Why Me? // God Chose You (Part 3) // Pastor Charles Metcalf

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life. Do today's message.

Let's do this thing. We are gonna jump in.

If you have your Bibles, turn to mark chapter number fifteen.

Mark chapter number fifteen is where we're gonna be.

And uh.

I was talking to a friend this morning. He was like, man,

he was like, I'll watch you preach for a while.

You don't really do illustrations, do you? And I was like, no,

Pastor Michael really got the illustrations on lock. And I'll

be getting lost uff in there, like I mean, I mean,

go I start, because when I first started preaching stuff

and getting around Pastor Michael.

That's how he thinks.

He's like, all right, how can we And he's got

like I need a mouse trap and uh some rubber

bands and it's like, okay, what is that gonna And

then he does it.

It's like, oh my god, that was the greatest thing

ever me. I be up there and be like, all right,

so this mouse trap here is a man? What was

I supposed to be saying, so I really just you know,

I just be talking up here. So it's gonna be

a great study though.

But we're gonna start in verse number sixteen here, and

we're gonna read a little portion of scripture.

If you got to say, I got it. If you don't,

too bad, okay.

Verse number sixteen it says this, the soldiers took Jesus

into the courtyard of the governor's headquarters, and they called

out the entire regimen. They dressed him in a purple robe,

and they wove thorn branches into a crown. They put

it on his head, and then they saluted him and

taunted him, Hail the King of the Jews. And they

struck him on the head with the red stick, spit

on him, dropped to their knees in mock worship. When

they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off

the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again.

Then they led him away to be crucified. Verse number

twenty one. A passer by same Simon who was from Syene,

was coming from the countryside just then, and the soldiers

forced him to carry Jesus's cross. You're taking notes this morning,

write down the title of the sermon.

The title is why me? Why Me? If we're gonna be.

Talking about being chosen, we gotta talk about the whole thing.

You ain't just chosen to get a big house. You

ain't just chosen for everything. There's gonna be.

Some times in your life where you ask why me.

I'm gonna pray for us real quick.

Lord, We thank you, and I pray that in these

next few moments your spirit would speak to our hearts

and change just from the inside out.

It's the name of Jesus, we pray, and everybody said amen.

Side note has nothing to do with the sermon, but

I just wanted to notate and let it be seen

that the Sunday that the Thunder won the championship, I

prayed for that to happen.

So God, here's my prayers.

Anyways, back to the regulation schedule programs.

Okay, I don't know if you do this or not.

You may not because you're more saved than I am,

and that's awesome.

I'm happy for you. But I have kind of a.

List in my head of tiered Bible characters.

Now.

I know everybody's special, everybody's important, but you know, some

just fall different places. Go with me with my list

Tier one Bible characters, I mean obvious Abraham, Tier one,

Isaac tier one.

Obviously we've got to put this on there.

Jesus Christ absolutely would be that's a Joe calm down.

Okay, he's Tier thousand.

Okay, Tier one Abraham, either we go Tier two.

You know what I'm saying.

We got people like Luke.

You know what I'm saying.

Luke is a solid guy, but he's not. You got Joshua,

I said, we're like dang Joshua. Yeah, because Joshua ain't Moses.

You see Moses, he had the moment Joshua. Okay, some

of y'all ain't going with me. It's all right, this

is the whole intro, so I can't.

Change it at this point.

Uh, this is how I built the sermon Carl.

So we just got to stick it through Tier three.

You got people like john Mark. Come on, Dad, you

go with me? John Mark?

You don't know john markin you know Paul and Silas.

That's a preparre. It was Paul and john Mark, and

then Paul.

Didn't really mess with john Mark because john Mark was

kind of a punk, and so he was like, John Mark,

you out of here, John Marcus. Kind of tier three.

Then you get to tier four. Now this ain't no disrespect.

This is just where they fall in life.

Jesus sisters.

Somebody else said Jesus has sisters, wasn't That's why they

Tier four?

Right there? Yeh me, y'all just found out Jesus has sisters. Yeah, absolutely,

go read it. So you got tier four.

Another Tier four character, and it's simply off of the

mentions in scripture.

Is this character, Simon the Sireen.

This one verse that we just read is the only

line in sixty six books, in thousands of years of prophecies,

in all different ideologies where this man is mentioned. It's

very random that he's mentioned. We know about Simon. It

says he is Simon the Syrene, which Syrene is a

place in Africa. So Simon is a brother, hello somebody.

So Simon is making.

His yearly pilgrimage to where he's supposed to be to

pay his dues and serve and believe, and so he's

on his way there and Simon walks into a crazy scene.

He just happens to be making his journey on his

pathway and he walks up into the murder of a

thirty three year old Jewish man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Now,

because he is making this pilgrimage to pay his dues

and have his Holy Week and celebrate all these different things,

we know that he could have at the time heard

about the movings of this new prophet that they were

calling Jesus.

Jesus, you need.

To know, was not killed for just doing some things

a little bit different. He was killed as a radical.

He was killed as someone that was.

Violating tradition and ruining all the plans of the day.

Simon walks up on this scene, and it's a little

confusing because seven days ago they were yelling Hosanna and

he's the one, and he's the chosen one, and we're

following him and we're so grateful that he's here. But

seven days later, the same people that were cheering for

him are crucifying him, and they wanted a leader of

a revolt to be released out of prison rather than Jesus.

And Simon is in the.

Mixt of all of this emotion. There's people who are watching.

That, for some reason, have hate towards this man Jesus

and then there's other people that are in the crowd

that are bawling, crying because this is their savior and

this is who they give their life to, and this

is who they thought We're gonna set them free. And

there's all these prophecies in the room. Is sitting there

watching the prophecies seemed to pass away, watching what they

planned on being their key and their ticket is being

beaten beyond recognition. And Simon is sitting here watching this moment,

and he's in the crowd. And as he's watching, maybe

Jesus is coming by, and they start to see him struggle,

and a Roman soldier says, walks up and picks him

out of the crowd. Now, I don't know about you

if you've ever got chosen for something like this, but

if I'm Simon and I'm watching, and I'm like, man,

this is crazy.

