[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everybody. I'm glad you are here. And as you know, if you've been coming regularly, you know we're in this series called Healthy. And we've been talking about the decisions that we make and the disciplines that we undertake that will enable us to be healthy in every area of our life. And we've talked about the importance of it. Because healthy things grow, healthy people grow, healthy businesses grow, healthy families grow, healthy churches grow. So we've said if you will focus on the health of the thing, the growth of the thing becomes automatically. If you're trying to grow a business and your business has plateaued or it's staggered, then I would challenge you to look at the healthy. To look at the health of your business. Do you have a healthy environment for the employees? Is it a healthy atmosphere? Or has it become toxic in some way? Because if you can fix the health of an organization, then the growth of that organization will naturally follow. And I believe that is the principle of the scriptures, because healthy organisms grow. And so we looked at this in various ways. We've talked about being healthy with our heart and the heart being our. Our minds, the heart being our emotions, the heart being our actions. Then we talked about healthy homes, the significance of having a healthy home, because I believe that is the, probably the. The biggest institution the devil is assaulting today is the home. Because as a home goes, so will a community goes. As a community goes, so will a church go. As a church and a community go, so will a country go. And so if you want to have a healthy nation, a healthy community, a healthy church, we have to have a healthy home. It all stems from there. So we talked about the significance of a healthy home, and then we've been dealing for the last few weeks about the significance of healthy habits, developing healthy habits. And then we'll take a little break for Easter next weekend, and we're going to talk about the power and the significance of the resurrection of Jesus. And then we'll pick up the following week by talking about healthy church and what a healthy church really looks like. And so as we talk about healthy habits, we've been breaking it down based on 1st Thessalonians 5, where Paul said that I pray that your spirit and your soul and your body be preserved blameless under the coming of the Lord. And we talked about how you and I are. Are made up of three essential elements. We are. We are obviously spiritual. There's that spiritual component. I talked about that last weekend. The spirit is the part of us that communes with God. That's where we connect with him. Then we said we are a soul. And the soul is the part of us that connects with one another. It deals a lot with our emotions. I told you that soul in the Greek is. We get the idea of psychology from that same word. When you go to a psychologist, they are dealing with your soul. They're talking about healthy habits that will help you become healthy emotionally. And then we're talking. We talked about healthy being healthy physically in our body. Now these bodies are temporal. They're only here for a while. God just designed them that way. The spirit and soul are eternal. But there is a way whereby we can develop habits that will help us to be able to have a healthier body. And speaking of healthy bodies, I'll mention this to you after Easter, I'll have surgery the Wednesday after Easter. I'm not going to mention it next weekend. That's why I'm just telling you now. So I'll be out. I'll be sidelined for a few weeks. They're telling me once that surgery is over. So that'll happen the Wednesday following Easter. So that's all I'm going to say. That's all I'm going to say about that. And so. But I appreciate your prayers and I've heard from so many of you, and I'm grateful for all of that. And so sometimes to have a healthy body, you have to have surgery. Sometimes to do that, sometimes you have to have some radical transformation. You have to change some habits in order to have a healthy body. And this weekend I want to kind of close out the healthy habits by talking about a discipline that every one of us need to develop. Now, you may not have ever developed this system, but I'm going to tell you it will impact every area of your life if you can develop this system. And I want to talk to you a little bit about healthy solitude. Healthy solitude and the significance of having time in your life where you get alone, and I mean alone with you and God, where you have some solitude, you find a place of serenity. There has to be a time in every person's life when you embrace solitude. And so many times we don't do that. We're caught up in the hustle and bustle of this busy world. And everyone in this room, you are incredible busy, Especially the young families in our room. Oh, my goodness, you're running at a totally different level.
