I guess you could call these times that
we are together the nature of Jesus.
That's a pretty good title, I think.
And the last time we got together we
looked at four of those parts to the
nature of Jesus, but let me just march
with you through some specific scripture tonight that
I think will help us sort of get
it together before we look at the final
parts of the first half tonight.
Matthew chapter 18 beginning with verse 1 says,
at that time the disciples came to Jesus
saying, who then is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven?
Then Jesus called a little child to him,
set him in the midst of them, and
said, assuredly I say to you unless you
are converted and become as little children you
will by no means enter the kingdom of
heaven.
Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever receives one little child like this in
my name receives me.
And in Matthew chapter 20 verse 16 is
well almost thrown in it seems.
So the last will be first and the
first last for many are called but few
chosen.
Verse 25 of Matthew 20, but Jesus called
them to himself and said, you know that
the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over
them and those who are great exercise authority
over them yet it shall not be so
among you.
But whoever desires to become great among you
let him be your servant and whoever desires
to be first among you let him be
your slave.
Just as the Son of Man did not
come to be served but to serve and
to give his life a ransom for many.
And then in Matthew chapter 23 beginning with
verse 1, then Jesus spoke to the multitudes
and to his disciples saying, the scribes and
the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
Therefore whatever they tell you to observe that
observe and do but do not do according
to their works for they say and do
not do.
And then jumping down to verse 11 and
12 verses, but he who is greatest among
you shall be your servant and whoever exalts
himself will be humbled and he who humbles
himself will be exalted.
Now go with me to Mark chapter 9
and in verse 33 beginning there in Mark
chapter 9, then he came to Capernaum and
when he was in the house he asked
them, this is the Apostles that he's asking,
what was it you disputed among yourselves on
the road?
But they kept silent for on the road
they had disputed among themselves who would be
the greatest.
And he sat down called the twelve and
said to them, if anyone desires to be
first he shall be last of all and
servant of all.
He then took a little child and set
him in the midst of them and when
he had taken him in his arms he
said to them, whoever receives one of these
little children in my name receives me and
whoever receives me receives not me but him
who sent me.
In chapter 10 of Mark beginning with verse
42, but Jesus called them to himself and
said to them, you know that those who
are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it
over them and their great ones exercise authority
over them yet it shall not be so
among you.
But whoever desires to become great among you
shall be your servant and whoever of you
desires to be first shall be slave of
all for even the Son of Man did
not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life a ransom for
many.
Now go with me to Luke chapter 22.
If this sounds repetitious it's because it is.
Verse 24, now there was also a dispute
among them.
I love these apostles.
As to which of them should be considered
the greatest?
And he said to them, the kings of
the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and those
who exercise authority over them are called benefactors
but not so among you on the contrary
he who is greatest among you let him
be as the younger and he who governs
as he who serves.
For who is greater he who sits at
the table or he who serves?
Is it not he who sits at the
table?
Yet I am among you as the one
who serves.
Now there are other scriptures to bear this
out but now we have basically all the
words that we are going to need in
order to complete our list.
The last time we got together as we
began looking at what Jesus said about himself
in his greatest in the kingdom teachings which
I believe very well described who he is
because he was greatest in the kingdom.
He says he that is greatest must be
servant of all.
Well we talked about that last time and
then we looked at how he compared himself
with the kingdom of the world or the
Gentiles and he said you must not lord
it over others so I'll just write that
out here and then he compared himself with
the religious kingdom or that of the scribes
the Pharisees those who sit in the seat
of Moses or the seat of authority or
corollary the greatest in the religious kingdom and
he said they love to lay heavy burdens
on others but they themselves will not lift
a finger to carry the load he says
do as they say but don't do as
they do.
So the only way we can lead in
the kingdom of God is by example.
By the way in John chapter 13 which
later we will look at Jesus uses this
very word and then the fourth thing he
that is greatest must be humble.
Now that's where we got to last time.
Now humility of course we discovered to be
not putting ourselves down or having some hang
dog attitude but it's being honest about ourselves.
