Hey everyone, welcome to the Sunday Sit down where it's not
Sunday, but we are sitting down. We are hoping, however, this
finds you that this is a great resource as we reflect on our
sermon from the past week, as we get a chance to go a little
deeper, to look at the text in a, in a more granular way, to
explore some of the application in a more, in a more specific
way perhaps. And so that's what we're hoping
to do this morning. And so we turned the page.
We are in Luke Chapter 9 and this is the story of Jesus sort
of looking at his disciples and see and and kind of the Jesus
has been doing lots of things. I kind of went through every
single event that Jesus has done thus far, and we noted that it
was Jesus doing all the work. And so now Jesus says to his 12
disciples, he says, OK, you go do.
And he sends them off in a kind of in a missionary journey to to
the region. He says, don't take anything
with you. Well, we'll read it in a second,
but anyway, so this is an interesting passage on a couple
different levels. And so we, we had one question
in particular come up that was quite provocative in a, in a, in
a great way. And so Abby, Abby and I are
looking forward to discussing a little bit more.
But maybe why don't you start by reading the passage for.
Me all right, Luke Chapter 9 versus 1 to 9.
When Jesus had called the 12 together, he gave them power and
authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and
he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the
sick. He told them take nothing for
the journey. No staff, no bag, no bread, no
money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay
there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you,
leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a
testimony against them. So they set out and went from
village to village, proclaiming the good news, healing people
everywhere. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard
about all that was going on, and he was perplexed, because some
were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others
that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the
prophets of long ago had come back to life.
But Herod said, I beheaded John. Who then is this I hear such
things about? And he tried to see him.
Alright, and then in my in my message, I did include the just
the very beginning of of verse 10.
We don't need to worry that we're about reading that now is
just because it kind of connects with this idea, this idea of the
possibles returning back to report back to Jesus what they
had seen and heard and done. So yeah, I, I don't know where
you wanna jump in first here, Abby, but you know, we can keep
this a little bit more discussion oriented rather than,
you know, you grilling me on things because I think you have
some good insights as well. So.
I just, yeah, this passage is super interesting to me because
when I read it in the Bible, it's like, OK, start of a new
chapter. And it almost feels like just
out of nowhere, like we don't really have a sense other than
that the disciples were following Jesus, who was a
rabbi. So eventually, like they are
learning to become like Jesus, but it really almost feels out
of left field that Jesus is all the sudden like, all right, you
guys are up. Throw them into the deep end.
Yeah, it really is a well, I hope you've figured out how to
swim. Especially I think for me, like
when I'm teaching other people to do this, I am a like, come
alongside and do this with me. Whereas Jesus very much has a
watch how I do this and then he sends them out on their own.
It's not like he's going with them to give them tips along the
way. Yeah, it's the I really hope
that as you've watched me, you've figured this out.
And that's that's a lot of responsibility, yeah, to give to
people on top of the fact that he also calls them together and
says here I've given you the power and authority to drive out
all demons and cure diseases like.
Well, and one of the things that one of the things that struck me
is that they probably have been like discussing, like you see it
in like the parable of the sower where where Jesus gives this
parable. And then and then they kind of
like have a little huddle and they're talking about it, right?
So I think it's fair to assume that they're probably doing that
a little bit along the way. But it's just so funny that like
it's all of you know, Jesus has been doing all these things and
he's just like, OK, trial by fire go.
Um, and I wonder if this is, this is purely speculation.
There is like, so this is just musing.
This is not me in inferring anything from the text.
I want to make that very clear. You have to imagine that they
must have failed a lot along the way.
It's interesting, yeah. It is like, I mean like I don't
remember which gospel it is, but there is examples of they're
like Jesus. We can't heal this person.
We can't get this. Team why couldn't we do it?
Jesus, why couldn't we do it Especially like so they knew
that they theoretically had the power to do all of this.
But there isn't a lot in the Gospel accounts of the failures.
