Matthew 9 (Part 2) :9-13

We're picking it up in verse 9 so follow along as I read it says

all right stop there let's pray father give us ears to hear spiritual eyes to see Lord invest us with a heart to receive today all that you long to say this is your word and we are your servants we invite you to speak whatever words whatever exhortations whatever warnings need to be conveyed to us today we give you this time that you might be Lord of it and Lord of all that we hear we pray Lord that to that we would not just be hearers it's wonderful to hear and you give us the ability to hear we don't want to be hearers only give us the strength and courage father to also be doers to carry out and to apply the word that we are receiving today we ask this in Jesus name amen I want you to use your imagination if you would please for just a moment some of you might need to kind of dust it off a little bit but imagine that right here in the United States of America some foreign country attacked us here on our soil our own soil overpowered our military and then imposed martial law imagine waking up in the morning looking out your window and seeing armed soldiers walking around your neighborhood pretty freaky thought huh not from our military but from the one that conquered us now imagine also if you would please for a moment that some citizens of the United States of America actually collaborated then with the the country that had dominated us conquered us and had now imposed this this martial law and military rule over our country and those collaborators were taking money from you and giving it to our enemy you can kind of imagine can't you doesn't take too much imagination to realize that those people would not probably be real popular in society well that is exactly how the Jews felt about the tax collectors of that day because you see Rome had imposed martial law and military rule over Israel they had conquered Israel and they were now the tough guy on the block everywhere the Jews went they would see Roman soldiers armed they would also see small booths set up along the road or street and in those booths were not Romans but Jews fellow Jews who had basically kind of decided to collaborate with the enemy and those individuals were taking money from the Jews and giving it to the Romans the way it actually kind of worked was the Romans would sell the right to a city to the highest bidder essentially what that means is is that maybe several tax collectors would want to collect the tax from say the city of Capernaum the Romans then would invite those tax collectors to submit bids to be able to be the tax collector of that city whoever submitted the highest bid the Romans gave them that contract to do that city so that tax collector would establish his tax booth he would tax the people enough so that he could pay Rome what he had bid to them for the city and then he would get whatever he could above that tax to put in his own pocket you can see can't you why this thing would create an incentive you know for the tax collector to charge above and beyond what he had bid to Rome as much as he could because by doing so he would be able to pad his own pockets you can see also why tax collectors became very hated people in society they were considered traitors and that's what they were they were considered thieves they were considered really kind of the scum of the earth so much so that if you took on the role of tax collector you were immediately kicked out of the synagogue you could not enter could not step foot in a synagogue you could not be in any sort of a judicial role you couldn't even be a juror if there was the need for such a thing and essentially your family would assume the same disgrace that was now upon you so your entire family would be considered you know just as much a traitor as were you for taking on this particular role pretty interesting isn't it when you stop and think about that well it was to that sort of an individual that exact sort of an individual that Jesus said you follow me I don't know if you were living in that time how you would have felt to kind of listen to Jesus and think that you know some of the things he has to say are pretty cool and this and that and all of a sudden after he gets done doing some pretty amazing things which we've read about here previously in chapter 9 such as the healing of a paralytic then Jesus goes walks by this tax collectors booth which the rest of us don't even want to come close to because we hate this guy so much and Jesus not only not avoiding that booth walks right up to it and says to that scum who's inside there come and follow me that's amazing and I would imagine at that moment it probably didn't garner him a whole lot of brownie points in the minds of some of his fellow Jews it is amazing that Jesus took the risk of assuming as part of his closest followers a man who was hated so much in society although Jesus never cared about winning any popularity contests what is equally amazing to me is the fact that Matthew didn't hesitate he jumped up closed up his books did whatever he did with his money bags and took off to follow Jesus that I find pretty amazing too in fact when we read this same story in