Sunday Morning Sermon Series - Pastor Jeff Shipley (Date: 11/07/2021)

Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel, it wasn't their military size, it wasn't the type of people...

Luke chapter 5, Luke chapter 5, and we're going to be starting in verse 27.

These last four weeks, well, five weeks, but the last four times

I've spoken, I've been preaching a sermon series on pictures of God's grace.

The pictures of God's grace and how that looks to the everyday person. I'm going to culminate this today in Luke chapter 5, and I'm going to give you three aspects of grace.

Two that I have been talking about, that God's grace is to those that are outcast.

Number two, that God's grace is only for sinners. And number three, that there is an understanding that God's grace is not going to be effective for everyone.

Let's look, if you will, Luke chapter 5, verse 27.

It says this, After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named

Levi sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, follow me.

So leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow him.

Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with him.

But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus replied to them, the healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Let's just chat for a second.

Now I love the opening words of verse 27. It says, after this.

Now, harmonutically, for those of you that are learning biblical harmonutics, what does that immediately tell us we need to do?

Right. Guys, we need to be intellectually honest with Scripture.

Quit picking out little verses like when you're in the FCA or something and you have a

Jesus bumper sticker or what would Jesus do. Read Scripture. Words mean things.

And to understand this part of the passage, you have to go back to the beginning of chapter 5.

Now I'm not going to read all of it to you, that would be 26 verses, but I want to show you just real quickly the reality of God's grace in reaching out to those who are outcasts.

Verses 1 -11 deal with Jesus Christ going to the blue -collar worker.

1 -11. Jesus not only first gave the understanding of God's plan and God's grace to the blue -collar worker, that's where Jesus got

His disciples from. In other words, He went out and found

HVAC guys. Do you realize how many HVAC guys we have in here?

You can't swing a dead cat in here without hitting an HVAC guy. And we know what kind of people they are.

Well, speaking of HVAC, is anybody in this room cold? My God, of course you are,

Sarah. Somebody do something because I'm beginning to glisten. I'm kidding,

I'm kidding, don't touch nothing. But Jesus went to the fishermen.

You see, you have to understand, at this time in Jerusalem, the Romans from Italy had conquered most of the known world.

In fact, in about 60 years under Tiberius in 117

AD, they will reach the furthest extent of the Roman power. So there were

Romans who were in Palestine or Judea or Jerusalem and they had taken over everything.

Jesus didn't go to them. There was also under them Jewish rulers, people who were kind of puppets for the

Roman government. Jesus didn't go to them. But here's what's even more amazing. The Jewish religion, which for 4 ,000 years at this point had existed, they had more priests, more pastors, more ministers of music.

You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting some religious leader. Jesus didn't go to them.

Jesus first went to the shores of Galilee and He called those people which all of the elite looked down on.

That's who He went to first. Second thing, if you notice there, verses 12 on a little bit,

He goes to the lepers. I want you just to read verse 13 for a second.

You have to understand that in Jewish law, that if you had leprosy, you were taken outside of the city.

You were not allowed inside the city. You were outcast in every meeting of the

Word. You had to actually wear a bell around you.

And as you moved anywhere, you had to yell out, Unclean!

Unclean! This was the law. If you weren't vaccinated, you had to yell unclean.

And people would stay very far away from you. I want you to note in verse 12 and 13 what this leper does.

He does this. He sees Jesus. Never met Him before in his life, but he's heard about Him.

He sees this crowd. And immediately he identifies the man speaking. And so he runs up and throws himself at His feet.

And he says, If you are willing, you can make me clean. Now here's what's so cool.

When Jesus healed people, He would do stuff like this. Stand up and walk.

He would do things like this. You're free. When He cast out demons,

He would say, Get out. But if you look closely at verse 13, this is what grace looks to an outcast.

It says, And immediately Jesus reached down and touched him and said,

I am willing, you are clean. Guys, that man had not felt another human touch probably in 20 years.

