Luis Zamot
Fort Myers Community Church Podcast
"A Story of Hope" - Luke 7:36-50
(upbeat music) - You're listening to Fort Myers Community Church. Together, let's grow in faith, hope, and love as we pursue God's purpose for our lives. - All right, we're continuing our Advent series. Last week Bill kicked us off and he shared with us the story of peace that in the midst of the storm, whether we're in one, coming out of one, about to head into one, that Christ is our peace, that he gives us peace 'cause he goes before us and he goes with us into those storms. Today, we're gonna be looking at a story of hope. And very similarly, we're gonna find out, if we don't already, that Jesus is the source of our hope, the only source of hope. I can leave it there, that's the message. And if you get nothing else, Jesus is our only hope. But I've gotta fill in the rest of the 35 minutes. So bear with me, we'll get to the rest. I had to look up a little bit of this word, hope, because I always know what something means, but you don't really know how to articulate those things. For me, hope, I could identify more as a feeling more than just a series of words. And so, giving a message on hope, I felt like I needed to be better equipped. What are those words that people use to describe hope? So I went to where anyone else would go, Google. And Google, I felt like Google gave me a good answer. It says this, it says that hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Makes sense, hope is a feeling of expectation or desire for a certain thing to happen. If I hope that I go to heaven, then what I'm really saying is that I have an expectation and desire that I will spend eternity in heaven. And so if I place my hope on Jesus, then what I'm saying is that Jesus is the only way that I can spend eternity in heaven in the presence of God. And I've always struggled a little bit because people use that word, and I've asked that word in ways that don't have anything to do with heaven. They have nothing to do with Christ, nothing to do with hope, nothing to do with peace. Somebody might say, hey, we're going on vacation, and the hope is that we have a good time. - Good time. - Okay, that's interesting, that's fine. I think that's okay. I'm going for this interview. I hope the hope is that I get the job. Yeah, when you look at the definition, that makes sense, that those things you would expect, you have a desire for that certain outcome, that certain thing to happen, but we can clearly see that when our hope is misplaced, when we place our true hope in the wrong places, we get the wrong effect. In fact, last week we talked about peace. Today we're going to see that we experience the most peace when our hope is most secure. So without a secure hope, we will lack peace. For example, I said last time that I was here that we just bought a house, and so we went through this process of getting a mortgage to buy a house. If who's gotten a mortgage in the last 10 or 15 years? Let's see it, okay, yeah, so you know, it's an invasive process. That, my doctor knows less about me than my lender does. No joke, they want everything about you, they want to know every detail about your life, and where your money comes from, and where it's going, and where it was 17 years ago, and they keep sending you things that they need from you, because one document just isn't enough. And so I started this process of getting this mortgage, and I got this email from my lender, and it was very long. And the first thing was required documents, that was the subject, and it was followed by a lengthy list of things that they needed. Things from, you know, tax returns, business documents, pay stubs, this statement, that statement, and affidavit that I'm swearing to something that or other, I mean, I could go on, the list was so long. But reading this list, I knew that I could do it on. I knew exactly what they wanted beforehand. I'm in the industry enough to know that these are normal things, I shouldn't be caught off guard. I was prepared to give these documents to them. I knew exactly what they were gonna ask for. And in that moment, I thought, hey, no problem at all. However, something inside of me got shaken. My piece started to feel rattled, and ultimately my piece would get destroyed email after email after email that they wanted this, and that, and I would send them one thing, and now they want something else to explain that thing, and, oh, why was my piece so rattled? And simply because my hope was that I would buy this house. My hope was that I would see myself and my family moving into this house soon. And those emails, every time they ask for something, it threatened that hope. It put to question whether or not that outcome, which I expect and desire would actually come to fruition. So my piece was shaken. You would say that I felt sick inside. Proverbs 13, 12 shows us why I'd feel sick like that. It says hope deferred makes the heart sick. I think great when scripture is so right on point, there's no fluff there. Hope deferred. You put your hope somewhere else other than Jesus, your heart's sick. That's where I was. That's where I was in this home-buying process. Yeah, I would have never said that my greatest hope in life is to buy this house. I would have never said that, but internally, the