Commitment to Truth

Cedrick Brown: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for thawing out and coming out this morning. I want Hector, who oversees our men's ministry, to overemphasize the men's conference. Go ahead.

Hector: Good morning, good morning once again, everyone. Just seriously take into consideration the fact that if you're a man, you're a leader. There's no better way to sharpen that leadership than to spend time with other men, men who love the Lord, men who have taken time out of their busy schedules to set something up for us.

I've got to be honest with you, to put things into perspective, to give up a day to go up, fellowship on a really nice commute, we're chartering a bus, spend some time with each other, get there, be fed, have some swag, and go over some ministry principles that you can bring back home for the leadership in your home, the leadership in your community, the leadership in your vocation, is priceless.

I've got to be honest with you, I'd love to see each and every one of you there. I'd like to see more registrants. I'm not sure if you guys are not receiving the emails that we send out weekly. Please feel free to just see me before you leave so that I can get your email and I'll make sure that you can have the data. You can also register right here if you scan this QR code.

If you have the church app downloaded, you can also register inside of the church app. Me personally, I'd like to see more registrants. I'd like to spend the day with you all there, and I think it would be a fruitful time. Pastor C, obviously, is going to be there, Tony Balsamo, and a couple of leaders from the EFCA Eastern District.

Cedrick Brown: Also, don't let the cost be prohibitive. In other words, if you say, "I don't have an extra $55," please don't let that ever hinder you from doing anything. There's a lot of guys and people who would cover your cost to make sure you get there. It's a great opportunity to make sure that all guys are connected. Let me just ask you, I didn't ask you permission to ask this, but did you start out as the men's ministry leader?

Hector: Absolutely not.

Cedrick Brown: Were you passionate about Jesus like you are now?

Hector: Not nearly.

Cedrick Brown: How often did I have to call you and chase you down when you were—

Hector: At least twice a month, three times a month, to say the least. I've got to be honest with you. Just for all those who don't know, it was right in this sanctuary, we were preparing for our own conference here at Commitment Community Church, and I just showed up early to lend a hand.

That turned into, "Would you mind actually speaking a little bit because of my background with sales and management?" I was like, "Alright, no problem." That turned into men's ministry leader, and then just serving on Saturday mornings. We're here now, so I'm thankful to the Lord for that.

Cedrick Brown: His relationship, our relationship, if you didn't know or haven't heard, began at a graveside of a friend who was killed. How many years ago now?

Hector: In 2026, it will be 20 years, Pastor Cedrick. We met in a cemetery in Pennsauken. I've got to tell you, and I'll share this with you as I shared it with all those who were serving this morning, it's been a really rough week.

Just burdened with so much news of men who are struggling with situations that are completely and totally out of their control. You can only use a conference like this to strengthen yourself to be able to provide people with the wisdom that can only come from the Word of God.

It's hard for me to even respond sometimes. A lot of times, I've got to tell brothers, "Listen, man, you've got to give me some time to spend with the Lord before I can get back to you on that one because my opinion doesn't matter, only Jesus'."

This is a perfect opportunity to build up that intestinal fortitude, have that confidence. We studied 1 Samuel 17 yesterday, and I've got to be honest, if you guys have not had the opportunity, read that over.

The confidence in which Dave addresses Saul, his brother Eliab, and he addresses Goliath, he declares that victory because he says it belongs to the Lord. In the Lord, you can accomplish much, and outside of the Lord, you guys already know what that's like. That's why we're here this morning, right?

Cedrick Brown: Alright, thank you so much. Make sure you see Hector. Thank you. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for men in our church as well. You've given us men who are not afraid to step up in their families, in the church, and in their community, and to lean into the responsibilities that come along with it.

I pray, God, that you would just help us to be the men that know that we need to always get equipped. Conferences like these are tools in a toolbox to lead well and just be the man that you called and created to be. Today, I pray now you help me to give your people more tools that are found in your Scriptures, Oh Lord.