I'm kind of having them home. And then the Roman

soldier hit you with do you and you're gonna hit

the what you mean her? And like, no, you right there,

come on with the hot top fag you right there, Simon?

Yeah, And Simon is pulled out of the crowd. He's

chosen out of the crowd for something that does not

seem like he should be doing because he was just

sitting there. He was just standing there. I didn't ask

for this, I didn't want this. I was at trying

to do this. I was minding my own business. How

come I had to be the one? How come you

put me in that family? How come this had to

go wrong? We have to acknowledge that sometimes when you're chosen,

they don't feel how we wanted to feel.

It's easy.

You get up in church and I know I'm chosen,

not forsaken.

I know who I am. You singing the whole song.

And then you get to work and people overlook you,

or they put you in a position, or you're in

something and now you're asking like, hey, why wait, why

are you doing this to me?

I ain't what who you fighting?

This happened to me with my I have three very

strong daughters, and they will just start fighting me for

no reason. I'll got you, this will happen. It's like

it's like breaking up a box. But They'll be in

a discussion, going back and forth, and I'll walk in.

I'll be like, girls, calm down, and it it'll be like

who you talking to?

I'm like First of all, I don't know who you

think you are talking to. C Me and Luna just

kind of are you and banter back and forth for fun.

It's a dangerous situation. But there are moments where it

feels like in life you didn't ask for it. We

have to acknowledge the hardship that life brings, because some

of people in this room watching online under the sound

of my voice, the reason you struggle so hard with

your faith is because someone promised you it wasn't supposed

to be this hard. It wasn't supposed to be this difficult.

If God was with you, everything would be going well.

If you had prayed enough, this bad thing wouldn't happen.

If you fast more, you won't experience bad things. And

so you prayed, and you fasted, and you gave your times,

and you did all the things that the pastor told

you to do, and that person still passed away, and

you still did not get into the school, and you

still don't have the relationship with your.

Father that you thought you would have.

And now you're sitting at a point asking why me.

I've done all the right things. I was a good person.

And this is if you're not careful where you start

to expose your measures of how you judge yourself, because

we all have these internal measures where we think I

do good things, I'm a good person, I deserve good things.

Nothing bad should happen to me because I went to

church on Sunday.

Nothing bad should happen to.

Me because X, Y, and Z, and the truth is

as beautiful as we like to feel about ourselves from

doing good things. The Bible is very clear that there

is not one person who is good. Now, if you

are like a lot of us in church, and we

use somebody else to judge ourselves if we good, Oh,

come on, we gotta talk about this.

This is how many of us make up are good.

We look at someone who's a little bit less than

us and we think, well, I may be bad, but

I ain't that bad. Come on, I got some issues,

but I ain't a crackhead. You hear what I'm saying.

It's like, why is the measure of your life?

Crackhead? Like? We gotta scoot it up a little bit.

But we do this.

We look around in our life and we find moments

and pieces to kind of draw, and we build up

this thing that maybe if I'm here, I'll be okay

and it will all work out. And all I'm saying

to all Simon would say to you is even if

you're doing the right thing for the right reasons at

the right time, there's still a moment where you'll find

yourself in a position where it doesn't seem catch this

word fair.

It don't seem fair.

It doesn't seem fair that certain stuff happens.

To certain people.

It feels like certain things should go a certain way

based on what you do, and it doesn't seem fair

in life. But the truth is, many of us we

need to understand Jesus did not come to promise us

a fair life. And truth be told, if we want

to go down the list of fair, it's not fair.

You breathing right now.

So if we're gonna go fair, we can talk about

the wages of sin is death.

So if we want to.

Talk about fair, it gets a real slippery slope. Because

it wasn't fair that they hung Jesus up on that cross.

It wasn't fair that he had to be beaten for

everything you and I would do. It wasn't fair that

he had to step out of heaven and become a

man to relate to me and you if we go

down the road to fair, trust me, you don't want fair.

I don't want fair. What we experience is his grace.

Many times in life there's situations that we cannot explain

that we're experiencing that we can ask ourselves why me?

And I think the thing that's the most frustrating part

to me is it just all feels random For Simon,

I mean.

Just think about it.

He is in how many people are in this crowd.

Jesus has been in this city, he's been working things out,

he's been doing miracles.

There's this massive crowd.

And the Roman soldier comes up to him and says, you, come.

On, you ever felt like you just had bad luck?

I don't know if any of y'all feeling Some of

y'all some of y'all like I don't.

Believe in look okay cool. I just ain't no theological statement.

I'm just saying, do.

You feel like dang?

I'll give you this morning I went some of y'all

made I love to cycle. I love to ride my bike.

There's no way let me say this. There's no way

to say I love to ride my bike and sound cool.

You say, you just feel like a twelve year old.

But I love riding my bike like it's like okay, but.

It shoot every single week and ride like one hundred

fifty miles with my bike and it's just a way

to pedal until I don't think anymore.

And it's the best thing ever.

And so this morning, every Sunday morning, wake up six am,

ride my roote and then come to church and get

my coffee and it starts my day. I woke up

this morning. This week has kind of been a wild week.

I thought, you know what, at least I have my

bike and I'm about to be up with the sunrise

and it's just gonna be me. There's no cars on

the road, and got worried about getting hit by a

car again.

I can just.

Yeah, that's a real sentence I have to say again.

So I mean, like that's why, what's wrong with you?

Okay?

But I get on my bike, I literally I turn,

I put my little music in. I turned all my

little Warren sap mark not Warren Sat, Marvison.