I remember when our kids were at the age. Many of you kids. Many of you people have kids that are young. I remember when our kids were in that season. It didn't seem to me that it was as busy as it is now. Our kids are so involved in so many things. And you just kind of meet yourself coming, right, and you just find you're trying to find time to spend time with one another, much less to have a little time for yourself. But I'm gonna challenge your thinking. I hope I can this morning. To a little while, a little while to developing this habit of solitude, finding time. And if you can't find the time, you may have to make the time to spend some time alone, to have some time. When you get alone with yourself, you get alone with God, and you create solitude. And I want to suggest to you that that ought to happen every day. There needs to be a time every day. Maybe you get up a little earlier than the rest of the house and you find some. Or maybe you stay up, you're a night owl. Maybe you stay up a little later than everybody else. Maybe that time and that place of solitude is a trail that you like to hike, a place you like to walk. Maybe it's in your neighborhood. Maybe you have this place out by the lake, or maybe you go out on a golf course somewhere. I'm just saying find a time. Find a place where you can embrace and develop a habit of solitude. I'm going to share with you why that's important. Because our Savior, who was perfect in every way, he developed the disciplines of solitude. And I'm gonna show you several examples in scripture of where he did that. Now, understand, when I say solitude, solitude is very different than loneliness. Sometimes when people hear you talk about solitude, they think you're talking about isolating yourself from other people. And that's. There's two different things that you need to think about when you think about the difference between solitude and isolation. Solitude is basically a choice to be alone.
And look, you can be alone and not be lonely. Believe me, I found that out with the homegoing of Cindy. I can be alone and not be lonely. It is possible to have solitude without it being something that is unhealthy for you. So there's A difference. Solitude can be revitalizing, while isolation can be lethal. Loneliness is a feeling of isolation and disconnection. And it is not the same as solitude. Listen to what the Bible says about isolation. Romans 14:7. None of us live to themselves alone. None of us die to themselves alone. Now, a psychologist. I'm back to a psychologist. But a psychologist will tell you the difference between isolation and solitude is that isolation will affect you spiritually. It'll affect you emotionally. It affects. And it can affect you physically. Isolation can be a potent killer of the soul because when you isolate yourself and you insulate yourself from other people, you are living a life God did not design you to live. So I want you to hear me clearly when I'm talking about solitude. I'm not talking about isolation. I'm not talking about pulling in and pulling away from people for a long period of time where you don't interact and you don't engage. God designed us for relationships. We were designed to have fellowship with one another. And when you isolate yourself and insulate yourself from other people, that can become incredibly unhealthy. Solitude is just pulling away for a period of time for reflection and for meditation. Solitude, different from isolation, is replenishing. It can be revitalizing to your life. And Jesus embraced the idea of. Of solitude. Listen to Mark, chapter one, verse 35. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark. Sounds like he was a morning guy. Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. So he got up before sunrise and he wasn't going hunting. I can relate to that. He got up before sunrise and he wasn't going fishing. He got up before sunrise because he wanted to get away from everybody and he wanted to get away from. And he wanted to start out his day in solitary, a solitary place where he could spend time meditating and time in prayer. Listen to Luke, chapter 5, verse 15. Jesus often withdrew to solitary places. It was a habit. You see what I'm saying? It was a habit of him. He often did this. Now, if Jesus needed solitude and he was perfect, he was as much God as though we were never man, though being just as much man as though we were never God. If Jesus in his perfection, in his humanity still needed solitude to replenish himself and refresh himself, then how much the more do you and I need to embrace this concept of solitude and develop the habit? Listen to Luke 6:12. Jesus went to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying. Now he got up in the mountains here in one Place he goes out in another place. He goes up and he is getting away. He's getting alone. He's spending some time in solitude. Listen to the challenge of Mark 6, verse 31. This is what he said to his disciples.
Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. And he went on to say, so they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. Did you hear what he said to his disciples? Come with me. We're gonna go to a quiet place where we can get some rest. Some of the best things some of you could do for you would be to get alone and to get some rest. And so many times we pride ourselves on how hard we charge and how wired we are to achieve. And those are admirable qualities. And I've even talked to people about this. I had a guy tell me one time, he said, well, Bill, I'd rather burn out, then rust out. And I said, well, man, that sounds tough, but either way you go, you're out.