Luke's account it says and he got up and left everything to follow Jesus that's significant and I think it's significant not only that we recognize that Matthew stood up at once leaving behind a lucrative career right one by which he would he probably was already wealthy and would continue to be wealthy he left it all behind to go follow Jesus and there's something there that I think that you and I need to see and what we need to see is the response that Matthew makes regarding the call of Jesus Christ and it's it's a radical sort of a response and you know we can be called radicals from time to time that's all right let him call us what they will the fact of the matter is following Jesus often take some pretty radical measures on our lives and I particularly like this one because what we see Jesus doing is we see him making a radical did I say Jesus what we see Matthew doing me get my people right here is making a radical decision to leave one thing behind which is the life that he had been living to take on or to follow another life and that was Jesus Christ and and and not only do we need to see that but we need to recognize that that is not always what occurs when people receive the call and I trust that everybody in this room has received a call to follow Jesus if not we need to get that one squared away but how you responded to that call may or may not be like we see what's happening here in Matthew's life because you see there are a great many people who do not respond like Matthew responded they do not respond in that kind of a radical sort of a fashion where they leave the old life behind to take up the new life of following Christ many times what we see is people Kind of responding half-heartedly, and you know what that looks like. It's one foot in the kingdom of God, and one foot still solidly planted in the world. Following the Lordship of Jesus Christ, kinda, but also following the leading of the flesh. Kinda hot, kinda cold, Jesus called it lukewarm. You probably remember from the book of Revelation how that lukewarmness actually makes him feel. It's a miserable sort of an attempt at life, to be completely honest with you. But whatever else you may think about Matthew and his previous life of being a traitor to his own countrymen, you have to admit that what he did here, what we see here, is Matthew making a clean break from the old life, and beginning to walk with Jesus Christ. And that, believers, is what we need to see as an example for our own lives. Do you know there's a lot of Christians who are having a hard time walking with Jesus, and the reason is they have not made a clean break from the old life. They have not jumped up from whatever they were involved in previously, and just run after Jesus with all their heart. It's just, you know, it's kinda like, Jesus is cool, I wanna kinda hang out with him, but I wanna maintain some connection to the past life, to the way I used to live, to the things I used to do. You know, the money that I'm making here as a tax collector is pretty good, and we've got responsibilities, and we'll justify it all kinds of ways. You know, God doesn't want me to renege on my responsibilities financially, does he? Of course not. So there you go. I gotta keep doing what I'm doing, even if it involves a little underhanded sort of cheating once in a while, and a little extortion. I mean, you know, whatever. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, sort of a thing, you know? That's ridiculous. That's rationale. Self-justification. The fact of the matter is, we need to recognize what Matthew is showing for us here as an example about what it means to follow Christ. You put off the old things. You take on the new. You literally close up shop from the old sinful lifestyle. You know what? When you think about it, Matthew really couldn't do anything else. He was a man who was making a lot of money, but you know, Jesus is going to say elsewhere, you know what? You can't serve both God and money. And the fact is, you can't serve God and, frankly, anything else, whether it's yourself or pleasure or whatever it may be. You can't make God the Lord of your life and have something else have a position of lordship at the same time. You can't have two lords. Ultimately, you're going to end up hating one and loving the other. And so, it's a wonderful, wonderful example that we see here. This whole idea of making a clean break. Verse 10, look in your Bible, goes on to say that while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. You know, you guys probably remember this when you first came to Jesus. Do you remember that for a while you had an opportunity to reach, an opportunity like no other time, to reach your fellow sinners, sort of a thing. When you come to Jesus, when you first come to Jesus, there's this window of opportunity where your friends haven't really quite figured out exactly what's happened in your life yet, and they haven't fully figured out that you're not on board to continue living the way you used to live with them, and they're still open to the influence that you might have in their lives. Eventually, they're going to come to terms with the fact that, you know, he's changed. He