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Welcome to Madison Church Online. I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor, glad that you're joining us today, and over the past few weeks we've been exploring what it means to lead a life of impact and specifically, we're looking through a life of impact through discipleship. That's where we believe the impact happens. It's through following Jesus, and so we've called the series A Life that Matters, and what we're trying to do is challenge you, challenge myself you're watching or listening and so we've called the series A Life that Matters, and what we're trying to do is challenge you, challenge myself You're watching or listening.

Speaker 1: 0:31

We've been trying to challenge one another to think differently about purpose and fulfillment. It's not something we achieve through worldly success, but something that we discover. It's not something we achieve, it's something that we discover by following Jesus more deeply. Discipleship, if you didn't know, is both a challenge and an invitation. Yes, there's an invitation to live in and experience God's love and to reflect that love to the rest of the world. That's the invitation. But let's not kid ourselves. Discipleship is also challenging. It challenges us to let go of things that hold us back, things that some of us care very deeply about but are not the ways of Jesus. It calls us to surrender distractions, divided loyalties and hidden struggles in order that we might be able to follow Jesus more wholeheartedly. Order that we might be able to follow Jesus more wholeheartedly. And only then will we find the joy and freedom that we read so much about in the New Testament or we hear other Christians in our lives talk about. It is only here, when we're following Jesus wholeheartedly, that we find that, and today, the passages that we're going to be studying and looking at in Luke are all about authenticity.

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Authenticity in discipleship means more than surface-level change. It's about inward transformation. It's about being honest. Authenticity is about being honest. It's about being honest with ourselves. Sometimes we're not very self-reflective or self-aware, so we've got to first stop and say, hey, I got to be real. Even when it hurts, I got to be honest with God. You know God already knows it, but I know that sometimes going to God in prayer and saying what he already knows, that could be hard. We got to be honest with one another Not everyone. You don't have to be honest with everyone. You don't have to put every part of your business on Instagram, but we definitely need people in our lives in whom we confide in and confess to. We allow. When we do this, we allow God's light to fill every part of our lives, even the areas we would rather keep hidden. This is going to be a theme of today's passage and I mentioned last week, kind of on the spot. This wasn't in my notes, this is in my notes this week, but last week I mentioned I was reading a book by Richard Foster about spiritual disciplines and formation, and one of the ways that Foster starts off this book is with an incredible quote that I underlined.

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Megan was trying to fall asleep next to me in bed while I was reading and I woke her up because I was like this is so good. I didn't know how I was going to be able to work it in, but I could work it in today. Foster says the desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people, but for deep people. What the church needs, what the world needs, isn't smarter people, more charismatic people, but what we need are deep people. And as we turn to Luke 11 this morning, it's where we're at in this series. We're going to see Jesus confronting divided loyalties, spiritual blindness and outward appearances that mask inner struggles. His words challenge us and as we go forward.

Speaker 1: 3:45

I want you to ask yourself a few questions. First question what part of my life am I keeping in the dark? Perhaps from those closest to me, perhaps from God? Perhaps it's so painful and dark I'm hiding it from myself. What would it look like? What would it look like have a vision for your life in which you live authentically in God's truth? What would it look like to go from hiding to embracing the light? And finally, if you do this and I do this, there's a community aspect, and how would our community reflect that authenticity together? So the Madison church would be a beacon of God's love. This is where we're heading today.

Speaker 1: 4:32

So, if you want to follow along, we're going to Luke, chapter 11. I'm going to begin with verse 17 in a moment, but it's a passage that opens with a dramatic scene. Jesus has now started doing miracles in Jerusalem. You'll remember he's already been doing miracles. Now he's doing them in Jerusalem, and it includes exorcisms. He is casting demons out of people and this shows, for the whole world to see, his undeniable power and authority.

Speaker 1: 4:58

And yet that's not good enough for some people. While some celebrated being healed and reconciled and restored, other people, particularly religious ones, accused Jesus not from being of God but working for Satan. Now you can imagine the tension. We do this every Sunday. We pray in the back room during worship and you can imagine if I'm praying for someone and someone says, wow, that feels like an answer prayer. And someone else in the room or a couple of you in the room say Stephen is working for Satan Tension that you could cut with a knife right. Everyone would be on edge.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Wait a second. Is Stephen of God or is he of Satan? Jesus will reply to them in verse 17. He knew their thoughts and said any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A family splintered by feuding will fall apart. And you can say that I am empowered by Satan. But if Satan is divided and fighting against himself, how can his kingdom survive? And if I'm empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcist? He's asking them.

