Sacrifice for Others
Understanding The Struggle Of Being A Courageous Christian
Paul Basden
Sep 5, 2021 35m
Being a hero in someone’s life means being willing to make sacrifices on their behalf. But how can you also be a courageous Christian? Join us today as we celebrate those who have made sacrifices every day for our safety and health and yet still live a Christian life. Video recorded at Frisco, Texas.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Evan Mattei :
My name is Evan. I am currently a Sergeant with the Frisco police department assigned to our community services and media relations division. Most importantly though, I am a father to my daughter, Emily, and I've been married to Erin, one of the most amazing women, for the past 16 years.
Paul:
Tell us about what it was like to be on the police force during 2020.
Evan Mattei :
I remember getting a text message from a friend of mine with a screenshot of the news breaking that the first north Texas COVID patient resided in Frisco, and then it hit me. Okay, well, it’s here. This is real. What is this going to mean for us? Between March and Memorial Day weekend, we had people lining up to support us and in large part that's something that the Frisco police department very greatly enjoys is the support from our community.
And almost overnight, the events that were over a thousand miles away changed that for us. The death of George Floyd, at least in my immediate circle, I know that it really shook us. We knew that we were now going to have to answer those tough questions and that the questions were about to be tougher and that we were going to have to be more transparent than we've ever been, but because we had invested already into the relationship with our community, we were able to successfully take a stand against police brutality and recognize the pain that George Floyd's death caused members of our community. I think one of the biggest things that I learned was what true empathy looks like and to really consider the other side of the coin. If it's my wife or child that's stopped, how do I want the police officer to treat them?
So, I think one of the things that makes me proud is that our department was willing to say that what happened in the death of George Floyd was wrong. We worked with protesters that really wanted to see justice done. We were able to have the opportunity to stand with them and say you know what, you're right. Police brutality is wrong and at Frisco, we're not going to stand for officers doing that. One of the coolest things that happened in one of those protests was captured by a photographer named Kelly Clark. Kelly captured a moment where a demonstrators in one of the protests came up to one of our lieutenants and gave him a high five handshake and with Kelly’s permission, we submitted the photo to the United States Department of Justice, Office of Community Policing for a photo contest for community policing in action, and that photo was actually featured as a winner this past June. To be able to have that showcased on a national stage was something I feel is pretty special. I'm proud to wear the Frisco uniform because of that.
Paul:
Let me ask you a super personal question. You're a follower of Jesus. Yeah, and you’re a law enforcement officer, how does your faith in Jesus impact and influence what you do every day?
Evan Mattei :
To me, Jesus' example is to really demonstrate love to everybody. Love God and love your neighbor and when as a police officer, you realize and internalize that everyone is your neighbor, you do your best to act like Jesus. I think one of the most important things to know is that police officers are not robots. We care deeply about our community, and we care deeply about keeping good people safe.
Paul:
Well on behalf of all Preston Trail Community Church I want to say thank you.
Evan Mattei :
Thank you.
Paul:
It was a joy to be in the home of Evan Mattei and to be able to talk to him about that. My very favorite statement he made was right at the end when he said police officers are not robots. That's certainly how all of us would want people to feel about our jobs that when we stood up for whatever we do, that we're not robots and they are really just humans who've chosen a job. I think many of them will even say they accepted what they believe is a call and it involves them being exposed to danger and that is true for all law enforcement officers and for all first responders, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs. It's true for all healthcare professionals whether in the medical world, the dental world, pharmaceutical world or therapy world. So today we celebrate these two big umbrella groups of people who have served so well.
First responders, healthcare professionals for all the courage they showed, all the sacrifices they've made for us and as we celebrate them, we also are listening for the voice of God to speak to all of us who likely will not show that kind of crazy courage and make those kinds of wild sacrifices. Yet God still calls us every day to live lives of courage. Courage is one of the most important aspects of all of human life. Centuries ago, even millennia ago, in ancient Greek thought, they talked about four cardinal virtues. Now, we don't use the word virtue much, it just means a really good quality, right? A virtuous person. It's the opposite of a vice, and so these four Cardinal virtues were called justice, self-control, wisdom, and courage. Meaning, if you kept those four traits and developed those four character qualities, you would become a truly virtuous, a good person.
How do you become a good person? Practice those four virtues. So courage has been held in the highest regard for thousands of years and when I talk about courage, here's what I mean. Courage is the strength to face something that is difficult or dangerous rather than withdraw. That is, often in life, many times in life, we will come to a fork in the road and have to either choose to withdraw if there's a dangerous moment or a difficult moment in front of us, or we will choose to engage. When we choose to engage, it will call for courage, and courage is sometimes so ethereal, it's sometimes so glamorized that we forget to understand what it truly is.
Let me share two insights I've received over the years that I'll pass on to you today that I hope will deepen your understanding of courage. The first comes from a British Christian over 100 years ago. G.K. Chesterton wrote that courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. Interesting. I love that. Think about the person that goes into the military, almost none would say, “Hey, I sure hope I die,” but they would all say, but I'm willing to die for my country.
No one goes into a job in life saying, “I sure hope I die,” but some jobs call for such courage that you are ready to die. You desire to live, but if necessary, you'll die. I think that's a great insight. Helps us keep the tension. The second insight comes from C.S. Lewis who said courage is not simply one of those four virtues, but rather it is the form of every virtue at the testing point. A point where you will be tested. You cannot practice any of the other virtues very long without bringing this one into play. So think about the other virtues. Justice was the first one. If you're going to practice justice, at some point, you are going to be pushed to no longer be just. There'll be voices that will tell you to stop trying to make that injustice right.
And it will take courage to continue to be just. Self-control was another one of the virtues. If you find yourself really seeking to practice self-control and not let lust just run you over and have its way in your life, then at some point it’s going to take incredible courage to say “no” to what feels good at the moment, but will wreck your life. Or take another example: wisdom. When you and I choose to practice wisdom, at some point, there will be naysayers who will criticize us and make fun of us and say, “you're so foolish,” and we're saying it's not foolishness it's wisdom. At that point, it will take courage to keep on living out wisdom. I believe when we understand courage at this deeper level, with the insights of Chesterton and Lewis, we can then begin to talk about the two kinds of courage that are before us in life.