And I think sometimes that gives us a false perception.
I think that's maybe where we you were talking on Sunday about
is this descriptive or prescriptive?
And I think this is maybe one of the areas where sometimes we mix
those up because we assume that we have to be successful all the
time or we misunderstand what success in our evangelism looks
like as we carry the good news of the Kingdom of God and to
heal the sick. Like, what does healing actually
look like? And so we think that it, you
know, has to look a certain way. Yeah.
And maybe it doesn't. Well, and, and one of the one of
the wrestlings that I had as I was going through this, this
passage is you, you know, you see the example or the
instructions that Jesus gives, you know, don't take anything
with you, You know, stay at the house that you're told go and
you know, go in heal, go and go and drive out demons.
And if people don't welcome you, shake off the dust off your feet
as a testimony against them. So he gives these very specific
instructions and I get worried sometimes that we.
Use it as an excuse for bad stewardship.
Well, that, that yes, but also just that we, we can, we can
take Jesus's words and his instructions and, and, and
interpret that that is, this is the now the way that we must do
evangelistic work or mission work.
That this is the only way to do it.
When, when Jesus throughout his ministry gives and, and Paul as
well gives a ton of different ways in which this is done
right. This is one example.
Most of the early church leaders were like, by vocational, Yeah,
they provided for themselves. And like Paul in at least one of
his letters talks about like, I'm so grateful for the gifts
that this church is giving to me, but also like, I am able to
provide for myself. And that's like, it's important
to be responsible, not just with the gospel that we're carrying,
but like making sure we have the resources to do that in ways
that don't place an unfair, unjust burden on the people
we're trying to reach. Which I think probably is a
little different here because just like in the climate of that
day, I would imagine most of the people that they were taking
this to probably would have had a higher economic status just
because of the dynamics between like Jews and gentiles and how
that worked out in the Roman Empire.
But that's not like blanket universal statement.
But it would have been the case in a lot of the places they were
visiting. Well, and the people, the, the
hospitality culture was, was so different, far greater, right.
And, and so that's, that's for me, a major consideration that
when we, when we look at these people going from village to
village and doing ministry there and, and basically knowing that
you're going to have a place to stay, right, that there will be
people that will see you and welcome you in.
I don't know that that is a reality.
When I, if I were to, you know, go to a village or city or town
where I don't know a single person.
I mean, I, I seem like hopefully a nice enough dude, maybe if I
shaved my beard, I would have a better chance.
I don't, I don't know. But like, I don't, I'm not
guaranteed that. I think there was there was a
bit more of a guarantee here just based on on the the, the
way that this sort of work was done that happened in the in the
day. One, like the people generally
built their lives under the assumption that like,
hospitality was just what they did and everybody did it.
So you make room for that or you make it work.
And I that's not something that we're very good at in the 21st
century. We could learn a little.
We could learn. Like, I'm not saying like just
bring any rando into your home. I'm not suggesting that
listener. However, how can we grow, you
know, like, how can we grow in our willingness to to, yeah,
bring people in when there are needs or to display a sort of
radical generosity in the way that these people would have.
And I didn't get into any of this on Sunday, but it's worth
exploring a little, yeah. Yeah.
I think just like a practical example that I find helpful for
that idea of hospitality is that I kind of grew up with people in
my family where it was like when they, you know, meal planned and
decided what they would have for dinner on the nights of the week
that like we as kids had sports events or we had to go to youth
group after. The things we made for dinner
were really easy to, you know, add an extra can of beans into
or to expand. So it didn't, you know, we maybe
planned to have six or seven people if ended up being 10
people. It wasn't difficult for us to
stretch that meal to feed more people and learning to be like,
OK, the house doesn't have to be 100% perfect.