Spirit of God, please come and do what you do best in my heart, that I may communicate exactly what needs to be said today for this moment in time in history. In Jesus' name, Amen. We're continuing in a sermon series I've titled for you Luke: Compassionate Care and Pursuit for the Lost.

Again, our primary theme is this: Jesus, the Compassionate Savior for all Humanity. Luke chapter 19, verse 10, says it this way: "For the Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost." As we head into this next part of the sermon series, Jesus himself often spoke in stories, not to avoid hard truth but to help people receive them.

It was a creative way for people to receive the truth that was necessary. He knew personally that truth is heavy, but there's a responsibility to carry truth also with compassion. He did this through what is called parables, and Jesus confronted sin, not to condemn people, not to throw them a curveball, but ultimately invite their hearts to respond to change.

You should always come in and hopefully respond to change. Jesus himself skillfully spoke in these parables to communicate truth in a way that was compassionate storytelling, I like to coin it. Today, what we're going to do is examine three parables, and understand this: these stories that are written in the text are not just meant to be heard; they're meant to respond to.

They're not merely meant to be heard, but they're meant more specifically to be responded to. If you can, open your Bibles to Luke chapter 7, we're going to begin with verse 36. We're going to start with the first parable, and that is the parable of the two debtors. It's interesting how this story begins because Jesus didn't just lean into the parable.

It actually stemmed from conversations he's having with people who just don't get it. They don't understand, they may not want to respond to it, or they may not even want to respond to him, but he then creatively begins to communicate in a parable. You'll pick up on it once you understand who's the thematic person found in these verses.

Again, Luke chapter 7, beginning with verse 36, it says this: "Now one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table." Understand the context. It's a Pharisee, okay, those who don't really like Jesus. He's inviting him into his house, and understand he's a spiritual leader in the context of that and who can associate with him.

Understand all of that context. Then verse 37: "And then there was another person who entered the scene, and it was a woman in the city who was a sinner, and when she learned that he was reclining," meaning Jesus, "at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head and kissing his feet and anointing them with perfume."

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching him, that she is a sinner." Remember the topic: compassionate pursuit. Then here's the parable. Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he replied, "Say it, teacher."

"A money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii, and the other 50, and when they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?" Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one who he forgave more." And he said to him, "You have judged correctly." Turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman?"

"I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume." Now I want to pause for a minute to let you know that it was customary for when a guest came over to give them water for the feet, right, and also to kiss them with a greeting, but then also give them oil to anoint them.

It was water for the feet, okay, it wasn't really to drink, even though they did get water and something to drink as well. Here's the interesting thing I want you to note here in this particular few verses: this Pharisee, who's supposed to be a religious ruler, didn't even follow the customs in his own house, probably because he didn't really respect who Jesus really was.

Customarily, that Pharisee or that person who enveloped someone in their home believed that that person that was coming into their house was sent by God. Think about that for a minute. If I don't think you're sent by God, I'm not going to give you water for your feet, I'm not going to kiss you on the cheek, nor am I going to give you oil for your head. I'm not going to waste it on you because I don't believe you're worth it.

Verse 47: "For this reason, I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little." Now within these parables, I'm going to ask you a question for each parable. Here's the first question: Do you realize how much you've been forgiven? You see, if you're forgiven much by God, your love for him oozes out.

Your love for him becomes visibly seen by everyone around you. Let's go deeper. Here's three ways that this sinner, this woman who was ostracized by the community, displayed her love. Verse 36 and 37: If, in fact, you know you've been forgiven much, you non-negotiably pursue Jesus. Can I throw this out to our guys because we've invited you to the men's conference? You make it happen.

If you knew your life was changed by Jesus, you just make things happen. When you know that you have been loved unconditionally by someone, you just make it happen. When you know you love someone, you just make it happen, and that's what you see here clearly. She non-negotiably pursued Jesus. She was a sinner, possibly a prostitute, in the Pharisee's home, uninvited.