Out is out. You can burn out or you can rust out, but out, out. And Jesus said, you know what? We need to find some balance here.
We need to work as hard as we ought to work, and we need to achieve as much as we ought to achieve. But in order to maintain that, you got to live this thing as though it's a marathon. You're going to have to come apart and rest a while. The late, great Vance Havner looked at that verse, and it's translated in the King James as come apart yourselves to a quiet place and rest a while. He said, if you don't come apart and rest a while, you'll come apart.
And that's really true sometimes before you quit, and sometimes before you go off, and sometimes before you just get mad, and sometimes before you say something you regret, you ought to hit the pause button on your life and say, I need to rest.
I'm just tired.
Remember in John 21 when Simon Peter just said, I'm done. I've had all this Jesus stuff I can deal with. I've had all this, you know, working in ministry stuff I can deal with. And I'm not critical of him. I'm just saying if you've ever done much of working with people, you get to a point where you're just done. I told you a lot of times I've resigned over the 50 years I've been in ministry. I just didn't tell anybody that.
I mean, there's just times when you know yourself well enough to know I'm Just done. I, I gotta get away. I, I, I need to, boy, I, I, you know, I'm gonna say something stupid. I just need to, I need to get away from everything and I need to get away from everybody. And, and what was interesting was the timing of John 21. When Simon Peter does this, he does this right between the crucifixion of Jesus, which that's significant this week, right? And when he first realized Jesus had had risen from the dead, he was done. He quit. And when Jesus encounters Simon Peter in John 21, and this is the beauty of it, he said to Simon Peter, he said to him, you need to come sit down by the fire. I've got you something to eat and you need to rest. He didn't go off on him. He didn't say, you quitter. Look at everything I've done for you. You remember the cross. I mean, that was just like a day or two ago, and you've already forgotten that. He didn't go off on him. He didn't criticize him. He didn't, he didn't chew him out. He looked at him and said, you're tired. You need to rest. You're hungry, you need to eat. And then once he had rested and once he had fed himself and once he had just kind of gotten control of his emotions, Jesus said, man, the problem is you and I disconnected on some level. We disconnected. On some level. Simon Peter, if you love me, if you really love me, get back in there. I need you. Jump back in there. And man the record. If you read the record, from that moment, Simon Peter reengaged and he never quit to the moment he stepped into heaven. What am I saying? I'm saying even the best people can burn out. Even the best people can just say, I'm done. Even the best people can go through these phases of life when it becomes so overwhelming, they just seem to not be able to go on anymore. And I'm just suggesting before you get there, you need to recognize there is a discipline I need to employ, and that is the discipline of solitude. Jesus said, if I don't come apart and rest a while, I will come apart.
And if I can't find a happy balance between my work life, my home life, and my, you know, in my regular everyday life, if I can't find some balance in there in order to rest along the way, then I am not going to make it. I'm going to burn out. So solitude is significant.
One last verse. Let me give you on the disciplines of Christ in Matthew, chapter 14 verse 10. The Bible says as soon as Jesus heard the news. Now, this news, if you read this in context, wasn't good news. He had just been given some heavy news, and as soon as he heard the news, before he responded, before he reacted, he left in a boat. The Bible says to remote area to be alone. What great advice, before he reacted, before he acted on this news that he had just received, he said, I got to think about this. I need to be alone. Now, he was setting the example for you and me. And I'm just saying, sometimes in life, in your home, in your marriage, sometimes in your work, there's nothing wrong with just saying, I need to hit the pause button here.
I need a time to be alone. I need some time to think. And, man, in this instant world you and I are living in, we don't get that chance to think. Now, when I started out in ministry, way back, you know, when D.L. moody and I went to college together and, you know, Charles Spurgeon and all. No, I'm not that old.
But when I started out, it was 50 years ago. Email wasn't around, all this technology wasn't around. I thought it was amazing when I was on staff and we had a pager.
