The Time Has Come | Quitting on Jesus

You are listening to the Gateway Franklin Church podcast.

To learn more about Gateway Franklin Church, including our service times here in Franklin, Tennessee, visit us online at gatewayfranklin.com.

And now, here is this week's message.

Benedict Arnold was a Revolutionary War Brigadier General.

And he was quite good.

And success to Arnold came kind of fast and furious.

At the same time, he was passed over five different times by the Continental Congress for Major General, which was then putting him over larger numbers of troops.

Finally, he gets uh awarded the promotion and he's assigned to the fort in Philadelphia.

Um he spent some time in Philadelphia before Washington, before Washington assigns him to West Point.

Now, before West Point ever was a college, it was a fort, it was on the Hudson in a very strategic position because if the if the British could invade and capture West Point, then it would split the colonies.

Okay?

And so Washington thought that much of Arnold that he he has him in that primary position.

Um, but something had happened in Philadelphia that had caused Arnold to become bitter.

And that that bitterness, that disappointment of being passed over, starts to mushroom and develop to where he became amenable to the approaches from Britain of uh treason, of turning.

And what we find at West Point is that he begins to diminish its rations and its personnel to the point where he gives intel to Britain of how to capture West Point.

And they do.

Um Arnold then goes back to goes to England.

Um he comes back to the States and he actually leads uh a battle, a major battle against the American colonies, and then goes back to England where he dies at the age of 60, just health-related stuff.

Um and I my frame with that, right?

Well, Benedict Arnold is a name already associated with the term traitor.

Um, my frame on this would be Arnold quit on America.

He quit on America.

So how about have you heard this phrase, et tu brute?

Familiar with that?

That's from a famous line from Shakespeare's work, uh Julius Caesar.

It translates to you too, Brutus.

Some of the history there is that Julius Caesar was a was a um a great warrior, a great general, and he starts gaining such significant power that they're starting to push him, and he's not unreluctant to it, into a dictator.

Um, there was a young uh Roman Republic um senator by the name of Brutus, and looked at Julius Caesar as his dad.

That's how close they were, that's the father figure thing.

But he was Brutus was very um married to attach to the Senate and the idea of the Roman Republic.

And when he saw Caesar starting to take, Julius Caesar start to take some liberties, that he was torn in between, and and it and it made him susceptible to Julius Caesar's um uh conspirators, that either either Rome was going to survive or Julius was going to survive, but they weren't going to do that together.

And in a moment of vulnerability that only someone that you would consider your son gets to with you, then um Brutus stabs Julius Caesar, and to which his response then, and you too, Brutus?

And so so not only not only is that story in Brutus, you've even heard the phrase you're a brute, it doesn't make any sense, but it's somehow connected to Brutus's name, and he stabs him on March 15th, which is known as the Ides of March.

And you'll hear that phrase floated around, um, and you won't necessarily connect the Ides of March to this kind of acts, this kind of act of treason.

So I would say that that Brutus became disillusioned.

By the way, just for the for the nerds in the room, see his last name is what becomes the title.

That wasn't his title.

Julius Caesar was just Julius Caesar.

It gives rise to the first Roman emperor Augustus, which we read Jesus being born under, Augustus, and then he dies under Tiberius.

Those were the first two Caesars.

So the name translates over to their title.

So he kind of gets disappointed.

That's where his betrayal comes from.

Arnold's comes from a disappointment, a bitterness.

And so why the history before today's before today's message?

Well, the text today, the text today is one I've never preached out of as a core text, and I can't tell you I've ever heard a sermon out of this core text, but but I told you we were going to preach through Jesus' words during the Last Supper, John 13 and 14.

This next section is around Judas.

Judas, another name that's associated with betrayal.

Now, I I don't want to minimize, I'm not trying to minimize what Judas did.

I'm trying to put it on a lower shelf that somehow we can attach ourselves to.

So I've titled this message Quitting Jesus.

Quitting Jesus.

So again, I'm not trying to minimize what Judas' actions, but I'm trying to put it in a perspective that we can put our hands around.

So on some general observations, like 30,000-foot view, about how could we possibly even get to the place of quitting, I have these three.

One is that Satan is an oppositional opportunist.

He's an oppositional opportunist, that he will take every opportunity to leverage, to leverage something to put distance between you and God.