Who is it? Warren Sat the football player?

And the gospel single be getting Me Cordell and almost

see the Tampa Bay buccaneers or I never would have

made it but.

One of them.

Y'all know what I'm saying. This type of week has

been for me anyways. But I put my f phones

in and I'm like, never would have man, I'm singing.

I turned out my neighborhood and some construction worker has

left a box of nails, and I'm like, there ain't

no way, there ain't no I get off my bike.

I look at it and I see the nail and

I'm like, Okay, that nail's not too bad. The random

thing where I have these tires, it's like, okay, if

you get a little puncture, it'll be fine. So I

start to pull the nail. When I tell you it

was the nail they crucified Jesus.

With that went in my tire. All of a sudden,

my tire were.

And I watched all my dreams fade away right there

at six am. And then there's nothing worse slimming. Now

we just education for cycling. If you ever see a

cyclist walk in they bike, you have never experienced a

depression like a cyclist walking down the in a skin

tight like rasue. Just like this makes more sense when

I'm going twenty miles an hour.

Now I just look stupid. But that was me this morning.

I felt like, God, come old man, I'm just trying

to get my mind right. I gotta preach.

I'm trying to do all my things, and this is

the one thing I got.

And it really is not about the nail. It's not

about that.

But how many of you experienced moments in your life

where you feel like, God, I'm.

Really trying to keep it together. I'm trying to do

what you ask me to do. I'm trying not to

hit them right now. But if one more thing.

Happen, I will give God a shout of praise in

the form of some stuff I maybe shouldn't be saying.

It just takes that one thing and you can find you.

And here's the enemy's trick.

That you have one small moment and you take that

small moment and apply it to the grace that God

has given you in your life, and you act like

it's not there, and so you take the one thing

and make it everything. This is how you wake up.

You have one bad day and you see like, yeah,

life is just bad right now, and you start saying

things and declaring things about your life. That are not true.

It's just one Oh, I'm gonna get my tire fixed today.

But that one moment you start asking why me? It

felt like random. It felt like what are the odds?

I'm reading my bike all the time. What are the odds?

Does bucks and nails? What are the odds? What?

What are the odds that signmon is in the crowd

and out of everybody? What are the odds he picks him?

What are the odds? He stops under your tree? What

are the odds? You're pushing your way through a crowd

just to get something you need, and you touch the

hem of his garment and he stops and turns around.

What are the odds?

What are the odds that you're a nobody and you're

killing Christians and somehow you have this encounter, and all

of a sudden you go from killing Christians to writing

two thirds of the New Testament?

What are.

The odds? If we want to talk about the odds,

let me tell you something this morning. Friend, There's only

one person I know that looks at a crowd and

can see one person. There's only one person I know

that will look at everybody else and call out you

right there there's only one person who when all the

brothers were lined up, he said, no, I need the

brother that's out in the field. Let me tell you

something about your life.

And this story.

That Roman Soldier did not choose Simon.

Out of that crowd. God chose Simon out of that crowd.

And as much as we don't like to address it,

as much as it messes with our theology, there is

nothing in your life, no matter how random or how overwhelming,

that God is not in I'm not going down the

slippery slope to say who causes what and who does.

What I am saying is the devil is not more

powerful than God.

So if there's.

Something happening in your life, it must be because God

knew there's something you needed in that situation.

That Roman soldier isn't that specific. That Roman Soldier.

Didn't know that God had a plan for Simon. And

it's easy sometimes to look at the situations that seem difficult,

that seem hard, that seemed overwhelming, and we get stuck

asking why me, And what you might be missing is

maybe God chose you for this moment. If I'm honest

with you, I've been thinking about.

That a lot this week. And last night there.

Was something that happened and I was just sitting there thinking.

And the truth is, I was sitting there thinking bad luck,

like this is just not good, this is whatever. And

literally the prayer I prayed last night and this morning

was a subtle shift. God, I'd almost stop praying that

I don't experience what I would consider bad luck. And God,

I'm gonna pray you give me a better lens, because

what happens is is when I'm in my situation and

stuff starts going sideways, the first thing.

To go is what you see.

Whenever stuff starts going sideways, the first thing to go

is your vision. The first thing to go is how

you see your life.

The first thing to go.

Is to stop seeing your blessings, to stop seeing the

ways he's made, to stop seeing how he's been their

time and time, to stop seeing the past and how

he's provided. So maybe it's not bad luck. Maybe you

need a better lens. This morning, I want to help

some of us progress down the road a little bit

of maybe why God chose you for this unfortunate situation.

I'm not going down the slope of saying who caused

it and where it is, but what I am acknowledging.

Is you in it now? And what will you assign

to it?

Because you can either say it's the devil and your

life is going to hell in a handbasket, or you

can say, perhaps maybe God is in this somehow, and

I can't see it, and I don't know how it's

gonna work, and I don't know what's going on, but

maybe he has a plan I don't see. I'm gonna

go ahead and jump ahead a little bit in my

sermon and give you a couple of the reasons why

God chooses us, because I think it'll help us all

get there a little quicker. You need to know why

God chooses you for certain things that you may not understand.

The first reason God chooses us is because of his love.

Let me read to you a scripture out of First

Corinthians one twenty seven.

Team.

If you got that, throw that up real quick. First

Corinthians one twenty seven. It says this, Remember, dear brothers

and sisters, few of you were wise in the world's eyes,

or powerful or wealthy when.

God called you.

What the scripture is saying is like, I know you

feel entitled to certain things right now, and I know

you feel like your life should be going a certain way,

but it says few of you were powerful or wealthy

when he called you.

What it's saying is you need.