But God's grace to the outcast is this. He will touch your life in a way that no codependent relationship or no drug addiction or alcohol addiction ever will.

I promise you, if you're touched by Jesus, it's going to be a whole different story than when you're touched by stupid religion.

Third thing, Jesus is preaching and teaching and people are just thronging to get to Him.

Well, four guys, four buddies, had another buddy that was paralyzed. And these four guys, they picked their buddy up, threw him on a pallet.

He was a cripple. You know? Is that a politically correct word to use? Cripple? Can I not use cripple?

Cripple? Okay, alright. So, they didn't have wheelchairs back then.

There's another cripple. All these cripples around here. They threw him on a pallet. They carried him down to this house and they couldn't get in the door to see

Jesus. So they bum -rushed the stage. You know what they did? They climbed up on the roof, opened up the roof and lowered the guy down.

Now here's Jesus giving His homily. Like right now, I'm preaching. All of a sudden, people start coming through the roof.

Now in this church, that's going to be a bad day for the people coming through the roof. But, back then, Jesus is sitting here and He's going,

He knows exactly what's going on. And Jesus said to Him, My son, your sins are forgiven.

You know what He's doing? He's setting up the Pharisees, the religious elite. He sat there and said,

Son, your sins are forgiven. They're like, who does this guy think he is to forgive sins? People can't get forgiveness unless they come to us.

Pay us that tithe money. Right now, if you send me $39 .95, I'll send you a prayer cloth and a pen.

Right? That's what they... Jesus was moving in on the racket, man. And they're like going, who do you think you are?

Now watch what Jesus does. Jesus goes, they didn't even say anything, but He knew what they were thinking.

And so He stops what He's doing, turns directly to them and goes, why are your hearts filled with such evil?

So that you know that I have the authority to forgive sins, watch this.

Stand up and walk. The dude stood up and walked.

And everybody was like, whoo -hoo -hoo -hoo -hoo -hoo. Probably wasn't as girly sounding as that, but you know, right?

And you know what the Pharisees started immediately doing? Hey boys, huddle up. We need to kill this guy.

Now you remember that in just a point. Guys, God's grace comes to the outcast.

We have strippers in here. We have drug addicts.

You name it. That's what I love about this place. I do 30 counseling appointments a week.

And I always love it when someone comes into my office or my home and says, I don't know if there's help for me.

You don't understand how bad I've been. I'm like, man, shut up, lightweight. You don't know what you're talking about, man.

God's grace. If you start telling me war stories, I'll call up one of my deacons right now.

One of my associate pastors. We're there, buddy. You see, God's grace is not for those of you who want to get your life right by coming back to church.

You ain't ever going to get your life right by sitting in a chair in a church building.

It is Jesus and Jesus Christ alone. Not the words of a preacher or the emotions of a worship song, but a humility to fall down at the feet of Jesus and say, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

God looks for the outcast. Now, second point.

I want you to notice this because some of you hippies in here, you

Birkenstock wearing hippies are like, that's right. God accepts me just the way I am.

No, he doesn't. Grace is not a license for you to live your life the way you want to live it.

Some of you, what are those people called? I used to call them little preppies. What are they called when they're all that in a bag of chips?

Bougie. Some of you bougie

Christians, okay? Some of you bougie Christians are like this. You're sitting there.

I've actually heard people tell me this. Well, I'm saved. Brother Jeff, you ain't got no right to judge me.

I'm saved. Yeah, cool. What about that repentance stuff? Because if you read here, grace of God comes at the expense of repentance.

Read with me here real quick. Read with me here. Look here, verse 27. Jesus, after this, after everything

I just told you, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office and he said to him, follow me.

So leaving everything behind, he'd get up and begin to follow him. Now you have to understand how disgusting tax collectors were.

This is how it worked. Okay, you ready? Yeah, they still are. I got a picture of when we went to Washington D .C.

when my kids were young. I got a picture of all my boys in front of the R .S. sign doing this. I got a picture, you know, acting like...