Understand the context. Totally uninvited, saying, "I'm coming to dinner, and I don't care what you think of me, how you perceive me, what you've said about me. I'm coming to go meet Jesus." She made the time, made the space for Jesus. You see also in verse 37, the last part, is that you understand nothing is too costly for Jesus.

Nothing is too costly for Jesus. She brought an alabaster vial of perfume to use for Jesus' feet. Here's the context: a denarius is one day's wages. She gave away 300 denarii, equivalent to a year's wages, equivalent to, in our money, $40,000 to $54,000 on someone's feet. Nothing is too costly for Jesus if you know you've been forgiven.

Thirdly, you find here in verse 38 and 39, you're not afraid to express vulnerable humility. She was on her knees wiping his feet with her tears and her hair. In other words, I don't care who sees me. I don't care what they think of me. That's a level of vulnerability and humility. Understand the context. She was touching a rabbi. You just don't do that.

A woman don't touch a rabbi. It's sin, but she didn't care what people thought, because if you return back to verse 47, it says, "Her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much." One thing is for sure I've seen in ministry and in my own personal life: when you know you've really, really, really been forgiven, or let me even say this, when you really, really, really know how bad you are, and yet he still forgives you, there's a switch that turns on in your heart.

What I've seen historically in ministry and even in my own heart is that when there's a disconnect there, we may not say it, but we act that way. In other words, we act that way because we think we own our time, we think we own our lives, we think we own our resources. If you know you've been forgiven, everything that you own has been purchased by the finished work of Jesus. Your wife doesn't belong to you, so then there's a way you affectionately care for her.

Your husband doesn't belong to you, so there's a way you respectfully care for him. Your children don't belong to you, so you don't control them. You don't try to make them be who you want them to be. The role is to help them be whomever God has created them to be. It affects every area of your life when you come to the place in your life that you know that man, I'm a really bad dude. Maybe I didn't get locked up, but I should have.

It's kind of like what Jesus said when he showed up on the scene. He said, "You say, Pharisees, that you should not commit adultery, but I say to you, if you long and lust for that woman in your heart, you've committed adultery. Or you say you should not murder, but I say to you, if you say you hate that person, you've committed murder." In other words, when we begin to realize that deep down on the inside, I'm a really bad person, and if there were no laws and policies and procedures and consequences in place, I would probably be living in chaos.

Verse 47: "Her sins, which are many." It's so beautiful, the definition. It's three parts: they're many, they're much, and they're large. So think about that for a minute. When you think about sin, oh, I have a laundry list of sin. I have much sin, and I have large sin. In other words, everything I do is large when it's wrong. You see how that can help us?

When I understand that everything I've done historically is large, it's wrong, it's much, it's many, it changes how I view how much I've been forgiven. The word "forgiven" here means to let go, disregard, omit, keep no longer, to give up a debt. So I extrapolate that in my mind and say, "Oh God, there's so much I have done, and you've omitted it all." And the way we respond is this: she loved much.

To love dearly, to be contented with. In other words, I am so satisfied with you, Jesus, or I won't be satisfied until I have more of you. That's why I'm willing to walk into a Pharisee's house, knowing that I'm a sinner, potentially a prostitute. That's why I'm willing to bring this year's worth of wages to spill out on somebody's feet and wipe it with my hair, because I know that the only way I could be content is in and through and because of Jesus.

So I will knock down doors, run through walls, overcome emotions and feelings and excuses to reach him. You see that thematically throughout the Scriptures. Remember the guys who tore up a ceiling to drop down their friend? Right, that's just what you see when someone knows that they need Jesus by any means necessary. When we are forgiven much, there's nothing we won't do or give to express our gratitude.

