Great Expectations: Lent For Non Lent People

Welcome To The River. City Church podcast and a

message by our lead. Pastor Jason Powers our prayer

is that this message would Inspire and encourage you, build

your faith. And point you to the

life-changing love of Jesus, may you enjoy the goodness of God as

you follow him today. Hi, everybody.

That was good. She trained you.

All right, she shamed y'all into responding, that's good.

We're not above that. Hey listen, I'm glad you're here

today. You get to sermons today.

One short. I'm not your like I know how

your sermons go. We'll be here forever, we're

going to talk when you start a new series called Great

Expectations, but before we do that, I want to talk about as

very what's going on at Asbury, College in Kentucky.

Some of you have heard of it, some of you haven't and I've

kind of address both. If you haven't heard as Berry

College in Kentucky is undergoing something of some

people, call it a Revival. So, on Wednesdays, they have

chaplain, it is a United Methodist College.

Which some of you in here? I've woo.

And some of you here like mmmm, right?

And whatever you do with that, you got to do with it, right?

And so what happened is, they have chapels on Wednesday and so

last Wednesday, they had chapel and a guy got up and he started

talking about what he said was this is such a great message.

He says, listen if you want to be an expresser of God's love,

right? Like any of you want to just

love go out and love which is what you're supposed to do,

right? Like that's the thing they'll

know you are my disciples by love.

He says if you're going To do that.

You have to be filled up with love if you want to be able to

give love out. So he said my prayer for us,

he's talking to this college chapter, I said my prayer for us

is that you would just sit in the love of God and that you

would just experienced God's love for yourself.

That was on Wednesday and right after that, he left the stage,

they started worshipping as they usually do, and they just

haven't stopped. Right?

And so the idea is what do we do about Revival?

What does Violence. I mean you call it Revival.

You can call it Awakening there have been periods throughout

time a couple things just that I see on this.

I'm just going to touch on these real quick and then we'll get to

kind of message, right? Number one, cynicism is cheap

easy and contributes. Nothing to culture.

It's just simple. I just know.

Like, I I I I have it. Like, I battle with that myself,

right? Skepticism may be okay.

If you step back and just go, hey, like, I want to look at and

I just want to see. But cynicism says that, That

thing never does happen, and when it does, it's a joke.

Haha, is simple. Here's what I see, when I look

at the Awakening in, at Asbury. Number one, the leader seems to

be a first century Jewish Carpenter named Jesus because

there doesn't seem to be any leader, person, group student

standing up and leading. This this seems to be organic,

it seems to have just risen up. And to be continuing, they're

worshiping, they have new bands come in all of this.

So it doesn't seem to be about any one person hears, the most

striking thing for me, when I look at, when I look at the

videos and I see all of this is, it seems to be just college kids

worshiping which a couple things, right.

The first thing is that means that this expression, it least

is exceedingly biblical because what it looks like and this is

going to resonate for us where we have been studying for this,

are you You ready? Because what it looks like and

what 1st Corinthians, 14 talks about and worship is order.

We know about order women talking about order were lured.

You set us up for this right there standing there and they're

worshiping and they're raising their hands and they're coming

in, they're going but it's not out of control.

It is ordered which reminds us very much of our God.

Now here's the other thing and I say it's not done yet, okay?

I believe there's this sense of sitting and being filled in love

what I do. And again, do I believe, I

believe that it's real. I believe that this is a unique

expression. I've got simply because it

doesn't happen all the time, right?

It doesn't have anywhere. Here's the deal.

The goal of Revival is not simply to make us feel

something. The goal of Revival is to remind

us and convince us and give us the basis of faith in God's love

so that we can then go out and love the world.

My prayer is not that all of us us would take a quick trip to

Kentucky so that we can see what Revival looks like.

My prayer is that all of us would pray that what happens in

Kentucky will happen here? Because here's my take as a

pastor, I want every single thing that God has for us, even,

if are you ready? It makes me uncomfortable, even

if I can't control it, even if it challenges and stretches my

Faith, whatever that looks like. You know what, the single

biggest stretch of my faith is in this last thing, I'm going to

say about this for right now. I'd love to talk to you

afterwards if you want, but I want to talk about this.

You know what? The greatest excitement and step

of and challenged. My faith is, are you listening?

It's student-led. And here's what that means for

us. Cranky Gen-X Boomer.

All that I listen, I say this with all seriousness, listen,

they're not waiting and asking for permission to connect with

the Lord. We can continue to insist that

the young people get off our Lawns or we can acknowledge that

something, very special seems to be happening.

My hope is that we old heads and I include myself in this would

nuzzle up to a 20 year old, and listen to them, talk about God,

and find out, what's going on and listen to what they hunger

for and I throw stuff and listen that we can tell.

Mike, we've got things to offer, they need to grow and I'm not

just talking about that all day, but And this is an opportunity.

It is in front of us at his front and center in our

Consciousness. I think that we have an

opportunity to go. Lord, can you do something here

that challenges us and stretches us?

We pray with me for this Lord. I Thank you for what seems to

happen be happening in Kentucky. And I thank you because I want

to believe that you can pour your heart out like that.

And this place that your spirit can lead us in Lord.

When we, it seems to look like what we see in heaven.

Father. When we see pictures of Heaven,

There are people from all over worshipping lifting you up.

And so Jesus, my prayer is that, that would come here, that we

would sit in your love that we would understand your goodness

and your grace not just intellectually but Tin

experientially that we would know what that would experience

your love and then express it. I thank you, Father, we know

that your Sovereign and you're good.

