Speaker 1: Lord, would you meet with us again. I'm glad you
Speaker 1: gathered together under the name of Jesus today, wherever you're at,
Speaker 1: in one of our locations or part of our epham,
Speaker 1: because God's got something for you today. I believe it.
Speaker 1: Because he woke you up today, he puts you in
Speaker 1: one of our locations, or he puts you on this stream,
Speaker 1: it's because he's got something he wants to speak to you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be in Matthew chapter sixteen. Pastor Steven's been
Speaker 1: in this season. He's preached about Peter quite a bit.
Speaker 1: And when he preached a couple of weeks ago about
Speaker 1: Peter never stop Knocking, and the Lord said, you're Peter.
Speaker 1: You need to talk about yourself. You need to talk
Speaker 1: about Peters. What the assignment is today? And Matthew sixteen
Speaker 1: it says when Jesus came to the region of Cesarea Philippi,
Speaker 1: he asked his disciples, who do people say the Son
Speaker 1: of Man is now? It's good for us to know
Speaker 1: in the scriptures that if Jesus is asking a question,
Speaker 1: it's not because he's lacking information. He is the answer.
Speaker 1: He knows what you're thinking before you even think it.
Speaker 1: He's not asking you to see what the answer is.
Speaker 1: He's asking BASI wants to give you a revelation. I
Speaker 1: wonder what question Jesus is asking you today, because he
Speaker 1: wants to reveal something to you. He's wondering, what do
Speaker 1: they say? Say they? They replied, Some say John the Baptist,
Speaker 1: others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah, one of the prophets.
Speaker 1: But what about you, he asked, who do you say?
Speaker 1: You know? Say you? And there's this tension that's set
Speaker 1: up in the text between what they and what you.
Speaker 1: And I think that's where humanity is found is between
Speaker 1: those two extremes. It's in that space. Jesus replied, Actually,
Speaker 1: Simon Peter answered, of course he did, as Simon always
Speaker 1: feels in that empty space with something. Simon Peter answered,
Speaker 1: you are the Messiah, the son of the Living God,
Speaker 1: Verse seventeen. Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon's son of Jonah.
Speaker 1: For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood,
Speaker 1: but by my Father in Heaven. And I tell you
Speaker 1: that you are Peter, and on this rock I will
Speaker 1: build my church, and the gates of Hades will not
Speaker 1: overcome it, and the title for today's message is this
Speaker 1: is between two extremes, between typing into the comments and
Speaker 1: I want to force you to the extreme. You got
Speaker 1: a person on your right or your left, if you're
Speaker 1: in one of our physical locations, pick one of them,
Speaker 1: whichever is your favorite, and tell them good morning. For
Speaker 1: those of you online, Epham, type into the comments, whoever
Speaker 1: your favorite person is, just let them know. After you've
Speaker 1: done that, you could have a seat. I know I
Speaker 1: created a fight for later in the day. Some of
Speaker 1: you you're caught between it, and you're saying I love
Speaker 1: both of you because you don't like being forced to
Speaker 1: the extreme. Hey, but one of the values of our
Speaker 1: ministry is gratitude is never silent, and it would be
Speaker 1: remiss for me to take this moment to honor our pastors.
Speaker 1: Gratitude is never silent. Look at it this way, what
Speaker 1: if what you failed to celebrate today were not in
Speaker 1: your life tomorrow. Gratitude is a currency. I wonder how
Speaker 1: well you're investing into the people around you with the
Speaker 1: spirit of gratitude. So I just wanted to take a
Speaker 1: moment to thank Pastor Stephen and Pastor Holly for the
Speaker 1: way they lead this ministry each and every week. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: And he's been my pastor forever seventeen years. And he's
Speaker 1: pretty amazing on the stage. But as awesome as he
Speaker 1: is on the stage, he's even better off the stage.
Speaker 1: He gathered a group of staff around me early this
Speaker 1: week just to pray for me. He took time out
Speaker 1: of his schedule just to create that moment. So Pastor Stephen,
Speaker 1: we love you. And so this story we're in right
Speaker 1: now out of Matthew chapter sixteen, it's a pivot point
Speaker 1: in the journey of Jesus. He knows his assignment is
Speaker 1: to get to the cross, but he has not actually
Speaker 1: divulged those details to his desire piples yet. They've been
Speaker 1: following him for about a year and a half or so,
Speaker 1: they have not heard him talk about I must die
Speaker 1: on the cross. He's about to reveal those things. So
Speaker 1: Jesus is taking his disciples to a place where he's
Speaker 1: going to start asking them some questions. Who do they
Speaker 1: say I am? And who do you say that I am?
Speaker 1: Because the process is about to change, because all of
Speaker 1: that is going to be brought into question, and Jesus
Speaker 1: is preparing them for the next part of the journey.
Speaker 1: Jesus is asking you questions today because he's preparing you
Speaker 1: for the next part of the journey. So as we
Speaker 1: jump into this text, the two words that spoke up
Speaker 1: to me about Jesus in this space is identity and assignment.
Speaker 1: It's these are questions of identity. Who do they say? Now,
Speaker 1: he is not starving for attention. He's not trying to
Speaker 1: stroke his ego. He's not a politician trying to see
Speaker 1: how he's doing in the national polls. He's not asking
Speaker 1: these questions to float himself. He's asking these questions because, hey, disciples,
Speaker 1: who do they say? But more importantly, who do you say? Identity?