All right, this has been what he's done since the beginning of history.

Find something somewhere and try to leverage that to get between us and between him.

He is an oppositional opportunist.

He doesn't care how it happens.

He doesn't can't even orchestrate things that happen, but he can take advantage of things that happen.

Okay, the second is that quitting creeps.

Quitting creeps.

It doesn't happen overnight.

Quitting Jesus doesn't happen overnight.

It's a slow boil.

It starts slowly.

It creeps.

The third is that nothing creeps up on Jesus.

That Jesus is never caught off guard with our emotions.

And he can flip those moments, he can flip those into movement.

Okay?

Satan is an oppositional opportunist, quitting creeps.

Nothing creeps up on Jesus.

Alright, here's the text.

You can follow along in your Bible.

We'll have it on the screen as well.

Um, but if you want to take notes, it's easier to take notes in your Bible than on the screen.

Give it a minute, it'll get to the back.

So again, the context is last Sabbath, Jesus has washed the feet of the disciples, he's come back to the table.

Okay.

Verse 18 says, I'm not referring to all of you, I know those I have chosen.

But this is to fulfill the passage of Scripture.

He who shared my bread has turned against me.

I'm telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am who I am.

Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me, and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.

His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which of them he meant.

One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who was John, who is writing this account, was reclining next to him.

Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, Ask him which one he means.

Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, Lord, who is it?

Jesus answered, It's the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.

Then dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered him.

So Jesus told him, What you are about to do, do quickly.

But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival or to give something to the poor.

As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out, and it was night.

So John really lets us in on the mood of the moment with his last phrase there, and it was night.

It's not a weather report.

He's not trying to report on sunrise, sunset, temperature, wind direction, wind chill.

He's really letting us know and letting us in on how darkness connects with kind of kind of a mood, a foreboding of even an evil.

And he's also by using that phrase to describe this moment, he's taking us back to his words in John 1 when he starts comparing Jesus to light.

So in John 1, 4 and 5, John writes, in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

It's an interesting literary moment for John that he will recognize the darkness in the moment, but that's not the end.

A moment is not the end.

And he's drawing our attention to that.

So the word for somebody here today is whatever dark moment you find yourself in, the dark moment, it's real.

Like, like, remember I said your your your feelings are real, they're just not always reliable.

Right?

So the darkness can be real.

It's just not the end.

The end word is going to be light.

Right?

And so he's drawing, he's drawing, and I just find it just very fascinating as a reader of scripture of how intentional God would be in this moment in this writing.

To let us in on the heaviness of the moment and still bring light at the very beginning before we get into any of what he's going to be unpacking here.

All right.

So in um when when Jesus is identifying the disciple who would betray him, he actually quotes from the Psalms.

He quotes Psalm 41, 9.

He says, He who shared my bread has turned against me.

Now, turning against me has a has another connotation of lifted his heel towards me.

Now, now I'll make a point about that here in a second.

I'm going to get real nerdy, by the way, today.

It's just going to be all right.

So, in one connection, you can think back to Genesis chapter 3, when Jesus is giving the curse to Satan, and he says, You will strike his heel, but he will crush your head.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It's almost a turn of phrase.

He's going to lift his heel against me.

That's what turning against me.

Here's the other thing I find really interesting of Jesus quoting a psalm about that moment is that nothing creeps up on Jesus.

Right?

This moment has not caught him by surprise.

He's got an Old Testament prophecy already going to tell us that this is going to happen.

So I know that's a little Bible nerdy, but I really, really, really love that.

But it begs the question, two questions.

Why would Jesus choose a betrayer as his disciple?

So there's an even a deeper underlying question.

Why does Jesus make room in my life for hard, unexplainable things?

Avoiding the question does not help you in your walk with Christ.

It doesn't.

Dealing with the question, it does.

My best explanation here is there's a difference in God's foreknowledge.

Foreknowledge is knowing something before it will happen.

Another word you might hear is predestined, a predestination.

That would mean that God orchestrates.

Like there's no choice in the matter.

This was predestined to happen.

This was set in motion.

Nothing's going to change this.

And I don't believe Scripture teaches that at all.

We are created with a free will to align or misalign with the word and the character of God.