And so we ask that you would do in US everything that's in your

heart, we asked Jesus with confidence and faith in your

name and for your glory. Amen, the last thing.

If you don't know about Asbury, if you're on social media and

you don't know about as Mary, you got to check your algorithm

bro because you need to mix some Jesus in because it's

everywhere. So I'll just leave that for you

to do and some of you are like have to go now and So we last

the last several weeks, we started the year talking about

the blueprint, God's blueprint for creation and how God put

life in order and how he created, as a unique expression

of his love for mankind. But what we saw last week was

how mankind chose that they didn't want the order that God

created, they wanted to try it themselves.

And so we saw them walking out of the Garden of Eden last last

week, abandoning their vocation and vocation was a big idea.

We spent a lot of Time, I talked for a long time last week,

unpacking and talking about this idea of vocation, it's what were

built for and it all comes back to order.

We're told in the beginning, God created in the beginning was the

word. So at the very beginning before

any of it was God, God always comes first in your life, and

your salvation, and your hope, and your Redemption, and your

restoration and all of that. God always comes first.

He always has the first word and so God was, and he was good and

then he created and he created a world in Order.

And he said he separated, he putting he says Let There Be

time and then let there be atmosphere and let there be

ground and let all of the emptiness.

Be filled and let the filled have purpose, right?

And so he created creation and then right in the middle, or

told it he created Mankind and order is everything.

What he told mankind was, you will reflect my image.

So, the order of creation is important, you have God, and you

have Mankind and you have creation.

And the order was God, Gives his image to Mankind and then

mankind images. The good order of God into the

world. How does he do that by planting

by expanding by multiplying God, planted a garden in the East,

and he planted mankind there. And he said fill the Earth with

it, that's how we image, God into the world.

We multiply what he started creation.

Then in its orderly State as it grows and expands and fills the

Earth reflects worship back to God.

Do you see the order God? Mankind creation creation

mankind. God and it's this never-ending

Loop always with God at first. And last week we saw what

happens when Eve and Adam say, I wonder what happens if we skip

the god part, which is what we often do, God created a world.

But I wonder if I skip, if I Take God out of the money part,

what if I Take God out of the sex part?

What if I Take God out of the identity part?

What if I take Thank God out of the fun part.

Then what's left? And that's the question for the

fall because we saw last week we saw God not in Anger, cursing

mankind, but explain to them. Hey, you wanted a world without

God at the helm where you would decide for yourself.

What is good where you would defy decide for yourself, what's

good and evil? He said, so let me just tell you

what. That looks like.

It looks like your work will be fruitless.

You'll try before you adjust like Turn the soil and stuff

with pop-up, right plants and trees and all that.

But now he says thorns and thistles Eve, we saw how Eve was

created uniquely Eve was created relationally out of atoms side.

And what God Said is Eve without me your relational.

The relational part of you. It doesn't work.

It doesn't, it doesn't? Yeah, it doesn't work as well.

So the question for us as Adam and Eve walked out of the garden

last week as where does that leave us?

Does the curse get the last word?

And we feel like it does sometimes because if you ever

felt like your job is fruitless, like you go and you're like is

all thorns and thistles today, boy.

Like I just go and I punched a clock and I'll come home and

I'll sleep and it'll be fine. But then tomorrow I get to stand

up and do it all over again. And you have you ever wondered?

Is that what my life is now? That's a reflection of the Fall.

That's how it was. How about your relationships?

You ever? Just feel like you're never

going to be truly known. You're never going to truly love

the way that it's supposed to be.

Do all of your Relationships feel like hard work.

Like striving like misunderstanding like

miscommunication. Do you find yourself on a

constant circle of blaming in hiding and dodging and blaming?

This is all pictures of the fall and so last week we left with

bad news but I want to tell you there's really good news on the

horizon. It's coming in several weeks,

it's going to be on April 9th, we're going to get there.

But before that, I just want to give you a precursor right?

Like because what happened last week, With a fall was our

relationship. God was broken, right?

And so here's the good news. Are you ready?

Because if you walked out last week and you're just kind of

crazy, here's the good news, some of you will recognize it.

Get it. What we saw in the garden last

week was we are badly broken. Yes, you are.

That's the rest of the story. You can't only tell half of the

story, whether you tell the broken half or the love tap, you

can't only tell half the story you have to tell the whole

thing. This is why this is our

confession, several people last week's.

And why don't we say badly? Broken deeply, love anymore,

because I wanted us to feel it because I think it's real easy

to get away from the broken. This part, just go nowhere,

right? A lot.

And so I wanted us to see that that our Brokenness isn't just

that we eat apples instead of pears but that are Our

Brokenness is we want to be God in this world and so my hope is

today that the story that we can tell today will bridge the gap,

My Hope Is that you'll see some light bulbs that will go on

because we have spent for the last five weeks we've been in

Genesis. And today, we're going to jump

to two passages one in the Book of Luke and one in the Book of

Matthew. If you have your Bible, and I

hope that you do, you can turn to Luke chapter 9 and we will

Luke 9 · chapter mention

start there. And then after that, we will go

to You chapter 16. So just to kind of fast forward,

many thousands of years from Genesis chapter 3 and we now

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

show up, we are in first century Palestine, first century, its

kind of Syria. We know it kind of is Israel

today and there's a Jewish Carpenter named, Jesus of his

father was called Joseph. His mother was called Mary, he's

showing up on the scene and he's building a following talking

about the kingdom. And his message is the kingdom

of God. God is at hand, and that's

something that we kind of talked a lot about today.

