well good morning it’s good to be here with you um thank you if you brought canned goods and unperishable stuff we got a lot of good stuff over there so that’s a great easy way for us to uh love in jesus name with our hands it’s a great thing to do actually chase talked about that good works good works god prepared us to do so that’s a that’s a small but faithful way to do it so that’s great um and also just a reminder uh the operation christmas child boxes uh we have 50 of them full david showed up here tuesday with enough stuff to fill them and i said where’d you get it and he just smiled and said it came so i don’t know what that means so he got all this stuff and we filled them that’s what we did tuesday night um so really and if you saw the email we’re just asking just to give a small donation just to pad them a couple of them didn’t have some things they needed and we wanted to put some hygiene products in there as well so you know again not a ton just a few bucks if you want to drop it in the box if you feel so led just to help us do that so super excited about all those boxes and just a reminder about how that works um those boxes aren’t just filled with toys but they’ll be um they’ll be given uh an invitation to receive christ and to find out who jesus is and if those children do then they’re put into a discipleship program where they can learn more so it’s more than just giving toys so it’s a it’s a great thing for us to do i’m glad that we can again be a part of it in a way uh this year so let’s turn to matthew chapter 8 matthew chapter 8 verses 1 through 4 i want to i want to come back into matthew for just a couple weeks before the christmas season

matthew chapter 8 verse 1

matthew writes when he came down from the mountain great crowds followed him um and behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him saying,

Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him saying, I will be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them. I’m not a big concert meister. Some people love live shows. I like to be in a controlled environment where I know all the people. That’s more my speed. I just don’t love being in masses of crowds. Now my wife thrives on that. She loves live events, live shows. That’s her thing. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen clips from Michael Jackson shows. I’m sure there are other people, but I remember at least seeing those back when he was really big in the 80s and 90s. And when he was on stage performing and singing, there would be ladies who literally passed out. There would be such an excitement and you would just be so overwhelmed and the hype of this man on the stage and his superstar that literally women were passing out. And they had to be carried out of the room. And you think, how crazy and ridiculous is that that you would pass out for anyone, whether you can do the moonwalk or not. It’s kind of bizarre the way that we can build up other people and the way that we act when we come into their presence. And I think that’s a good question though to ask about Jesus. If you came into Jesus’ presence this morning or He came into yours, what would you do? And how would you act? And how would you respond? And maybe more importantly, if Jesus was in this room right now and you were in His presence, what would you ask Him for? What would you want from Him? Because I think the way you would act around Jesus if He was in this room and what you would ask of Jesus if He was in this room, it would be a tell-tale sign as to whether or not you were truly a disciple. We talked about when we finished the Sermon on the Mount, there are the crowds and there are the disciples. And, I want us to see an interaction between Jesus and a man that differentiates between the two. Okay? In the presence of Jesus. Again in verse 1, when He came down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him saying, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. So Jesus has finished the Sermon on the Mount. And as we saw through many, many weeks of study, Jesus is the unparalleled teacher of all time. No one’s like Him. No one was like Him in His time. No one’s ever going to be like Him. Jesus was a teacher the Israelites had never heard. And the reason why is because His teaching, it was filled with knowledge. It was filled with wisdom. It was filled with understanding from Heaven. And the people had never seen or heard anything like that before. But because of this, Jesus has this mass following of people when He comes down the mountain from giving that famous sermon. And as long as the show’s going, the crowds, the people, they’re following. They want to be wowed and amazed. But of course, the masses will dissipate when Jesus makes a call to true discipleship. When Jesus begins to say things and expect things of them that rubs them raw. The life they want, their hopes, their desires. Their hopes and their desires, for the Jewish state. It’s going to be very different when Jesus calls them to sacrificial discipleship. Jesus is not the disciple they want. But hear me say it to you, He is the one that they need. And He’s the one that you and I need. And so as Jesus exercises teaching from above, here’s what He’s going to do. He’s going to exercise power from above. He’s going to perform a mighty, mighty miracle. And it’s not that, it’s not that Matthew hasn’t already said Jesus has done miracles. We saw that several chapters ago. But what we get here in this first bit in chapter 8 is this up-close-and-personal peer-in to this conversation and this interaction between Jesus and this man. We see the power of God at work in one man’s life. So having come down the mountain and the crowds are around Him, but then Matthew, he says, but behold, and we’ve talked about behold. It means like, hey, something really different, something big’s happening here. Okay? Something strange and shocking is happening amid the hubbub of the crowds amassing around Jesus, this teacher, and everybody wants to be wowed by His star. A leper dares come up through the crowd to this man Jesus. And you had better believe that those crowds would have parted like the Red Sea when that leper came up. Why? Well, because leprosy was a feared and dreaded disease. It was impossible to cure. If you had it, you could have only hoped that it would have naturally healed on its own. And leprosy wasn’t just a problem in Jesus’ time. It was an ancient problem all the way back in ancient Israel, so much so that God described what the leprosy was. And He gave the priests kind of a prescription and a formula for knowing how to deal with it, not heal it, but manage the leprosy. It’s all about the leprosy. It’s all that they could do for the people. Leviticus 13, it’s described as raw flesh. It’s a discoloration of the skin that goes deeper than the skin. It’s discoloration of hair in the same spot. It swells. It erupts. It changes the color of your hair or your beard. It’s itchy. It’s painful. It would have been hideous to see. And worst of all, it was contagious. It’s impossible to know what kind of leprosy it was. Modern day leprosy is also Hansen’s disease. It’s very different than what’s described in the Bible. But nonetheless, it was a flesh-eating disease. When God struck Miriam with leprosy because she bucked Moses’ authority, Aaron prays this for Miriam. Let her not be as one dead whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb. So there’s this deep prayer in Aaron like, Lord, please don’t do that to my sister. It’s that bad. I want you to see in Leviticus chapter 13 verse 45 what God is saying about the leprous person. He says, the leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out,