Never mind. But anyways, these tax collectors, here's what they would do.

Here's how the Romans did it. They would sit there and go, okay, we're taking bids for who wants to be a tax collector.

And this is how it worked. I would get these three peoples right here. Y 'all are going to collect taxes from everyone.

I'm not going to pay you a dime. You get no salary. But you need to get five dollars from everybody in this room.

That's what you guys owe me. So what did these guys do to make a living? Charge you ten, and they kept five.

Here's how much they were hated. And they got the fellow Jews to do it. The Romans were smart, man. Romans were smart, man.

They ruled for a thousand years. They didn't send their army in to do it. They got their own people to turn on them.

And here's how it would work. When you became a Roman tax collector, you were kicked out of the church.

You were kicked out of the synagogue, and your family shunned you. Nobody liked you.

Not even your mama. Everyone turned their back on you because you betrayed your country, you betrayed your faith, and you betrayed your friends.

They were hated. Now notice this. After all of that, yeah,

Jesus helped the sick. Jesus helped the widdle wepple boy. Jesus helped the widdle paralyzed cripple.

But you know else who He comes to? He comes to the one that all of us judge and say,

He's disgusting. He's a traitor. One of the most detestable things to me is a man who would abuse,

I'll use that word, a child or a woman. And you know what I'm saying. The grace of God is still there for them.

Personally, the grace of Jeff ends right there. You know? Because, you know, not

God's grace. Now notice Jesus. He sees this man.

And Christians, I want you to look at this. He sees Him. He walks over to Him.

And He talks to Him. Well, let's learn the E .E. Explosion Evangelism Criterion 2001.

Woo! Let's learn how to witness. It's real stupid simple. It's real simple stupid.

You see someone. You walk over to them. And you speak to them like a human being.

Not like you're some Bible salesman standing at the front door. You actually share with them the testimony of how

God changed your life. And there is no argument to that. It's real simple.

Jesus sees this tax collector that everyone hates. And He purposely walks up to him.

Now I want you to watch the sermon He tells this guy. He walks up to Levi and goes,

Come on. Now dude, you're talking about a short sermon. All of y 'all are like, Man, I wish my preacher would preach like that.

Jesus walked up and said, Follow me. Here's why. Some of you in this room are wanting me to entertain you and make you feel a certain way so that you can overcome your fears to make a decision that you know you need to make.

I am not here to entertain you. I am not here to sell you anything.

I don't care about your stupid money, your membership, or anything else. I'm here to preach the Word of God. If something in your life changes, it wasn't because of me.

I have never led anybody to Jesus. That's what the Holy Spirit does. The reason

Levi got out of that chair when the Word of God was spoken is because the Holy Spirit was already work in his life.

We got preachers in Nashville at the Southern Baptist Convention writing books and getting $100 ,000 a year to sit down in a room and make up strategies to reach the lost for Christ.

It's real simple. See them. Go talk to them. Give them the Word of God. That simple.

You don't need anything else but the Holy Spirit. Quit wasting your time on man's Word and memorizing man's

Word and start being obedient to God's Word and you'll see a change. Look at Angela. Where's Angela?

Man. Every time I turn around, I meet someone else that Angela brought to church.

Some of you people that have more anointing in your membership. I've been a member here 30 years and you ain't done jack.

All you do is warm a pew. You're useless. That little chick over there, she's sitting there cutting people's hair witnessing to them.

They ain't going nowhere. You know? She's cutting their hair and she's got a sharp metal instrument by their throat.

They ain't going nowhere. Alright? See people. Stop focusing on religion so much.

Alright, moving on. Notice this. Notice this. Last thing.

Verse 28. I want you to read that very slowly one more time. So leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow

Him. If you want to know what salvation looks like, that's what salvation is.

Some of you in this room have prayed a prayer asking Jesus into your heart and keep doing exactly what you were doing.

That's not salvation. That's religion. Some of your arrogant and pride selves in your little brain, you've checked off the boxes to be accepted by God.