But I hope that you see something today that makes you

go. I get that, I recognize that.

All right, let's see. Luke chapter 9 starting in verse

Luke 9 · chapter mention

1. Jesus called the twelve together

and he gave them power and authority over all demons and to

cure disease. Let me just make a connection

real quick. Do you remember in the garden

when God gave Adam and Eve? Their vocation?

Do you remember what he said? He said to have dominion over

all of creation. Another word for Dominion is

Authority. So we have the authority and

Dominion lost, not exercised in the garden.

And here we had, Jesus calling his followers.

And the first thing he does when he sends them out, as he gives

them their Authority back here. E institutes the kingdom for

them verse 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of

God and to heal, and he said to them, take nothing for your

journey. No staff or bag or bread, or

money and do not have two tunics.

So he talks told them to go out and proclaim the kingdom.

You know what he's doing? He's telling them be fruitful

multiply Fly. Have you heard that before we're

in the garden? When God told Adam and Eve and

he planted them. They said, go be fruitful

multiply expand the garden, take it.

And what did he say? What did he tell them?

He says and The Obedience will be that you will trust me that

you'll know you don't need to bring anything.

They were naked. They didn't have anything and

they were unashamed. Why?

Because they trusted God, because they knew that God would

be good. They knew that God would provide

for them. They knew that the only thing

that they had to worry about was the job.

The god planted before them. So what did Jesus say?

Says, don't take anything. Don't take a bag or a staff, or

bread or money and don't have two tunics.

He's pushing them once again to rely in entirely on God, for

their provision. Do you see what Jesus is doing?

Jesus doesn't just, and just announced the kingdom.

You don't say, hey, the kingdom is here.

What he said is, if you're going to be my follower, which is who

he's talking to here, if you're going to be my follower, you

can't just think about the kingdom.

You have to live in the Kingdom. Following Jesus isn't just about

understanding, it's not just about ideas, it's about

practical reality. He goes on verse 4 and whatever

house you enter stay there and from there depart and wherever

they do not receive you. When you leave that town, shake

off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them, and they

departed and went through the villages preaching, the gospel

and healing everywhere. So, Jesus again, makes his

followers, a definition of a follower is living out this

Kingdom. Walking around in the Kingdom,

right? So now we go down to verse 10

because his disciples they left, they did what he said and they

came back in there like Jesus You're not gonna believe what

happened and she's like, oh, tell me.

And they said demons, fled from us all of the things, Jesus,

that you said would happen happened.

So, I guess you actually technically did know what was

gonna happen, and he just celebrates any parties.

Listen, and verse 10 on the return, the apostles told him

all that they had done and he took them in withdrew apart to a

town called bethsaida. Now, just let me stop right

there because I often in my prayers, go Jesus, you're

awesome, you need help. Help learning how to build a

church because every time good things happen.

You leave town. Like you, jeez.

You're always like, hey, hey, we healed.

We did all the stuff. And she's like, yeah, let's go,

somewhere else. Peter's like, Jesus, I thought

you were trying to build a following and the following is

here. If we could just stay put, but

see, Jesus says, it's not just about what I want.

It's not just about building a following that I want a shot.

Not just about having everybody in town think that I need.

It's not just about everybody. Hey, coming out and listen to a

message and saying, I heard that.

That's not what it's about, right?

And in verse 11, When the Crowds learned it, they followed him

and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God,

and he cured those who had need of healing.

So, this is important, right? When we see Jesus and his

disciples, what Jesus and his disciples are doing in Matthew,

Mark, Luke and John is living out Kingdom realities when Jesus

called them all of the things, right?

Jesus gets in a boat. Tell them to put their Their

Nets down. They catch thousands of fish.

That's the kingdom. When Jesus touches Peters

mother-in-law and her fever leaves.

That's the kingdom when he heals and fees and restores, that's

the kingdom and he points to it. And he talks about it and then

verse 12. Now, the day began to wear away

and the crowd came and said to him.

Wait, no and the twelve came and said to him, send the crowd away

and go into the surrounding Villages and Countryside to find

lodging and get Provisions for. We are here in a desolate Place.

Listen, what is desolate place? I'm like do you remember in

Genesis 2 when God was talking about where he created mankind?

Before he placed them in? The garden says they were in the

wilderness. They were in a wild Place, see

before God created the garden, where God's presence wasn't,

where he hadn't yet done it, it was while, then it was crazy,

and it, right? And it was not the garden.

And so here we have reflections of that.

Here, we have an entire culture in a society.

And in fact of all of history, We living in a apart from God's

good creation, verse 13. But he said to them, you give

them something to eat. And they said, we have no more

than Five Loaves and two fish, unless we were to go and buy

food for all of these people. So, Jesus living out Kingdom

realities in a world ordered around the fall.

Listen, everywhere you go, every Every institution that you

encounter is formed and shaped by the Fall, by those principles

that were outlined in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Work is fruitless your relationships, are are futile,

and difficult and hard and not what they were created and not

what they were supposed to be. And here comes Jesus right,

intimate, right? And we fight for power and we

fight for control. We fight to win and to get for

ourselves and right into the middle of that.

Jesus comes not just Talking about a kingdom but

demonstrating a kingdom. And now we find in verse 17.

So he gives us. And everybody comes up and

there's thoroughly thoroughly familiar with the fall, right?