doesn't like to have fun anymore. He doesn't like to do the old stuff, and then, you know, they're going to stop inviting you places to go with them and do the things that you used to do with them and so forth. But until that time comes, there's this window of opportunity where you can really reach people for the Lord in a way that you'll be probably hindered to do a little bit later on. Anyway, the point is, this is what we see in Matthew. You know, he's received the call. He's radically responded to that call by closing up shop on the old life, running after Jesus with all of his heart, and yet, this is the very same day. His friends and fellow, you know, colleagues, I don't know, whatever you want to call them, they're there at his house because he's having a feast, and Jesus is the guest of honor. And they're just like, sweet, let's go, yeah, see what Matthew's... He always puts on a good party. Let's go see what Matt's doing here. You know, they also called him Levi, which it doesn't make reference to in this book. Interestingly enough, this is the book written by Matthew. Wouldn't it have been cool to be a gospel writer and write your own story? I mean, that'd be pretty sweet. You know, you're kind of just writing the life of Jesus and say, well, what happened next? Oh, it was me. Write that one down, you know. Then the Lord called me, you know, hey, cool. Anyway, so this place is crowded, you know, with all these people. And you'll notice here that it says that there was tax collectors, so other fellow tax collectors from nearby cities, and sinners were in attendance. Now you might look at that word and you might think, now isn't that a little weird to just say there were tax collectors and sinners? I mean, who isn't a sinner? Those of us who know the Bible know that we've all fallen short of the glory of God. All have sinned. So we're all sinners. So how could they label these people? Well, in the NIV, it actually puts quotations on the word sinner. Now those don't appear in the Greek, but they're doing it that way to kind of convey to you the idea that these people are notorious sinners as opposed to private sinners. Now God doesn't recognize any difference. Sin is sin, and sinners are sinners. However, there are people who sin in private, and there are people who sin out in the open. A private sinner is the kind of guy who gets really nervous when the 60 Minutes crew shows up in his parking lot, and he can usually be seen with his hand over the camera lens saying, get that camera out of here, because he wants to sin in private, right? He wants to go on cheating people and doing all kinds of underhanded things in a way that people can't see. On the other hand, you have notorious sinners. They get on a car or a float, and they go through the city streets parading their sin. They don't mind that at all. They're out to do their sin, and they don't care who sees them, right? We call those notorious sinners, and that literally has an application to our culture today. I don't think I have to be any more clear than that. Well, you know those notorious sinners that are out on the parade float? Those are the ones Jesus is having dinner with. Dinner! Sit down, dinner! And of course, that's obviously going to cause problems with the Pharisees. You'll notice here in verse 11, it says, when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Well, you have to understand the cultural significance that taking a meal had back in those days. Because, you see, a meal was considered to be an intimate connection between people, because they shared from a common dipping bowl. That was a very, very common thing for a meal. They would have a central bowl on the table, and they would each be given bread and other things that they would dip into that bowl, and you would all dip in the same bowl, and there were no double dipping rules. And so, you'd dip, and you'd eat, and you'd dip, and you'd eat, and you'd dip, and you'd eat, and you know, so you're all eating from this common sort of a thing. Does that gross some of you out? Some of you people are really weird about the double dipping rule, you know? We don't mind the double dipping rule in our house either. It's like double, triple, whatever. We're all blood relatives. Just hang in there and get used to it. The Pharisees believed that to have dinner with a sinner, in their estimation, was to compromise your holiness, your righteous standing before God, because after all, you're sitting here swapping spit with these, well, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have used that. You know, but it's sort of a thing. You're doing this thing where you're eating from this common bowl, right? And you get this inside of you, and you will become defiled, to use one of their words, right? To eat with a sinner. So you see, what they're accusing Jesus of is more than just hanging around sinners. They really believe he will become like one of them. He will become defiled by them, and so forth. And you know, this was just kind of the attitude of the day among the Pharisees. Oh, by the way, Pharisees still exist today. They don't go around in the same garb. We even have some in the Christian church. And they are often