Like, we want people to just be able to come into our everyday
lives and sit around the table with us, even though everybody's
in and out and people have places to be at different times
in the evening. And it's been really cool to see
how that's kind of like shaped the neighborhood that my parents
currently live in. Is that idea of just, you know,
open dinner type situation? I love that I and I know that
there are some folks in the church here who are very adept
at that. You know who you are and I know
that you're listening A I wanna be better at that.
In fact, we're in the middle of my daughter, who she's nine
years old, you know, should be 10 in early in the new year.
And and you know, she's starting to you know, she's starting to
become more mature. And so she wants a new a new
room, her kind of former toy room is going to be kind of re
tweaked a little bit to become a bit more of like a hangout space
for her and her friends. And, and one of the rationales
for my wife and I are like, we we want to actually be a, a safe
space. We want our home to be a safe
space for kids where there is like this lost art of what
you're describing of having just like kid turns up after school
with, you know, with your kids and they're hanging out.
It's like, hey, do you want to stay for dinner?
Let's check with your parents. That's OK.
Yeah. We've got lots of food.
Don't worry about it. You know, would love to see more
of that. I would love to, you know,
myself, you know, I think earlier on in my life we were,
you know, we had, this is a funny scenario that we found
ourselves in. This was 11 years ago.
We, we were my wife and I, we were away for like our five year
anniversary where we were in the UK and France and had a
wonderful time. We came home, we were at church
that Sunday. There was a woman from from
Ireland who turned up at our church and she just had like
moved to Guelph on a whim. No plans, no nothing.
She had her chatting with her and, and she was like, well, if
you guys know anywhere like I could stay, cause I, I wanna be
here for like the next year or two, you know, is there anywhere
where you, where I can stay? And my wife and I looked at each
other like we got home from church.
We're like, I think she's supposed to live in her house.
So like it was just this real deep sense, you know, And so she
did. She actually lived in her house
for, for a year. We were hoping it would be two.
She ended up having to move back after, after a year, but it was
amazing. Like it was so it was such a,
such a gift. It was like, you know, a
friendship that we still maintained at this day.
She was back in Canada last summer.
We, we had her over for lunch and actually she led worship
with me Sunday and like just a beautiful thing that like, you
know, just being able to listen to that prompting and just say,
I think she, I think she's actually used to live in her
basement, you know, and it was awesome.
So anyway, that's, I mean, that's sort of like a, an
unexpected little tangential part of this passage, which to
think about what the what the experience of those villages
were like. But why don't we get into to
another area here? Yeah, like when the people were
going to don't want us to talk to them and tell them about
Jesus. Yeah, yeah.
So we had a good question from from someone so.
Go ahead. Yeah.
So the question was Jesus uses this example in Luke 9 of
shaking the dust off of your feet.
He says shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against
them. And Justin kind of explained
that in that time it was this like symbolic gesture, gesture
that marked a location kind of as ceremonially unclean.
And someone asked kind of what is the modern day equivalent of
that or like, how do we understand that in our context
today? Because we don't have these same
ideas of clean and unclean. And, you know, generally, like
creating a testimony against someone is a pretty harsh mark
on them. And So what do we do, you know,
when people are really hostile and response to our faith And
how do we move forward with that, whether or not we, you
know, continue to kind of like gently walk in relationship with
them or do we kind of just step away from that?
Yeah, there's a lot of different like angles to approach this
from the the first one that comes to my mind is, you know,
that like, hey, some of this is just boundaries.
Like if, if someone is going to treat you with hostility,
someone is going to treat you with aggression, someone is
going to treat you and, and kind of condescending treat you in a
condescending way. Like at some point we just need
to be, we just need willing to say, Hey, I that, that's, that's
not OK. You know, like I, I, I deserve
better treatment than that, right?
So like that's like a very like superficial approach that's just
kind of good for life in general, but specifically as a
Christian ethic. I think about the easiest way,
and I've talked about this a few times before on the podcast, but
the easiest way that I can sort of like give a give an anecdote
or example is is in like online interactions with people, right?
