(Luke 9:1-10) - Episode 28

Hey everyone, welcome to the Sunday Sit down where it's not

Sunday, but we are sitting down. We are hoping, however, this

finds you that this is a great resource as we reflect on our

sermon from the past week, as we get a chance to go a little

deeper, to look at the text in a, in a more granular way, to

explore some of the application in a more, in a more specific

way perhaps. And so that's what we're hoping

to do this morning. And so we turned the page.

We are in Luke Chapter 9 and this is the story of Jesus sort

Luke 9 · chapter mention

of looking at his disciples and see and and kind of the Jesus

has been doing lots of things. I kind of went through every

single event that Jesus has done thus far, and we noted that it

was Jesus doing all the work. And so now Jesus says to his 12

disciples, he says, OK, you go do.

And he sends them off in a kind of in a missionary journey to to

the region. He says, don't take anything

with you. Well, we'll read it in a second,

but anyway, so this is an interesting passage on a couple

different levels. And so we, we had one question

in particular come up that was quite provocative in a, in a, in

a great way. And so Abby, Abby and I are

looking forward to discussing a little bit more.

But maybe why don't you start by reading the passage for.

Me all right, Luke Chapter 9 versus 1 to 9.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

When Jesus had called the 12 together, he gave them power and

authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and

he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the

sick. He told them take nothing for

the journey. No staff, no bag, no bread, no

money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay

there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you,

leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a

testimony against them. So they set out and went from

village to village, proclaiming the good news, healing people

everywhere. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard

about all that was going on, and he was perplexed, because some

were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others

that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the

prophets of long ago had come back to life.

But Herod said, I beheaded John. Who then is this I hear such

things about? And he tried to see him.

Alright, and then in my in my message, I did include the just

the very beginning of of verse 10.

We don't need to worry that we're about reading that now is

just because it kind of connects with this idea, this idea of the

possibles returning back to report back to Jesus what they

had seen and heard and done. So yeah, I, I don't know where

you wanna jump in first here, Abby, but you know, we can keep

this a little bit more discussion oriented rather than,

you know, you grilling me on things because I think you have

some good insights as well. So.

I just, yeah, this passage is super interesting to me because

when I read it in the Bible, it's like, OK, start of a new

chapter. And it almost feels like just

out of nowhere, like we don't really have a sense other than

that the disciples were following Jesus, who was a

rabbi. So eventually, like they are

learning to become like Jesus, but it really almost feels out

of left field that Jesus is all the sudden like, all right, you

guys are up. Throw them into the deep end.

Yeah, it really is a well, I hope you've figured out how to

swim. Especially I think for me, like

when I'm teaching other people to do this, I am a like, come

alongside and do this with me. Whereas Jesus very much has a

watch how I do this and then he sends them out on their own.

It's not like he's going with them to give them tips along the

way. Yeah, it's the I really hope

that as you've watched me, you've figured this out.

And that's that's a lot of responsibility, yeah, to give to

people on top of the fact that he also calls them together and

says here I've given you the power and authority to drive out

all demons and cure diseases like.

Well, and one of the things that one of the things that struck me

is that they probably have been like discussing, like you see it

in like the parable of the sower where where Jesus gives this

parable. And then and then they kind of

like have a little huddle and they're talking about it, right?

So I think it's fair to assume that they're probably doing that

a little bit along the way. But it's just so funny that like

it's all of you know, Jesus has been doing all these things and

he's just like, OK, trial by fire go.

Um, and I wonder if this is, this is purely speculation.

There is like, so this is just musing.

This is not me in inferring anything from the text.

I want to make that very clear. You have to imagine that they

must have failed a lot along the way.

It's interesting, yeah. It is like, I mean like I don't

remember which gospel it is, but there is examples of they're

like Jesus. We can't heal this person.

We can't get this. Team why couldn't we do it?

Jesus, why couldn't we do it Especially like so they knew

that they theoretically had the power to do all of this.

