The Posture of Faith, Part 4

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0:00Now, my daughter Bree, she would love to be here to see this, but anyway, I'll tell her about it. But she started a garden. She is really, really proud of this garden. So, Grayson, if you could put that up there. She's planted cucumbers and tomatoes and squash and watermelon and strawberries. She is really excited about this. It's doing pretty well, I think. Yeah, doing pretty well. She's had a lot of help. Thanks for the adults that have helped her out.

0:26I don't know what I'm doing with it, so it's other people. It's a daily practice to go out, to water it, to see how it's doing. She gets really excited. She's looking all the time for things to grow. And when she sees things growing, she loves to point them out. Dad, come look. Come look at what's happening in my garden. We've seen little shoots. We've seen leaves, and they get bigger and bigger and bigger. Sometimes we see flowers. But kids, I want to ask the explorer-aged kids in the room.

0:56That's great. Little shoots, leaves, flowers. That's great. But what do you think that we're really looking for? What? For fruit. Fruit and vegetables. For fruit and vegetables. That's the delicious proof that this garden is everything that it's supposed to be. We've got to see the fruits and vegetables. So what's supposed to show up in our lives? If our lives are like this garden, faithfulness in Christ, loving him, serving him, receiving from him, what is it that's supposed to show up in our lives?

1:31What's the fruit that we're looking for? What's the fruit of our faith? Well, we're going to see an example of that. In the Gospels, you see a lot of times not things explicitly taught, but things that are implied through stories of people. And that's what we see here. We see a story of someone showing the fruit of faith. So turn with me to Luke 7, starting in verse 36. It's in your bulletins, and it'll be up on the screen as well. This is God's word for us.

1:57Let's prepare ourselves to listen to it carefully and respond to it as God's speaking to us today. One of the Pharisees asked him, Jesus, to eat with him. And he went into a Pharisee's house and reclined at table. Behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment standing behind him at his feet. Weeping, she began to wet his feet with tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

2:43Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus, answering, said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher. A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more?

3:19Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly. Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? Simon, I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not stopped, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

4:02Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Pray with me.

4:33Lord God, without your work in our lives, we have no hope. But hallelujah, that by your power for your glory alone, you step into lives like ours. Hearts like ours. Minds like ours. And you change them. So that we can turn away from things that do not bring us life, but turn towards you.

5:01You produce new life in us. So God, I'm asking you, please, to continue that work. Bring us life in some new ways that we don't expect today. Draw us to you. Help us to see you for who you are. And to grow in our love for you. Jesus, we pray this in your name. The posture of faith, part four.

5:27Abundant grace from God leads to abundant love for God. Abundant grace from God leads to abundant love for God. At the end of Luke chapter 7, Luke gives this story to show us that the fruit of faith is love. And not just a general love, but a love for God himself. There's three people here in the story, basically. There's some other people in the table, but it's mainly Simon the Pharisee, Jesus, and the woman. And the woman is the person that we are implicitly called to emulate.

6:02That's why Luke put this story here. So, we're going to learn about her love for Jesus, and we're going to allow her to lead us to Jesus today. That's what she's there for. Here's the first thing. Her love is courageous. It's courageous. Simon the Pharisee invited some people to his house for a dinner party. This woman was not one of them. She was an uninvited intruder, basically. She crashed the party. When she learned that Jesus was there, she makes her way in.

6:39I've never crashed a party before. Anybody here ever crashed a party? So, I want to hear some stories later about that. But, she's a party crasher. And not just because she wants some of the wine or the food. She wants to see Jesus. But, it was very, very risky. It was outrageous for this woman to come into Simon's house this day. A woman of her reputation to come into a Pharisee's house, a religious leader's house, uninvited, would have been a scandal almost from the get-go.

7:13And it would have been risky for her. He's powerful. She's not. He's got social standing, and she doesn't have any. She knows what he thinks of her. And that he is not going to be kind towards her. This is not just a breach of etiquette, but it's a personal risk that she's taking on. And when she gets there, she does something else that's inappropriate. Just walking in the door would have been inappropriate, and she takes it even further. She touches a man who isn't her husband.

7:45In this culture, that was beyond outrageous. She's sitting at Jesus' feet, wiping them with her hair. That would be completely off-limits in this culture. She knows that it's going to be a scandal. She knows what she's doing. She's not oblivious to this, but she is compelled. She has got to show Jesus her love. Loving Jesus, it takes courage sometimes. If you want your relationship with Jesus to be vibrant, you've got to take some risks sometimes because you love him.

