Sunday 6 July 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 06-07-2025

Speaker: Jamie Boland

Sermon Title: Eat Dust

Scripture Reading: Matthew 14:22-33

 Today's reading is from Matthew 14, verses 22 to 33.

Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go. Ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd after he had dismissed them, he went up on the mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, take courage. It is, I don't be afraid. Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water.

Come, he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning the sing cried out, Lord, save me. Me immediately. Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, you of little faith. He said, why did you doubt? And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.

Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the son of God. Hear the words from the Holy Bible.

Thank you Catherine, for that reading. We'll come to this passage shortly. The title of my message today, you can see up on the screen is Eat Dust. Now I know it doesn't sound nice, but all will be explained. Let's, uh, let's commit this time to the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us.

We ask and pray for your peace to descend, to be with us. Holy Spirit, come. Let your peace flood this place. Open our hearts to receive from your word today in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Now, back in 2004, the Australian government, they were so concerned about the falling birth rate that they launched a concerted push for us to have more babies.

Do you remember this? Okay. Peter Costello, the then treasure, he famously used the slogan. Oh, I'm not switched on. He famously used the slogan and we get it. One for mom, one for dad, and one for the country. Do you remember that? Okay. Now you can see those babies, you know, they're not even keen on politicians either.

So one for mom, one for dad, one for the country. We need to increase the birth rate. And as an incentive, they introduced the so-called baby bonus, and what they did is they handed out a $5,000 lump sum per child. Now for Clara and I, the timing was great. We got $10,000 for starting our family, but as they say.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Now, the introduction to the baby bonus had an unintended effect. There were quite a few young girls and some were as young as 11 and 12 years old. They decided to fall pregnant so they could get this baby bonus. Now, they didn't really want a child. What they wanted was the cash.

I remember seeing a, a story on the current affair of a young girl who wanted, she said, I just wanted a big screen, plasma tv. Okay. It was shocking. Now these young girls didn't think about the cost of raising a child or even about the child's long-term future. They just wanted to give birth to get the money promised by the government.

Now, I think we'd all agree that it's a sad thing that a parent would only have a child and you know, and not really think now, they, they wouldn't think beyond the birth of the child and, and they wouldn't think about raising that child and about that child's long-term future. I think we'd all agree it's, it's not a good thing.

Let me draw a spiritual parallel. Studies have shown, many studies have shown that churches can do a similar thing. They spend time, money, and energy trying to win people to Christ through evangelistic rallies and all these programs. And of course, this is something we should do. We should be about winning people to Jesus Christ.

Amen. We should be about that. But the problem is this. Too often we can focus on the birth of new Christians and not be concerned enough for what happens in their long-term future. Do you get what I'm saying? We can produce baby Christians. We thank God for their arrival, and then we go on to producing more baby Christians.

I. Now, let me ask you, is this how you'd start a family? Is this what you do? If you wanna start a family, think about it. You go to hospital, give birth, get home, you put the baby in the corner, and then you leave them to to fend for themselves. Would you do that? No. Could you imagine if that's how you decided to start your family or go to the hospital, give birth, come home with stick bubs in the corner, you're on your own.

Now mom and dad can get busy making more babies. Now, no one would do that. The child needs to be fed. The child needs to be nurtured. The child needs to be instructed. It needs to be corrected. It needs to be grown. You need to teach that child. You need to invest your life into that child. In Africa, they say the harvest field is a mile wide and an inch an inch deep.

Now I, I never really was comfortable with that saying it, it sounded kind of, kind of condescending, but then I actually saw there's an element of truth to it. Do you know the expression? It's a mile wide. There's lots of people that need to be saved, but the harvest field is only an inch deep. They're only going this deep with people.

What we saw as evangelists come, they're gonna hold these great big rallies that attract huge numbers and people respond. The evangelist gives glory to God, and then he leaves and goes home back to, you know, the west. And then the ministry reports the huge numbers that have raised their hand or come to the front, and they use this as a way to solicit funds.