But there isn't a lot in the Gospel accounts of the failures.

And I think sometimes that gives us a false perception.

I think that's maybe where we you were talking on Sunday about

is this descriptive or prescriptive?

And I think this is maybe one of the areas where sometimes we mix

those up because we assume that we have to be successful all the

time or we misunderstand what success in our evangelism looks

like as we carry the good news of the Kingdom of God and to

heal the sick. Like, what does healing actually

look like? And so we think that it, you

know, has to look a certain way. Yeah.

And maybe it doesn't. Well, and, and one of the one of

the wrestlings that I had as I was going through this, this

passage is you, you know, you see the example or the

instructions that Jesus gives, you know, don't take anything

with you, You know, stay at the house that you're told go and

you know, go in heal, go and go and drive out demons.

And if people don't welcome you, shake off the dust off your feet

as a testimony against them. So he gives these very specific

instructions and I get worried sometimes that we.

Use it as an excuse for bad stewardship.

Well, that, that yes, but also just that we, we can, we can

take Jesus's words and his instructions and, and, and

interpret that that is, this is the now the way that we must do

evangelistic work or mission work.

That this is the only way to do it.

When, when Jesus throughout his ministry gives and, and Paul as

well gives a ton of different ways in which this is done

right. This is one example.

Most of the early church leaders were like, by vocational, Yeah,

they provided for themselves. And like Paul in at least one of

his letters talks about like, I'm so grateful for the gifts

that this church is giving to me, but also like, I am able to

provide for myself. And that's like, it's important

to be responsible, not just with the gospel that we're carrying,

but like making sure we have the resources to do that in ways

that don't place an unfair, unjust burden on the people

we're trying to reach. Which I think probably is a

little different here because just like in the climate of that

day, I would imagine most of the people that they were taking

this to probably would have had a higher economic status just

because of the dynamics between like Jews and gentiles and how

that worked out in the Roman Empire.

But that's not like blanket universal statement.

But it would have been the case in a lot of the places they were

visiting. Well, and the people, the, the

hospitality culture was, was so different, far greater, right.

And, and so that's, that's for me, a major consideration that

when we, when we look at these people going from village to

village and doing ministry there and, and basically knowing that

you're going to have a place to stay, right, that there will be

people that will see you and welcome you in.

I don't know that that is a reality.

When I, if I were to, you know, go to a village or city or town

where I don't know a single person.

I mean, I, I seem like hopefully a nice enough dude, maybe if I

shaved my beard, I would have a better chance.

I don't, I don't know. But like, I don't, I'm not

guaranteed that. I think there was there was a

bit more of a guarantee here just based on on the the, the

way that this sort of work was done that happened in the in the

day. One, like the people generally

built their lives under the assumption that like,

hospitality was just what they did and everybody did it.

So you make room for that or you make it work.

And I that's not something that we're very good at in the 21st

century. We could learn a little.

We could learn. Like, I'm not saying like just

bring any rando into your home. I'm not suggesting that

listener. However, how can we grow, you

know, like, how can we grow in our willingness to to, yeah,

bring people in when there are needs or to display a sort of

radical generosity in the way that these people would have.

And I didn't get into any of this on Sunday, but it's worth

exploring a little, yeah. Yeah.

I think just like a practical example that I find helpful for

that idea of hospitality is that I kind of grew up with people in

my family where it was like when they, you know, meal planned and

decided what they would have for dinner on the nights of the week

that like we as kids had sports events or we had to go to youth

group after. The things we made for dinner

were really easy to, you know, add an extra can of beans into

or to expand. So it didn't, you know, we maybe

planned to have six or seven people if ended up being 10

people. It wasn't difficult for us to

stretch that meal to feed more people and learning to be like,

OK, the house doesn't have to be 100% perfect.