Him knowing what will take place is not the same thing as him determining what will happen.

Okay?

And so the simple answer to why does God make room for heart in my life is He doesn't he didn't avoid it.

I mean, even beyond the crucifixion, here is someone, they are close.

There's a closeness with this band.

And I'll break down what I believe happens to Judas.

But there's a closeness to this band, and yet he feels, he will feel that, he will feel that betrayer.

So here's the word here is the take heart and your curtain, your current setting.

Take heart.

It doesn't deny the realness of the night.

Taking heart is knowing that there's going to be his light.

Jesus doesn't even spare himself temporary pain in order to achieve a greater purpose.

Alright, so let me prove this point about the closeness of this or the hand extended.

Jesus does not skip Judas when he's washing the disciples' feet.

We hear nothing from any of the gospel writers.

John chronicles this to the foot washing piece specifically.

We don't hear any pause and Jesus getting to Judas and going, give me a minute.

Alright, got to collect myself.

Alright.

Secondly, I said last week that the seating chart probably stirred a bunch of stuff at the Last Supper.

John is sitting to his right.

They weren't sitting in chairs like you and I would be sitting.

The tables would have been in a U shape.

They would have been sitting on a pillow or on the floor.

They'd been leaning.

And John is to his right.

And you would think, right hand man, you'd think right is the highest place of honor?

It wasn't.

It was the second highest place of honor.

The place of honor was on his left.

On his left was Judas.

So when Jesus is saying, hey, someone's going to betray me, it seems to kind of go off the radar, but not Peter.

I mean, Peter's not close enough, or Peter would have asked Jesus himself.

Peter gets the eye of John and goes, you need to find out.

This is a big, you need to find out what's going on.

So John, he's so close to Jesus, he can ask and nobody else is hearing what's going on.

Okay?

They're just they're just eating or whatever.

Hey, Jesus.

Like, like who's going to portray you?

So, so Jesus said to get in the right posture.

So, so Jesus is saying, the one I dip this bread with.

Now, this is a significant, this is a significant act.

For me to take this piece of flat bread and put it in the common, a common dish and offer it to you was a highly honoring, connecting gesture.

It's kind of like our friendship is enough that I will give you this.

And it's also what will equate out to we're on the same page.

We're aligned here.

We're aligned admission.

So he tells John, hey, the guy I dip bread with.

No one's hearing the conversation.

He dips the bread, he offers the Judas.

Judas takes the bread.

And this is when Jesus says, Everyone's more people are hearing at this point.

Hey, whatever you're going to do, do it quickly.

Now they may or may not have heard that.

What they do know is they see him up and leave.

And they just go, well, Jesus gave him assignment.

I mean, he was the keeper of the money.

So there were some other things maybe to be fulfilled during this feast that he sends Judas after.

And that's kind of how that setting, that's how that setting plays out.

Now it's a very interesting phrase to read.

Satan entered him.

It actually reads as if there's like this bolt of lightning and he just changes into a different person, right?

And goes on.

And that that's not how that reads out.

Here's how it plays out.

It was with the dip of the bread Judas had then, I'm done.

I'm done.

With that gesture, Judas is out of this band, and then he fully gives himself over to what he was going to do.

Now why would why would Judas do that?

Well, he wasn't after a Messiah that would wash feet.

That's not that's not his goal.

And the idea of you giving me this bread saying that we're we're aligned and we are tight.

That was all Judas could take.

Two words of how this plays out, in my opinion.

He was disappointed and he was disillusioned with the person of Jesus.

And so that sets him up for you're not you're not who I thought you were.

You're not doing what I thought you were doing.

And so and so I'm out.

And he was in that full agreement.

So that's the textual context.

Um Matthew gives us a little history of before uh before the supper, at some point, Judas conspires with the chief priests of uh of turning Jesus over.

Now again, it's it's kind of interesting phrasing.

You can read it in Matthew 26.

Jesus walked publicly out in the temple every time he was in the city.

There was uh plenty of opportunity you would have had to arrest Jesus in the temple.

But why didn't they?

Why didn't they?

Well, they were afraid of the crowds around Jesus.

Why were the crowds around Jesus?

Because this man was saying stuff they had never heard before.

He was taking the same Old Testament law and he was telling them, this points to me.

