Do You See This Woman? || Pastor Adam Mesa

Welcome to the ALC Podcast. Here at ALC, we seek the loss,

teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message this weekend, as we're talking about Jesus's goodness and how Jesus

wants to be able to speak and minister to every single one of us.

And so i just want to jump into the verse today, and I'm only

gonna take a few moments, since we wanted to leave a lot of space

for this moment today. And so if you join me, if you have

your Bible, would you turn to Luke chapter seven today as we're gonna dig

into the Word and we'll pray here in a few moments as well. And

so today we're gonna find ourselves in Luke chapter seven. And if you do

me favor, would you stand today for the honor of reading God's word?

And we're gonna honor God by standing during this time. Well, read a

little bit today, but it's important because it's a story about jesus affairs.

See and a woman and Jesus is invited to a Pharisees house for dinner,

and a woman is able to be present there and we see an interaction with

them, And here's what it says. In Luke seven, verse thirty six.

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, And he went

into the pharisees house and reclined at the table, and behold a woman of

the city who was a sinner. When she learned that he was reclining at

the table in the pharisees house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment,

and standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet

with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head, and kissed

his feet and anointed him with ointment. Now, when the Pharisees who had

invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a

prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this was who

was touching him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering, said

to him, Simon, I have something to say to you, And he

answered, say it teach. A certain money lender had two debtors, one

Oede five hundred dinari in the other fifteen. When they could not pay,

he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them, will you

love him more? Simon answered the one I suppose for whom he canceled the

larger debt, and he said to him, you have judged rightly. Then,

turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this

woman. I entered your house, and you gave me no water for my

feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with

her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came

in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. And you did not

anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many, are forgiven.

For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And

he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Than those who were at

the table with him began among themselves. Who is this who even forgives sins?

And he said to the your faith has saved you. Go in peace,

Praise God you may be seen him. And so as we see in

this passage today, I just want to speak to you for a few moments

a message that Jesus has for us. Through this message and through his interaction

and we'll understand a few things in a moment about it. But the one

thing we do know and we can see is if you're taking notes, I

encourage you to write this. We see this in this story and in this

passage. It's that no matter your sin, Jesus sees you to save you.

No matter your sin, Jesus sees you to save you. And the

faith of a woman this Many of you guys may know the story another story

of oil which happens during Holy Week where Jesus's feet is anointed and she rubs

his hair his feet with her hair. This actually happens this story we read

happens two years prior that story, So Jesus two times at least on record,

has had his feet anointed and white. Then what we see about culture

is if you invited someone over to your house. Back in Jesus's day,

there were some common things that you did to welcome someone in. If you

didn't do these things, you basically were not welcoming them into the house.

It was a sign of disrespect. And there was three things that you did

if someone was a guest in your home and they came into your home.

The first thing you would do is you would wash their feet, or you

would create. You would create give a bucket so that they could wash their

feet. They've been in sandals, they had a long journey. There may

have been animals. They're a farmer, whatever it is, and so they

didn't have shoes like us. So you go in someone's house, one of

the first signs of respect is you wash your feet and you provide a bucket

for someone to wash their feet. The second thing you do is if you

are greeting someone, especially someone of high esteem, is you kiss them.

You kiss them on their cheek, you kiss them on their hand, and

that would show I acknowledge you as a leader or an elder statesman in my

home. If you did it, then you would just view them as a

mutual. But if you would kiss someone, whether it was male or female,

was a sign of respect. And then the third thing you would do

is you would provide a little bit of olive oil to put in their hair.

It's almost as if someone came into your house after a long, long

journey and their hair was out of place and afraid. And maybe a woman

comes in and she had been flying all day and she said, hey,

do you happen to have a brush here for me. I just want to

I just want to present myself today. And so you would provide someone with

some olive oil so that they could rub it in their hair and look fresh

and be freshened up, and you want them to be ready for the dinner.