Like, we want people to just be able to come into our everyday

lives and sit around the table with us, even though everybody's

in and out and people have places to be at different times

in the evening. And it's been really cool to see

how that's kind of like shaped the neighborhood that my parents

currently live in. Is that idea of just, you know,

open dinner type situation? I love that I and I know that

there are some folks in the church here who are very adept

at that. You know who you are and I know

that you're listening A I wanna be better at that.

In fact, we're in the middle of my daughter, who she's nine

years old, you know, should be 10 in early in the new year.

And and you know, she's starting to you know, she's starting to

become more mature. And so she wants a new a new

room, her kind of former toy room is going to be kind of re

tweaked a little bit to become a bit more of like a hangout space

for her and her friends. And, and one of the rationales

for my wife and I are like, we we want to actually be a, a safe

space. We want our home to be a safe

space for kids where there is like this lost art of what

you're describing of having just like kid turns up after school

with, you know, with your kids and they're hanging out.

It's like, hey, do you want to stay for dinner?

Let's check with your parents. That's OK.

Yeah. We've got lots of food.

Don't worry about it. You know, would love to see more

of that. I would love to, you know,

myself, you know, I think earlier on in my life we were,

you know, we had, this is a funny scenario that we found

ourselves in. This was 11 years ago.

We, we were my wife and I, we were away for like our five year

anniversary where we were in the UK and France and had a

wonderful time. We came home, we were at church

that Sunday. There was a woman from from

Ireland who turned up at our church and she just had like

moved to Guelph on a whim. No plans, no nothing.

She had her chatting with her and, and she was like, well, if

you guys know anywhere like I could stay, cause I, I wanna be

here for like the next year or two, you know, is there anywhere

where you, where I can stay? And my wife and I looked at each

other like we got home from church.

We're like, I think she's supposed to live in her house.

So like it was just this real deep sense, you know, And so she

did. She actually lived in her house

for, for a year. We were hoping it would be two.

She ended up having to move back after, after a year, but it was

amazing. Like it was so it was such a,

such a gift. It was like, you know, a

friendship that we still maintained at this day.

She was back in Canada last summer.

We, we had her over for lunch and actually she led worship

with me Sunday and like just a beautiful thing that like, you

know, just being able to listen to that prompting and just say,

I think she, I think she's actually used to live in her

basement, you know, and it was awesome.

So anyway, that's, I mean, that's sort of like a, an

unexpected little tangential part of this passage, which to

think about what the what the experience of those villages

were like. But why don't we get into to

another area here? Yeah, like when the people were

going to don't want us to talk to them and tell them about

Jesus. Yeah, yeah.

So we had a good question from from someone so.

Go ahead. Yeah.

So the question was Jesus uses this example in Luke 9 of

shaking the dust off of your feet.

He says shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against

them. And Justin kind of explained

that in that time it was this like symbolic gesture, gesture

that marked a location kind of as ceremonially unclean.

And someone asked kind of what is the modern day equivalent of

that or like, how do we understand that in our context

today? Because we don't have these same

ideas of clean and unclean. And, you know, generally, like

creating a testimony against someone is a pretty harsh mark

on them. And So what do we do, you know,

when people are really hostile and response to our faith And

how do we move forward with that, whether or not we, you

know, continue to kind of like gently walk in relationship with

them or do we kind of just step away from that?

Yeah, there's a lot of different like angles to approach this

from the the first one that comes to my mind is, you know,

that like, hey, some of this is just boundaries.

Like if, if someone is going to treat you with hostility,

someone is going to treat you with aggression, someone is

going to treat you and, and kind of condescending treat you in a

condescending way. Like at some point we just need

to be, we just need willing to say, Hey, I that, that's, that's

not OK. You know, like I, I, I deserve

better treatment than that, right?

So like that's like a very like superficial approach that's just

kind of good for life in general, but specifically as a

Christian ethic. I think about the easiest way,

and I've talked about this a few times before on the podcast, but

the easiest way that I can sort of like give a give an anecdote

or example is is in like online interactions with people, right?

