Transcription | Sunday, October 10, 2021 | What’s so Special about Mile Marker #2? 

 

Pastor Eric:

I was thinking this week about an older movie that has Jack Nicholson in it. In the movie, he walks into a cafe and he asked for some toast. He is told that he's not going to be able to get any toast because they don't have toast on the menu.

Pastor Eric:

So, he says, "Do you have a toaster in the back?"

Pastor Eric:

The waitress said, "Well, yes."

Pastor Eric:

"Well then, why can't I have toast? You have a toaster."

Pastor Eric:

To which she replies, "Because it's not on the menu."

Pastor Eric:

He says, "Well, let me see a menu." He takes the menu and he finds a grilled chicken salad sandwich. So, here's the chicken salad sandwich. "Ma'am what's on this?"

Pastor Eric:

She says, "Well, it's chicken, and it's lettuce, and it's tomato, and it's mayo."

Pastor Eric:

"And you can have it on white bread or toast?"

Pastor Eric:

"Yes."

Pastor Eric:

"Okay. How about this? Bring me the chicken salad sandwich. Hold the chicken, hold the mayo, hold the lettuce, hold the tomato. I'll take what's left."

Pastor Eric:

Anybody ever been to that restaurant? I couldn't help but think about how, in some ways, that relates, more than we would care to admit, to the world that we all live in. It seems to me like it's maybe been an issue for a long time, but it appears that it is becoming an increasingly more pronounced issue. We have a way of making excuses, anytime that something involves going to the next level, or going above and beyond.

Pastor Eric:

Some of the excuses that, I know I've made, and I'm sure that if you've served the public at any point, you can relate to this. When you start trying to validate and give credentials to why you're not going to go above and beyond is, "Well, if you do it for one person, you got to do it for everybody." "I don't want these people or this person to take advantage of me." "Well, I don't make enough money to begin with." "Nobody appreciates what I do for them to start with." "Well, once you go out of your way to help others, then it just becomes expected of you." It's amazing, the excuses that we can bring into our life to validate why we won't go above and beyond to help somebody.

Pastor Eric:

Now, I believe that the most famous message that Jesus ever preached is recorded in the book of Matthew, chapter five through chapter seven. It's known as the Sermon on the Mount. It is, in my opinion, the greatest message that has ever been preached. In that message, Jesus confronts so many things within his day, that still apply to the hour in which that we live. But there's one statement that Jesus makes that if we're not careful, we'll overlook it, and we won't properly understand how controversial it would've been at the time that Jesus said it.

Pastor Eric:

One statement that he said in the Sermon on the Mount, it is almost undoubted that when Jesus said it, a murmur probably went through the whole crowd, because people probably struggled to believe what he had just said. Is he really asking us to do that? Does he mean what we think he means? It's in Matthew, chapter five, verse 41. Jesus said, "and whoever compels you to go with him one mile, go with him two miles." Go with him two miles. Here's what Jesus was most likely referencing, and here's why it would've been so controversial. Because in that day, the Israeli people were under the rule of the Roman empire. When Roman soldiers were traveling through the land, they had the right to call upon any Jewish citizen and require them to take upon themselves, the load of the Roman army, and carry it for at least one mile.

Pastor Eric:

This became such an issue in the Jewish culture. It was so despised by the Jewish people, that some tour guides in Israel tell the stories of how their ancestors would have marked one mile from their home, in each direction, so that if a Roman stopped and said, "Here, I've got all this stuff and you got to pack it, because I'm a Roman and you're a Jew." Then, they would have the mile marker already set in advance so that when they got to that place, they could say, "Okay. I've packed it for one mile. I've done my duty. I don't have to pack it any further."