And everything else these guys have been teaching you is wrong.

He's healing people, and they're saying that's against the rules.

That's against the rules.

You can't do that.

And so you can see how the common person would flock to Jesus.

They couldn't arrest him there.

So the agreement between Judas and the chief priests is I'll tell you where you can arrest him where there isn't going to be as many people around.

That's that's the betrayal.

They contract for contract for 30 pieces of silver, you pay me now.

Scripture even says in Matthew that from that point on, he looked for a way to turn over Jesus.

He looked for when their schedule was going to align in order to turn him over to the chief priests.

Here's the thing Judas loved the idea of Jesus, but he was severely disappointed by the person of Jesus.

He loved the idea of a Messiah, he loved the idea of deliverer, not one that would wash his feet.

I don't want you slinging a towel, I want you slinging a sword.

I don't want you acting like this, I want you acting like this.

And see the gap between um your desire and your reality, that gap is what represents disappointment.

What you want, what you long for, what the reality is, that's always going to represent disappointment.

Right?

So, like if you don't, if you don't Really trust somebody, and they tell you you're gonna they're gonna do something and they don't, you're like, yeah, no big deal, right?

Because your expectation was here and they still missed it, right?

They still missed it, but your disappointment, you kind of count at 80-20, they're not gonna come through.

But but if you're but if you're expecting way up here, and he's diametrically opposed to exactly what you're thinking, and if you live in that disappointment long enough, it turns into disillusionment.

So, what's the difference?

Disappointment is I'm disappointed in what you did.

Disillusioned is you're not who I thought you were.

It's a lot deeper.

It's a lot deeper.

Those are the two things that I believe of what caused Judas to betray Jesus.

So the charges leveled against Jesus was that he claimed to be the Son of God.

He claimed to be the Messiah, the King of the Jews.

And of course, according to Jewish law, that was heresy.

Um, unless it was true, Judas no longer believes it to be true.

Right?

So three and a half years ago, Judas is believing this is true.

This is this is, and then three and a half years later, it's like, yeah, it's not true.

And not only, not only does it bother me that it's not true, this guy's fooling everybody else.

And I I think I have a role to play in stopping this.

I think I have a responsibility as a good Jewish man to stop this farce and call this guy out for who he is.

What so then why does Judas, when they arrest Jesus, and he's crucified in 12, 14 hours after this, why does he give the money back?

Why does he take his own life?

Here's what I think is plausible.

He wanted Jesus stopped.

He expected Jesus to be somehow arrested and and shown to be a fraud, but there was nothing, there was nothing that would have ever pointed to that the Romans would have conspired with the chief priest and he would be dead in 12 hours.

I mean, they broke so many Roman rules and Jewish rules in order to order to arrest him at night.

You're not even supposed to arrest anybody at night.

No trials were supposed to be at night.

He's rested at night, he's tried in the early morning.

This was against Roman law.

There were so many laws that were broken.

There was no way Judas would have known that all these laws would have been broken and these two entities would have conspired and killed Jesus.

Like he did, he didn't, they were still friends.

I mean, there was still some level, there had to be some level of relational connection to Jesus.

He just didn't want Jesus to keep acting like he was God when he wasn't.

So Judas realizing what's going to happen to his friend, he takes his life.

Listen, look, this is Satan's MO.

His MO is always to lure us away from Jesus and then shame us for being there.

So he'll take a circumstance in your life, he'll get you to doubt in who Jesus is, or at least who he is in connection to you.

Because there's a level of this where you can still believe that he's God, he just doesn't think as much about you as you hoped he would.

And what the enemy does, he'll take, he'll take whatever situation that is, he'll leverage that to put distance between you and God, and then when he'll shame you for being separated from him because of that.

He is an opportunist, an oppositional opportunist.

So let me say this before I get it in the next section.

So it's obvious the role that Judas plays in the crucifixion of Jesus.

Okay?

No, no, no dismissing it.

But can I tell you that Jesus, nobody killed Jesus.

Jesus gave his life freely for us.

So there was foreknowledge of the events that would take place that bring him to this place both religiously and politically.

But none of that, nobody arrests Jesus against his will.

In fact, when he comes to the, they come to the garden to get him, one of the gospel counts says, um, who are you looking for?

Like he's the first one to speak.