Remember that? All you had to worry about is keep some quarters in the car for the payphone. And we would make. Part of my job was to make these hospital calls and having an older church like we had, on any given week, we could have 15 people in different hospitals all around Fort Worth. And you'd run to one, and I'd go and I'd check the book. They've got a clergy book, which. I hate the word clergy. It sounds like something's wrong with you. Pray for me. I have clergy. Oh, stay away from him. He's got clergy. You know, and, you know, I just rather have minister. Pastor, you know, I'm good with that. But clergy, I don't. Anyway, but the point is, you'd have a book, and you could go and you could check, and they would have people in there that's, you know, that's. That's on in your church, and you could find them pretty quickly, and you'd go up and visit them. Well, the problem is, if somebody was. If they were dismissed and you're leaving and you're driving to Hughley Hospital down in South Fort Worth, you know, you may drive all the way down there, that person's been gone for a day, and you don't know till you get there. So the pagers were revolutionary, man. I just find A payphone. You pull in. Some of you kids will have to Google that. That was a real thing. Pagers. And we. And you pop the quarter in and you call and then. Oh, my word. You remember when the first phone, when you got in your car and you had a phone in the car. I mean, only high rollers had it back then. Oh, man. And when our guys put one in my car, I thought that was the coolest thing because I'd been carrying a phone around that just had a wire on it so I'd look important. It wasn't connected to anything. No, I didn't do that.
Pull up to the light. I'm gonna have to take this call. I never did that. But the point is, that was amazing to have a phone in the car. And then you had the portable phones. Remember the brick phone looked like you were calling in an airstrike. You know, backpack on, you throw the phone on your back and you go in. And those were revolutionary because it really saved a lot of time. You could save a lot of time making those contacts and those calls. And it was so necessary. And I don't even know what rabbit I'm chasing at this point, other than to say that technology has moved us along so far, that people have an anticipation and an expectation of an immediate response. That's where I was going. I mean, now somebody wants some counsel from you and they'll text you, and if you don't respond within a few minutes, then you might get a little bit of a agitated text that will follow. And then you might get in a couple of minutes an angry text that will follow. And all you need is a skinny minute to think about what they've asked you about.
Back early on. You remember back in that day of the brick phone, the correspondence was either by telephone and then somebody would take a note or it was by a letter. Remember letters? And we would write. And when you got a letter, you had some time to respond because there was typically that two or the three day lag time by time the mail would deliver the letter. My point is, we're living in such a fast paced world. We're living in front of a fire hose in terms of technology and we're moving so quick and we're giving advice to people. Sometimes that's so knee jerk that we don't even have a chance to think through it, much less pray about it, because there is that expectation of immediacy. And sometimes that's not good.
I'm just suggesting that sometimes the best thing you could do before you fire that email is set on it a day. But before you respond to the text is a pause for an hour or two. Pray about it, think through it, ask yourself, is this the right direction? Is this the right choice? Am I doing the right thing? Not that you can't put it back together, but it's so much easier to fix it on the front end than the back.
And one of the things I think Jesus was trying to say to his disciples is if you can find time to chill, to think, to pray, to meditate, reflect and be refreshed, you're going to come at every situation you face from a totally different place.
And the most beautiful illustration of what I want to share with you before we go home is where Jesus gathered with his disciples in a solitary place and the impact it had on their lives. It was a place that we've all heard of called the upper room.
And if you have a Bible, look at this context. I'm just going to take about 15 more minutes and I'm going to let you go. But In Mark, chapter 14, Matthew covers this. In Matthew 26 and Mark 14, he said he sent two of his disciples. He said, go into the city. There'll be a man carrying a jar. He'll meet you. Follow him, say to the owner of the house. And when you enter, the teacher ask, where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? He'll show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there. And the disciples left. They went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. And they prepared the Passover. And when the evening came, arrived with the 12. Now think about what he did.
What Jesus did was he prepared a place of solitude for his disciples. Why was that important?
Everywhere they went, everywhere they went, somebody wanted something from them.