And so during a long journey, you're providing something to say, Hey,

I just want you to feel fresh and clean. I want you to

smell fresh and clean. And guess what simon this pharisee, which a pharisee

was a religious teacher at their time, it was the religious pastor of the

Jewish synagogue. And so the pharisee invites you Jesus to his house, and

he doesn't do any of those things, not one doesn't wash Jesus' feet,

doesn't greet him with a kiss, doesn't give him any oil for his hair,

doesn't do any of those things. And so what does Jesus do in

return. It's funny many of us may not know unless you know the culture.

It says. When we see in the scripture in verse thirty six,

it says one of the pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he

went into the Pharisees house, and there should be a pause right there,

because the pause should be almost like Jesus is invited to this guy's house.

Jesus walks in and then the guy just greets him and he's like, thanks

for coming. And Jesus is sitting there and he's like, I don't get

a hug, don't get a handshake. He's looking, He's like, where's

the water? So what does Jesus do? It says, and immediately then

he reclines at the table. That was kind of a jab from Jesus because

at that only the person who's the elder of the home, only the person

who's the leader in that moment, they sit first, and they recline first.

And so Jesus basically says, if you ain't gonna respect me, I'm

gonna respect myself. You don't want to greet me, you don't want to

welcome me. Then I'm sitting at the head of the table. And it's

almost like at the home the fathers, they have that lazy boy that's like,

you invite Jesus. He's like, oh, you ain't gonna greet me.

That's my lazy boy. Now my chair now, and so now there's

all of a sudden like this, there's tension in the room. And it

was very common in Jesus's day that everybody had open windows, and it was

a cartual norm that if you invited a rabbi to your house, anyone could

go and go through the windows and listen to the conversation. There was no

such thing as like a private conversation, so people could just It was encouraged

that if a teacher and there's a debate going on, anyone could just go

in the window and listen. In Some of y'all would love that in today's

age, you can just walk by your neighbor's house and listen to him.

Like, oh, the juice we would learn, you know. So,

guess what this woman who's a city for at least a year now more than

likely has heard about Jesus, has heard about his ministry, has heard about

the forgiveness of sins. She's now starting to identify as someone who is hungry

for Jesus, hungry for God's call. She's more than likely at the window

seeing everything, and she realizes everybody in the room disrespects Jesus. So because

there's no way a woman a sinner which in their day, the idea of

a great sinner more than likely met that she was some type of sex worker.

She was some type of prostitute, because if the city knows that she's

a sinner, then it's an outside identifiable sin. So either she had had

many husbands, many boyfriends, or she occupationally was a prostitute, and so

normally a f phars he would not invite a prostitute to dinner. But in

their culture, anyone was free to walk by the windows, and so more

than likely she's here's Jesus in town. She goes to listen, and then

she sees why no one washed his feet? This is Jesus. No one's

gonna wash his feet. Why no one greet him with a kiss, says

Jesus. Why nobody annoy his hair? This is Jesus. And so she's

starting to catch on to the fact, Oh, people are out here disrespecting

Jesus. He's trying to interrogate Jesus. He's not trying to worship Jesus.

She's in there's like, I'm trying to worship Jesus. So what does she

do? She barges in the house. She pulls out what she would normally

have as a sex worker, which is perfume because she wants to keep herself

fresh for each person that works with her, and so she has perfume on

her and so what does she do? She says, I don't have water,

but I have perfume, so I can start washing his feet with the

perfume. And if she were to touch his head or kiss him, and

more than likely as a woman of great sin, that would have been a

sexual misconduct. So what does she do. She decides to give him the

kisses on his feet because that's not in their day a sexual misconduct. And

she begins to anoint his legs, but that's not a sexual misconduct in their

day. So she's doing everything she can in her career, occupation, in

her past, everything she has on her to worship Jesus, to glorify him.

