Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Pastor Robert: Praise the Lord. It's good to be with you this morning. Welcome to those on livestream that will see the recording of this. I'm thankful for our ministry team. We have so many good people on our ministry team that allows us to have good tools to be able to send out and spread the gospel. I love being able to send out our shorts and our moments of hopes and videos and recordings of the, the messages and the services just to let us know here, we are not alone. Many, many people follow us. I know we are out spreading the word. It's just good, good sound word and teachings that we get to get filled up and ministered to.
Last time I was before you, my wife and I talked about the fact that before I was her husband, I was her pastor. One of the things that she was drawn to was my ministry. She liked to be ministered to. So she said, "Sweetheart, can I just sit and be ministered to by you today?" And I was like, sure. And so she's here with me. I love her and she's one of my biggest supporters. She's one of you, but she's really one of you today. She's going to hear the word in a different perspective. And I pray that you receive this word by the spirit.
I'm under pressure because you guys got the Saints game. So it's one of those messages you look and like, pastor, this could be two messages, really. I could split it up, but it's one of those that really go together. There are two key messages in this one message. So I'm going to pray to the Lord that I will do my best to deliver it as he has given it to me.
We all have our preferences, don't we? Whether it's a matter of taste, you know, I have my favorite foods. You have your favorite foods. Whether it be the temperature. I like it cool. My wife likes it on the warmer side. It's this battle back and forth with the temperature. I know you don't know anything about that. Sometimes we have our preferences in color. My favorite color is red. We all have our different preferences. In these preferences, we receive comfort. We may even receive pleasure in those preferences.
Some of us may even say that we even feel a sense of safety or security in our different preferences. I told you a while back that sometimes we'll change it up here on the pulpit. Some of you may have the preference of us sitting down together. Some of you may have preferences of me standing up at the podium. But if we are really honest with ourselves, most of our preferences are rooted in fleshly appeasement rather than spiritual appeal.
Speaking of the spiritual, we often receive the things of the spirit as it's being filtered through our flesh. Like when we listen to a sermon, we all have a desire to be spiritual, but we have all the reality of fighting with all these fleshly things that's going on in our minds and bodies. In order for us to become spiritual conduits of spiritual revelation, we have this filter of the flesh. And so sometimes, we are struck or mesmerized or concerned or overly concerned about the outward appearance or how something looks or how something sounds before we even get to the content of what we are going to receive.
I remember recently confessing to someone that there is a famous preacher that I refuse to listen to because I didn't like their voice. I'm just being honest with you. And so I would always, I can't stand to hear them talk, and boy, how many things I would miss out on because of that fleshly filter that I struggled to get past. But unfortunately, for many people, many people reject the messenger before they hear the message and allow that message to touch their hearts. I want to preach to you today on, don't judge the messenger and miss the message.
That's what happened to Jesus. Jesus's message was rejected because of preferences and traditional expectations. And we see this as we go to the gospel of Matthew chapter 13. I'm going to read from verses 53 and 58. This is from the New American Standard Translation. Shout out to my Bethel folks. That's one of the translations that I got introduced to during my time at seminary. Speaking of that, just a little sidebar, preferences and translations, right? I grew up King James was King. And if you didn't James, read or study from King James, then you are a heretic. You are a heretic. And as I matured in my study and just practical reality, how many of us speak the king's English. Sometimes .
Just imagine, in some settings, maybe even some of you are here, I come and, I'm saying I'm preaching from a different translation, then automatically you judge the messenger before you even heard the message, because of a translation. I've had it. Don't look at me strange. I'm not pointing a finger. I've gone through it too, you know, because that's what I was taught traditionally. That's what I grabbed onto and believed. And so then you start picking and choosing translations and picking apart.
As a scholar of the word, I do have issues with some translations comparatively, but I found that even in my study and sometimes delivery, if I do a quote unquote harmony of all the translations, I'm able to get a fuller picture of what is being said. And so I can lie to myself and say that all the passages, if I read them in the King James, I actually understand what's being said. Sometimes, it's like I have no clue what they're talking about. Then I open, one of my favorites now, New Living Translation. I'm like, oh, okay. Now it's speaking my language. I can understand it.