Next, you find in this parable, if you skip to chapter 8, verses 4 through 15, the parable of the sower, or I like to affectionately say the soils because there are four types of soils versus four types of sowers, if that makes sense to you. Verse 4: "When a large crowd was coming together, and those from various cities were journeying to him, he spoke by way of a parable."

"The sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the air ate it up. Others fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out." Verse number 8: "Other seed fell into the good soil and grew up and produced a crop a hundred times as great."

And as he said these things, he would call out, "He who has an ear, let him hear." Verse 9: "His disciples began to question him as to what this parable meant." Just a hermeneutical principle: many times we don't read the entire chapter. We take a verse, don't read the entire chapter. We take a chapter, we don't read the entire book. We take a book, we don't read the entire Bible.

Hermeneutical principle here is if you stop at verse number 8, you won't have your answer, but if you keep reading through the entire chapter, many times the Scripture will explain itself. That's what you see occurring here just as a hermeneutical principle: understanding and applying the Bible. Verse 10: "And he said, 'To you it has been granted to you the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in a parable so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'"

"Now the parable is this: the seed is the Word of God." The Word of God is preached, communicated, read, right? Verse 12: "Those beside the road are those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart so that they would not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky soil are those when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no firm root. They believe for a while, and in time of temptation, fall away."

Then you find number three, the seed which fell among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way, they are choked with worries and riches, or the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. Verse 15: "But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance."

That's why I call it four types of soils or hearts versus four types of sowers. So let's dig into these a little more deeply. Number one, well let me say this, and this is something the Lord had to show me: it's very easy to say, "Well, that's not me, or that's not me, or that's not me." But if we can all be honest today, we're all four of these somewhere along the line, depending on the time of day, depending on if you're having a good week in marriage, or a good week with your kids and the family, a good week at work.

You're either number one, two, three, or four, right? We shift, I believe, back and forth. In other words, there's this shifting of the heart on this side of heaven that we have to be attentive to. So that being said, let's look at the first: you and I can have a roadside heart. A roadside heart is just simply that we hear the Word of God, the devil immediately takes it away from you, and you and I begin to question what you believe, even your salvation.

Have you ever been there? How can you question your salvation if you're saved? But there's many probably in this room that even have done it before walking in this room. Then you find in verse 13, you can have a rocky heart, joyfully receive the Word of God. You ever see this? You're excited about it, excited about Jesus, and right, everybody's saying, "Man, I can't believe it. God has done something in their lives."

You're even saying that about yourself, but there's no roots. In other words, you probably haven't been slowed down enough to be discipled and let somebody else in your life to till the soils of your heart so that what you hear and you're excited about really digs deep and begins to take root. You believe for a little while, temptation causes you to fall away. Then you have number three, verse 14: you can have a thorny heart.

You hear the word, cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches come and just choke it out. I always like to affectionately say: how can we abandon the God who helped us get to where we are? But it happens to the best of us. We trust God, we ask God, we engage with his church, we engage with his people, right? We fast, we pray, we read the Scriptures, and we're hoping that God moves on our behalf.

He moves on our behalf, and then the very thing I asked him for begins to distract me and choke the very life out of me. And lastly, this is where we should all land and stay: you can have the good heart. We hear the word, and it's beautiful, it says "in an honest way." You hold fast to it, but you bear fruit under perseverance. To me, you look at that last description of the heart; that's the way a believer should live.

You receive it honestly. I'll give an example: you hear the Word of God, you're like, "Dang, that's difficult." That's an honest response. It's a completely honest response of saying, "Well, why are you asking that of me, God? Why can't you ask it of them?" That's an honest response, but you don't stay there. There's nothing wrong with being honest and saying, "God, that's a hard thing to ask of me, but since you've asked me, and since I know I've been forgiven much, and since I know you love me, I will obey you."