And then you want to know what the pharisee has the nerve to say,

if this is why I know Jesus ain't legit. Pharisee says, because

if Jesus was legit and he was a prophet, he kicked that woman off

her right now, because that is a sinner right there. And if Jesus

had anything to do with God, he would not be around sin. And

so therefore he goes Ahi, I caught you. Jesus, you're fake because

you don't know that this woman is a sinner and a prostitute. Jesus does

know. Jesus knows everything about this woman. He also knows that she's exercising

great faith. And so Jesus begins to open us because then he tells us

a parable He opens us to the reality. And if you're taking notes today,

you can write this down. He opens us to the reality that all

of society has sin. There's no such thing as a perfect person. All

of society has sin, all of it. All of society has sin.

All of us have sinned. The only problem is is the pharise He thought

that his sin was less than her sin. He thought his sin was blessened

under the guise of her type of sin. And so we see within this

I have a chart. I just want you to look at a comparison between

the pharisee and the prostitute, and it gives us the reality of who too

sinful people look like, and then they look like us today. Number one,

the pharisee, he's religious, he religious, he goes to church every

Sunday, he worships every Sunday. He reads his Bible every Sunday. He

goes to church every you know, every week. And he's book smart.

He knows, oh, he knows the Bible. He knows, oh,

he knows a lot about culture and people. And but what's his sin?

He has a white collar sin. He's a businessman sin. He's that sin

nobody knows about. It's a private sin, that's a socially acceptable one.

That's the Oh you got anger, unforgiveness, you treat people poorly when no

one's looking, you act a certain way. Oh, that that's the acceptable

sin. That's as long as as long as it's not like uh to all

of us, then okay, you're good, Pharisee. And then for her,

what is she? She's not religious, she's rebellious. She's not fit

into society, she's not fitting into culture. She's street smart. She ain't

book smart. She's street smart. So smart enough that is she gonna break

into this Pharisees house. That's how straet smart she is. She figured a

way to get in the door. And her sin is that blue collar sin,

that worker sin, the sin we all know about the sin that's on

public display. Her being a sex worker. Everybody in the city knows about

her. Everybody in the city knows about her sins, so her sins are

public. Got public sins. But guess what, They both have sin.

Don't matter how attractive one sin is over another sin. They both have sin.

Both have sin. And one of the things, one of the lies

that the pharisee gets caught up in, is in the comparison that he has

convinced himself that he is better than this woman, that he is more privileged

than God's eyes than this woman, that she has no right to mix with

a true prophet, a true rabbi, but me being Simon who doesn't even

worship Jesus, who doesn't even greet Jesus. I mean, surely I have

every right to do and act however I want. I'm a Pharisee, I'm

the top dog in my community. No one can tell me anything. I'm

in charge of myself. And so in comparison, oftentimes we always ask ourselves,

and it gets asked often is does God view sin differently? Is there

one more sin greater than another sin? And how does God view these things?

And how much sin do I have to sin until it's just wrong,

until I make God angry. And because a little white lie, we say

that's that's not a big sin, a little white lie. Or I'm different

than the person that murders somebody, or I'm different than the person who has

sexual sin, because all I have is I just hate people, and I

just I and and I and I just give middle fingers on the road when

I drive, and I just that's not that that's nothing compared to that guy

I saw on the news, or that's nothing compared to my cousin who just

be partying and being with every guy every weekend. That I'm better than that.

And so people always want to say, and we want to compare,

and we want to look at other sins. So I just want you to

imagine for a second, I have these three bases right here. I want

you to imagine this was rat poisoning. Okay, it's right here. I

have is a little vial of rat poison. Okay, And so for this

one, I just put a little bit of rat poison. Okay, that's

a little bit. I mean I took like three drops. All right,

this one, I'm gonna put the whole thing. Okay, there we go,

all right, And of these two so far, if this was rat

poison, which one would anyone be willing to drink? You want a little

bit of rat poison or you want a lot of bit of rat poison?

Who's willing? It's only a little bit. One has two drops, one

has fifty drops, like one will kill you in thirty minutes, one will

kill you in five minutes. Which one do you want to live twenty minutes

longer? Which one do you want? And you say, well, I

want the one with no rat poisoning. There's only one person who had no

rat poisoning. There's only only one person. There's only one person whose vase

is clean. There's only one person's vase. But you can accept they don't

got no dirt on it. And so you may sit here, and you

may be in this place and be like, man, I only got two

drops. Well, hey, you're still dirty. You got you got white

collar sin, Okay, got white call. Okay, you got white collar

sin. Hey. You you may be in the middle and you're like,

I'm that blue callar sin. Everybody knows my stuff, okay, okay.