Who are you guys after, by the way, showing up here with all your swords and your your fire?

You look you look for me?

I'm the guy.

I'm the guy.

Another way we know that Jesus gives his life fully is he doesn't hardly, I don't, I don't know if you can read where he answers any accusations from Pilate.

Pilate's peppered him with questions.

He's quiet.

Until Pilate says, Do you not know who I am?

I have the ability and the authority to release you or to harm you.

You you you need to be talking to me.

And Jesus says, You have no authority other than that which my father has given you.

So the only you talk, you you they claim you're the king of Jews, silence.

Silence.

That's true.

So why?

What do I got to say about it?

Yeah, you're right.

Silence.

I have the No, no, no, let's stop now.

Do you talk too much?

You have no authority.

I'm here, I'm here on my own.

And that's why I'm trying to say that we we can we can paint Judas out to be this villain, and if we do, we set all of what took place inside of him and how he dealt with it.

We set it over here on a shelf and go, oh, look at Judas.

We start talking about what does it mean to quit Jesus or to quit on Jesus?

Well, that brings us all into the equation now, doesn't it?

Alright, so let's look at then, because I I think there's some ways to see this of what precipitated Judas quitting on Jesus.

And then in light of that, how how do I kind of arrange my life to recognize when that's happening and not and not let it happen?

Okay?

All right, so so here's the here's the I don't have them broken aside.

Is it just all one slide?

Is it all right?

All right, so here's the first one settling for familiarity and not forging.

This is what I believe Judas did, and I'll explain that.

And so how do we do this?

Um I say commit, but I'm saying conform.

I need to conform to know the Jesus of the Bible.

All right, so so in looking at and looking at Judas, Judas only thought he knew Jesus.

He missed, he missed, he didn't miss Jesus because he had a lack of exposure.

Right?

Who, I mean, he was one of the twelve which would have gotten everything to know about Jesus.

Like we get we get a record of what Jesus did.

John tells us at the end of his book there's no way to write everything that Jesus said and did, because there isn't enough, there's not enough papyrus, there's not enough ink, there's not enough pens, there's not enough light, no one big enough to kick it.

So we just get this little bit.

Judas gets it all.

So it wasn't that he had a lack of exposure, it was because he had a lack of conforming.

He lives his three and a half years with Jesus, trying to get Jesus to conform to it, the image he wants Jesus to have.

Does any of that sound familiar?

Instead of him conforming and to who Jesus was and what Jesus was doing.

Okay, so I'm a five foot ten, sixty-two-year-old white man from New Jersey.

Perhaps after service, some of you might have a conversation and one might say, No, I know what he said, but I think Pastor Charlie is a six foot two, twenty-two-year-old man from the Sudan.

And someone says, uh actually, the way I see Charlie is a four-foot middle-aged man from Vietnam.

And then another one of you circle into the conversation and goes, guys, don't argue about that.

Just as long as you believe what you believe in your heart.

If you just really believe that he's six foot two from Sudan, you just hang with that.

Pretty ridiculous, right?

Have I not just described our culture?

Well, that's not what my Jesus would do.

Well, I won't want to, I wouldn't believe in a God like that.

Well, how about let's start with who he is, who he said he was, who he proved himself to be.

There's a lot of there's people in the Christian community these days they don't want anything to do with the Old Testament.

I've read the Old Testament a bunch.

A bunch, a bunch.

And I got plenty of, huh?

The more I read it, the more I read when I read it, who who what is God trying to tell me about himself?

Instead of, what was he thinking about that?

Why did he do that?

And the Old Testament is all about introducing to us who and how we get to Jesus.

And then we get Jesus telling us all about who he is.

We get four books out of 27 that said, This is Jesus, and it's Jesus talking.

And we get the other 23 books of people telling us about what did all this mean about Jesus and who he was.

We've got plenty of great, plenty of access to great accurate information about who Jesus is.

That for us to sit back with our hands in a pocket and conjecture to what who Jesus was, that's going to lead you to a lot of disappointment.

Instead of who was this man?

And conforming myself to him, being familiar with Jesus is no substitute and being forged into the likeness of Jesus.

Oh, here's the second one.

So, how does quitting creep?

How did it creep on Judas?

And then how does it creep, how do we keep it from creeping on us?