Speaker 1: These are questions of identity, but assignment. Jesus knew his
Speaker 1: assignment was to go to the cross. Those are two
Speaker 1: key concepts. But I wrote this down. Confidence in identity
Speaker 1: leads to obedience in the assignment. Confidence in identity leads
Speaker 1: to obedience in the assignment. You see will often pray, Lord,
Speaker 1: give me confidence in the assignment. No, no, no, there's
Speaker 1: an order to this thing called faith. Before we deal
Speaker 1: with the assignment, We've got to deal with the identity.
Speaker 1: So as he's going through these two questions, who do
Speaker 1: they say and who do you say? I want you
Speaker 1: to listen at multiple levels. I want to underscore what
Speaker 1: Pastor Stephen said last week. How will often trivialize the Bible,
Speaker 1: saying it's just, you know, God's little instruction book for people. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's not it. I heard a old preacher man say
Speaker 1: it like this once he goes the Bible. It's basic
Speaker 1: instructions before leaving earth. No, it's not basic instructions before
Speaker 1: leaving earth. It's not his little instruction. But no, no, no.
Speaker 1: The purpose of scripture is to reveal Jesus. The primary
Speaker 1: purpose of the text is to reveal Jesus into your life.
Speaker 1: That's why he gives it to us. There's an order
Speaker 1: to the text. So when we start looking at these questions,
Speaker 1: who do they and who do you? The first level
Speaker 1: I want you listening at is Jesus. Who do they
Speaker 1: say Jesus is? And who do you say Jesus is?
Speaker 1: Because there is some teenage boy in another part of
Speaker 1: the country who's watching this in his bedroom with the
Speaker 1: door closed and his earphones on, and he's underneath his
Speaker 1: covers watching this because he knew if they found out
Speaker 1: he was watching church, he would get in trouble, but
Speaker 1: something has been stirred in his heart and he is
Speaker 1: trying to answer the questions who is Jesus to me?
Speaker 1: Who do I say that Jesus is? That's really happening.
Speaker 1: And there's somebody in another part of the world that's
Speaker 1: watching on a screen. And they knew if they found out,
Speaker 1: they would be killed for their faith, but they said,
Speaker 1: I love Jesus too much, and even if those are
Speaker 1: the circumstances, I must follow him. Who do they say?
Speaker 1: And who do you say? And then the next level,
Speaker 1: because oh aw Tozer says this. He says, what comes
Speaker 1: into your mind when you think about God is the
Speaker 1: most important thing about you. What comes into your mind
Speaker 1: when you think about God is the most important thing
Speaker 1: about you. So I want you listening at that level
Speaker 1: of who do they say he is? And then who
Speaker 1: do you say? But I also wants you listening at
Speaker 1: the level of you, who do they say that you are?
Speaker 1: And then Jesus, who do you say that I am?
Speaker 1: And I need you listening at both of those levels.
Speaker 1: And some of you are like, oh, I already got
Speaker 1: the answer the gold star. I know who Jesus is
Speaker 1: you know, he's the word, he's the flash, He's all this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you've been coming to church for twenty years and you
Speaker 1: get the gold star, and you get the sticker, and
Speaker 1: you talk about Jesus for ninety minutes on Sunday, but
Speaker 1: you live like hell Monday through Saturday. Because the answer
Speaker 1: is not with your language, it's with their lifestyle. The
Speaker 1: answer to these things are not ultimately described in what
Speaker 1: you say, because at the end of this in verse twenty,
Speaker 1: Jesus and don't tell anybody he's the Messiah. Why would
Speaker 1: he make that out landish claim because he says, it's
Speaker 1: not about what you say. Words are cheap, and I'm
Speaker 1: tired of you throwing out cheap race. I once you
Speaker 1: counting the cost of really what it means to follow Jesus,
Speaker 1: because as these disciples move forward from this moment, it
Speaker 1: will cost them everything, but they will come to these
Speaker 1: places of who do they say? And who do you say?
Speaker 1: In this text, Peter is the central character. He's the
Speaker 1: guy that speaks of of course he does. That's Peter.
Speaker 1: He's also called Simon for those of you that are
Speaker 1: knew the church. He's got two names. Simon is the
Speaker 1: birth name he was given. It means shifty, it means fluid.
Speaker 1: It almost paints a picture of water, like is that?
Speaker 1: But now when he encounters Christ, he's given a new name,
Speaker 1: Peter Petrush rock. You want to talk about extremes, water
Speaker 1: and a rock. One other theologian says it was the
Speaker 1: name Simon would be translated as flat nosed. Picture a
Speaker 1: guy who's constantly running into a wall, like that's Peter.
Speaker 1: He is extreme. This dude is all over the place.
Speaker 1: When Jesus says, Hey, the disciples, I need to wash
Speaker 1: your feet, He's like, wash all of me. Lord. He's
Speaker 1: the guy who's banging on the door. He's the guy
Speaker 1: who's cutting ears off. He is so extreme. And I
Speaker 1: relate to Peter because I am so extreme. My wife
Speaker 1: and i've been a part of the church since we started,
Speaker 1: one of the original eight families, and I remember about
Speaker 1: one and a half years into the ministry. We had
Speaker 1: two locations at that point, and we really wanted to
Speaker 1: be at another high school that was in the area.
Speaker 1: But when we started the church, the principal there didn't
Speaker 1: like churches. But we're sitting in a staff meeting and
Speaker 1: now we hear, oh, there's a new principle. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, I got my new assignment. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: get us into that school. So I drive over to
Speaker 1: the school and I drive up. There's only a couple
Speaker 1: of cars there because it's a vacation day. Not dang it.