These two kinds of courage first are exceptional courage, you might also call this extraordinary courage. Exceptional courage is when you sacrifice your life for another person. You literally are ready to sacrifice, and you actually do sacrifice your welfare, your health, your success, those things that you own, your worldly goods, including even your life's blood for another person. Today's heroes whom we are celebrating have shown exceptional courage. They'd probably done it their whole lives, but we saw it especially when COVID began in March of 2020 and they have not stopped yet. So let's talk about and thank God for each of these groups. First, healthcare professionals. Over the last 18 months, they have cared for the health needs of people with a rare virus that wasn't even initially identified. They've done that in their offices and in crazy emergency rooms.
They have done that in urgent care clinics. They've done that in hospitals. They've done that in nursing homes. They've done it in rehab centers and in some cases they've gone all the way into the people's homes, and by the way, while they're caring for people with COVID, they're also caring for all of us who didn't have COVID issues, but still needed to see a doctor or a dentist. It's not like every single potential health issue in your life went on hold during COVID. You still had to have help in other areas of life, and these healthcare professionals were caring for us even then. They had to maintain an up until then, unknown, extraordinary level of cleaning, disinfecting, and hygiene to protect themselves and their patients, and in the process, they gave the highest level of care to each of us. What I'm saying is healthcare professionals risk their own welfare and were willing to risk their own lives on behalf of all of us. That is exceptional courage.
We’re also paying homage to first responders today. Firefighters, EMT, paramedics consistently gave life-saving emergency care in life-threatening situations. They've always done that, but now, all of a sudden, COVID was added to the mix. It was either in the background or in the forefront and in the minds of many, perhaps most of those particular groups of folks had to ask as they went into someone's home, “I wonder if this is the day I'm going to catch COVID. I wonder if this is the day that I will have to go into quarantine because I have now been infected.” Now law enforcement officers are also a part of the first responders, and they kept order in the most hostile political and social climate since 1968. Some of you have only read about 1968.
I was 12 that year. I believe that was a turning point in American history. My dad made me watch the news with him every night. Well, not every night—I resisted many nights—but many nights I watched with him and here are some of the things I saw. First, that spring, Martin Luther King Jr was gunned down in Memphis. An assassination that led to all sorts of riots across our country. Within just a few months, Robert F. Kennedy, John's little brother who was running for the presidency was killed in California, and that led to all sorts of protests across our country. That August was maybe the one that scared me the most as not even the teenage boy yet because the democratic national convention, where generally people are just supposed to disagree with one another, even shout at one another in the halls, there was virtually armed conflict in the streets of Chicago.
It scared people for months. I mean, all year long, there were Vietnam war protests. My point is, I don't know that I can say 2020 and 2021 were as bad as 1968. All I can say is any police officer serving in either of those two difficult times was facing a tough task and all of these first responders, just like the health care professionals, risk their own welfare on behalf of all of us. I think that is exceptional courage. Now, what you may not know is that everyday heroes who are using exceptional courage and practicing it on our behalf are actually following in the footsteps of some of the greatest biblical characters of all. I think I would say it like this, courage is a hallmark of Jews and Christians over the centuries. All you have to do is read what we call the Old Testament or the Jewish Scriptures to read about the courage of Jewish heroes, Israelite heroes and all you have to do then is read the New Testament and read about the heroes that God placed in the church.
Let me give you some examples. Let's start with Moses. Moses was born into the lap of luxury being raised in the home of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Pharaoh's daughter was Moses’ surrogate mother, so to speak. Well, for 40 years, he had the good life, everything he wanted until one day he was out roaming the streets as a powerful man and he noticed that a very powerful Egyptian overlord was beating a Hebrew slave. He was so angry that he killed the Egyptian overlord, tried to clean it up, buried him right under the sand and hoped nobody saw. But people did see, and so he ran for his life. He went almost a thousand miles east into the sands of Saudi Arabia and in that desert, he became an unknown shepherd for 40 years.
At the age of 80, God came to him and said, “Moses, it’s time for me to free my people. All of my children who were in Egypt, it's time to free them, but I’ve got to have a person, and I'm looking at you. You're my man of courage. The whole story of the Exodus is a story of God using one stuttering, fearful man to become one of the great models of courage in all of human history.
King David, before he was King David, was just a skinny little scrawny teenage boy who watched the sheep while his big brothers were on the military front fighting against the Philistines. One day his father, Jesse, came and said, “David, I want you to take a sandwich to the boys.” It's probably falafel or something, and so he takes an entire meal to his big brothers. When he gets there, he hears the bellowing voice of a giant Philistine by the name of Goliath taunting not only the Israelite army in which David's big brothers were serving, but also the God of Israel, saying, “Your God must be awfully weak, that he doesn't have any men that will come out here and fight me, mano, a mano.”
And so, David asks, “Why aren't y'all doing something? God's name is being embarrassed and all the Israeli army guys said, “Look at him, he's a giant, he's really a giant. He will kill us.” And David said, “Over my dead body! I will risk life and limb to protect God's reputation and our nation.” So he gets the sling and picks up five smooth rocks. He just needed one, and when he unloaded that first one, it sunk into Goliath's head and killed him. Courage that changed the direction of the history of Israel. If you're looking for courage in the Old Testament in the story of the Jews, there's no one better than a woman by the name of Esther.
In some ways, she was just a typical late teenage or young adult Jewish woman living in Persia during the time of the Jewish exile. One day her uncle, Mordecai, came to her and said, “Esther, I just want you to know that there's a beauty contest going on and the king is going to anoint a new queen. Whoever wins will be his queen, and I'll tell you now, you need to apply because Jews are being treated poorly. They're forgetting who we are, and we need someone in the royal court to remind the king that we are God's people.” So Esther says, “I'll try out for the beauty contest!” The book of Esther—a couple of middle chapters are all about this beauty contest. They put makeup on her and all the other women who tried out for about a year, trying to make them look as great as they could.
