Podcast: (Luke 11:14-28)

Hey friend, welcome to another episode of the podcast, which we

have called the Sunday Sit Down and It's Not Sunday, but we're

sitting down. And we hope that this helps you

sit down and have better conversation with your friends,

your family, maybe the person you drive home with after church

or colleagues at work. Like what would that look like

to start having some conversations around faith with

those in your circle of influence throughout this week?

So we're going to jump into a conversation based on Luke 11,

which is where we're at in our sermon series.

So if you haven't listened to that sermon, probably makes

sense to hit pause on this video and go find that sermon from

this past Sunday where Luca Levin and we ended at 28.

I think verse 28, we were like 14 to 28.

This is another story of Jesus casting out demon from a man who

is mute and so couldn't or wouldn't speak.

When the demon is cast out, the man is healed and he begins to

speak. So there's this immediate sign

of healing that Jesus, that Jesus is able to give to this

man for all the people around to see.

And then the context is people start questioning Jesus, right?

Who are you? Who is this guy?

How is he doing what he's doing, talked about.

They become a little bit like skeptical adjacent, like cynical

almost about the power that Jesus appears to demonstrate and

what that might mean for their own lives.

So we're going to, we're going to jump in.

There's a lot going on here and ends with, you know, one demon

versus 7 demons coming back and returning.

So we'll probably touch on that at some point in our discussion

and. It's like just even just

acknowledging like it's a it's a pretty full on passage, right.

And it's one of the things that I've said this numerous times,

but I'll say it again, like just going almost forcing ourselves

as as like you and I and and Allison are often joins us for

sermon prep. But the church to like go deeper

into some of these passages that that that are challenging that

you present, like just think they make they can make us feel

uncomfortable. And I, I think there is a such a

wisdom in like leaning in rather than just sort of, well, we're

gonna skip over that one. And I like how it makes

everybody a little bit uncomfortable.

Like it's probably worth mentioning that like if if you

were here for the very first time on Sunday and this is the

passage that you're thrown into because this is how we work our

way through Scripture. And like, OK, good for you for

sticking it out like you were tossed into the deep end.

And I think this is language that can make some people who

are maybe newer to Christianity uncomfortable.

But I think for those people who are newer to Christianity, it's

helpful to name that. It makes makes people who are

not new to Christianity equally or more uncomfortable.

Like this is something that's language that for a lot of

people, I think you'd rather not think about.

You'd rather just pretend like it doesn't exist or or live like

it doesn't exist. Which on the one hand is a great

way to live. Like non anxious.

Don't worry about it, don't be driven toward fear.

Uh, that's a good way to be. But there's also like having

your head in the sand exactly not you know, there's there's a

there's a way to live non anxiously while also having a

level of awareness of of the world and the realities, the

spiritual realities of the world we're in.

Yeah, absolutely. And and so that like Jesus

pushes against it and names it, addresses it, brings the Kingdom

to heal and restore, you know, things, things and people,

individuals, communities that are being tormented and and

harmed by things that are spiritual.

So like Jesus just names it. And I think one of the great

things that we see throughout all of the healing stories is

that he does it in the most non anxious way.

Yeah, right. If he just he names the thing,

he rebukes the thing, speaks against it with authority and

heals the person and restores that person to our community.

So it's this beautiful story over and over again of the

kingdoms arrival, pushing out the places of death in our lives

and restoring us to community. So it's really hopeful, like

with that as the base are kind of base understanding of how

Jesus moves through these moments is a really hopeful

message. So but like we said, like

there's a lot of kind of technical things in here that

maybe we didn't jump into on Sunday.

So we're gonna get to some questions and you've got some

questions and. So first question that that

stuck out for me as I was listening was 2 quotes from

Jesus that we've heard in the past couple months that seem to

be almost like inversions of one another.

They're, they're completely opposite in what Jesus says.

And I think somebody sometimes, you know, we can be drawn to

what may appear to be a contradiction, but actually is

not. And, but I think there's,

there's something interesting. So at the end of verse 22, So

he's wrapping up this kind of this little metaphor of the the

stronger man. What but the but when one

stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away

his armor in which he trusted and divided his plunder.