unclean, unclean.

So there’s no dignity here at all for this man coming up through this crowd. There’s really no hope for him. But here comes this chronically sick man and he lays himself down on the ground in front of Jesus.

And he doesn’t mind his pride and his dignity because he doesn’t have any. And he doesn’t mind the hideousness of his appearance, though it’s obvious. And he doesn’t mind the people, though they’re aghast and embarrassed to even look at this man. But here’s what this man does. This man comes straight to Jesus and he prostrates himself. He kneels before Jesus and he says these blessed words. He says, Lord, if you will. Lord, if you will.

In the presence of Jesus, I want to say to you this, true disciples are convinced of Jesus’ lordship. True disciples are convinced of Jesus’ lordship. And friends, I fear a great deal of people in the church today who have heard far more sermons than this. This uneducated, pitiful leper who have known and memorized far more scriptures than this poor, poor leper don’t have the same solid conviction that he did that Jesus is Lord. I think it’s one thing to agree that Jesus is Lord in theory, but it’s quite another thing to live your life that way. To believe that Jesus is truly over my whole life. Everything I’m doing, the small and the big. Jesus is over the life. In times of all the people I know. Jesus is over all creation. Every creature, every inanimate object. His lordship doesn’t know any bounds. To believe in Jesus’ lordship as a theory is just this. And this is most people. It’s to have a loose religion you go to when life gets a little too taxing. But to believe it with your life means you look like a crazy fool for trusting in Jesus’ lordship like this leper did when all seems hopeless. Friends, when ailments overwhelm us and dark times befall us, when we’re in the very throes of death will we without question believe and know and be convicted still in this Jesus is Lord. And you know it goes way beyond just wanting God’s power for the tragedies of life which are many and those are serious but it especially goes on into the spiritual battle of obeying Christ and living a victorious life. But I want you to be reminded of this this morning. The same Christ who calls us to bear witness about Him in a hostile world. The same Christ who calls us to live righteous though our sinful flesh wars against us every day is the same Christ who bears witness to us every moment of every day in His Spirit that He’s always with us, empowering us for it, equipping us for all that we need. It cannot be said of you and it cannot be said of me that we’re asking for too much for God. Oh, you reached a little too far there. Not at all. Here’s what could be said of you and that we’re just barely beginning to understand what treasures we have and the power of the resurrected Christ. That’s what’s more true. Just the tip of the iceberg of what it means to know we have the power of the resurrected Christ inside of us. Living a defeated, dejected Christian life. You’re barely overcoming your sin. You’re barely resisting temptation. Always governed by your fears. You’re governed by your failure. You’re too nervous to speak about your faith to other people. Friends, the defeated Christian, that’s a false paradox. That’s what that is. Satan says, the world says, the flesh says, who are you to think that you could live like that? Who are you to think that you could really have the power of God in your life like that? That’s for other people who have figured more out. Not you. Friends, that’s a lie. There is only victorious Christians because every Christian has the same measure of Christ within them. And you know how much that measure is? It’s the full measure of Christ. I think the Lord’s displeased when we don’t demand from Him every day, open up heaven on me. Give me your power for all of life. I want to live for you. That’s what you’re calling me to. Satan says live for the status quo, but the Scriptures say live an abundant life in Jesus. Paul says in Galatians chapter 5, but I say, and it’s not a suggestion, it’s not for elitists, you know, it’s for every Christian. The Apostle Paul says, but I say walk in the Spirit. It’s for all believers. So there are no cowards, there are no disbelieving in God’s kingdom, only the faith filled. And so this does have everything to do with your faith. When you look at that leper, you’re looking at a man of faith. To walk in the Spirit and to have what people don’t have today, an astonishingly, peaceful life in the midst of everything. How do you get there? How do I walk in the Spirit? How do I remain in peace no matter what? By looking at Jesus always and believing His Lordship is in me, it’s on me, it’s around me, it’s working through me, it goes before me, it’s after me. You know, in Luke’s Gospel, the ten lepers get healed by Jesus and only the one comes back to say thank you. And you know what Jesus says to that one leper? Your faith has made you well. So believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a command. Not like the dignified crowds, but like this pitiful leper down in the dirt convinced of the Lordship of Christ.