Where like, OK, so keyboard warrior atheists are among the

most. There are lots of thoughtful,

thoughtful atheists who who are, you know, wanting to interact in

good faith. There are many who just want to

insult you for believing in skydaddy, you know, like, and

they will do anything in their power to to belittle and insult.

And one of my favorite things that I regrettably wish I had

started doing earlier was just be kind.

Be loving, don't retaliate because what's going to happen

is that anyone who sees that interaction there, it's going to

be a testimony against them, right?

It is it. They are the ones that are going

to look bad in that scenario. Hmm, right.

Not me. They might, they might belittle

my beliefs. They might not even agree with

my beliefs. But if you're reading that, be

like, wow, that Christian was above reproach in there in their

kindness and their behavior. And also that atheist kind of

looked like a jerk. So I was like, that's that's

another angle. And I think that can play out in

in real life too. The other, the other part of it

that I'm thinking about is like, and we chatted about this a

little bit. Sometimes we have a partial job

to do when it comes to those who are hostile toward matters of,

of faith, right? Like that.

It is not always going to be my job personally to, to be the one

to, to draw them toward Jesus. Now, as I said on Sunday, this

is all grace. We know this is all God's work

anyway. However, we all have unique

roles to play that God works in and through us as individuals.

And and so for me, I, I have learned.

I have learned that it is not always going to be my job to do

the thing that they're, that there may be Someone Like You,

someone like Pastor Grant, someone just a, a, you know, a,

an everyday congregant who is going to be able to build a

connection and maybe breakdown those barriers anyway.

Yeah, yeah, I also, Paul talks about that in First Corinthians.

He calls out the Corinthian church on kind of they had a

slightly different situation where they were like, oh, I

follow Paul and like this is the apostle I'm choosing to like

align with. Or I follow Apollo saying Paul

says this thing where he says, OK, I planted the seed, but

Apollos watered it, but it is God that has been making it

grow. So neither the one who plants

nor the one who waters is anything at all.

But only God who makes things grow, the one who plants and the

one who waters, have one purpose and they will each be rewarded

according to their own labour, for we are Co workers in God's

service. I think that kind of sums it up

really well of the we don't know who's going to come along in the

future and you know, water, what we hope is a seed that's been

planted. If we have these encounters

where ultimately we end up being rejected or mistreated or spoken

poorly too, because of our faith, and that's very freeing.

Like, I don't think that means we failed in our sharing of what

we believe. And it is a really beautiful

opportunity, I think, to trust that God is moving and God is

working in people's way beyond what we can see.

Yeah. And that we might not actually

see what comes of that. And learning to be OK with that

and trusting that you know God loves the people he created.

Hmm. And we can't love them more than

God loves them. And it doesn't.

I almost think it does the opposite of showing people God

loves them when we start to act as though we can love people

better than God can, or that we ultimately know how best to love

the people God created and that's OK.

Hmm. Yeah, I think about like, if

we've been loving, if we've been gracious as much as we are able,

if we've been, if we've been truthful, and again, all that

wrapped up in love and grace. Because I think that you can be

truthful. You can and you can be a jerk

about it. If you've been all those things

and they there is still hostility, there is still

rejection. That's where we can say like,

you know, and this is sort of what I almost I, I picture the,

the modern day version of shaking the dust off your feet.

I just sort of mean like, OK, I'm just going to wipe my hands

clean of this. And I don't mean that in like a

callous way. Yeah, I, I just mean that in a

way of like, hey, I, I don't know what this juncture, if

there's anything more that I can do.

This is up to God. This may be up to, to someone

else, God through them. And and so it's, it's not

something that I think we should spend an inordinate amount of

time worrying over. Right.

Yeah. And and then the other, the

other piece that I'm thinking about a little bit is and, and

it's going to sound like I'm, I'm ragging on apologetics and,

and I've done this a little bit sometimes in my sermons.