And then verse 23, whoever is not with me is against me and

whoever does not gather with me scatters 2 chapters ago, 2

chapters ago. You've got Jesus and he's

talking with his disciples and the disciples also about evil

spirits and and excuses, exorcisms and, and John, one of

the disciples says, Master, we saw someone casting out demons

in your name and we tried to stop him because he does not

follow with us. But Jesus said to him, this is

99, verse 50. But Jesus said to him, do not

stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you.

Yeah. I love it.

Yeah. So, OK, I I'm flipping over to 9

as you're saying this. I'm like, OK, here we go.

I wanna back up. I wanna answer this IN22 parts.

Yeah. So try to be, I'll try to be

systematic about it. I'm gonna channel the as much

systematic thinking as I possibly can hear.

OK, two parts. One, This is why context

matters. And we talk about reading

scripture through multiple different lenses, right?

We have our own, you know, we approach Scripture with our own

experiences and our own intellect and life and emotions,

the history of our relationship to God and the history of our

relationship to others. Like all of these things affect

how we read Scripture. And so the way I'm brought up,

the way you're brought up will change.

We have not, I don't want to say like completely different

approaches to Scripture, but we, we approach passages from

different places in life, as similar as we are in in some

ways and as different as we are in some ways.

And that's true for every single person.

So you listener will approach Scripture with your own set of

biases, um, your own expectations, your own thinking,

your own experiences, your own hurts.

Like some of the ways maybe you feel God's let you down or the

way Christians have let you down.

All of that shapes the way we read Scripture.

And that's OK and like. It just it.

Just raises just just naming it is important and and to know

that hey, we don't approach the scripture with a blank slate we.

Don't. So that's number one.

Like that's kind of the 1st part of, of context is we need to

understand our own selves as we're reading these things #2

what, what biblical scholars have tried to do for longer than

you and I have been alive is, is uncover the, the, the local

context of the scripture writers.

So you know, this is a gospel, this is an account of Jesus

life. It's part of Matthew, Mark, Luke

and John, all four gospels which are written by different

individuals and also written four different communities.

And each of them are written with that in mind, right?

So Luke sets out, we read in the beginning, Luke sets out to

write a detailed account. He's like, there have been other

accounts written, but I tried to to write like the most detailed

account that I could. So I went and I visited

eyewitnesses and I met with people and I heard accounts of

Jesus's life and he's put them together.

Luke also wrote acts. And so really what a lot of

people who who study Luke and Acts try to do is you have to

read them both together. Yeah, as you know, 2 parts of of

one larger work. But this is Luke, who himself

had his own experiences and influences on his life writing.

So that's that's the second part of it.

A third part is, and we see this more with the the letters in the

New Testament, just to emphasize that each of those letters are

written to specific communities, like embodied churches, local

groups of followers of Jesus trying to wrestle out real life.

And stuff going on their own within.

News. Yeah, within their own time.

And so, you know, when we read, um, you know, when we read some

of the letters, when we read the New Testament, like we need to

also try to uncover and understand the context of that

time, both from the authors perspective and from the

reader's perspective. And we can't do it.

We can't do that perfectly. So, so, you know, we've got a

number of these things mixing together as we read Scripture.

And then the final piece of context that I want to say is,

um, it's important to also read the context within each, within

each book. And so what's going on around

it? Because when you pull out both

of those lines and sit them side by side, you go, these look like

different, They look contradictory.

They are contradictory. They don't like one for one,

Jesus is not saying the same thing, right?

Say whoever is not with me is against me, and he's saying no,

whoever is not against you is actually with you, which you

could massage to be the same thing, just backwards.

Yeah, but I don't want you to do.

I mean, not you, but I don't want anybody to do that because

that also misses the point. So the context of each of these

statements now to get to the. So that's number one.

That's Part 1 in my answer. Part 2, The immediate sort of

context of what she's actually saying here is I think it's

important to notice, um, there's some similarities.