The king comes out and chooses whom he wants to be his new queen. The king of Persia chooses Esther. We kind of think that's a great story. Little poor Jewish girl becomes the queen of Persia, but that really just sets up the real story because there was a man named Haman who was in the court of the king of Persia, and he was antisemitic. Not only did he hate Jews, but he wanted to kill them all. So he had come up with the second attempt in history as far as we know, to completely destroy the nation of the Jews. The first time of course was when Pharaoh tried to do that and tried to kill all the Jewish boys and destroy an entire nation way back in Moses day. But now, several hundred years later, Haman says, “I'm going to kill all the Jews.”
When Mordecai hears it, he goes to his niece, Esther, and says, “Esther, you're the queen. Who knows but that God put you in this place for this particular time to speak up on our behalf to save our entire nation.” And Esther says she’ll try, and she goes before the king, her husband, and she says, “Oh king, Haman is about to kill all of us, would you please save us?” And by the grace of God, the king hears, answers, turns the tables, kills Haman, elevates Mordecai, and the Jews survived! Talk about courage.
In the New Testament, there's Jesus—the only good man who ever lived, the only man who did everything to honor God, the only man who exemplified kingdom values constantly. And yet he faced crowds, both Jewish and Roman, that were bitter and ugly. Jesus suffered to the point of crucifixion for one reason: to lay down his life and sacrifice himself for us. That's called courage.
What I'm trying to say is that the Bible is filled with stories of people who showed exceptional courage, leaving their footprints for all who are called to show that same kind of exceptional courage in our world. I know we are all thankful for those who showed exceptional courage and sacrificed their welfare and were willing to sacrifice their lives for us over these last 18 months. But for every first responder and healthcare professional who's shown exceptional courage, there are thousands of us who will never have that kind of opportunity. We don't have a job that calls us to show exceptional courage.
What we're called to show is everyday courage. When I talk about everyday courage, I mean when you sacrifice your comfort and convenience for another person, seldom your life, but comfort and convenience. Now, of course, it's not as dramatic. It's not as spectacular. In many ways, it's not as newsworthy. It's certainly not as dangerous as showing exceptional courage, but it's real and it's important.
I have a friend in Birmingham named David. He married his college sweetheart, and, for almost 30 years, they just had a wonderful marriage, raising up their kids to love Christ. Then, when David’s wife turned 49, she developed early onset Alzheimer's. One of the earliest ages I've ever heard of for Alzheimer's. For the last 10 years, she's lived at home as David has watched her slowly slip away. Now, David works full time. He certainly depends on other people to help on a regular basis, but the girls are grown, and David is still the primary caregiver. I call that courage, sacrificing his comfort and his convenience for the bride of his youth.
When Preston Trail started, we reached lots of seekers who didn't know God, but we didn't have very many mature Christians who could help us lead the church. But in the summer of 2003, all of that changed when another start-up church that had failed, reached out to Jim and me to discuss a merger. By October of that year, 2003, over 20 families decided to join us and that really changed the direction of our church in a positive way. One of those couples was Adam and Janell Kimball. Here's a picture of them. They now live in Florida, but they were super faithful while they were here. They had two little girls. Adam was a member of the “Kids Street Gang.” Very athletic guy loved to act and ham it up. That was what we did with kids on the stage.
When we were at the AMC theater, Janell was administrative assistant for Preston Trail, basically the office manager tasked with keeping Jim and me in line. In 2005, she gave birth to their first son, Asher. I went to Presbyterian Plano hospital to visit them and to celebrate, but they weren't in the mood to celebrate. They'd just gotten back from seeing the doctor who told them that Asher had a very rare genetic disease called Williams Syndrome. The prognosis was rough. Here's a picture of Asher now, he's 16. I saw a video on Facebook that just reminded me of his life and helped me tell this story today. Many days in his life and his parents’ and his sisters’ lives have moments of joy. Every day has not one, but dozens of challenges and every day requires everyday courage.
Most of us will never be called to show exceptional courage where we have to lay down our lives. All of us are called to show everyday courage where we lay down our convenience and our comfort to serve other people. You might say, “Okay, Paul, if the Bible is filled with all these stories of exceptional courage, where in the Bible can we learn anything about just everyday courage?” Great question. I found a scripture passage I want to share it with you today. Comes out of 1 Corinthians chapter 16, two simple verses. Verses 13 and 14. For all of you who think Bible verses are too long to memorize, you're in luck. You can memorize this easily. Here it is. Two simple verses. Not even words. “Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. Do everything with love.” These are five quick commands for everyday courage.
Let's look at each one. The first: Be on guard. That means surprise attacks are going to come, be ready. Don't get careless, stay awake, stay alert. Christians, there is a bullseye on your back, the world, the flesh and the devil are all going to be coming after you because your life in the hands of God is a very positive thing in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is a danger to the kingdom of evil, and God knows it and the evil forces know it and want to neutralize you. On Thursday night of passion week, the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, Simon Peter wasn't on guard. He forgot, and as a result, he denied Jesus three times. He forgot about surprise attacks.
Second: Stand firm in the faith. This means don't give up ground. You're going to be pushed. You're going to be cajoled. You're going to be tried. You're going to be tempted, but keep trusting God. That night before crucifixion, when Simon Peter was blowing it, Jesus was being faithful. He entered into the garden of Gethsemane about one in the morning, and he said to his Father, “I know Plan A, I'm to go to the cross. I'm asking you if Plan B is a possibility, however, not my will, but yours. He trusted his Father. He obeyed, he stood firm in his faith.