Pastor Eric:

So, when Jesus is making this statement, he is speaking even in some ways to forced labor. He's saying that if they ask you or command you or compel you to go one mile, you don't stop there. You keep going. You go the second mile. What Jesus seems to be saying is that when it comes to His followers and the people of Christianity, that we would be more helpful, more friendly, and more forgiving than anyone would ever anticipate. Jesus seems to be laying the groundwork for the fact that if you encounter or you come in contact with one of his followers, that you are simply not like everybody else when it comes to giving or providing service. That people are going to discover that there's something about you that's so helpful that it blows their mind. Something so forgiving about you, something so friendly about you, that it blows their mind.

Pastor Eric:

I believe that that should be the experience of any person that ever visits a church. I think from the time they pull into the parking lot, that there should be something helpful, something friendly, something forgiving that is in the atmosphere that coincidence will never be able to take the credit for.

Pastor Eric:

I think that when we profess to be followers of Jesus Christ and people begin to interact with us, that they would not know us to be the people who do the least amount possible simply to check the box. But, they see us as the kind of people that it's overly helpful, it's overly friendly, and it's overly forgiving. Can I get an amen from somebody who still believes that Jesus said what He meant, and He meant what He said.

Pastor Eric:

You know, the apostle Paul, probably using Matthew 5:41 as a foundation, makes this statement as well, when he wrote to the church at Thessalonica. It's in First Thessalonians, chapter four, verse 11, he said you need to "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders. And so that you will not be dependent upon anybody."

Pastor Eric:

I want you just to let that sink in for a moment, lean into the text, invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you directly, especially beginning with verse 12. He said, "so that your daily life will win the respect of outsiders." "So that your daily life will win the respect of outsiders." I'm going to say it one more time for the sake of emphasis. "So that your daily life will win the respect of outsiders."

Pastor Eric:

We should be living our lives in such a way that people who are outside the faith, people that do not follow Jesus Christ, would respect us because we are people of the second mile. We are people that are helpful. We are people that are friendly. We are people that are forgiving to the point that it will blow your mind. That to do business with the follower of Jesus is an incredibly enjoyable experience because we are beyond helpful, we are beyond friendly, and we are beyond forgiving.

Pastor Eric:

To have a follower of Jesus on your athletic team is an incredible experience because they're an above and beyond kind of person. To hire a follower of Jesus should be something that everybody's standing in line trying to get the next follower of Jesus on their staff, because they're people of the second mile. Something about us that would cause outsiders to respect.

Pastor Eric:

Instead, one of the things that we hear in our culture, when we start to invite people to come to church or to be a part of a church family, you guys have all heard it. "Well, them people are just hypocrites, anyway." Come on. Anybody with me on it? "Well, nobody lives it anyway." Well, what are they saying? They're saying that we say one thing, but we do something else. What they're saying is that they are an outsider and they do not respect the followers of Jesus.

Pastor Eric:

Well, the result of that is because we're probably living a life or doing things on a daily basis that do not match up with the things that Jesus commanded and that Jesus taught. I get it. We're all going to fail. We're all going to come up short. We live in an extremely judgemental world and probably we're going to be judged too harshly sometimes. Sometimes it's not going to be fair, what the world says up about us. Sometimes people are going to hate us just because we are on follower of Jesus. But, there is also the reality that there will be some that can grow to respect you because you are a person of the second mile.

Pastor Eric:

I wish I could get an amen from somebody. The words of Jesus, Matthew 5:41, "and whoever compels you to go with him one mile, go with him two miles." Two miles. So I think I've got my right hand side ready for the second mile. I'm not so sure about the left hand side yet. No, I get it. You guys are the deep thinkers. Y'all are contemplating it, right? And right now you're thinking they don't even know what they just signed up for.

Pastor Eric:

All right. So, we're going to try this again as a church family. Y'all ready? "And whoever compels you to go with him one mile," ready? Begin. "Go with him two miles." Now, just look at somebody, make eye contact, make sure they're on the same page, and tell them "two miles."