So there have been healings and specifically demons being cast

out. Whenever that happens in the

Gospels, there's very often pushback from people around

Jesus. So some people are celebrating

it and they're amazed and inspired by what is going on,

and other people resist it and push against it and push against

Jesus because of it. So there is both, yeah, an

amazed sort of celebration of it.

And there's conflict. And it's important, I think, for

us to see that the conflict that arises in both of these

instances are with different groups of people.

So in in I'm saying this instance, so in 11 where Jesus

says whoever is not with me is against me, he's talking very

specifically to and about those who are challenging Jesus and

saying that his authority is not from God, but it's actually from

Satan. So he's saying, you know, if

you're against me to that degree, right, then you're not,

you're not building the same Kingdom.

We're not doing like we're not working in the same direction.

You are working at odds with the Kingdom that Jesus is bringing

by his very presence. That's a great way to to think

about that. Like that's a that's super,

super helpful. And then it then it I think

elucidates Luke 9, right? That that in the context, there

are people that are clearly on the same team that are that are

doing the thing that are just another just not one of the 12

or maybe even 1 of the 72, right.

Yeah. That are that are doing the work

of Jesus. And he's like, no, don't stop

them. Yeah, don't stop them.

Yeah, Jesus said to him, do not stop him for whoever is not

against you is for you, like. And so in this context, it's

people who are people who are doing the work, but they're just

not running with the same crew. And he's like, no, this is the

the Kingdom is expanding and and don't don't stop them from doing

the Kingdom. Work.

Yeah. And that's exactly the point

with the disciples. The conflict is around their own

security. They're like, well, we wanna be

the controller of the thing, right?

Like, we wanna own it. This is about you and us, right,

Jesus. And he's like, no, this is so

much bigger than you could imagine.

Yeah. Don't hold on to it.

Don't control it. Don't think that it belongs to

you. It doesn't belong to you.

People of the mustard seed and the and the and the yeast like

this just this thing is gonna grow, It's gonna, it's gonna

spread like a weed and you're not gonna be able to control it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that I think that's the, the

difference is like it, it seems like he's saying two different

things. I think really he is, he's

saying 2 completely different things, yes, to two different

groups of people. And so just to circle back to

finish it up, I think that's why we that's why when we approach

Scripture, you know, you and I like we're not ones who are

likely to preach on a single verse, a single line, like just

big, we're going to take this and, you know, pull it entirely

out and go, hey, all in on this one line.

Because that's when we're so often that led to places where

like our own influence on Scripture effects them the way

we are interpreting that one line.

Yeah, rather than allowing scripture to speak for scripture

and allowing scripture to in a sense, interpret Scripture

because that's what the context does.

That's what the surrounding versus allow us to do, is to see

that it's very different and not just contradictory at A at a

simple level. So context is important and I

think that's what's going on here.

So yeah, Jesus is pushing against people who are so

completely against the Kingdom on the in in 11, and he's

criticizing the disciples for being exclusive and controlling

and protectionist and. And in both examples there,

there seems to be like a, there's a, a disunity dying

quality to it. You got these, these people that

are questioning Jesus. And then in the in the case of

the disciples, the disciples are are attempting to kind of cling

to control and authority and power and Jesus saying that's

not yours to hold on to. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK. We good with that.

Yeah, yeah. I think the thing that the thing

that I would just jump off of what you're saying around unity

is unless you have a question about unity, I think the main

thing that Jesus wants his disciples to see and the crowds

to see, and even the people who are questioning Jesus to see,

maybe especially them by extension, what he wants us to

see is that there's there's one thing like there's one thing

that Jesus believes is worthy of this wholly undivided, united

approach, and that's the coming of the Kingdom.

Like it's not about the disciples and their, uh, gotta

be careful here. But like their fame or control

or name, like it's, it's not what makes them great is not

that, that they are who they are.

What makes them great is that they are a part of what God is

doing and the Kingdom coming. And so he's saying it doesn't

matter, like don't, don't, don't create these false divisions

between people inside of the Kingdom coming.

