relational distance. It was a spiritual distance. And so, as we look at both of these narratives, what I hope you can see is that because of Jesus Christ and the fact that he rose from the grave, there does not have to be distance between us as mankind and our maker. So let's look at the first narrative this morning. It says this after Jesus finished these sayings, this is after Jesus just got done preaching the greatest sermon ever preached, the sermon on the mount. So there's a crowd around him hearing of these. In the hearing of these people, it says he entered capernaum. Now, there was a centurion who had a servant who was sick at the point of death, and he highly valued him. Now, I'm going to try to paint a picture for you, and I can't explain enough the difference between this centurion and Jesus. You know, like, you're on an elevator sometimes. You're like, yeah, this crowd of people is never going to be together again. Like, this is one of those. Jesus and the centurion are worlds apart.
Why are they so different? Well, one of the reasons why they're different is geographically. When it says he went to capernaum, please understand, this is not like, you know, he's going down the road and he exited at 212. This is actually meaning if you look at, like, a map, this is a 25 miles uphill walk.
This is not a casual stroller. He and his grace are gonna go meet this man up a mountain.
But the other thing that's amazing is the centurions, just to kind of get to know them a little bit, these were the manliest of men of this time, they were the toughest of tough. In fact, kind of. Just to put it in perspective, when we hear the word centurion, you've heard the word century, right? Which means what, 100? Well, the reason why they're called centurions is the toughest, grumblest. People of that day were roman soldiers. He had 100 under him. So he's the guy that trains the guys to be tough. He's the guy that trains the guys to not care about certain situations, to be emotionally disconnected in those moments. That's who he is.
And by the way, one of the things I read said it took usually about 20 years to become a centurion. He's got a lot of experience not needing anybody else.
But here's what's also interesting. He's a gentile, and Jesus is a jew. Do you see the picture here that these two are worlds apart? But what I love about both of them is that they understand that there is someone and something to do to help bridge that gap. So how is that distance overcome? It says this. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews saying, hey, can you ask Jesus to come and heal my servant? And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, I mean, he's worthy. And here's why they say he's worthy. I mean, he loves our nation. He even built for us a synagogue. Now, again, knowing the background of a centurion, is that not incredible? Like, this guy is building stuff in the community for people. Like, there's something about him, but also he cares about his servant. In a day where most people treated servants like property, I mean, we're starting to see that there's something different about this guy. But the other thing that I think about is, you think about this man. What do they lead with?
They lead with his reputation.
One of the things that I tell our boys, and I guess I'll tell my daughter too, one day, is the importance of how your reputation matters. We talk about a lot, how integrity is, who they are when mommy and daddy aren't around.
And what they choose when we're not around, is ultimately what they're going to become.
And I've shared with them before, like, if you're in a moment where you see a kid being picked on or a kid by themselves, I don't want you to be that person that doesn't. I want you to go. I want you to have that kind of reputation, because it's easy to think even when you're young, like in high school or college. Listen, reputation, it won't matter. Well, let me go ahead and tell you, for those of you that haven't gotten to that point in life yet, that you can do things that you regret in college, and you see people later and they're like, hey, weren't you the guy in college that did that? You're like, oh, man, like, I'm serious. That our reputation, it matters. But with that reputation can come power. In comes opportunity. This man had a great reputation.
And so they said this about him. They said, he's worthy. And I love the fact, too. Not only is this man showing incredible service to his community, but he also understands from a humility perspective, like, I don't even need to be around Jesus. Like, he's so good, and I understand I'm not.
And so he sends other people to go to Jesus. And what I love about those leaders, especially during this time, they go, and as I was reading that, I couldn't help but think, like, what role do all of us, what do we play in our lives in bridging the gap? Whether that's a relational, a racial, a spiritual, a geographical gap, what role do you play in bridging the gap between people?
And so, if you'll notice, like the crowd says, this guy is so worthy. But what does the man say?
I'm not worthy.
Wow.
Isn't that interesting that he understood something that I think we all have to understand. And it's this, that what bridges the gap between us and Jesus Christ is not our good deeds.
It's not how awesome we are.
But what helps bridge the gap is our humility and understanding that Jesus is the answer. See, humility at the end of the day is this. It's an understanding of who you really are. It's a proper estimation of yourself.
That's what made John the Baptist when Jesus said, hey, listen, I'm greater than that. You know why? Because when people left John to follow Jesus, John wasn't like, where are they going? Where's the crowd? He said, that's how it's supposed to be. It's not about me. He needs to increase. I must decrease. That's at the end of the day, what humility is. He said, I need someone else to do this. Like, I can't do it myself.
They said, reputation. He's worthy. But he said, reality is, I'm not your reputation, it matters. Reputation is what other people think you are. So don't get me wrong, it does mean something.