Where like, OK, so keyboard warrior atheists are among the
most. There are lots of thoughtful,
thoughtful atheists who who are, you know, wanting to interact in
good faith. There are many who just want to
insult you for believing in skydaddy, you know, like, and
they will do anything in their power to to belittle and insult.
And one of my favorite things that I regrettably wish I had
started doing earlier was just be kind.
Be loving, don't retaliate because what's going to happen
is that anyone who sees that interaction there, it's going to
be a testimony against them, right?
It is it. They are the ones that are going
to look bad in that scenario. Hmm, right.
Not me. They might, they might belittle
my beliefs. They might not even agree with
my beliefs. But if you're reading that, be
like, wow, that Christian was above reproach in there in their
kindness and their behavior. And also that atheist kind of
looked like a jerk. So I was like, that's that's
another angle. And I think that can play out in
in real life too. The other, the other part of it
that I'm thinking about is like, and we chatted about this a
little bit. Sometimes we have a partial job
to do when it comes to those who are hostile toward matters of,
of faith, right? Like that.
It is not always going to be my job personally to, to be the one
to, to draw them toward Jesus. Now, as I said on Sunday, this
is all grace. We know this is all God's work
anyway. However, we all have unique
roles to play that God works in and through us as individuals.
And and so for me, I, I have learned.
I have learned that it is not always going to be my job to do
the thing that they're, that there may be Someone Like You,
someone like Pastor Grant, someone just a, a, you know, a,
an everyday congregant who is going to be able to build a
connection and maybe breakdown those barriers anyway.
Yeah, yeah, I also, Paul talks about that in First Corinthians.
He calls out the Corinthian church on kind of they had a
slightly different situation where they were like, oh, I
follow Paul and like this is the apostle I'm choosing to like
align with. Or I follow Apollo saying Paul
says this thing where he says, OK, I planted the seed, but
Apollos watered it, but it is God that has been making it
grow. So neither the one who plants
nor the one who waters is anything at all.
But only God who makes things grow, the one who plants and the
one who waters, have one purpose and they will each be rewarded
according to their own labour, for we are Co workers in God's
service. I think that kind of sums it up
really well of the we don't know who's going to come along in the
future and you know, water, what we hope is a seed that's been
planted. If we have these encounters
where ultimately we end up being rejected or mistreated or spoken
poorly too, because of our faith, and that's very freeing.
Like, I don't think that means we failed in our sharing of what
we believe. And it is a really beautiful
opportunity, I think, to trust that God is moving and God is
working in people's way beyond what we can see.
Yeah. And that we might not actually
see what comes of that. And learning to be OK with that
and trusting that you know God loves the people he created.
Hmm. And we can't love them more than
God loves them. And it doesn't.
I almost think it does the opposite of showing people God
loves them when we start to act as though we can love people
better than God can, or that we ultimately know how best to love
the people God created and that's OK.
Hmm. Yeah, I think about like, if
we've been loving, if we've been gracious as much as we are able,
if we've been, if we've been truthful, and again, all that
wrapped up in love and grace. Because I think that you can be
truthful. You can and you can be a jerk
about it. If you've been all those things
and they there is still hostility, there is still
rejection. That's where we can say like,
you know, and this is sort of what I almost I, I picture the,
the modern day version of shaking the dust off your feet.
I just sort of mean like, OK, I'm just going to wipe my hands
clean of this. And I don't mean that in like a
callous way. Yeah, I, I just mean that in a
way of like, hey, I, I don't know what this juncture, if
there's anything more that I can do.
This is up to God. This may be up to, to someone
else, God through them. And and so it's, it's not
something that I think we should spend an inordinate amount of
time worrying over. Right.
Yeah. And and then the other, the
other piece that I'm thinking about a little bit is and, and
it's going to sound like I'm, I'm ragging on apologetics and,
and I've done this a little bit sometimes in my sermons.