Pastor Eric:

So, here's the thing. In scriptures and in Christian circles, what that's known as is "the second mile." What does it mean for us? What do we need to understand about it? I'd like to just make a few statements about the second mile. Here's a statement. The second mile is more than a suggestion, it is a command. When you read Matthew 5:41, Jesus did not offer that statement in a suggestive tone, He offered it in a commanding tone. So I just want you to understand something. God's not asking your opinion on this subject.

Pastor Eric:

This is not something where you get to parenthetically insert why you should or why you shouldn't. It's not even a place where you get to make excuses about how ruthless the Romans are. He just said, if they ask you to go one mile, you're going to prove you're a follower of me by going the second mile.

Pastor Eric:

Make another statement. The second mile is more than a good deed. It is an act of faith, because when you are in a situation where the first mile feels somewhat forced, to say, "I'm going to be overly helpful. I'm going to be overly friendly. I'm going to be overly forgiving." Man, to go into that second mile, you're trusting God. Because, you're like, "I feel like maybe I've already been a little bit taken advantage of here, Lord. But I believe God, you're going to do something when I pass the first mile marker that gets into that person's heart and my work on your behalf, God, is going to shine a light into them.

Pastor Eric:

Some of you right now, especially if you're in business or if you're a business owner, or if you've worked in the public a lot, you're thinking right now about all the people that it was a challenge just to get to mile my number one with them. You're thinking, "God, you really want me to go above and beyond?"

Pastor Eric:

I was reading some things recently about how service and the service industry, and even trying to have the right relationship with employees, something has shifted in our culture. Something is different and it's a direct result of this pandemic. It seems like people are increasingly hostile and people are just increasingly on edge. It seems like there's just aire of hatefulness that's in the air.

Pastor Eric:

I think now more than ever before, it's just a great time for the followers of Jesus to stand out for all of the right reasons. We would be the kind of people who are of the second mile. We are beyond helpful. We are beyond friendly and we are beyond forgiving. There's just something about that second mile where God gets to do a work in somebody's heart because of the act of faith that is involved with it.

Pastor Eric:

I'm sure right now you can think, give examples where you've been serving someone, maybe even in a church setting, and you started to come up with all the reasons why, "I will be so glad when this is over and this person is away from me and I don't have to deal with them anymore." You know, what I've discovered? Usually it's the people who are the most rude and who are the most obnoxious that are actually hurting the most on the inside. As matter of fact, I've learned when somebody behaves like a child, it's usually because they've not gotten past childhood issues.

Pastor Eric:

Oh my, I just felt that one bounce back a little bit.

Pastor Eric:

When you're dealing with those situations, I'm trying to learn how to be a little more sensitive to the Holy Spirit and like, "Okay, this person probably really needs to know that Jesus loves him."

Pastor Eric:

My family started sending me pictures the other day. I was in Sam's Club. There was this older lady. She was hanging out in the meat section. She was looking at all the different things that they had on display for sale. I don't know, I just thought she looked like she needed a "hello." I knew I was going to be preaching about the second mile and I'm like, "Okay, this doesn't exactly fit, but I'm just going to be nice." So, I walk over and I'm like, "Hey! Is that a good selection?"

Pastor Eric:

She said, "Let me tell you." The next thing I know, she had her phone out. We looked at all of her grandkids. We looked at the last five things she cooked. I saw her dogs and her cats and her lama.

Pastor Eric:

I can feel my phone dinging in my pocket. It's my wife and kids. They're over in the corner. They're making fun of me for going the second mile! When I finish, I walk over and they're like, "What are you doing? You don't even know that person. I'm like, "Long story. Practice..."

Pastor Eric:

Listen, I was done when she picked up her phone and she didn't know how to open the photo app. The 15 minutes later of scrolling, it was an act of faith in the name of Jesus. Just look at somebody and tell them, "the second mile." We were leaving the store and the lady had come full circle She was waiting for me to check out. When I went out, she grabbed my cheeks and she said, "You are just the sweetest young man I've met in the longest time." I said, there's a couple, thousand people I need to hear that over in south central Kentucky. Can we get that?