For the woman she recognized in the room that nobody there was worshiping the one

who had no sin. Everybody was there just to interrogate Jesus, have a

nice dinner, have conversation, be around Jesus. But only one in there

recognize that Jesus was worthy because she has received him for everything that he is.

She recognized her sin, and guess what, the pharisee he did it.

So he's walking around in his life with this thing, thinking that nobody

sees it. He going, no, no, I'm clear, I'm clear.

Just squint in your eyes. I'm clear. And so he convinced himself,

look, look, one has fifty drops, one has two drops.

The color is basically imperceivable now. But he convinced himself he looks different than

her. And Jesus is like, no, no, no, no,

let me tell you a parable. He goes, one person who owns fifty

owes fairfty denari, one person owns five hundred a debt, or comes and

he forgives them both. Which one do you think is gonna appreciate the forgiving

of the debt the most? He goes, man, well, I mean,

I mean the one who the one who's got that big debt, that

that that's almost like for me, and you like like, like, you

owe one months of an electricity bill, and someone else owes a year's worth

of mortgage payments. So and then someone calls you and says, hey,

we're gonna forgive that debt of that electricity bill for that one month, Like,

dang, sixty eighty bucks man, that's awesome. More likely you'd be

like, let's go, let's go to cheesecake factory. Eighty bucks I didn't

have, and eighty bucks I still don't have, but eighty bucks I'm gonna

go spend. But that person who owes a year's worth of mortgages on the

verge of taking back foreclosure, that owes forty thousand dollars, thirty thousand dollars,

they get that call, hey you don't owe for the year. You're

speechless, like, I don't I don't even know what to do. So

what do you just end up doing? You just drop on your knees and

you thank God right just for that woman. That's why Jesus is getting to

the point He's like, you, Pharisee, you're still deciding whether you have

sin or not, and you're and you're still deciding who I am. But

he goes this woman, Oh, she knows how simpul she is. Oh,

she knows how much she has fallen short of God's glory, so much

so that her faith has received her faith has worshiped me. Many people ask

the question, did she get saved in that moment? No, she was

saved on the way because she had intentions that she was there. She already

knew what Jesus did. She already knew what Jesus did. And Jesus says,

it's your faith. Her sins are forgiven and said, your faith has

made you well. So here's the second point if you're taking notes. Jesus

shows us that Jesus has sights. He can see what others cannot see.

So you think, just because no one knows about what you got going on,

that that means you're you're in the clear. No, Jesus still sees

it. And this Pharisee has convinced him and everyone around him he's good.

He good. Oh no, no, no, But Jesus he knows he's

not good. He knows he's not in the clear. And so then he

shares the poer the parable, and then he tells the faith see where he

felt short, he says in verse forty three, Simon answered the one I

suppose from whom canceled a larger debt. And then Jesus said to him,

you've judged rightly. Then, turning to the woman, he said to Simon,

do you see this woman. I entered your house, and you gave

me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her

tears and wipe them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but

from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but she is annoyed to

my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you her sins, which are many,

are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little

loves little. In what Jesus shows that he does, he does three things

in this moment. Number one, Jesus turns towards her. Jesus is concerned

with who in the room is gonna worship him. He begins to ignore the

room, and he gives her his attention. The second thing he does,

he speaks up for her. No one in society rests voice, no one

in society respects her opinion. But they respect Jesus' opinion because the Pharisee still

calls him teacher, doesn't call him lord, calls him teacher, which means

I respect you enough to say you're a smart man. So Jesus says,

well, then I'm gonna leverage that influence and I'm gonna speak up for her.

I'm gonna tell everyone in this community that she gets a fresh start.

I'm gonna tell it because you gotta imagine everybody else is in the windows listening,

and you know they're going, oh, you know, someone's three people,

now what happened? Jesus just told Simon he got sin in his life.