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Now he's turning. He says I'm not the only one doing exorcisms, you all have people. And if the power to do exorcisms come from Satan, does that not mean you are also of Satan? That's a good argument. It says they cast out demons too. So they will also condemn you for what you said. Jesus says they're already on my side. Go also condemn you for what you said. Jesus says they're already on my side. Go ahead and ask. But if I'm casting out demons by the power of God, if I'm doing it by the power of God, then the kingdom of God has arrived among you. This thing you have been waiting for. You remember Jason talked about it in his Christmas messages that they've been waiting hundreds of years and Jesus lets them in on a secret. It's here, I'm here.

Speaker 1: 6:47

He gives an example, a story. He says when a strong man is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are safe until someone even stronger attacks and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons and carries off with his belongings. Anyone who isn't with me opposes me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me. Jesus uses logical reasoning to dismantle the accusations. He doesn't dive deeply into some old scripture, but rather he uses logic reasoning. He rationalizes with them. If Satan were divided, his kingdom would collapse. It makes no sense. But more importantly, jesus establishes and casts a vision that if this is the evidence of God's power and not Satan's, then the kingdom of God is right here. The wait is over.

Speaker 1: 7:43

I know that for today, like you're sitting here listening and you've probably never seen someone demon possessed you may not believe that happens. So for some of us, though, maybe we believe that we have a box for that, but I know that for a lot of us the spiritual realm it feels distant. For others of us, maybe, it feels even metaphorical. I know that for a great deal, many of us today that the spiritual realm definitely doesn't feel like an immediate reality. But it is, and that call that Jesus gave them 2,000 years ago is the same call he gives us today. It's a call to align our lives with him. It's a call to align our lives with him. It's a call to align our lives with him and to do so urgently. He didn't want you to wait. He wanted you to do it right now, and so, even though the spiritual realm may not feel super tangible to some of us, we have to admit that part of what's going on in our lives is that distractions and other competing priorities in our life are obscuring us from that reality.

Speaker 1: 8:48

The spiritual realm. It is real. It's more than a metaphor. It's all around us. We pray God, help us to be aware of that, to be sensitive of that, and part of it might be looking inward at our lives and the distractions that are all around us, that are making the spiritual realm feel so far away. Redemption and restoration come through Jesus alone. Jesus' work reverses the destruction of Satan. Jesus comes and he heals, he liberates, he makes life better. And this passage challenges us to recognize that there is no neutral ground between good and evil. You don't get to sit on the fence, you don't get to say this one, I'm going to sit out If you are a follower of Jesus. He is asking you to get out of the stands and to get into the game.

Speaker 1: 9:42

There was such an analogy we used when we were first getting this church started. The first year we said what makes Madison Church different? You don't want to be the biggest, you don't want to be the fastest growing, we wanted to be the one with the most participants. We didn't want to have five superstars out on the floor while everyone else buys our jerseys and sits in the stands and roots for us. We said come and join the game. And that is part of the rub, because some of us, if we're being honest, we like the luxury and the comfort of just being in the stands. We don't like showing up for the game. We don't like getting body checked into the wall or tackled. We don't like it when we pull a hamstring or get injured while we're doing this. We don't like the work it requires to be game ready. Football players don't just show up on Sunday, it's their diet, it's their off-season workout and so much goes into it. And that is the Christian life, and God calls us to do just that. That is the call, and it's not next week, not next year, not when you feel ready, but it is right now to take a step.

Speaker 1: 10:53

Jesus continues in verse 24, no one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where its light can be seen by all who enter the house. Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your whole body, and when your eye is healthy, you can circle. Underline that word healthy. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light, but when it is unhealthy, your body is filled with darkness. Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light. The metaphor for this lamp on a stand would have been pretty clear. I think it's pretty clear to us today. It's the same reason we put lights up here so that you can see better, so that light can come in and we can see it. It illuminates what we want to be seen and similarly, the eye as a lamp signifies the way of our perspective.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Jesus is saying when we have a healthy perspective, when we are living the right way, when we are pursuing him, it shapes our entire being. Now, that's common sense, but let's look at our lives and work backwards. Then he's saying if our lives are shaped by him, they're radiant and they're healthy. But if our lives aren't radiant, if they're filled with darkness, then perhaps there is something going on in here and it's not a condemnation. Rather it's a warning, it's a pleading. Jesus is saying I don't want that for you. I have so many bigger and better things for you.