way I processed this journey in our lives was that this was the greatest thing that could happen, and anything that threatened that would destroy my peace. What is it for you? Maybe you're also buying a house, maybe it's a job. Maybe your hope is set on getting through these years of retirement. Maybe your hope is set on building wealth so that you can retire. Maybe your hope is set on your children. You must only have one. Maybe your hope is set on a relationship. Or maybe your hope is set on a church that you would find the right perfect church that checks all the boxes and says all the things and plays the right music and does the right things. Maybe your hope is somewhere in between. What I want us to do, I'm gonna pray for us. We like to start with prayer. I'm gonna pray for us, but before I do, I'm gonna give us some time of silence, some time of reflection. It's gonna be 30 seconds. I'm gonna look at my watch. It's gonna feel like an eternity. But what I want you guys to do, I want everyone to reflect on where your hope is today. What is it today? That if I threatened, your peace would be destroyed. Let's take some time now and reflect on that. (silence) (silence) - Father, we lift up to you our hearts desires. We lift up to you the things, the people, the events, the activities where our hope is placed. We lift up to you our confession, that in placing our hope in these things, these people, these events that we have caused our hearts to be sick. And so God, we lift this up to you and we ask that today, we would leave here today with a peace that surpasses all understanding, with a hope that surpasses all understanding, that we would hope beyond hope, that we would leave here knowing that Jesus Christ is our source of hope forever. That we would be encouraged by that, that we would be filled with joy by that, and that we would celebrate this season, not just because, but because today on Christmas, hope was born. And so Father, we lift that up to you, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Let me paint the picture of where we are in this passage. So Luke 7, verses 36 through the end, 38 through 50. Let me paint this picture. So Jesus, before this passage, Jesus was doing a lot of miracles. He was healing the sick, he was making people that were lame, walk, he was curing diseases, and he was forgiving sins. And all the while, we have Pharisees that saw all of this happen. You know, Pharisees, they thought that they had it all put together, they were the ones that were right, and you were the ones that were wrong, and they saw Jesus do all of these things, and all the while they'd be like, who is this guy? Not in an inquisitive, man, I gotta know this dude. No, it was like, who does this guy think he is? And they would say, who does he think he is to forgive? sins, who does he think he is that on the Sabbath, he's doing these miracles? Who does he think he is that on the Sabbath, people would be able to walk and carry their mat? That's a job, that's a task. You don't do that on the Sabbath. Who is this guy that would tell people to do that? So there's a little bit of speculation here, a little bit of skepticism against this Jesus. And so one of the Pharisees, Simon, this is the, maybe you'd call him the antagonist here, I actually think he teaches us a lot. Simon, today he's inviting Jesus into his home, and Jesus goes, he goes to eat with Simon. Jesus, it says that he reclined that table. Today, when you think about reclining that table, you probably think of getting your chair, pushing it back a little bit, leaning your back, crossing your legs, throwing your napkin back down on the table, you feel relaxed, you feel like, yeah, this is good. But reclining at table, what we're talking about here is nothing like that. It's almost a complete opposite. Picture a table much closer to the ground. Picture yourself laying on your left hand, if you're writing, or right hand if you're a lefty, picture yourself laying on your arm with your feet behind you. You're basically on your side, your stomach, and you're eating with your right hand, and you're literally laying at this table with other people that are doing the exact same thing as you. That's the picture of reclining at table. That's a vulnerable position to be in. And Jesus, the King of the universe, steps into this man who he knows to be a Pharisee, he knows exactly what's gonna happen. Jesus puts himself in that vulnerable position. So here he is, he's reclining at table, and this woman who comes in. It says that she's a woman of the city, a sinner. Other translations call her a woman of the streets. I think either one of those are gonna resonate, we would use that lingo. She was a sinner, she was probably a prostitute of some sort, and she comes in and she is weeping at Jesus' feet, so much so that her tears are wedding them enough for her to use her own hair to wash them and wipe them clean and to dry them. And then she's pouring this ointment, this perfume on his feet as well. She would be seen in this room, she would be seen as the most vile, most grotesque person in existence. Remember, Simon's a Pharisee, he prided himself in believing and obeying the law. And here's this woman who couldn't be farther from believing and obeying the law. So Simon, in his own head, he