And what he's saying in 11 is, you know, you're either in or

you're out. And if you're if you're out,

you're entirely out. And if you're in, you're

entirely in. O let's be united on, on what

the Kingdom is and how it's coming and let's be all in on it

on undivided, right? So I think there is a, a piece

of like, you know, unity and division around Jesus teaching

on the Kingdom that really kind of pushes us to this place of

saying, no, you're, you're there's no, there's no half

measures and you're in or you're out.

But if you're in, you're in. So don't, don't push people out

who are in. Yeah, right.

That's a great way to think about it.

Yeah. OK, I remembered the other thing

we were going to talk about. This is great, I love.

That we were OK. So just we were we were supposed

to record this is Tuesday in real time.

We were supposed to record yesterday and we talked about

all about we were gonna talk about and then forgot.

So I didn't write it down. You didn't write it down.

But here we are. I want to talk about the the

people that Jesus is talking to here and how these people can be

us. So the people that Jesus is

talking with that are they are skeptical.

They are, I think you can even say they're, they're cynical of,

of who Jesus claims to be and the work that he is doing.

There is something, there is something that it touches on

when I, when I see the way that these people are acting toward

Jesus, that I think we Christians, non Christians alike

are guilty of. And, and that is, it's hard to

kind of name it precisely, but it's, it's sort of this, the

skepticism, this creeping sort of like, almost like, it's

almost like a nihilism that like nothing, nothing is true,

nothing matters. There is no there, there is no

objective reality like it. And it is, and I think it bleeds

into much of her life. And you're seeing that with the,

with not the disciples here, but these, you know, these people,

the crowds that are, are seeing Jesus, that they are questioning

the, what they're seeing before their very eyes.

They are seeing Jesus heal someone of an evil spirit.

And they're like, well, it can't be that.

It can't be that he must be working for, for, for the bad

guys, you know, and, and like, there's something in the human

condition there that I think is worth touching on of, of our

ability to like, disallow our mind to like see the thing that

is before us and reject it. Yeah.

So that's not really a question, but it's just something I think

that is worth diving in a little bit too.

And just like our human nature and, and how maybe maybe how we

overcome that a little bit, you know, maybe how we seek to have

faith like a child, you know, because there is, I mean, when I

think of the opposite of faith of a child, I think of.

Of cynicism and skepticism and and an inability to see what is

before us. Rightly.

Hmm. Yeah, Yeah.

I think cynicism is a good word, the skepticism, I think.

And I used both of those words on Sunday.

Like, I, I think skepticism touches on some of this and also

misses I, I think health. There's a healthy skepticism,

right? Yeah.

And I think what we, what we don't want people to hear is

that you can't ask questions. You can't wonder.

You can't think critically about things.

You can't have doubt. No, you can have all of those.

Please. Like, please.

Yeah. Thomas Merton said that you

can't be a person of faith without also being a person of

doubt. Like that doubt and faith are

not opposites. And in fact, doubt is part of an

active faith life, right? So you, you, you know, if, if

you've never doubted something at any point, get ready because

you might, you will at some point.

Like discernment and being a critical thinker, those are all

great skills. So that's where your cynicism

is. A is a better word.

And I think it it, it's where I think maybe you could say it's

where skepticism turns into something far more like

insidious in terms of what it does to our hearts.

Yeah, I think it's, it's a, it's there's a bitterness to cynicism

and like even a resentment, like an anger, Uh, deep sadness.

Like there, there are a lot of additional pieces that are

involved with being cynical, right?

I think at the end of the day, what we struggle with as human

beings is manifold. But to to, I think related to

this is we, we want to distance ourselves because we don't like

the implication for our own lives.

Hmm. So I, I think it is easy.

It's, it's far easier, unfortunately, to become cynical

as we age. I think you can slip into that

because of the ways in which you've experienced the

brokenness of humanity. So we become cynical as we grow

because we've been let down and we've been hurt and we've not

had reconciliation and we've not found forgiveness and we've not

experienced love and reconnection on the other side

of disconnection. Like we go through these

difficult things in life and we become cynical because they're

hard, they hurt, and we're not healed of that in the way that I

think Jesus intends us to be. And and So what happens when we

become cynical is we want to distance ourselves from anything

that feels any like remotely like that again, right?