So I, I don't want to be like the, I don't want to be known as
like the anti apologetic guy. But one of the concerns I have
is that we think we can debate and argue people into the
Kingdom of God. And I just have never witnessed
that in my life. I think there there is time and
space for intellectual theological discourse.
Like I think that that can be valuable.
And I think that if someone is earnestly seeking and, and
looking for, like, if someone, I, I have a friend I grew up
with who grew up in the church and eventually to reject it.
And, but they had deeply earnest questions that were like, kind
of like apologetic type questions of like, Hey, I, I
need you to try to convince me because I want to believe.
I need you to try to convince me of the resurrection.
I need you to try to convince me of the validity of Christianity
versus say other faiths or whatever.
Like, and, and we had lots of amazing discussions, but they
were earnestly seeking they were they, they wanted good faith
dialogue. Whereas I see all these videos
on YouTube of just like, you know, university, like
university lecture halls where, where you bring in some big
speaker. I won't name any names, but and
then they're like, they're having these debates and, and
they go back and forth and I mean, like, no one is going to
walk away from that feeling like man, God's Spirit was there and,
and, and people like repented and they were healed and the
message of the Kingdom came out like that.
That's not happening there, right?
And so at some point we need to be able to say, OK, this is not
for me. I'm like in all like I've, I've
done everything that is within my power and my control.
I leave this up to God. And I think this idea that the
gospel, this good news also like comes with this like addition or
byproduct of people being healed and so often, so often is maybe
an exaggeration. There are times where maybe
people are proclaiming the good news, but people at minimum are
not being healed and at the worst are being harmed by how
it's being portrayed. And like I, I almost wanna say
like, it's not the full gospel if we're leaving out, like if
somehow we're missing the steps that actually provide wholeness.
Like kind of like Annabelle talked about a couple of weeks
ago about how this idea of salvation, the word means like
wholeness and fullness and that it like our salvation not only
like for art souls in a metaphysical sense, but like
every part of us one day will be restored and made whole and
perfect again. And I'm not always sure that
that's the understanding of the good news that we carry and of
the Kingdom that we preach, even though that's what was
happening. Like maybe it's not physical
healing, but maybe it's, you know, the bitterness or the hurt
that people have been carrying for years because of what's
happened to them. And then they encounter Jesus
and that just melts away. Like that is still healing that
should be coming with Jesus and that's so beautiful and
witnessing that like it's not like this is an impossible
thing. Like it happens.
Those of us who follow Jesus have had those experiences where
God has done that work. And I think it almost it does
people a disservice when we don't want to offer all of that
to them as well. The whole picture of the gospel,
right and and that's why I and Pastor Grants been doing this to
you. I think we all have is that
we've been trying to say, look, the Kingdom looks like, yes, the
proclaiming of the word, but it also looks like healing and
restoration and, and all of these things that Jesus set out
when he talked about, when you talked about the Kingdom coming
in, in Luke chapter 4. And, and he, he is making a very
clear statement that these things work in tandem, right?
And so I think it's one of the the pitfalls of, of primarily, I
want to be careful how I say this, but like primarily just
like preaching the gospel, so to speak.
And I, and I say that almost in quotation marks because I don't,
I don't actually think you can preach the gospel without there
being works attached to it. Like James is pretty clear on
that. Yeah, I just pulled up classic
James. Chapter 2 says, what good is it
to my brothers and sisters? If someone claims to have faith
but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?
Suppose suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and
daily food. If one of you says to them go in
peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their
physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself
is not accompanied by if it is not accompanied by action is
dead. And that is a like that's a
pretty intense statement. That's, I mean, Christians over
the centuries have hotly debated about the the implications of
that. But, but I, I think we, we can
make it too complicated. It's that the Kingdom, if it is
you, you can't, you can't dissect the Kingdom in terms of
here's here's sort of like the gospel proclamation part.