But have you ever noticed in your life, sometimes there can be a difference between your reputation and your reality, like what other people know you to be, but what you really are.
I know. I feel that we probably all do fill that gap.
What I love about this man is he's like, I know what the crowd says, but I also know that he sees me, too.
And he's the only one that can fix that distance. Look how Jesus responds. When Jesus heard this, he marveled. Thank you, Mike, for mentioning this morning. There are only two times in the Bible where Jesus marvels. One is at a lack of faith, and the other one is this moment right here because of great faith. And here's what he said. By the way, I think this is one of the greatest compliments in the entire Bible. He says, I tell you, I have not seen a faith like this, even in Israel, like this guy.
And so it says that when those heard this, they went back to the house and the servant was made. Well, what bridged the gap here? Well, one of those things is compassion.
When it's speaking of our kids. One of the things that I was referring to earlier is something my dad used to tell me, and that was, if you see a kid sitting by himself, if you see someone going through a hard time, don't be the person that just is like, oh, I wish they wouldn't do that. Like, be the person that goes and does something like, hey, stop.
And when you think about that and you think about this narrative, doesn't it show you, and I, like compassion is something that is rarely convenient, is it?
But at the end of the day, compassion is not about our convenience. It's about their honor and about Jesus Christ.
But the other thing I think about this guy is the humility for him to say, listen, I need help. And please understand humility is not weakness. It's an understanding that I, at times, yes, have strong moments, but I also need help. To me, it's one of the greatest strengths. But the other thing is this. This guy knew, hey, I know he's out there, and I know my situation, but I have faith to know that Jesus can overcome that distance.
That's the first narrative. Here's the next one.
It said, soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain.
And notice this detail, because we're going to come back to this. A great crowd was with Jesus. Now, again, remember, we just read Jesus went to Capernaum. We found out that was a 25 miles trip.
So I decided to get Google maps involved, and I typed in capernaum to Nain, and y'all have probably heard the phrase, you know, as the crow flies. So as the crow flies, it would have been 25 miles from Capernaum to Nain. All right? Now, there is no, like, real good road between Capernaum and Nain.
So one of the things that I read said this, that in order for Jesus to make this trip, he would have walked at least 50,000 steps.
Like we say, as the crow flies. Jesus obviously is not a crow, and he could fly, but he didn't fly. He walked. So this is incredible. He's walking around 50,000 steps to meet a widow, the one in their society that was overlooked, that was forgotten.
But again, that's part of what faith is, right? Faith, to know that with Jesus, distance does not matter.
And so here's what happened, and this is the real meat of it. It says this, that Jesus was drawing near to the gate, and this man had died, and he was being carried out. The only son of his mother, she was a widow, and a crowd was with her. Now, I want to point something out here in this day.
You know, like, we have an awesome ministry here that I love. Jessica McNair and others do a fantastic job, solos, ministry, people that are widows and widowers.
And I love the support we have in that.
There was not that support then.
If you were a widow during this day, you knew, basically you're gonna beg. And here's why. During this time, women usually couldn't get and wouldn't get jobs.
You were completely dependent on your husband or your son. Guess what? She has lost both jewish funerals, by the way, they happen the exact same day. So she didn't have time to grieve. Her son dies. Her husband has died before. She's having to grieve. And, y'all, as this funeral procession is happening, I do have to think, like, in the back of her mind, she's thinking, well, now I'm destitute.
Now I'm just gonna have to beg the rest of my life. Like, this is my situation.
And I want you to notice that even though Jesus and this woman, just like Jesus and that centurion seem to be worlds apart, look what Jesus did to overcome this situation. How did he overcome the distance? This is what it said. Jesus had compassion on her.
Now, I guess when we casually read that, we might not think that, like, that's a big deal. And I usually don't highlight just one word, but I want to highlight this word. Here's why.
The New Testament is originally written in Greek, and the Greek, whenever it's written like, where we have one english word, the Greeks sometimes will have, like, five or six words to describe our one word. Okay? This is one of those instances when it said Jesus had compassion on her. It's this word splagsna, which kind of sounds like what it means from the gut, from the stomach.
This, according to greek scholars, is the strongest emotion that can be described in the Bible. This is the strongest emotion that is given to anyone in the entire New Testament. And what it means is in the gut. Or as the King James says, bowels of mercy is the idea of when jesus sees her in her hurt, it's not that he's just like, man, that's sad. He feels it like he's feeling it in his stomach. He feels what she feels.
And I love that. It's not just like, man, I hate she's going through that. No, the way he's responding is like, I feel the same hurt you feel again. That's how jesus bridges the gap with us, is compassion.