Speaker 1: 12:43

Just make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness, isn't something that's supposed to keep you awake tonight at 11 o'clock, because you're wondering like, oh my gosh, am I really following Jesus? It's not that, it's an examination. He's asking you search your heart, search your priorities and to do this regularly, whether you've been a Christian for most of your life, a lot of your life, or you're just picking it up today. He is saying don't get complacent, don't get comfortable and don't stop questioning, because we drift, and we drift slowly. Are we allowing God's truth to shape our perspective? Are we deceived by cultural or personal darkness? Now, I'm not against secular music or TV shows or video games. That's also what this isn't about. But I tell you what, if the show, the music, if the game, the podcaster, if the book, if those things are shaping your life more than Jesus is, more than our New Testament is, more than our Christian community is, then that is where I believe we're starting to have a problem. Those things in and of themselves are not wrong or bad in a lot of cases, but rather it's how they influence us. How they influence us. True spiritual health comes from allowing God's light to fill every part of our lives. And now we're going to wrap up this section of verses and it does come to a climax. So Jesus has talked about you know, I'm not with Satan, you've got to be with me. He's talked about lights and being a bright light and having light in us.

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And now he comes and he gets real pointed with the Pharisees. He says to them you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy, full of greed and wickedness. Fools, we've all done this right. You're awake in the morning and you grab a coffee cup. Maybe it's out of the dishwasher, it's out of the cabinet. You turn it over, you go to pour the coffee in it. You're still really tired. But you look in it and it's like gross and dirty and you're not going to keep drinking the coffee. You're not just going to ignore that. I know you won't. That's disgusting. It goes back to the thing. I'm going to get a new one. It doesn't matter how clean the outside of the cup is. What really matters is the inside. I mean they both matter. The Greek word in here is that they both matter. Jesus is going to unpack that, but it matters. Didn't God make the inside as well as the outside? So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor and you will be clean all over. But now he gets even more pointed with these guys. He says what sorrow awaits you, pharisees, for you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and you ignore the love of God. He says you should tithe, yes, but do not neglect more important things.

Speaker 1: 15:45

This passage is addressing the hypocrisy and legalism of the Pharisees. This is a group like today's Christians a lot of us, myself included that we claim to represent God but then we say or we do something that turns people away from him. And I include myself in that, because I got to admit the human in me. I do things, I say stupid things, I do the wrong things, and I, as a follower of Jesus a very loud one who puts that I am a pastor. I have the ability to turn people away from faith based on what I say or what I do. But these Pharisees, they were that in that era of time, they were so focused on outward rituals that they neglected the transformation that had to have occurred on the inside and they misrepresented what a life lived faithfully was.

Speaker 1: 16:39

Jesus' analogy of cleaning out the outside of the cup while leaving the inside filthy would have struck a chord, just like it strikes a chord with us today. We know, and what it does is it focuses on the appearance. Jesus is calling them out. You're so focused on what's going on in the outside that what's going on in the inside is terrible, because all of your resources and everything is going on the outside. And the example that Jesus explicitly uses and you know, jesus, he doesn't do these things by mistake, right? The example he uses it comes with tithing and the meticulous tithing of even like herbs, mint, dill, cumin.

Speaker 1: 17:18

I brought a whole bunch of stuff that they would have tithed 2,000 years ago to kind of just demonstrate a little bit. But they would have these debates, you see, because if you had a piece of beef that you needed to offer to God, it's pretty easy to kind of guess what 10% is. That's what the law required, 10%. So you'd look at this, you can say all right, well, if I cut this in half, and eventually you get the 10%. So you look at this, you can say all right, well, if I cut this in half, and eventually you get the 10%. You could look at something like olive oil or honey, and and you can kind of guess that.

Speaker 1: 17:57

But where it gets really tricky is when we're dealing with dill. Here's why Because the law required that you sacrifice food, that you sacrifice. You know whether that was agricultural, it was wine, it was meat. But what about dill? Because isn't dill a plant? The law doesn't explicitly state that you have to tithe herbs.

Speaker 1: 18:17

But the Pharisees, in being generous okay, now hear this in being generous, the Pharisees sit down and they say but do we not eat the dill? Does the dill, even though it's a plant, not go in with the rest of the food that we're eating? And I'm sure some of them were like, oh my gosh, now I got to tithe the dill. But for the most part they're like, yeah, and what he says is they were so. Look at this, they're so meticulous at tithing. How do you tithe 10% of this? But he says that's what he says. They're so meticulous, they figure out what 10% is and they tithe that. Why? Because to the Pharisees, to the religious leaders, giving was the pinnacle of spiritual maturity. That was it. Giving was the pinnacle of spiritual maturity. That was it you arrived.