8:25Many of you know what I'm talking about because you're part of a church plant. That's a risk. Churches down the block that have buildings and huge staff and programs, that's a little safer to join. I'm not trying to look down on those people who do that. Each person has to be led by God. But I'm saying that being a part of a church plant is taking a risk. The Inmonds and the Shepherds took a risk to join up with this church plant. Now, when I talk about risk, I'm not talking about risk like driving without a seatbelt.

8:57That's a risk that has no purpose to it. That's pointless. I'm talking about gospel risks, kingdom risks. Following him when you feel exposed, when you feel weak, when you feel incompetent. It's saying, you know, I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I'm going to do it anyway because I love Jesus. That's what this woman had to do. I don't know what's going to happen. I might not even get to Jesus. Simon might seize me and throw me out. But I've got to try.

9:28It's like learning how to dive. So kids, high school and younger, if you can dive, raise your hand. If you haven't learned yet how to dive, raise your hand. So I didn't learn to dive until I was like probably 15, 16. And it's harder to learn how to dive when you're older. And here's why. When you learn late, you've already learned that you don't ever jump headfirst into anything. You know that you're going to get really hurt. So everything in your head is telling you, I can't do this.

10:05I can't just lean over and go headfirst into anything, even that water. Your mind plays tricks on you. And no matter how you try, you always end up jumping like this instead of doing what you should do and curling and going headfirst into the water.

10:23But you can't dive if you don't go headfirst. It's the same with our faith. It's the same with our love for Christ. There's some things we just have to go headfirst into simply because we love Jesus. We don't know how it's going to turn out. It's taken a dive. It's taken a plunge for him. The second thing is this. Her love is unashamed. When this amazing woman is at Jesus' feet, she does not keep it quiet. She does not keep it polite.

10:57She's loud. She's demonstrative. She's emotive. This is not something you could miss. It's a dramatic display of emotional worship at Jesus' feet. Verse 38 says that she is weeping. It's the first word there. Weeping at his feet. Wiping them with her hair. Pouring out perfume. She's an uninvited guest with a bad reputation, ugly crying all over Jesus' feet.

11:31Some of you, you know, when you start crying, like, everything is going. The nose, everything. This is awkward. It's embarrassing. It's uncomfortable. It's, yikes.

11:48What were people thinking? Better yet, what would you be thinking if you were there? Now, let's be honest. First, if we had been there, we probably would have, like, left the room, got to go to the bathroom, Simon, and then left. Or we might have gone to her and tried to calm her down. Stop it, please.

12:16She's making a scene. You're embarrassing yourself, but really, you're making me uncomfortable, so I want you to stop. I think we all have had times when we've done that, but really, we're just serving ourselves to try to get someone to just bring it down.

12:38This woman cares more for Jesus than she does about what anyone else thinks. That is a virtue in her, something that God has done in her. She didn't want to wait until later. She doesn't want to calm down, thank you very much.

12:57She's here for him and not anyone else. The people in the room were probably uncomfortable. We might have been uncomfortable, but do you know who isn't uncomfortable? Jesus. He's not uncomfortable.

13:16He doesn't correct her. He isn't ashamed of her. He receives her love. As messy and as loud as it is, he receives it. Her love is also extravagant. She put everything she had into this act of worship. Look again at verse 38. Her heart, her emotions were engaged. Her hair, she unbound her hair, which would have been another scandal. She used it to wipe his feet. It's getting all filthy from his feet. She's kissing his feet. And she brought an expensive flask of ointment, something that she could have sold and lived off of for months.

14:04She pours it all out. All for him. She spares no expense to show her love for him. If someone gets into something too quickly, we say, slow down. Hey, hey, don't get carried away. It's the wise people who are always measured, we think.

14:28Be measured. Be restrained. When I was in college, I was part of a sort of, kind of intervention for a mutual friend. I wasn't really all that close to this guy, but I was asked to be a part of it. This guy had met a girl who lived halfway across the country. They had known each other for a matter of weeks. They had met in person once, and they got engaged. We were kind of like Elsa to Anna in Frozen. You shouldn't marry someone that you just met, especially when you're 19.

15:07Now, sometimes it is good advice to say, slow down. Slow down. But when it comes to Jesus, it's not good advice. It's okay. Get carried away. Get carried away with him. Don't hold back. Don't hesitate. Don't take it slow. Abandon yourself completely to him without any hesitation.