wonders, he doesn't say this out loud, he wonders in his head, if this man was a prophet, if this Jesus was a prophet, he would know who this is. That's washing his feet, who's touching him, God. He would know, and Jesus, he's got a lot to say. So we'll get into, that's where we're gonna pick up right here. What we're gonna see is that this passage walks us through three things that really distract us from placing our hope in Jesus. Three things that really distract us, three things that drive us to defer our hope, which makes our hearts sick. We're gonna see that here. The first one that we're gonna see is assumption. Look at verse 39, Simon's just wondering, but he's wondering, not about himself. He's not even really wondering about the woman, he's wondering about Jesus. If this man were who he says he is, who is Simon to wonder about Jesus? He must really believe that he's got it all together. He must really believe that he's got some kind of authority or that he is in such right position before God, that he is able to wonder about the character and the truth and honesty of who Jesus says he is. That's where Simon's hearts at. Simon does not realize that in that room, he is no different than that woman of the city. He assumes that he's so much better. So much better, in fact, that Jesus in verses 44 through 46, he calls him out on it. He says, I walked into your house and you didn't give me water for my feet. You didn't greet me with a kiss. You didn't honor me as a guest would be honored. We know what that's like, and a good friend walks in, friend that you've had for so many 10 years, 13 years, 17 years, 20, 30, 40 years, they walk into your house, they know where the cups are. They know where to get their drinks from. But somebody of high honor, somebody that you'd feel is more distinguished, somebody that you feel deserves a little more honor in your home, oh, come on in. Oh, excuse the mess, although I spent the last four days wiping it with a toothbrush. Oh, sorry, it's so dirty. Come on in, please. Have a seat, let me get you some water. In fact, it's already out. I've already got it for you, don't you have to worry about it? We treat those distinguished guests very differently, don't we? If you're my friend, you come over, probably offer you something the first couple of times, other than that, you know where the cups are. Let's sit back and enjoy ourselves. Jesus had no distinguishing honor in this room. There was no pomp and circumstance at all. No kiss on the cheek, no hello, thanks for coming, nothing. No water for his feet. Simon just assumed that he was so much better. You're probably wondering, okay, get to the point. Okay, how much do we assume that we're fine? That where we are is good, that we've done enough, that we check the right boxes, that we come to church every Sunday. We serve in some places, we give. How many things do we check off simply because we believe that that's just what we have to do, and Jesus has no honor in it whatsoever. In fact, he has no honor because when we think about those things that we do, maybe we're thinking of it as, I do this and I should get. I come, I serve, I give, I should receive. But that's not the economy of Jesus, that's not how it works. We do those things out of love for him. That woman walked in there knowing that this man, seeing all the things that she has seen, she knows who this man is. She knows what he's capable of, and she knows that she's not worthy of his presence whatsoever. That's where the tears come from. And because of that, she honors him on her hands and knees, cleaning him with her own tears. Do we walk in here feeling like we've got this? I do the right things. I don't struggle with the big three, sex, drugs, alcohol. I don't struggle with those things, everything else, everyone's got their stuff, but I'm really good. I'm good at all the things and I've checked the right boxes and I come to the right places and I speak to the right people and I say all the right things, I'm good. So then our hope is in ourselves. We assume that we've done it for ourselves. But then what happens when we miss the mark and we know it? When our hope is deferred towards ourselves and we miss the mark, how much does our hope actually shatter? How much do we have to defend ourselves? Let's not get trapped in assuming that we're good, just because we do and say the right things. Come every week, serve, give, be a part of the church family, be a part of your community, but do it because you love Jesus. Do it because his life is so worthy of honor and praise. Do it because you adore him, not because you get anything out of it. What you get is just the blessing. It's just the blessing that comes with it. Second thing is this. We see this again, Simon. This is why I, God bless his heart, Simon. We see accusation. Simon is at this table and he's accusing this woman, right? If he only knew, if Jesus knew what this woman was all about, yeah, he wouldn't want her touching him either. I don't want her in my house, let alone touching my feet. If he knew, he wouldn't want her touching his feet either. That's where I lived personally. I lived in that shame and the guilt and the fear of being known, of anyone knowing who I was and anything that I struggle with until I came into the light. But before I came into the light, that voice, that Pharisee that lived in my own mind was constantly saying, if they knew you, they wouldn't want you. If they knew you, they would want nothing to do with you. If they knew who you actually were, they wouldn't ask you for anything except to leave. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this room is full of little voices saying the same thing. I know that in this room, there are many who are struggling with this voice in their head, this little Pharisee that says, if this church knew you, they wouldn't want you back. If this church knew you, they wouldn't ask you to serve. If this church knew who you really were, they'd finally see where the grasp of hope and grace cannot reach. We've got to put that voice to death. And the only way to put that voice to death is to bring it to the light. See, 'cause I stepped into the light. I shared that story and I confessed who I was, I confessed my life, and I was met with a grace that surpasses all grace. I was met with a grace that truly exemplifies the grace of Jesus. My wife showed me Jesus in a way that I never understood him before because she was so gracious, but I was also met with truth. There were steps I had to take. There were things that had to be done for me to see a life that I wanted to see out of myself. There were things that I had to do, consequences, things that I lost that I had to experience in order to get to the place that God wanted me to be. I had to see all the places where my hope was deferred to and lose them. And man, I wouldn't change that for the world. There would be no exchange here because I found grace and hope and healing and you can too. If you've got that voice inside of your head saying, if they knew you, if they only knew, if that's the voice that you hear, hear this, step into the light, find hope, find healing. Be ready for truth. We'll walk, we will walk with you. (audience member speaking) Don't lose sight of 1 Corinthians 10, 13, where Paul says that nothing has overtaken you that is not common to man. No temptation has ever overtaken you that has not come into man. I'm not even just talking about that you've been tempted because Jesus was even tempted. He says no temptation has overtaken you that has not come into man. That means that no one in this room can say anything that they've ever done and no one else in the world has ever done it. Is that possible? Everything that has been experienced, every mistake made, every struggle wrestled with, every sin committed has been done and heard and seen time and time again since eternity passed. So don't let that voice tell you that you are alone. Don't let that voice tell you that if the only new, don't let that voice show you that there's a place in your life where hope can't reach. Don't let that happen because it's not true. Hope in Jesus and see his love and grace and forgiveness on the cross for you. We'd love nothing more than to walk our church through that. The third thing is this, there's an actuality to our sin. Jesus looks at the woman, but he's talking to Simon still and he says, "Hersons, her sins, which are many, "are forgiven," he doesn't hide the fact that there are a laundry list of sins in her life and he will never hide that from us either. There's no room to think that my number of sins might be less than yours or yours might be less than mine and so there's this distinguishing factor there. There's no room for that. Jesus says, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven." That's a great actuality, but how does this actuality drive us away from hope? Well, if assumption is this place of like, I probably, I'm really not that bad, like I don't really struggle that much with anything so I don't really need much, I provide for myself what I need, that's assumption. If accusation is, oh my gosh, there's no way I could ever be saved, I've done too much, my sin is too great. Actuality lives somewhere in between. Actuality recognizes sin, but it doesn't really care to do much of it. Actuality will even excuse other sin because, yeah, we're sinful. In fact, if I don't sin, what did Jesus die for? I've got to contribute something to the equation, right? That's where actuality lives. Actuality makes room for sinfulness in our lives. We're all, we're all gonna sin. We all have that in our lives. But actuality says, that's all right. Don't miss the beauty in this actuality. Don't miss how Jesus treats actuality that our sins are forgiven. Actuality is a gift from God. It shows us how deep and how great God's love is for us because he even says he who is forgiven much, loves much. If you wanna see where you should be with your love for Christ, you gotta see how far you've missed the mark first. You wanna experience the love of God. You wanna see him doing work and activities in your life. You have to recognize that he's got a lot to overcome to do that. That's actuality. All right. Actuality looks at the hopeless depravity of our sin and leaves it there. But Jesus looks at the hopeless depravity of our sin and dies for it. That's the difference. And that's why his birth is so beautiful. It was difficult a little bit as a kid, and even in my adulthood to celebrate the birth of Jesus, not because he's not anyone to be celebrated, but like Easter, I