It's being what you see is what you
get transparent living without pretense without hypocrisy.
Now you'll notice that as we were reading
the scripture tonight one of the additional words
that we heard was as a child so
let's write that down as number five here.
He that is greatest must be as a
child.
Now one of the things I noticed about
children is that they're rather humble.
Let's just draw a little line up and
put an arrow there.
Children are rather humble aren't they?
Well a small one at least.
Have you noticed that a small child is
if they're happy they can't pretend they're sad.
Have you noticed that?
And if they're sad they can't pretend that
they're happy.
Wasted words to a crying child is don't
cry.
My children were never able to pretend that
they like spinach.
Poison I'm gonna report you.
So a child tends to be who they
are.
I always enjoy watching parents trying to get
their children to do certain things especially small
babies you know that they like to say
wave to the people you know and a
child and I tell them I wouldn't wave
at me if I were you either child
don't worry about it you know.
But a child tends to be who they
are.
Now another thing about a child that and
it's the same thing as humility actually but
I want to pull it out separately here
is a child is unable to deceive.
You ever seen a two-year-old trying
to learn how to play hide-and-go
- seek?
They don't quite have the concept.
Whoever is it counts to 50 and says
here I come ready or not turns around
and there's the two-year-old right there
I don't see you you don't see me.
In fact my own children would sometimes say
to me daddy I'm going to go hide
in the kitchen you come find me okay.
I love it.
They don't know how.
In fact my son when he was about
five saw a magician somewhere and decided he
wanted to be that but it never worked
for him because you see magic is totally
dependent on deception and he didn't understand deception.
He tried.
Daddy I'm gonna play a trick on you
okay okay son I've got a rock in
my hand daddy and I want you to
tell me which hand it's in okay ready
I'm ready son ready yeah he
just didn't know how to deceive.
My children were never able to understand how
I always knew when they had done something
they shouldn't do.
It's because guilt came out of every pore
in their body you know.
If they came home innocent they just came
home but if they came home guilty they
came home innocent.
I would say what have you done how
did you know.
I wonder what would happen if we didn't
know how to deceive.
Have you ever thought about that?
What would happen if we really didn't know
how to deceive each other?
It would change things wouldn't it?
You recall of course that Adam and Eve
when they sin in the garden began to
hide.
They became children of darkness and relationships began.
All of the deception that we have suffered
under for centuries.
But we're children of light.
It's hard to hide things in the light.
Have you noticed that?
You just tend if you're going to hide
something to hide it in the dark.
The child is unable to deceive.
I think when Jesus calls us to be
his children one of the things he's calling
us to be is a non-deceiving sort
of person.
The kind of person that has no hidden
agendas.
Well it's similar to humility isn't it?
To be what you see is what you
get.
Jesus was a very open person.
I'm amazed at him.
He said he was the light of the
world which also he said of us by
the way.
And he said of us that we were
a city set on a hill.
The scripture says of him that this was
not done in a corner.
This was right out in the open you
see.
In him was no darkness at all.
Amazing.
So a child is unable to deceive and
I think God calls us to being undeceptive
sort of people.
The kind of people when when the world
says oh you're a Christian you're one of
the honest ones.
The undeceiving ones.
The open ones.
Well if we're not deceptive how are we
going to protect ourselves?
Well that's God's job see.
That's God's job.
Well can we trust him?
Of course we can.
We should try it sometime.
Another thing about a child that I really
like is a child is very unthreatening.
Just looking you over I don't see any
of you men that I would want to
meet in a dark alley at midnight.
But a little child?
No threat.
Isn't that amazing?
They don't scare us.
Has it ever occurred to you that no
one was afraid of Jesus?
I'm amazed at that because he had all
the power of the universe coursing through his
veins you know.
This incredible power that threw billions of galaxies
out in space man.
This power that created this earth.
But nobody was afraid of him.
Amazing.
The Sanhedrin did not arrest him not because
they were afraid of him but because they
were afraid of the crowd.
And Jesus even sends the Apostles out and
says I send you out as lambs among
wolves.