Hey, can you get me in to see Jesus? Hey, I've got a brother that's sick. I've got. My wife has got a disease.
I need help financially. I need everybody. And everybody has needs, and there's nothing wrong with it. Part of what we do in life is we're to minister to other people. We get that it doesn't matter what kind of job you have or what kind of work you're in. Everybody wants something from you.
Everybody wants you to help them in some way. Everyone wants you to facilitate something for them in some way. And you're constantly, every day of your life, getting pulled on.
And Jesus recognized that with his disciples. And he said, you need a place, you need a Solitary place. You need an upper room. You need somewhere you can go to spend time with me, away from the pressures and the press of your everyday life, to be replenished and be refreshed. And we're going. I'm going to create this place, this space, and it's going to be in this upper room. And this upper room, ladies and gentlemen, became a very significant and a very powerful place for these disciples.
The first thing that this place represented, if you're taking notes, it represented a place of his presence.
When they got alone with God, they were literally alone with God. Though they were in the presence of their friends, their focus was on him. And what happened in the upper room the night they met was it became a place of heart searching. What do I mean by that? You remember in the upper room, when Jesus is sitting there at the supper and he says, one of you who dipped in the dish with me, one of you will betray me. And what's incredible about it was the response of the disciples because each one of them responded, lord, is it me?
Now think about that. None of them looked at each other and said, well, I think it's John. You know, he's the teacher's pet.
Or none of them said, well, that's James. You know, he tends to go off on people.
None of them say, well, that's Simon Peter. You know, I heard him dog cussing somebody last week. And I mean, he ain't that spiritual. I mean, the point I'm making is they could have pointed fingers at each other and been right because they knew each other. And none. They didn't do that. You know what they did in the presence of Jesus when he said that? Each one of them recognized they had the prophet propensity. They had this proclivity to betray him.
They said, lord, is it me?
I know myself. I'm not that strong. I put off the vibe that I've got it all together, but I don't.
I don't let down my guard because I've got this thing that. This image that I'm trying to protect. But the reality is I know I'm weak inside. And I know God. I could walk away real quick from you and from this whole show. And so God is it is, am I the one? And don't miss the point I'm driving at here. When you are alone in the presence and you have that solitude, that moment with God, you're not preoccupied with the failures and the faults of other people. It gives you the chance to reflect and look at yourself.
I mean, you see yourself in the mirror of who he is. If you want to compare yourself. Paul said, if you compare yourselves among yourselves, you're not wise.
Because when we begin to compare ourselves among ourselves, we begin to think, well, I'm a lot better than that guy, or at least I got my hat going, and I'm not going through what they're going through. But when you compare yourself to Jesus, who is perfection, then you see all the areas of your life that need improvement. You see the difference.
So I'm saying this place of God's presence became a place of heart searching. Not only that, listen. It became a place of soul feeding.
Because when you read Matthew's account, Matthew said Jesus began to teach them in the upper room concerning why he was going to the cross and the point of this whole thing. And he began to, to share with them the Scriptures, and they began to have their, their soul and their spirit fed.
When you spend time with God, you allow him to feed something inside of you that desperately needs to be fed.
You allow him to pour something into you that definitely needs to be filled. And when you spend time with him and you're connected with him, not only does he allow you to search your heart, but he allows his spirit to feed your soul.
Third thing I would tell you in John 13 carries this example. It was a place of foot washing.
Now what do I mean by that? You remember the episode where Jesus, in that verse, where he knelt and he washes Simon Peter's feet. Why is that significant? I think everybody ought to wash their feet. But what was significant about that?
We'll give you a little context and give it to you as quickly as I can. It was the custom of the day that if you hosted a dinner, you would hire someone to be at the door who would offer a basin of water. And there a person could wash their hands and you would have a second basin for a person to wash their feet.
And the reason that custom was there was obviously we still wash our hands when we go to dinner. We understand that. But if you go to a restaurant, when you leave here a little while, they aren't going to expect you to wash your feet. But in that day, they did. Why? Because people wore sandals and the streets were not paved, they were dusty, and even if they were cobblestone, they were still dirty.
