I forgot that pastors have to wear mics like these. Yeah, whoa! He woke me up a few times. So before I start the sermon, I have to thank the whole church. You let a 20-year-old come into the church and serve in a pseudo position of leadership, kind of. But you've heard me speak. You've heard me teach lessons. You've looked at the clock, wondering when I'm going to be done. You take the least of these things, and you have done well with. And I appreciate the way you treated me, the way the Pat Jinks has given me a car, the way Joan has made me some meals, the way that Ruby has given me coffee even today. You're a sweet woman. I just want to say thank you. And Lad and Jeanette, I don't know where you are. Thank you. Yes, thank you for opening up your house. My parents said I'm never going to see a nicer view than that. And they're right. But Morris, I do want to thank a couple who uh... i remember talking to someone here in the church and they told me uh... i was asking howdy enjoyed the last two weeks of their family coming over and they said it's good to uh... it's good to be was it called back to just your unit and i just uh... got back to being you know just me and my wife and i just remember i'm sitting with dave and jenny for nine weeks and they only had girls so there's like big cultural differences and Their communication is off, and mercy needs to be given to the 20-year-old, because he has a lot to learn. The last person I lived with was my parents. So to put that in perspective, I just want Dave and Jenny to please stand, and you guys clap for Dave and Jenny for all their work. Thank you. Again, thank you for all your work, and I will forever remember the couple that took care of me on my first internship, and that will be you guys. So, oh, this is surreal, it's ending. Anyway, today is my last Sunday here, and tomorrow I'm gonna be leaving to Chicago, so thank you guys for bearing with me. My father told me one thing growing up. And for some reason, that was the only thing I remembered. I can't change a tire for him, but I can definitely figure out what he told me. And for him, it's funny because he's a mechanic. But he told me one thing growing up. He said, son, whatever you do, whatever you do, you have a place back at home. And I don't know if I was in big trouble or I was just living there and my dad reminded of his background growing up. But he told me, son, you always have a place home. Thank you, Tata. It was something that I was imprinted on my heart. If I knew anything else that my father cared and loved for me, he told me that. And I feel like this connects with the passage at hand. So before we start reading through the verses, I originally prepared this message for Beaver. So they had the pre-context before this. So we're gonna start from the very beginning, just to have some, the first few verses. Matthew chapter 18, verse one, I'm reading from the LSB, the authorized standard version, whatever. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and said, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And he called to a child to himself and set him before him them and said, truly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever therefore will humble himself As this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble is better for him than a heavy millstone be hung around his neck and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea. So going to the passage at hand. see that you do not despise one of these little ones for I say to you that there are angels in heaven continually see the face of my father who's in heaven in this instance we see that he's using a lot of children language child child child this but we see in the very verses in Matthew 18 2 & 4 in the pre context of this passage we see that He's not just talking about children. He's talking about the children of God, believers in the faith, and the children, because we have to have faith like children. A lot of commentators in the very first verse, and I agree, it says in Matthew, again, 10, 18, 10, see that you do not spy as one of these little ones. Knowledge puffs us up. And I've seen it myself, and I had to be corrected from the church here. There was at one point, not here, but in general, where we carry ourselves in a way that says, you know, I'm learning the Word of God, I've been in the faith for five, ten years, and this new believer comes around, and maybe they'll know everything slightly right, but they don't know anything. And we stamp over them, we tell them, You got a long way to grow, and we make the gap huge. These are fellow believers in the faith, and we should not be doing that. I have a Hebrew tutor in school last year, and for some reason, he felt the need to tell me this story. He told me, when I first became a believer, and keep in mind, this guy knows Greek and Hebrew with the back of his hands. He can read the whole original language. He told me, When I first became a believer, the people who converted me to Christ started asking me so many tough questions. What do you do with Arminianism, Calvinism? Is he coming back in a thousand year reign? Is it post-trib, pre-trib, pan-millennial? He was confused and he felt like he didn't