Well, hello everybody and welcome back. This is our daily devotional for Friday, November 21st, 2025. And I am delighted to be with you today. Now we've got a couple of things. Number one, it's Friday. That means Sunday morning is just around the corner. Make that decision now and get yourself, you know what I'm going to say. in a Bible-believing church. Doesn't have to be this church, but it does need to be a Bible-believing church, wherever it happens to be. That being said, we would absolutely love to have you this coming Lord's Day. Next thing, y'all, if you want to, now this is coming out Friday, so we're almost running out of time. And I hope I don't get us in trouble. If you have not placed your order yet for our Thanksgiving community dinner and you want to do so, I think you can still call this morning. Okay. And even if it's Saturday, when you see this, you can call and ask. All right. Because we always, it's just, you're talking about a meal for hundreds and hundreds of people. You can pick it up. Or you can come and you can dine in here in Providence Hall. We're doing things differently this year, trying to speed up the whole process. So just know that we're doing that. But nevertheless, if you have not done that, reach out to the church office, leave a message. Stephanie's not here, but you can leave a message and get that squared away. Now, Announcements over let's continue along if you recall where we were yesterday We we talked about where where we found Jesus and that was in Capernaum the city of Jesus as they call it And he was right here in Peter's house. He healed Peter's mother-in-law many other sick people demon-possessed were brought in drove out spirits and all those sorts of things and And we talked about the deeper side to that, that yes, indeed, without a doubt, this was a profound blessing to the people that were healed, obviously. But the deeper side of that is number one, Jesus pointing to the kingdom of God, and number two, as we saw from Isaiah chapter 53, We see the suffering servant, that's that passage, that Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy. And that points to the simple fact that Jesus is a man on a mission. He has work to do, there are things to accomplish, not only in a general sense of things that needed to be done, but in a prophetic sense. You see, we focus on Jesus being sinless, and that's good. If he was not sinless, he couldn't be the spotless lamb of God, he couldn't be our sacrifice. But equally important to Jesus being sinless is Jesus fulfilling all of the prophecies of old that pointed forward to him. Well, in the same sense that he can't be the Messiah if he doesn't live a perfect life, if he doesn't live a sinless life. Equally important If he doesn't fulfill the prophecy, all those promises that God made pointing toward, he can't be the Messiah either if he doesn't do those things. And as we saw yesterday, he is doing them. But today you find kind of a shift in Jesus's public ministry. We don't have how much time lapses between Jesus entering Capernaum in Matthew chapter eight, verse five, and where we come to today in verse 18. The idea that we get is it's not just one night that he's there, he spends some time there. The idea that we really get from all the gospels put together is he's probably spending about three years in Capernaum altogether. They call it the city of Jesus for a reason. That's where he sets up his base. But as we see today, he's moving forward. But where he moves is fascinating. Yeah, I got a picture to point that out. But nevertheless, let's go to the Lord now in prayer as we get started. Because we need help to understand the surface level, certainly. but also the deeper side of what is going on here, what Jesus is still doing in fulfilling prophecy, but also what his mission really is and what it costs to follow him. So let's pray, then we'll dig in. Our God and our Father, we thank you so much for your word, the glorious gift that it is, that you didn't leave us to just figure things out on our own. Instead, you've given us your word, you have revealed to us who you are, you revealed to us who we are, what you call us to be and do, and you've given us the beautiful story of your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We praise you for his ministry, we thank you for his calling, and we pray that we would respond correctly to what the Lord is calling us to do. So please, work in our hearts and minds now by your Holy Spirit, and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we're picking up in Matthew chapter eight, beginning in verse 15. Now, remember, we don't have a calendar here. It doesn't tell us how much time has lapsed between Matthew 8, 5, where he enters Capernaum, Matthew 8, 14, when he goes into Peter's house. Obviously, when he heals his mother-in-law, Peter's mother-in-law, that's an event in time and space. That's one particular day. But then it talks about evening coming, all this kind of, and we don't know how long he's there. But what we find out in Matthew 8, verse 18, is