To realize it's his love that you even wear you

at right now, and while you're feeling upset and what

you do and don't deserve, you need to stop and

realize where he brought you from, and how faithful he's been,

and how kind he's been to you. It goes on

in the scripture to say, instead, God chooses things the

world would consider foolish in order to shame those who

think they are wise, and he chooses things that are

powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chooses things

despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all,

and he uses them to bring nothing what the world

considers important Verse twenty nine. As a result, no one

can ever boast in the presence of God. It's important

to realize when you find yourself in a tough situation,

when you find yourself asking why me, it's important to

center yourself before you go down that road.

Before I go.

Down the road of questioning all the things, let me

stop and realize the fact that I am where I

am has been his grace. Let me stop and realize

that the only way I would have gotten that job,

the only way I met my spouse, the only way

I got through school, the only way we made it

through twenty twenty. I know we five years passed it,

but some of us almost didn't make it. The fact

that we're standing here is a reminder. God loves me.

God has a plan for me.

He's always taken care of me. It's his love.

And sometimes in the heat of the situation, it doesn't

always feel like that. There's no way in the moment,

Simon's like, oh yeah, I'm carrying this cross because God

loves me. That's not how it feels. But there's a

moment where you can recognize this. God chooses you for

his love, but he also chooses you to be a light.

You see, here's what you need to understand about God,

and I illustrate it this way.

There is a form of pottery.

It is popular where they will take a beautiful vase.

They'll spend time crafting this vase, putting it in the fire,

painting it. It is pristine when it comes out of

the kennel and is prepared and then the potter takes

the base and throws it on the ground.

They shatter the pieces. Then they gather up all the pieces.

And they take gold leafing and they use the gold

to put the vase back together. And it's a painstaking process,

and they have to find which piece fits, and they

have to keep it over and over again.

And that's not it, and I gotta change that, and

I gotta adjust that.

But the end of this time, the value and the

worth of the vase is four hundred times more valuable

than how it was when it first came out.

What I'm saying to you.

Is because of life, there is stuff that cracks our vase.

There's things that break in us. There are childhood things

that we can't understand. But God, the great power or

the great physician, he comes to your life and he says,

if you will let me put you back together, I'll

weave my grace and mercy in your life. And I'll

show you that you're more than you think you are.

And I'll show you that you can go through more

things than you thought you could go through.

And there's a value that happens. And what happens is people.

Start to look at your life, and they know what

you've been through, and the light of God begins to

shine through those cracks.

It begins to shine through.

And you start to see that maybe okay, if they're

doing okay, how did they make it through that?

Some of you.

This is why it's so important you need to share

your testimony, because you have bandage and put tar all

over your vase, and what you don't realize is there's

no light shining through your vase, and so we don't

get to see the goodness of God and his power

through your life. Parents, that's why you got to share

with your kids that you weren't always perfect and you

might have been out in them streets at back.

We just didn't have no videos.

But because what happens is you leave a whole group

of people thinking, oh, they must not have any cracks.

This is what we do in the church. We do

some of y'all do this to it. They think, oh,

that's the pastor, they must not have any cracks, and

then you surprise when you see a crack.

As a matter of fact, that's what should be happening.

That's what Pastor Michael is such an amazing pastor and

leader because every single week he gets something like, Hey,

just say, y'all know this is all split open.

I don't know how to.

Do that, because that's the power of the gospel. Whoever

sold you this idea that you get saved and God is.

The one who covers it all up, that is not true.

Let me give you biblical precedent for it. Why does

he come back as he is fully restored and risen

from the dead and still has scars. Why does Jesus

come back from the dead. He's fully in his perfect body,

he asked fully god fully man.

And the thing he keeps not for himself. He keeps

the holes in his hands.

Because he knows there's gonna be somebody who wouldn't believe

if they didn't see this scar. So just in case,

just in case you thought God only use good people,

just in case you thought he wanted you to keep

it all together, just in case you thought he couldn't

use an alcoholic, just in case you thought he couldn't

use somebody who was depressed.

Just in case you thought I kept these scars.

I kept these wounds to let you know the type

of God that I am. And you gotta realize I

know it hurt when it they cut you. I know

it hurts when you fail. I know it hurts that

they won't there. But if you will let God, he

will bring you to a place. You don't have to

hide those scars. You don't have to act like you

didn't go through it, but you realize that is the

very power you have. This is why the scripture says

His power.

Is made perfect in our weakness.

If you want to experience his power, if you want

to experience his grace.

You gotta be weak. That's the only way it works.

And there's this notion in our life that if I

follow him long enough, bad stuff will stop happening.

If I do enough, then at one point.

Everything will just start to work out and I'll just

cruise off into spiritual land and life will be fine.

And I haven't met that person yet.

The truth is there's gonna be moments in your life

where you can't.

Explain why it's happening. You can't explain, well, I.

Did this, and I did that, and I said the

prayer and I did the thing.

And I mean, we gotta talk about this.

And this is just real. If y'all knew how real

discernment it was in my life. Y'all be like, oh, okay,

I'll see why you yelling.

But my friends no.

But there's even this notion sometimes that Okay, I'm just

gonna be honest. Have y'all ever really really prayed about

something and felt like, Okay, clearly, this is what I'm

supposed to do, and then you do it, and it

was like, clearly that was not what I was supposed

to do.

Saying it.

Here.

Here's what's dangerous with that.

If you don't know how to hold that properly, you

start adding stuff to your spiritual life and doing things

out of the wrong motive. So you pray one time

for this to be the thing and need to work out.

So you think, Okay, I need to pray harder, because

God only hears me. If I pray harder and louder,

I must not pray loud enough, or I must have

not went to church enough, or I must have. And

what we'd start doing is trying to explain an eternal

God and why he made a certain decision. So then

we create a box for him to fit in and think, Okay, go.

To church, do the fast, give twenty dollars.

That's how you get what you want, and we sell

oils and blankets to help people do it.

Uh oh, sorry, I didn't mean that was nothing personal.