Speaker 1: But I walk up to the front door. I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's locked. I go to the next doors, go to
Speaker 1: the next doors. They start walking on the side of
Speaker 1: the school and start pushing on windows. I go to
Speaker 1: the back of the school and I see this long
Speaker 1: horizontal window above a dumpster. So i'd climb up on
Speaker 1: top of the dumpster and I push the window and
Speaker 1: it opens up, and I shimmy my way in through
Speaker 1: this long, narrow window above a dumpster. And I make
Speaker 1: my way up to the front office and I walk
Speaker 1: in and the woman goes, you're Larry Bride from Elevation, Like,
Speaker 1: how does you know me? You've been watching me on
Speaker 1: close camera. I'm expecting like the cops to bust in
Speaker 1: any moment. And she goes, my husband and I we've
Speaker 1: been coming and my kids have been coming for about
Speaker 1: eight weeks now to your Providence location. She said, we
Speaker 1: ended up there because we told her kids about two
Speaker 1: months ago that we were going to get divorced. Her
Speaker 1: husband and I and the kids just begg said, no, MOhm,
Speaker 1: we can't do this. How about we go to church.
Speaker 1: There's a church meeting at the high school we go
Speaker 1: to at Providence High School. How about we go check
Speaker 1: them out? And through tears, she starts to tell me
Speaker 1: how both of their daughters gave their life to Jesus
Speaker 1: and they were committed to making the marriage work and
Speaker 1: or staying in it. My goodness, what I'm telling some
Speaker 1: of you is you are way too passive about the
Speaker 1: promises of God. There is a blessing God has for you.
Speaker 1: It's on the other side of that door. But you
Speaker 1: keep letting. They tell you you can't have access to it.
Speaker 1: You keep walking up and say, well, it's not an
Speaker 1: open door. Kick the freaking door down. I'm telling you
Speaker 1: there's a blessing on the other side. Breaking through a window,
Speaker 1: bust through that wall, get your blessing. Come on. We
Speaker 1: got to be extreme for the things of God. But
Speaker 1: extreme is like a rubber band. However hard I pull
Speaker 1: it this way, it's got a rebound just as big
Speaker 1: to the other side. Because though how many of you
Speaker 1: are extreme? Be honest with me. We have extreme highs
Speaker 1: and we have extreme lows. Tho, wie, that's the crazy
Speaker 1: part about those of us that are extreme. Peter had
Speaker 1: those two because he's now just called you are the
Speaker 1: rock I'll build my church. The next couple verses, Jesus
Speaker 1: begins to say, hey, I'm going to go to the cross.
Speaker 1: This is my assignment. And here's what happens in verse
Speaker 1: twenty two of chapter sixteen, and Matthew Peter took him
Speaker 1: aside and he began to rebuke him. Never Lord, he said,
Speaker 1: this shall never happen to you. Jesus turned to Peter
Speaker 1: said get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me.
Speaker 1: How do you go from being the building block to
Speaker 1: being a stumbling block, Peter? Because we're extreme. In a
Speaker 1: matter of a couple verses, Peter would be this guy
Speaker 1: who'd say, Jesus, I'll never ever deny you. I'll never
Speaker 1: deny you. But when they start asking him, do you
Speaker 1: know you know Jesus, he starts denying him, and it
Speaker 1: says before the rooster code he wept bitterly. How do
Speaker 1: you go from wielding a sword to protect Jesus to
Speaker 1: weeping bitterly because you just denied him because we are
Speaker 1: extreme and we're between these two extremes, and it hurts
Speaker 1: and even me as I was preparing for this sermon.
Speaker 1: I was here yesterday, over here, going, oh Lord, this
Speaker 1: is awesome, this is exactly what they need. Thirty seconds later,
Speaker 1: I'm laying in the middle of it, going, Lord, I
Speaker 1: got nothing. Could we play a sermon from twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: a pastor's theme, And it's so much better Because I'm extreme.
Speaker 1: That's why I relate to Peter. And if you're extreme,
Speaker 1: maybe you could relate to this. But if I could
Speaker 1: really confess something, it's this. It's like, I give a
Speaker 1: lot of weight today. And I know most preachers will
Speaker 1: stand up and talk about well back in nineteen hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty two. Nope, this is a real struggle. As
Speaker 1: I stand before you today, I give a lot of
Speaker 1: weight today. If I could really be honest confession time,
Speaker 1: I'm a people pleaser. Are there any other people pleasers here? Oh? Please,
Speaker 1: don't leave me in this spitting thing by myself. Come on, please,
Speaker 1: Like I'm a people pleaser. My wife is the one
Speaker 1: who really helped me realize that we've been married for
Speaker 1: this year, be twenty two years. My wife's Jean, and
Speaker 1: she's the one who really helped me realize this and
Speaker 1: early on in the in our marriage, you're one of marriage.
Speaker 1: I'm you're one anniversary. I'm making like this amazing dinner.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to score up marital points for marital blessings.
Speaker 1: And but we're at dinner. And for those of us
Speaker 1: that are extreme, it doesn't take very You can get
Speaker 1: from zero too hundred in a fight like that, cause
Speaker 1: you use Here's how you get to a fight really quickly.
Speaker 1: You use extreme language. You always, oh yeah, you never,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah you never, Oh yeah, you always. And Michael
Speaker 1: Buffer's like, let's get ready to rumble. Don't lie to me.
Speaker 1: Oh you don't fight in your marriage, Oh you have
Speaker 1: intense fellowship. No, we fought. And she she helped me
Speaker 1: realize this idea of I'm a people pleaser because she
Speaker 1: said something that really pierced me, says, why are you
Speaker 1: always angry? I'm like, I'm not, I'm not angry. Stop it.