It crept on Judas because he allowed the weight of his worship to fade.

And I'll counter that with the mechanics, the mechanics of his faith kind of elevated itself above worship.

And so how so us guarding our hearts around worship is one way to keep quitting from creeping.

All right, so let me explain it.

I've come down a lot today.

My knee's working really good.

Um before we get Jesus entering into Jerusalem for the Last Supper, weeks ahead of time, he raises a man named Lazarus from the dead.

Okay?

Now, I think I'm trying to go from hitting a tangent here, but I don't believe anybody else that was raised from the dead that we have record of had been dead as long as Lazarus.

Right?

So someone dies, they're laying in it up, they're laying in a room, Jesus comes in.

Lazarus is dead four days.

And I think there was a Greek thought, now I'm digging deep now.

Stuff I remember for being in class.

Um, that the Romans believed that the spirit hovered near the body for three days.

It's four days in the tomb, and I love the detail, right?

Because when he says, let's let's go to that, well, he stinks now.

Right?

I mean, I love the detail.

So Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

It was such, it was such an amazing um uh moment that scripture says that from that time on the chief priest sought to kill Jesus and Lazarus.

Now, why would that be?

Why wouldn't the chief priest after anybody else he'd raised from the dead?

Well, there wasn't no missing Lazarus, and he was walking around, he was a prominent man.

Like I can tell Charles, Charles can tell me, yeah, I I don't I don't believe he raised Jeannie from the dead.

Yeah, I don't I just don't believe it.

I know well, let me introduce you to Genie.

I mean, that's kind of what's happening.

All right.

So now, prior to Jesus entering into Jerusalem, he stops at Lazarus' home in Bethany, which was just a short walk outside of Jerusalem.

Now, Scripture says they were very close family.

Okay?

So now he's going back in after who knows how many weeks that Lazarus, who was dead, is now alive.

And Scripture says that really Martha and Mary were really close to Jesus, too.

They had a really separate, unique relationship with Jesus.

So Jesus is in the room, the gang's all here, and sometimes somehow it just floods Mary like the last time Jesus is here, we were all crying in this room.

We were crying because our brother was dead.

And now we're all together and we're really excited because our brother's with us.

And she goes gets this container of perfume.

Now, scripture says it gives us its value in the day.

The value today would be forty to fifty thousand dollars is what she gets off the shelf.

And she breaks it open and she puts it on Jesus' feet.

Another little nerdy thing.

It is highly likely this is Mary's dowry.

What was saved over time to be given to a husband to help set up that new household?

So it's not just Mary's got a lot of money.

She chose to spend this on Jesus.

This would have been hopes and dreams, right?

Plus the money.

And she starts to wash Jesus' feet with it.

And Judas.

How do you break the mood of that moment?

Man, that was a lot of money.

You know what we could have done with that money?

You know all poor all those poor people we passed on the way up here?

You know all the poor people we're gonna pass down to Jerusalem?

Can't believe she used that to spend money on that.

I don't think Judas was bold enough to get up and tell everybody that.

I'd think it was maybe whoever was closest to him, but he either he was too close to Jesus when he said it.

But we know that Jesus didn't have to be close to hear what she said.

And so Jesus then puts everything in place.

Judas, there's always going to be people in need.

But what this woman just did will be talked about for the rest of time.

The rest of time.

This will be talked about.

Now we are given insight that Judas helped himself to the money.

I don't believe Judas was a crook.

I don't believe Judas, when Jesus first called him, he dipped into the till.

I believe over time, I believe over time, when that quitting creeping, Judas starts going, well, this isn't all what I signed up for anyway, so you know, I might as well get the extra pistachios today.

I might as well be the one to get the new sandals today.

I might as well be the one to get the fancy bag to keep the money in today.

I don't want to carry it in this old bag.

But I also believe that the mechanics, the mechanics of our faith can somehow substitute for the heart of our faith.

Look, and I believe in mechanics.

Well, I'm a son of a mechanic, but I believe in the mechanics.

I'm on track on Life 180.

I'm in the middle of Job.

Ironically, the man who said, Though he slay me, yet I will serve him.

I'm in church.

I love being here.

I love being here with you.

The only time I'm not here with you is when I'm not here.

Right?