But come on, some of y'all doesne got God buy

some blankets that somebody prayed over, and that's how you're

gonna get what you want. I'm not mad at the blanket.

I'm just saying you cannot, Oh sage casino, God, you

can't put in twenty five cents.

And get your miracle.

You don't get to just oh I did this, and

so you give me that. That is not a relationship.

That's a transaction. So, yes, we pray without ceasing. Yes

we have faith, and when stuff doesn't work out, you

know what the prayer I pray to one David prayed

and Psalms.

One thirty three.

My eyes are not lifted too high, and I have

not concerned myself with things that are far too grand

for me to understand.

There's some stuff you ain't gonna be able to explain.

There's some stuff that it wasn't the devil and it

was just life. Life happened.

I'm saying this because some of our relationship to how

we pray and why we read our Bible and why

we do certain things. We've all built these mechanisms just

to try to get.

Something from God.

Okay, if I do this and I do that, and

I get this and I do that, then I will

and maybe I hope it works out that way, but

not all the time. And the question is what do

you do that time. God chooses us because he loves us,

because he wants our life to be a light. And

the last reason God chooses us is because there's a legacy.

You see.

One of my favorite things about being a dad is

there's a lot of things. This morning, all the kids

walked in. It's a shot of TC Kids. It's Level

Up Sunday and leavest TC Kids.

All the kids are going to their next grade.

And Luna and Arlow all our kids are roughly fifteen

months apart.

And Luna, when she first got into TC Kids, She's like.

I'm going with ar Low and I was like okay,

and so she's been up in that class. But Artlat's like,

all right, everybody's got to we gotta level up. We

all got to separate. And Luna was like she just

spiraled this morning. It was not a good situation, but

she built up the courage. We did the Metcalf Confessions

and she's in her right class.

That's going to thank God. So but one of the

best things about being.

A dad is there are moments in life where me

and Abby will go on a trip together and we'll

spend some time, or we'll even just go on date night.

We go on date nights every week, and sometimes.

There will be moments when we get back from a

trip where the kids are awake.

And specifically, one of the moments.

That I don't think anybody could have prepared me for

is the moment as a dad and you've been to

work all day and it's just been one of those days. Dad.

You know, it's just it was like, dang, I took

everything I had to keep my mind together, and you

get in and for me, every single time I get home,

I kind of take my deep breath and I'm like,

all right, these kids in here don't care what type

of day you had, and they have probably been trying

to sumo wrestle your wife, and so you gotta just

take a second and breathe and go in.

There and be dad.

And so I'll go in and I open the back door,

and right when I open that door. It sounds like

a thunderstorm, and usually it's my little twin Jade October.

She screams for the whole house to be alarmed and aware, and.

Then it ripples to that. That's ho, that's hoe, that's home.

The dogs start barking like.

And they all come running down this and then just

slam into you. One after they jump on you, tackle you,

and it's the best feeling ever. Sometimes you get elbowed nacross.

Most times you get elbowed Lacrott.

It's like yes, Dad, It's.

Like jah, ley lujah, thank you that for that.

Dad's gonna go sit down. But there's nothing like a

moment as a dad.

While I was reading this story, I thought about Simon

having to go back home after this experience. He has

to make his journey, and he has to make these

journeys with these thoughts in his head, and he had

to carry this cross. The cross would have been one

hundred and twenty five pounds, and theologians and writers would

say that the link that he carried it could have

been anywhere from twenty up to thirty five minutes. He

is carrying this on his back, being shouted at at

people being yelled at by people, being screamed and spit on.

While people are trying to disrespect Jesus, He's getting disrespected

as well. Can I tell you, friend, that's a little

bit what it's like to follow Jesus. You might get

some things you didn't ask for. You might get some

backlash that isn't about you. Don't make it about you.

It's never been about you. You may be carrying the cross,

but let's get it twisted. You not up on that cross.

Jesus is the only one and he has to make

his trip back home, and I can only imagine what

that conversation is like. He walks into his home, his

kids right up to him. Dad, how was the trip?

Well, it was good, it was fine. Did anything happen?

I mean, yeah, yeah, you know you know that guy

that you've heard us talking about Jesus.

Have you heard your mom and dad kind of talk

like remember people been saying he's saying a lot of stuff.

Well, I met him, You met him? How did you

meet him? Well?

They I can't really tell you all of it, but

it was a tough thing. Now, some of us would

think this conversation is just me making this up for

the point of a good sermon, but Romans sixteen tells

us that it's actually true.

Roman sixteen thirteen.

If you could put that up on the screen for me,

I want to show you what the Bible says and

why you need to understand your life is not about you.

Roman sixteen thirteen. Paul is talking greet Rufus, whom the

Lord picked out. Rufus is random until you read the

rest of verse twenty one and Mark fifteen.

Can you put up Mark fifteen?

A passer by a named Simon, who was from Sireen,

was coming from the countryside. Just then soldiers forced him

to carry Jesus cross. Simon was the father of Alexander Rufus.

You know what this tells me? It didn't make sense

why Simon had to carry the cross until you realize

Simon carries this cross. He has this encounter with Jesus.

He travels hundreds of miles back to Africa, walks in

his home and is talking to his son. And his

son is standing there saying, Dad, what's going on?

What happened?

And he said, well, there is a man that I

met and his name is Jesus. And son they crucified

him but I don't think he's dead.

I think he is still alive.

And years go by, and times go by, and theologians tell.

Us that Paul is talking to Simon's.

Son years later as a leader in the church. Why,

because maybe what you're going through isn't about you. If

you make it about you, it don't make no sense.

But if you start to think, I feel this stay

some of you, what you're going through don't make sense,

and you're frustrated because you've made it about you, and

you feel like, why do I have to go through this?

And why me?