And in that Eastern custom and in that Eastern religion, the tables were only about 18 to 20 inches off of the floor.
So when you had dinner, you would sit, or you would be seated rather around this table about 18 inches off the floor, and you would recline on a pillow, and the person next to you, your feet would be in close proximity to their face.
And so you would be very interested in their feet being clean. And so it was just customary that day that you wash their feet so that it didn't affect the fellowship. Do you follow?
And when they get to the upper room, there's no servant there purposefully, intentionally, Jesus wanted to see what they did. And you know what they did? They did. Not only did they not wash their hands, they didn't wash their feet. They just gathered around the table. And Jesus looking at them, thinking, really?
And then he said to them, what's so profound in John 13 carries that? He said when he started washing Simon Peter's feet, Simon Peter was so embarrassed, he said, lord, no, no, no, you can't, man. You of all people, you don't need to wash my feet. And Jesus responded, if I can't wash your feet, then you and I can't fellowship with each other.
That works on two levels. One level, Jesus is saying, I'm not sitting around the table, boys, with all these nasty feet. You're gonna have to wash your feet. That works on that level. But the other level was a spiritual connotation. And that is, if you want fellowship with Jesus, you gotta clean your feet.
Now, what does the feet represent spiritually? It represents the part of me and the part of you that comes in contact with the dirty world every day.
It doesn't mean I get saved all over again because I'm saved. Relationship, right? We talked about that last week. It means that when I don't have a confessed, when my soul is not free of confession, when I have not confessed my sins daily to the Lord and there's anything between he and I, it doesn't affect my relationship, it affects my fellowship. And he's not going to eat with me if I've got stinky feet spiritually.
First John 1:9. If we confess our sin, John didn't say you your. He said we our. He's talking to Christians. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us, wash us up from all unrighteousness. What's the point of the solitude? What's the point of the upper room? Was not only to have his soul fed and not only to have his heart searched, but it was to clean his feet.
It was to get that part of his life that needed to be cleaned up so they could fellowship with God to get that part of him taken care of here's the second thing that place represented. It represented the place of his peace.
His peace.
Remember what Jesus said in John 14. I use this a lot in funeral services. I'll do a funeral this week, and in a lot of funerals that I do, I'll use this John 14 because it was given in the context of the upper room, where he said, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house are many mansions. And if it were not so, I would have told you. He said to them, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you may be also.
Thomas was a skeptic. He said, lord, we know not where you're going, and how do we know the way? And Jesus said, thomas, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father, except by me. Go back to the first verse. What was the desire of Jesus to his disciples for their hearts not to be troubled, for them to have peace? I tell you often, folks, and this is so true, you can have a very troubled life and not have a troubled heart.
And one of the ways you keep your heart from being troubled is you have a place of solitude, a place of serenity, a place where you get alone with God, and you and him have a chance to process and work through and be replenished and refreshed. It will keep what's going on outside of you from getting inside of you.
And when you read the story of the apostles, it didn't really work that way for them initially, because you know what happened when they left that upper room. Jesus is taken.
He's tried and crucified. And he warned them in Matthew. He said, boys, when the shepherd is smitten, the sheep will scatter. And of course, all of them said, no, we'd never leave you. No. And even Simon Peter said, lord, I'll die before I walk away from you. And Jesus looked at him and said, for the rooster crows, you'll be the first. First one out.
And he was.
And he quit. I told you that a minute ago. Right. What's my point? My point is Jesus knew they're about to go through something that was going to shake their world. And his desire was for their hearts not to be troubled. But their hearts were troubled.
In fact, you only read about one disciple that was at the death of Jesus. That was John.
He's standing next to Jesus, Mother Mary. And Jesus looks down from the cross and Says, take care of my mom. Take care of her.
As far as we know, John took care of the mother of Jesus until she was called home.
And only, only the resurrection of Jesus brought the boys back together.