Speaker 1: She was so completely riot, but I didn't know it. See,
Speaker 1: I can see parents. I want to talk to the
Speaker 1: dad specifically in here, we got to be really careful
Speaker 1: because we become the thermostat for our home. Does is
Speaker 1: your frustration determining the temperature of the entire house. Here's
Speaker 1: the language of extreme parenting. That's parenting out of frustration. Quit,
Speaker 1: don't stop. Not a very big vocabulary, because all I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do is to get you to change what
Speaker 1: you're doing because it's frustrating me. Stop doing that. Don't
Speaker 1: do that, Quit doing that. And what the kids certainly
Speaker 1: start to do over time is they will change their
Speaker 1: behavior to make dad happy because they don't know why
Speaker 1: Dad is frustrated. Because we're walking home in our insecurity
Speaker 1: and we punish our kids and we take it out
Speaker 1: on them, but in the absence of understanding what's causing it,
Speaker 1: you always assume it's you. So that kid is in
Speaker 1: a place of saying if maybe, if you were a
Speaker 1: better kid, they wouldn't be so angry, and you start
Speaker 1: to become the governor on the whole atmosphere. And now,
Speaker 1: rather than shaping their character, parenting is simply changing their behavior.
Speaker 1: And when they change their behavior, that's no longer frustrating me.
Speaker 1: We call them a good kid. But when you're acting
Speaker 1: in a way that your behavior is frustrating me. You
Speaker 1: bad kid. That was the home I grew up in.
Speaker 1: It's because there were safe emotions and safe feelings and
Speaker 1: save values, but most of them were very unsafe. I
Speaker 1: would tell it to you this way. So do you
Speaker 1: know that you have over two hundred unique and separate
Speaker 1: emotions and feelings? But if I were to ask you
Speaker 1: how many do you have? You might be able to
Speaker 1: list maybe ten, maybe for the overachievers, maybe fifteen. But
Speaker 1: do you know how many you actually live in? Two?
Speaker 1: Maybe three? Angry, hungry, and numb. That was me because
Speaker 1: I grew up in a world that said it's either
Speaker 1: all good or it's all bad. I was forced into
Speaker 1: the extremes, and I grew up in a home that
Speaker 1: I was simply trying to make dad happy by changing
Speaker 1: my behavior. It started as an eight year old, but
Speaker 1: it's very dysfunctional as a forty eight year old. I
Speaker 1: wonder how many of you have been reduced to this,
Speaker 1: living in the extremes, because what started as survival turns
Speaker 1: into the way you're living. And we talk about generational sin,
Speaker 1: that's generational conditioning. Let me illustrate it like this Dalen,
Speaker 1: my daughter here. Pull the pull that stand up and
Speaker 1: show me that this is my daughter Dalen. Come to you, honey,
Speaker 1: this is my daughter Dayen. Hey, she's amazing, she's an artist,
Speaker 1: she's incredible, and she's holding the ultra pack of crayons.
Speaker 1: It has two hundred colors inside. I always envied you
Speaker 1: kids when I came to school. I didn't get that pack.
Speaker 1: I got the pack with just a couple of crayons.
Speaker 1: But what I realized is the way I was raised
Speaker 1: is there were safe emotions and safe values. So when
Speaker 1: my wife said to me, why are you always angry?
Speaker 1: She was because anger was not safe or anger was
Speaker 1: the only safe emotion. Disappointment, fear, doubt, rejection, those were
Speaker 1: not safe. So I'm feeling all of these other emotions,
Speaker 1: but everything's expressed as anger. Why are you always angry?
Speaker 1: I'm not, but it's coming out as anger. You see
Speaker 1: what happens when we're people. Please, And what I would
Speaker 1: want you to know is that God created all of
Speaker 1: these vibrant colors for you to express yourself as a person.
Speaker 1: Are you operating according to conditioning or creation? And as
Speaker 1: a dad, how dysfunctional of it is? Me? To just
Speaker 1: say nope. That hurts me as a dad to know
Speaker 1: that my frustration becomes her. And what I got to
Speaker 1: do is the dad is to say no, that's it's
Speaker 1: not all good or it's all bad. Those are the
Speaker 1: extremes we jump to, isn't it? No, it's all of this.
Speaker 1: God wants you to have a little green yellow. That's
Speaker 1: a pretty color some neon carrit But when I come home,
Speaker 1: am I forcing her to live like this? Or am
Speaker 1: I helping her realize this? Keep drawing all of these
Speaker 1: colors God has given you. I apologize for the times
Speaker 1: that I punish you for my own insecurity. God is
Speaker 1: so much bigger than these extremes, all of this. Usually
Speaker 1: I love you. But when I live in a world
Speaker 1: that I make it all good are all bad? I
Speaker 1: know what side of the equation I generally end up on.
Speaker 1: So if Larry is either all good or he's all bad,
Speaker 1: I know I'm not all good, so by default I
Speaker 1: must be all bad. You see what happens. Saying is
Speaker 1: a people pleaser. I give everybody else the ability to
Speaker 1: determine my worth. So I'm looking at am I good
Speaker 1: based upon how you feel about me? Am I? Good
Speaker 1: based upon what they think about me. It didn't start
Speaker 1: when you're twenty nine. It started when you were nine.
Speaker 1: And what happens in those moments, what we will either
Speaker 1: do is we'll swing the pendulum to try to please them,
Speaker 1: to try to earn their approval. So I'm always in
Speaker 1: this place, so like, are you happy with me? Or
Speaker 1: we'll swing it to the other extreme, sage, screw you.
