Matthew 8:14-15 - What motivates a Christian to put his faith into action? Listen to find out!
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[00:00:00] Real Truth Daily This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman
[00:00:07] We're in this serving challenge and a couple weeks ago we started by talking about the attitude that we should have as servants to one another.
[00:00:15] And then last week we talked about the availability, being available to minister and to care for and serve one another.
[00:00:23] And today we talk about how we've been touched by the love of Christ and that causes us to have a servant's heart, especially in the attitude of putting it into action, right?
[00:00:36] I remember when I was growing up my dad liked to sleep in, believe it or not. Can you turn me down just a little bit if you would?
[00:00:42] Yeah, my dad was a late sleeper. He would go to bed very late at night, sometimes one or two o'clock in the morning,
[00:00:51] and wouldn't wake up until like 10. Now during the summer I'd get up early and my dad was still in bed and finally when he'd get out of bed, he'd say these words,
[00:01:01] I need to get into action. And that meant putting on his clothes, taking a shower, smoking a cigar and getting to church.
[00:01:09] I guess pastors did that back then, right? Smoking a cigar and then getting back to church. He wanted to get into action.
[00:01:16] Today we talk about being touched by the healing hand of Christ, whereby we put our faith into, you say it, action.
[00:01:26] There you go. And to do that, we look at this powerful text found in the book of Matthew chapter 8.
[00:01:32] It's the story of Jesus having a very busy day and yet at the end of the day coming to Peter's household.
[00:01:40] Now this tells us a couple things. Number one, that Peter was married.
[00:01:44] And number two, that Peter's mother-in-law lived with them, right?
[00:01:49] And so Jesus is in this town by the name of Capernaum. This is where Peter grew up.
[00:01:55] And James and John as well. As a matter of fact, I've been there.
[00:01:59] And you can see actually the home of Peter with the name of Peter, Petrus, inscribed on the wall.
[00:02:05] It's really cool.
[00:02:06] And the Roman Catholic Church has built this huge church that you kind of enter it and it's in the round and you kind of enter it.
[00:02:14] And then you come down to the middle of the church and there's a window where you can look right into the home of the ruins of the house of Peter.
[00:02:21] It's really, really cool. So it was in that town that Jesus comes and he comes to Peter's house.
[00:02:29] And Peter's mother-in-law, who normally must have had the gift of hospitality, wasn't feeling well at all, right?
[00:02:38] She had a fever as a matter of fact. And this is what the scriptures say in verse 14 and you can read it.
[00:02:44] And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.
[00:02:51] Now look at this. He touched her hand and the fever left her.
[00:02:58] So Jesus recognized she's not doing well at all.
[00:03:02] And someone came to him and said, you've got to make her well.
[00:03:05] Because they knew that Jesus had the ability to do just that.
[00:03:10] And so he comes to her, touches her hand, and immediately she's healed of this sickness.
[00:03:17] Now my friends, we have a sickness too.
[00:03:20] And we know what it is.
[00:03:22] Even though we have good intentions of doing good things for God and honoring God, yet our life is contaminated by sin.
[00:03:31] It's a part of our DNA.
[00:03:33] It's something we're born with.
[00:03:35] And it's something we never quite get rid of.
[00:03:38] We talked about that last week, that there's some holiness movements who say,
[00:03:41] if you believe in Christ, somehow your sanctified life will become so perfected, you'll never sin.
[00:03:47] That's not you and me.
[00:03:49] That's not anybody.
[00:03:52] Our lives are perpetuated by sin.
[00:03:55] That's our leprosy.
[00:03:56] That's our sickness.
[00:03:58] That's our fever.
[00:04:00] And yet, Jesus in his astounding grace became one of us.
[00:04:05] He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.
[00:04:09] And being found in human likeness, he became obedient to death, even death on a cross.
[00:04:16] Right?
[00:04:17] So, because what Christ has done, because of his mercy and grace, and because we, by the Holy Spirit's power, have put our trust in Jesus, which I assume all of you have done.
[00:04:29] Because you all put your trust in Christ.
[00:04:32] The free and flowing and never-ending grace, mercy, and love of God flows into your life like a flood.
[00:04:39] And because what Christ has done, we're not headed to hell, we're headed to heaven.
[00:04:44] We don't stand before God sinful, but rather he declares us righteous.
[00:04:50] Knowing indeed that we're not separated from God, but united to God, we have been touched by the healing hand of God's love through Jesus Christ.
[00:05:01] Amen?
[00:05:01] And because of that, there's something that the Holy Spirit moves and impels in our hearts.
[00:05:10] You look at Peter's mother-in-law.