victims of their own theology and hard-edged legalism, because they have the hardest time understanding how in the world somebody who wants to live a holy life would ever hang around someone who needs Jesus. And they don't understand. Mercy and that's what Jesus is going to confront them with here. It just in just a little bit because they believed that to hang with a Sinner with someone who is living a life of sin is to compromise your holy condition now You probably know over the years the Christian Church has had some movements Which have come into our midst from time to time which we actually even call holiness movements This has happened many times in the last couple of thousand years and ultimately a holiness movement is not a bad thing it really is a move of the Holy Spirit to kind of clean house and and and and these holiness movements come sweeping into the body of Christ and There's repentance and there's a desire to get right with God and to put away the things of the world You know like we were talking about like Matthew did to really make a clean Break from the things of the world and to follow the Lord and so forth But here's the problem most if not all of the holiness movements from the past Have deteriorated over a period of time into legalism in other words what the people who were genuinely convicted of by the Holy Spirit of getting rid of stuff in their lives begin to do is The work of the Holy Spirit becomes less and less and the simple exterior motion of not doing things Becomes the focus in other words if God convicts me of doing something that he you know Has convinced me is wrong and I stop doing that thing That's that's a movement toward holiness that is inspired and worked by the Holy Spirit if however I start pointing the bony finger at everybody else and saying don't do that thing And I start calling righteousness something that is gained by not doing that thing Now I've entered into legalism Because it's no longer a work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of people. It's simply a law a rule Don't do it right and that's what we've done as Christians. We've done that from time to time You know somebody somewhere along the line got convicted that going to see certain movies was a bad thing Well what happened in the holiness movement is you know people started repenting of that and stopped filling their heads full of garbage But then as time goes on We start looking at the theater as That Satan filled room and anybody who goes to a theater go to hell You know doesn't matter what they go it doesn't matter doesn't matter if you saw something in there that was glorifying to God you went into the place of Satan You see what legalism does it makes a rule for the sake of the rule the rule becomes the end in itself Rather than a means to an end which is to walk in holiness and righteousness Don't do it. Don't drink chew or hang around with people who do Right we got rules and our rules become the focal point of How we're supposed to live rather than being led by the Holy Spirit when your rules Become What we do we've entered into legalism. We've entered into that same Pharisaical attitude that Jesus confronted right here. Why is your master going in to eat with these scum? Doesn't he know they're scum It's gonna defile himself. He's compromising righteousness and holiness That was their attitude. You see they had become so fixated on rules and regulations that they could no longer Recognize human need when they saw it They could no longer look at a person's heart and say you My precious brother and sister need to be set free from your sin. I want to help Couldn't go there anymore. You see their legalism had ejected any idea of mercy Or tender love and care and concern for people And what Jesus was doing by eating with these people was expressing the merchant mercy of God God God is merciful And he'll go hang out with sinners So that they might come to a knowledge of his love and so forth Look at what Jesus says in verse 12. I love his response to this look in your Bible verse 12 on hearing this Jesus said it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick and that's what he said It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick and a great statement. I Just love that statement because it really puts the focus back on what what he was supposed to be doing In fact, this is what the Pharisees should have been doing You know the Pharisees felt that in order to maintain holiness and righteousness they had to separate themselves from the people from sinners and Jesus who's filled with the mercy of God goes and works among the sinners. Can you imagine a doctor? Who devoted his life to? Healing people but wouldn't be around them Refused to be around sick people. Oh, there's those sick people over there. Keep them away You know, they were always concerned about their own particular personal situation and never reached out to anyone. That'd be crazy, wouldn't it? Well, that's the way the Pharisees were I think they genuinely wanted people to be free from sin at least in their in their estimation of some of them probably did but They they they had no mechanism To do that other than just to load people up with