Then it says be courageous and be strong. Two of the most common commands in all of Scripture. Moses said it to the people of Israel when they were about to go into the promised land after wandering 40 years. God said it to Joshua when Joshua was about to go in with the Israelite army and try to conquer the land. Jesus said it to his disciples when the storm was swamping the boat out in the sea of Galilee and they wondered if this was the time of their deaths, their life passed before their eyes, they looked out and there was a ghost walking on the water. It was Jesus and he said be strong, be courageous.
And then finally it says, “and do everything with love.” I’ve got to tell ya, that surprised me. I didn't expect to see that because what in the world does love have to do with courage? Then I thought about our stories. Well, my friend David in Birmingham loves his wife. That's why he cares for her courageously. Adam and Janell love their little boy, Asher. So they put him in the best schools and get into the best therapists and try to equip him for the best future.
The first responders we know and love, they care for their community, and so they serve even when it's tough. And healthcare workers love their patients and so they seek to make them whole. You can try to have courage without love, but if you do, God is not impressed. In fact, he sees it as a zero.
Here's how the apostle Paul said it. “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If I had the gift of prophecy and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor (and here's the courage moment) and even sacrificed my body (exceptional courage), I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.”
Courage and love in God's eyes, always go together. So I have two questions to ask you today: where do you need to show courage in your life? It might be exceptional. It might be every day, but where do you need to show courage in your life? Would you think about that for a moment? Is there a place where you need to be or a person with whom you need to be sacrificing your comfort and your convenience for the glory of God and for their blessing? Who is it? What situation? Can you picture it?
Second question. Who has shown courage on your behalf and sacrificed for you? Have you thanked them or is it possible that you were so excited for their sacrifice for you that you kind of forgot to thank them because you just took it for granted. The gospel of Luke records an incredible story that I really think helps us understand this last thought. It was a spring of AD 30. Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem with his disciples, and as he's going down to the Southern part of the Galilee and getting ready to head into some area, ten lepers approach him. Leprosy was a terrible disease. And it kept you socially distant from everyone your life. These ten lepers came before Jesus and said, “Jesus, master, please heal us.” And Jesus said so shall it be. Now go to the county health inspectors (which were the priests) and let them look at you, and they will pronounce you clean. So all ten left, and, while they're on their way, they look down and discover that they're healed. I mean all their little body parts are growing back and where their nose and cheeks had caved in, they were now being restored. They couldn't believe it.
Now, if you had leprosy and you'd been healed, what would you do? I know what I would do. I would go to all those places where I'd been rejected, I'd go to the synagogue and say, “Hey everybody, I can listen to the word of God being taught now because I'm whole. Don't make me leave. You can't.” I'd go to the marketplace where people spat upon me and I would say, “Look, I can buy things in your stall!” I would go find my family and I would hug them and hug them. Isn't that what you do? Yeah. So I'm not hard on the nine who never came back. But Jesus pointed out one who was a Samaritan, one leper who, as soon as he found out he was whole, returned. The Bible says he went down on his knees and held Jesus' feet and said thank you.
Sixteen months ago, I got a call from a Rooted group leader telling me about a couple in their group that was in crisis. She was on the boundary between life and death in a Plano hospital. The husband was not allowed—because of COVID—to come in to see her. So he was sitting in his car in the parking lot praying. I called and asked if I could come down. He said no need to, you can't do anything. You can't even come sit in my car at this moment. You can just pray where you are. I said okay. As I listened to him talk, I realized that she had a very dicey future. I realized that his faith was awfully strong and just a few weeks later, I found out more of the story. Here it is, by the grace of God.
Jeff Reynolds:
Our names are Jeff and Shelly Reynolds.
Shelly Reynolds:
On May 6th, 2020. I don't really remember what happened, I guess a little bit before six o'clock, I woke up with three gasping breaths and fell back down. Jeff started CPR and called 911. I was dead for 15 minutes. I was told two firetrucks came and EMTs were able to get a femoral pulse, which enabled them to load me onto the ambulance and take me to the hospital. I spent a week in the hospital, and I was on a cooling protocol that made me lose about six weeks of my memory in that timeframe.
Jeff Reynolds:
A lethal coronary event.
Shelly Reynolds:
Yes, and I had a defibrillator put in, and I'm perfectly fine now.
Jeff Reynolds:
We've had a very trying few years of our lives. Our Rooted group really became our spiritual foundation.
Shelly Reynolds:
They were kind of a lifeline.
Jeff Reynolds:
Yeah, and I felt their presence every step of the way through the very first three or four days when we just couldn't be with Shelly physically and didn't know how this was going to turn out, and it could have gone either way. When you think that you've hit rock bottom and you think that you can't deal with much more, you learn that you can if you've got the help of others around you. That's what I found out, and I'm sure Shelly did when she came to.
Shelly Reynolds:
So many people brought food and everything and I guess everyone liked Tiff's treats cookies and they just had a ton of them. So Lucas said we need to take a bunch of these cookies up to the firemen and so they all did that, and when they were up there, they had said we would really love for you to come back with Shelly, and I was like okay, I’ve got to get in the right frame of mind because I'm a crier. So I had to be able to come to terms with it and I don't know, what was it? Four months?
Jeff Reynolds:
Yeah, I'd say about there.
Shelly Reynolds:
Probably about four months later, I was like okay, I'm ready and so they'd set up a lunch and again, it was COVID. So we had to have our big tables out and we had to be six feet apart.
Shelly Reynolds:
But the guy who really brought me back to life, he came up to me and he said can I give you a hug? And I said yes, I would love to and so we just hugged each other and cried, and he said so many people don't come back and it's so important to us. And so, we've made it a point to go back more often (and I didn't want to do this because I knew I'd be crying), but it's so important for people to go back and thank these guys for what they do.
Jeff Reynolds:
It had shocked us beyond belief, to our core, to know that not many people come back to thank them. So the moments where they have a victory, where things work out and the stars align and prayers are answered, you got to believe, we want to celebrate those moments more so than anything because it gives them hope, and it gives them direction that all the training and all the work that they do is meaningful and that people really appreciate it. Our request to people is hey, spend minutes and just go back and be appreciative of their work and their life's work because it means so much to them.