The fall looks like limitations, there's not enough food here and

so what does Jesus do? He says, oh yeah, just feed

them. There's not enough food.

Jesus, Five Loaves to fish. That's all Jesus is.

Like, tell everyone to sit down. I'll pray.

So he prays and Jesus prays. This ridiculous prayer.

Thank you for your abundance, right?

It'd be like if I was here and look, I have this mint.

I'm going to share it with all of you.

Lord, thank you for this thy abundant Bounty, right?

Doesn't make any sense and then he just starts handing them out.

I wonder what it looked like, but we're told in verse 17.

They all ate and we're satisfied.

And what was left over was picked up twelve baskets of

broken peep of pieces. So, what we find is even in a

world ordered around the fall when Jesus shows up and starts

announcing the kingdom and starts talking about the kingdom

and starts getting involved. And what's going on.

Everything begins to look abundant just like the garden.

Just like when he got started, the very first time.

So if this Kingdom, right? Jesus came to enact a kingdom.

If this Kingdom enacted by Jesus.

If it reflects the Garden of Eden created by father, right?

And Jesus came and said, hey repent because the kingdom

Kingdoms here, if it looks like that, the question is, why is it

so hard? Your felt like that.

It's just really hard to follow Jesus.

I think it's really hard to do all the things I have.

I'll never forget when I was a youth.

Pastor. I had a young man, his name was

Steven, and his trusted trouble, man.

It came from a difficult, family, and a difficult stuff.

Whatever, he came to me at this Youth Event, one time and he has

man, this Jesus thing is just too hard and he had sadness.

I think kind of, saw his face on, try to talking about go, no

matter. Man, you kind of never I never

saw him again. And that's my concern.

That's my question. Like we tried this thing and we

go and it's difficult and it's hard.

But why is it hard? Now we're going to turn to the

Book of Matthew. We're going to be in Matthew

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16, but I just while you're looking for that, it's

want to stop and I want him real quick.

Just ask this question. What if the answer that

question, right? Like, why is it so hard if Jesus

came to an active Kingdom? Why is that so hard?

What if the answer to that question is staggeringly,

simple. I mean, staggering I'm going to

tell you what it is and you're going to go there must be more

to it. In fact, most of us probably me

include we're going to walk out and try a whole bunch of other

different things and and kind of end up fruitless and

frustrating. So the question is, what if the

solution was just so easy that literally any person could do it

and most people don't The question would be, where will

you be and the end of today, where will you be right?

So we're now in Matthew chapter 16 and just to set the stage,

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

everything that we just read in. Luke has has just happened in

Matthew. The Book of Matthew Mark, Luke

and John, it's basically the same story.

It's the story of Jesus is life, told from a different

perspective. So they've got lots of overlap

on the stories, they tell. So we have just heard about

Jesus, feeding the 5,000 to decide Apples and they get away.

Now, we're in verse 16 and we go to verse 13.

Now, in Jesus came to the district of caesarea Philippi,

this was unusual, they walked around.

He was an itinerant preacher. So they feed the 5,000, they

have their thing, and he gets up, and he walks around, and

they go to this place called caesarea Philippi says area.

After Caesar Philip I was herod's nephew.

He was absolutely sucking up to to the Caesar.

So he named a town after Caesar and himself but it's a

thoroughly Gentile city, right? Lots going on in.

Verse 13. Jesus comes to the district of

caesarea Philippi. And he asks his disciples, who

do people say that? The son of man is son of, man,

he's talking about himself. It is a reference to the Book of

Daniel, where it talks about the Messiah, T of the Messiah, one

would come like a son of man, right?

So he's basically saying hey who do people think that I am and

they his disciples said some say that you're John the Baptist and

others say that you're Elijah and others say Jeremiah or one

of the prophets. Now what's interesting about

that is all of those were Prophets different prophets,

Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet Jeremiah prophesied.

That Jerusalem would fall that it would be raised and leveled

and down. And so, if you read the book of

Lamentations lamentation was the book written by Jeremiah the

prophet about the destruction of Jerusalem, lots of Tears, lots

of Sorrow, loss of sadness, the Prophet Elijah, you read about

in The Book of 1st Kings known for miracles.

He called fire from heaven. That's pretty awesome, right?

Like, if people are saying you're like Elijah, That's you

should be stoked about that, right?

John, the Baptist was the most recent prophet in Israel's

history and the thing about John, the Baptist, John the

Baptist spoke truth to power, right?

John, the Baptist was like, fake news, that's not.

It tried Pharisees, you're wrong.

It's that easy tour stuff up, right?

And so everybody's got an opinion about Jesus, Jesus,

like, hey, who did I say? I'm well, they all think you're

a profit, no matter how good a profit.

They think you are. The thing about being a prophet

is a prophet is not God, which means I can sit there and go

tell me what you think profit. And that's very interesting, but

I reject what you saying? When Jesus asked the question,

who do people say that I am the answer?

Come back. Oh, they all say that your

profited doesn't mean that Jesus isn't important.

It doesn't mean that Jesus isn't respected because he absolutely

is important. He absolutely is respected

anybody. Who thinks Jesus is our Prophet,

they probably really think he's a neat guy.

They just don't think they have to obey him.

I feel like many of us feel the same way about Jesus today.

He's a neat guy. He's a good profit, probably a

moral teacher had a lot of Good stuff to say, but he doesn't

give us commands for our life. So he asks who do people say

that him? And he goes on.