Speaker 1: I will reject it, and I will just do it
Speaker 1: to get noticed. Some of you have been rebelling your
Speaker 1: whole life, and it's a dysfunctional form of people pleasing.
Speaker 1: All of it comes from this place of wanting to
Speaker 1: be seen and to be known. But at the core
Speaker 1: of it, I started to believe that I never liked Larry.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's Larry's never good enough. So as I'm
Speaker 1: reading this text, I'm looking at it going, God, could
Speaker 1: you just give me a new name? I mean, you
Speaker 1: gave one to Simon. So I started call myself. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna be Peter. Then, yeah, just call me Peter.
Speaker 1: And some of you had tried the new the new city,
Speaker 1: you know, the new relationship. You've got your third new
Speaker 1: last name in the last decade, and you realize you
Speaker 1: just keep waking up to the old you. And as
Speaker 1: I started to look at this, I'm like, Lord, just
Speaker 1: give me a new name. He said, Nope. God said,
Speaker 1: keep looking in my word and I'll reveal it to you.
Speaker 1: I said, Lord, I've heard that scripture preach so many times.
Speaker 1: I just need a new name. Said nope, keep looking
Speaker 1: in my word and I'll reveal it to you. And
Speaker 1: then I read this. It says, blessed her you, Simon's
Speaker 1: son of Jonah. For this was not revealed to you
Speaker 1: by flesh and blood, but by my Father in Heaven.
Speaker 1: And there was there. It jumped off the page at me.
Speaker 1: Simon had been given a new name, but the biggest
Speaker 1: thing he was given was a new nature. The extreme
Speaker 1: that's illustrated in this verse is the flesh in the spirit,
Speaker 1: because you and I, when we are born, we are
Speaker 1: born separated from God because of sin that began with
Speaker 1: Adam and even the garden and it's echo through a
Speaker 1: out of humanity, and all of us are born of
Speaker 1: the flesh, and we are separated from God. And the
Speaker 1: ultimate goal of flesh is self pleasure and self worship.
Speaker 1: And we are living in a culture in in a
Speaker 1: world that everybody's highest epitome of the world's religions is
Speaker 1: if it feels good, do it, because personal pleasure is
Speaker 1: what people worship, and that's your hardwiring of humanity, and
Speaker 1: that is what you have practiced every day outside of Jesus.
Speaker 1: But when you come into relationship with Jesus, you get
Speaker 1: a new nature. That's the ultimate extreme that's been lived
Speaker 1: out in these texts, and it's this tension that's created
Speaker 1: it because we were dead in our sins but were
Speaker 1: made alive in Christ. And when you come into relationship,
Speaker 1: the person of God in the Holy Spirit, comes to
Speaker 1: dwell within you and he says he'll lead you into
Speaker 1: all truth. But here's the crazy thing about faith is
Speaker 1: you were saved in a moment, but you're changed little
Speaker 1: by little. Because I'm studying the words of Matthew, but
Speaker 1: can I be honest. I got moments where I'm just
Speaker 1: reciting lyrics from Eminem. I'm like, where'd that come from?
Speaker 1: Because you don't get rid of the flesh. It's still there.
Speaker 1: You've been walking in those patterns for forty two years
Speaker 1: and you're saved in a moment, but all of that
Speaker 1: stuff does not go away in a moment. But now
Speaker 1: we put you into churchy world. It says you've got
Speaker 1: to be all good for the glory of God. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I suck. And it creates this chasm of faith that
Speaker 1: you can never be honest about the real colors that
Speaker 1: you're dealing with because we paint these shades. It's either
Speaker 1: good or it's bad. No, no no, no. All of this
Speaker 1: colors are expressions of humanity, and all of those are
Speaker 1: available to you, and God says, none of those destroy
Speaker 1: what I'm doing in you. But you come to Christ.
Speaker 1: When you come to Christ, you're given a new nature.
Speaker 1: In Galatians six eight, it says this, whoever sows to
Speaker 1: please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever
Speaker 1: sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap
Speaker 1: eternal life. So right there, it shows us that all
Speaker 1: of us are simultaneously people pleasers and God pleasers. And
Speaker 1: I wish I could be extreme. I'm either a God
Speaker 1: pleaser or a people pleaser. Pick the extreme. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm both at the same time. That's the crazy part
Speaker 1: about faith. And they don't tell you this that when
Speaker 1: you come to relationship with Jesus. We often pay this picture.
Speaker 1: You gotta have it all right, brother, no longer struggle
Speaker 1: with those things. Get rid of all those things. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm feeling like a failure because all that
Speaker 1: old stuff is still coming with me, and it puts
Speaker 1: me in a place to constantly feel like I'm falling short.
Speaker 1: But I got both of these natures that are competing
Speaker 1: with inside of me. Because there is a moment that
Speaker 1: Jesus becomes your savior. Some of you are going to
Speaker 1: have that moment today where Jesus is going to become
Speaker 1: your savior and you are going to be redeemed and
Speaker 1: you've got your seat in heaven because of the finished
Speaker 1: work of Jesus in your life. It's a beautiful moment.
Speaker 1: You were saved. There is a moment when you face
Speaker 1: Jesus face to face and you will be saved. But
Speaker 1: there's this process between here and they're called you're being saved.