Pastor Eric:

Hey, tell somebody one more time, "the second mile."

Pastor Eric:

I think every once in a while, somebody ought to grab the cheeks of a Jesus follower and just say, "You're the sweetest person that I've met in a long time," instead of, "What is wrong with all of those people that hang out over there at that 3trees Church?

Pastor Eric:

Oh, don't clap yet! I'm going the wrong place. Listen. Instead of people saying, "What is wrong with those 3trees people? They are so hateful. They're so mean. Who do they think they are anyway?" What we people should be experiencing is exactly what He said. Jesus. That people would experience that we are followers of Jesus and we are beyond helpful, we are beyond friendly, and we are beyond forgiving. You can bring the clap back right there. That's it right there. That's it.

Pastor Eric:

So, let me make another statement about the second mile. I'm going to skip one, guys.

Pastor Eric:

The second mile is all about allowing our desires to be transformed. The second mile is all about allowing our desires to be transformed. Here's something that Jesus said. I want you to think about the second mile. I want you to think about being a follower of Jesus, and I want you to see this verse, Luke chapter nine, verse 23. "And then He said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and then he can follow me."

Pastor Eric:

Listen, if you think you're packing the cross of Jesus and you always look for mile marker number one as the stopping point, you are not packing the cross of Jesus Christ. So, if you're going to be a true follower of Jesus, you're going to have to periodically deny yourself and let your desires be transformed.

Pastor Eric:

The thing that this verse says is "if anyone desires to come after Jesus." Would you agree with me that that should be the number one desire in our life? That we should be following after Jesus? That we should be in the dust of Jesus? That we should be following after Jesus? Well, if we're going to follow Jesus, then we have to realize passing mile marker number one means that we're going to have to deny ourself because the cross is leading us in that direction.

Pastor Eric:

I was praying through this message and speaking about the message. Pastor Jason's preaching Campbellsville, and Pastor Jaron's preaching Russell Springs. We were kind of preparing some of this content together. Pastor Jaron made a statement. He said, "You know, Pastor, as we talk through this and we think about it, it leads me to the understanding that the second mile is more about your destiny than your convenience."

Pastor Eric:

I thought, "Preach that. That's good." The second mile is more about your destiny than your convenience, because it's convenient to quit at mile marker number one. It's convenient to come up with excuses why we shouldn't go this second mile. It's convenient to disqualify people from our helpfulness, and our friendliness, and our forgiveness. It's very convenient to do that, especially if we're trying to cater to the things of our flesh. But when we come to realize that, "Man! Wow! I'm a second mile person. I'm somebody that's going to go above and beyond." But, you will actually discover that it is setting you up to impact your destiny in a positive way.

Pastor Eric:

So, I want to take you back to the cross of Jesus. All right? And I want you to envision Jesus packing the cross through Jerusalem. He's on his way to the hill called Golgotha. There, he will be laid down on that cross and he will be crucified. What we learn in scripture is that that even though Jesus come from the home of a carpenter, even though we know Jesus probably would've been a physically strong man, he's been through so much beating, and he's been through so much torture that now, at this point, his body is beginning to collapse.

Pastor Eric:

What happens when Jesus collapses under the cross is Matthew, chapter 15, verse 21. It says, "and there is a certain man from Cyrene. His name is Simon. He is the father of Alexander and Rufus." He was passing by on his way from the country and they forced him to carry the cross. So understand, under Roman rule, a Roman can make someone of that land, pack anything for one mile. So what they do is they seize this man and they say, "You got to help him. You got to do this." They force him to take the cross and pack it.

Pastor Eric:

Scripture doesn't even tell us how far he packed it. Scripture doesn't even tell us that he even necessarily went into the second mile. What scripture tells us is he simply packed the cross. It would've been convenient to have come up with any kind of reasoning or excuses to run away, to have not done it, but he got involved in following after the footsteps that were required of the cross.

