While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 

Jesus said “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

‭‭Mark‬ ‭2‬:‭15‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The church where I serve is planted in an urban concrete part of town where little seems to grow except the population of lonely, homeless, drug addicted and abandoned people. 

A local melting pot of intergenerational, ethnic, and multinational souls within a center city church desert, our mission finds us eating, drinking, and serving alongside hundreds each week who look and act nothing like those in our own suburban neighborhoods. 

They often smell and look different and are unmannered but they come as they are, needing no invitation except a desire for new start and a new life. 

Jesus chose to be with people like these.  The dirty and despised. 

So we serve like Jesus. 

It’s uncomfortable at times. Awkward for many. But it’s as much for us as it is for these people we serve. 

All people need Jesus and we need to learn that all people means just that. 

Church has no room for your comfort zones but plenty of room for sinners who just need a hand up and out of what life and poor choices have dealt them. 

Come as you are. 

He didn’t come to serve the righteous.

But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭56‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Speed bump incoming. 

Betrayed in the garden by Judas and arrested, all the disciples then deserted him and fled. 

Despite fresh vows of loyalty to Jesus, their immediate reflex in the garden was self preservation.

To their credit though, the hasty exit itself was a fulfillment of prophecy. 

Zechariah 13:7: Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. 

Imagine your feeling abandoning your best friend  at his most serious time of need. 

How long did they run away for their lives until stopping to realize what they just did?

But Jesus already anticipated their reaction. It was already cooked into the  bitter recipe that would soon be served Jesus in his final days. 

I’d like to believe that I’d be the exception. That I’d have remained to be by Jesus’ side through it all. 

But alas, like you, I’m a sinner.

Fortunately, our savior knows that our intentions don’t always dictate our behaviors. 

Today, pray you’ll do your best to be faithful but accept it when you fall short. 

That’s precisely why he came. 

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭41‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Letting down your guard. 

In this age of distractions, it’s increasingly difficult to keep focus on the dangers poised around every corner. 

The enemy roams night and day, to and fro seeking whom he might devour. 

1Peter 5:8

Though you might be prayed up and wearing all your Ephesians gear, a walk in the spirit is not always a stroll in the park. 

Taking pride in your preparedness makes one cocky as if to say “C’mon, bring it on!”

We should never seek an encounter with the enemy, the father of lies. 

Watching and praying is our most humble and most powerful defense against a fall into temptation. 

You’re not as resilient as you might believe, despite your preparations. 

Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭34‬-‭35‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Each of us longs to believe that our faith and loyalty to Jesus is unstoppable. 

Even at my most intimate times of communion and spiritual connection, I’ve made promises I was unable to keep. 

The very best of intentions somehow end up having let us down. 

I’ll beat myself up for awhile until Jesus lets me off the hook with the truth of my inherently sinful nature. 

It’s better not to have made a vow at all than to make a vow and break it. (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5)

Our brokenness is also our reminder of our reliance on the saving work of the cross. 

The rooster always crows, declaring that truth. 

Just when you think you have it altogether, you’ll discover you don’t.  

As long as we’re above ground walking this earth, there’s no escaping our sin nature or the pride that fuels it.

Try as you may, the experience of humility is what makes us need and love Jesus all the more. 

The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” Jesus answered, “You have said so.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

There is a Judas in all of us. 

We each live our lives with some secret rebellion believing we are better at hiding than Jesus is at finding. 

Judas’ reply when confronted clearly demonstrates he doubted Jesus as God incarnate who is by his very nature all-knowing and all-seeing, otherwise he would have come clean immediately. 

There’s a Judas in all of us. 

Being wholly devoted means even when we sin, we don’t hide like Adam or deny it like Judas in self-defense or deflection of blame. 

When I was arrested on drug charges years ago, my first emotion was relief not defense. Despite having continued using and selling, I had longed for all of it to end. Not necessarily the way it did, but I knew I’d been found out. 

There’s a Judas in all of us. 

Accepting God’s forgiveness means first acknowledging both our guilt and God’s omniscience in the equation. 

Our reflexive response when confronted must include humility and sorrow before we can experience grace and mercy. 

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭24‬:‭42‬-‭44‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If you’re not already living on the edge of your seat, waiting expectantly, given the events of today’s world, your bet is poorly placed against the odds.

Signs of end times have appeared for generations to generations on high alert.

The most transformative event in all of human history is on the horizon and reactions are either great fear, greater faith, or dismissive altogether.

I’m pretty sure Jesus isn’t one to scare people into submission and to be dismissive of it altogether is an eternally ignorant position.

However—and this is an important takeaway—Jesus desires that ALL come to him (1Tim:2 4)

To essentially write-off these folks is for the faithful to abandon their great commission.

Being ready for his return and the end of the age is for all.

I heard it once explained to me something like this: If the gift you received means eternal life and you don’t earnestly share that invitation with others, your cruelty may be a greater sin than their unbelief.

Get ready EVERYONE.
He’s coming soon.

Vertical and horizontal. 

A vertical relationship with God and a horizontal relationship with others sets the stage for all other instruction.

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭36‬-‭40‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The axis of power is manifest when you’re right with God and servant to your fellow man. 

The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Just for fun, I asked ChatGPT to write my eulogy using only information available about me on the internet. 

The nearly instant summary was a paragraph extolling my virtues of being “a deeply religious man” with a “sincere care and concern for the welfare of others, particularly the elderly.”

Not entirely disappointed, I wondered if this is all the world will remember of me when I’m gone. 

It seemed to check both the X and Y axes, but thought the summary was otherwise unremarkable.

We are our own worst critics. 

Our personal standards of what it means to be a Christian can get lost in our history of rule keeping and rule breaking, and for most of us, that’s not on the internet. 

Nonetheless, while you’re pursuing performance on these two commandments, don’t forsake the simplicity of John 3:16, the one that supersedes both. 

Sin Offering Sparrows Special: $2.99 each or 2 for $5

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭21‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Like visiting the attraction’s gift shop on the way in, not the way out, temple sales were booming but cheapening the worship experience. 

Anything to make a buck broke the very heart of solemn temple worship and left the church indistinguishable from a midtown city marketplace on a Friday afternoon. 

Church is a place to escape distractions of this world.

Church is a space to come as you are to commune with God. 

Church provides a pace of rest to pray and hope with others who also expect God to show up and be glorified. 

Let’s keep it that way. 

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭19‬:‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Imagine earning all your life, accruing savings, investments, and valuables only to suddenly give it all away someday. 

That’s what you’re doing right now. 

You’ll kick the bucket one unexpected day and 

    💨poof! 💨 

it all goes to others or back in the box as you fly off in faith to your heavenly destination made perfect but empty handed and you just don’t care. 

Heaven itself is the treasure. 

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all good things will be added unto you. —Matthew 6:33

The passages are less about giving and more about what you receive when you “Come, follow me.”

To truly believe in Christ is to always yearn for a life unencumbered by the things of this world and for the grand prize of a fully and completely devoted life. 

It takes great faith to give up reliance and dependence on the “stuff” of our years. 

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭19‬:‭22‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Always yearning for the right stuff will turn poverty into wealth sooner or later. 

In his name the nations will put their hope.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Not their stock markets, 

not supply chains,

not affordability of housing or food, not their defense budgets. 

In times of volatility with near infinite security variables in the balance, the nations whose plurality keeps Christ at the center of their flourishing will prosper. 

Not in worldly assets,

not in peace through strength, not even in treaties of peace crafted between embittered rivaling nations.

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand

All other ground is sinking sand.

All glory to the One who has enabled nations of freed men and women to sing, speak, and have their being fixed not on things of this world but on the one to come.