Well that sounds exciting.
Can you hear the wolves going oh no
here come the sheep.
Now if you're going to go out as
a lamb among wolves you learn quickly don't
go in your own power.
One of the things that troubles me as
I journey around is it seems that we've
been training some attack sheep.
Lambo I guess you would call it.
We can get them can't we?
Baa.
Throughout scripture though this has been God's approach
to the world.
He takes something that was not and speaks
a universe into existence.
He takes a people who are not a
people and he makes them his people.
God has always done that.
Throughout the Old Testament he takes the children
of Israel when they are weakest and wins
the greatest battles.
He takes them when they're trapped and destroys
an Egyptian enemy.
You see an old army.
Even Joseph said the most interesting thing to
his brothers as the whole family was moving
down to Egypt now to eat.
Joseph had become the number one and one
half man in all of Egypt you know.
And he says to his brothers now when
you come to the border he says I'm
going to ask you who you are and
why you're coming here.
He said don't tell them that you're my
brother.
Just tell them the truth.
Tell them that you're a bunch of cattle
herders because we despise cattle herders.
That doesn't make any sense does it?
Look if the president was my brother you'd
probably know by now.
But he is saying don't do that.
Don't do that.
When you come to the border just tell
them the truth.
Tell them that you're cattle herders because we
despise cattle herders.
So they get there and they say who
are you?
Well we're nobody.
We're just coming down to eat.
That's a bunch of cattle herders.
I said oh cattle herders.
You're no threat to us.
We despise cattle herders.
Come on in.
In fact we'll give you our best land,
the land of Goshen.
And the rest is history.
You come to the New Testament and you
hear Paul saying not many mighty, not many
noble are chosen, but God has chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the
wise.
The weak things to confound the mighty.
That's us.
We're the weak and the foolish here and
the world can't figure us out.
I like that.
It's the way God has always operated.
Paul the Apostle says something else.
He says, it's un-American to me.
He says when I am weak, then am
I strong?
See I would have put a question mark
there.
But it's a declaration.
He says his strength is made perfect in
my weakness.
How strange.
But that's the way God operates.
It really is a lot of fun when
you stop and think about it.
It's the thing that makes life such an
adventure for us.
Because the world can't figure it out and
frankly we can't either.
But boy is it ever an adventure.
In fact you come into modern time and
you find it so.
In 1978 I met a Christian leader from
the country of Nepal.
Now at that particular point, Nepal was perhaps
the most closed country in the world to
the gospel.
Some things have changed just recently.
And it's better.
But it was very, very difficult back then.
And he said to me, he said, please
pray for us.
He said the birthright of every Christian in
our country is seven years in jail.
He said if you get baptized, they throw
you in jail for seven years.
If you do the baptizing, he said they
throw you in jail for 14 years.
So he said pray for us.
I'll be honest with you.
I thought pray for you.
Forget you.
But I discovered later that the church in
Nepal for years doubled in size every year.
How did they do that?
Elementary, my dear Watson.
Someone gets baptized, they throw him in jail.
The other prisoners ask him, why are you
here?
Well, I became a Christian.
What's that?
You really want to know?
So other prisoners become Christians and when they
are released and go home, their family would
ask them, what kind of rehabilitation program did
they have in that prison?
He said they didn't have one.
Well, why are you so different?
Well, I became a Christian.
What's that?
You really want to know?
For years, that country built prisons as fast
as they could just to house the church.
1948, when Mao Zedong took over China, they
could only find about 250,000 Christians there
at that point.
They weren't welcome.
At first, they thought they would kill them
all.
They decided that might be a bit messy.
One of the Politburo members, I am told,
said, I know something about these Christians and
I know they have to meet with each
other all the time.
So if we can separate them from each
other, they'll die out.
So they started looking for places where there
were no Christians and they would send one
there.
At that point, Mao Zedong became the director
of the world's largest missions agency.
And I understand that in some parts, when
they would get them into these villages, they
didn't want to give them an important job
because after all, they are Christian.
So they would give them what amounted to
the lowest job on their particular ladder.