So it's like, oh, no, why would I be vulnerable?

The last time I was vulnerable, you crushed me, right?

So you're like, I'm gonna start distancing myself from things.

And I think in part like that's what we see these, these people

doing is, you know, it's probably a little bit simpler,

but they see Jesus heal this man.

And they, they don't like that if Jesus is acting with the

power of God, that it means they might be wrong about things,

means that what they thought would was true.

It isn't, or it demands something of them personally,

like they now need to respond to Jesus differently.

And it's it's hard because it demands something of me.

Far easier if I can distance myself from it.

Hmm. And say no.

In this case, if Jesus is acting under the authority of the power

of Satan, then I don't need to worry about this at all.

It has no implication on my life and I can walk away Scott free

and I can just go. Don't need to do anything as a

result of Jesus being here. And that's something that I

think we still struggle with, Um, because it again, like, it's

like, I got to do the hard work in here to allow Jesus to

confront me on my stuff. Yeah.

And it's easier if the problem is out there and can stay out

there. It's a lot harder when the

problem is in here. So I think we just naturally

kind of do this for a whole variety of reasons.

So in verse 20, Jesus says, but if it is by the finger of God

that I cast out the demons, then the Kingdom of God has come to

you. Yeah.

And and that that's like, that's the, that's the rub, That's the

confrontation piece of like, hey, like if, if this is the,

the authority and power by which I'm doing this, then then like

you, you need to embrace the Kingdom of God, which is coming

to you right here, right now. And, and I think that is that

must be the the tension that these crowds running into the

religious leaders are running into, because I can only assume

that this Kingdom of God is not looking like how they thought it

ought to look. Yeah.

That that it's maybe it's subverting some of their

expectations and and maybe even the things that they were

convinced would happen from, you know, for for generations even,

right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so it's also really fascinating the whole statement

finger of God, which I I simply said, you know, this, this means

the power of God. And it does.

Like that's ultimately what it's pointing to.

It's actually a throwback to Moses.

Yeah. And the Exodus, Right.

So this is it's a throwback to Moses and the plagues when he

acts on behalf of God, speaks for God toward Pharaoh.

Hmm, and then brings the plagues.

That term finger of God is used there.

Because it's not a common. Phrase.

And it's not a common phrase, No.

So really what, what it's, it's, it's almost a little bit

antagonistic as well, because it, it puts Jesus in the place

of Moses, which Luke wants to do over and over again.

You know, he says that Jesus is the greater Moses, like he's,

he's the new Moses. This is something new.

In fact, we're going to get to to that that literal language

this coming Sunday where it's not Moses, but it's other Old

Testament figures that Jesus is compared to as the greater

version of these individuals. But really what what Luke is

doing is setting Jesus up as the ultimate final Moses who has

come to bring a new exodus for God's people.

And in this instance, part of the rub for these people is

they're now on the like, say this carefully, but like, enemy

side. Yeah.

Of that story. If, if, if it's Moses and

Pharaoh, if it's Jesus and them. Yeah.

Like that's how Jesus is setting this thing up.

Yeah. That's how Luke is setting it up

for us to see Jesus leading a new exodus out of slavery,

except now it's not slavery person to person.

It's out of the slavery of like, you know, of, of death and out

of the power of Satan and evil in the world.

It is that type of bondage, right?

Bondage to sin and slavery that Jesus is liberating his people

from New exodus. They're on the receiving end of

the authority in in a way that in their minds go back to, OK,

Pharaoh, we need to hear this. Um, and that again, like that's

a, that's a really challenging thing, yeah, to receive and

hear, but I love the line. Like if, if you know, if, if it

is by the power of God, if it is by the hand of God, it is by the

finger of God that I am coming and doing these things, then the

Kingdom of God and it's literally then the Kingdom of

God is come upon you, right? Like it's just like it's landed.

Yeah, it's here whether you want it to be or not.

Like it's not, it's not like it's come to your borders and

it's knocking. You're like, OK, what are we

going to do here? Like it is landed, it's invaded,

it's pushing in and it's pushing out.