And then the neighbors like, I know it, No, I know

he won all he cracked up to be. And then he and then the

person's like, oh, well, what will happened? He told that prostitute

that she's good. He told that prostitute she got a fresh start. If

somebody's there going no, yeah, she's wiping his feet right now. No,

they didn't wipe his feet when he got in. No, they didn't

wipe his feet when he got what And the third thing is is Jesus now

challenges culture. You guys, convinced yourself that there's different layers and levels to

sin. How you convince yourself and you've convinced yourself that you don't need to

worship God for God's forgiveness and mercy. This woman's got it, You guys

don't. You don't got it. And so Jesus begins, which is essential.

He stands up for this woman because he could just say, you're forgiving

and leaving. You know, everybody else can treat her like she used to

be treated. But now because Jesus has challenged everyone and said, you all

are jacked up and don't trip. I know all y'all's business. Now,

everybody's like, oh, oh dang, Jesus begins to stand up and speak

for her. And he's there. He's there, and guess what, she's

there too. She's there for Jesus. She's not there for anything else.

She's not there to grab a meal. She's not there to get drunk,

she's not there to party. She's there to worship Jesus. She's not there

just to get her life fixed. She's not there just to have a nice

little talk and walk away. She's not there just to sing good songs.

She's there because she wants to worship Jesus. The pharisee is investigating Jesus.

The woman I'm there. So if you remove that whole room and said,

anyone who's willing to follow Jesus come with me, Jesus would turn around in

this moment, in that room, besides his disciples, he'd see one woman

right there. She'd be like, Hey, I got more perfume if you

need it, anybody, anybody, She's available. She's there, and Jesus

aid man, And that's faith. He tells you your faith has made you

well. He sees her, and she sees him, and she worships him.

You know. Uh, about two years ago, I went, uh,

me and my wife went on a vacation and we went with Pastor Aaron

and his wife Erica. We went with my brother Nathan and my sister in

Los and Nas and we went we went over to Paris. And so we're

in Paris and and we're just, uh, you know, hanging out in

Paris, just there for relax, just there for vacation, and and uh,

leading up to it, I start to see articles on the news and

you guys may have seen him at many points before, and I see about

like this big crime wave, this this crime wave that's happening in Paris,

like muggings and stabbings and there's all this stuff like that. Even I just

googled like robbing in Paris, stabbing in Paris, and I just saw like

a couple of months ago there was a famous soccer player. I have the

article and it says Paris Saint Germain goal keeper robbed at knife point and teenagers

arrested. And so I'm going to Paris and I like to start seeing this

stuff. And if you're like me, like now, I'm on like every

you know, blog dashboard, right And at first I have to remember,

like there's about ninety of those stories over in San Bernardino, San Bernardino County

anyway, So like right away, I'm not that scared because I like,

you're not gonna scare me, because I'm like, welcome to my neighborhood,

you know, like we see it all the time. But at the same

time, I'm like cautious because I'm like and apparently there's a subculture of people

that are a part of an impoverished immigrant culture in Paris and and and they

like to rob wealthy people and tourists. They like to run. And so

I'm reading it and it goes, Hey, it often happens on a subways

and you're getting off the sup because if you ever go on a subway in

Paris, when you get off, there's all these tunnels to get to the

top ground and sometimes you're walking for four minutes to get above ground when you're

in the subway, and so and so they know every nook and cranny.

So if they see you get off of an exit, they know where people

are and art, so they just and there's multiple entrances, so they just

cuts you off, hold a knife up to you and they'll rob you.

And so I'm researching. I see this stuff. Sure enough, we're five

days into our trip. Six am. We're going to another city outside of

Paris to enjoy the day. And it's six am and these two guys they

get off of their subway and they're walking and they stop and they see us,

and then they walk up. Me and my wife were looking at a

vending machine because I'm so sleepy. I'm trying to get like a coffee or

something like that, looking for like an iced coffee. So I'm looking.