Postman.
They paid him to go house to house.
Way to go, Mao.
And now when the door opens up again,
or at least it did for a while,
where we could do some surveying, we discover
there are millions and millions of Christians there.
Well, how could they do that in Nepal
and in China?
They were so weak.
All they had was God.
Not a bad thing.
A child is unthreatening.
And when we approach life in that way,
we lean on God.
And what begins to happen then is beyond
anyone's understanding, isn't it?
Let me tell you a story.
I was serving a church once where on
Thursday mornings, the ladies would come for a
prayer meeting and would put their preschool-age
children in the church nursery and have their
prayer meeting, to which I was not invited,
even though my name is Gail.
But I loved those children, and I would
take about 30 minutes on those Thursday mornings
just to go and play with them.
I'll never forget the first time I did
it.
You know how church nurseries are, this double
-door prison that we built?
I opened the top half, leaned over with
proper pastoral pose.
Hi, kids, Pastor Irwin here.
Let's play.
One of them ran in the other room
terrified.
The rest of them just went about their
business.
Well, they didn't seem to understand who I
was.
So I opened the bottom half, walked in,
and stood among them with proper pastoral pose.
Hi, kids, Pastor Irwin here.
Let's play.
Another one ran in the other room terrified.
The rest of them just walked around like,
did you hear a noise?
By now my ego was involved because the
nursery attendant who was watching all of this
was beginning to go...
I wanted to grab one of them and
shake him and say, you're going to play
with me, kid, and you're going to enjoy
it.
Then the Holy Spirit helped me remember what
life was like for me when I was
that size and how adults looked to me.
Giants, man.
My world was kneecaps.
And immediately I knew what to do.
Without saying another word, I just got down
on the floor, and in 30 seconds, every
one of them was right on top of
me.
All right, we're going to play.
My hair went one direction and my dignity
went another.
Neither have returned.
But at that point, at that point, I
learned something about what we call the incarnation.
God becoming man in Jesus.
And in a sense, getting down on our
floor where we can look him in the
eyes and say, all right, it's party time
in the kingdom.
Well, let's go to number six.
He that is greatest must be as the
younger, we found out.
Now, that meant far more in that day
than it seems to mean to us in
our day.
To be elder or younger in a household
now is of really little significance.
But it was very significant back then.
The elder brother got the birthright, and with
it, the majority of the inheritance.
In fact, in some of those Mideast countries,
the elder brother would inherit everything.
And the younger brother then lived at the
benevolence of the elder brother until elder brothers
were not known for benevolence.
So the younger brother was the disadvantaged one.
He was the one for whom the system
was not a friend.
The status quo was never on his side.
The way things were, were his enemy.
Indeed, the elder brother came to be known
stereotypically as the establishment man.
And the younger brother as the rebel, if
you please.
Interesting.
Jesus says, I want you to live as
the younger.
Now, what that means first is I want
you to know that the system will never
be on your side.
In this world, the way things are will
always be your enemy.
So don't expect your government or the system
of the world to ever become the vehicle
by which the world will be won.
No.
Don't count on it.
In fact, those great pilgrims of faith declared
themselves to be pilgrims, didn't they?
They said, here we have no enduring city.
Interesting.
No system, no place here that will last
that we can say this is ours.
But we look for a city which has
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Ah.
So we'll never have our permanent place, our
rested system here.
That's one of the things he was saying.
But another thing he was saying by being
as the younger is I want you to
realize that you're a pilgrim.
You're just passing through.
Travel light.
I travel a lot.
And one of the things I've learned about
traveling is the joy of the journey is
inversely proportional to the amount of luggage that
I take.
The more luggage, the less joy.
The less luggage, the more joy.
Heaven is carry on.
I think Jesus is talking something about that.
He's saying we're to be pilgrims passing through.
I used to hear a song.
Don't hear it much anymore.
Hadn't heard in a long time.
You might remember it.
Some of you says this world is not
my home.
I'm just a passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the
blue.
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
and I can't feel at home in this
world anymore.