And this is a great question. Verse 15, he said to them to his

disciples but who do you say that I am?

And this question is wrapped up, this goes back to our question

last week. Do you remember the question

about Adam and Eve, right? It says, you'll be able to be

like God. And what we saw that gets

wrapped up in that is who gets to Define what good is.

See, the definition of what is good.

All it's an authority question and always ultimately lands in

God's lap fully and finally God as the creator of all things is

the one who gets to say and decide what good is.

So this is what Jesus is asking. He's asking us to his disciples,

who do you say that? I am, right?

And so, they go on and Peter has a moment, right?

Like, hey, truly, this has got to be one of Peter like early

Peter gets it, Simon Peter replied.

You are the Christ. The son of the Living, God, that

word Christ Christos in Greek, is the Hebrew word Messiah, and

it means anointed. It means king it means chosen.

It means set apart. And so Peter says, Jesus, you're

no, you're no profit. I mean, you are a prophet.

But more than that, your God, we see you, Jesus, we've known that

your God. And so think of all that gets

wrapped up in that we know who God is, and notice what Jesus

says, Verse 17 and Jesus answered and blessed.

Are you Simon son of John for flesh?

And blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in

heaven? Do you remember in John chapter

John 3 · chapter mention

3 when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus?

And he said, you can't even see the kingdom, unless you're born

again. This wasn't something that John

that, that Peter just deduced. What we're told is that God

showed Peter God brought this God made this clear to Peter who

he was. He opened his eyes to see in

verse 19. And I tell you that you are

Peter and on this rock, I will build my church.

There's some wordplay going on there and I want to talk about

too much, but the Greek word for peter is Petrus, right?

And the greed were Greek word for rock is Petra, right?

And so that right, the good, we got it right there like that.

So they go there. So what happened is right?

He's given Simon and nickname. He's like, hey, you're not Simon

anymore. Your your Rocky when call you

Rocky because you're tough, because you get it because

you're good, you got this, right?

And then he looks at him and goes and Peter and on this rock

Peter, I'm going to build my church and had all these kind of

meetings, right? Peter would go on to be a leader

in the end, kind of in the first church.

But really the idea is that confession.

Listen, the Church of Jesus is going to be built on the

confession. That Jesus isn't just a prophet.

Jesus isn't a guy who had good stuff to say, Jesus is the son

of God. He is the Eternal creator of all

things. He is the one to whom.

And for whom, and through whom all things were created.

He is the one that ultimately in eternity.

All things will be restored to in return to, he is the one And

the question for you and for me today, is who do you say he is?

Because the world is full of people, looking for a profit,

someone's a someone, they can get some good information and

some good idea. But what we don't have is

someone who has the privilege and the right to tell us what we

are and who we are. And that is the only place.

Now, let me just real quick. How do you answer that?

Who do you say that? He is.

Now, please don't say words because it's not just words,

it's just like this this thing going on in Asbury.

Like right now, I wanted to go worship get full.

But you know what? I want to see in Kentucky.

You know what? I want to see when Bible comes

here, I want to see no more foster kids because the church

stands up and goes will take them all.

I want to see the church stand up and go there won't be any

hungry. People as much as it depends on

us because we'll feed them all. Oh, it's costly.

Oh, you, you need me to give you need me to give money to fairly.

Sure. I'll do it.

Will do. What is what does it take?

What is it? One?

See when God is God, when he is the king, and when we pray, like

he praised Your Kingdom. Come On Earth as it is in

heaven. Now, we start to go to like book

of Acts, right? Where we see there were no needy

people among them. Well, how do you I think that

happened because the church stood up and so don't answer

that but considerate and contemplate it and think about

it because the only place that the kingdom can start in, you is

with a confession like that. You are the Christ, the son of

the Living God but confession isn't enough.

Peter proves that are you ready? What did he just tell?

Jesus, answer back. What did he just tell?

You're the Christ. You're the, you're the king,

you're the boss. Okay.

Verse 24, then Jesus told the disciples.

No, that's not it. Verse 21.

Okay. So, Peter just made the

confession for 21 from that time on.

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to

Jerusalem and suffer, many things from the elders and the

chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day, be

raised. So you see Jesus setting them up

a little bit. Hey, who do you think?

I You're the king. That's right on the king.

And guess what? All these losers.

They're going to kill me. Well, geez, that's a terrible

Kingdom. What kind of kingdom is it?

Where you can just kill the king whenever you want?

And now, Peters just had his moment, right?

Peter just saw it. He was just celebrate, right?

He just ignores God Jesus. You are the king, right?

And verse 22. And Peter took Jesus aside and

began to rebuke him saying, far be it from you, Lord, this shall

never happen to you real quick. Who do you think Peter thought

was God? You're the King Jesus but I'm

going to tell you what to do. See, Peter had good information,

he had good theology, had good information but it hadn't gone

down into his heart yet, right? See, we have the same problem,

often we have this intellectual incompatibility with Jesus, with

King, with authority, with Rule and with suffering.

And the question is, couldn't Jesus.

Just stop the suffering? Couldn't he just make it stop?

Yeah, he could have but he didn't.

Why good. I'm going to show you how y'all

ask great questions. I'm so proud of you are

wonderful. I want to read Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 5:7

5, verse 7 and the days of his flesh.

Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries

and tears to his He was able to save him from death and he was

heard because of his reverence, right?

And he was just talking about the Garden of Gethsemane.

You've heard about this, right? Jesus goes, and he lays down.