The leper had not crafted or harnessed the power of Jesus. I’m going to craft this way and I can kind of manipulate Jesus. So if you have enough faith, you can get what you want from God. Right? Just believe. It’s mine. No! Here’s what this leper did. The leper simply submitted his life to the Lordship of Christ. And he left the results to Jesus. It’s not true that in every course of life, whether it be something you’re dealing with or a spiritual battle, it’s always going to turn out just the way you want. In fact, it’s not. But when you submit to the Lordship of Christ, you can know by faith things are working for my good and my Lord will never forsake me. He’s too powerful to be defeated. And whatever enemy is going on right now in my life, that’s a firm conviction of faith, friend. Do we have that firmness of faith? Or are we more like the waves getting tossed around? James says, don’t do that. James says, when you have that kind of faith, it’s no faith at all. You’re unstable. But Christ calls us to stability because He’s a stable, faithful Lord. Paul says He’s the God who is able to do far more than we think. Far more.

And Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China, he first went in a sailing vessel but there was no wind and so this boat started to drift towards the shores of a cannibal island and as the cannibals are waiting for their next meal, the captain said to Mr. Taylor, you had better pray to your God. Mr. Taylor says, I’m not going to pray to my God until you open the sails. And he said, I’m not going to open my sails like a fool. No, no wind. I’m not going to do that. And he said, I’m not praying until you open those sails. And so he opened the sails and Hudson Taylor goes and prays in his room and then he hears a beat on the door and it’s the captain saying, stop praying. We have more wind than we can handle, you know. Friends, if faith is easy, it’s not faith. And if faith is what the masses are believing in, it’s not faith. The call is to the few and the call is to true discipleship. And it’s hard. And yes, Jesus says only the few will pursue it. But the question you have to ask yourself if you’re among the few is this, are we not convinced that Jesus is Lord? And if we’re convinced that Jesus is Lord, our faith in Him, even if it feels small, it’s still enough. A small faith, Jesus says, it can move the mountain. And that small faith, you know what it will be? It will be and it is handily outmatched by the object of your faith. You just, oh, I believe. Woo, this is hard, but I believe Jesus is so much more than what our small faith is. He’s so much more reliable. He’s so much more present. He’s so much more aware. I say to you, do you believe that as a theory or do you live that with your life? Regardless of the hardship, will you fly to Jesus? Will you fly to Jesus? And I think to say, well, that’s fine and all for somebody who’s dealing with something right now, but I’m not dealing with something. Like, I’m just moving on right now. It’s a terrible Christian perspective to have, because here’s why. Life is a hardship. And when you start thinking, I should only really press into Jesus when there’s like these big problems going on, you know what? Jesus is just going to be like this emergency exit, like, oh, life’s bad. I’m running to Jesus. But that’s not the lordship of Jesus for the Christian. For the Christian, like, Jesus is over, like, the small things in my life, like me, like how my relationship is with my wife and my children, or just Jesus watching me get up in the morning and, like, driving to work, and, like, everything, like, just anything you could think of, the Christian is obsessed with knowing, like, Jesus is powerful here, like, everything exists for Him, so I can’t fear and I’m not going to be afraid. I’m just going to submit to Jesus’ lordship. So Jesus isn’t your emergency exit. Like, He’s just your life. He’s the thing you’re living in. Like, that’s what it looks like to be convinced of His lordship. It’s to love it and to dwell on it. That kind of sureness will give you joy. You don’t have joy when Jesus is the emergency exit. You know, in Nehemiah, which we looked at Nehemiah last week, but there comes this point where Nehemiah has Ezra get up and read the law and the people, they weep and they cry and they’re broken because they’ve sinned and the walls are broken down and everything’s bad. But Nehemiah comes back and he says, hey, stop. Be happy and eat and feast. And if you know somebody doesn’t have food, give them some wine to drink and some food to eat because it’s a time to celebrate the joy of the Lord is your strength. And what Nehemiah was saying in those people’s is, yeah, you’ve messed up and yeah, things have been bad and yeah, things are tough, but Jesus is still on the throne. Like God is still in charge. God is still Lord. So let’s just celebrate and live in that together. Like that’s the kind of like surety we should have of Christ’s lordship in everything. That’s a victorious, abundant, effective Christian life.