I think I haven't heard it much lately
because I don't think I can honestly sing
it much lately.
I'd now have to sing this world is
now my home.
I'm not a passing through.
My treasures are laid up on Moonlight Drive
in Cathedral City, California.
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
and I can't go right now.
I'm polishing my Rolls Royce.
I don't have a Rolls Royce.
I sold it to a TV evangelist.
No, no, no.
Not so.
I'm kidding.
But what happens, the more things we get.
I am amazed.
I once thought I was pretty free from
all of that.
You know, I really did.
Until about four years ago, my wife and
I moved twice in one summer.
Everyone ought to do that once.
They say two moves is as good as
a fire.
I couldn't believe how much stuff we had.
I thought we'd pack the night before we
moved.
My wife was wiser than that.
And hour after hour of those weeks, boxes
began to crowd us out of our rooms.
I couldn't believe.
Where is this coming from?
And when the day arrived and I had
hired this big truck and I'm carrying box
after box up that ramp.
Man, and my back's going out.
And finally, I picked up this heavy box
and I carry it up.
I say, honey, what is in this box?
She says, it's written on it.
Stuff.
She says, oh, that's garage sales stuff.
We'll sell it for 50 cents when we
get over there.
And I'm killing myself carrying it up there.
And I realize I'm into stuff.
I'm into things.
In fact, when we were packing up, we
discovered this.
See, I had lived down here for about
six years and where we were for nine
years.
We found boxes that had not been opened
in nine years.
We really needed it badly, didn't we?
But we found one box.
And I looked at it and it just
said stuff.
Just like I was saying.
And I thought, man, I remember this.
We opened it.
It was garbage from the house we had
down here.
We'd kept it for nine years.
I'm a collector.
I'm a pack rat.
I have doodads, thingamajigs.
I've had them for 30 years.
I don't know what they are, but they
look very interesting.
And I know that when I throw them
away, the next day I'm going to need
them.
I can't believe how I accumulate things.
Jesus dealt with a man about that.
One of the most interesting stories in Scripture
because it was coming together so well.
This man really seemed to have his act
together.
You begin reading this story and you think,
this is going to be an awesome story
of the kingdom.
The man was intelligent because he knew who
to come to.
He came to Jesus.
That's intelligent.
And he knew the question to ask.
You see, some people come to God and
ask really stupid questions.
Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?
Stupid question.
Should we pay taxes to Caesar?
Stupid question.
Can you make an object so big that
you can't move it?
Stupid question.
This guy knew the question to ask.
He said, good master, what must I do
to inherit eternal life?
Ah, right question.
Smart guy, intelligent.
And Jesus listed a few rules and he
said, you know these.
And then the man said, yes, and I
have kept them since my youth.
Wow.
This man was not only intelligent, but he
was holy.
And he had one more thing going for
him.
He was rich.
We call him the rich young ruler.
My kind of man.
Intelligent, holy, and rich.
I'd love to have him on my board.
And the Bible records that Jesus loved him.
It's a beautiful story.
See, everything's coming together.
And Jesus said to him, and I shall
paraphrase slightly here.
You're doing great, man.
In fact, you only lack one thing.
Hey, that's called good news.
See, I would expect Jesus to say to
me, well, let me see when you lack
743 things.
But I can hear this man.
Just one thing?
What is it?
I'm a can-do man.
I'll do it.
And Jesus says, and I continue to paraphrase
slightly here.
Well, boy, you're doing so good.
There's only one thing I can see that
has you in bondage still.
Why don't you go sell everything you've got
and give it to the poor?
Then come follow me.
Ah.
The Bible says he went away sad because
he had a lot of stuff.
So sad, man.
If he ever had just one bicycle, he'd
have said, big deal, take it.
But he said, you don't understand, sir.
I have 100,000 bicycles.
How many of those can you ride at
once?
Well, that's beside the point.
I've got 100,000.
Rich young ruler was sad.
Jesus was sad.
The apostles were sad.
They were probably thinking, why didn't he tell
him to sell it and give the money
to the Apostolic Evangelistic Association?