I don't have to be preaching, I'm here.

There is something to my faith that is transformed being around you, being together with you.

So I'm not shooting mechanics.

What I'm saying is though, when the worthiness of God gets lowered in your eyes, it impacts your worship of Him.

Your worship then becomes somehow some kind of this signal, this flashing light of wait a minute, has the worth of God starting to diminish in my life?

Because there's no way for a follower of Christ to not connect the worthiness of God to the act of God.

So are we actually diminishing the actions of God for us?

See, you can do you can play this game all day long.

You keep peeling this onion.

So the way I keep quitting from creeping is I gotta guard my worship over the mechanics of my faith.

Alright, and there's there's there's one more.

There's one more.

Um I believe what happened.

Judas got stuck in his stuck in his disappointment.

He got stuck in his disappointment.

So, how do we not get stuck?

As we have to understand that followership is forged through disappointments, not derailed by them.

Someone needs to hear this today.

God isn't holding out on you.

He hasn't somehow separated you outside of his body and set you over here and said, you sit and time out for a minute.

No, you're not getting dessert after this meal.

No, you need to head on to your bedroom.

We'll talk in the morning.

He's not holding out on you.

Being disappointed with outcomes is a very human experience.

And Jesus understands that, and he understands you.

He welcomes your complaints, he welcomes your disappointments, your heartbreaks, and he promises to walk with you through all of those.

God was pretty honest, Jesus was pretty honest about the idea of shielding us from hardships when he says that in John's book, in this world you will have trouble.

But take heart, for I've overcome the world.

He's introducing this, Jesus is introducing the same thing that John introduced.

It was night.

It was night, the night was real, the night's real.

It's just not the end.

In this world, you're gonna have trouble.

That's the truth.

I've overcome the world.

That's a bigger truth.

And then we read this in Romans.

Romans 5, 1 through 5.

It says, Therefore, Paul says, Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we've gained access by faith into the grace in which we now stand.

There should be there should be no misunderstanding that we are in the presence of God through the grace of Jesus Christ, and we're there because we believe him to be who we said he was.

There should be no doubt in that.

And in that, he says, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but also that we glory in our sufferings because we know our suffering produces perseverance, and our perseverance produces character, and our character produces hope.

And I love this line, I'll break it down.

And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who He has given to us.

Listen, this is what He's saying.

This process of glorying in our sufferings that produces perseverance and character, when you hold on to the hope of that end process, you will not be disappointed.

When you get to the hope piece, the hope piece is going to cover all the rest of the pieces.

When you put your hope in God, you will not be disappointed in how that ends, no matter how that ends.

Because your hope in Him, that transference of my eyes are not on this anymore, my eyes are on you.

And your light is real, and I trust your light.

You didn't you didn't spare your son?

Where is my expectation that I get spared?

You turn what the enemy meant for harm and evil, you turn into the salvation of many.

Why can't I believe that he's gonna turn what I'm in, not just for me, but for others?

I mean, the Hebrews, you read Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And the writer is so plain.

These did not see what they had hoped to have seen in their lifetime.

But they're there because they kept walking it out.

So because they weren't looking for, they weren't looking for these things to all turn out the way they wanted them to turn out.

They were looking for an architect of a city that belonged to God.

The things that you feel like are separating and disappointing and disillusioning, the thing that are causing the gaps, those are the very things that if you keep walking through, God doesn't, those that weren't there to derail you, they will forge you.

I remember one of the probably the most staggering emotional punches to the face I got was when my mom died of cancer at 58.

And I remember being in the altar on a particular week.

Um it was a weekend, I um she had a bad day.

I had uh called the night, I called that morning early, and I could tell that she wasn't doing good.

And so I brought into the service all those emotions.

And I remember being in the altar.

I remember being at the altar and and God, what God spoke was um, my grace is sufficient.

And I thought that meant he was going to heal my mom.

And then he countered with, um, but my sh my strength is made perfect in your weakness.

And I realized this wasn't about mom, this was about me.

Weeks later, I was I was scheduled to preach and um and got the news that I we needed to get we needed to get there as soon as as soon as we could.

And uh it was like a Saturday, so I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna throw that on my pastor uh because he was counting on me preaching for him.

So what I said was, oh, hey, but if you don't mind, when I finish, I'm gonna walk right off the platform, I'm gonna go right out the side door.