I’m going to go back to verse 3 here with you.

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them. So Jesus does the unthinkable and this would have been unthinkable way before the crowds are going to be impressed with the miracle. They’re going to be disgusted. They’re going to be disgusted because Jesus dares touch this man. Now you wouldn’t have done this because the law, Leviticus 5, said if you touch knowingly or unknowingly, if you touch a leper, you’re unclean ceremonially and you’ve got guilt on you. And again, still, it’s contagious. So you just don’t touch a leper. But Jesus is different. Jesus is the law giver. He’s the one who gave that law. So it’s not that because Jesus is the law giver he gets to break his own laws. It’s only that Jesus is the greater thing. He’s the fulfillment of that law. That law was getting ready to pass away. The fulfillment of it was there. So Jesus touched this man, not as a law breaker. He touched this man as one who was a law fulfiller. Jesus can do for this man what the law could not. We go back to Leviticus chapter 13 verse 46. Here’s what the law says a leper must do. He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. Outside the camp. So the man or whoever has leprosy, you were condemned to a life of solitude. So say goodbye to your friends. Say goodbye to your family. Say goodbye to the part of town you live in. You’re outside the camp. You’re away. At best you’re living with a colony of lepers out there together alone.

That’s what the law said. Worse than that, you can no longer go to the temple. The place where God is. You can’t make the sacrifices. You can’t draw near as close as a person could draw near in that time to the presence of God. You couldn’t go to the festivals. You couldn’t go to the feasts that the law called God’s people to do. And if you loved God, you would have loved to love these things. Like this would have been your way of life as one of God’s people. But not anymore if you were helplessly, as this man was, unclean. And if by chance your leprosy naturally healed, there was a certain sacrifice and ceremony you could undergo to become clean. But that’s a huge if. And for this guy in Matthew’s gospel, the time of hoping the leprosy is going to go away is long gone. It’s long faded. But now there stands before this leper somebody that can do something about it. But the question for the leper is not can he? It’s not the question. The question for this leper is will he? Will he do something about it? And wonder of wonders, Jesus says back to this leper, I will be clean. See, it rested on the power of Christ’s will. Christ spoke it. Christ said it would so. To say Christ’s will that it would be to say the same. Christ desired it for the man. Jesus touched the untouchable. He immediately cleaned this man. It’s what Jesus willed. For this man. Because the man deserved it? No. But because Jesus was willing to do it for the man. That’s why. And I want you to understand Jesus did not just restore this man back to some life. Like, hey, you don’t have your leprosy. Just go back to doing whatever you want to do. Not at all. Jesus has restored this leper back to fellowship with the people of God, which is great. But more than that, Jesus has restored this man back to nearness and worship with God. He’s restored him to a relationship again as he could have it. He was, and here’s the big word, he was consecrated. You see that word consecrated all throughout Leviticus. God says to his people, be consecrated to me. You know what consecration means? It means you’re clean in such a way that you’re dedicated to God alone. You’re set apart to him. So Jesus isn’t just powerful to save him. And Jesus isn’t just willing to save him. But Jesus is only willing to save him all the way back to God. That’s the kind of salvation, that’s the kind of consecration Jesus gave this leper. And friends, I want you to consider with me, how much more for us when we look at the cross of Jesus, do we see not just the power of Christ to save, not just the willingness of Christ to save, but the deep love and willingness of Jesus to take us all the way back to God, to consecrate us to the uttermost. Jesus suffered in our place. Jesus became an unclean thing that we could be consecrated to God alone. The Hebrew writer said Jesus suffered outside the camp. Jesus became an