rules here. Let me put these rules on your back bend over, you know Poop here now strap that baby on and carry it around for the rest of your life, you know That's exactly what Jesus told him. It didn't he say that he say you load people up with rules And you don't lift a finger to help them, you know Become any closer to God and so forth. So Jesus said, you know, hey, listen It's not the healthy people who need a doctor. You got to go out and find the sick people. That's what I'm doing And then he says this in verse 13 I love this too because this is a quotation from the Old Testament look in verse 13 in your Bible It says but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy not sacrifice Let me give you a little historical background on that verse because it's a quotation from Hosea in the Old Testament the prophet Hosea who was living and prophesying at a time in Israel's history that was much like the time that Malachi lived in The Jews were going through the motions of doing what they were supposed to do in terms of offering sacrifices to the Lord But they began to kind of they came to a point of seeing those sacrifices as all that God wanted, you know It's like we can just kind of live our own life But we'll just bring an animal in every so often and kill it and throw the blood and sprinkle thing and then we can just go Back and do what we want see as If the Old Testament sacrifice was ever to be divorced from the idea of the human heart, you know The sacrificial system was meant to accompany a broken heart that that hated sin and was broken because I had sinned such and now I go to the Lord and I and this animal dies in my place as a sacrifice For me and the blood is sprinkled and it's a messy rotten Process, but it reminds me that sin is a messy rotten thing. Well, they'd forgotten all that By the time of Hosea they were going through the sacrificial routine as if it was just this religious requirement and it's like You know, we can just live the way we want cheat steal live live it up. But that whatever we're doing. Oh, that's right It's getting that time. Isn't it? God needs a goat. All right, let's get a goat grab a grab one of the goats We're heading to Jerusalem, you know, take the goat. We'll go through it Oh, yeah, you know hand him the goat let him kill it sprinkle a little blood. I'm going home and Then Passover comes that's right. He needs a lamb. Let's go get a lamb get a lamb grab that one bring it over We're gonna do the lamb thing. And then while we're there at the temple, we're gonna be very holy sounding Oh You know, I can't wait to get over this thing I got to go home Get some things done, but God I thank you and stand the lamb blood we're out of here It's all God wants he just wants an animal right so he told us Do you see how religion? Begins to take over where relationship used to exist Where my heart was genuinely in a relationship with God now, it's become this empty Religious practice that's what was happening during the time of Hosea That's why God spoke through Hosea and said listen, I don't care about your sacrifices. I want mercy. I Want your heart I Want your heart I Desire mercy that's sacrifice. I Have enough goats and bulls and lambs. I own the cattle on a thousand hills. You think I need this? You need this. I Want your heart? But you know the Pharisees in Jesus day learned nothing from that that cry of the Lord in Hosea learned nothing and now here today Jesus is having to say to them you've Stumbled over the same way that your forefathers did in the time of Hosea So go home and open up the scriptures and find out what this means I desire mercy not sacrifice go home and think about that and then ask again why I was here eating with sinners Maybe then you'll have a better understanding Understanding maybe then you'll Begin to get a little glimpse into why I'm here reaching these people Bringing them to a saving knowledge of what I'm going to do on the cross and so forth See, here's the deal. You know, I I need to make a clarification here because some of you might Be wondering if maybe I'm stumbling over my words a little bit because I you remember I started off This whole teaching here in Matthew 9 verse 9 by saying that Matthew Sacrificed his old life that he might follow Jesus So I'm not saying that sacrifice is wrong and there are things that we as Christians do sacrifice We sacrifice the old life. We sacrifice the old sinful desires we sacrifice the passions of the flesh so that we might run after Jesus and Fulfill those passions and those desires and so forth, right? So there is sacrifice going on in our lives, but we do not sacrifice to the point where we look down on people like we were kind of talking about before like the holiness movement used to do that it Would start off good and then pretty soon. It was looking down. It's nose at people. Oh You do that You work where? No, I See, you know that sort of a thing. No mercy. No tender-heartedness toward people No love We do sacrifice but We also reach people's lives This balance of sacrifice and Caution and Mercy is best expressed in a verse that Paul gave us in the book of Colette a book of Galatians I'm gonna put this on the screen for you if I