get it. He resurrected. He conquered death. Good Friday, I get it. He died on the cross. He sacrificed himself for our sins. I get that. That always clicked for me. His birthday, well, as a kid, I'm like, he hasn't done anything. We just had a baby. He doesn't do much, but eat, sleep, and you know the rest. But I adore my son. I adore that little baby so much. When we look at Jesus and his birth, do we adore him like that too? Knowing what we know, I know nothing about my son and his life. I have three others. I have no idea how they're gonna pan out. But I adored them anyway. With Jesus, I know exactly how that story goes. I know exactly how the story ends. And I know exactly what happens in my life because of it. Do I look at Jesus as a baby and adore him? Do I look at Jesus as a baby and say, "You alone are worthy, and I'll give you all the glory." Christmas is when hope is born. So, yeah, we can celebrate that baby. We can celebrate the birth of hope, and we should. And that's the answer. Faith in Jesus. That's the most Sunday school answer I could give you, but it's the only thing I could say. Faith in Jesus is the answer. That we would place our hope in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, for eternity, but even for this side of eternity where we're still alive, our hope is in him. Not in our homes, not in our retirement, not in our livelihoods that we have, not in our families or our relationships or our church. Hope cannot be found anywhere in those things. Only in Jesus Christ can we find actual hope. And so we put our faith solely and completely in him, trusting that his work is enough. It's not our product. He didn't go and turn around to this woman and said, "Because you washed my feet, I now forgive you." That's not the story. That's not the story for us either. He doesn't look at you and say, "Because you've done X, Y, and Z, and you've produced such good results." I forgive you. No, it's not because of the woman's pleading. I mean, she was so, she was pleading so hard her tears washed his feet. He didn't turn around and say, "You've shed enough tears, I now forgive you." No, it wasn't her pleading and it wasn't her penance. It wasn't that she was doing this act because she recognized how much of a sinner she was. And so she wanted to free herself from the iniquity, from the result of that sin. No, it was her faith in Jesus and Christian, you can come on up. It was her faith in Jesus that brought her to this place where Jesus turned around and says, "Your sins are forgiven." It was the product of Jesus. Jesus lived that perfect life and his results are what we benefit from. It was Jesus' pleading day in and day out. He goes before the Father and he pleads on our behalf. It's the penance of Jesus. Jesus himself died on the cross, not me, not you. And if we did it, it wouldn't be enough. We couldn't do it. It wouldn't cover our sins. Jesus paid the penance for us to have eternal life and forgiveness before the Father. That's who we put our hope in. That is where our hope rests. It's in Jesus. And so we can approach the cross of Christ, not in desperation, but in celebration of the redemptive power and hope found through Jesus Christ. We can approach the cross again, not in desperation, but hope, or hoping that we've done enough. We can't do enough. We can't hope that we've prayed enough or we've prayed hard enough. We can't hope that we've repaid the penalty of our sin enough. No, we run to the foot of the cross and we see the hope and the peace that hangs there. And the blood that shed for you and for me that we would have eternal life with God. That's where our hope is. We hear Jesus echo for all eternity. Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace. That's our hope. It shouldn't be deferred from that. Hoping in anything else will leave your heart sick, empty, lonely, full of desperation. Christ is our only hope. So we started this morning with a call to reflect. I asked you to reflect on where your hope may be deferred. So I hope that the Lord spoke to you, either in that time or throughout this message, but what I want us to do now is I want to bring that right back to them. Now that we've heard that our hope may be deferred because we've assumed something about ourselves, we've maybe assumed something about others, or because we feel these accusations in our own minds or because we haven't really seen the actuality of our sin, whatever it might be, let's bring that back before the Lord. And let's confess our true desire and expectation for Jesus Christ. I'll give us a moment and then I'll pray for you. Jesus, thank you for receiving our prayers. Thank you for receiving the penalty of our sin. I pray right now that wherever our hope is that we can leave here with full surrender, that we would surrender those things that we desire so much, that when threatened, our peace is destroyed. Fill our hearts with the hope that can only be found in you. Give us that peace that surpasses all understanding, that our eyes would be fixed on you and you alone, and that we would celebrate Christmas, not just the birth of a child, but the birth of hope. So we can adore you. And we declare that you alone are worthy and you receive all the glory now and forever. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.