even have the faith because of the deconstruction caused by believers around him. And now he's going to serve in a church plant because he realized that is not the true way of a believer. For I say to you that in heaven their angels continually see the face of the Father who is in heaven. Now this verse is used to justify the idea that we have guardian angels. Each one of us. We have one angel in particular that guards us. Do I believe that? As far as I can tell from this piece of scripture, no. We see that, you can see their reasoning. It says their angels. But you see that there's not an exact number. You just see that angels are fighting for the believers. It doesn't say distinctly that we each have an angel. I don't believe this verse supports the idea because we see in other places of scripture it doesn't necessarily associate that idea. We open up to Daniel 10 verses 10 through 14. Sorry, I'm a little faster. Last time I did this, it took me 30 seconds to find out. It's just like pure quietness as I'm trying to pull it up. It says, and this is referring to Daniel receiving a revelation. It said, then behold, a hand touched me and set me shaking on my hands and knees. And he said to me, oh Daniel, a man of high esteem, understand the words I'm about to speak to you. Stand upright, for I have now been sent to you. And when he's spoken this word to him, I stood up trembling. Then he said to me, do not be afraid. Daniel, from the first day that you gave your heart to understand this and to humble yourself before your God, referring to him as an angel, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was standing against for 21 days, and then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. Now I have been left there with the kings of Persia. Now I come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the last days for the visions pertain to the days yet to the future. Just basically, he is somehow an angel of the nation. But we don't necessarily see he's the angel of Daniel. We have another verse. We have another place, Revelations 2.1, and it's not that verse in lines, but we see that it's written to the angel of church in Ephesus. Now, it might be a pastor, but I see it as an angel. And we see to the angel in Simonera in verse eight, and we see in verse 12, we see to the angel of church in Pergamum, we see to the angel of the church in Theatria. Whatever, I'm sorry, it's a bumble of words. It's just really weird names. But we see these instances where it's not really giving an angel to a person, but we see the angels at work when we cannot see them. Maybe it's personal to say we have a personal angel, but we know the forces of Christ are fighting for us in the background. I don't know how, but we do. The best verse to point to the role of angels is in Hebrews 1.14. And it says this. Well, very mic drop. Are they still not ministering spirits sent to render the service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? This is the role of the angels. That is the goal for them. And what I see in scripture is that angels in this and even in this passage are fighting for us. God has his armies. Does he need them? No, he's perfectly fine with himself, but he has forces that are behind the scenes fighting for us. And we see that in context of this passage, God cares for the weak believer. God cares for the believer that may be struggling in sin. He still has angels fighting for them. They are not alone in their struggle. Verse 11 in Matthew 18, back to the remaining passage, it says, For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. Now, Dan knows this, and I'm going to be the first one to say this. I don't necessarily believe this is scripture. Some of you are opening up your ESV Bibles, and you're like, where is it? It's in the fine notes. A little quick point, it is a textual problem in the text. It was the verse there before. I believe, personally, that the verse was placed by scribes later on. However, it is not changing the truth behind a passage. It is true that the Son of Man came to save which was lost. And I wanted just to speak on that for a little bit. The Son of Man, that being Jesus, chose to do His Father's will. What is that? To save the lost. This is the reason why He did it on the cross, to save the sins of the world. And if you put this in context of the passage itself, we see that God is saying, listen, I came to save what was lost. Don't despise the little ones, the people who are just coming in the faith. And I think this remains true, even though I don't necessarily see it as scripture. And now we're going to the parable. What do you think? If any man has 100 sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 in the mountains and go and search for the one that is astraying? And if it turns out that he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 which have not gone astray. In this way is not the will of my Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones, oh, verse 14, but it gives us the ending, is not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. When I first read this passage, I was thinking, well, you got 100 sheep. If you lose one, they could just reproduce. And you got like 140. just