Okay, back to the gospel. Matthew chapter 13, starting in verse 53, when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there. And he came to his hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue with the result that they were astonished. And said, where did this man acquire this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is his mother not called Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas and his sisters, are they not all with us? Where, then, did this man acquire all these things? And they took offense at him, but Jesus said to them, A prophet is not dishonored except in his hometown and in his own household. And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
Many people use scripture sometimes for their own ideologies and things like that. We have to really shy away from doing that and really get to the context of what scripture is saying and the intent of what scripture is saying. And I believe that here, it had nothing to do with Jesus not being able to do miracles there in that town. It had nothing to do with the lack of faith in itself. What it is they thought that they knew Jesus according to the flesh. Isn't this the carpenter's son? Aren't his sisters with us? Isn't his mom named Ms. Mary? We know him. He comes from our own hometown. We know how we are. How did he get this special ability? Where did he learn this? How can he do this?
There is a saying, familiarity breeds contempt, which in layman's terms means if you know someone or something very well, you can easily become bored with them and stop treating them with respect or stop paying attention to them. That's what that term means. And so people can think they know you because they know of you. They know where you come from. Pastor Robert, oh, that's the Chicago boy. So since you come from Chicago, we know you. Can anything good come out of the south side of Chicago?
there is a pre-judgment there. Oh, you come from Wilmer. Oh, we know you.
Jesus, he comes from Nazareth. The people only knew Jesus in the natural. Nazareth was not a very large town. And so everyone would think that they would know Jesus. That's Mary's boy. That's Patricia's boy. With that, the expectation is lowered. They wouldn't expect, let alone the king of kings and the Lord of Lords to come from-- They wouldn't even expect a prophet to come from Nazareth. Don't we know his people? The people missed the message of Jesus, especially in his own town, because they never expected the kingdom of God to come in a hidden way or to come as close as it did to them.
As close as the kingdom came to them, they still didn't recognize it. It missed them. It passed them by because they judged the messenger and they missed his message. Because the message of Jesus and even the true identity of Jesus could not be recognized through natural means, only by the Spirit.
I want to turn your attention to the gospel of John chapter 8, starting at verse 12. It says, then Jesus again spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. The one who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. The Pharisees said to him, you are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not true. Jesus answered and said to them, even if I'm testifying about myself, my testimony is true because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I'm going. You judge according to the flesh. I am not judging anyone.
there is another translation, New Living Translation that actually says, you judge me by human standards. And Jesus is saying to him--- we know that Jesus is the judge of all mankind. I'm not talking about that type of judgment. Jesus says, "I don't judge by the same standards that you do. You judge by the natural, you judge by the outward. I judge differently than you do. That's why you are missing it. And that's how it is with us as human beings. That's how it's been throughout history. That's how it's been throughout the Bible. If you read the whole narrative of the Bible, you'll see a lot of things, people receiving things because of the outward expression. The men's retreat. we are going to dig deep in devotion about King David and his life. And look how King David was anointed king, the prophet Samuel came to his father and said, "Bring me out your sons, because the Lord has shown me one of your sons is to be anointed king. I've rejected Saul in parentheses, by the way, who you chose because he was tall in stature and he looked the part. He wasn't my choice, but that's who you chose." Back over here, outside the parentheses.
Bring me out your sons so I can anoint the next king. So Jesse brings out his sons. At least we thought. And Saul comes, I mean, Samuel comes up. This is not it. This is not it. This is not it. And Samuel starts to question himself like, now I know I'm a prophet. Did I miss the Lord? And Samuel's like, no, I didn't miss the Lord. He goes to Jesse, he says, are you sure these are all your sons? Because God told me that one of your sons is to be anointed king, but this lot is not it.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, there is David. He's out messing with the sheep because there is no way this ruddy David, who's tendon to the sheep could be God's chosen anointed one to be king. Because he didn't look the part he was forgotten about. He was overlooked. He was rejected. But that's who God chose. Jesus said, "you judge me by human standards. I wasn't what you were expecting. And so you don't accept me, you reject me because of the flesh."
Here's a very important revelation that I got in preparing this message. It has been life changing for me. It comes from a scripture that I quite frankly may have read and spoken literally a thousand times. The gospel of Matthew chapter 16, verses 15 through 17. This comes after Jesus is walking with his disciples, and he is asking them, who do people say that I am? And they gave all the answers of who people, remember that, who people say that I am. Verse 15, he said to them, but who do you yourselves say that I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to him, blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to, to you. But my father who was in heaven. I want you to pick that up. He said flesh and blood did not reveal this to you.