Speaker 1: It means I'm being conformed into his image. You are
Speaker 1: saved in a moment. He's my savior, but the process
Speaker 1: of learning to listen to his voice is when he
Speaker 1: becomes my lord. Because the voice you listen to is
Speaker 1: the Lord of your life, and the purpose of faith
Speaker 1: here in this moment is for you to realize I've
Speaker 1: got that flesh and I've got that spirit, both competing
Speaker 1: for my attention. I've been a part of the church
Speaker 1: since we launched it over sixteen years ago, and this
Speaker 1: extreme side of me has built up a little bit
Speaker 1: of a reputation. And there's actually when we hire a
Speaker 1: new staff, they get a dictionary and like their handbook,
Speaker 1: and in the dictionary there's a thing called and we'll
Speaker 1: have it on the screen. It says, you got l Bed. Okay,
Speaker 1: you got l Bed. I'm Lbed. That's my nickname, and
Speaker 1: so it's a sarcastic term referring to Larry Brye. Often
Speaker 1: when you come came away from an interaction with LB
Speaker 1: profoundly impacted. Now, dependent upon when you meet me, there'll
Speaker 1: be two different versions of being Lbed, because there is
Speaker 1: the side of me that is the bulldozer LB. I
Speaker 1: am gonna frick and run you over. I am gonna
Speaker 1: get the job done, and I'm gonna make it happen.
Speaker 1: And I apologize for those of you that have felt
Speaker 1: the bulldozer version of LB. But then there's this other
Speaker 1: version of LB, pastor LB. It's a place where I'm
Speaker 1: operating according to the spirit, and I'm choosing to listen
Speaker 1: to his voice. And now you have a moment that
Speaker 1: you feel seen. But I also have this other space
Speaker 1: in me and I just kept asking God, God, but
Speaker 1: you just take Simon away from me? Would you? Would
Speaker 1: you just just take if you can't give me a
Speaker 1: new name, which you take away the old nature. And
Speaker 1: here's what he said. You don't get rid of Simon.
Speaker 1: But through the power of the spirit, you don't have
Speaker 1: to play the game. Simon says, you know the game
Speaker 1: you play as a kid. Simon says, you know, clap
Speaker 1: your hands. Simon says, jump up and down a Simon says,
Speaker 1: go to the club, and you do. You wake up
Speaker 1: the next morning with the hangover and not recognizing the
Speaker 1: person next to you, like yeah, Like, Simon says, go
Speaker 1: ahead and gossip. It's okay, you know. Oh yeah. Simon says,
Speaker 1: call the girl let eleven thirty at night because you're
Speaker 1: a little drunk, a little lonely, So why did you
Speaker 1: call her? Anyway, Simon, you don't have to play the game,
Speaker 1: Simon says. Faith doesn't kick Simon out. Faith gives you
Speaker 1: the ability to not let him drive. He is in
Speaker 1: the car, he is with you. But faith is walking
Speaker 1: through these extremes of saying, I've got two voices competing
Speaker 1: for my attention, the spirit and the flesh. Can you
Speaker 1: recognize the last ten times that you were listening to Simon,
Speaker 1: because the reality is it's happening so insidiously you're not
Speaker 1: even aware of it. That voice that's cussing them out
Speaker 1: in traffic, yess Simon. Now maybe growth is this. The
Speaker 1: next ten times you cuss somebody out in traffic, you
Speaker 1: become aware of one of them. And then the next
Speaker 1: ten times after that, maybe you become aware of three
Speaker 1: of them. Maybe the next ten times after that you
Speaker 1: actually don't do one of them. Growth in Christ is
Speaker 1: measured with a calendar, not o' clock. And some of
Speaker 1: you are feeling like you forfeited your destiny because you
Speaker 1: haven't arrived yet. No, no, no, there is some process,
Speaker 1: there's some assembly required to this thing called faith. You
Speaker 1: don't get rid of Simon, but you don't have to
Speaker 1: play Simon says, and in church will often make like
Speaker 1: listening to God and listening to the Spirit really spooky
Speaker 1: and weird. I remember when I came to faith, people
Speaker 1: talk about just listen to the spirit, and I closed
Speaker 1: my eyes. I'm like, okay, I'm listening. And it made
Speaker 1: me feel like I'm an inferior Christian because they would
Speaker 1: talk about hearing from God. I'm like, I've never heard
Speaker 1: an audible voice. Maybe you haven't. God does that. God
Speaker 1: so much bigger, He can do all that. But the
Speaker 1: primary way that God is going to speak through you
Speaker 1: is through his word. The primary way that God will
Speaker 1: reveal is through every other book you read. This is
Speaker 1: the only book that reads you. This is a lie.
Speaker 1: It is active, it reads you. It's a difference. And
Speaker 1: if you look at the story of Peter here when
Speaker 1: he's talking about okay, God, you are the Messiah and
Speaker 1: you are the Son of God. How did those things
Speaker 1: get revealed to him? The Holy Spirit did it. But
Speaker 1: how did he get introduced into Peter's life? Go back
Speaker 1: to John chapter one, Verses forty one and forty two.
Speaker 1: The first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon
Speaker 1: and tell him we found the Messiah, that is the Christ.
Speaker 1: And he brought him to Jesus, and Jesus looked at
Speaker 1: him and said, you are Simon, son of John, you
Speaker 1: will be called Cephis, which is translated is Peter. So
Speaker 1: when Peter is saying that Jesus, who do they say,
Speaker 1: who do you send to him? You are the Messiah.