I would have thought of that.
And then Jesus said, boy, it's tough for
a guy like this.
In fact, it's harder for a rich man
to enter the kingdom than for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle.
Wow.
Now, I once taught that the eye of
the needle was a gate in the Jerusalem
Wall, so small that a camel could only
go through on his knees with nothing on
his back.
It's really a great illustration.
Until one day I decided to check it
out to see if it was true.
It isn't.
There is never any such gate in the
Jerusalem Wall.
So when Jesus said a camel through the
eye of a needle, he meant a camel
through the eye of a needle.
I don't know if you've ever tried to
push a camel through the eye of a
needle.
It can be done.
But you have to grind him up real
fine first.
It doesn't look the same when you get
through.
And he really feels all strung out.
There's not a big market for ground camel
that I know of.
One of the things that I discovered is
that as I accumulate, it doesn't put me
at rest.
It's a funny thing.
I saw the best illustration of that I
think I have ever seen once when I
was taking an all-night bus ride in
India.
Everyone ought to do that once in their
lives.
And somewhere in the trip, this man got
on the bus.
It was a crowded bus, and he had
about ten boxes that he wanted on.
But they don't go inside the bus.
They go on top.
And so with great output of energy, because
he didn't seem to get anyone who could
help him.
I wasn't sure he wanted any help.
He finally got all ten of them on
top.
And he got into the bus.
He was exhausted, but not too exhausted to
nearly start a fight so he could get
a window seat.
I thought, at last this man can get
some rest.
Do you know what he did?
For the rest of the trip, he had
his head out the window counting boxes.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten.
And when people would get off, he would
watch them very closely.
And I realized that's what happens when I
get it.
Now I got to count it.
Jesus says, in essence, I want you to
travel light.
Oh, by the way, I do believe, I
want you to know this, that you can
have things and make it to heaven.
I believe it.
But I also believe you need to see
these things the same way Paul the Apostle
saw his things.
If you'll let me paraphrase him slightly.
He says, I consider all these things to
be dung.
You're not offended by that word, are you?
Manure?
Manure.
Now if you can see your things that
way, you're not going to get too attached
to them.
Can you see me?
If Jesus were to say, hey, Gail, come
over here and work for me.
And I were to say to him, I
can't do it right now, Jesus.
I'm guarding a hundred tons of manure.
Expecting another load any minute.
See how absurd that begins to sound?
Now if you can see your things that
way, then they will not corrupt you.
And you can live life as the younger.
Is this clear now?
To be as the younger means you understand
that you can't count on the system of
this world.
You'll always be the disadvantaged one.
But that means you have to lean on
his power, of course.
And it means to travel light.
Well then he says, he that is greatest
must be as the least and as the
last.
Which doesn't mean I want to be least
and last to show you how least and
last I am.
If I ever come to you and say,
you be first, I'll be last.
Since I'm the greatest.
Get sick right there.
No, remember, this is an others-centered thing.
You recall when we were discussing servant last
time we were together.
One of the working definitions for it is
to be others-centered.
And if I see you the way Jesus
sees you and love you the way he
loves you, then I'm going to want to
put you first.
And I really won't be noticing that I
was last, see.
I won't be saying, did you see that
Jesus?
I had a last.
Do I get points?
No, this is an others-centered thing.
Well here you have then the eight things
Jesus says about himself in the Gospels.
Now the next time we get together, we
will look at six more that we bring
in from the epistles.
But that will be another fun gathering.
When I first saw this though, I had
two reactions.
My first reaction was, Boy Jesus, I love
you now more than I ever have before.
I'm glad to follow you.
Then I had another reaction.
Have you noticed that, remember that old carnal
nature that you got some help getting away
from?
But it had habit patterns, didn't it?
That sort of thought patterns.
Every once in a while they'll zing through.
One of them, zing!
For me.
You know what I found myself thinking?
Oh, come on, Irwin.
You can't do that.
You're having a rough enough time being a
Christian now.
You'll never be able to do that.
Ah, but I have some good news.
I can't let you go without sharing some
good news with you.