And why my family? And why do we have to

experience this pain? And why do we have to go

through stuff? And as long as you make it about you,

it won't make no sense. As long as you keep

the eyes on you. But if you went for two

seconds back up and think, maybe He's doesn't have anything

to do with.

Me, I can't explain it now. But I can't. I

don't know why.

I don't know what's going on. I don't know what

God's doing. I don't know why he's doing it. But

maybe maybe there's a story he's writing that you don't

know about. Maybe he's teaching you something that you already

feel like you know.

But those people running around in that house, they need

to know that they know.

And so he has you going through something that seems

frustrating him, seems painful, that you can't explain away, that

you can't pray away, that.

You don't know how you're gonna make it through. But

what you do know is that if you will hang

on long.

Enough, I feel that some of you, you feel like

even the idea of God chose me, and yelling and

shouting is not where you at. And I feel you

this is not about yelling and shouting. Sometimes the biggest

shout you got is God.

I'm still here. God. I can't do lot.

I can't I can't sing as loud as them, I

can't even lift my hands right now. But God, you see,

I'm right here. I'm holding on. I'm doing what you

asked me to do. And Simon has this moment. There's

a legacy, there's something after him.

What are you going through right now.

That you could step out of for a second and realize, Okay,

maybe maybe I could see his love. Maybe he's trying

to show you, maybe he's trying to make me a lie,

or maybe.

There's a bigger story.

When the book was about to go out for pre order,

my wife, I don't know if I've told this story here.

I've told it different places, but I don't think i've

told it here. If you've already heard it, just act

like you haven't. But I was talking to my dad

and we had this dinner and my wife put together

was so beautiful, and my dad stands up to give

a speech. Everybody was going around and just encouraging me

before the book came out.

My dad stands up.

And he starts talking.

And my dad's the best he has.

Like my dad is like the journal king. He has

like every journal leather bound thing ever made. Like it's

just hilarious.

So he picks up one of his journals. He opens

it up.

He's written out his whole little speech. He says, you know,

I didn't know this, and Granny just told me.

Grannie Estelle my grandmother.

His mom says, but five generations back on the Metcalf family,

specifically the Bailey's on granny side, the Metcalf men have

been preachers. The earliest one it's a man named Jack Alonzo,

and Alonzo wouldn't have preached on a stage.

When Jack Alonzo was.

Preaching, there was a lot more risky for him to

be preaching to people.

And Jack didn't know.

That the reason he had to stand up in the

middle of a field to tell people, Hey, there's something

more than this. I know you can't see it right now,

but this is all we've known.

This is all there is.

But I promise you one day Jack didn't know five

generations later his great great great great great grandson will

be standing up and here, here's what I want to say.

Here's what I want to say to you. For someone

you are Jack right now.

This is not about Oh man, that's so cool for you.

You don't know that the thing you're going through and

the frustration you're experiencing, there's someone five generations from now

waiting on you. They're waiting on you to work through

this counseling. They're waiting on you to keep fighting. They're

waiting on you to deal with that addiction. They're waiting

on you to step into your calling. They're waiting on

you to believe that you believe that you know that

you know that God has a plan for your life.

They're waiting on you to admit that you don't know

what you're doing. They're waiting because they don't. It's not

gonna make sense right now. And there will be a

lot of things that you might give your life too,

that you might invest in that you won't see the

full fruit of what you thought it was gonna be.

But what I want to tell you, friend, is do

not lose heart. For at the proper time, at the

right time, there will be a harvest if you do

not lose heart. And I came to remind somebody today

who's been asking yourself, why did I have to go

through this? And why did this not work out for me?

A friend, do not lose heart. There is a harvest

on the way.

It's on the way.

But in the meantime, you gotta be honest, you gotta admit,

you gotta tell people.

What's going on.

And as you do that, it's been my own experience

that instead of focusing on what went wrong, you begin

to focus on how his love has showed up.

And instead of focusing on.

What you can't do anything about, you focus on the fact, Okay,

I'm he's gonna get glory out of this. He's he's

gonna the devil will not get glory out of my story.

He's not gonna get all the credit. That's one That's

one reason for me personally, I don't give the devil

a lot of credit and blame stuff on him, because

he ain't that good to get those words out of

my mouth.

The devil ain't do nothing to me.

God's working something in my life together, and he's gonna

make it all work together for the good of those

who love him and are called according to his purpose.

I'm not giving him no credit. He's defeated, he's done.

He can't do nothing about that, and he's mad about that.

So he's trying to get me off track. But as

I have reminded you time and time again, and as

our church has decided, we have.

Decided we're gonna follow God. We're gonna do what he

asked us to do.

Everybody standing all over this room, here's.

What we're gonna do.

We're about to do an alter call in just a moment,

and here's what it's gonna be for. I wanna take

a moment to pray over some people. If you're in

this room and there is a situation right now that

is either weighing heavy on you, that you've been dealing with,

or you're still grieving with something that you have found

yourself that is unexplainable. It's a pain, it's a heaviness,

it is a weight, it is a burden, something that

you have not been able to you feel like, get

past what I want you to do right now. We're

gonna do this all over this room. If you're in

this room, I want you to come down to the altar. Everybody,

just come down to the altar. If you're in this room,

anything at all, anything heavy, come on, don't worry about

what anybody else gonna think. Who's gonna go first? Somebody go,

and then I'll give permission everybody else to go.

Come down to the altar. Scoot in.

If you've got anything at all, been a wait, been

a burden, been a pressure. I'm gonna ask some of

our team and staff and prayer team to start mak

making your way down so that you're mixed within these people,

and we're gonna take a moment. We're about to pray

over people. Because the Bible is very very clear. When

we pray to God, things happen and things change. Keep

scooting in, Keep scooting in. You're gonna have to act

like you know these people. Team.

Can y'all help me scoot some of these forward.

If you're on the front road, just scoot the stanchions

forward a little bit.