And what does he pray? He says, if it's possible let

this cup pass from me. Jesus was like hey let's do a

different way. Hey I don't I don't want to I

don't want to do the cross. Jesus Christ himself prayed and

asked that God would deliver him from suffering.

So let me ask is that okay? Okay, for you to pray to be

delivered from suffering. You're like, tell me the answer,

anybody want to bet you bet your boots?

You bet your boots, you pray for it Lord, if it's possible, let

this cup pass from me. But you remember what father

said to Jesus? I can't, I can't do.

You know why? Because here's the deal.

Some of you are facing suffering right now, some of you are

facing the unknown. Some of you are facing pain and

fear, and grief, and sorrow, and emptiness and loss, and you're

crying out. Oh God my God.

Why have you forsaken me? Where are you?

And I want you to know, in that moment you are exactly where

Jesus was If we never pray that prayer, if we never get honest

about that feeling we can never have a sense.

Right? Because what's this, all about?

It goes on, although he was a son, he learned obedience

through what he suffered see, suffering has an important part,

right? Because here's the part.

What happens when most of us suffer, we turn around and go

the other way, don't we we quit as soon as Adam and Eve figured

out that there might be something that they didn't know

that they didn't have absolutely everything.

What do they do? Did they quit the game?

They backed out of the Covenant, did their own thing figured out

they were going to do but we're find is Jesus not only enters

into some, he asks to be delivered from suffering but

when God says no he just keeps going and being made perfect.

He became the source of Eternal salvation to all who will obey

him being designated by God. A high priest.

After the order of Melchizedek, oh my gosh, Jesus moves toward

suffering. And let me tell you what

happens. Are you listening?

Good. It's better.

We hide from suffering because we just, oh my gosh.

I can't that will possibly do it.

But here's what Jesus did. Jesus said, okay?

And he went through it and was it hard?

It was death literal, physical death murder, they whip him with

a whip until the flesh came off of his back, then they nailed

him to would and they held him up.

So he died by asphyxiation with his guts all over it.

Where it was the worst thing, the Romans could possibly

conceive of and he suffered and he went through it.

But guess what? But he's not suffering anymore,

you know who often does suffer us.

Do you know why? Because we escaped at the first

chance we get, And we just keep running back into it and we just

keep. And, but, what we're told, is

that Jesus submitted to suffering, he learned obedience

from what he was suffering and so resurrected he came back,

right? So we find back to Matthew

Matthew 16:22

chapter 16 verse 22. I already read all of that.

I get behind me saying that, right?

He said that verse 16 23 he turned Jesus turned to Peter and

said, get behind me. You're a hindrance.

You're not setting your mind on things of God, but on the things

of man, right? And so Peters all about

self-preservation, which is what we often are two, right where we

just go. Will God wouldn't call me to

that God wouldn't want me to have pain?

God wouldn't want me to suffer? God wouldn't want me to have

anything like that. And what we have is Jesus Christ

as the answer to that, if God would not spare his son from

that, why would he spare us? Us from that and you sit there

and use. Go will God.

So mean he's not He asks you to give up something limited and

finite for something Eternal and never-ending.

Here's what I'm saying, I'm going to kind of give away the

whole message and then we're going to unpack it whatever you

give up for Jesus up to, and including your very life, is

nothing compared to what he gives you.

What Jesus has for you is better and you go.

Oh man. But I'm sick.

And I'm kind of like it's better the faith.

If and listen, I don't promise that.

Jesus heals, anybody? Jesus gets to decide because I'm

not God, but I know I have known people who have found father in

pain and suffering and sickness and loneliness and fear and

their testimony, every time was it was worth it.

There is a lady who is near and dear to my heart and she told me

this is a quote. She said quote, I thought I knew

how much Jesus loved me until I got cancer.

That's a challenged, my faith challenges me, but that woman

knows the kingdom that know, that woman knows what it is to

meet Jesus in the midst of suffering.

So, the Jesus of the truth about Jesus hadn't made it to Peter's

heart yet. So he stayed Fallen happens to

us too and that brings us to now something very special happens

on Wednesday, to let me know what happens on Wednesday, Ash

Wednesday, Ash, Wednesday is a Catholic thing.

I'm not Catholic. Like, I don't do that the ashes

on my head, right? But what I do want to do for the

next several weeks leading up to Easter is we're going to walk

through this Lent. I meant to bring a book.

I read a book. Several years ago to devotional

book, it's called lint for non lint.

People not lent like your pocket, right?

Not lint, like what comes out of your dryer?

Lint, Ellie in t, right? It's a season of kind of

spiritual the if you want to get the book again.

Lent for non lint people by a guy called John Swanson.

It's pretty good. We're going to be in this season

up until Easter but here's the idea that I want to present You,

right? It's this Lent confronts us with

death. To prepare us for Resurrection.

See, we're in Easter season now, and we love to talk about

Easter. It's a big party, right?

We celebrate its streamers and eggs and bunnies and all of the

good things, right? Right.

But it's not active others, it's about Jesus and it's about the

resurrection and it's about all of that.

But here's the thing as much as we love the good news of Easter,

we don't get the good news, we don't understand the good news

until we can understand. The bad news and this season of

Lent is a season that a lot of American churches mrs.

Missed because we don't like to talk about suffering about pain.

And so what we're going to see is over the next several weeks,

how those experiences the unique expressions and manifestations

of those experiences cause us and allow us to experience Jesus

more. And I believe that this is going

to be good news because as much as we run from it and as much as

we hide from it as well as much as we don't like to deal with

it. There's very Jesus said blessed.