that when Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Now, time out. You might hear that and you might say, wait a minute, I thought it was the Sea of Galilee. It's referred to with many different names. The Sea of Galilee, it's also called the Lake of Tiberias. Just across from where Jesus was is the Decapolis. And then if you keep on going, it's the Roman Gentile province of the Decapolis or the area of the Decapolis. And if you keep on going, you enter into Samaria. We know that eventually Jesus is gonna do that. That's not this particular trip. It's gonna proceed from here. But we know that he's going across the lake. Don't let that term lake throw you off. Lake of Tiberias, Sea of Galilee. Sometimes it's referred to as a sea. Sometimes it's referred to as a lake. It's interchangeable. Don't worry about the terminology here. It's all the same place. Now, interestingly enough, I happen to have a picture of where Jesus would have put in. This is maybe, I didn't pace it off, 150 yards from where Peter's house is. So yesterday, I showed you the picture of Peter's home. Which is where jesus would have healed his mother-in-law where the people brought the demon possessed and so forth They built a big church on top of it now, but maybe 150 yards If you just walk straight down you find the sea of galilee And this would have been where all the boats were put in it was a good fishing spot We know that I talked about this wednesday night. There's some hot springs Really close to where that picture was taken and if you know anything about fish, um, one of the uh It's interesting. It's kind of weird. One of the best places to see fish if you ever go to Hawaii, and I think it's on Oahu, is they call it Electric Beach because it's beside a big electrical power plant. And I don't know about the safety of this, but the water is much warmer in that area because all the exhaust water comes out. You're probably cooking your innards in it. I don't know. But tropical fish, forget about tropical, virtually every fish loves warmer water. So in this area, there's a lot of fishing. There's a lot of boats and if Jesus is at Peter's house And that's where he's staying and we have every indication that that's the case, especially from what he's gonna say today it only makes sense since that's where the boats were kept that he would have made that hundred and fifty yard or so walk and said I Let's go. All right, so that that's where that took place and again to talk about surreal being in the place where this happened amazing So he gave orders to go across the other side of the lake. Verse 19, then a teacher of the law came to him and said, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Now y'all at first glance, it's like, oh, okay, nice teacher saying, and I'll follow you wherever you go. But realize there's a status thing going on here. A teacher of the law, a rabbi, someone who, the point of being the rabbi was that you had students that followed you around and it was fascinating to be in Jerusalem. Every once in a while you would see that. When I was on the Temple Mount, it was a fascinating thing where we were close to the border. Of the temple. Remember, it's not the Israelis that run the temple. It's actually Jordanian police, independent police force. But there was a rabbi that came walking through and he had young men standing all around him and they made this circle around him. And you think, oh, they really want to take care of him. Really, it was just so he didn't accidentally bump into one of us Gentiles and become unclean. Tell you, it makes you feel nice on the inside. But nevertheless, y'all, the really interesting thing here is that the point of being a teacher of the law is that you had your pupils. That's what makes you a teacher of the law. And so each rabbi would have his own following, typically young men that would follow him around, listen to his teaching. But the fascinating thing is here that he's a teacher of the law and he comes to Jesus. And he calls Jesus teacher or rabbi. I will follow you wherever you go. So you see that one with disciple says, I'm going to follow you and become one of your disciples. The interesting thing here is how Jesus responds. I think that in order to understand this sentiment, it's not that Jesus is rejecting the guy or anything like that. From John chapter two, Jesus can see into a man's heart. He sees things that we don't see here. And remember the context of this, that a large crowd had started to gather around him. What did Jesus see when he looked into this man's heart? I do not know, and you don't know. But the context lends itself to us maybe supposing, and I think it's a safe supposition to make, that this teacher of the law is wanting to follow Jesus because perhaps he sees that Jesus has a bigger crowd. Perhaps this is centered on fame again. We don't know, but what we do know is Jesus's response. Jesus replied, foxes have dens, this is verse 20. Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has not a place to lay his head. You know, it's fascinating that yesterday we ended up with a quotation from Isaiah 53. the suffering servant, where Jesus is called a man of sorrows. And then just a few verses later, that was in verse 17, just a few verses later in verse 20, Jesus bears that out. And it makes sense, doesn't it? Well, we know that he doesn't have a house there. He's been staying with Peter at his house. And the irony of this cannot escape us, should not escape us. In John chapter one, we're told about who the living word is, that he's Jesus, God the Son. But early on in John, it talks about the fact that through him, all things were made. Nothing was made that wasn't made through him, referring to Jesus, God the Son. He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He's the ancient of days. He's all of these things. We could go on and on with the names. the cattle on a thousand hillside are his possessions, all of these. And yet what is his role? His role is to be the spotless lamb of God prepared for sacrifice. And when he is here as the king of kings and the Lord of lords, he says, foxes have dens and birds have nests. The son of man has not a place to lay his head. And though it doesn't say anything after this about this teacher of the law that said, I'm gonna come and follow you, the idea we get is that he takes off. This too can expose what's going on with that teacher. Maybe that teacher of the law was only in it for the money, the prestige, the fame, the possessions. We don't know. But we know that after Jesus says this, that teacher of the law splits Bill. And all the reality is is that we see that in modern day Christianity, too. There's a reason why the Joel Osteen's and company are so popular out there. Why? Well, they never talk about repentance. They never deal with sin on any real sort of level. And they actually do the opposite. They say, hey, listen, if you're a child of God and find yourself to be unexpectedly favored, live your best life now. There's a term for it, and that is the prosperity gospel. It stands in stark opposition to the real gospel, because the real gospel says, sacrifice everything you have in order to follow Christ. With the understanding that you're not going to live your best life now, that instead, as Jesus said, you're storing up for yourself treasures not here on earth where moth and rust destroy, but instead you're focused on eternity. and so you're gonna follow Jesus and forsake all of these other things. Joel Osteen in the prosperity gospel that tells you to live your best life now, as Bodie Baucom, who was with the Lord said, if you're living your best life now, when you die, you're gonna go to hell. Our best life is not this life at all. It's not that this life isn't important, but our best life is eternity with our Lord and with our Savior, who says that following Him sometimes means having nothing. That's very difficult for us to understand in modern day American Christianity. We've got guys like Osteen out there with a false gospel preaching this garbage. It's incredibly popular. But also, while we're starting to see little hints of it, y'all, do you know about the genocide going on in Nigeria? These fools talk about, oh, the Israeli genocide. They're trying to wipe out the Palestinian people. That's garbage, y'all. One of the most striking things was talking to Israeli soldiers who just recently, they signed the peace treaty after Palestine invaded Israel and raped and killed so many people. The concert took all these hostages, and yet Israel's committing the genocide? Global Intifada uprising is pronounced by the caliphates, Muslim imams and caliphates saying, hey, go kill Jews everywhere. Everywhere Israel everywhere kill all the Jews and you'll be blessed and Israel's committing us But one of the most striking things was talking to soldiers who are still going into Palestine from Israel from the West Bank They're going in to enforce the peace treaty but also they're going in to save people that didn't want to kill them enough and now Palestinians Hamas they're rounding up their own people and executing them publicly and So Israeli soldiers, the ones that are supposed to be committing genocide, are going in to protect Palestinians. You won't hear about that on the news, but I've seen it. I've seen it. I've been to Palestine. Within two weeks, I've seen it. And they won't talk about that on the news. And instead, they paint some picture of an Israeli genocide, which is, it would be laughable if it wasn't just such a blatant lie. You want to find a genocide? Go to Nigeria. Go to Niger, look at what Boko Haram, radical Islam, but fundamental Islam, look at what they're doing in Africa to Christians. They are doing everything they can. I think they've burned 18,000 churches over the last couple of years. I think the numbers are like they've murdered 130,000 Christians. When's the last time you saw that on the news? Seriously. I mean, you want to find a genocide? Look at what Islam is doing to Christianity and look at what Islam wants to do to the Jews. That's your genocide. What Jesus is