Speaker 1: Peter had heard that before. It's not something that God
Speaker 1: just dropped into his spirit in the moment. It was
Speaker 1: something that he had heard in his ears and something
Speaker 1: that he had read because it was a part of
Speaker 1: an Old Testament prophecy. It was something that he had
Speaker 1: been reading. And when we say we want to hear
Speaker 1: from you God, we will not hear from God when
Speaker 1: we're divorced from his word. So with you coming to
Speaker 1: church today, it is great because you are hearing God's
Speaker 1: word and is going to reveal him in your life.
Speaker 1: And you can study God's word through the week and
Speaker 1: he will reveal himself to you. But you're the Messiah.
Speaker 1: What's cool about that is as soon as Simon meets Jesus, Jesus,
Speaker 1: oh you're Simon, You'll be called Peter. He didn't wait
Speaker 1: until a year and a half later in the moment
Speaker 1: we just read in Matthew sixty it was at the
Speaker 1: very moment he met Jesus he got his new name why,
Speaker 1: Because in that moment when he came into a relationship
Speaker 1: with Jesus, he got a new nature. When you come
Speaker 1: into relationship with Jesus, you get a new nature. Peter
Speaker 1: hadn't done squat yet God still called him, and Jesus
Speaker 1: saw him. He says, you are Peter, and some of
Speaker 1: you don't feel worthy enough to be noticed by God
Speaker 1: because you're measuring it based upon your behavior. And the
Speaker 1: reason your measure based upon your behaviors. That's what you
Speaker 1: use as a litmus test with every other relationship. And
Speaker 1: if you had the right behavior, maybe they would give
Speaker 1: you their blessing. God say no, no no, no, my blessing
Speaker 1: is not dependent upon your behavior. It's depend upon the
Speaker 1: finished work of my Savior. It's dependent upon Jesus. And
Speaker 1: then in Matthew fourteen thirty three, it's the story of
Speaker 1: Jesus had just walked on water, and now the disciples
Speaker 1: they're all freaking out, and they all get in the boat.
Speaker 1: Fourteen thirty three. It says then those who were in
Speaker 1: the boat worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the son
Speaker 1: of God. So when Jesus asks who do you say
Speaker 1: that I am? You're the Messiah, and you are the
Speaker 1: son of God. Both of those things are things that
Speaker 1: Peter had heard before. They're things that had been communicated
Speaker 1: to him previously. You are the son of God. Now
Speaker 1: what's funny about that is when the devil comes to
Speaker 1: Jesus and he says, if you are the son of God,
Speaker 1: turn these rocks into bread. If you are the son
Speaker 1: of God, jump off the ledge and the angels will
Speaker 1: hold you. See, the devil did not doubt that Jesus
Speaker 1: was the son of God. He was trying to get
Speaker 1: Jesus to doubt that he was the son of God.
Speaker 1: And here's one way that you can start to distinguish
Speaker 1: between the voice of Simon and the voice of Peter,
Speaker 1: between the spirit and the flesh, is if if if
Speaker 1: you are see, Satan knew that Jesus was the son
Speaker 1: of God, but what he chose to do is to
Speaker 1: worship himself rather than worship Jesus. Satan represents the flesh,
Speaker 1: and its desire is to consume you, and it wants
Speaker 1: you to worship the flesh. And that voice is still
Speaker 1: pinging you. But you also have the voice of God,
Speaker 1: the Spirit of God, living inside of you. If and
Speaker 1: I wonder what they are saying to you. If you're
Speaker 1: really a Christian, why do you talk like that, If
Speaker 1: you're really saved, why are you doing that? If you've
Speaker 1: really got this relationship with Jesus. If and when you're
Speaker 1: in your moment you get caught up in your behavior
Speaker 1: and you start to agree with them. Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: But I want you to know that you've got another
Speaker 1: voice speaking inside of you because Jesus in the story,
Speaker 1: the two words I gave you were identity and assignment.
Speaker 1: Jesus knew his identity. He was fully God and he
Speaker 1: was fully man's, both of those at the same time.
Speaker 1: But as Jesus is walking through the earth, he's got
Speaker 1: a couple different moments where Heaven opens and God speaks
Speaker 1: to affirm his son. He's affirming his identity. In Matthew
Speaker 1: three point seventeen, it says this, and a voice from
Speaker 1: heaven said, this is my son whom I love, and
Speaker 1: with him, I am well pleased. I love that. Before
Speaker 1: Jesus had done anything in his public ministry, God is
Speaker 1: establishing the identity this is my son. And what I
Speaker 1: want to tell you today is Christ's identity is your identity.
Speaker 1: Because when you have a relationship with him. He now
Speaker 1: his identity becomes your identity because you are co heirs
Speaker 1: with Christ. So everything that God has spoken about his
Speaker 1: son is something that he's speaking about you. You are
Speaker 1: a son, you are a daughter, and with my daughter,
Speaker 1: I am well pleased he's speaking that over you. So
Speaker 1: when the voice of Simon says, Saint Simon says, wait, now,
Speaker 1: my father says, my father says, I'm a son. My
Speaker 1: father says, and he's he is affirming your identity. And
Speaker 1: there's a second time that Jesus has his identity firm.
Speaker 1: To Matthew seventeen, in verses one through five, it says,
Speaker 1: after six days, Jesus took within Peter, James, and John,
Speaker 1: the brother of James, and he led them up a
Speaker 1: high mountain by themselves. There he was transformed or transfigured
Speaker 1: before them. His face shone like the sun, and his
Speaker 1: clothes became as white as light. Just then there appeared
Speaker 1: before them Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. Peter said
Speaker 1: to Jesus, of course he does. Peter said to Jesus, look, Lord,
Speaker 1: it is good for us to be here. If you wish,
Speaker 1: I'll put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses,
Speaker 1: and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a
Speaker 1: bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said,
Speaker 1: this is my son whom I love. With him, I
Speaker 1: am well pleased. Listen to him. Peter is in mid
Speaker 1: sentence of how about I do this? And how about
Speaker 1: I do this? How about I do this? And the
Speaker 1: voice speaks from having like Simon, shut up. He doesn't
Speaker 1: even let him finish the sentence. You have the authority
Speaker 1: as a child of God to signment. Shut up. And
Speaker 1: what God says is stop talking, Simon and listen to him.