Me and Ashley are talking on like you want anything, baby, blah blah

blah blah. One of the guys walks away. I know this later on

because Sanas whispers it. One of the guys walks away and he looks at

his buddy. He goes, they're American. And so now they stop.

They were getting off, they were headed to the exit. Now they stop,

and all of a sudden, they're getting back on our train. They're

standing by us. So remember it's me, Nathan Pastor Air, Sonas,

my wife and Erica. We're getting on the subway. And Sonas whispers to

everyone, but I'm the only one who hear. She get on the subway

and she says, she says, these guys are following us. They heard

that we're American. So all she says that we're getting on the subway,

and all of a sudden, spidy senses start tingling. Okay, no one

hears it though, just me. Everyone else wants been that tired. So

I look back at SNAs and I go, I like give her a nod,

like I got you, I got you. So sure enough they're at

the end of the subway. It's two guys. They're at the end of

the subway. The first stop, I say, here's what I'm gonna do.

First stop, I'm gonna be like, I'm gonna be like, all

right, let's go, guys, and if they turn around and they go

to get up, then I'm gonna I'm gonna see you, Okay. So

the first stop comes and I'm like, all right, guys, that's us,

and I start walking out and they they like jump up. They turn

around and they look and then I'm just standing there and then and then and

then the guy's like he like like almost like he got caught. Everyone on

went still six am. No one said anything. They were like that that

wasn't our stop, Adham. I'm like, oh my gosh. Man.

So after that first time and I catch the guy, he now sees that

I know, so he smiles at me. They were giving us their back

because they were trying to be inconspicuous. Now he flips the seat, turns

and just stares at me with his hand in his pocket and he's just smiling.

So me in that moment, I'm like, all right. So I

was wearing a dress shirt like this, so I thought maybe he needs to

see the tattoos a little bit. But I go like this and then I

go like this, it's true story. I'm not making anything up, you

guys. Any true story sas because everyone else is trying to cover up for

where it's about to go. But Sanaz knows the truth. So I go

like this, and I give Nathan. I had a camera bag. I

give Nathan. I said, hold this. He's like, oh okay.

He hugs it, like dude. He leaning over on the side. I'm

like this, and I start staring at these guys. The guy looks at

his friend. He got it, gets his attention and he goes. He

points to me. He points to me, and the guy goes and then

they laughing. So he the other friend now turns around. He sits he's

looking at me. And so then now I'm just arms crossed like this.

And then we're doing this for we have twelve stops to go. We're going

outside the city. I got my arms crossed like this, and then I'm

not looking at it every time, and I and everyone's behind me. So

I got my legs in between the thing, and I'm just like this the

whole time, like nine stops, I'm like it every time it stopped,

Like I'm just staring at these guys. And so finally we get to a

stop and I turn at everyone and I go, guys, we're about to

get robbed. This is what's gonna happen when we get off. And then

Nathan and Erin are like, whoa wait, what's going what's happening. We're

gonna what, We're gonna what. And then Snask goes, I told you

guys twenty minutes ago, what's gonna happen. So now they're all looking at

these guys. And then now Nathan and air and are like, oh yeah,

we're getting robbed. Like now they can perceive it. So then all

of a sudden we're aware, God's honest, true, we're going on the

subway. All of a sudden the subway wait mind you, we don't know

French. The subway shuts down in the tunnel and all the lights go off.

But in a few moments we would find out. I guess they had

to turn off so that another train could pass that was moving faster. But

we don't know this, we'll speak French. So it goes black in this

subway. I hold my hands on the bar because I'm like, if someone

walks up to me, I'm just I'm just I'm just gonkey kicking like crazy.

And sure enough, those guys don't even know what happened, and they

know I'm aware too, so they're figuring I'm just as much of a risk

right now as they're a risk to me. And so the lights go back

on thirty seconds later, and they're three seats closer, and they're like leaning

and so I so now everyone's freaked out. Okay, now everyone's like,

oh, it's going on. So I tell them I turn around and I

looked at them and say, hey, where the next stop is ours?