Shelly Reynolds:
But it means so much to you. I mean what I got out of it. It was awesome.
Jeff Reynolds:
Yep.
Recorded in Frisco, Texas.
My name is Evan. I am currently a Sergeant with the Frisco police department assigned to our community services and media relations division. Most importantly though, I am a father to my daughter, Emily, and I've been married to Erin, one of the most amazing women, for the past 16 years.
Paul:
Tell us about what it was like to be on the police force during 2020.
Evan Mattei :
I remember getting a text message from a friend of mine with a screenshot of the news breaking that the first north Texas COVID patient resided in Frisco, and then it hit me. Okay, well, it’s here. This is real. What is this going to mean for us? Between March and Memorial Day weekend, we had people lining up to support us and in large part that's something that the Frisco police department very greatly enjoys is the support from our community.
And almost overnight, the events that were over a thousand miles away changed that for us. The death of George Floyd, at least in my immediate circle, I know that it really shook us. We knew that we were now going to have to answer those tough questions and that the questions were about to be tougher and that we were going to have to be more transparent than we've ever been, but because we had invested already into the relationship with our community, we were able to successfully take a stand against police brutality and recognize the pain that George Floyd's death caused members of our community. I think one of the biggest things that I learned was what true empathy looks like and to really consider the other side of the coin. If it's my wife or child that's stopped, how do I want the police officer to treat them?
So, I think one of the things that makes me proud is that our department was willing to say that what happened in the death of George Floyd was wrong. We worked with protesters that really wanted to see justice done. We were able to have the opportunity to stand with them and say you know what, you're right. Police brutality is wrong and at Frisco, we're not going to stand for officers doing that. One of the coolest things that happened in one of those protests was captured by a photographer named Kelly Clark. Kelly captured a moment where a demonstrators in one of the protests came up to one of our lieutenants and gave him a high five handshake and with Kelly’s permission, we submitted the photo to the United States Department of Justice, Office of Community Policing for a photo contest for community policing in action, and that photo was actually featured as a winner this past June. To be able to have that showcased on a national stage was something I feel is pretty special. I'm proud to wear the Frisco uniform because of that.
Paul:
Let me ask you a super personal question. You're a follower of Jesus. Yeah, and you’re a law enforcement officer, how does your faith in Jesus impact and influence what you do every day?
Evan Mattei :
To me, Jesus' example is to really demonstrate love to everybody. Love God and love your neighbor and when as a police officer, you realize and internalize that everyone is your neighbor, you do your best to act like Jesus. I think one of the most important things to know is that police officers are not robots. We care deeply about our community, and we care deeply about keeping good people safe.
Paul:
Well on behalf of all Preston Trail Community Church I want to say thank you.
Evan Mattei :
Thank you.
Paul:
It was a joy to be in the home of Evan Mattei and to be able to talk to him about that. My very favorite statement he made was right at the end when he said police officers are not robots. That's certainly how all of us would want people to feel about our jobs that when we stood up for whatever we do, that we're not robots and they are really just humans who've chosen a job. I think many of them will even say they accepted what they believe is a call and it involves them being exposed to danger and that is true for all law enforcement officers and for all first responders, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs. It's true for all healthcare professionals whether in the medical world, the dental world, pharmaceutical world or therapy world. So today we celebrate these two big umbrella groups of people who have served so well.
First responders, healthcare professionals for all the courage they showed, all the sacrifices they've made for us and as we celebrate them, we also are listening for the voice of God to speak to all of us who likely will not show that kind of crazy courage and make those kinds of wild sacrifices. Yet God still calls us every day to live lives of courage. Courage is one of the most important aspects of all of human life. Centuries ago, even millennia ago, in ancient Greek thought, they talked about four cardinal virtues. Now, we don't use the word virtue much, it just means a really good quality, right? A virtuous person. It's the opposite of a vice, and so these four Cardinal virtues were called justice, self-control, wisdom, and courage. Meaning, if you kept those four traits and developed those four character qualities, you would become a truly virtuous, a good person.
How do you become a good person? Practice those four virtues. So courage has been held in the highest regard for thousands of years and when I talk about courage, here's what I mean. Courage is the strength to face something that is difficult or dangerous rather than withdraw. That is, often in life, many times in life, we will come to a fork in the road and have to either choose to withdraw if there's a dangerous moment or a difficult moment in front of us, or we will choose to engage. When we choose to engage, it will call for courage, and courage is sometimes so ethereal, it's sometimes so glamorized that we forget to understand what it truly is.
Let me share two insights I've received over the years that I'll pass on to you today that I hope will deepen your understanding of courage. The first comes from a British Christian over 100 years ago. G.K. Chesterton wrote that courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. Interesting. I love that. Think about the person that goes into the military, almost none would say, “Hey, I sure hope I die,” but they would all say, but I'm willing to die for my country.
No one goes into a job in life saying, “I sure hope I die,” but some jobs call for such courage that you are ready to die. You desire to live, but if necessary, you'll die. I think that's a great insight. Helps us keep the tension. The second insight comes from C.S. Lewis who said courage is not simply one of those four virtues, but rather it is the form of every virtue at the testing point. A point where you will be tested. You cannot practice any of the other virtues very long without bringing this one into play. So think about the other virtues. Justice was the first one. If you're going to practice justice, at some point, you are going to be pushed to no longer be just. There'll be voices that will tell you to stop trying to make that injustice right.
And it will take courage to continue to be just. Self-control was another one of the virtues. If you find yourself really seeking to practice self-control and not let lust just run you over and have its way in your life, then at some point it’s going to take incredible courage to say “no” to what feels good at the moment, but will wreck your life. Or take another example: wisdom. When you and I choose to practice wisdom, at some point, there will be naysayers who will criticize us and make fun of us and say, “you're so foolish,” and we're saying it's not foolishness it's wisdom. At that point, it will take courage to keep on living out wisdom. I believe when we understand courage at this deeper level, with the insights of Chesterton and Lewis, we can then begin to talk about the two kinds of courage that are before us in life.