15:37There's no one else and nothing else that I could responsibly tell you that about, except for Jesus. Don't hold anything back. Athletes talk about leaving it all in the field. That means, don't hold anything back. Don't get to the end of the game and say, you know what? I could have tried a little harder. I could have poured a little bit more out for the success of this team. I could have given more. Leave it all in the field for Jesus. This is why we need each other, right?

16:08We're supposed to consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. Love and good works. Stirring one another up. That's part of why God brings us together as a church. So we can love Jesus more because of the influence that we have on each other. As we tell one another, leave it all on the field. Don't hold anything back. Get carried away. Get carried away with Jesus.

16:40Now that being said, let's turn our attention now to the one whom this woman loves. Let's talk about Jesus. What she knows and what we need to be reminded of first is this. Jesus deserves our love. The passage begins this way. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. Okay? So Jesus was an invited guest. It was Simon's responsibility to be a good host. In this culture, hospitality was extremely valued, highly valued. When a guest came in, you pulled out all the stops.

17:23It's not quite the same with our culture, but we still get it. We get that. We know that when a guest arrives, you offer to take their coat, if they have a coat. You invite them to come further into the house, out of the foyer and into the kitchen or the living room or something. You offer them a drink of water.

17:42To not do these things to a guest, to communicate something to them, it says to them, I'm not sure how valuable you really are. That's how Simon treated Jesus. I entered your house, Jesus said. You gave me no water for my feet. It would have been customary to have a water basin that guests with dirty feet would dip their feet in, wash them off before coming to the meal. You gave me no kiss. This might seem strange to us, but it's a greeting. It's like shaking hands.

18:18You didn't even shake my hand, Simon. You didn't give me a hug. You did not anoint my head with oil. This might be the strangest one, but their hair would get dirty too from traveling in such a dusty environment. Olive oil would be offered so that their hair could be freshened up so that they could be freshened up. Smell a little bit better. Look a little bit better for dinner. Simon didn't offer that either. He invited Jesus into his home and then he treated him like a stranger.

18:50Meanwhile, the person who really welcomed Jesus in is the woman and it's not even her home. It's not even her home. She's done everything, everything that a host should have done and more. To her, it was an honor.

19:10About seven, eight years ago, Nikki and I visited some dear friends, the Thompsons, who had moved from Richmond to Rwanda for three years. Some Rwandan friends of theirs invited us over to their home for dinner. Their family and Nikki and I, here's a picture of us at their home for dinner. It was a small and a simple home. It was furnished very sparsely. But they welcomed us in with joy. The couple that's hosting us is right there in the middle. The guy in the green shirt holding the baby, that's the husband of the family that lives in this house and then the woman with the katangi dress that's next to him.

19:55It's his wife. So, they welcomed us in with joy. They had prepared a banquet of food. I mean, it was an astounding amount of food for our family. It must have cost them a fortune. It must have cost them a whole lot. But the moment that I'll never forget about this dinner, it happened before we ate. The father of the host family prayed for the meal in his native language. And as he was praying, he grew more and more emphatic, more and more joyful, more and more excited in his prayer.

20:24I couldn't understand a word of it. But it was moving, and I was intrigued. What is he praying about? So vigorously. After we got our food, I pulled my friend Hunter aside. It's the guy next to me. I pulled my friend Hunter aside. He could understand Kenya Rwandan. He couldn't really speak it all that well, but he could understand it. I pulled him aside, and I said, what was he praying about, Hunter? And Hunter said, well, he was praying about you.

21:00He was thanking God that you and Nicky came to their home and that he had the honor of serving you and hosting you. I was shocked. That prayer that I heard, it sounded like the most amazing thing in his whole life had just happened, that he was praying. And it's us? That's how much of an honor having guests in his home was. He was overjoyed. Church, how grateful are you that Jesus is in your home?

21:44He's the King of Kings. What an honor. What an honor to have him in your life, to have him in your home. What an honor to have him come near to us, to dwell with us. What a privilege to learn that he knows us by name and that he cares for us. What a privilege and what an honor to have Jesus in our home and in our life.

22:10Here's the last thing I want to talk about. Jesus produces our love. This woman is a sinner and everyone knows it, including Jesus. Did you notice that? He said her sins are many. Her sins, which are many. In front of everybody, he says this. So he's not denying it. She's not denying it. She knows it. She knows that her need is great and she has to come to the one whose grace is greater than her sin. His abundant forgiveness, it's what produces the abundant love that she has.