You hold fast to it, and I believe when someone begins to hold fast to the Word of God, over time as you persevere through life, you begin to bear fruit if you just don't quit. Some key words: the word "heard" means this: to attend to, consider what is or has been said, comprehend, to get by hearing or to learn. And remember what this all means: I hear the word, I don't attend to it. That's how some people respond.

I hear the word, I don't even consider what has been said. It just goes right over my head, or I say, "Well, that's for them, it's not for me." I comprehend, I get by hearing, I learn. We always, to have a good heart, we have to always be learning. No matter how much I teach, I have to always sit at the feet of someone else so I can learn and continue to maintain a good heart. The word "honest" means this: useful.

In other words, you hear the word and you're like, "Oh yeah, that's useful. Not useful to my husband sitting next to me, or my kids that I'm nudging, but it's useful to me." It's commendable. My heart is commendable. It's admirable, it's excellent—listen to this—excellent in its nature and characteristics, but it's genuine, it's approved, it's morally good. "Hold fast" means to retain or detain from going away. Think about that: to retain what you hear and detain.

In other words, you're not getting out of here. What I have held on to and I've captured in my heart, it's not going to leave me. I detain it. I lock it down and imprison it in my heart to keep it secure, keep firm possession of it, to check a ship's headway, to hold fast the head of the ship. In other words, if you didn't know, if a captain of the ship or whoever's guiding the ship doesn't continue to correct his path ongoingly, it would eventually run aground.

Because of the undercurrents, because of the wind, because of things you don't even see on the surface or see with your natural eyes, it will cause a ship to drift if its course is not corrected every second. So similar to us, that's how we have to hold onto it, but we're not only holding onto the Word of God, we're persevering through it to bear fruit. The word "perseverance" means this: constancy, endurance.

The characteristic of a man or woman who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials or suffering. In other words, no matter how great the trials will be, I just will not swerve away from my purpose. That's real life. No one doesn't warn you when you say "I do" and get married to that handsome guy, beautiful woman.

No one doesn't warn you when you have babies that grow up and do crazy things. No one warns you that financial trials happen and all these different things. No one warns you when you go through life having nothing, then you get some, then there's this whole relearning of financial stewardship. No one tells you if God blesses you enormously with resources beyond measure—oh, be careful, because that could take control of your heart. No one warns you of stuff like that.

It just happens. And when it happens, we have to persevere and just not quit when it gets tough, when it gets confusing, even when it becomes painful and unfair. Here's some responsible actions to take with our heart. In one of these verses in Psalm 119, my father, when he passed away, my mother had his Bible opened up, laying on his chest. Psalm 119, highlighted to this favorite verse.

The first verse is found in Proverbs 4:23. Some responsible actions to take with our heart: watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life. So just pause a minute and just process that in your heart and mind. If I want life to be well, if I want to be able to navigate life in a healthy manner, if I want to be able to navigate complexities, even victories, even the good seasons of life, watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life.

So I should be spending more time on my heart, that seat and center of our emotions and affections and our will, than even my physical body. If I'm being so diligent to sit in front of—and again, I'm not against this—someone who is a therapist, but you never miss a therapy session, and your diligence is more of sitting in front of a therapist than maintaining your heart, you will always be sitting in front of a therapist.

Not saying don't go, but there should be an end date. There's always an end date for any reliance on any other created thing. There's an end date to keep saying, "Well, I can't believe it, my marriage is already struggling." There has to be an end date. You're going to struggle in your marriage for the rest of your life? Correct it. Tend to your heart so that there can be life in your marriage.

Sleepless nights, okay, are you going to keep staying up at night staring at the ceiling because you're worried and stressed? Well, tend to your heart, and you have the best night of sleep that you ever had. If your past keeps haunting you, your failures, mistakes, watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life. Then Psalm 119, verse 11, says: "Your word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you."

King James says, "I've hidden in my heart." Remember, you detain it in your heart so you won't sin against God, so you won't become a roadside heart, a rocky heart, a thorny heart. I hide it in my heart so the soil will always be pliable and fruitful, right? That's what we do, that's what we have to do because we live in such a dark, desperate, deceitful world, not to mention our own hearts are deceitfully wicked.