These two kinds of courage first are exceptional courage, you might also call this extraordinary courage. Exceptional courage is when you sacrifice your life for another person. You literally are ready to sacrifice, and you actually do sacrifice your welfare, your health, your success, those things that you own, your worldly goods, including even your life's blood for another person. Today's heroes whom we are celebrating have shown exceptional courage. They'd probably done it their whole lives, but we saw it especially when COVID began in March of 2020 and they have not stopped yet. So let's talk about and thank God for each of these groups. First, healthcare professionals. Over the last 18 months, they have cared for the health needs of people with a rare virus that wasn't even initially identified. They've done that in their offices and in crazy emergency rooms.
They have done that in urgent care clinics. They've done that in hospitals. They've done that in nursing homes. They've done it in rehab centers and in some cases they've gone all the way into the people's homes, and by the way, while they're caring for people with COVID, they're also caring for all of us who didn't have COVID issues, but still needed to see a doctor or a dentist. It's not like every single potential health issue in your life went on hold during COVID. You still had to have help in other areas of life, and these healthcare professionals were caring for us even then. They had to maintain an up until then, unknown, extraordinary level of cleaning, disinfecting, and hygiene to protect themselves and their patients, and in the process, they gave the highest level of care to each of us. What I'm saying is healthcare professionals risk their own welfare and were willing to risk their own lives on behalf of all of us. That is exceptional courage.
We’re also paying homage to first responders today. Firefighters, EMT, paramedics consistently gave life-saving emergency care in life-threatening situations. They've always done that, but now, all of a sudden, COVID was added to the mix. It was either in the background or in the forefront and in the minds of many, perhaps most of those particular groups of folks had to ask as they went into someone's home, “I wonder if this is the day I'm going to catch COVID. I wonder if this is the day that I will have to go into quarantine because I have now been infected.” Now law enforcement officers are also a part of the first responders, and they kept order in the most hostile political and social climate since 1968. Some of you have only read about 1968.
I was 12 that year. I believe that was a turning point in American history. My dad made me watch the news with him every night. Well, not every night—I resisted many nights—but many nights I watched with him and here are some of the things I saw. First, that spring, Martin Luther King Jr was gunned down in Memphis. An assassination that led to all sorts of riots across our country. Within just a few months, Robert F. Kennedy, John's little brother who was running for the presidency was killed in California, and that led to all sorts of protests across our country. That August was maybe the one that scared me the most as not even the teenage boy yet because the democratic national convention, where generally people are just supposed to disagree with one another, even shout at one another in the halls, there was virtually armed conflict in the streets of Chicago.
It scared people for months. I mean, all year long, there were Vietnam war protests. My point is, I don't know that I can say 2020 and 2021 were as bad as 1968. All I can say is any police officer serving in either of those two difficult times was facing a tough task and all of these first responders, just like the health care professionals, risk their own welfare on behalf of all of us. I think that is exceptional courage. Now, what you may not know is that everyday heroes who are using exceptional courage and practicing it on our behalf are actually following in the footsteps of some of the greatest biblical characters of all. I think I would say it like this, courage is a hallmark of Jews and Christians over the centuries. All you have to do is read what we call the Old Testament or the Jewish Scriptures to read about the courage of Jewish heroes, Israelite heroes and all you have to do then is read the New Testament and read about the heroes that God placed in the church.
Let me give you some examples. Let's start with Moses. Moses was born into the lap of luxury being raised in the home of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Pharaoh's daughter was Moses’ surrogate mother, so to speak. Well, for 40 years, he had the good life, everything he wanted until one day he was out roaming the streets as a powerful man and he noticed that a very powerful Egyptian overlord was beating a Hebrew slave. He was so angry that he killed the Egyptian overlord, tried to clean it up, buried him right under the sand and hoped nobody saw. But people did see, and so he ran for his life. He went almost a thousand miles east into the sands of Saudi Arabia and in that desert, he became an unknown shepherd for 40 years.
At the age of 80, God came to him and said, “Moses, it’s time for me to free my people. All of my children who were in Egypt, it's time to free them, but I’ve got to have a person, and I'm looking at you. You're my man of courage. The whole story of the Exodus is a story of God using one stuttering, fearful man to become one of the great models of courage in all of human history.
King David, before he was King David, was just a skinny little scrawny teenage boy who watched the sheep while his big brothers were on the military front fighting against the Philistines. One day his father, Jesse, came and said, “David, I want you to take a sandwich to the boys.” It's probably falafel or something, and so he takes an entire meal to his big brothers. When he gets there, he hears the bellowing voice of a giant Philistine by the name of Goliath taunting not only the Israelite army in which David's big brothers were serving, but also the God of Israel, saying, “Your God must be awfully weak, that he doesn't have any men that will come out here and fight me, mano, a mano.”
And so, David asks, “Why aren't y'all doing something? God's name is being embarrassed and all the Israeli army guys said, “Look at him, he's a giant, he's really a giant. He will kill us.” And David said, “Over my dead body! I will risk life and limb to protect God's reputation and our nation.” So he gets the sling and picks up five smooth rocks. He just needed one, and when he unloaded that first one, it sunk into Goliath's head and killed him. Courage that changed the direction of the history of Israel. If you're looking for courage in the Old Testament in the story of the Jews, there's no one better than a woman by the name of Esther.
In some ways, she was just a typical late teenage or young adult Jewish woman living in Persia during the time of the Jewish exile. One day her uncle, Mordecai, came to her and said, “Esther, I just want you to know that there's a beauty contest going on and the king is going to anoint a new queen. Whoever wins will be his queen, and I'll tell you now, you need to apply because Jews are being treated poorly. They're forgetting who we are, and we need someone in the royal court to remind the king that we are God's people.” So Esther says, “I'll try out for the beauty contest!” The book of Esther—a couple of middle chapters are all about this beauty contest. They put makeup on her and all the other women who tried out for about a year, trying to make them look as great as they could.