[00:05:13] She had a fever.
[00:05:14] We don't know exactly what it was.
[00:05:16] There were no temperature gauges back then.
[00:05:18] But they could touch her head, and they knew, oh my goodness, she's not doing well at all.
[00:05:23] And all of a sudden, Jesus makes her well, and she just sat there and twiddled her thumbs in.
[00:05:29] She just sat there and said, everybody come and serve me now.
[00:05:32] She said, oh, oh Peter, go get me some stuff.
[00:05:36] Oh, Jesus, now that you've touched me with your healing hand, serve me some beer, or go get me some wine, or something like that.
[00:05:43] Is that what she said?
[00:05:44] No, look at this.
[00:05:46] This is incredible stuff.
[00:05:47] Okay, let's start at the beginning.
[00:05:49] And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.
[00:05:54] He touched her hand, and the fever left her.
[00:05:58] And let's read this together.
[00:06:00] And she rose and began to serve him.
[00:06:05] Hmm.
[00:06:09] You see, serving is something that naturally happens when we've been touched by the healing hand of Christ.
[00:06:16] Let me say that again.
[00:06:18] Serving is something that naturally follows the healing hand of Christ.
[00:06:25] Remember last week we talked about Isaiah.
[00:06:28] And remember the story of Isaiah?
[00:06:31] He's in the presence of God.
[00:06:33] He has this vision of being in the presence of God.
[00:06:36] And remember, God is on the throne.
[00:06:38] And there's seraphs flying around.
[00:06:40] Remember this?
[00:06:41] And they're saying, holy, holy, holy.
[00:06:44] Holy is the Lamb of God.
[00:06:46] Holy is the Christ.
[00:06:48] Holy is the Father.
[00:06:48] Holy is the Spirit.
[00:06:50] He's in the presence of God.
[00:06:51] And he feels so unworthy to be there.
[00:06:58] Why?
[00:06:59] Remember, we talked about this.
[00:07:00] Because he was a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.
[00:07:05] And yet, he was in the presence of God.
[00:07:07] And remember what the angel did?
[00:07:09] The angel took a tongue, got a burning ember, seared his lips, and said, now your sin is gone and your guilt is atoned for.
[00:07:18] And what was his response?
[00:07:20] Touched by the healing hand of God.
[00:07:23] What was his response?
[00:07:24] Remember we talked about this last week.
[00:07:26] Here am I.
[00:07:27] Send me.
[00:07:28] We talked about it in the children's message.
[00:07:31] Zacchaeus.
[00:07:32] And Zacchaeus understood that Jesus was the Son of God.
[00:07:36] And had heard the proclamation, apparently, of the gospel.
[00:07:39] And the healing, incredible grace and mercy, and astounding forgiveness of God and Jesus Christ.
[00:07:47] He must have heard all about that.
[00:07:48] He knew that Jesus was someone special.
[00:07:50] And so he climbs this tree and Jesus says, I'm coming to your house today.
[00:07:55] And what does Zacchaeus say?
[00:07:57] Knowing indeed that Jesus would heal him of the leprosy of sin, what did he say?
[00:08:03] He said, I'm going to put my faith in you into action.
[00:08:09] If I've wronged anybody, I'm going to give four times the amount back to them.
[00:08:15] And I'm going to give half of what I own back to the poor.
[00:08:18] You see, his faith was put into what's the A word today?
[00:08:23] Action, right?
[00:08:25] That's what the healing hand of Christ does.
[00:08:28] It moves us into action.
[00:08:30] You think of the day of Pentecost.
[00:08:32] Jesus ascended up into heaven.
[00:08:34] And he said, stay in Jerusalem until you're clothed with power from on high.
[00:08:37] One day passes, two days pass, five days pass.
[00:08:41] And what happens?
[00:08:42] Some ten days later, the Spirit of God descends.
[00:08:45] They're filled with the presence of God.
[00:08:46] And they proclaim the word of God.
[00:08:48] They're putting their faith into action.
[00:08:54] And then you think of the word that says in Acts chapter 2 verse 42.
[00:08:59] They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, in the fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayer.
[00:09:06] So after these people were touched by the love of God in the early church, they put their faith into action by caring for one another, by proclaiming the word, by eating together and serving one another in love.
[00:09:19] Their faith was put into action.
[00:09:24] And then finally, as we heard today, and Rod started with this, James says this, be not only doers or hearers of the word, but also doers of the word.
[00:09:34] One who is a doer of the word is one who puts their faith into action by serving other people.
[00:09:41] And so just like Peter's mother-in-law, we say, Lord Jesus, you've flowed into my life.