They say God is doing amazing things on the field. I've seen this firsthand. In fact, I actually saw this same thing on social media on Thursday. Now, what I've done here is I've blanked out the ministry name, and we're not about shaming anyone here, but this is from, uh, some stuff that's happening in Africa right now from a US based ministry.

It says in just the last 50 days, over 1 million people have made documented decisions to follow Jesus. Look at this. May, 2025, 700 plus. Sorry, 700,000 plus salvations, 300,000 in June and counting, and it says our current lifetime total is nearly 100 million souls. And they, they use this and they say, if you feel led to, so help us reach the 100 million mark in the next four weeks.

Give here. We've just had our missions month. What is the mission of the church? It's the mission of the church to produce spiritual babies. Is that our mission? Is that our goal? What did Jesus say? He said, go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Jesus didn't say, I want you to go out and make converts.

Yes. The mission of the church is to make disciples. Are you with me? What that means practically is this, we're not merely calling people to believe in Jesus. We're calling people to know Jesus, follow Jesus, and ultimately become like Jesus. Amen. Amen. The goal of salvation. That's not to get saved. Attend church, put some money in the offering, sing some songs, fill my head full of information about Jesus, and then one day I get to go to heaven to be with him.

The goal of salvation is to be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do as Jesus did. This is what it means to be a disciple. And can I tell you, this is not something that can, that can be done in a Billy Graham style evangelistic rally, and it may begin there and praise God if it begins there. Praise God. If you went to a, a rally sometime and you gave your life to Jesus, praise God, but that's, that's just where it begins.

It's got to be followed up in a way that facilitates long-term growth, much like the birth of a child needs to be followed up with constant feeding, training, teaching, and discipline. That last word, discipline. If you don't discipline a child, they're not gonna grow correctly. Yeah. You've got to discipline your child, your children.

Listen to how Paul says this in Colossians chapter one, he says. We proclaim Christ, they share about Jesus warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present, everyone mature in Christ. Do you see the word I've highlighted? Mature. Our goal is not just to make spiritual babies. Our goal is to grow people up just like you would a child in ministry.

We are, we are called to prepare people for eternity, to present them mature. And can I tell you, it's not just my job as the pastor, as they say, it takes a village to raise the child. Do you get what I'm saying? It is the job of the entire Christian community to be involved in the lives of each other, growing one another up into maturity.

Are you with me on this? Yes. Or is it just my job? My thank you. Now, back in, back in the day, there was a popular phrase, ww JD, do you remember this? What does it stand for? WW JD. What would Jesus do now In the late 1990s, people used to wear all these wristbands. When I first came to faith. This was the fad.

If you're a hardcore follower of Jesus, you wouldn't be seen without your, your bracelet. Okay? And if you weren't wearing it, people saying, are you really following Jesus? Are you a Christian? Now, what I wanna do is change this to WDJD. What did Jesus do? Consider the following two verses. From Mark chapter three, Jesus appointed 12, whom he also named apostles to be with him.

That's key to be with him and to be sent out, to proclaim the message and to have authority to cast out demons. What do we see here? They were with Jesus and they went out and did what Jesus did. And then from the Book of Acts. When the Sanhedrin saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated, ordinary men, they've not been to Bible college.

They're not seminary educated. They are uneducated, ordinary men, and they were amazed and noted that they had what been with Jesus. They'd spent time with Jesus. Jesus called people to be with him, to walk with him, to learn from him, all for the purpose of being like him. This is what it means to follow Jesus.

Let me bring this to our reading from today. We heard from Catherine. The disciples are in a boat. It's the middle of the night, so it's dark. They're trying to get across the lake and, and Matthew says, the wind is so ferocious, the boat is just being battered. You know, when I'm out in the water, I mean, there's a lot I can't control, but I like the waters to be calm and safe, and I don't like the wind.