The king comes out and chooses whom he wants to be his new queen. The king of Persia chooses Esther. We kind of think that's a great story. Little poor Jewish girl becomes the queen of Persia, but that really just sets up the real story because there was a man named Haman who was in the court of the king of Persia, and he was antisemitic. Not only did he hate Jews, but he wanted to kill them all. So he had come up with the second attempt in history as far as we know, to completely destroy the nation of the Jews. The first time of course was when Pharaoh tried to do that and tried to kill all the Jewish boys and destroy an entire nation way back in Moses day. But now, several hundred years later, Haman says, “I'm going to kill all the Jews.”
When Mordecai hears it, he goes to his niece, Esther, and says, “Esther, you're the queen. Who knows but that God put you in this place for this particular time to speak up on our behalf to save our entire nation.” And Esther says she’ll try, and she goes before the king, her husband, and she says, “Oh king, Haman is about to kill all of us, would you please save us?” And by the grace of God, the king hears, answers, turns the tables, kills Haman, elevates Mordecai, and the Jews survived! Talk about courage.
In the New Testament, there's Jesus—the only good man who ever lived, the only man who did everything to honor God, the only man who exemplified kingdom values constantly. And yet he faced crowds, both Jewish and Roman, that were bitter and ugly. Jesus suffered to the point of crucifixion for one reason: to lay down his life and sacrifice himself for us. That's called courage.
What I'm trying to say is that the Bible is filled with stories of people who showed exceptional courage, leaving their footprints for all who are called to show that same kind of exceptional courage in our world. I know we are all thankful for those who showed exceptional courage and sacrificed their welfare and were willing to sacrifice their lives for us over these last 18 months. But for every first responder and healthcare professional who's shown exceptional courage, there are thousands of us who will never have that kind of opportunity. We don't have a job that calls us to show exceptional courage.
What we're called to show is everyday courage. When I talk about everyday courage, I mean when you sacrifice your comfort and convenience for another person, seldom your life, but comfort and convenience. Now, of course, it's not as dramatic. It's not as spectacular. In many ways, it's not as newsworthy. It's certainly not as dangerous as showing exceptional courage, but it's real and it's important.
I have a friend in Birmingham named David. He married his college sweetheart, and, for almost 30 years, they just had a wonderful marriage, raising up their kids to love Christ. Then, when David’s wife turned 49, she developed early onset Alzheimer's. One of the earliest ages I've ever heard of for Alzheimer's. For the last 10 years, she's lived at home as David has watched her slowly slip away. Now, David works full time. He certainly depends on other people to help on a regular basis, but the girls are grown, and David is still the primary caregiver. I call that courage, sacrificing his comfort and his convenience for the bride of his youth.
When Preston Trail started, we reached lots of seekers who didn't know God, but we didn't have very many mature Christians who could help us lead the church. But in the summer of 2003, all of that changed when another start-up church that had failed, reached out to Jim and me to discuss a merger. By October of that year, 2003, over 20 families decided to join us and that really changed the direction of our church in a positive way. One of those couples was Adam and Janell Kimball. Here's a picture of them. They now live in Florida, but they were super faithful while they were here. They had two little girls. Adam was a member of the “Kids Street Gang.” Very athletic guy loved to act and ham it up. That was what we did with kids on the stage.
When we were at the AMC theater, Janell was administrative assistant for Preston Trail, basically the office manager tasked with keeping Jim and me in line. In 2005, she gave birth to their first son, Asher. I went to Presbyterian Plano hospital to visit them and to celebrate, but they weren't in the mood to celebrate. They'd just gotten back from seeing the doctor who told them that Asher had a very rare genetic disease called Williams Syndrome. The prognosis was rough. Here's a picture of Asher now, he's 16. I saw a video on Facebook that just reminded me of his life and helped me tell this story today. Many days in his life and his parents’ and his sisters’ lives have moments of joy. Every day has not one, but dozens of challenges and every day requires everyday courage.
Most of us will never be called to show exceptional courage where we have to lay down our lives. All of us are called to show everyday courage where we lay down our convenience and our comfort to serve other people. You might say, “Okay, Paul, if the Bible is filled with all these stories of exceptional courage, where in the Bible can we learn anything about just everyday courage?” Great question. I found a scripture passage I want to share it with you today. Comes out of 1 Corinthians chapter 16, two simple verses. Verses 13 and 14. For all of you who think Bible verses are too long to memorize, you're in luck. You can memorize this easily. Here it is. Two simple verses. Not even words. “Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. Do everything with love.” These are five quick commands for everyday courage.
Let's look at each one. The first: Be on guard. That means surprise attacks are going to come, be ready. Don't get careless, stay awake, stay alert. Christians, there is a bullseye on your back, the world, the flesh and the devil are all going to be coming after you because your life in the hands of God is a very positive thing in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is a danger to the kingdom of evil, and God knows it and the evil forces know it and want to neutralize you. On Thursday night of passion week, the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, Simon Peter wasn't on guard. He forgot, and as a result, he denied Jesus three times. He forgot about surprise attacks.
Second: Stand firm in the faith. This means don't give up ground. You're going to be pushed. You're going to be cajoled. You're going to be tried. You're going to be tempted, but keep trusting God. That night before crucifixion, when Simon Peter was blowing it, Jesus was being faithful. He entered into the garden of Gethsemane about one in the morning, and he said to his Father, “I know Plan A, I'm to go to the cross. I'm asking you if Plan B is a possibility, however, not my will, but yours. He trusted his Father. He obeyed, he stood firm in his faith.
Then it says be courageous and be strong. Two of the most common commands in all of Scripture. Moses said it to the people of Israel when they were about to go into the promised land after wandering 40 years. God said it to Joshua when Joshua was about to go in with the Israelite army and try to conquer the land. Jesus said it to his disciples when the storm was swamping the boat out in the sea of Galilee and they wondered if this was the time of their deaths, their life passed before their eyes, they looked out and there was a ghost walking on the water. It was Jesus and he said be strong, be courageous.