I wanna highlight that, because whatever distance you feel in your life right now, please understand the same thing he felt for that woman is the same thing he feels for you.
He feels it in his stomach. He feels that connection. He brings it on himself. There's a man named Louis Biscogli, and he decided to do kind of a fun survey. He said, I want to find the most compassionate child in America. And so he sent out a message about it on social media, got all these people to respond. And the winner was this four year old little boy.
And what happened was they found out that this man that you see in the picture, he used to sit with his wife on their back porch in their rocking chairs every single day, and his wife passed away. And so he was rocking now by himself.
And the little boy noticed that as he was rocking by himself, that the man was crying.
This four year old little boy, according to his parents, has never hopped the fence.
They didn't know he knew how this little boy climbed up that fence, crossed that line, and went every day and sat in that man's lap.
Four years old.
So he ended up asking the boy, he said, so I just want to know, buddy, like, what is it that you said to him? You know, that that made him, you know, cheer up? And this is what the four year old said.
Nothing.
I just helped him cry.
If you've ever grieved or when you grieve in those moments, you don't want someone to come in, think they have the answer. They don't, because at the end of the day, that person doesn't want the answer because you don't have it. They just want to know you care.
That in the middle of grief, sometimes what you really want at the end of the day is someone just to stand with you, to sit with you, to cry with you. That's what Jesus is saying when he said that. It says he had compassion. He's like, I'm just going to be with you. Like, he's the answer, but he doesn't give an answer. Isn't that incredible? Like, he just sits there with her in the middle of her grief before he tries to even do something about it. That's incredible.
When I shared with you earlier that we were waiting on that phone call, well, when I got back from Thailand, you know, we loaded up the car, getting everything ready to go meet that future child.
Car was loaded. We're ready to go. We get a call. The mom's changed her mind.
And even though it's one of those difficult situations where you're excited because you know, you're thinking, well, that's how it's supposed to be. Moms are supposed to raise their kids at the same time. It didn't take away from the disappointment.
And no kidding, a week later, we had already agreed to go to the agape, which is where we adopted Cam and Dawson from their benefit dinner. And so we're sitting at a round table, and Laurie Ann's here, and our social worker, Caitlin, the one that called me before, she's sitting beside Lori Ann, and we watch 1234 videos of other parents getting their kids.
And as we're watching that, don't get me wrong, we were so joyful. And by the way, God worked everything out because we are blessed with Cameron and Dulce.
But in that moment, I'll never forget, as we're watching those videos, I'm just watching it, and I can see Lori Ann trying to. She's smiling, but she's also grieving.
And while we're in the middle of that, our social worker, not even saying a word, just grabs her hand.
That's what Jesus does with this lady. And you know what's interesting about Jesus, by the way?
One of the things that I read in getting ready for this message said that Jesus in the Greek exemplified 39 different emotions.
I find that interesting because you know how many lashes he received?
39.
For every lashing, there was an emotion he feels when you're hurt. He feels it in his gut.
But don't forget this fact.
You have two crowds meeting each other.
Now I'll go ahead and say, this is kind of odd, but I like awkward situations, and Lorianne does not, but I love them. And in the middle of an awkward situation, sometimes, like, I'm like, oh, this will be interesting. This is too awkward for me, because here's what's happening. You've got to parade because Jesus has healed. The centurion servant just heard the best sermon ever. Meeting a funeral procession.
Those two crowds collide.
What can bridge that gap?
Jesus.
But don't forget, there's another person. Distance. And who is that? It's the little boy. The boy? The widow's son. He's dead.
Well, how, Jesus, are you going to overcome this? Don't miss this.
Jesus came up and he touched the casket.
A better translation is what I think some other translations have. It's called a bear.
The bears were different than caskets and coffins. And the fact that a bear was an open casket and coffin, that's what this is.
And the reason this is a big deal during this day. What did you not touch?
A dead body? It was the law and even the jewish leaders.
There are 600 something commands that you don't cross that line.
You don't touch dead bodies. Jesus walks over. Bam.
The text says, they gasp. The people that are carrying the coffin, they stand still. It's one of those situations like, oh, man, like, you don't do that. But do you see the message Jesus is sending?
Jesus in touching that dead body is teaching us this lesson. Jesus is way more concerned about reaching lost people than he is pleasing just religious ones.
He crosses a line to touch that dead body.
But isn't that what love does?
Love is humble, that it sees the person across the room and it sits with them. It sees the person in need and shows them compassion. Love always crosses lines. What does that mean for us? Well, if we are to be Jesus to other people, we have to make sure we never are people that draw lines to keep people out.
We cross lines. We cross the cultural, the social, the relational, the geographical ones, to bring people in and to bring them to Jesus Christ.
And so here's what ended up happening. He said to the young man, arise.