Just scoot death up a little bit. Scoot them up,

scoot them up, scot him up, scoot them up. Cam,

don't swing this speeo.

It'll hit somebody in the head while they're trying to

get God.

Hey, the first thing I.

Want to say is I see you.

Some of you.

You're going through situations right now that the temptation of

the enemy is to bend that you're not seeing and

that you're struggling by yourself, and you're fighting by yourself,

and you're experiencing pain by yourself. And what the temptation

would be is that nobody sees what I'm going through.

I'm saying right now, on behalf of God, I see you.

And I can't say this, but He could say it.

He's always seen you. There's not a time in your life,

there's not a pressure you're going through or have gone

through where He has not seen what you are going through.

I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up here,

and we're gonna take some time and we're just gonna pray.

And here's what I what I know is gonna happen

when you pray. The reason there is power in prayer

and in worship is because both of these are spiritual

acts where we are first acknowledging God.

I can't do this by myself.

And the first thing that's gonna have to happen if

you are going to move forward. I'm not saying if

your situations is gonna work out.

I'm talking about you. You're gonna move forward.

You're not gonna get because the temptation would be for

you to get stuck here, to get stuck in this disappointment,

to get stuck in this frustration, to get stuck in

what went wrong, and that's not gonna happen on the

watch of this church. We are going to pray, but

we're also going to worship, because when you begin to worship,

it's acknowledging God. Your ways are greater than my ways.

Your ways are higher than my ways. You have a

plan that I may not understand. But we're gonna take

a moment and we're gonna be to begin to pray.

And if you're in here, in your city. If you

can pray, I want you to pray. If you don't

have to strength to pray, you ain't got to pray.

But you need to know.

God sees you, and this will work out. God sees you,

and this will work out. I don't know how it's

gonna work out. I don't know when it's gonna work out.

But believe me, this is gonna work out. Church as

a family, online in this room, I just want everybody.

Let's begin to pray. Lord God, we come to you

right now.

And Jesus, we are coming to you as the great physician,

the one who sees us, the one who knows us,

the one who saw us before we were in our

mother's womb.

And God, we are praying right now, Lord.

Jesus, that you would begin to move, that you would

begin to move, that you would begin to move, she

would begin to move, Lord God, I'm praying over every

person under the sound of my voice, Lord Jesus, that

whatever situation they're going through, whatever situation they find them,

whatever has been overwhelming to them, whatever has been a

taking space in their spirit and in their heart, whatever

has convinced them that God doesn't see them, or people

don't see them, or that life is always going to

be this way.

I speak against it in the name of Jesus.

I speak the peace of God in the name of Jesus,

that you will find peace.

In this situation.

God, I thank you that peace is not a feeling,

it's a person. So I speak the person of Peace

in the name of Jesus, that Jesus Christ, you would

reign over every individual situation.

In this room church, we are praying God.

I speak against every attack and every plan of the

enemy that would try to discourage and steal people's hope.

I speak against it right now in the name of Jesus.

I speak against hopelessness and fear and being stuck.

In the name of It.

I speak freedom and peace and joy in the name

of Jesus Christ. This situation will not take your joy.

This situation will not steal your wonder. This situation will

not steal your faith. I speak faith in the name

of Jesus. Faith to believe, faith to hope, faith to try,

faith to step up and step out again.

No longer will you be held.

Some of you are up here because you've been stuck

for years not doing what He called you to do.

But this morning is the day it breaks off of you.

In the name of Jesus.

You will no longer be held back by past fears,

or disappointments or discouragements.

This is the day that you will begin to walk

in faith.

There some of you have lost your wonder and your

hope and your laugh. In the name of Jesus, I

speak joy, that you would restore joy, You would restore joy.

Joy is coming. Joy is on the way those who

who look. I thank you, Lord, chie God, I thank

you that there is a joy coming. In the name

of Jesus. Lord, I thank you there is a peace

coming back. Some of you's homes have been full of

worry and anxiety or frustration. Peace in the name of Jesus.

Peace in the name of Jesus. Peace, in the name

of Jesus. I'm gonna ask the team in just a

moment to sing the song Wait on the Lord. And

it's a song that went popular all over the world

and terrible sometimes to live out.

But the truth is there is a promise when we wait.

I'm gonna ask the team singing, Here's gonna happen. We're

gonna keep praying for just a moment I'm gonna asks

you would just lead us. And I really believe this

is a moment because some of you hear me. Some

of you, this moment is also a moment that's not

about you. How you're moving through this and what God's

teaching you and what He's showing you is some of

the lessons that people in your life are gonna need

from you. And so God is doing something in your

heart and he's changing your mind and changing your perspective

because there's something he wants you to get so that

you can give it to somebody else. And so we're

gonna take a moment. We're gonna pray. If you're in

here and you feel like, oh man, I got a

little hope, I want you to pray for the person

next to you, but we are about to pray and

believe that God would restore hope. If you're in the room,

if you feel led to stay and stay, you can pray.

If you feel like, hey, I feel like I got

what I got.

You are good.

But we're about to take a moment to pray. I'm

gonna ask everybody to stay online. We want to pray

for you as we go through this, but you need

to know. God has chosen you for a reason. It's

not an accident, it's not happenstance, It's on purpose. So God,

right now, I thank you for every single person. I

thank you, Lord Jesus that there is a purpose and

a reason.

That they are going through this. And I thank you,

Lord God that in due time.

Lord Jesus, we will see the fruit in our life

and the fruit from what you have done. Because Lord,

you always make a way for your children. You always

provide for your children. So I speak your peace and

your hope in the name of Jesus.

Weep ray Amen. That's way. Would you lead us?

Please?

You're renewing us strengths right now. So we wait.

Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. He will reaw.

Shrek. So wait.

Say, wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord.

Keep waiting because he will read.