When we get off, we are not gonna go towards the exit, cause

they know we don't know where the exit is. We've never been in this

area. They know where all the exits are, they know how to catch

us. So I said, what's gonna happen is we're gonna just stay right

where we're at, where the subways are coming and going and where people are

at. And Nathan, you gotta go look for an exit, just really

briefly, come and tell us, and we're gonna stay here, okay,

because they're gonna watch where we're going. So sure enough, we get off

and we start walking towards one of the exits. They take off running towards

another entrance, and then we turn around and we acted like we were walking,

and then we turn it and we wait by the subway, and then

the guys come running back and they turn the corner because they can't find us,

like thirty seconds later, so they come running. They're like this.

They come turning, their running and then they see me just standing there with

my arms crossed, and so finally I go, let's go. There's been

forty minutes of anticipation. I'm ready at this point, so yeah, you

can ask them. I go, let's go, because surely I'm thinking my

boys got my back. These guys turn around running and I go, yeah,

my dogs are behind me. I turn around and Sona's and Erica are

like. Nathan and Aaron are like this. I said, where were you

all at? Nathan goes, I was just I was gonna swing the camera.

Aaron goes, I'm still. I just thought that we could talk to

them. I go, they don't speak English, Aaron, don't speak English.

They're not talking to you, and no conversation. And Erica and where

was my wife? My wife is scared of her own shadow, so she

is ten paces behind. She may be tall, looks scary, but she

in that moment, she's like, Adam's got it. I've seen him before.

She's like he as long as Nacan and Aaron are with them, and

they're not. Sonas and Erica are with me right behind me, and they're

like, we're ready, and they're like, you know they Erica's bowled up,

Sonas's bowled up. Fisted. These guys take off and they run.

And I turned around because we had one more train to go do, and

so we had to go upstairs and take like a real train. And I

looked at Nathan and the air and I said, don't ever do that to

me again. I said, I had so much confidence in y'all in the

moment because I just thought you guys didn't understand the gravity of the situation.

But now that I know you understand the gravity and y'all still ain't around,

I can never trust you again. I told them, you're gonna have to

earn your way back to that trust, because right now I'm not. I

don't know what's gonna happen. I had two women behind me who we're down,

and it was down. They was gonna back me up now. And

that's the thing. I mean, that's how it can feel like the people

you expect that are gonna get your back, they're not all we're gonna be

there. And so why I have to do is I gotta ask myself when

it comes to this gospel, when it comes to Jesus, if Jesus were

to turn around and see who's behind him, would I be there? Would

I be there? But I'd be like, oh, yeah, I'm right,

I'm right here, Jesus, I'm not. I'm not going nowhere.

I'm not. My faith's not gonna be wavered. My face is not gonna

be I lose my job. My face is not gonna be wavered. Lord,

I got man, I get into it in my life. My face

is not gonna be waivered. I lose a loved one. My fath's not

gonna be wavered. You got you like, you're not gonna mess with my

faith? I'm right there. But how many times, just like the Pharisee,

he's been worshiping God his whole life, Jesus comes this dude's no where

to be found. He's nowhere to be found. He doesn't greet Jesus.

He doesn't wash his feet, he doesn't clean his hair. He don't because

he's not really about that life he claims he is. You have had friend

like that growing up. Oh man, I beat this dude up. I

beat this dude up. You get in your first fight, that do runs

you. Oh you've been all talk ever since. Then that's the pharisee.

Oh yeah, I worship God. I go to church on Sundays. I

got a on a Bible, my social media bio, I got a scripture.

And then you go through something or then God calls you on your sin

and you're like, no, no, no, no, I gotta take

a break, I gotta take a break, time out, time out.

But Satan doesn't time out. You know, Fir Peter. There's a scripture

about Satan and we all know it, and it says that Satan goes about.