It is here. And that means for you as well,

upon you, upon your life, upon all of your expectation, upon

the things that you hold too tightly to and the still, the

ways of sin and death and brokenness that are rattling

around in in you. But not just you, or at this

point, all of Israel. Yes.

And and so I think it's important to also hold that this

isn't like Jesus just talking to one person.

And when Jesus talks to the crowds, it's, it's never just

even for the crowds like he's, he's proclaiming something

that's true of all people. And that's where we get to when

we, when we get to the one versus 7 demons.

So I don't know if you wanna go there next.

Week we sure can, but maybe just to ducktail on that.

I'm just noticing when you when you bring in the the Exodus

language and you have Moses kind of confronting Pharaoh and, and,

and the Egyptians there, there's it's an interesting subversion

there where Jesus is now confronting the Israelites.

Yeah, Like, like. And that must have.

That must have stung. Yeah.

For some of these folks. Yeah.

And, and for some who are maybe less cynical would have caused

some introspection and thoughtfulness.

For others, it might drive them toward more cynicism, you know?

Yeah. And so I think, OK, just to to

to jump from here to the one versus 7, because I think that

that actually connects and ties in perfectly.

The the thing that OK, the thing that fair part of what Moses

rather is doing when he confronts Pharaoh is speaking

the truth of God to power. That is being misused.

And I think in part what Jesus does is speak that same gospel

truth of God to now a religious power that is being misused and

and not leading toward life. So I think that's important to

name because we continue to see that happen over and over again

in various places and forms and shapes.

Today, in 2025, soon to be 2026, we still wrestle out the the

reality and the pitfall and the dangers of power when it is

wielded by broken human beings. And the Kingdom coming still in

2025 seemed to be 2026. The Kingdom still falls upon us

in a way that lands whether we want it to or not, whether we

declare a nation to be Christian or not, whether we rightly

understand the Kingdom and the gospel or not.

Like the Kingdom is falling upon us in a way that still needs to

push out the the ways of sin and death and in part the power that

is used or misused. And I want to say this both

politically, which is what we see in in part in, in Moses and

Pharaoh. Yeah, Israel in Egypt and

religiously, which is what we see more of in Jesus's day.

And definitely Roman occupation, absolutely.

But it is the religious collusion with Roman occupation

where we see the religion being mixed into it and.

Should be some alarm bells for all of our listeners.

Here even just even just to say of our own cause listen, like

your mind, listeners, minds are gonna go in every different

direction. Yeah, even just to say of our

own country and our own country's history.

But we have the same history. We know this history and.

And the one thing in Canada that the church has had to reckon

with, amongst many, many others, is the history of residential

schools. Yeah.

And what happened, And this is not my thinking, Like many other

people smarter than I, historians and theologians have

talked about this. But where the church has aired

throughout history always is when it gets into bed with

political power, Yes. And that's not to say that

Christians shouldn't have like, political influence.

Like I'm not saying that they're completely separate.

I'm not saying don't go and vote and don't go and have like

political conversations. Yes.

We are spiritual and political. We are all the things there's.

No, yeah. And there's no separate like

Jesus wasn't apolitical like the like there's no to separate

those things out doesn't make sense.

There's no sacred and secular like to Jesus everything like

it's it's Kingdom, right? Um, so in our own history in

Canada, where we saw and where like where we still reckon with

the church using power to harm others is where the church got

in bed with political power and used political power against

human being like that. It's that type of.

And and you know, there's so many different rabbit trail

conversations that we can go down here and I'd.

Love to, but not today. Exactly.

All of that to say, like that is such a complicated and complex

history of, of human beings who are broken and trying, like

trying to figure things out. And you know, somebody 200 years

into the future will comment on the way we as broken human

beings tried to figure things out.

And I'm sure we'll criticize the things that we do.

So each of us needs to hold that much humility.

Hmm. But I, I think it's important to

say that Jesus is pushing against power.

Uh, Luke wants us to be seeing Moses and Israel and Egypt and

Jesus is pushing against religious power here.