I like good news.
The first bit of good news is this.
This is the way Jesus is toward us.
That is good news.
There have been times, for instance, in my
sharing the gospel with individuals, that I'd offer
them the opportunity to follow the Lord and
they would say no.
And a few times I had the presence
of mind to ask them, Would you mind
describing God as you understand Him?
Boy, when they got through describing Him, I
wouldn't have followed Him either.
They didn't know that this is the way
Jesus is.
How can you say no to this?
This is good news.
This is the way He is toward us.
The other item of good news comes from
Philippians 2.13, which says, For it is
God who is at work in us, both
to will and to do of His good
pleasure.
In other words, it's God who's at work
in you to make you want to do
His will and to enable you to do
His will.
In other words, you're God's fault.
Ephesians tells us we are His workmanship, His
poem, His work of art.
Awesome.
I best understood this.
Some years ago I worked in a place
where on Tuesdays and Thursdays the men of
the department would go across the street to
a gymnasium and during lunch hour play basketball.
Now, basketball is not my best game.
Sometimes they'd confuse me with the ball.
And sometimes when we would choose upsides, they
would get down to me and say, Look,
we had Irwin last time, it's your turn.
So I was playing basketball for the fellowship
and the exercise, but there was one guy
there, his name was Dave, and he was
about six feet thirty inches tall.
He could play basketball.
I loved to get chosen on his team
because we would always win.
By the way, I saw this guy just
a year or so ago for the first
time in many, many years, and he tells
me, he says, I'm most famous because of
this story you tell, Gail.
When they find out that I'm the Dave,
oh, yeah, we know you.
And he says, I tell people that I'm
not as good as Irwin said I was,
but Irwin's as bad as he said he
was.
But I loved to get chosen on his
team because we would always win.
Now, on his team, I only had one
job.
Get the ball to Dave.
So I'd bring the ball inbounds, you know,
and I'd lob it over to Dave, and
he'd turn around, and the other team would
go, and they'd miss half of their shots.
And it would be my turn again.
I'd bring the ball back inbounds, and by
now I'm feeling my Cheerios, so I'd do
a few globetrotters to make you think I
know what I'm doing.
And if the ball got stolen, it would
be when I was showing off.
Then I'd lob it over to Dave, and
he'd turn around, and the other team would
go, and then I would say, aren't we
good?
We?
There's no we to it.
It was all Dave.
I only had one job.
Get the ball to Dave.
Now, this is the way it is with
us.
We're on God's team.
Let me tell you another story in the
middle of this story.
When I was in high school is when
the first big-name sportsmen first started becoming
Christians.
And they would come by my high school.
It was a secular high school, and we'd
have an assembly, and they'd give their testimony,
and kids would come to Christ.
It was awesome.
Now, these guys, their hearts were right, but
their heads didn't always have their theology figured
out.
And I remember this one big football bruiser
that came by, and he says, in football,
we have a first team, and we have
a second team, and then we have scrubs.
I thought, that's me, I'm a scrub.
But he says, nobody wants to be that,
so what we do is we get out
there, and we run 500 miles a day.
And we eat 15 beef steaks an hour.
And we lift 150 tons of weight a
day, and we put on our pads, and
we run headlong into brick walls to make
ourselves tough so we can be on the
first team, because nobody wants to be a
scrub.
And then he applied that spiritually, and that's
where he got off just a bit.
He said, that's the way it is with
God.
God's got a first team.
He's got a second team.
And then he has scrubs.
I thought, that's me, I'm a scrub.
But he said, nobody wants to be that,
so what we do is we go to
church 500 times an hour.
And we read 15,000 scriptures a minute,
and we witness to 6,000 people a
second.
And we give 150% of our income,
so we can be on God's first team,
because nobody wants to be a scrub.
But folks, that's not the way it is
with God at all.
He's only got one team, and he calls
it a body.
See, I would never come to you and
say, is that your first team nose?
Well, of course it is, Erwin.
It's the only one I've got.
Well, that's the point, you see.
So we're on his body, in his body.