Says, be sober, miamed, to be watchful. And we'll close

with this. Your adversary, the devil prows around like a roaring lion,

seeking someone to dive resist him. Firm in your faith, knowing that the

same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. Be

sober minded, you know, in that moment when I was on that that

subway and Sona said, these guys are following us boom sober like I was

awake. I was awake. Our next train ride was an hour and a

half and everybody has like those little Apple smart watches. All of our heartbeats

were at one hundred and thirty second beat, one hundred and thirty beats per

minute the whole time because hours after our adrenaline was just raced. We you

know, someone walked by me with their bike and I'm like this, what's

up? What I was sober? I want trust in no one. A

couple days later, I get a haircut at a barbershop there to get my

beard cleaned up. I tell the guy the situation. He said, oh

yeah, they would have stabbed you. Because I don't know any French people.

So I tell the barber the story and he goes. I said,

was I just overreacting? And he said, oh no, no, no,

no, no, no no, and then he everything I told you.

He tells me. They know every exit, they know every turn,

they spot they go look for taurists. That's who they look for. And

so you were going outside the city, and they knew that they were gonna

jump on it. And I thought, oh, I guess what. I'll

never take a subway in Paris ever again without getting that exit roa sea,

without watching first looking at every exit. I'm soberminded now. So sometimes we

fall because we're not sober minded. Mean time we give her, So I

said, we're not soberminded. This woman who worships Jesus, she was sober

minded. She knew who Jesus was. She was ready to receive Jesus for

all he was. And Jesus saw her, He saw her, he saw

her, and the last thing is he forgives her. He says, go,

you're forgiving be free. Gives us freedom. That weight that was on

her shoulder, that she desperately wanted God to take, he took it,

took it from her. And so I encourage you today's we're here as we

close, if you've never given Jesus that way before, if you never confessed

him as Lord and savior. The Scripture's true satan looks for who he devours,

and many times he lets up from us because we devour ourselves. Everyone

always want to ask a satan in this and saying in this. No,

Sometimes he just lets you be you and we get ourselves into what the trouble

that we're getting into. Sometimes we say it was all the enemy. No,

it was your flesh, That's who it was. And so many times

we have to recognize we got to be honest with ourselves and say, there

is only one person who has this, And I don't know if you have

white collar sin, I don't know if you have blue collar sin. I

don't know if your sins are private and they're only what you know, or

your sins are public and they're what everyone else knows. But the reality is

is there's no way any of us can get from this to this unless we

give ourselves to gen Jesus, because Jesus is the only one who was pure.

Jesus is the only one, according to the Book of Revelations, that

can purify us, cleanse us as white as snow. All of us have

dirt in our life, all of us have been tarnished, but Jesus is

the only one that if we're willing to worship him, we're willing to receive

him a death and resurrection. If we're willing to give our pass and our

sins inside the tomb, and we say, Jesus, you could take it

all. That's where the Bible says that Jesus will make you holy. He

will make you righteous, and he will cleanse you, not because of anything

you did, because of everything He did and our willingness to receive him.

That one day Jesus would turn around and say, who's with me? And

you're standing right there, and one day someone would ask you who's behind you?

He says, Jesus, he's pushing me everywhere and I need to go.

And So if you're in this place today and you've never given your life

to Jesus Christ, I encourage you. In this moment, we're all going

to say a prayer out loud, and all we're doing is affirming the work

that God is all ready. Would you do me favor. Would you bow

your head and close your eyes right now for just a moment, And if

you're here to receive Jesus for the first time or rededicate your life, I

encourage you to say this with your whole heart as you give yourself to Him.

And we're all going to join you to encourage you along the way.

And then when we're done saying this prayer, I'm just gonna count to three.

And if you said that for the first time today, or you rededicated

your life, I just want you to shoot your hand up in the air

so that we could celebrate with you. Would you join me in saying this

today, family, Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I receive you,

I repent to my sins, and I believe and I confess that you've

died on the cross, and you have risen for my sins. And I

commit in this moment to follow you for the rest of my days in Jesus'

name. Amen. We really hope you enjoyed the message, and if you

said yes to Jesus, we just want to say it can congratulations and give

you a free devotional to help you walk out your faith. Click the link

in the description or head over to grow dot Faith for download your devotional.

Oh and be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Thanks

for listening to ALSC podcasts and we hope you tune in again.