CMLC 2024-02-25 Sermon

Howdy. God's word is not easy. It felt almost like saying that. It's almost like I heard the

phrase is gilding the lily, but if you try too hard to keep adding to it and it just ends up

making it almost worse. Oftentimes the idea of what following God's word is, it's amazing how

many different perspectives there are on what that's going to mean. And yet when we see scripture,

we end up discovering that it's even harder than we oftentimes thought it would be.

Some years ago, I was in my first call. It was out in California. And the lead pastor

had called me out there because what was going on was that he was going to be creating a network of

house churches. And he was going to help to oversee the house churches. And I was going to be the

pastor on site for that particular congregation. It was exciting. I was really glad to get to see

everything that was going on. In the midst of it, I was doing a lot of youth work. And I was also

serving to then how do we create a larger youth ministry to this area, meeting with some of the

other churches nearby who didn't have youth workers. And working on this whole plan, it was

like going to be years in the making, so much to get done. And then the lead pastor decided to leave.

And after a year when he went ahead and left, the hard part then was what is going to happen with

my role. I wasn't worried at the time. There was a lot of discussion about what that might mean.

And it was sort of like, okay, I already know this ministry is moving forward. What is the next

step for that? And over the course of two weeks, went from finding out, oh, hey, you might be called

to be the pastor of this place to you no longer have any call here and you're no longer ministering

here in the next month. The thing is, is that all these things had been in place. All of these ideas

for what ministry was going to look like. And then all of a sudden it was just cut out from under me.

And at that moment in time, in front of the regional vice president of the district, I cried

like a baby. It was not pretty. It was one of those like ugly weeping where if you're seeing the

movie and it keeps going too long and you're trying to fast forward, it was pretty bad. And then what

made it even harder was that because I cried at losing my job, I was then sent to mandatory

counseling for six months. Because what's even worse than the idea of struggling with loss is

that even oftentimes we're even afraid when our pastors are willing to show that they're human

too. And that's a hard piece about this is that experiencing what we go through in trying to

follow God's word is that this path is not easy and it doesn't always seem to flow in a way that

makes much sense. But that doesn't mean that we stop trying. See, oftentimes whenever we're

looking for God's blessing, it's on a path that God has in store for us, not the one that we have

in mind. See, some of the questions I want you to have in your mind today. What are the ways in

which God has caused us to wait on him, his way of doing things, what it is that he has in mind?

What are God's blessings flawed because they don't fit our notion or our instincts? And would you

rather have the blessing that you want or the blessing that God wants for you? These questions

may seem like they should be obvious, but in real life, we're constantly showing that they're not.

See, one of the things that I struggled with back then was knowing that I didn't feel like I was

quite ready for what I was meant to do. But I also had absolutely no idea how to get to that point.

What was amazing though is that in the midst of all this trying to figure out how did I mess up,

how did other people mess up, who messed up, trying to figure out who to blame. And yet,

looking back is that even the most broken parts that came afterwards, the person that I had to grow

into was not the person I was before any of that happened. Is it somehow God had to utilize the parts

of this path that I did not get in order to get me to the places where I did not know how to go?

More than that, I would even say that oftentimes we want to place our way of doing things above how

God wants it. The story for that, Abraham. Abraham was promised a nation. God said that he was going

to use Abraham and his wife, Sarah, to give birth to a son who was going to give birth to a son who

would be the beginning of a great nation. Now, they were getting a little bit older. I'm no

biologist, but I'm pretty sure that there are some things about a guy that doesn't work the same

when he's 99. I'm pretty sure there's things about a woman that doesn't work the same way than their 89.

At this moment in time, it is clear that they are struggling to understand what is going on in

their lives. They're struggling to understand what God is going to do. In the midst of it,

they went some very strange paths to get there. Sarah was even having her husband sleep with

her concubine to have a child. And not only was that not the way God was desiring them to go,

but it ended up complicating life for their descendants for centuries, even in some ways

today. The conflicts that arose between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac, that's still

a story we're looking at even today. Why? Because even though God said, this is the path I have for

you, as they're waiting and not understanding how God's plan is going to make sense, what do they

do? They try to take it into their own hands and they try to make it work the best way they think

how. But here's the thing about this. Before Abraham could give birth, before Abraham and

Sarah could give birth to Isaac, Abraham hadn't circumcised anybody. They were supposed to go

through that circumcision and be prepared for what God had to do. See, Abraham and Sarah,

they were spending a long time trying to understand how the weird path that they were taking was

supposed to get to where God wanted them to be. Haven't you ever had those times where it's like

day in, day out, something isn't changing, you're not sure why it is that things are feeling frustrated,

you're not sure how it is you're supposed to get to where you think you're supposed to go,

God wants to do something in your family's life, you're not sure what that's supposed to look like.

God wants to do something in your vocation, in your career, in your purposes, you're not sure

how to find your way there. There are things where you know I'm missing something, I can't quite figure

out why. And no matter how hard you try, he just hasn't shown what that next step is.

But in the midst of that, how many times do we end up making things even harder? Because we're

trying to force things based on what we think we know today. Even in the midst of that though,

God didn't lose his plans. As much as Abraham and Sarah kept making things more difficult,

God still had a plan for Isaac and everything thereafter. See, our way of trying to go about

things, how often do we then pause, look back and say, why did I make this decision and then

that follow up, does that mean that I've now ruined everything because of it? What are the

ways in which God has caused us to wait on him? Are his blessings flawed because they don't fit

our ideas? And would you rather have the blessing you were looking for or the blessing that God has

in mind? One of the things that always has struck me in regard to pastoral ministry is that

serving in a church is actually not complicated. That's like knowing that we need to preach the

Word of God, knowing we need to serve our neighbor, knowing that it's important to stay in prayer and

to comfort one another and to love each other. This is not complicated. What's complicated?