Yeah. And here's the we're going to
help you be healed and restored and be fed and clothed and all
that. Those those two cannot be
compartmentalized, Yeah. Yeah, they just, they, yeah, I
like that almost more than the oh, there's this part and we
need to see it with this part. It's like they're just so
interlocked. They it is one package.
And if yeah, you're not seeing all of those pieces, it's
probably a different package altogether.
Yes. Or on the other hand, though, I
think sometimes we're too quick to be like harsh in our judgment
of, you know, you must be a heretic because I'm not seeing
XYZ fruit or you must be preaching a false gospel.
And I think sometimes, like God does work behind the scenes and
we can't always see the full picture of what's going on.
My last year working at camp are like theme, not theme, but like
our thing for the summer was that we see a part in God sees
the whole. So we would go like this, we see
a part, but God sees the whole because it's like, you know,
peripheral vision. But I think about that a lot,
especially with things like this of the I only have a limited
vision. Yeah, I cannot and do not want
the responsibility of seeing all that God sees.
That is a great. No thank.
You. No, no, I'm good.
I'm good, but I need to be kept humble and remember that, yeah,
it's not my job to see everything or to know everything
or to do everything. Well, that's a good that raises
a good point as well of like, you know, let's let's even just
use the example of of myself and pastor Grant where grant is the
grant is the lead pastor. I am the pastor of worship and
outreach within that grant has a a greater a greater
responsibility for the word right for the written and spoken
proclamation of the gospel right.
That is it. It's not to say he doesn't care
about the other stuff. I know he deeply does.
And it's not to say I don't care about the gospel proclamation
piece as well. I I definitely do.
I hope I did that on Sunday right.
But that we both have strengths and, and bents and embassies and
This is why in the Kingdom we need each other because that we
are all wired differently and God has gifted us differently.
And, and so, you know, for someone like Grant, he is, he
is. So I'm going to brag on him for
just a moment because he's on vacation right now.
So he's not here to hear it anyway.
But like he's so quick on his feet.
He can. It'll be like Wednesday and be
like, yeah, I've written the sermon in my head.
I've been like, how did you do that?
Like he's like, yeah, I could get up and preach it now and,
and be like, but you haven't written it.
He's like, I know, but that's the last thing I do.
And I was like, I gotta write it.
But like first and then I, you know, like just our process is
so different and God has uniquely gifted in him, in him
in a very particular way that he has not gifted me in.
And and I think the vice versa, right?
That there are there that there are strengths and bents that
that I have that complement right?
And and I think that we we need each other.
We need each other so. Yeah, I think that also, like
sometimes, you know, I will, this would happen like when I
was at camp a lot where we would have, you know, kind of notice
that there was a camper who had certain questions or like,
wrestlings. And you very quickly recognized
that like, you're not the person like for this job.
But we had this, which is kind of well worked system of being
like, OK, I know this other person has had experiences that
might better resonate or just be able to communicate this with
less intensity or more intensity, depending on like the
kid and their their personality. And to be just OK to hand that
off to each other or like work together in that process so that
people can come to know Jesus. And that's, that doesn't mean
we've done something wrong or that we we have failed.
And it's, you know, better to work as a team.
It it's just it's more fun and it.
Well, and it's good. It's like, it's good when we
know ourselves. Yeah, it's a good thing, right?
And, and even, you know, for us as individuals and for us as a
church, because when we look at the the, the scope across even
just our city, there are churches that are going to have
greater strengths in different ways, right?
And, and the way that we, the way that we interact with one
another should be, you know, like I, I hope, and I think I've
actually done this before with people is, you know, I've been
someone, if they're newer to town or whatever and they're
like looking at churches were like, look, hey, here's who we
are as a church. Yeah, here's who I am as a
pastor. Here's who Grant as is as a
pastor. Here's what we bring to the
table. We have a unique, we have a
unique bench toward XY and Z depending on what you're looking
for, I could probably give you 3 other churches that might be a,
a really strong fit for you. And I don't mean that in like a,
a consumeristic way. I just mean that in a way of
like, hey, your, your leanings, your theological leanings, your
kind of your lifestyle leanings, your, your bent, you might be
better suited over over here at this Baptist Church or whatever,
right? And and so I think that we can
even extrapolate that further from the individual as well,
right? And I think it's really cool
that, you know, like at court, right, we have a big involvement
in food security in our city. But there are other churches
where they have a much larger focus on like meeting housing
needs or churches that are downtown and are kind of
involved in our downtown core are going to have different
roles in meeting the needs of our city and.