22:47Simon does not get it at all. The parable is meant to teach him. The right answer to Jesus' question, it's obvious. Of course, the moneylender will be loved more by the one for whom he canceled the larger debt. Now that he's admitted it, he's convicted by his own words. He doesn't love Jesus because he's had no debt forgiven.

23:14Now here's the thing. Unlike the parable, there are no degrees of debtedness before God. We all owe an infinite debt. You've either been forgiven infinitely or you haven't been forgiven at all.

23:31If Jesus is your Savior, the point of this story is you should want for your love for him to reflect the magnitude of mercy that you've received in Christ. It should be a life aspiration for you. God, help my love for you. Reflect how great your love is towards me.

23:53Your life tells a story about who you love or what you love, your highest devotion. If someone observed your life, listened to your conversations, watched how you spent your time and your money, how much forgiveness would they think that you've received from God? That's the question that Simon was asked to consider. It's the question that we should consider too. Now listen, if that question convicts you this morning like it does me, and it does convict me, I want to tell you that now is the time to respond to that conviction.

24:33Don't wait. Don't ignore it. God does great things when weak people turn to him in faith. All the time, every day, he does great things when weak people admit their need and turn to him in faith. Remember, even King David, a man after God's own heart, needed that kind of help. In his great psalm of repentance in Psalm 51, he writes this, Restore to me, O God, restore to me the joy of my salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.

25:10Even David needed God's help to stir up his love. So don't we? Don't we as well? Look to Jesus, church. Look to Jesus. Scottish pastor Robert Murray of Shane said this, Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. That quote is on the front of your bulletin if you want to look at it later.

25:43Jesus is the one who's loved you first. He loved you like the woman loved Jesus, but he did it better. He loved you courageously. He loved you shamelessly. He loved you extravagantly, and he did it first for you while you were his enemy.

26:03Rest once again in his work, and it changes everything for you. Have you ever had a bad dream? And I don't mean a bad dream with like monsters and stuff in it, but a bad dream where like your life is falling apart. Something really bad happens, and then something else bad happens, and it's just like your whole life is just, you know, deteriorating. Things go bad to worse. I don't know about you, but when I wake up and I realize that that was a dream, there is an overwhelming feeling of relief.

26:39You ever been there? You're like, oh my goodness, that was a dream. That was just a dream. You feel lighter because the tragedy is no more. The disaster has been avoided. The threat is gone.

27:01Jesus, help us live like that all the time. All the time. Keep in our minds the truth of your deliverance for us. Hold in our heart the joy of our sins having been paid for completely. Carry in our spirit the lightness of Jesus' words to us. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Because that's what he's saying to you today if you're in him. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Grow in your love for God. He's going to help us, church, to say with Peter every day according to his great mercy he has caused me to be born again to a living hope.

27:45Me. Can you believe it? Me. To be born again to a living hope? Who am I? Who am I? Who are you? But it's according to his great mercy in your life that you have been born again to a living hope. And he will lead us then to respond to the Savior with great love, with abundant love, love that abandons all other forms of security to rest in him.

28:18In this life our love for Jesus will be inhibited. There's no way around it. Sin is still in us. But don't despair. Don't despair. God is at work. Look again at your Savior. Consider again the mercy of the Father. Entrust yourself again to the Spirit's work in you. He's going to bear the fruit of faith in you. Of abundant love for God. Someday, my friends, your love will have no inhibitions.

28:51Someday, you won't be inhibited anymore. There will be no hesitations. Nothing competing for your affection. No sense of shame. No sense of awkwardness holding you back. We'll all be part of the multitude. All those who trust in Christ crying out with a loud voice, for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory. Let's pray. Lord, this is an amazing example that we read in Luke 7 of someone with incredible love for You.

29:34And Lord, we know that this woman wasn't something special. It was Your work in her life that led her, that gave her this kind of love. You put that love in her and You gave her the opportunity to express it. Lord, we know that You are working in us still. Our love may feel cold this morning, but I just pray that You would fan the flames, stir it up so that the heat just blows us away. Help us to have abundant, overflowing love for You, Jesus. Help it to come out of our lives in ways that are courageous, shameless, extravagant because, Lord, You loved us first.

30:19We praise Your name today. We entrust ourselves to You, Lord. Help us to look at You, Jesus, ten times for every one time we look at ourselves and we feel inadequate. Help us look again to You and have that love stirred up. We pray this in Your name, Jesus.