And we have to know that and call it what it is because a good soil heart is always honest, and yet it holds onto the Word of God. So you could be honest, but you still hold onto the word. Because sometimes we can be honest, and the word is nowhere to be found. Be honest, hold onto the word, then you learn how to bear fruit with all perseverance. Amen.

So the last parable and the last question is this. Let me back up to give you the two questions. The first two questions are: Do you realize how much you've been forgiven? Number two, what's the real condition of your heart? And number three, can your lamp or your light always be seen? If we continue in chapter 8, again, Luke, we are in Luke, and verse 16. It's only a few verses here.

It says: "Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it up with a container or puts it under a bed, but he puts it on a lampstand so that those who come in may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light. So take care how you listen, for whoever has, to him more shall be given, and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him."

"And his mother and brother came to him, and they were unable to get to him because of the crowd. And it was reported to him, 'Your mother and your brothers are standing outside wishing to see you.'" Listen to how Jesus answered: "But he answered and said to them, 'My mother and my brother are these who hear the Word of God and do it.'" Four ways your lamp or your light should always be seen.

Verse 16 summarizes it this way: you never hide through evil deeds. You never hide through evil deeds. And it's crazy how we do that; it's like the children of Israel syndrome. I'm not getting food how I want to get food, how I normally get food, so I'd rather go back to live in Egypt. I've been changed, delivered, set free, and have this new light within me, but yet I keep running back to darkness, or dark things, or dark people.

In other words, our sin nature is to act evil, or to blend in, or not reveal who we really belong to—i.e., Peter. Remember Peter denied Christ three times, to a point that he started cursing when he was approached and said, "You even talk like them." He started cursing and swearing so he can be disassociated with Christ. It's crazy how sin begins to cause us to act. The word "cover" means this: to hide or veil, to hinder knowledge of a thing.

So when we cover the light, we simply say, "Hey, I don't want you to see who I really am." The word "container" is this, this is crazy: it means an assistant in accomplishing an evil deed. So think about this for a minute: when we cover up our light, we are assisting or that thing that we're covering it up with is assisting us in an evil deed, and that is to hide our light. We do it in our homes.

We do it in our homes when, let's say, we have to have difficult conversations with our children. "I don't want to talk to them," and then we somehow creatively start pacifying behavior, approving behavior, rather than just dealing with it in a loving, compassionate way and then letting the consequences be what they be. We do it in marriage, we do it on the job, we do it in all kinds of relational contexts.

You have a good friend calls you up, right, now you don't drink, they say, "Hey, let's go out to drink or go out to a club," or whatever, let's say go out to dinner. Before you know it, they're ordering drinks at the table, and because you're feeling uncomfortable, or you don't want them to feel uncomfortable, then you acquiesce. It happens all the time in the church.

"Well, you know, we're getting married and all my family drinks, so I just need to have drinks at the reception because I'm acquiescing to their needs," versus "No, God's delivered me from that. Why am I even giving everyone else the privilege to participate in something God's delivered me from?" So you make a righteous light-lampstand decision.

And those are just a few examples that we just have to be able to say, "No, I'm not going to hide it under a container, and this container is not going to assist in accomplishing an evil deed in my life." You also see in verse 16, we want others to see our light. In other words, we can't be people who hide our evil deeds by covering it up or hiding our lamps with evil deeds, and we have to become people who want others to see our light.

And that's why you see here, again in verse 16, it says to see the light. We desire everyone in close proximity, we should desire for everyone in close proximity to see the light of Christ in us. The word "see" means this: to discover, to have the power of understanding, to consider or weigh carefully. Think about that for a minute. When they see our light, they can discover Christ. They can't discover Christ without the light.