But see, the first thing you need to realize is you can't move your hand to check off nothing.

You are dead in your sins and your trespasses. Understand this today.

It is by God's grace that you are saved. Understand this, that God is not a hippie

Joel Stein. Okay? We have taken God's Word so much and re -polluted it to make it acceptable to our culture.

Listen, people say the Word of God shouldn't offend anybody. Really? Well, Jesus Christ was killed because of it, so right away, there's your standard to be met.

Understand this today. If you want to be a Christian, it's not praying Jesus Christ into your heart and getting some right -wing

Republican morals. It's about you deciding to leave everything behind, no matter what it costs you, and you're willing to say,

I'm following Him for the rest of my life. That's why so many people who are sitting in church are unregenerated heathens because you've been lied to for years.

Find me anywhere in Scripture where it says to pray Jesus in your heart. I'll give you a $100 bill.

Find me anywhere where it says to walk down an aisle. Find me anywhere where it says to join or you've got to tithe to be saved.

There are people dying and going to hell that are filling church buildings this morning because they've been lied to, because they've memorized man's

Word and not listened to God's. It's a lot harder when you listen to God's Word. Last thing.

Notice this also. I love this thing. I love this. Last week we talked about John 4, the woman at the well.

She met Messiah, was changed by them. Then immediately she turns around, runs back to her hometown, and goes, hey, dude, you've got to come meet this guy.

Man, he just changed my life. And if you read verse 42 at the very end of John 4, it says this, the men come back to the woman that they used to hate and spurn, and they said, we now believe, not because of what you told us, but because we have indeed believed that this is the

Messiah, the Savior of the world. Right? In other words, she didn't go to Bible school, go to seminary.

She immediately left that place of conversion and went in and started telling other peoples.

Look at Levi here. He's hated by everyone. Jesus says, follow Me. There's a conversion aspect there.

The very night Levi goes, alright, y 'all got to come over to my house and meet this dude named Jesus, man.

Come over and meet Him. So all these heathens, all these people that other people won't touch with a ten foot pole, are sitting at Levi's house eating.

And you've got to understand, it was against the law for pastors to associate with HVAC guys.

You know? Because I'm a licensed, ordained, senior pastor.

You people are just commoners. You know? What did

Jesus do? He didn't just associate with them. He said, hey, let's have a barbecue. Now, as they're sitting there eating, here come the religious people.

And this is my last point. So listen to me. This is my last point.

For some of you in this room, the first two points are for you. Okay? Listen, stop zipping up your

Bible and listen. Forget church, forget sermon. Listen. For the first two points, you think you're too dirty to come to Jesus.

Don't worry about it. He makes curbside pickups. Okay? If you're in the gutter, that's exactly where the grace is going to find you.

It ain't going to find you all spit and polished shiny. Grace is going to find you at your lowest point.

Some of you today need to become Christians. You need to be saved. And I ain't talking about some stupid religious decision you made when you were five.

I mean, you make to make a declaration today. I am tired of playing with this. I am tired of trying to figure it out.

I surrender my life to Jesus Christ today. That's one group.

But this last point is for some other folks. Now, we spent the last ten years running these folks out of this place.

But there was always with human arrogance a propensity to go back.

Look at what the Pharisees came up. And notice they didn't talk to Jesus. They went and talked to Jesus' disciples.

When I used to teach martial arts, we'd go into the places and we'd basically say, hey man, we'll teach you how to fight for free.

Show up. And there were all these little tough guys come out of the woodworks. But there would always be one.

There was always that one guy. And Hannah and Evan, you guys know what I'm talking about. He shows up on a

Tuesday night. He's like, yeah, I was with six ninja special forces SEAL rangers.

And I've got the five finger death touch. And he was one of those guys. And then he would say something like this.

I want to get some fight time in. And I'd go, okay, hey, no problem, man. Let me see what you can do and I'm going to measure you up.