leave them one, but that's not the goal of a shepherd. The shepherd is to protect all sheep, not neglect the one that's left. And so I thought Jesus was being sarcastic here and suggesting something else, but no, he truly meant it. The disciples understood the original intent of the passage. It communicated the idea that This is a rhetorical question. Of course, Jesus will go after the one. That is the role of the shepherd. And I'm already giving sick peaks. The shepherd is Jesus. And I think that's what Jesus is communicating. But the question here is, who are the ones that are astray? See, astray, is different than lost, I believe. I think in this text, it's communicating the idea that we have a fellow believer, and he's walking in the faith, and all of a sudden, he falls in. He accidentally starts disobeying God, and he knowingly does. He's saying, you know what? Right now, God, I don't want to listen to your will. Does that mean he's lost? No, at least I don't believe necessarily in this passage is indicating that, but it's indicating the idea that Jesus loves that one believer who's lost. It was a stray who is struggling in their sin. So. What's the difference, though? We all struggle with sin, though. So what's the difference between straying and struggling with sin? Because there is a distinctual difference. Raise your hand if you're sinless. Exactly. No one is perfect. No, not one. But there's a difference between, I'm struggling with sin, and I'm repenting, and I'm asking Christ to work in my heart, And there's one instance where I'm sinning, I'm willfully sinning, and I know I'm disrespecting and disobeying God, but I do not want to hear it. Those are two different instances. And I believe, at least I have been in that instance right here, where I'm sinning, and I know I am, but right now I'm not repentant to God. Look it, I'm still here. If I wasn't doing it, I'm still following God. But eventually, we have to turn our way back. And the Father is still loving this person. And I feel that, not I feel, I know that scripture here is indicating the idea. that the Father is drawing those people in. They still love those people. And I believe in this instance, what Jesus is trying to communicate is that the Father still loves this person. And so if the Father still loves this person and wants the best for this one, it says, remember in 1810, that He does not despise these little ones. So we should not despise these little ones. We should still love these people. They're struggling in their sin. They're driving us insane. 99 of us are doing just fine. Let's just, we'll get another one. We'll add up. No, do not despise the little ones. Now I, when I was reading this passage, I felt a little bit betrayed by God a little bit here while I was trying to read this passage and process this passage. Because when Jesus was referring to the 99, he's referring to the, not necessarily the perfect believer, but he's referring to the believer who shows up on Sunday, who goes to their word every day, Monday through Sunday, they read the word of God. They don't need someone to go and tell them. They can feed themselves. And they, yeah, they're sinning, but they're repenting. And I felt a little bit hurt. But I see that scripture illustrates something. Scripture answers this problem. Why God? Why are you going after the one that is betraying your word? Why are you going after the one that is betraying your word? And the 99 of us, you're leaving us. But it says in scripture here, and I believe the perfect answer to this is in Luke's rendition of this parable. It's not the same parable, but it's very similar. In Luke 15, verses 29 to 32, we see the prodigal son. And he says, oh, if you don't know the ending of the prodigal son, basically, The father has two sons, one son goes and spends all those splendor worth. And then he comes back and he is super distraught. And the father greets him and loves him and decides to cut the calf for him. And then you have this very obedient son and he is begrudgingly looking at them saying, why, why God? And we see here Luke 15. And this is how the son answered. But he answered to his father, look, these many years I've served you, and I'm reading from the ESV here, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when the son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him. And he said to him, son, this is the father, you are always with me. And all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this was your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. God loves us. God loves the 99 who are serving him. But it is greater that we follow the will of the father and that someone returns to doing the will of the father. than it is to just serve him straight. We should rejoice with the brother. We should be grateful that he's coming back to the Lord because in the end, that is what matters. Anything else on this earth will not. Our good deeds are rags to him. And I wanna also talk about the shepherd and I kept referring to him as Jesus. I was giving a sneak peek. I even wrote on this, my outline, who's the shepherd guys? And all the Sunday kids said, Jesus. I want us to look at the fuller picture of scripture here. Why? And