And then finally it says, “and do everything with love.” I’ve got to tell ya, that surprised me. I didn't expect to see that because what in the world does love have to do with courage? Then I thought about our stories. Well, my friend David in Birmingham loves his wife. That's why he cares for her courageously. Adam and Janell love their little boy, Asher. So they put him in the best schools and get into the best therapists and try to equip him for the best future.
The first responders we know and love, they care for their community, and so they serve even when it's tough. And healthcare workers love their patients and so they seek to make them whole. You can try to have courage without love, but if you do, God is not impressed. In fact, he sees it as a zero.
Here's how the apostle Paul said it. “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If I had the gift of prophecy and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor (and here's the courage moment) and even sacrificed my body (exceptional courage), I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.”
Courage and love in God's eyes, always go together. So I have two questions to ask you today: where do you need to show courage in your life? It might be exceptional. It might be every day, but where do you need to show courage in your life? Would you think about that for a moment? Is there a place where you need to be or a person with whom you need to be sacrificing your comfort and your convenience for the glory of God and for their blessing? Who is it? What situation? Can you picture it?
Second question. Who has shown courage on your behalf and sacrificed for you? Have you thanked them or is it possible that you were so excited for their sacrifice for you that you kind of forgot to thank them because you just took it for granted. The gospel of Luke records an incredible story that I really think helps us understand this last thought. It was a spring of AD 30. Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem with his disciples, and as he's going down to the Southern part of the Galilee and getting ready to head into some area, ten lepers approach him. Leprosy was a terrible disease. And it kept you socially distant from everyone your life. These ten lepers came before Jesus and said, “Jesus, master, please heal us.” And Jesus said so shall it be. Now go to the county health inspectors (which were the priests) and let them look at you, and they will pronounce you clean. So all ten left, and, while they're on their way, they look down and discover that they're healed. I mean all their little body parts are growing back and where their nose and cheeks had caved in, they were now being restored. They couldn't believe it.
Now, if you had leprosy and you'd been healed, what would you do? I know what I would do. I would go to all those places where I'd been rejected, I'd go to the synagogue and say, “Hey everybody, I can listen to the word of God being taught now because I'm whole. Don't make me leave. You can't.” I'd go to the marketplace where people spat upon me and I would say, “Look, I can buy things in your stall!” I would go find my family and I would hug them and hug them. Isn't that what you do? Yeah. So I'm not hard on the nine who never came back. But Jesus pointed out one who was a Samaritan, one leper who, as soon as he found out he was whole, returned. The Bible says he went down on his knees and held Jesus' feet and said thank you.
Sixteen months ago, I got a call from a Rooted group leader telling me about a couple in their group that was in crisis. She was on the boundary between life and death in a Plano hospital. The husband was not allowed—because of COVID—to come in to see her. So he was sitting in his car in the parking lot praying. I called and asked if I could come down. He said no need to, you can't do anything. You can't even come sit in my car at this moment. You can just pray where you are. I said okay. As I listened to him talk, I realized that she had a very dicey future. I realized that his faith was awfully strong and just a few weeks later, I found out more of the story. Here it is, by the grace of God.
Jeff Reynolds:
Our names are Jeff and Shelly Reynolds.
Shelly Reynolds:
On May 6th, 2020. I don't really remember what happened, I guess a little bit before six o'clock, I woke up with three gasping breaths and fell back down. Jeff started CPR and called 911. I was dead for 15 minutes. I was told two firetrucks came and EMTs were able to get a femoral pulse, which enabled them to load me onto the ambulance and take me to the hospital. I spent a week in the hospital, and I was on a cooling protocol that made me lose about six weeks of my memory in that timeframe.
Jeff Reynolds:
A lethal coronary event.
Shelly Reynolds:
Yes, and I had a defibrillator put in, and I'm perfectly fine now.
Jeff Reynolds:
We've had a very trying few years of our lives. Our Rooted group really became our spiritual foundation.
Shelly Reynolds:
They were kind of a lifeline.
Jeff Reynolds:
Yeah, and I felt their presence every step of the way through the very first three or four days when we just couldn't be with Shelly physically and didn't know how this was going to turn out, and it could have gone either way. When you think that you've hit rock bottom and you think that you can't deal with much more, you learn that you can if you've got the help of others around you. That's what I found out, and I'm sure Shelly did when she came to.
Shelly Reynolds:
So many people brought food and everything and I guess everyone liked Tiff's treats cookies and they just had a ton of them. So Lucas said we need to take a bunch of these cookies up to the firemen and so they all did that, and when they were up there, they had said we would really love for you to come back with Shelly, and I was like okay, I’ve got to get in the right frame of mind because I'm a crier. So I had to be able to come to terms with it and I don't know, what was it? Four months?
Jeff Reynolds:
Yeah, I'd say about there.
Shelly Reynolds:
Probably about four months later, I was like okay, I'm ready and so they'd set up a lunch and again, it was COVID. So we had to have our big tables out and we had to be six feet apart.
Shelly Reynolds:
But the guy who really brought me back to life, he came up to me and he said can I give you a hug? And I said yes, I would love to and so we just hugged each other and cried, and he said so many people don't come back and it's so important to us. And so, we've made it a point to go back more often (and I didn't want to do this because I knew I'd be crying), but it's so important for people to go back and thank these guys for what they do.
Jeff Reynolds:
It had shocked us beyond belief, to our core, to know that not many people come back to thank them. So the moments where they have a victory, where things work out and the stars align and prayers are answered, you got to believe, we want to celebrate those moments more so than anything because it gives them hope, and it gives them direction that all the training and all the work that they do is meaningful and that people really appreciate it. Our request to people is hey, spend minutes and just go back and be appreciative of their work and their life's work because it means so much to them.
Shelly Reynolds:
But it means so much to you. I mean what I got out of it. It was awesome.
Jeff Reynolds:
Yep.
Recorded in Frisco, Texas.
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