[00:09:48] You've given me your spirit.
[00:09:50] I'm so grateful for what you've done for me through Jesus Christ, your son.
[00:09:54] And now I'm putting my faith into action by being a servant to other people.
[00:10:02] And this is how it happens.
[00:10:06] Service starts in the home, right?
[00:10:11] It starts in the home where we say to one another, how can I serve you?
[00:10:17] Now, I know that some of you are single, but if you're not, if you still have a loved one in the home, you wake up every day and you ask this question, how can I serve you today?
[00:10:28] You heard me talk about the 10 pennies rule where I tell young couples who are ready to get married, you have 10 pennies in this pocket.
[00:10:36] And every time you say a kind word, every time you have a loving embrace, every time you express something kind, every time you serve that other person, every time you do one of those things, you take one penny out of this pocket and put it in the other.
[00:10:50] And by the end of the day, you ought to have 10 pennies in this pocket, right?
[00:10:54] And so service starts where?
[00:10:59] In the home, right?
[00:11:02] But not only that, it doesn't just start in the home.
[00:11:06] It extends to the community.
[00:11:08] How many of you have heard of the slogan of Nike?
[00:11:12] Just do it.
[00:11:13] How many of you have heard of that?
[00:11:14] Okay, raise your hand.
[00:11:16] Do you know that they stole that from my mom?
[00:11:18] Right?
[00:11:19] Because my mom would tell me stuff to do.
[00:11:22] And if I didn't do it right away, or I'd hesitate, or I'd say I'll do it later.
[00:11:27] She was a tough German, you know.
[00:11:29] And she'd say, ah, just do it.
[00:11:34] The Nike people must have been there, okay?
[00:11:36] So when we see the opportunities in the community, and Wayne talked about this in Bible class last week.
[00:11:41] When we see the opportunities in the community whereby we can render service, especially to our neighbors, just do it.
[00:11:50] If their trash can is out there and they haven't taken it back, take it for them.
[00:11:55] If they're on vacation and their lawn needs to be mowed, go ahead and do it for them.
[00:11:59] If you have a snowblower, if somebody got me recently, my son got us that for Christmas last year.
[00:12:05] If you have a snowblower, you may as well snowblow everybody's walk.
[00:12:08] You see what I'm saying?
[00:12:10] When the opportunity in the community approaches itself and appears before you, what the Lord Jesus is saying,
[00:12:18] because you've been renewed and touched and inspired by my love, given a new life through my son.
[00:12:24] Because you have grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ, when an opportunity to serve other people in the community,
[00:12:30] especially in your neighborhood, appears, just do it.
[00:12:34] It's how you put your faith into action.
[00:12:39] And so service starts in the home, it extends into the community, and it's rooted in the church.
[00:12:47] Right?
[00:12:48] It kind of begins and ends here.
[00:12:53] Last week we had a sermon about that very thing.
[00:12:56] And as a matter of fact, Sharon and I came up, as you remember, at the beginning of the service and also in Bible class,
[00:13:03] and talked about this thing that they're doing at Peace Lutheran Church called Grief Share.
[00:13:07] And while we've been thinking about Grief Share, and it's one of our strategic plans to reach this community with the love of Christ,
[00:13:14] I've been thinking about a couple people that I wanted to ask to do Grief Share, to lead it here at our church.
[00:13:21] And so I thought about those people and I was ready to ask.
[00:13:25] And lo and behold, we were at Niagara Falls.
[00:13:27] I took a bunch of people to Niagara Falls this week.
[00:13:29] And two of them were from our church, Meg and Betty.
[00:13:32] And many of you know them, right?
[00:13:33] Meg's not here today, but Betty is.
[00:13:35] Okay?
[00:13:36] And so we took a couple of them and here they were, Meg and Betty.
[00:13:40] And I was ready to ask them, would you help lead Grief Share?
[00:13:45] And before I could get the words out of my mouth, do you know what Betty said?
[00:13:49] Pastor Dave, we're really interested in leading Grief Share.
[00:13:52] And I go, yes!
[00:13:53] This is amazing!
[00:13:55] This is what happens in the body of Christ.
[00:13:58] You see, all of you, you understand this, are gifted by God.
[00:14:02] You have talents that the Lord has given you.
[00:14:05] And those talents of service, what?
[00:14:10] It starts in the home, it extends to the community, and it's rooted in the church.
[00:14:17] In so many ways, putting our faith into action begins and ends in the church.
[00:14:26] And so many of you are serving, I know that.
[00:14:29] But if you're not, I'm not here to make you feel guilty at all.
[00:14:33] What we're going to do next week is really, really cool.