Those who mourn because they will be, comforted those who

endure suffering, find God in a unique way.

If they will enter in, do you want to know how to do that?

Well, again, this is where we get to the easy part.

It's so simple, not easy. Simple, you ready?

If God is God, and he is, if he is God, then obedience to him

will make resume click, make room for New Life, okay, so how

do we make room for a moment to read Matthew chapter?

16 starting In verse 24, Jesus told his disciples and that

counts for us to who are followers of him.

If anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up

his cross and follow me. And just real quick to jump

ahead to the end of the story. Easter is ultimately about the

man who was God taking up his cross and following the father.

So if we are going to be Disciples of that, man, we also

must do these things and I want to just say real quick Jesus

makes this a condition if Anyone, you know, some of the

criticism in the critiques against what's going on at

Asbury are doctrinal, right? Like they say things like they

discredit that it's a move of God, which whatever, whatever.

But they do it for doctrinal reasons, right?

Oh, well the methodists, let women preach.

So, God couldn't do that. And what I just say is be real

careful Acts chapter 5 white well in the Old Testament.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

There's a story about King David and he went out and he came back

and He danced, he was worshipping.

And he was like, crazy out-of-control, woo, dancing and

partying and one of his wives was like, yeah, you look like a

fool out there. They'll real distinguish all my

how the king distinguished himself today and you know what,

King David said to her for shaming his worship, he said

your womb will be closed and it was I'm not praying any of that

for you but the idea the point is just be careful when you

judge other people's worship, right?

I forgot where I was going with that.

The idea is Right. Deny yourself, take up your

cross and follow me to the first thing you have to do is deny

yourself. One of the primary things most

people think of when they think of Lent as they think of

fasting, right? Like during this time between

now and Easter people will Fast, they'll give up food, they will

they will give up meat they will give up some people give up

alcohol, they'll give up something.

The idea behind fasting is saying no to your appetites so

that you could say, yes to God, right?

And you do it. Not because you want to or not,

what not? Because, Cuz you have to but

because you choose to you say no, even when you want to say

yes, the most common expression of fasting often in biblical

times was food, so people would give up food for a day.

Now, does that mean that we you start in the morning?

O Lord, I am fasting today, therefore, please don't let me

get hungry. Nope, that's not how it works.

In fact, it's quite the opposite.

I am an intermittent fasting guy.

I don't, I don't eat breakfast. But on days, when I fast about

8:00 in the morning, My body begins to remind me, that I'm

minutes away from Death, right? It's starvation, is at the door,

right? But guess what?

I've never died from fasting yet.

And in fact, the voices in my head are the point.

Because on days when I'm fasting the voices in my head telling me

that I need to eat a sandwich, right?

Listen to your desires. Jason, listen to your appetites,

they're there for you, they're good for you, right?

But here's the deal. Sometimes the Voices in my head

say, wouldn't you like to fantasize about that?

Wouldn't it be great if she was? You see if I'm not in the habit

of telling my desires, no, then I'm not ready.

When the really big things come up fasting is hard.

It really is hard, it pays dividends.

Now I'm not your doctor if you're diabetic and you can't,

please do not kill yourself for fasting.

Find some those, if you want to say, I'm gonna give up Facebook,

or I'm going to forgive, give up, whatever, that's great.

Something costly and don't quit. So here's what.

I said we're doing our prayer thing Thursday, this Wednesday.

I'm going too fast on Wednesday. I'm not gonna eat.

I'm gonna eat dinner on Thursday night and then I'm not going to

eat anything on Wednesday. Also, I'm going too fast on

Thursday, I'll say this you're like oh my gosh, two days.

You must be really spiritual. No, I'm not.

I'm really terrible and I really like food and it's going to be

really hard. That second day is going to be

difficult. My goal though is where I say

Lord I would rather be hungry with you than fat and happy

without it. And it's easy to say that.

But when I say no to Big Mac, when I say no to pizza or steak

or whatever it means something, it means something to me.

And then I get to the end and I go oh you know what?

I really can just trust God with my life and it'll be okay,

right? Deny yourself.

Second. Take up your cross.

Jesus, did not say that you had to enjoy your cross.

He said, take it up anyway, so we have to think about, right?

This is a metaphor. What is Jesus cross?

What did the cross signify to Jesus?

Death, that's where he died. I don't know what your cross is,

but there is something in this world.

A discipline. A habit of practice that will

slowly. But surely put to death, all of

those things in you that keep you from experiencing the good

life that God has it may be forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a discipline fasting is an important part of

it where you learn. I don't tell myself.

No, that's the thing that I've realized I've never said no to

myself and my entire life and Body Bears.

The scars of that it would have been better.

If at 15, I had just learned that I could say no to myself

that I could not do that but I take up my cross.

And what that means is I'm not surprised when I have suffering

in this world what it means is I look at suffering differently.

Do you know why I pick up my cross?

Because I know as sure as I can be, this thing's gonna kill me

and as soon as it kills me, then I'm going to have Resurrection,

you know, what happens for Resurrection, I live forever.

So what taking up our cross me? This doesn't mean that we enjoy

the cross, it means we believe there's something on the other

side of it that is so much better than this pain.

And this fear, and this hurt and this worry and then we follow

him, we really embrace our vocation of trusting him.