So I, I don't want to be like the, I don't want to be known as

like the anti apologetic guy. But one of the concerns I have

is that we think we can debate and argue people into the

Kingdom of God. And I just have never witnessed

that in my life. I think there there is time and

space for intellectual theological discourse.

Like I think that that can be valuable.

And I think that if someone is earnestly seeking and, and

looking for, like, if someone, I, I have a friend I grew up

with who grew up in the church and eventually to reject it.

And, but they had deeply earnest questions that were like, kind

of like apologetic type questions of like, Hey, I, I

need you to try to convince me because I want to believe.

I need you to try to convince me of the resurrection.

I need you to try to convince me of the validity of Christianity

versus say other faiths or whatever.

Like, and, and we had lots of amazing discussions, but they

were earnestly seeking they were they, they wanted good faith

dialogue. Whereas I see all these videos

on YouTube of just like, you know, university, like

university lecture halls where, where you bring in some big

speaker. I won't name any names, but and

then they're like, they're having these debates and, and

they go back and forth and I mean, like, no one is going to

walk away from that feeling like man, God's Spirit was there and,

and, and people like repented and they were healed and the

message of the Kingdom came out like that.

That's not happening there, right?

And so at some point we need to be able to say, OK, this is not

for me. I'm like in all like I've, I've

done everything that is within my power and my control.

I leave this up to God. And I think this idea that the

gospel, this good news also like comes with this like addition or

byproduct of people being healed and so often, so often is maybe

an exaggeration. There are times where maybe

people are proclaiming the good news, but people at minimum are

not being healed and at the worst are being harmed by how

it's being portrayed. And like I, I almost wanna say

like, it's not the full gospel if we're leaving out, like if

somehow we're missing the steps that actually provide wholeness.

Like kind of like Annabelle talked about a couple of weeks

ago about how this idea of salvation, the word means like

wholeness and fullness and that it like our salvation not only

like for art souls in a metaphysical sense, but like

every part of us one day will be restored and made whole and

perfect again. And I'm not always sure that

that's the understanding of the good news that we carry and of

the Kingdom that we preach, even though that's what was

happening. Like maybe it's not physical

healing, but maybe it's, you know, the bitterness or the hurt

that people have been carrying for years because of what's

happened to them. And then they encounter Jesus

and that just melts away. Like that is still healing that

should be coming with Jesus and that's so beautiful and

witnessing that like it's not like this is an impossible

thing. Like it happens.

Those of us who follow Jesus have had those experiences where

God has done that work. And I think it almost it does

people a disservice when we don't want to offer all of that

to them as well. The whole picture of the gospel,

right and and that's why I and Pastor Grants been doing this to

you. I think we all have is that

we've been trying to say, look, the Kingdom looks like, yes, the

proclaiming of the word, but it also looks like healing and

restoration and, and all of these things that Jesus set out

when he talked about, when you talked about the Kingdom coming

in, in Luke chapter 4. And, and he, he is making a very

Luke 4 · chapter mention

clear statement that these things work in tandem, right?

And so I think it's one of the the pitfalls of, of primarily, I

want to be careful how I say this, but like primarily just

like preaching the gospel, so to speak.

And I, and I say that almost in quotation marks because I don't,

I don't actually think you can preach the gospel without there

being works attached to it. Like James is pretty clear on

that. Yeah, I just pulled up classic

James. Chapter 2 says, what good is it

James 2 · chapter mention

to my brothers and sisters? If someone claims to have faith

but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?

Suppose suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and

daily food. If one of you says to them go in

peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their

physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself

is not accompanied by if it is not accompanied by action is

dead. And that is a like that's a

pretty intense statement. That's, I mean, Christians over

the centuries have hotly debated about the the implications of

that. But, but I, I think we, we can

make it too complicated. It's that the Kingdom, if it is

you, you can't, you can't dissect the Kingdom in terms of

here's here's sort of like the gospel proclamation part.