And he'd always look and he'd always want to fight like her. He would sit there and he would go,

I want to fight her. Because he knows he's just going to thump on her, right? That's the way cowards are.

Notice the Pharisees. They didn't go out and talk to Jesus. They went and talked to His kids. That's fitting you.

In other words, you've got a problem being held accountable, but you won't go to talk to someone who can actually hold you accountable.

Your accountability is someone you can manipulate and control. That's not accountability. You need someone to be all up in your business.

Okay? But here's what they said. Why are you guys eating with those sinners? Three things.

And I'm done. Three things that are going to send you to hell. It's not pornography or alcohol.

That's not what's sending you to hell. The first one is your issue with the self -image.

The second one is your understanding of self -righteousness. You see, you have the image.

You have the righteousness. And the third one is you think by self -efficiency you could find your way to heaven.

Listen to me. Some of us in this room, we have so camouflaged our spiritual lives.

We have looked and we take our spiritual needs and we wrap them up in a preacher, a denomination or a religion or a song or a lifestyle and we're living in rebellion towards God.

But we can live with that conviction because we have become self -imaged to a place where we make ourselves feel good about ourselves.

And here's how we do it. By doing this. Do you see the way she was dressed this morning?

Oh my God. Cynthia, I mean, can you believe some of these people in this room have tattoos?

I mean, it's kind of icky. You know? Well, that's not how I do it.

Here's my favorite one. That's not how I was brought up. God, I'm really sorry for that for you.

That you're such a loser. Here's the problem. The one continuing word or common denominator in all three of those is self.

Ephesians 2 .8 and 9 say this. For by grace are you saved through faith.

Not of yourself. It is a gift of God. Not of works.

Lest anyone should boast. Some of y 'all are going to go to hell because you've rejected Jesus by not submitting to Him.

There's another group of people who could quote to you a bunch of Scripture that are still going to go to hell because you think your salvation is based upon your moral or biblical understanding.

If you note in the New Testament the harshest words and condemnation that Jesus had was for the church.

Where are you this morning? Now, you're sitting there going

I don't smoke, cuss, drink, or have tattoos so I'm good to go. No, you're the person that's being talked to right now.

Right now. Watch this. When's the last time you opened your house to sinners?

Oh yeah, you were at church every Sunday. You know, if my 27 year old son is still doing crayon drawings and wants me to put them on the refrigerator, there's a problem.

Okay? Right? If Jeremiah is still playing with dolls like he did...

Oh, sorry son, I didn't mean to say that. If Jeremiah is still playing with Lego cars in the floor at 22 years old instead of taking care of his wife and my future grandchild, where's my future grandchild?

Where's my future grandchild? There it is! It's my baby Ella. So cute, I can't wait. There's a problem.

Guys, some of you in this room need to quit measuring your spiritual maturity by the fact that you're not drunk.

Some of y 'all need to be drunk with the Holy Spirit. Some of y 'all need to come to a place where you start surrendering your efforts.

But whatever it is this morning, either you never truly have been saved or you've trusted your own self -righteous religion and you're still going to hell, guys, this is the time for you.

Now, walking down this aisle won't save you. Being prayed over by a pastor will not save you.

I know everybody's bladder's full. Hang tight. Alright, listen. I'm just a fat bald guy.

That's all I am. The same spirit of God's in me is the same spirit of God is in you as a Christian. It's not like this.

You know, here's Jesus. Here's me. Here's up. We're on the same level. I'm just following. I'm the first guy to trip the landmine.

That's what I do. Okay? Coming to me won't help. But, I'm going to have pastors and counselors up here and here's what they're going to do for you.

They're going to listen to what you say. Then they're going to open up the Word of God and show you. They're doing this right here.

We're Levi. We're a tax collector, man. We're fitting to have dinner. Showing you where one sinner can show another sinner where to find food.

Guys, if you're in here this morning and you're struggling with a particular sin and you're the person saying that's between me and God, you're going to continue to struggle with that personal sin.