[00:14:35] We're going to give you an abbreviated, what we call, spiritual gift analysis.
[00:14:40] And everybody is going to take it.
[00:14:41] It's about 30 or 60 statements, which will help you identify what your spiritual giftedness is.
[00:14:48] And then once we find that out, we'll be coming to some of you who aren't necessarily involved in service in our church.
[00:14:55] And we'll say, here's your spiritual gifts.
[00:14:57] Here's where you can plug into ministry in this church.
[00:15:02] Because everybody should be a minister.
[00:15:06] Everybody should be involved in service.
[00:15:08] It starts and ends in the church.
[00:15:12] And so we're going to do that next week.
[00:15:14] And it's really going to be exciting, I think.
[00:15:17] Right?
[00:15:17] So you think about the parable of the talents.
[00:15:19] And so I'm in Matthew chapter 25 in my podcast.
[00:15:23] And you think about the parable of the talents.
[00:15:25] And many of you are familiar with that story.
[00:15:27] But it goes like this.
[00:15:29] One guy, this master went away and he gave one servant five talents and he doubled it.
[00:15:34] He gave another servant two talents and he doubled it.
[00:15:38] He gave one servant one talent and guess what he did?
[00:15:42] He buried it.
[00:15:43] He didn't use it.
[00:15:45] Right?
[00:15:46] So all of us have been given talents.
[00:15:50] And we don't want to expire, if you know what I mean, before the Lord calls us home without using our talents and gifts to serve him.
[00:16:01] I think of that commercial, maybe you've seen it, where these two aunts of this young couple are staying with them for an extended period of time.
[00:16:09] And they're very dutiful and detail-oriented and this young couple is busy and they're both working and all this kind of stuff.
[00:16:16] And so one of the aunts takes it upon herself to look in their refrigerator.
[00:16:19] Have you seen this?
[00:16:20] She looks in their refrigerator and she sees all the stuff that is past the expiration date.
[00:16:27] Right?
[00:16:28] And she grabs some ketchup.
[00:16:30] Expired.
[00:16:31] Grabs some milk.
[00:16:32] Expired.
[00:16:33] She's from New York.
[00:16:34] Grabs some cheese.
[00:16:35] Expired.
[00:16:36] On and on and on.
[00:16:36] Here's the thing.
[00:16:37] You don't want to expire before the Lord taps you on the shoulder and says, put your faith into action.
[00:16:54] And we're going to help you do that.
[00:16:56] That's what this serve challenge is all about.
[00:16:59] Remember, I've used the definition.
[00:17:01] I think I've used it here before.
[00:17:04] And if not, you're going to hear it now.
[00:17:07] But many people think of a church kind of like watching a football game.
[00:17:13] You've heard the definition of football, right?
[00:17:15] It's 80,000 people in desperate need of exercise watching 22 guys in desperate need of rest.
[00:17:22] Right?
[00:17:23] Right?
[00:17:24] So many folks are in the grandstand of the church.
[00:17:27] It's not necessarily true here at Mount Oak.
[00:17:30] In the grandstand of the church watching the participants on the field while Jesus is saying, kind of like Zacchaeus, get involved.
[00:17:38] Put your faith into action.
[00:17:39] Make a difference in someone's life.
[00:17:42] Let it start in the home, extend to the community, and been rooted and grounded in the church.
[00:17:48] This is the challenge.
[00:17:51] This is the call of Christ upon your life.
[00:17:55] Why?
[00:17:55] Because we've been touched by the master's hand, renewed by his spirit, engaged with his love and forgiveness, transformed by the power of his love.
[00:18:06] And that power, that healing power of his love penetrates our sin-sick souls so that we're clean and whole and pure in the eyes of God.
[00:18:17] And then we say, here I am.
[00:18:21] Let me be a participant in ministry, a servant to others, and no longer in the grandstand.
[00:18:32] Hmm.
[00:18:35] I wonder if Peter's mother-in-law thought of all that stuff when she did what she did.
[00:18:42] I don't think so.
[00:18:45] I think she just said, I've been touched with the healing hand of Christ, and now I serve.
[00:18:54] You've been touched by the healing hand of Christ, and now you serve.
[00:19:03] Let it start in the home, extend to the community, and be rooted and grounded in the church.
[00:19:13] Amen.
[00:19:15] And now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds through faith in Christ Jesus, and to life everlasting.
[00:19:26] Amen.
[00:19:27] Thank you for tuning in to Daily Truths with Dave Allman.
[00:19:30] Pastor Dave Allman is the pastor of Mount Hope Church in Boulder, Colorado.
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