I believe that scripture is alluding to Jesus as the shepherd beforehand. If we look in Ezekiel 34, Dave's favorite book of the Bible right now, We see, and this is gonna buckle up, it's gonna be 16 verses, but we're gonna hear the word of the Lord. The word of Yahweh came to me saying, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to those shepherds, thus says the Lord Yahweh. Woe, shepherds of Israel, who have been shepherding themselves! Should not the shepherds shepherd the flock? You eat the fat, and clothe yourselves with wool. You sacrifice the fat, without shepherding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, and the diseased you have not healed, and the broken you have not bound up. then the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you searched for the lost, but with the strength and with severity you have dominated them. They were scattered for the lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field, and were scattered. My flock wandered throughout all the mountains and on every high hill. My flock were scattered over the surface of all the earth, and there was not one to seek to seek or search for them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh. As I live, declares the Lord Yahweh, surely because my flock has become plunder, my flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for the lack of a shepherd. And if the shepherds did not seek for my flock, but rather the shepherds shepherded themselves and did not shepherd my flock. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh, And this is where it's important. Behold, I am against the shepherds and I will seek my flock from their hand and make them cease from shepherding the flock. So the shepherds will not shepherd themselves anymore, but I will deliver my flock from their mouths so that they will not be food for them. This is pointing to Jesus, pointing to the reality that every leader will fail us. There will be no leader that can redeem us from our sins. And not only that, the leaders that we have here on earth, the Old Testament, even in Israel, will fail us. David is an example of that. Moses is an example of that. Noah is an example of that. But Jesus is our redeeming savior, our leader. John 10, 11-15. We have another page about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. We see, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner, not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches and scatters them, because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me. Even as the Father knows me, I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep." I believe Christ is alluding to himself and alluding to the idea that regardless of the struggle we have with sin, if we are astray and we are just as a believer struggling in our sin, that Jesus still loves us. He still came and died for you. He is the good shepherd. He will grab his cane and he will save you. The one thing I love about the LSB is that it says this in Psalms 23 verse six, it says, Surely goodness and loving-kindness will pursue me all the days of my life. I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever. This is the will of the Father. Regardless of how much we are in sin, He is faithful and just to forgive. Verse 14 of Matthew 18. I lost my place in my Bible. There's so many markers. In this way, is it not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish? Here is the conclusion of the parable. If you hear Luke's rendition of this parable, He uses Jesus to save the sinners and how to do a pursuit of sinners who are not in the faith. He shows that he cares for the people who are weak and who don't know the Lord. But in this instance we see that Jesus is talking about the believers who are struggling in their sin to the extent that they are not repenting yet. We see that what Jesus is getting at at the very end of this parable is that we should not despise these people. Yes, we should be sad and distraught, but we should never push them to the floor and say, you are no longer one of us. Yes, they are struggling, but we should never put them in the ground. They are struggling in their sin and we need to be there for them. But we also see in this passage the will of the Father. In 2 Peter 3, verse 9, it says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but shall that all reach repentance. This is the will of the Father. This is what Jesus wants us to do. So, focusing on how we use this scripture to apply to our lives, how do we use angels to apply to our lives? How do we use Matthew 18, 10? I'll say this. There's a spiritual battle. I cannot see it. I know how it ends. We will win, but there is a gross battle that is happening behind us. I went to the Till McFair the other week. Yeah, local, anyway. And I remember, now I'm a very big non, I'm not really into politics. But I remembered stopping by, meeting Mike, and I saw behind him, and he's in a Republican booth, I saw behind him was these books, books that they took off out of the library. And if you know what those books were, you knew that they were very inappropriate books. That's the reason why they checked them out, so no one else could check them out. And very inappropriate, very