I start to feel sick. It's dark, it's cold, and they're getting smashed by the winds and the waves, and Jesus walks out to them on the water. What's your response? These guys, they're terrified. They think it's a ghost, so they cry out in fear and Jesus reassures them and tells them, don't be afraid. And Peter says, Lord, if it's you, tell me to come out to you on the water.

And Jesus tells him, come. And the force of the Greek text here is, come to me, be where I am. And that's what Peter wants. He wants to be where Jesus is. And so ever the impulsive of one Peter gets outta the boat and he starts walking on the water towards Jesus. Now, what on Earth is going through your mind?

Peter? What on Earth makes Peter thinks that he can walk on water? Now the answer to this question lies in understanding the relationship between a Jewish rabbi and his disciples. So I'm gonna step back a little and set the scene. For the Jewish people, the first five books of Moses, the Torah, these were the very center of their lives.

Now, usually we hear this word, Torah and we translate it as law, but a more accurate translation will be something like instructions. These are the instructions that God gives to his people so that they can live in a way that honors him, that glorifies him, that can live as his holy people. And so what we see is Torah was the center of the Jewish education system.

It's their focus now around the age of five or six. Most Jewish boys and girls. What they do is they go to school for the first time and they'd learn Torah. It'd be taught in the local synagogue by a local rabbi. Now, this first level of schooling is known as Bates Safa. Roughly means house of the book.

You can read this by the age of 10, by the age of 10, most of them would've memorized these first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, Deuteronomy. Okay. It's an oral culture. They've gone there to learn, to read and write and memorize Torah, word for word. That's pretty impressive by the age of 10.

Now, at the age of 10, most would leave school and what they do is they go back home and they'd either apprentice in the family business, they'd work on a farm, or they might learn to manage the family harm. But the best of the best would continue to the next level, which is known as bait. Al Mud House of Learning, and what they would do is they would memorize the rest of the Hebrew scriptures, Genesis through Amalekite.

It's what they call the Tenna, our Old Testament. Could you imagine memorizing the entire Tenna, the entire Old Testament? And what they do at this level is they'd also begin to interact with oral traditions and rabbinic interpretations. Now this part of their schooling had taken them up to the age of about 14 and 15, and after this, most of them would return to their homes.

But the best of the best of the best would graduate to the next level, which is known as bait, mid rush. Okay. The house of study. Now, what they'd do at this level is they'd approach a, a rabbi and apply to become one of that rabbi's disciples. Now when we hear this word disciple, what we often think of is a student, someone who, who just knows what the, the teacher knows.

Now, one of the critiques of education in the western, western world is it's, it's what you call the banking method. I deposit something in, use some knowledge, some information, and I'm gonna withdraw that back from you in a test or an assignment. That's, that's actually what the Western style of education is focused on.

It's primarily focused on knowledge and facts. But what we have here is something far, far deeper than that. A disciple isn't someone who doesn't, a disciple's, not someone who just knows what the rabbi knows. A disciple is someone who wants to emulate their rabbi. They want to be like their rabbi and do what their rabbi does.

So when a rabbi takes on a disciple, when they're sifting through who is the best of the best of the best. They're not only concerned with how smart this kid may be or how much they might even love God, the question they ask is this, can this kid do what I do? Can this kid be like me and carry forward my unique interpretations of Torah?

And so only the best of the best of the best were chosen to apprentice with a rabbi and become their disciple. And if you are one of the lucky ones, if you are one of the chosen, what you're gonna have to do at this stage of life, you're leaving your family, you're leaving your friends, you're leaving your village behind, and you go and give everything to follow this rabbi.

You're gonna devote your entire life to becoming like them. And where your rabbi went, you went. Now there's an interesting saying that comes from the Mishna. Anyone heard of the Mishna? Someone mentioned it to me last week. Surprisingly. Now, for those who dunno, the mishna is just a collection of rabbinic thought.