Yeah. And here's the we're going to

help you be healed and restored and be fed and clothed and all

that. Those those two cannot be

compartmentalized, Yeah. Yeah, they just, they, yeah, I

like that almost more than the oh, there's this part and we

need to see it with this part. It's like they're just so

interlocked. They it is one package.

And if yeah, you're not seeing all of those pieces, it's

probably a different package altogether.

Yes. Or on the other hand, though, I

think sometimes we're too quick to be like harsh in our judgment

of, you know, you must be a heretic because I'm not seeing

XYZ fruit or you must be preaching a false gospel.

And I think sometimes, like God does work behind the scenes and

we can't always see the full picture of what's going on.

My last year working at camp are like theme, not theme, but like

our thing for the summer was that we see a part in God sees

the whole. So we would go like this, we see

a part, but God sees the whole because it's like, you know,

peripheral vision. But I think about that a lot,

especially with things like this of the I only have a limited

vision. Yeah, I cannot and do not want

the responsibility of seeing all that God sees.

That is a great. No thank.

You. No, no, I'm good.

I'm good, but I need to be kept humble and remember that, yeah,

it's not my job to see everything or to know everything

or to do everything. Well, that's a good that raises

a good point as well of like, you know, let's let's even just

use the example of of myself and pastor Grant where grant is the

grant is the lead pastor. I am the pastor of worship and

outreach within that grant has a a greater a greater

responsibility for the word right for the written and spoken

proclamation of the gospel right.

That is it. It's not to say he doesn't care

about the other stuff. I know he deeply does.

And it's not to say I don't care about the gospel proclamation

piece as well. I I definitely do.

I hope I did that on Sunday right.

But that we both have strengths and, and bents and embassies and

This is why in the Kingdom we need each other because that we

are all wired differently and God has gifted us differently.

And, and so, you know, for someone like Grant, he is, he

is. So I'm going to brag on him for

just a moment because he's on vacation right now.

So he's not here to hear it anyway.

But like he's so quick on his feet.

He can. It'll be like Wednesday and be

like, yeah, I've written the sermon in my head.

I've been like, how did you do that?

Like he's like, yeah, I could get up and preach it now and,

and be like, but you haven't written it.

He's like, I know, but that's the last thing I do.

And I was like, I gotta write it.

But like first and then I, you know, like just our process is

so different and God has uniquely gifted in him, in him

in a very particular way that he has not gifted me in.

And and I think the vice versa, right?

That there are there that there are strengths and bents that

that I have that complement right?

And and I think that we we need each other.

We need each other so. Yeah, I think that also, like

sometimes, you know, I will, this would happen like when I

was at camp a lot where we would have, you know, kind of notice

that there was a camper who had certain questions or like,

wrestlings. And you very quickly recognized

that like, you're not the person like for this job.

But we had this, which is kind of well worked system of being

like, OK, I know this other person has had experiences that

might better resonate or just be able to communicate this with

less intensity or more intensity, depending on like the

kid and their their personality. And to be just OK to hand that

off to each other or like work together in that process so that

people can come to know Jesus. And that's, that doesn't mean

we've done something wrong or that we we have failed.

And it's, you know, better to work as a team.

It it's just it's more fun and it.

Well, and it's good. It's like, it's good when we

know ourselves. Yeah, it's a good thing, right?

And, and even, you know, for us as individuals and for us as a

church, because when we look at the the, the scope across even

just our city, there are churches that are going to have

greater strengths in different ways, right?

And, and the way that we, the way that we interact with one

another should be, you know, like I, I hope, and I think I've

actually done this before with people is, you know, I've been

someone, if they're newer to town or whatever and they're

like looking at churches were like, look, hey, here's who we

are as a church. Yeah, here's who I am as a

pastor. Here's who Grant as is as a

pastor. Here's what we bring to the

table. We have a unique, we have a

unique bench toward XY and Z depending on what you're looking

for, I could probably give you 3 other churches that might be a,

a really strong fit for you. And I don't mean that in like a,

a consumeristic way. I just mean that in a way of

like, hey, your, your leanings, your theological leanings, your

kind of your lifestyle leanings, your, your bent, you might be

better suited over over here at this Baptist Church or whatever,

right? And and so I think that we can

even extrapolate that further from the individual as well,

right? And I think it's really cool

that, you know, like at court, right, we have a big involvement

in food security in our city. But there are other churches

where they have a much larger focus on like meeting housing

needs or churches that are downtown and are kind of

involved in our downtown core are going to have different

roles in meeting the needs of our city and.