unclean thing and he gave us his righteousness. He gave us his cleanness. Jesus restored us to God alone. So friends, in the presence of Christ, a true disciple desires to be consecrated to God alone. Jesus saves to the uttermost. Because that’s the only kind of salvation there is. Any other kind of salvation, that’s a sub-healing. That’s a quasi-healing. That’s a fake healing by some quack doctor that took your money. Jesus is the true physician of body and soul. And so only by his power and his loving willingness can his patients truly, fully experience life again. And you know about the integrity of Christ’s person? He’s not going to give us less than his best. He couldn’t do it and he wouldn’t do it. He gave his life. He poured out his blood that we could be saved. That we can be clean. So we look at the cross and we look at the empty grave and we know by faith, man, though I struggle in the flesh now, the day will come the new heavens and the new earth when God and man can dwell again because Christ consecrated us back to our God. Now we may face physical and spiritual maladies, but still we’re consecrated. Jesus didn’t save you so long as you don’t get too dirty. Jesus didn’t save you in most situations and cases. Jesus just as he’s promised in his spirit to give you all power, so Christ also testifies with a seal on you that you are forever belonging to him and you will make it to the end and you are consecrated to God. So before we even talk about, hey, I want power in Christ to live for the kingdom, that’s great. I think the first thing for us to do is to confess in the accomplished work of Christ that Jesus did consecrate us to the uttermost. Like that’s where there’s joy and there’s peace. Because you know if you truly, truly have been touched by Christ, you’re not just going to be clean, you’re going to want to be clean. It’s a changed life. You know, I’ve heard people say, oh, Jesus is my Savior, but he’s not my Lord. Or I’ve gone a long season of life and he’s my Savior, but he’s not my Lord. That is so biblically bent. If Christ has saved you, that means he has exercised his Lordship over your sin and he is both your Savior and your Lord and you don’t just look like him, you want to look like him. And in looking like him, then you’re an effective agent for the kingdom of God.

I want to ask you, what do you really want from Jesus?

You want a religious experience?

You want a band-aid for a bad day? Help in emergencies? Or do you just want him?

Do you desire to know this Christ and the power of his cross? Because let me tell you something, if you’re willing to ask, he’s willing to give. But know he’s going to give you nothing else and nothing less than the fullness of himself. He’s going to give you everything at the expense of your whole sinful self. It’ll die. Do we know what we’re truly asking for? Do we desire to be consecrated to Jesus alone?

You know, divorce rates in America have dropped. Not for a good reason. They’ve dropped because people just aren’t getting married anymore. So I think for decades when people were getting married, they’re at least attempting to say, hey, let’s do the fidelity thing. Now we have a generation of younger people, millennials. I think I count as millennials. Young people who are saying, let’s not even pretend like this is going to be a thing. Let’s not tie that knot and make that promise. Let’s just live together. Let’s just make this amicable. So the radical nature of the cross of Christ and discipleship is so different and it’s so much more sacrificial, but it’s so much better, I think, at the same time than what culture is saying a relationship should look like. Jesus calls us to exclusivity. So that’s both a powerful message when the Spirit grips someone with it, but it’s also a hard message. It’s a message for us as the church to fight for that. No, I’m going to be exclusive to this Jesus. I want to look like this Jesus, despite a culture that’s saying, no, look like this and do this and appease your flesh and take some here and take some there and you can have a buffet of spirituality and this and that and the other. No, I want exclusivity with Christ because Christ’s exclusively died for me and so I want to exclusively know and be like and love this Jesus. Do you pursue the presence of Jesus? Are you reminded of His grace and power and His great love?