It dates from around 200 years BC to 200 ad. Now there's a saying from about two centuries before the time of Jesus. It goes like this. Let thy house be a meeting place for the wise and powder thyself in the dust of their feet and drink their words with thirstiness. It basically means let your house be a place where you sit at the feet of a rabbi and learn from them.

And when you sit at their feet, you'll be powdered with the dust from their feet. Think of, think of a woman takes a a mascara brush and you powder your face. Is it called mascara blush? I'm ignorant. I don't know. Think of a woman that powders their face. This is the same sort of image. You are being powdered by the dust of your rabbi that comes from sitting at his feet now, hence the title of my message.

Eat Dust and looks like I'm eating dust right now. Now, this expression was also applied to disciples. Understand the feet of rabbis will be covered in dust because they're walking these dry, dusty roads and pathways. And what was the duty of a disciple? The duty of a disciple was to follow closely in the steps of his rabbi.

Hence the expression. May you be covered in the dust. Of your rabbi, are you picturing this? It's a dry, dusty pathway, and you are meant to be following closely in the footsteps of your rabbi, and as he walks step by step, you follow close behind. The dust kicks up and you're meant to be covered in it. Now, here's one example from a title of a book that encapsulates this saying.

It's called Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus. So you're probably thinking, what does this have to do with Peter walking on water? Has anyone, and kind of pick up where I'm going on this. Most rabbis, how old would they be when they began their teaching around the age of 30? And this is what we see in the Gospels.

Jesus age 30 is walking along the Sea of Galilee, comes across Peter and and Andrew. What's their vocation? They're fishermen. They're followed in the trade of their father. And Jesus says, come follow me. Now, I want you to note this. If Jesus calls them, then it means they're not following another rabbi.

And if they're not following another rabbi, it means that they didn't make the cut. If they didn't make the cut, it's because they're not the best of the best of the best, and yet Jesus says, come follow me. Jesus calls them. This means that he believes that these simple fishmen, these uneducated, ordinary men, he believes that Peter and Andrew and the others, he calls that they can be like him and do the things he does, and so they drop their nets and follow him and understand.

It's likely that Peter, and Peter and Andrew are best young adults. Okay? Don't, they're not older men. They're, they're young adults. At best, they could well be in their late teens. Okay, you can situate this. When Jesus goes into the temple and says to Peter, you and I have gotta pay the temple tax, it's because Peter was probably the only one above age.

These are young men and Jesus has called them to come follow him and change the course of history. And so here they are. One night they're on this boat full of nobodies, nobodies who've devoted their lives to following Jesus, nobodies who have left family and friends and jobs behind. And this wind is blowing a gale.

And along comes Jesus walking on the water. What's Peter's first response when he realizes that it's Jesus? What does he say? Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water. And what does Jesus say? He says, yes, come. Come to me. Think of what's going through Peter's mind. I. Peter has oriented his whole life to doing what his rabbi does.

He sees Jesus walking on the water, and so the first thing he wants to do is follow in the footsteps of his rabbi. And so he steps out of the boat and he begins walking on water. But as we heard, now reading, there comes a point where he takes his eyes off Jesus and he begins to sink, and Matthew writes.

But when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink, cried out, Lord, save me. How many times has this been our life? Lord, save me. I'm sinking here. Immediately. Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. Now, if Jesus was able to catch him, it means he's actually walked a bit of a distance on the water.

He didn't immediately sink. Do you get that? He's actually done what Jesus has done, but then he begins to sink and Jesus says, you have little faith. Why did you doubt? The issue here is this, having believed he could walk in the footsteps of his rabbi and having been called to come, why did Peter begin to doubt that he could do what his rabbi was doing?

Are you with me? One thing this story shows us is that being a disciple of Jesus requires courage in the face of chaos. The backdrop of this story is Psalm 69. Go away and read Psalm 69. It's a lament from someone who is drowning. They're seeking to follow Yahweh, and the waves are just coming upon them.