hinting at here is, when he says foxes have dens, birds have, he's hinting at the fact that for many Christians, the Christian life is very hard indeed. It means loss. but it also means the promise that whoever, as Jesus said, whoever will lose his life for me will save it. Because his life is not all there is. He says this, the teacher of the law takes off. Verse 21, another disciple said to him, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. Now a term is used here, the idea of the disciple. This is one that is not one of his 12 disciples. This is one, the idea we get is one who wants to be his disciple, that wants to follow him. But he says to him, Lord, first, let me go and bury my father. Maybe he's heard something that Jesus has said. Maybe he's responded. We do not know the circumstances. This is all we get. Verse 22, but Jesus told him, follow me and let the dead bury their own dead. What Jesus is really getting at here, y'all, this is not some prohibition against burying your father. People have misused this. There's nothing wrong with honoring the dead. There's nothing wrong with doing a funeral. That's not the point. The point is that Jesus has looked on the insides of this man. And he struck at the heart of the matter, that this man has said, yeah, yeah, Lord, I dig it. I'm with you. I like it. But I got to do this other thing over here first. If you've ever tried to sell anything, I love wheeling and dealing, y'all. I can't help it. i love to sell cars i love to buy cars other things too that i won't talk about that sounds really sketchy but nevertheless i'm not going to go there but you know antiques you know you just some people are hustlers i've been told i'm a hustler it's fascinating when you talk to people and they're asking you about it and you kind of work on a price and it's notorious dudes are notorious with this man like okay well i need to go ask my wife i need to go talk to my wife first that's code for i'm not really interested When you read this, read it that way, that this man has said, yeah, Lord, I'm with you, I'm down. But I gotta go bury my father first. Jesus says, let the dead bury their own dead. Follow me right now. As it was with Peter and his brother, as it was with the other disciples, drop what you're doing and come after me. And they did because they recognized that Jesus was the only one worth going after. And what's exposed here is this disciple's heart. This disciple as well did not drop what he was doing. Again, this is all we get. It's almost anecdotal, except it's not. What this does is it gives us an opportunity. It gives us an opportunity to examine what we are willing to do to follow Christ. And I know, different circumstances, different time, I get all of that. But what the calling is for us here right now, here's your devotional, what our calling is from this passage is to really evaluate our devotion. Are we willing to follow Jesus? and leave the consequences of that to him. It's different because obviously he's not standing in front of us, but do you realize every time God lays something on your heart, every time you're given an opportunity, every time you know the good that you ought to do and don't do it, you become like this teacher of the law that split once he found out following Jesus had no fame, at least not the kind he wanted. What it looks like is this man says, yeah, Lord, first, let me go and bury my father, I'll follow you. It's like finding an excuse not to. Every time we turn our back on God's word, every time we do things our way instead of his way, every time, every time, we are like the teacher of the law. We're like this random disciple. And Jesus calls us instead to trust him. to go after him. It doesn't mean physically following him anymore, but it does mean doing what he's calling you to do in the different situations you face, having the courage to follow his word, having the courage to trust that he's gonna keep on working. And so our calling from Matthew chapter eight in this section is again to examine our devotion. What are you willing to do to follow Jesus? Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this time that you've given to us, and we pray that you would work in us, that we would see our need to trust in you, and also that we would see you are trustworthy. This calling that you give us is so much more than just a responsibility. It's such a grand privilege to do what you want us to do, because you're always working. Help us to trust in that fact, and help us to really evaluate our devotion to you. And I pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time. Lord Willem will be back Sunday morning at 10 a.m. and then again Monday morning at 6 a.m. And I'd love to see you. Come visit us. Be with us Sunday morning at 10. Sunday school starts at 9. But also don't forget that Thanksgiving dinner. If you haven't placed your order, please do so. In the meantime, I hope you have a fantastic weekend or maybe you're not finding this until Monday, whatever. But Lord Willem, we will see you again soon. Take care.