To see who Jesus really is to his true identity, you have to turn off your fleshly filter. You see that fleshly filter is what's going to allow you to judge the messenger according to fleshly distinctions. And that can lead you to missing out on what God is trying to reveal to you. You see, it's key that Jesus said to these disciples, he asked them, who do you say that I am? I'm not asking you what other people are saying because other people are saying this because of their fleshly distinctions. What family did he come from? What does he look like? How tall is he? How long is his hair? What does he sound like? What does he move? Like those are all fleshly distinctions. But Jesus said, "Peter, your revelation of who I am did not come through those fleshly distinctions. It didn't come through your fleshly filter. It came through the spirit." Because he said, "Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but this was revealed to you by my father in heaven. So Peter, you got the revelation, who I am because of the spirit, not what you see on the outward, not because of where I come from, not because you are familiar with me. You didn't just learn this on your own. You received it through the spirit."
That is important because now that we are in Christ, we are called from the natural to the spiritual. We are to discern situations, things, and even people by the spirit. This next passage is another one. Probably read a thousand times. You've heard it thousands of times. Second Corinthians chapter 5, verses 16 through 17. Pay attention to the "therefores". We, we like to overlook the "therefores" when we read these passages, but the "therefores" are for a reason. The therefore means what comes before the therefore, you can't go to the next and leave out what came before the therefore. Because what comes next is the result of the "therefore".
So therefore, from now on, we recognize no one by the flesh, even though we have known Christ by the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation. The old things are passed away. Behold, new things have come. That therefore in the beginning of this passage comes after Paul is again saying the sacrifice that Jesus has done for us has allowed us to be in Christ because of Jesus's sacrifice. And now we receive the new covenant and come into this new kingdom, this new family of God because of what Jesus did. So therefore, we now don't recognize by human standards anyone. Not only do we not recognize Jesus like we did before; we recognize Jesus by the flesh. He came from Nazareth. That was important, but that's not who he is.
Now we no longer see Jesus in the natural. We've seen his miracles. We've seen the affirming nature of God upon him as the anointed one, the Son of God, the Christ. We've seen him being raised from the dead, so we no longer know Jesus by the natural. We now know Him by the Spirit. Therefore, now that we are in Christ-- there is another "therefore". we don't look at each other that way. We don't see each other that way because now we are in Christ. Now Paul is saying in the spirit of Christ, that we no longer recognize each other by the flesh. No one according to the flesh, because we are new creations in the Spirit.
Let me just give you a little bit about what it means to recognize or regard someone according to the flesh. Remember, the Bible says that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. It is natural for us to form impressions from the most obvious things about people, about other people. The obvious things come from our natural vision, our natural eyes. There are certain factors that distinguish us according to the flesh, that's visual to us, like our appearance. You saw me in this suit today. That's one of the first things you recognize by my appearance. You may have formulated an opinion about that. Appearance is often the very first way we identify people according to the flesh. You are a certain height; you are a certain weight. you are a certain skin color. It's how you appear to others. That's in the flesh.
Another one is our abilities, our gifts. we are all gifted in different ways and to different degrees, whether it be in sports or the arts or music. And that's what we are according to the flesh. Our age. we are all at different ages. According to the flesh, sometimes we have judged people because of their age. It's like Paul tells Timothy. He said, "Don't be discouraged and let no one despise you of your youth. That's a lot of things in this country that I don't like. One of those is age discrimination, especially how it treats our elderly population. We’ve got a long way to go in this country and how we work on it. But those are all those fleshly distinctions, age discrimination, race.
It's interesting, you know, if you really take a big lens and see in scripture, race discrimination is very important. All throughout the Bible, there are different references about Jews and gentiles all the time. Those are fleshly distinctions. Those fleshly distinctions get us in trouble. Most of our conflicts come because of fleshly distinctions. One of the biggest conflicts in the Bible happens in Acts chapter six. Acts chapter six, for those ministerial training. That's the reference for appointing deacons in the church. But that whole process came about because of race discrimination. There was a group of widows. They were the Greek speaking widows. So they would come from the gentile population. They were being discriminated against in food distribution by the Hebrew speaking folks.
The apostles came up with a righteous way to deal with that discrimination in the Bible.