non-godly books that are open to children, things that they should not be talking about, things that parents should be discussing when and where and how to do it. And it's scary. It is scary that some of our money is going to that. And that showed to me that we're in a spiritual warfare. We are in a fight between good and evil. Right is becoming wrong and wrong is becoming to right. However, we see in scripture, we are not alone in this world. Yes, we is coming to pieces sometimes, but the Lord is still with us. He says his angels are there for them. His angels are fighting for us in the background. And so should we be quaking in fear? Should we be scared? No, the Lord is with us. And while doing this passage, I was reminded about what my father told me. Father, my father, sorry, I was like talking to me. Son, you are always welcomed home. The love of the father, I would illustrate that as. Parents, do you exemplify the will of your father? Are you showing that to your children? Grandparents, you're still, in some way, are doing the same thing. We are exemplifying the will of the Father. I cannot tell you how many people in my school, I go to Moody Bible Institute, people who read the Bible every day, their relationship, oftentimes, it's not always one-to-one, is directly correlated to the relationship they had with their father, biologically, is somewhat directly correlated to the reality of their spiritual father. I know a guy and he told me, I realized that I always had to earn my father's love. I always had to earn something with him. And I realized I'm doing the same towards God. I feel like I need to earn his love. That is not true. And we need to illustrate that to our children. And children, understand the will of the Father is not to earn. It is given freely. Regardless of what we do, He still loves and cares for us. And I come to a realization that some of us are in a place in life where our children are no longer in home. They are out, gone, and they're making their own decisions. I cannot do, look at me, my parents are here. They say, is it okay for us to come? I said, sure. I am somewhat under the authority of my father to honor and respect him, but in the end, I do make my own decisions. I can destroy my life. And some of them have. Some of them have destroyed the relationships you have with them. And I'm trying to be as sensitive as I can be. We have a choice in that instance, because it is wrong what they are doing. They are hurting you. You love and care for them, but they don't want to see you. Either we can be upset and frustrated, or we can use it as a situation where I can illustrate the will of the Father to love them and to care for them. And I'm not saying what you're going through, because a lot of you are dealing with this. People who do not want to see you in their own family. Your feelings are valid. It hurts. And it's not something you just pray about one day and you wake up the next and you're moving on. It is a grief that is experiencing constantly. Go to the Father. Pray with the Father. Be with people who love and care for you. It is okay to feel the feelings you're feeling. But in the end, we need to illustrate the will of the father, that he loves and cares for us. Wisdom is not knowing what is right from wrong, because we can tell that. Wisdom is knowing what is best from better. Imagine a day when people look at you, and I'm referring to everyone here, when someone says, when they met someone and they grieved, they did something wrong to them, grandparents or parents, and they talk about you. They said, I did this wrong, but they loved me and they showed me the love of Christ. And of all things that matter the most, that is what matters the most, that we do the will of the Father. The last point is this, the Father's will. It is not the will of my Father who is heaven that these little ones should perish. It is not the will of the Father for us to be struggling. He wants us. If you are struggling and you are not repentant, the Lord will answer. He is faithful and just to forgive every sin. He wants us. He desires us. This is the gospel that Jesus came down, God himself died for us so that we can be with him forever. This is the good news. Maybe you're in a constant struggle right now in sin and you need to repent. Maybe you were just in the constant battle of struggling with sin. He is faithful and just to forgive. He loves us. He desires us. He wants us. And maybe you just need a reminder that He is there and caring for you. While preparing the sermon, a song came to mind for me. And I wanted to close it before I pray. I realized this is, I was talking to my parents, and they're like, this is a European tradition. Figures. They sing a song in either an introduction or a goodbye, an illustration that, thank you for letting me in. This is what I bring to you. This is from the song, Oh, Come to the Altar. And bear with me as I sing it. I'm going to sing two verses. Are you hurting and broken within? Overwhelmed by the weight of your sin, Jesus is calling. Have you come to the end of yourself? Do you thirst a drink from the well? Jesus is calling. Oh, come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Let us pray.