When they see the light, they have the power of understanding. It's almost like God uses our lifestyles to help people supernaturally understand. When people see the light in us, they then have the responsibility themselves to consider the light for themselves, and they can weigh it carefully in their own heart. But no light, no opportunity. Verse 18 then challenges us that we have to become careful to listen.

So we're letting our light always be seen, we're not hiding it through evil deeds, others we situationally and respectfully show our light so others can see, but then we become men and women who are careful listeners ourselves. "Take care how you listen," verse 18 says. It means to take care how you attend to, consider what is or has been said, take care of how you give ear to a teaching or teacher.

Why is this important? You see nestled within this verse 18, "So take care how you listen, for whoever has, to him more shall be given, and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken." It's almost like if we don't listen, your provisions somehow are affected. You don't do what the Bible says, your provisions are on the table.

And I believe some of all of us probably in some way can attest to that and say, "Yeah, I remember a season in my life God was trying to tell me to do something, I wasn't listening, I wasn't being a light, before you know it, I was bankrupt, or I made some bad financial decisions, or something happened, my bank account just shriveled away." Because where your treasure—your heart's—are, your treasures will be. It's all connected.

It's all connected. And it's crazy how he just brings that out of his hat. It's like, "Okay, you listen. If you don't listen, understand, you don't listen, what you have in your possession right now can be taken away if you don't listen to me." And lastly, this is interesting how he ties this in, in verses 19, 20, and 21. I call this: Are you willing to expand the family?

One of the parts that is easy for some, hard for others to wrap their head around is that when you come to know Jesus Christ, he immediately expands your family. And there's this responsibility to engage in it. Because for some, the narrative is, "I've been transformed, my family been transformed," and then we just huddle up over here and we disassociate ourselves with the family of God.

Or we don't have this passionate pursuit of including the family of God into my family. It's like, "Me and my family does this," then I come over here in the silo then I have this church family versus no, it's all one big family. Super important for people to get that, because my humble opinion is many times your answers for salvation to your family is found through the family of God.

God will use that sister who's over your house for dinner, sister from the church, who's over your house for dinner to be sitting right next to the sister you have issues with, and God can use the sister from the church to say the right thing at the right time or be a light at the table to immediately transform the sister you don't like. You don't separate the two. That's living life in a lie.

It's kind of like, "Oh, I got my church family," so I take the container off, then I have my biological family, I put the container on, versus they're all my people. And you'll see how God supernaturally uses this to transform you, transform your family, people you love. One of the things Lisa and I learned early on in our marriage is when family came into town, we introduced them to our family of God.

It's like, "Hey, by the way, this is so and so. By the way, come and hey, by the way, they're over our house, we're over their house. We're not altering our lives because you're now in town." Like, "Hey, this is how we roll. We have Bible study, come to Bible study with me. We have fellowship over so and so's house, you come over there with me." We just courteously ask someone, "Hey, my sister's in town." Some of you met my sister Terry; she was with us everywhere.

"Hey, can you just prepare another seat at the table? She's coming right along with me. You're not staying home. I love these people just as much as I love you, Sis." When my parents were alive, same thing. It's like, "No, Pops, Dad, Mom, you come with me, come over, meet my parents, co-mingle." You don't separate it anymore. Isaiah 5, verse 20, describes how we can hide our light.

It says: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Then Matthew chapter 5, verses 14 through 16, solidifies who we really are: "You are the light of the world. A city set on the hill cannot be hidden. Nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and," guess what, "glorify your Father who's in heaven."

So it's all about—our light should never be hidden nor disguised in any way. How else will the world see? Amen. Let me close with this. Someone said, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened." Today, please don't stumble over these truths you've heard today and then pick yourself up like nothing's happened. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for the finished work of Jesus. Thank you for your Word, for it's true, and I pray in the name of Jesus that you will minister to all of our hearts, God, that we will be active hearers of your Word. We hear it, we do it, for your honor and glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.