Speaker 1: The voice you listen to is the one that's leading you.
Speaker 1: And what God is saying is just listen. Christ's identity
Speaker 1: is your identity. But our assignment is not the same
Speaker 1: as his assignment, because christ assignment was to go to
Speaker 1: the cross. Here's our assignment. In Luke nine three, Jesus
Speaker 1: said this to them. Then he said to them all,
Speaker 1: whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, pick
Speaker 1: up their cross daily and follow me. And what he's
Speaker 1: saying they must deny themselves. You must deny that, Simon,
Speaker 1: part of you. He says, it's a daily dying to
Speaker 1: that it's easy to trust Jesus in a moment. Will
Speaker 1: I trust him every day in the daily denying of myself,
Speaker 1: And you'll come to these moments where you're like, I'm
Speaker 1: so conflicted. God. Paul would say that at which I
Speaker 1: want to do, I don't do, and that at which
Speaker 1: I don't want to do, it end up doing. And
Speaker 1: when we live in that space and we have moments
Speaker 1: where we just run after Simon, we just feel so
Speaker 1: much shame. But what I want you to hear is
Speaker 1: the voice of God, even in your worst moment, saying
Speaker 1: this is my son in whom I am well pleased,
Speaker 1: And your assignment is to follow him. That's the assignment,
Speaker 1: is to listen to his voice and follow him. And
Speaker 1: what's amazing about this is Jesus would be faithful with
Speaker 1: his assignment because the reason he came on to the
Speaker 1: earth was thing, and that was to go to the cross.
Speaker 1: And Jesus would go to the cross. And when you
Speaker 1: look at the cross, it's an intersection. The cross, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's an intersection of heaven and earth,
Speaker 1: wrath and forgiveness, life and death. Jesus is between two extremes.
Speaker 1: It's the most extreme environment you could ever imagine, because
Speaker 1: all of the penalty and for all of the sin
Speaker 1: that should have been laid on us was laid on him.
Speaker 1: He is fully God and he's fully man. What kept
Speaker 1: him on the cross in that extreme place? In Hebrews
Speaker 1: it says for the joy set before him, he endured
Speaker 1: the cross, scorning at shame, and he sat down the
Speaker 1: right hand of God. What is the joy in the cross?
Speaker 1: To two levels of joy? I think that's described in
Speaker 1: the text. The first is the joy of his father saying,
Speaker 1: this is my son and whom I'm well pleased, because
Speaker 1: I think he also heard well done, good and faithful servant,
Speaker 1: because he's got that extreme of heaven. But he also
Speaker 1: has the extreme of humanity. So what's the joy with
Speaker 1: the humanity? I believe that when it says for the
Speaker 1: joy set before him, it was you, and it was me,
Speaker 1: and it was his disciples. And what kept him in
Speaker 1: that place was his father's glory and your salvation. And
Speaker 1: he stood in that place between those places, in all
Speaker 1: of that pain, in all of that, so that you
Speaker 1: could be reconciled with God. These extremes could only come
Speaker 1: together through one thing, and it was through the blood
Speaker 1: that was shed by Jesus. And because of his finished
Speaker 1: work on the cross, he created a way for you
Speaker 1: to come into God's presence. He created a way for
Speaker 1: God's love to come see you. Would you stand to
Speaker 1: your feet at all of our locations as you've heard
Speaker 1: the word of God today. The spirit of God has
Speaker 1: shows you that He is real, that he loves you.
Speaker 1: And some of you have never had a moment that
Speaker 1: you've placed your faith in him. You've never begun a
Speaker 1: relationship with him. This is the time that God has
Speaker 1: appropriated for you to begin that relationship. And if you
Speaker 1: have never made that decision, and be my privilege to
Speaker 1: lead us all in a prayer right now for someone
Speaker 1: to begin a relationship with Jesus. And when you begin
Speaker 1: a relationship, he gives you a new nature and then
Speaker 1: He walks it out with you so that you can
Speaker 1: hear him and walk out this thing called salvation. Bow
Speaker 1: your heads and close your eyes at all of our locations,
Speaker 1: joining us online right now for someone to begin a
Speaker 1: relationship with Jesus. Church family, I want you to pray
Speaker 1: with me out loud for the benefit of somebody who's
Speaker 1: making this decision and coming to Jesus in this moment.
Speaker 1: I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God
Speaker 1: who died on the cross and rose from the grave
Speaker 1: to forgive me of my sin. I give you my life,
Speaker 1: I give you my sin, I give you my shame.
Speaker 1: Forgive me, and I'll spend my life following you with
Speaker 1: your head still bowed in, your eyes still close. If
Speaker 1: you just began a relationship with Jesus or you're coming
Speaker 1: back to him, I am going to count to three,
Speaker 1: and when I get there, without hesitation, I want you
Speaker 1: to boldly shoot your hand into the air. One, two, three,
Speaker 1: shoot your hand up all of our locations. Come on online.
Speaker 1: If you just made that decision, let us know about it.
Speaker 1: Come on such family, let's celebrate that at