could from Galatians chapter 6 look at this verse great verse He says brothers if someone is caught in a sin you who are spiritual should restore him gently But watch yourselves or you also May be tempted. What is Paul saying here? He's saying first of all, listen, if you if you come across somebody who's caught in a sinful behavior. I Want you to operate with the same mercy that moved your Lord Jesus to go have dinner With people who were sinners. Okay, you need to reach them. You need to to to love on them You need to share the gospel of Jesus Okay, but there's also a warning in this passage and the warning is but be careful and watch yourself You see because you have to always understand how alluring You know sin can be how seductive it can be and this is a warning for you And I to say listen reach people for Jesus, but be careful while you do take somebody along with you Make sure you got accountability right, and there's also something about this that kind of speaks to that issue of People who want to use passages like this as an excuse just to go sin in the name of reaching people for Jesus, you know Like yeah, the reason I'm hanging out at the bar, you know and drinking beer You know with these guys is because I want to reach him for Christ. I Just really I just really have a burden to be in the bar Reach people for Jesus, you know No, I think you just like to be in the bar Think you like beer I Think you like beer I Think you're using Jesus as an excuse to go live the way you want to live. Oh, no, man I want to be all things to all men. Listen, Jesus went and had dinner with sinners. He didn't go do what they were doing Okay He didn't say well, I want to reach all the tax collectors. So I'm gonna get a little booth set it up and cheat people You know, then I'm gonna be a friend of tax collectors and then I can bring them to the cross. It's ridiculous that is compromise and That's just a really kind of lame excuse for me just wanting to do what I really want to do What is it I should really want to do show the mercy of God So what do I do to do that? I reach to the lost But what I also do is I take caution along with me and I make sure that where I'm going I know that there's always going to be a seductive element to the sin that I'm going to go and try to help my brother or Sister come out of and if I'm not careful that same element of sin can suck me right in So I got to watch myself very carefully What's the last thing Jesus says here? The last statement he makes in this passage is for I've not come to call the righteous But sinners aren't you glad Jesus came to save the lost to seek and save the lost Every single one of us in this room who is born again. We're one day lost Before we came to the Lord, we were lost wandering around didn't have a clue where we were heading. Jesus sought us out and our call as Christians is to do no less. We are to in the name of Jesus seek the lost Bring them to him that they might be saved and so forth. So let me ask you a question What are you doing to reach the lost right now? Well, I'm not right now I know you're sitting here, but in your life currently, what are you doing to reach the lost? Or are you just living your life Are you just going to work making money paying bills? Can I submit to you? That's not why God put you on earth Those things are necessary. You got to do them unfortunately But that's not why you're here He didn't put you here just to work and make money and pay the bills and then die and say well Thanks God for the years you gave me he put you here to serve him So that your life Would be given in service to him all that that job and money-making and all that stuff That's just so you can take care of yourself along the way, but that's not your ministry You know, there may be a ministry at work that can happen sure But that whole just going to work getting up in the morning making money thing. That's not your ministry Unless you decide to do something for the Lord with it now that can be your ministry Lord. I made this money I want to I want to serve you. You've given me this time. I want to serve you You've given me these people I connect with on a daily basis. I want to serve you So what are you doing to seek and save the loss to bring people to Jesus? I'm going to end here by giving you five practical Suggestions of things that you can do Alright, and I'll put them up on the screen for you so that you can you know Kind of have a mental image of them. The first thing is praying for people's salvation and you can begin that Immediately some of you might even be thinking. Well, I'm no evangelist. Well, you know what neither am I? And but that doesn't mean that you and I can't Be functionally used in the kingdom of God to reach the lost and we should begin by praying for people Let me ask you a simple question. Do you know somebody who doesn't know the Lord? If you don't you probably need to get out more But if you do start praying for them Start praying for every day get up in the morning or at night or whenever you pray best and pray for them pray that they Would come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. I Know that we all know someone who needs the love of Christ who