I forgot mine. When Jesus said, follow me, he

went to the cross. And we celebrate communion as a

reminder of that, you should have received communion on your

way in and he didn't, they'll have some folks will have some

elements. But Paul tells us that the Lord

Jesus on the night. He was betrayed, he took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it.

And he said, this is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of Me, Jesus said, when you face the

world and they're threatening to break your body to break, you

down to steal from you to take from you, he says everything

that you want, everything is going to want to Bow up and

stand up and fight back. And Jesus said remember that's

not what I did. He said, do the same in

remembrance of me when you give your life to be broken by

somebody, who would crush you and you demonstrate the kingdom,

you're not winning in this world but the kingdom what Jesus said

is, there is power and there is Effectiveness and this Kingdom.

Listen, our job is not to be the last man or woman standing our

job before Jesus is to be the first one kneeling.

This shows us our Pure broken for us.

Jesus before we can take your love out into the world, it has

to saturate us. So you gave us this discipline

of in taking So Jesus has we take this bread, your life, your

body, I pray that you would remind us that we do not do this

alone, we do this with you for others to reflect the order of a

good world and a good life into your creation.

So Jesus, I pray that this bread would bear fruit in my life.

Let's take the bread together and the same way after supper,

he took the cup and he Said this cup is the New Covenant in my

blood do this, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

See the cup represents the blood and the blood represents the

life, and here's where we get the starkest demonstration of

his love. When we were in our sin.

Jesus didn't yell at us or boycott us or stand far away

from us. And cuss at us.

What Jesus did is he showed us the kingdom, he pointed us to

the kingdom. He He told us when we missed it

and he gave his life, so that we could have it and he said, do

this in remembrance of me. So, we take this cup and

remembrance of the love that he has given us.

Its take the cup. This communion is a reminder of

our own path because Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me.

And let me just acknowledge if you will, that doesn't sound

like good. I want Plan B, right?

Jesus, can I have plain be without the cross, right?

Listen, how Jesus finished. Whoever would save his life will

lose it. Let me just say this is past or

this is full disclosure here. You are more than welcome to

walk out of this room and disregard every single thing

that I've I've said here's the thing.

Whoever if you want to keep this life that you have your welcome

to, you can go back and you can keep working for it.

And you can hope that your relationships are good and you

can have all the money and the sex and the drugs and the rock

and roll that you want on your terms.

You can do all of that and then some day you're going to die and

you're going to be left with what you're holding there.

Except you can't even keep that. So the question is not, will you

die because the mortality rate for the human race to continue

continues to hover around 100%. The question isn't Not what's

going to happen? The question isn't, are you

going to die the questions going to happen is going to be then?

What? 70 years, 80 years then what

Jesus said. If you keep your life, you'll

lose it. But whoever will lose his life

for my sake, will find it for what does it profit?

A man? If he gains the whole world and

forfeits his soul or what shall a man give in return for his

soul? For the son of man is going to

come with his angels in the glory of his father.

Listen, Jesus is coming back, he will come back with his kingdom

and he will instituted. And there will be a day where

every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess, that Jesus

Christ is Lord to the glory of the father for now and Eternity.

You You can choose to do it now and you will be right in place

on that day or you can insist on knowing for yourself.

He will repay each person. According to what he has done.

Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not

taste death until they see the son of man coming in his

kingdom. You know what the son of man

coming in. His kingdom looked like, it

looked like Sunday and looked like Resurrection, it looked

like that's the life that he has for you.

My hope for you is that you won't cling to the death that

holds like a stench to your clothes, but that you will turn

your eyes to the father, to the goodness, to the life, and that

you will embrace the suffering. That Forms, you and formulates

you not like some sadist who just loves to get his teeth

kicked in. But as one who believes that

every ounce of pain and suffering in this life, will be

redeemed. You were created for eternity

friend. Not for 15 or 20 minutes of joy

and good luck here but for an eternity and the presence of the

one who created you. So Jesus, I pray that you would

return and restore our hearts to you.

I pray for those maybe who haven't followed you here today.

Maybe they thought you just wanted them to be good or to

stop doing something and what we find today is that you want to

give them eternity life, love. So I pray that today, they would

simply do that. And if that's you and this room

and you've never done that. Pray this with me, and pray it

out loud. You can pray quietly.

If you want Jesus, I confess that you are God, and I am not

and I have gone my own way, and I need forgiveness.

So I ask that you would forgive me, I accept your body broken

for me, I accept your forgiveness, bought at the cost

of your blood help me everyday to deny myself to take up my

cross and follow you. And Jesus for the rest of us who

have been following, you may we do the same, we're not exempt

from that. I pray that you would send

Revival here. And to the degree that what's

happening in Kentucky isn't from you.

I pray that it would be different here.

But to the degree that it is, I pray that it would Lord, we want

everything that you have, and nothing that you don't, and we

don't cling to our comfort, we cling to you, and we want you.

So, we ask Jesus, all these things in your name, and for

your glory. Amen.

Thank you for joining us today. River City Church is all about

experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and

community. And we hope that you've been

able to experience that today. Day as grateful as I am.

That you've spent this time listening in this morning, this

podcast is no substitute for full participation in a local

church. I love it when River City people

listen to other pastors, but it is those who show up week after

week Faithfully, giving their support and time and resources,

that make all of this possible. If we can help you get connected

to a local church, pray for you or support you in any way.

Click the link in the description and let us know if

you'd like to financially support the ministry of River

City. Click the give link on our Our

website in the description. Don't forget to subscribe.

And don't forget to share this with your friends.

Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless, and keep you

in all Grace and peace.