Those fleshly distinctions can cause us a lot of issues. Gender, it's another fleshly distinction. God has made us both male and female. This is how we have distinguished according to the flesh. Right now, it's interesting that our largest cultural debate right now is about gender and gender identification and racial identification. And you see all the conflicts that we have in our society today because of this fleshly distinction. Your family, where you come from.
And if we take an important examination of our heart, and this is where I'm going to challenge you today, don't tense up on me. I want you to realize what God is doing and what God is calling us to do. I want you to take an examination of how many of your close relationships that you have are based on fleshly distinctions rather than the spirit. I'll tell you today that I would not be here today based on fleshly distinctions. I believe that my call to be here at Hope Community was by the Spirit. Because I didn't know this man from Adam. Only thing that I knew of was that he was a white male in a mostly white congregation and a majority white community of Corcoran, all fleshly distinctions.
But when we were meeting, those were not the things that we were talking about. Those were not the things that attracted me to this community. What I heard in our conversation was of the spirit we knitted together in the spirit. There was a spiritual connection, a spiritual agreement. I heard the gospel being preached. I heard praise and worship going up that ministered to me in the spirit. But how many of our relationships are that way? How many of our relationships are not based on our skin color? How many of our relationships are not together because of our vocation or where we went to school or what degree do we have?
The fleshly distinctions get real petty. I can have a master's degree, but somebody will look down on my master's degree because it's from Bethel and not St. Thomas. I don't know why, but you know. But you see what I'm saying. We have all these fleshly distinctions that destroy relationships, but don't even allow us to really as Christians--- remember in Christ. Therefore, in Christ, we regard no one by the flesh. So even though I look like who I look like, I sound like who I sound like those are not the things that connected me to Hope Community Church. Instead, this was a man who loves God, who loves Jesus, who can preach the word, who can teach the word. And he loves all people regardless.
I don't care what you look like, I don't care what you came from, and I mean this in the most humblest way I can say it. I do not care about your opinion of me. And I'm not saying that as a slight or slap in the face. What I'm saying is just like Jesus, I know who I am. I know where I come from in the Spirit. I'm not talking about being born in Mississippi and raised in Chicago. I'm talking about being born into the family of God. I know who I am by the Spirit. I want you to know me, who I am by the Spirit. I want to know who you are by the Spirit.
I want our fellowship to grow by who we are in the Spirit. Men, we are going on this men's retreat. My challenge for us is to know each other by the spirit so that we can be stronger for this community as we try to grow but grow in our love for Christ, growing our understanding of Christ, growing diversity. We've got to remove those fleshly filters and we have to grow together by the spirit. Like I told you before, when I walked in this place before I looked at Pastor Jeff and I'm like, man, we are fleshly different like nobody's business. But I've grown to love that man by the spirit because I was able to see him and discern through him by the spirit and see the heart of Christ through him.
And I'm like, man, we are like this in the spirit, which transcends all fleshly distinctions. That's why I want to challenge us. If we say we want to be this loving community, if we say we want to be this diverse community, if we want our people to be drawn and attracted to us, I'm going to tell you right now, it has to be in the spirit. Because people that look like me, if they walk in the door and judge by the flesh, they will never come. They will never come. But if we can get them through the door and they can see the spirit of Christ that's here, that not only will they come, they will stay and they will invite others. That's my prayer. That's my heartbeat for this church and this community: that we grow and know each other by the spirit.
So many people identify themselves according to these fleshly distinctions. But the Bible says from now on, therefore we regard no one according to the flesh. See, this is something that is uniquely different in the body of Christ. we are not like any other organization or any other entity, we are not like them. All the other worldly organizations and entities, they are built upon fleshly distinctions. But the things that make us different according to the flesh are overwhelmed by the new life that we share in Jesus, in the body of Christ.
You see, in the flesh, we lived for our own selves, but Jesus died to change all that because we who we are in the flesh according to the flesh, died with him, Jesus. But we who are in Christ, we are born from him. And through his resurrection, we can now live in that newness of life. But it has to be by the Spirit.
Galatians, this is the last scripture-- Galatians three verses 27 to 28. For all of you who are baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female for you all are one in Christ.
See what makes us different in the flesh, according to the flesh that falls away in the light of the new creation, the body of Christ, this new creation includes both men and women of every race, people of all kinds of appearances and ages, people from every different background, from every trade, from every profession, and we are brought together to work in peace and harmony through the spirit of Christ.