Shrike sway as wait wait on the Lord.

Wait wait on you God. Well way oh you got

because you.

Will news.

Sway a side.

Wait on the Lord.

We don't know the Wait on the Lord. He will he.

Will, he will renew straight So way how is.

He gonna get waid on side? Wait on Lord? We're

waiting on the promise and.

If we're trusting all were waiting.

On again, well he will renew your shake soup wain

side weesday we're waiting esus.

We want to move.

When you stay to move on, he will trust you

will we will cheese.

He will renew your shrink, split out singing like this,

shi see thee that a way on. The Lord shall read.

You their shrink, and they shall out.

Half on weeks like handy.

Hands.

So they show off.

I can't wear me.

They shall run and that fame. That's what happens when

you when you wait on him, when you word on him, who.

Wait on the Lord, they.

Down hold the law, shall ready shower hard their stre

They shall shop winks like an eave the weeks heads.

So show this ye show you're gonna run again, When

you're gonna run again.

Show and not very faith.

That's why it happens with you your way on the line,

and it is fit.

I don't know, shall show the shore straight fish shut back,

I shall come the.

Word, says the man. A pawings like an eagle. Show,

So fay will you shall You're not gonna find a game,

You're not gonna find a show. And that faith That's

why it happens when you. That's what happens when you.

When this why has with you?

That's what happens when You's what it happens.

You know, that's what happens.

Wait, ad was straight again?

Rally?

Well me, you don't the only one who gives you

want to checks like me and I the only.

One who can.

I should say what wait, that's what happens. Way, that's

what's right on the.

Wait on the.

Heway he will.

He made the promise, said you were really a straight,

and she trusted initial.

Lead away wait on.

Already waity get a willing jo.

Esus right, that's shame. I'm say wait, hold.

Your set, will he will reow and we see a

straight See where I say say, okay, we do.

Play on going to wait on.

Playing wait and wait he will now your straight?

So why come on?

Just say wait on the sliding non wait, you know.

Playing on him playing on you wait stay, wait.

On the play.

We hold the lord, playing on working a mina and well.

Lady, we'll be stressing God and away for Jesus will

rene he will renew.

So way.

Because you'll promise it's always come true, not depending on

me buttery lying on you.

Your mercy is.

A new every day, so I will trust you.

Your promise is always such, so we can wait on

you with trust God, depending it's not depending on me.

God, your mercy, mercy is a new every day.

Will trust you because well trust.

Then the Lord said to me, right my answer plainly

on the tablets, so that a runner can carry them

the correct message to the others. This vision is for

a future time. It describes the end, and it will

be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it

will surely take place, and it will not be delayed. God.

We thank you that Lord, what you have said is

going to happen.

That what you have planned, the plan that you outlined

before time began, the plan you had for our life,

the plan you had for the marriage, the plan you

had for the schooling, all of it is outlined in

your time. So we true choose to put our trust

in you. We choose to put our hope in you.

We don't put our hope in ourselves. We don't put

our hope in our plan. We don't put our hope

in how we thought it would go. We put our

trust in you and you alone. We're about to close out.

But there are some of you in here, even watching online,

that the mistake you are wrestling with so much is

you feel like it's you. You feel like somehow you

were a mistake. Your life was a mistake, and so

you've been trying to find purpose out of something that

seems purposeless. But on what I want to tell you

this morning, is regardless of what anybody else says of

if anybody else was prepared or planned for you, if

anybody else saw you coming, God has always known who

you are, what you are, the plan he.

Has for you, and where he is taking you. The

Bible says, I know the plans I have for you,

plans to prosper you, to give you a hope and

a future.

So God, right now I pray for anyone who is

having trouble seeing your picture for their life. God, would

you open our eyes, give us eyes to see what

you see, give us ears to hear what you hear.

I feel like I hear voice saying, if you could

only see what I see. I know you can't see

it right now, but if you could only see what

I see, if you can only see how I see you,

if you can only see where you're gonna be five

years from now. If you could only see how confident

you're about to become, if you could only see how

closer this marriage is about to get. I know it

don't look right. I know it seems frustrating, But God

help us to see what you see. If you're in

this room or under the sound of my voice and

you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and savior, He's

the only thing that can bring purpose to a life

that seems meaningless. He's the only person that can make

a situation that seems hopeless have hope. If you want

to accept Jesus as your Lord and savior, I'm ask

everybody to bow your heads and close your just for

a moment, to focus on where you are with your

relationship with Jesus. If you're watching online right now, or

you are in this room and you have not fully

surrendered your life to him, maybe you've done it. Sometimes

you've been half way in, halfway out, but you have

not fully surrendered your life to Jesus and decided you

do not run your life.

He runs your life.

If you want to surrender your life to Jesus and

accept him as your lord and Savior.

I'm gonna count the three. When I count to three,

I want you to raise your hand. When you raise

your hand is.

An external symbol of something that's eternal happening on the

inside of your heart. It's you saying I don't want

to do it by myself, and I surrender to Him.

Today is that day for some of you. That's the

whole reason you are here, is to give your life

to Christ. On the count of three, I want you

to lift your hand boldly, not wondering about what other

people would think about you.

This is that moment. One. He loves you. Two.

Today is your day. Three right now, all over this room,

raise your hand if you want to accept Jesus. I

see you.

I'm so proud of you, Bro, I got you, so

proud of you. I'm so proud of you. I see you.

Dog.

A whole family back here just raise their hands together.

Oh, come on, I see you. I got you, so

proud of you, I see you, I see you, so

happy for you.

Everybody watching online as well, Hey, as a family together

out loud.

Would everybody pray with me? Everybody say, Dear God, I

admit I'm not perfect.

I need you Jesus take my life, heal me and

change me, make me a new person in your name.

I pray Amen. Can we give God a shout

Of praise for everybody who just got saved.