And I think we see that when we flip just to flip to these 7

verses, one demons. I I mentioned this briefly in my

sermon on Sunday and I want to say it again here.

Most people would agree that Jesus is not talking about the

individual person. He's using this illustration

that's been given to him to talk and speak to Israel as a nation.

Yeah. So it's not like a, you know, a

moment of fear. Like if I, if I deal with

something internally that, you know, seven more things are

gonna come and enter my life that are worse than before.

Like it's, you know, like I think there, there could be some

good wisdom in how we think about how we fill ourselves.

There's truth. To there's truth to that,

absolutely. But but it's it's I think that

we can live in like, you know, terror about what that, what

that looks like in my life. Like you're telling me if I deal

with this one part of my life that it's, you know, I'm gonna

be attacked seven ways differently than maybe, maybe,

maybe. But that's probably not what

Jesus is saying here. No, yeah, no.

So I think, I think Jesus is using the, the individual,

individual illustration that's been given to him.

Like Jesus was a in in many ways, like dude is a brilliant

preacher. Yeah, without preaching sermons

in the way that we think about it now in, in the sense that he,

he's interacting with everyday life and using these moments to

teach about the Kingdom of God and to reveal the Kingdom of

God. So what?

What's he saying? I think he's saying that he's

using this individual illustration of a person being

healed, one being being cast out.

Those going finding, you know, no place to land, scatter, come

back, finds the house swept and clean and in order.

And that what he is referring to there is is Israel.

And I think what he is challenging the people with is

what Israel has constantly been challenged with throughout its

entire biblical history, and that is that they've forgotten

God. Hmm.

And they need to repent and turn back and be filled again with

the presence of God and see that the presence of God is with

them, embody form right now. And they're not at least this,

this crew, right? Some are, some aren't.

And so the warning is to the people of Israel, right?

The warning is to this group who have forgotten, who have swept

their house clean of God, who have abandoned the presence of

cloud, who have gotten into into bed with a political power.

And you know, a group of them who are using religious

influence and political power all all mixed together.

So I think the warning is in those situations when you do

that, yeah, you know, you can try all you want to kick the one

out, but it's what he's saying is until you are filled again

with the presence of God, you're constantly gonna be doing battle

with these things. And that is something that.

So he goes from the individual to the corporate and then you

can take some of that back to an individual level.

Yeah, to say each one of us needs to be filled with the

presence of God. And until that happens, we are

going to be struggling with these like one off individual

things. And so the only last thing I

want to say is This is why, like when I talk to people about any

type of like behavior or addiction or habit that they're

trying to break, one of the massive things you need to do is

fill it with a good habit. And really, I think at the end

of the day, like that's what Jesus is saying to this nation,

saying you've forgotten, remember, repent and there will

be a new exodus, like there will be another drawing out of you

toward life and, and toward this deep and meaningful presence of

God again, all of it possible. But until you, until you turn

and embrace again this presence, like, yeah, it's it's a battle

that you're not going to win. It's worth noticing at the end

of this passage and at the very end of the previous passage, So

we've got at the end of this passage, Jesus, Jesus says

blessed rather, are those who hear the word of God and obey

it. There's a call to obedience and

repentance. And at the end of the previous

week's passage, Jesus is reminding us of the gift of the

Holy Spirit, right? How much more will the Holy

Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

And, and it feels like Jesus is really trying to draw attention

to do these, I mean, particularly the, the gift of

the Holy Spirit and, and the ways in which the Spirit is

going to inform and influence our lives to do the work of

obedience and to like there's just, yeah, we can get caught up

in all of the minutia. But at the end of the day, those

are some of the most critical pieces that we just need to

receive from God, receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit

will enable us to live differently and to be filled in

those ways. And we're like, we're going to

continue in that direction Sunday in X, hopefully extra

measure. Hmm.

So stay tuned because yeah, we got a lot of a lot of look.

Left to go. That's good.

Great. We hope that this conversation

helps you have your own conversations.

And as always, please send us questions.

We'd love to hear from you. And in the meantime, read on

ahead, see if you can figure out where we're going to do a little

bit of study ahead of time and have a great week.