Now, I'm not saying we can't change these things, these fleshly distinctions, unless I physically do something to it, I'm not going to change my skin color. It is what it is. You are what you are. I'm not even saying don't be proud of who you are. The little pride. What I'm saying is in Christ that takes a backseat to who you are in Christ. I'm not saying don't be who you are, don't be proud of your heritage, but that doesn't trump over who you are in Christ. It's because of those fleshly distinctions that sometimes we will have conflicts. Because we look different, we. We sound different. We talk differently. We come from different places, we have different traditions, we have different preferences.
This is what I'm trying to bring you to. Let's go over here. This is the same. On both sides of the equation, it is the same. We are all those things. As we come together, those things don't change. We gotta filter through those things. But see, when you are outside of Christ, and by the way, anytime we operate in the flesh, we are not in Christ. That's a sermon for another day. When we are in the flesh, when we stay in the flesh, when we come again, when we come in those conflicts, that's where they're going to stay because those conflicts are going to be our guiding post. And we want to stick in those guiding posts of our fleshly distinctions.
But those of us that love Jesus, we gotta come over to this other side where we still have those things and we say, be, we are going to filter through these fleshly distinctions because I see you not by those fleshly distinctions, but I see you in the spirit. And it's so through the spirit that I'm going to have this labor of love to work out our differences so that we take our differences and we come into union in Christ.
That's where the church in America has to grow because we've taken--- This scripture in Galatians says, we've clothed ourselves in Christ. But sometimes, when we come into this new creation, we want to drag that old man with us. That's what Paul says all the time: this is what you were before, but this is who you are now. We have to remind ourselves, this is who Robert was before. The Robert that was before will really tell you about yourself. Now, the man in Christ, he may tell you about yourself, but it's going to be in love. He's going to speak the truth in love. It's not going to come from a fleshly response. It is going to come from the truth and love with the objective for us to move forward in Christ, not to stay apart. I want to end it with this.
If you judge according to the flesh, you will always be looking down on other people. You'll always be losing heart. You'll always be discouraged, you'll always not be satisfied. You'll always compare yourself, you'll always have strife, you'll always have conflict. But if you remain in Christ, then you will do like Jesus, that he doesn't regard you according to the flesh. When we change how we see Jesus. And that's what Jesus, going back to what he said to the Pharisees, you are judging me according to human standards. When we change the way we see Jesus, then it's going to change the way we see people. It's also going to change the way that you see yourself. So my prayer is that we grow in Christ, getting out of familiarity and learn of him and learn of each other through the spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.
Pastor Brian: Hallelujah. Thank you, Pastor Robert. When you look through the eyes of the spirit, you do begin to look through the eyes of love, in the eyes of grace. And when you look through the eyes of your flesh, we begin to look through the eyes of judgment. Father, today I pray for another, I'll use the word baptism, another in feeling of your grace today. So many churches today, father. It seems like they've got doctorate degrees in marketing. But Lord, the only thing that is really worth marketing today is you. I am reluctant to even use that expression.
You truly, Jesus, are that treasure, that pearl of great price that was sold, everything was sold to a choir. Lord, we so tenaciously hang on to what makes us, us. And we should rather diligently seek those things that make you, you. Help us, Lord, to put them into our lives. Father, we want to see with the eyes of the spirit. Dare I say, Lord, kill all of our flesh. Help us, Jesus, to be willing because it seems so alive and strong in all of us. Help us to be willing to sacrifice it or to crucify it.
Jesus, you've called this ministry Hope Community. We can't be a place of hope if your spirit is not here. We can't be a place that gives promise for tomorrow and walk in judgments. We can't be a place of healing if we are full of distinctions that define us as us and them. Jesus, come in a sweet, holy way into our hearts and minds. May our consciences be quick to sense your conviction when we get into the flesh. This we pray, Jesus, in your holy and matchless name. Jesus name, hallelujah. Thank you, Pastor Robert. God bless you. Wonderful message.
I'll be over here to serve communion after the service. For those of you who would like communion today, I want to thank all of you who have been watching by livestream, so thankful you are part of our faith community. Thank all of you for how you keep in touch with us. Jesus, you are so good. You are way better than what we deserve. Hallelujah. We will have people at the altar to pray with you if you have prayer needs after the service today. Let's just raise our hands together, shall we?
Now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may we see with the eyes of the spirit and no longer live by the eyes of the flesh as we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Thank you for being here today.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 8-13-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.