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I know for a lot of us today, giving is a challenge. Why you want a big savings account, you got a lot of bills, et cetera, et cetera. I get it, and me too. That's also why a lot of other people didn't tithe back in the day and what you had is. You had the Pharisees then, and they're're doing it. They're giving and they feel like look at all these other people, I'm sacrificing, I'm good, I'm great, I'm tithing even the littlest amount of things that I don't necessarily have to do. It's not explicitly stated, but I do that because to them, it was the finish line, and what Jesus is trying to get them to understand is it's just the beginning that this practice that is so difficult giving and being generous it's just the beginning.

Speaker 1: 19:58

This Hebrew word for tithe and I'm going to take a little detour here because I think it's important means a tenth. And the reason I want to spend just a moment here and I'll move on because I know that talking about tithing makes everyone nervous. But the reason I want to is because there's so many, in my opinion, misconceptions about tithing. For example, we say stuff like we tithe our time or we tithe our energies. That's fine, sort of not, because the word tithe actually has a meaning. That's fine sort of not, because the word tithe actually has a meaning and what it meant was to bring a tenth, and it was the practice of bringing 10% of your resources, crops or livestock or income back to God. It wasn't symbolic, it wasn't abstract. Tithing was a concrete act of generosity. It was a concrete act of worship. It supported the temple, the Christian community, the Levites, those people who were priests, and the poor.

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Jesus doesn't dismiss this practice. That's the big thing. I think a lot of people we read this and we think he's dismissing it. He's not dismissing it in his own words. He says you should tithe, yes, and even less explicitly in the Greek earlier on, when he talks about the importance of the inside and the outside, he uses a Greek word to tantamount. It's the same as equal to. He's saying what we do on the outside matters just as much as the inside. So if you hear me today and you're like what Stephen is saying is the inside counts more than the outside, then no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not even Jesus was saying that. He was saying the outside and the inside. We need to be level. It's the same thing.

Speaker 1: 21:29

So Jesus affirms tithing here and this is how I read it as a starting point of generosity, but he rebukes the Pharisees stopping there because he says the love of God and justice are so much more important than tithing. Aha, now we're getting to the heart of Jesus's message. We care deeply about justice and love. How do I know? Because I know the ache and pain that you feel and I feel when it's on TV and there's these big acts of injustice. Doesn't it make you mad when you see someone who is unarmed? Doesn't it make you mad when you see someone who is unarmed shot down? Doesn't it make you mad when you see all the hate speech, the things, the vile things we say to one another, the vile and hurtful and hateful things we do to one another? Jesus says this is the priority over here. But he's saying you're never going to figure out justice if you can't figure out generosity.

Speaker 1: 22:35

And that's hard because it's really easy for me to post or, in my book, write, an entire chapter on justice. It's really easy to do that and say that we should be better, we church should be better, we world, we should be better, humans, we should be better. But what's hard is practicing generosity in my own life, because perhaps that means my kids get less for Christmas, because that means maybe I have to work a little longer, because I don't save as much in retirement, maybe that means I drive an older car. I bought a house that was less than I could afford. Maybe these are all the things that it could possibly mean, but I practice that individually because of the hope that if I do it and you do it, and you do it, and you're watching or listening and you do it, that we start here. It's not the end, but as we start here, we see justice and love in the world.

Speaker 1: 23:33

True discipleship involves not only avoiding sin, but actively pursuing justice, generosity and love, and this is where tithing, or generosity, connects directly to discipleship. A life of authenticity isn't just about looking good on the outside. A life of authentic discipleship is about open hands and hearts, trusting God with everything that we have, 100% of what we make, not just 10% or 5% or whatever's left over, but everything we have, all of our resources. That's where Jesus is leaning into, and it'll become more clear as we continue studying Luke that that's where he's leaning into. He wants everything. He wants us to open up hands, and that can look a lot of different ways, but he is getting into it right now that everything is his, and he wants us to be a community marked by generosity so that we can impact justice and love in the world. So, as we continue to take another step in the 2025,. We're almost out of January. Now I want you to consider Jesus' call here to deeper authenticity in discipleship.

Speaker 1: 24:45

It's not enough to resolve outwardly. We make these New Year's resolutions, whether it's with our health, our finances or our appearances. What's our resolution for what's going on inside? What's the resolution? What are the changes we want to see happen in here? Because true transformation happens when we allow God's light to penetrate every part of our lives, even those areas we prefer to keep hidden and private.