When Mary ran to the tomb and saw the stone rolled away, she ran to the apostles and they reluctantly heard what she said. And even doubt and confused about what they heard her say, guess where the boys are. Went to gather to think, to get a game plan. After the news of the resurrection, they went back to the upper room.
They went back to that place of solitude, that place of serenity, that place they had last been with Jesus. It was so sacred and so special. That was the place they gravitated to. That's what am I saying? I'm saying if you have a place where you get alone with God and that becomes part of your habit and that becomes part of your discipline, when your world starts shaking around you, that will be the place you go to to collect your thoughts, to get your sanity and to find serenity. You need a place of solitude.
And by the way, it was in that room that Jesus reappeared to him reappeared to. And one of them wasn't there when he first got back. You remember that, Thomas? Jesus appears the first time and Thomas wasn't there. And Jesus just came out of nowhere and he appears to the guys in the upper room. And when they went to tell him, Jesus appeared. Thomas said, I don't believe it, but I'll go back to see if he comes back. And they all gather the second time and Jesus appears. And I love what he said when he just came out of nowhere. He said, peace be unto you.
Well, if somebody you know has died and they suddenly appear in the flesh, you need them to say, chill, we're good here.
It's like, are you going to make a new door to wall somewhere? They were freaked out.
And then Jesus looked at them and said they thought they were seeing a ghost. Right? Which gives you a little insight into what the resurrected bodies are like. Because Jesus looked at them and said, reach and touch me. He said, a spirit doesn't have flesh and bone as you see me have. What does a resurrected body look like? A body of flesh and bone. That's why I tell people all the time when our loved ones go to heaven, they're not just, you know, they're not ghosts floating on clouds, they're not angels. So there's nothing wrong. If you want to think of them in that way, they're not. They are who they were here. They're in a Perfected state.
And one day, when those bodies are resurrected from the earth, do you know what kind of bodies we're going to have in eternity? A body of flesh and bone powered not by blood, because a life of the flesh is now the blood, but a life of the eternal body will be the spirit. We'll be powered by the spirit, meaning we're eternal.
And Jesus said, touch me. A spirit doesn't have flesh and bone as you see me have. And so he was telling them, look, this place is a place of peace. This is where you don't have to worry. There's no fear in death.
I mean, the biggest thing everybody fears, to be honest with you, and all the surveys will point to it, is the fear of dying, the fear of death.
I don't fear being dead. I fear dying.
There's a difference.
And I'm just saying here that when Jesus came back from the grave, he basically came as the Bible said, but the keys of death and hell, meaning he has ownership and there's nothing to fear.
That's why the psalmist David could prophetically write in Psalm 23, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Why, for you're with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over.
And surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. David said, now dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Here's the last thought, and we'll go home. This also became a place of his power. A place of his power. You know what he told them to do? He said, when I ascended, the Holy Spirit will descend and the Holy Spirit is going to indwell you. But I want you to wait. Wait until you have been endued with power of the Holy Spirit. And once you have received the power of the Holy Spirit, I want you then to go out and serve me. Where did they wait for the filling of the Holy Spirit? They waited in that upper room.
A place of solitude, a place of serenity, a place of peace.
I love the words. Written by Cleland McAfee in 1903.
He wrote these words and pinned it to music. Many of you, if you have a church background, you've probably sang this song. I'll give you the words. There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God. A place where sin cannot molest. Near to the heart of God. O Jesus blessed redeemer sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before thee near to the heart of God. You're never closer to the heart of God when you're in that place of his presence, of his peace, of his power. You need a place like that. Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the truthfulness of it. Thank you for the accuracy of it, thank you for the timeliness of it. And Lord, my prayer now as we close this service is we won't just be hearers of the Word as James warned us, but now that we'll be a doer of your word, that we'll put what we've heard into practice in our daily life. I pray finally for my friends who may never trusted you as Savior, that this might be the moment they swallow their pride and humble their heart. And they say, lord Jesus, with all that I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. This is the prayer that I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