Pastor Eric:

Did you notice in that verse, we'll look at it again, Matthew 15:21, it says, "Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus." Do you not think that is an odd interjection? I mean, we're talking about Jesus packing the cross. We're talking about that Simon has been required to help him. We're we're talking about the fact that Simon's been forced to pack the cross. What does it have to do anything with Alexander and Rufus?

Pastor Eric:

Well, Paul fills in the blank. Romans, chapter 16, verse 13. I want you to "greet Rufus because he has chosen in the Lord and his mother has been a spiritual mother to me." This is the apostle Paul talking. Here's what we learn from even just making an attempt to pack the cross. It can set you up, not only for a blessing in your life, but for a generational blessing up on your home, and even your marriage. Because what happens with Simon is that his wife becomes a spiritual giant in the early church, to the point that the greatest apostle perhaps to ever live, who wrote two thirds of the New Testament, was mentored by her.

Pastor Eric:

This woman's relationship with following Jesus very likely starts at the place where her husband said, "I'm all about packing the cross. I'm going to pack the cross of Jesus Christ. I'm going to carry it regardless of what my flesh will to say, regardless of all the ways that I feel like I'm being even forced to this. I'm going to do it." It impacted his home to the point that later it now says his son can only be described as chosen by the Lord. And it traces back to this man taken up the cross.

Pastor Eric:

So, I would say to you, let your desires be transformed. Lay down and knock over the idle of convenience. Take up the cross of Jesus that involves denying yourself. There will be spectacular things that happen even in the first mile of that journey. But, when you step into the second mile, I'm telling you, there are supernatural blessings that await you in the realm of not just you experiencing God, but I believe it opens you up for your entire household to experience God, for generations to come.

Pastor Eric:

Can we believe God for that over our lives, over 3trees church, and over our spiritual community? Come on, let's that this morning. Just look over at somebody and tell them, "the second mile." They're going to just begin to play some music softly, and as they do so, I want you just to hear the commanding words of Jesus.

Pastor Eric:

We're going to just move into a moment of response and just think about it for a second. Everything you've heard about the second mile, all the statements that we've made about it, just think through for a moment. Have you been quitting within even the first mile? Have you been coming up with all the reasons that you should have your desire and what you think you deserve, versus choosing self denial over the mindset of entitlement? Some of us, we really suffer from a mindset of entitlement. "Well, I did this, so I deserve that." "I deserve to not have to do that. I deserve to come up with [inaudible 00:34:58]

Pastor Eric:

See, God never called you to be served. He called you to serve. Through your time, your talent, your treasure, your influence, serve Him. If you're looking for the blessings of God to show up in your life, I dare you to embrace the second mile. Because in the current climate with which we live, people of the second mile are going to stand out. They're going to stand out to coaches. They're going to stand out to professors. They're going to stand out to employers. They're going to stand out to their clients. But best of all, they're going to stand out to the lost of the world. What scripture called the outsiders. People who are not yet following Jesus. That's the number one demographic we want to stand out to, is people who do not yet have a relationship with Jesus.

Pastor Eric:

So Father, we ask you this morning to convict us. We invite the conviction of the Holy Spirit to pull us, lead us, direct us into the things that you have for us. And Holy Spirit, we just invite you to go to work on us. Anything in our mindset that needs to be transformed, anything in our heart, God, that needs to be remolded. We just invite and ask you to do what only you can do.

Pastor Eric:

God show us, show us a vision for our life that's beyond mile marker number one. Even people that we've been serving, people that we've been in engaging and interacting with, God, open our eyes and just literally give us a vision for the second mile and beyond. And maybe even God, just give us some assurance that there's going to be some people who are going to be really impacted by it. As we are beyond helpful, beyond friendly, beyond forgiving, people of the second mile. Thank you, Father. Jesus, don't leave us behind. We want to follow you and we're deciding today that's exactly what we're going to do. Could you guys just sing that out over us?