And I know, I guess it’s weird to use marriage language, but Paul does it. Christ is our bridegroom and we are His bride, so are you making a habit of regularly falling in love with Jesus? You know, I think that there’s this real temptation for the Christian life to be a set of doctrines and that’s good. You know, I’m bent that way, like let’s make sure we know everything’s true and right and that’s good, but friends, if truth is so good it should come out, I think, you know, like an emotional burst of passion. Like I want to live for something greater. Like it’s just not a set of rules. Like I want my whole body and my whole soul just to be set on fire for Jesus. I don’t want to just know all this religious stuff. I just want a whole life that’s dedicated to the whole Christ. I mean, I think that’s what it should look like. And I think that’s where at the same time power and grace meet. You know, Stephen, the martyr, right before he’s stoned to death, it says he’s filled with power and grace, you know, and he rips the Sanhedrin and tells them exactly who Jesus is and exactly what they did wrong. But, you know, the Scriptures say power and grace came together in Stephen. What is power and grace together? Well, it’s the power of God saving him, but it’s the grace to realize how powerful and great and loving God is and to let that flow through his life. It was desiring the power of God to come through a consecrated to life, a life dedicated to Jesus alone. So I want the power of God and we should want God’s power, but also just this love for Jesus to intermingle in us. So we just, this whole life is just dedicated to this Jesus. I want to know this Jesus. I want to obey this Jesus. I want to look like this Jesus and I don’t want to be, you know, I’m some for this, I’m some for that and I cheat on him here and they’re like, I just want just Jesus. I just want to get there.

I guess last weekend, you know, some of us, we went down to Big Spring Park and we were sharing the gospel with some folks and the last guy that we talked to, the guy that the fellas talked to, we were talking to this man and he made an observation that I thought actually was a very good observation even though he stands on the wrong side of the conversation, it was a very good observation. And he said this, he said, the fact that you have to go to it invalidates it for me. Like if it’s so good, like how would I have to go to it? And he’s right. That’s largely marketing and advertisement, right? Like, hey, if you buy this thing, if you get this product, if you spend this money, it’ll satisfy you. But that’s always the lie of marketing and advertisement as much as it is the lie of religion too, I think. But I think what we tried to say to this man and I don’t know if it stuck, was this. Jesus isn’t saying, hey, maybe you’ll find me and if you find me and you can do it all, that’s great. That’s not at all the message of Christianity. Here’s the message of Christianity. Long before any of you and I could come into the presence of God, Jesus first came into our presence. Jesus left the everlasting. Jesus showed up and Jesus said, hey, I am the powerful Lord. Jesus said, I am the holy consecrated God. Jesus was the one who saved us. Jesus is the one who did it all. So Jesus has come into our space. And He has called us to come closer to Him. And so that is different. You know, so Jesus is just different. He’s just better. He’s so humble and gentle in how He’s coming this close to us. And He says, just say, are you willing? And I’ll say back to you, I am willing. I am willing. So friends, in the presence of Jesus, I think a real disciple, has a single-minded devotion to Christ. And the reason we have this single-minded devotion is because He was first devoted to us. We love Him because He first loved us.

So I don’t want to be in the crowds, you know, with the people being amazed by Jesus. Even trying to practice some things He says. And Jesus said, that was a good show. I want to be, if I have to be, down in the dirt, with nothing else, and just say, Jesus, I need You. If You’re willing, You can be the power to save me. You can be the purity that cleans me. You can be my life. And as much as I could desire it for myself, Jesus desires it for me way more than I realize. And He desires it for you way more than you desire it for yourself. But even just to desire it some, Christ says, I am willing. I am willing.

True disciples believe in all things. True disciples obey in all things. True disciples are devoted in all things.

He first loved us, friends. So by grace, we love Him.

Let’s pray.

Father, the many things,

the many small fascinations we have that draw our attention away from You, Lord, we would short for time, and we would be embarrassed to speak of all the things that we let take precedence over knowing You.

Just sitting at Your feet. Just being mindful of how good You are. How strong You are. How You didn’t leave us to die in our sin, but Jesus, You clothed Yourself in humility and You became a sin offering for us. You became an unclean thing that we could be clean.

So there’s really no words for me to say, Father. The only thing I could say is just, would You take that Scripture and would You just drive it into our hearts by Your Spirit until we’re with that leper down in the dirt. And our only hope, our only desire is for Jesus to reach out and touch us.

Just pray for that. Pray You’d surround us. And fill us with His love and with His power. Oh, and Father, as we look more like Him, and as we’re used by Him, oh, You receive the glory. And this thing we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.