Right on the front lines, it's. You know, like there is no one
church that can do all of it. And so it's, it's OK.
And it's good that we kind of, you know, divide and tackle.
I don't want to say conquer. That feels like the wrong word,
but. You're just saying.
Yeah, say, OK, this is what God has made our group of people
passionate about, but we also want to work together.
Like we want to have good relationships with the other
ministries in our city so that people's needs can be met and
they can be healed and they can encounter Jesus in the ways that
they need to encounter Jesus. Yeah, yeah.
God, God meets us all in, in different ways.
And, and that's true for those of us who are already followers
of Jesus, but also for those who are not, you know, being in a
downtown ministry context and working with, working with
marginalized people, that brings a unique set of skills that not
every church is equipped to, to do well right now.
And, and then also the, the, the, the spiritual and physical
needs present are so different, right?
And so there is, but God, but God meets people in a very
profound way in those places. So, yeah, like I, I think that
the, the broader point that I'm, I'm thinking about when it comes
to this whole idea of, you know, dusting your feet off if someone
rejects the gospel or whatever is, is that like, yes, yes to
boundaries, yes to, you know, being kind and gracious above
all else and saying I've done what I can do.
I leave this with God and also recognizing that we are not the
whole picture for that individual that God may be at
work in their life in in the weeks and years and decades
ahead. Right.
So anything else from the passage that's worth jumping
into a little bit? I think we kind of covered the
bulk of it. Like I guess we didn't really
get into too much with like with Herod and all that.
It feels hard to without speculating.
Sure. You know, like the what were his
intentions? What was Why did he want to see
Jesus? Well, I mean, I think based on
the fact that he beheaded John or was responsible for the for
the beginning of, I think we can at least say that his intentions
were not good, that he was probably concerned, to put it
lightly about. He was perplexed, perplexed,
which is a great word. I should, I don't think I looked
that up the Greek on that one. I, I probably should have
because I, I, I'm curious. Maybe I'll do that later.
But yeah, like there's there is something interesting with with
this little aside and, and just I think it's worth exploring,
you know, with when it comes to you, when it comes to our
church, when it comes to how we approach, how we approach our
faith, how we approach what we're doing, who's taking
notice? You know, and I say that in both
a good and bad way. Like who's taking notice of if
we are, if we're really not being Kingdom minded in our
approach to whatever, you know, insert whatever matter you could
imagine people are gonna take notice.
Yeah, right. And hopefully the inverse is
true that if we are, if we're doing, you know, good work, if
we are, if we are making a difference spiritually,
physically in our, in our region, who say who's taking
notice? You know, one of the one of the
really sobering questions that a previous church that I that I
worked at often asked, which I think was a great question, is
if we closed tomorrow. Who would be impacted?
Who would? Who would even notice?
Yeah. Well.
We'll leave you with that one. Yeah.
And I mean, like that's, that's worth considering not just as a
church, but also for you as an individual.
If you left your house, if you left your neighborhood, what
what impact would be felt? And so maybe that's a question
to to Mull over with, with your family, with your friends and
wherever you find yourself this week, whether you are
vacationing or whether you are here in Guelph with us or
whether maybe you're just stumbling across this in some
other corner of the world or universe.
I guess not universe, because boy.
Yeah, if you're from Mars, let us know.
Yeah, perfect. Fantastic.
So wherever you find yourself, on Earth or not, we hope that
you have a wonderful week and we'll catch you next time.