The sea is a place of chaos. That's the backdrop to this story following Jesus being a disciple. It's gonna require courage in the face of chaos. That's the path that Jesus has called us to. It's not an easy one, but he has called us. Amen. And he's called us to imitate him. That's exactly what discipleship is all about.

I saw this in a book. Three components of discipleship. Component number one is information. The word disciple at its most basic level means learner, and you see this in the gospels. Jesus teaches his disciples about the kingdom of God. He explains to them what the reign of God looks like, and he teaches them about the way, and that's the way they're meant to live.

You're meant to live this way. The second component of discipleship is illustration. Okay. It's information modeled by a teacher. You look at Jesus, Jesus just doesn't talk the talk. He walks the walk. If any, if ever there was anyone who doesn't just talk the talk, but walks the walk, it's Jesus. Yeah. Yes. He models the life of the kingdom.

He embodies its meaning and message. Okay? If you want to know what the kingdom looks like, just look at Jesus. He cast out demons. He heals the sick. He raises the dead. He exerts authority over nature. He models the kingdom. And the third one, which is most, most important is imitation. It's example followed by a follower or disciple.

Jesus teaches Jesus shows and then he sends, he doesn't say, I wanna build up a big following together around me and be at my feet all the time. 'cause I want to build something big that's popular for me. He equips by teaching and showing, and then he releases, he sends people out to do what he did. I wonder how many of us are still stopped at this first component?

How many of us, how many Christians just get stuck here at the information stage? We listen to sermons, we read books, and over time the goal of our Christian life becomes to fill our heads with all this information about the Christian faith, and that's where we stop. My Bible College principal used to say, too many Christians are educated beyond their level of obedience.

When he first said that, I was thinking, ouch. You could have heard the silence in the classroom. Usually he's sharing some gems. He's a Messianic Jew. He's bringing out some pearls of wisdom, and we're saying, amen, hallelujah. But at this point, there was dead silence. Too many Christians are educated beyond their level of obedience.

I was one of them. I can tell you from my own experience, my own faith journey, I've been stuck in this first component. For years, I was stuck. Not stuck anymore. Pastoring at church, you gotta lift your game. But I can look back and I can see, even though I was serving in church and on mission, my prayer life was dead.

I wasn't doing the one thing that is foundational to discipleship. I wasn't spending time with Jesus. And I can tell you, you can halfen, you can puff, but if you don't spend time with Jesus, you cannot be like Jesus. I don't care how gifted naturally you are. You'll grow weary. You'll get tired, you'll burn out.

If you wanna be like Jesus, you've gotta spend time with Jesus. I like what a W to says I love this. You can be as straight as a gumbar theologically and just as empty as one spiritually. I. There's that silence I was speaking about when I was in that classroom. I got all my theological ducks in a row. I mean, I was a theology teacher for years and I was all about the knowledge and the information, but I realized inside spiritually a lot was missing.

I wasn't growing, I wasn't maturing. I wasn't developing. I wasn't spending time at the feet of Jesus. And I'm giving, giving, giving, but I wasn't growing.

There's lots of silence here. I'll take that as a good thing. So what does it mean practically to imitate Jesus and walk in his footsteps? I want to close by presenting a paradigm for Christian life and ministry, and all we have to do to remember this paradigm is just remember four animals and each one's gonna represent an aspect of Christian discipleship.

If you can remember these animals, they can give us some shape and structure as we seek to imitate Jesus. Now the four animals are pretty simple. We've got a fish, sheep, chicken, and a pig. And if you're a grandparent, you might recognize Sean, the sheep up there. I could have used the, um, you know, the rooster from, uh, Looney tunes and pepper pig, or porky pig or whatever, fish, sheep, chicken, and a pig.