We're on his team.
And we've got one job.
Get the ball to Jesus.
Jesus said, without me you can do...
Nothing.
How much is nothing?
All right, we got that solved, okay?
So I bring the ball in bounds, and
I lob it over to Jesus, and he
turns around, and Satan goes, and
he misses half of his shots.
And I bring the ball back in bounds,
and by now I'm feeling my spiritual cheerio.
So I do a few spiritual globetrotter stunts
to make you think I know what I'm
doing.
And if the ball gets stolen, it'll be
when I'm showing off.
And I lob it over to Jesus, and
he goes, and Satan goes, And then I
say, Aren't we good?
There's no we to it.
It was all him.
I only had one job.
Get the ball to Jesus.
Without me you can do nothing.
In fact, the Scripture reveals to us, looking
unto Jesus, the author and the...
finisher of our faith.
Incredible.
Not the author and abandoner of our faith.
When he starts, he has the power to
finish.
Isn't that great?
Finisher.
I am the author of the unfinished job.
My wife gets a little upset about it.
I have these unfinished jobs around the house,
little piles of tools and parts, and I'm
saying, Just waiting on a part, honey, and
I'll finish this.
But God, oh.
He who has begun this work in you
will be faithful to?
Complete it.
It's not he who has begun this work
in you will really get tired of you
after a while and say, Okay, you're on
your own.
Complete it.
Now unto him who is able to keep
you from falling.
Who is the him that it's unto?
You?
No.
Jesus.
So I have learned in my old age,
as I have experienced and watched all kinds
of different theologies, to hold on to them
very lightly.
But to hang on to Jesus for dear
life, man.
Looking unto Jesus.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.
I have a brother three years younger than
I who's an expert sailor.
And every time I go and visit him,
we go sailing.
Now this has brought about a certain tradition,
a legend almost at our house.
My mother goes into immediate intense prayer.
And she calls the coast guard and says,
Gentlemen, start your engines.
The Irwin boys are on the ocean.
Now the reason for that is, we always
go aground and have to be rescued.
Now the reason for that is my brother
turns the helm over to me.
And he says, It's real easy, Gale.
Just go toward that red light that flashes
red once every two seconds and we'll be
okay.
No problem.
But there is a problem.
It's not the only light out there.
And anyway, the top of the ocean looks
pretty much the same everywhere.
Have you noticed that?
And I see another light.
Oh, now that's red.
And it's flashing twice a second.
Now that's easier to follow.
I'll follow that one.
And then I see another light, man.
It's got some action to it.
And it's moving too.
Okay, now we'll really get somewhere, you see.
And sure enough, after a while, thump, thump.
And my brother comes running back.
Gale, what happened?
What happened?
I don't know, Jay.
I'm just following this light.
What light?
This light.
Wrong light.
That's what happens to us spiritually sometimes.
We see the light of the world and
we begin to follow.
And we discover, well, there's some other lights
out there, aren't there?
Look at that one.
That one's flashing a lot faster.
Hey, there we go.
We can go that way, yeah.
Then we see another one that's got pizzazz
to it, man.
And it's really moving.
Now we'll get somewhere, yeah.
But sure enough, after a while, spiritually, thump,
thump.
What happened?
Just got our eyes off of Jesus, that's
all.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.
Now I'm telling you, and I wanted you
to see this too.
Not so it can put you under some
burden of, oh boy, look at what I
have to do now.
No, I want you to see what He's
doing in you.
This is like the pattern He writes on
you and says, now I want you to
see what I'm going to make you to
become.
Oh, what a goal.
Beats any goal I've ever seen.
And my heart cries out, yes, Lord Jesus.
Oh, you are so good to us.
And our hearts do go up to you
in worship.
We thank you.
Oh, we thank you.
And on behalf of myself and I think
these people, I say to you, Lord, work
on us.
We open ourselves to you and ask you
to make us like you.
Work out your will in us.
Draw us to you and to your likeness.
Fill us with the knowledge of you and
your will.
And I ask it in the name of
Jesus.
Amen.
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