Oftentimes one of the hardest parts is whenever people say, I want to see this in our church,

in our community. And then when you let them know what's needed to make it happen,

then I don't want to. I wish that that were exaggerating. I have literally heard the words,

no, I don't want to. Time and time again. This is what we see that's needed. This is what we need

to do to get there. Nope, never mind. I don't want to. Our desire to go down our path gets in the way

oftentimes of what God is trying to show us his path is meant to be, especially we see that with

Peter. In our gospel, Peter is discussing and sharing and so are the disciples. What do people

think of Jesus? Now you may be wondering, why would anybody think that Jesus is John the Baptist?

They're two separate people. Well, not everybody had seen John the Baptist. They may have just heard

of these different people, but also remember Herod had taken John's life and was mentally,

emotionally being haunted by thinking that that's who Jesus was now. Or Elijah. Elijah was seen to

symbolize the end of all things. Is that what Jesus is here to do? Just to bring everything to a

close? Was Jesus a prophet? Was he someone who is there just to be able to proclaim what God had to

say? But it was more than just that. Moses had predicted a prophet who would be greater than

him, the one who was going to come into usher in the new kingdom. And so when Peter says, you are the

Christ, this is actually a bigger deal than what people were expecting. Because the Christ,

it's not just a word. We oftentimes say Jesus Christ and we treat it almost like it's His last name.

Okay, Christ, Jesus. It's like somebody tries to reach out from the Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints or whatever and the alphabetical part puts the Jesus Christ first. And so you look

at the color ID and you're like, Jesus Christ is calling. I don't want to pick up. I don't know what

it's about. And the thing is, is that we oftentimes just treat that name as just words. But Christ,

Christ means the King who's come to bring forgiveness and life to his people.

And it was a very deep meaning that Peter didn't quite get. You see, when Jesus is asking Peter

and he's saying, who do you say that I am? It's actually not singular you. Okay, see, this is

actually one reason why it is that they need more Texans to translate the Bible. It should have been

y'all. It should have been y'all. Because Jesus is saying, okay, all of you disciples, what have

y'all been discussing with each other? What have y'all understood? Peter's just the first one to say

it. He's the loudest and he's the one who jumps in there. But it also turns out that Peter didn't

even quite know what it meant in the first place. Because when we're looking at next steps, are we

asking what those steps are going to be that God is desiring of us? Or are we asking what next steps

we think make the most sense? You see, here's the part about that just similar to the way in which

I will oftentimes keep talking longer than I should have on a first day and then somehow not find my

way to a second date. Even so, Peter had a habit of continuing to keep talking when he should have

just closed his mouth. And that's the thing about what ends up happening next. Jesus is trying to

explain more about what the Christ is meant to do. What is the Christ meant to do? But what does

that include? Suffering and dying and then rising again. Did that make any sense to Peter whatsoever?

Absolutely not. And what does he do? He takes Jesus and he says, you've got to stop this. He rebukes him.

When you have the king of kings standing there telling you the path that he needs to follow,

what sense does it make for us to tell him what path makes better sense to us?

And unfortunately, this happened in front of a lot of people. So Jesus can't just ignore it.

He has to make it very clear to Peter. Get behind me, Satan. There are times whenever this road,

you have to look at the people that you care about the most and you have to tell them to stop sometimes.

You have to tell them the parts that they don't want to hear. And sometimes that's not just on my

end of it. That's where many of you find yourselves too. It's the times whenever the Christian life

is not going to just be the happy sermons and feeling good after a Bible study. This is also

the times when you have to sit down for coffee with somebody and say, hey, this is a bad idea and you

need to stop. This didn't mean though that God had given up on Peter, just like God has not given up

on us. You see, as we're looking at this question of are we genuinely asking how God is leading us

at each step, even when it requires sacrifice, serving, and humility on our part? This is not an

easy ask. There's also a lot of really difficult stuff that we're going to have to do. And I don't

just mean in general. I also mean as a congregation here. You are going to be pushed. You are going

to be challenged. And there are going to be times where things are going to be hard and you're not

going to be sure how to figure it out. But that doesn't mean that either you've messed up or that

somehow God's plan has somehow failed. It just means that sometimes the path is going to be difficult.

But that's the thing about Jesus is that Jesus is not here to affirm your old ways of looking at

things. Some of you are a little bit older than me, maybe by a year or two. A few of you are a

little younger than me, maybe by a year or two. Jonathan, you're only like two or three years

younger than me, right? Yeah, we'll go with that. I swear, he goes to the same gym that I do. It was

great. I totally out bench pressed him. I have absolutely no idea. But it was good to see you

though. With it though is our ways of looking at God and what we expect of his plan. God isn't here

to try to let you know that you've got it all figured out. When we're pursuing what we want

instead of ignoring what it is that God is trying to say, that's idolatry. But you're also not being

left in that place. So this is not me coming up here to say, okay, now all of your ways of doing

things, you know what they're messed up, just let go. Yeah, there's the door. This is also to say that

your sins are forgiven. Even the times when you thought that you had it figured out and you just

said, I don't want to. Because even so, God still has a plan and a direction for you. God still has a

plan. So sometimes God is calling us in spite of us. But that's a good part about grace.

Is that that forgiveness is today. And that path is still in front of you for tomorrow.

So whatever God may be challenging you with today, doesn't mean that you've fallen off the path.

Just means that he's showing you what that might look like. And that it may be a little different

for tomorrow. Thanks be to God.