needs to know what it is To accept what Jesus did on the cross. Let me give you another practical before I go to number two under praying We'll make this a little sub point but in your mind But you know, we we offer the opportunity for people to come and pray during our services So during from 9 to 10 and then from 11 to 12, there are people over in the other building and they're praying They're praying for each service and they're praying that in those services people would be convicted by the Word of God People's hearts would be touched and the people would get saved Can you imagine the thrill it will be one day? To stand in the presence of the Lord and know that your prayer made a difference in someone's salvation Because you prayed you took the time to speak their name within the halls of heaven What a thrill that is going to be and so those of you who are kind of like I don't know what to do Can you pray well then pray pray for people to know Jesus? secondly Think about inviting somebody to church. Some of you guys are great at it. God bless you some of you Have never lifted a finger to bring somebody to church Even though the odds are with you. Do you know that when polled? 70% of unchurched people people Said that if someone they knew or were acquainted with and invited them to church, they would go 70% those are pretty good odds for those of you that deal with rejection issues Those are pretty good odds, you know Invite somebody to church and then invite to bring them. Hey, we're gonna be going to church Making it to the 11 o'clock service. You want to come we'll swing by the house pick you up love to take you You know, it's a great way It's a great way to be involved in Somebody coming to know the Lord number three on the list consider the possibility of giving financially to missions You know, we support two basic fundamental outreaches outside of our The confines I guess of the United States of America and one is is a church planting endeavor Which is happening right outside of Rome Italy Basically right on the Pope's doorstep a Calvary Chapel that's reaching people with the the Word of God bring people from religion into relationship and we're also supporting chapel missions in India where I don't even know how many Calvary chapels there are through chapel missions I bet they're in the hundreds I mean literally hundreds of churches that have sprung up over the years and orphanages I don't know if you're aware of it but chapel missions India supports and runs several orphanages because in India some children many children are just abandoned and because of parents illness issues or because we really didn't want a girl yeah stuff like that other other sorts of societal sort of pressures and so these kids are just abandoned well chapel missions picks them up takes them to the orphanage and raises them and they do not turn kids away even if they don't have the money and these kids are raised in a 100% Christian environment where they learn to pray and read God's Word and you know there's like about a hundred percent chance those kids are going to come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and probably going to turn right around in the nation of India India and go out and be evangelists right there in their own country it's wonderful wonderful way to make a difference in a kid's life and and you know it's something you can do by the way that money that you make at your job that's God's anyway so ask him what he would like you to do with it I've given a couple of suggestions he might have another option for you wonderful doesn't matter just do something just do something next on the list is consider helping a children's ministry you know we talked about that this morning we talked about the fact that there's an immediate need in November you know for somebody to help out to be a kind of a class leader in the fours and five-year old group do you know that those teachers get an opportunity from time to time to share Christ even pray with kids to receive Jesus in class it happens in children's ministry whether it's Sunday morning or Wednesday night Awana it happens you know in junior high senior high there are all kinds of ways in fact that's the next thing fifth is just help in whatever you know we try to get the word out to you guys on a regular basis of areas here in the in the fellowship where you can get involved we're not just wanting you to get busy we're wanting your heart your life your ministry to be poured into those who need it so they can many times come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ you know we don't assume at any given time that all the kids who come here have already made a commitment to Christ by no means these kids are still making decisions for Jesus and you could be personally and powerfully used by God to pray with somebody or to just love on somebody so that they do come to know Jesus and that's a wonderful privilege that we have in in in Christ wonderful opportunity so I want to encourage you once again what are you doing to seek and save the lost what are you doing to follow the example that Jesus gave us a lot of things that we can do we just need to get off our hands and start to do them