Speaker 1: 25:14

So maybe for you this week, your challenge is to really discern where your allegiance lies, to choose your allegiance. Jesus says whoever is not with me is against me. It's a bold statement and it does ask us to examine our loyalties. Are there areas in our lives that are divided between God's kingdom and my priorities, or the world's priorities or my family's priorities? Perhaps it's your work, your job, your career, your relationships, how you spend your time. It's time to examine that Choosing Jesus means fully committing your heart and your mind to the kingdom, and so maybe for you today, as you're struggling with divided loyalties, it's just a matter of taking some time Maybe it's 15 minutes or an hour or a few days this week to identify an area of your life that you need to realign with God, and God's will, maybe it's.

Speaker 1: 26:10

Rather, I got to examine the inner parts of my life. Jesus describes the eye as a lamp of the body. When our focus is healthy and clear, our entire being is filled with light. But when it's unhealthy, darkness takes hold of us. The challenge here is to examine what we're allowing into our hearts and our minds. Are we focused on things that bring light, god's truth, god's word, god's grace or on distractions that simply cloud our perspective? This week, consider replacing something, an unhealthy habit, with something that draws you closer to God.

Speaker 1: 26:50

I can tell you for me personally, briefly here, that I usually like to end my night with a cocktail turn on some TV show that I've been watching, stir a little drink. It's been a long day and this is just going to help me unwind, nice easy and to sleep. But I had this conviction. I don't think drinking alcohol is wrong. There's definitely a lot of problems with addiction. I'm not saying people should drink, but I began to get this conviction that this wasn't helping me at all. It wasn't drawing me closer to God necessarily.

Speaker 1: 27:24

At one point, maybe the cocktail was good for helping me unwind at the end of the day, but what I noticed was the cocktail was just me numbing out now, so I don't even think it was helping at all. Well, I knew that to quit the cocktail at night, before I go to bed, I would need to replace it with something. What am I going to do? Just sit in front of an empty TV for 45 minutes and hope that I get sleepy. So I picked 12 books that I'm going to read this year, one a month, and I got my journal, pulled it, dusted it out and it's on my nightstand now and I have a little alarm that goes off on my phone at 9 30 reminding me lights off, no alcohol. I go to my bed and I read and I journal, and so perhaps for you there's a switch in your life that doesn't seem insignificant though just cutting out a cocktail and reading a book instead. It really seems insignificant, but it is adding a lot to my life and I want to challenge you what maybe seems insignificant to you that you're using to just numb out or just get by or kill time with, and how could you turn that into something that brings you life rather than just helps you numb out.

Speaker 1: 28:27

Finally, maybe for some of us, it's time that we bring something hidden into light. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for their focus on outward appearances while neglecting the inner transformation that God himself requires. He says clean the inside of the cup so that the outside may also be clean. And a lot of us, I know we struggle with hidden sin, shame, fears that we avoid confronting. But authentic discipleship causes us to be honest with God and each other. So this week, perhaps find an area in your life that you have hidden and prayerfully consider somebody that you trust, somebody who has proven you can trust them to bring it up with someone who won't judge you, somebody who won't make you feel guilty or ashamed, but bring it up to them, not for a caught you accountability, but a healthy. I see that that hurts you and I'm here to walk that path, to help you find health and healing.

Speaker 1: 29:30

As individuals, authenticity is transformative, but as a community it'll be revolutionary. Imagine Madison Church as a community where people feel safe to be real, that this is a place and a community where people share their struggles and they get to experience grace-filled accountability. This will require all of us to step into authentic discipleship. It doesn't just happen because Stephen does it. It doesn't just happen because our elders do it or our trustees do it or our leaders do it. It happens when all of us do that, and so let's create spaces where people can share their stories without fear of judgment.

Speaker 1: 30:12

This has to be a no judgment zone and, as leaders if you are a leader at Madison Church we lead the way. We have to be vulnerable, we have to be nonjudgmental, we have to be loving and we have to be accepting, and we have to do it andgmental. We have to be loving and we have to be accepting, and we have to do it and practice it better than anyone else. That's hard, but that's what we step into as leaders. Let's embrace a commitment to encouragement.

Speaker 1: 30:39

This is something we can all do. Can you find someone this week to encourage? Let them know they're doing a great job, that they mean something to you, that you're proud of them, that you notice they're doing this or they're doing that. Encourage someone this week and let's agree that we're going to continue to pray for this church community together, all of us. I don't know what your prayer schedule looks like, but can you just commit this week to have a time of prayer, to pray for the Madison church community and as all of us take these steps watching and listening because you're not able to be here today do these things. As you take these steps, imagine what happens. Jesus boldly says look at what's happening, the kingdom of God has arrived. If we do these things that we've talked about today, madison Church can be a church community that tells the city look, the kingdom of heaven has arrived.