Right on the front lines, it's. You know, like there is no one

church that can do all of it. And so it's, it's OK.

And it's good that we kind of, you know, divide and tackle.

I don't want to say conquer. That feels like the wrong word,

but. You're just saying.

Yeah, say, OK, this is what God has made our group of people

passionate about, but we also want to work together.

Like we want to have good relationships with the other

ministries in our city so that people's needs can be met and

they can be healed and they can encounter Jesus in the ways that

they need to encounter Jesus. Yeah, yeah.

God, God meets us all in, in different ways.

And, and that's true for those of us who are already followers

of Jesus, but also for those who are not, you know, being in a

downtown ministry context and working with, working with

marginalized people, that brings a unique set of skills that not

every church is equipped to, to do well right now.

And, and then also the, the, the, the spiritual and physical

needs present are so different, right?

And so there is, but God, but God meets people in a very

profound way in those places. So, yeah, like I, I think that

the, the broader point that I'm, I'm thinking about when it comes

to this whole idea of, you know, dusting your feet off if someone

rejects the gospel or whatever is, is that like, yes, yes to

boundaries, yes to, you know, being kind and gracious above

all else and saying I've done what I can do.

I leave this with God and also recognizing that we are not the

whole picture for that individual that God may be at

work in their life in in the weeks and years and decades

ahead. Right.

So anything else from the passage that's worth jumping

into a little bit? I think we kind of covered the

bulk of it. Like I guess we didn't really

get into too much with like with Herod and all that.

It feels hard to without speculating.

Sure. You know, like the what were his

intentions? What was Why did he want to see

Jesus? Well, I mean, I think based on

the fact that he beheaded John or was responsible for the for

the beginning of, I think we can at least say that his intentions

were not good, that he was probably concerned, to put it

lightly about. He was perplexed, perplexed,

which is a great word. I should, I don't think I looked

that up the Greek on that one. I, I probably should have

because I, I, I'm curious. Maybe I'll do that later.

But yeah, like there's there is something interesting with with

this little aside and, and just I think it's worth exploring,

you know, with when it comes to you, when it comes to our

church, when it comes to how we approach, how we approach our

faith, how we approach what we're doing, who's taking

notice? You know, and I say that in both

a good and bad way. Like who's taking notice of if

we are, if we're really not being Kingdom minded in our

approach to whatever, you know, insert whatever matter you could

imagine people are gonna take notice.

Yeah, right. And hopefully the inverse is

true that if we are, if we're doing, you know, good work, if

we are, if we are making a difference spiritually,

physically in our, in our region, who say who's taking

notice? You know, one of the one of the

really sobering questions that a previous church that I that I

worked at often asked, which I think was a great question, is

if we closed tomorrow. Who would be impacted?

Who would? Who would even notice?

Yeah. Well.

We'll leave you with that one. Yeah.

And I mean, like that's, that's worth considering not just as a

church, but also for you as an individual.

If you left your house, if you left your neighborhood, what

what impact would be felt? And so maybe that's a question

to to Mull over with, with your family, with your friends and

wherever you find yourself this week, whether you are

vacationing or whether you are here in Guelph with us or

whether maybe you're just stumbling across this in some

other corner of the world or universe.

I guess not universe, because boy.

Yeah, if you're from Mars, let us know.

Yeah, perfect. Fantastic.

So wherever you find yourself, on Earth or not, we hope that

you have a wonderful week and we'll catch you next time.