If you've been with us in this series, Brandon's pointed out before, too, that if you notice in all the moments where Jesus raises people back to life, he doesn't say to them, you know, just exist.
He says, get up.
There's a difference in existing and being alive.
The command was not just to exist, but to do something, to be awake, to move.
And by the way, one of my favorite details in this text. You know what Jesus does? The compassion doesn't stop when he arises. You know what he does? He said, give him to his mama.
So it says, fear seized everybody. They glorified God. And they said, a great prophet has risen among us. God has visited his people.
Maybe you're here this morning and you're thinking, all right, does Jesus travel like that today?
Like, how far would Jesus go? For me, I saw one of the most amazing maps.
It was this map that showed all the travels Jesus made in his ministry. And this is the minimum, because one of the things the Bible says is what we read in the Bible doesn't even cover what most of the things Jesus did.
And you've wondered, like, man, there must be some distance between. Look at this. It said that in Jesus's ministry, this is just a few years, he walked 15,000 miles.
That's a faith and a love that travels, is it not?
But what's amazing is probably not. Probably one of the most important walks he ever took was when Jesus took that one third of a mile walk up Golgotha and died for you.
And he died for me.
There was a group of people that carried his body, and they walked him into this tomb.
But what we know is what happened on that third day. Jesus made the most important walk he's ever made. He walked right out of that tomb. You know, when I was a kid, I used to think that the chronological order was all right. Jesus died. He rose from the grave and then went up to heaven. Like that happened right after each other.
Before jesus even ascends to heaven, you know what he does?
He walks a seven mile trip on the road to Emmaus to find two guys that the Bible says were just sad.
And by the way, he doesn't come up to them and be like, hey, I'm the one you're sad about. He said, hey, guys, what's going on? Like, do you see what he's doing? He's the answer to their problem. But what does he first do?
He listens.
He took another trip right back several more miles into a house of all of the disciples and his family that was upset that he died. He walks through walls and doors to say, hey, I'm still here.
What does all of this mean for us?
Well, I love what Paul said when he said this. Don't be uninformed. He said, it's easy to forget this.
Those who are asleep, he's saying, listen, you will grieve. There's going to be difficulty. There's going to be challenges. But here's what he says. You don't grieve as a person without hope. Well, where does hope come from? He says this. We believe that Jesus did what he died, and he rose again. So through Jesus, God will bring those who have fallen asleep.
Do you see the distance jesus overcame for you? Here's the great news this morning. Jesus walking days are not over.
It didn't end at his death. It didn't end at his burial. It didn't even end at his resurrection. The same Jesus that walked through walls, that crashed a funeral, that walked with a parade, that walked to two discouraged men, that showed up in all these situations, is the same Jesus that will walk to you. That's who he is.
And so maybe you are wondering, well, what about me? Well, that's what Jesus Christ, the reason he died is to give you that hope.
And so maybe you're sitting here this morning like, all right, well, what do I do, like, in my life right now to bridge the gap of that distance? Well, I'll go ahead and tell you, like, the centurion learned it. At the end of day, it's not about your good works. It's about what Jesus did by going to death and through. Through that grave.
But there is a responsibility on our part. Just like that centurion had a responsibility on his, and it was this.
You got to have compassion for people.
You will never look more like your father in heaven, one John says, than when you love people that are difficult to love.
You will never see Jesus more than when you love people that are at times not convenient to love again. Because compassion is not about your and my convenience.
It's about God and their honor. But the other thing is this. You've got to have humility. Humility is saying, I can't fix me, but I know someone that can.
You know, one of the most powerful pictures in the entire Bible to me shows up in romans six.
The Bible says that just as Jesus died and was buried and rose again, this is what he says in Romans chapter six, that we were buried with Jesus by baptism in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, too can walk in newness of life. If we have been united with him in a death like this, we will be reunited with him in a resurrection like this. He said that when you go into that watery grave of baptism and come out brand new, you're sharing in what Jesus shared in. You are raised to a hope. Jesus doesn't just resurrect life and death. He resurrects hope is what that's saying.
He said that what Jesus did is he ascended to the father. You get to take part in that.
But it also takes the faith for you to believe that whatever distance, maybe it's an unconfessed sin, maybe it's a crisis you're going through, maybe it's pride, idolatry, that in Jesus Christ that distance can be overcome.
This morning, if you want the prayers of the church family here, we would love nothing more to pray with you. You can come forward. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can go to one of these exits. One of our shepherds will pray with you.
As we celebrate Jesus Christ, his death and his burial and resurrection, I hope every single one of us attach ourselves to that living hope to understand that gap we fill, that Jesus has bridged that distance. So whatever it is you have a need of today, please come while we stand and we sing this song.