Okay? And the order here is important. Okay? So the first animal fish. It represents evangelism, faith in Jesus. Now, when you read the gospels, you see that the image of this fish is used several times. Okay? We see Jesus calls Peter and Andrew told them, what did he tell them? You are fishermen. I will make you fishers of men.

And in one of his parables, Jesus talks about this harvest at the end of the age, and he likens it to fish being gathered up in a net, being gathered to God, so we can use the image of the fish to represent those people that don't yet know Jesus. They're lost, and Jesus sends us into the world to catch them because that's exactly what he did.

Jesus came and he proclaimed the good news to those who were lost. And Jesus calls us to imitate him by doing the same. Now we see that word evangelism and you think, well, I'm not Billy Graham, so it's not for me. And maybe some of us hear the word evangelism and, and you, you know, you're really, you're going into to freeze or flight mode here, right?

Fight, fight, flee, freeze. You know, you're like, oh, evangelism. It scares me. Can we just narrow this down, make it personal. Every single person here has has someone in their lives who is far from God and needs Jesus. Yeah. I could ask you to identify who is someone close to you. Now, if your gift is going over to the shops and connecting with people, go for it.

But if that's not your gift, can you look closer to home? Who in your world that God has put in your sphere of influence is far from God and needs to hear about Jesus? Can I remind us? Every single one of us here was at some point a fish that needed to be caught, and we only came to faith because someone invited us to church or shared their faith with us.

Is that true? I was five years old, or I remember this little old lady knocking on my front door, inviting us to Sunday school. That's where the seed of faith was planted in my life. God brought it to a harvest many, many, many years later, but that's where it began. Someone took the step to go and make an invitation.

Let me leave you with this question. Who are you sharing your faith with? Who are you sharing your faith with? We should all be sharing our faith if we want to imitate Jesus. Yes. And can I tell you, you don't need to be an expert. You don't need to have all the answers. You just need to be authentic and loving.

What's the expression? Say? People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Share your faith. Share your testimonies. Find someone you can do that with. Can I exhort you in that? This is the first step in following Jesus. The second animal is a sheep represents discipleship, knowing and following Jesus.

You probably know straight away the Bible uses this image of the sheep. We all like sheep have gone astray and each of us has turned to his own way. Casting an net and catching people is not the end of our task. Believing in Jesus is a good first step. In fact, it's a necessary first step, but coming to faith is only the beginning of the journey.

It's not the destination. Yeah. Listen to what Peter says about this, like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk, so the bite you may grow up in your salvation. You've gotta grow. As I said earlier, our goal is not to produce spiritual babies, nor is it to be a spiritual baby. Can I, can I just reinforce that your goal is not to be a spiritual baby yourself, and your goal is not to produce spiritual babies.

We need to grow up and we need to grow people up as well. Okay. And we can't lead someone somewhere where we ourselves have not been. Just 'cause we're older doesn't mean that we're mature. Okay. It doesn't mean that we've grown up. We still need to develop and grow until you are drawing breath. You need to grow.

Yeah. 'cause if you're not growing, if you're not going forward, what's gonna happen? You're not gonna be stagnant. Could backslide like, so how do we grow people up? How do you grow a child? You feed them, you instruct them, you correct them, you nurture them, you encourage them. You give them space to grow. Our call is to catch people, then help them along this stage of their spiritual journey as a community.

And Jesus used the image of the sheep freeze people and, and here's the thing, sheep. Naturally will imitate those around him. Around them. They'll follow the crowd. Yeah. Don't be a sheep. They'll say these days, don't follow the ways of the world around you. We're called not to follow the crowd. We're called to imitate and follow Jesus.

He's our shepherd and we are his flock. And what did Jesus say? My sheep know my voice. My sheep know my voice. Jesus only did what he saw the father doing. That's all he did. He saw what the father was doing and he did the same. And in the same way, we're called to position our lives to hear the voice of Jesus and follow him.