Gina's gonna be waiting in the car with it running, and we're gonna drive to Charleston.

I said, I can't hang.

And he said, I can't believe you're still gonna preach it.

And I was preaching on hope, I believe.

And I said, How do I not preach that?

So, preached it, walked off the stage.

She passes.

It was it was a couple weeks later the pastor looked at me and he said, Um, you're gonna be stronger because of this.

It wasn't something I wanted him to say to me.

Like, hey, my goal wasn't to be strong.

I'll take weekend my mom all day long, right?

I'm not interested in being strong.

But he was but he was right.

Um, I didn't think this would get personal.

I don't know if I could have pastored this church without having navigated that.

And then my dad died.

Eight months maybe after we after we planted Gateway.

I can see being disillusioned and disappointed in an American Jesus that has come to bring unicorns and rainbows and bubbles.

I can see being disappointed in that Jesus.

That's just not the Jesus that I read in Scripture.

What I read in Scripture is you're getting punched in the face, come on, we'll get in this fight together.

That's the one I read about in scripture.

You don't think you can make it another day?

I'll be with you.

We'll get through this day.

You wake up in the morning, I'll be right here.

There's a reason in the book of Lamentations, right?

SmackDab in the middle of it.

It says his mercies are new every morning.

So I don't know, I don't know where this lands.

For some of us, it's good maintenance, right?

It's good maintenance to realize what Judas, how Judas lands on the other side of this and how for us to stay on top of it.

Um how to look at disappointments and hardship in your life as a way in which God doesn't say, hey, don't worry about it, it's not that big of a deal.

He doesn't say that.

It's like, I know this is a big deal.

That's why I'm here.

He's close to the brokenhearted.

Okay.

But for some of you, this boy, this message has interrupted you because you you will find yourself in the middle of disappointment, maybe all the way to disillusionment.

Uh maybe today was just muscle memory.

Muscle memory.

Uh I'm going to church.

Or maybe it was a last-stitch effort.

Like, I'm gonna give you one more shot.

I'm gonna give you one more shot to prove to me that you're real.

And after this, I'm out.

It's okay to tell him you're disappointed, like he knows.

And if you don't complain to the one that can fix it, it won't get fixed.

And this, you know, this came, this illustration came to me right at the end of the first service.

And so, Mark, let's say you're disappointed in me as your pastor.

What's the best way for us to deal with this?

Because if you just stay disappointed, there's nothing.

No healing for you, no healing for me.

But if we have a conversation, then there might be something in me that I need to repent for and I need to change.

Now that's that's a human connection.

How is it about with God that if I'm disappointed in God and I say, God, I'm disappointed in you, I really didn't expect this to turn out the way it did.

I don't I didn't expect to walk through this.

Do you think something even better can come out of that than me and Mark?

Yeah.

Because when he speaks, first of all, in situations like this, when you find yourself kind of hanging on by a thread and you're honest with him and you have those conversations, his words become crystal clear.

And they're always quiet.

They don't seem to be, they just, it's like all the other noise going on.

We can pick out that voice.

And when you hear that voice, you can keep moving.

My prayer here at the end is that you will hear that voice.

That you will hear that voice.

Father, your love for us cannot be measured outside of our limited understanding of the cross.

Your power cannot be understood outside of our limited understanding of the resurrection.

But what we do know is that you paved a way for us to be before the Father.

You sent your Spirit to be with us now in this moment.

And I pray, Lord, for there to be shift, changes, courage, joy, strength in this moment with you.

Church, stand with me.

I'm gonna pray, and then I'm gonna invite you to come to the altar.

To the right over here, um, someone will be standing ready to link faith with you over here if you want to spend some time alone.

I saw people kneeling just where they were in the first service.

Um, communions on my left and on my right.

I'll pray.

I'm gonna invite you to move.

Father, we're vulnerable before you in this moment and believe our vulnerability will be met, Lord, with your uh with your transparency.

So we need you to move.

We need to hear you clearly.

Lord, do what only you can do in this moment.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

I invite you to move.

We hope you were encouraged and challenged by today's message.

Again, to learn more about Gateway Franklin Church, find us online at gatewayfranklin.com.

Thanks for joining us today.