And so my question here is this, are you positioning yourself to hear his voice? Or are you too busy? Are you taking time to position yourself and hear the voice of Jesus? He sitting at his feet. Discipleship is all about knowing Jesus and imitating him. The third animal is a chicken serving others becoming more like Jesus.

Now, to illustrate this, let me share a story. It's a made up story. One day, the leaders of a village, they decide to hold a feast in honor of their chief. He's a great man. They ask everyone to contribute, and so the men say, we'll, go out, hunter Hunt and gather. The women stay behind. They prepare the food.

Then the leaders turn to the animals of the village, and they had chickens. And pigs and they said, would you honor our chief by making a contribution to the feast? So the chicken thinks about it for a while and it says, sure, I will gladly make a contribution. So what she does is she squats down, lets out a squawk and lays an egg.

Okay? The chicken is used. Her God-given gifts to serve others. Us. Jesus said the son of man, and we sang this today, the song Servant King, Jesus said the son of man came not to be served, but to serve. I didn't come to be lavished and praised and served. I came to serve. We imitate Jesus when we use what God has given us to serve others.

And can I tell you, no job is too small, no matter how big you think you might be. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. So my question is, how and where are you serving? It doesn't need to be here. It's good if it is, but it doesn't just need to be here. The world is your stage. Every single Christian has a spiritual gift.

Do you believe that every single Christian can serve? We saw it today during the service, people just rushing to be alongside our sister in need. That's what it means to serve.

The fourth animal is the pig that speaks of sacrifice becoming even more like Jesus. The leaders then approach the pig. They've already spoken to the chicken. They asked the same question. Would you like to honor our chief by making a contribution to the feast? Now the pig's already heard about the chicken's contribution and thought about what he can offer and he begins to sweat.

I dunno if pigs can sweat, but he, he's starting to get stressed and he says, I would dearly like to make a contribution to the feast to honor the chief, but it's not as easy for me as it is for the chicken, for in giving an egg. The chicken makes a contribution, but if I give something, it will cost me all that I have.

The pig can't give ham or bacon unless it dies. That's the reality. And so the image of the pig speaks of those who lay down their lives. Whatever the cost to serve and follow Jesus, the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and what give his life as a ransom for many. And before we say, well pastor, that's a unique call for Jesus.

Listen to this exhortation from Romans chapter 12. Paul says, I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Some translations say, this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world.

Basically saying, don't be a sheep following those around you, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve God. What God's will is, is good, pleasing, and perfect will. Maybe you're saying, I've got gifts, but I don't know what to do. I want to know God's will for my life.

Here's the key. Lay, lay down your life as a living sacrifice. Don't be conformed, but be transformed. And then you'll get a sense of, of what it means to walk in God's will for your life. Amen. So what we have is these four animals. We've got a fish, sheep, chicken, and a pig. And this is a paradigm for Christian life and ministry.

It's a just a practical way for us to think about discipleship. I'm gonna do more on this in a few months time. We'll come back to this. So here's our reality. We're called to catch people for Jesus. That's the fish we're called to walk in the ways of Jesus and help others along that same path. That's the the sheep, and we're called to live lives of costly self-sacrifice in service of others.

That's the chicken and the pig. This is what it means to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. If you ever hear me come up to you and say, eat dust, this is what I'm talking about. It's simply my way of saying, may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi. May you walk in his ways. May you follow him and imitate him in all that you do.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the example we see in the life of Jesus. He didn't call the best of the best of the best. He called people who were weak and impulsive. People who didn't always get it right. People who would need to depend upon him and be empowered by spirit. Father, that's us. That's every single one of us here.

Lord, we humbly acknowledge our need for Jesus. We can't be like him without the work of His spirit in us. And so we pray, come Holy Spirit, come. Just as Jesus invited us to come, we invite you Spirit form the life of Christ in us, that we might walk in his ways. Bearing fruit, showing ourselves to be his disciples.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.