The Old Dog New Tricks Test

We're in a series of messages right now, we're calling the master's degree, and what we're doing is we're looking at Jesus' relationship to his disciples and specifically how he trained them to be leaders.

Frankly, this series is about leadership.

It's about leaders.

And when I say leadership, some people have the gift of leadership, and you lead uh entities and organizations, and you're just a leader of people, and and then others maybe you're like, you know, I don't even really consider myself a leader.

I don't want to be a leader, I don't like being in charge.

Uh not everybody has the gift, but all of us are called the leaders.

Like you are designed with your life, is supposed to impact at least one other person.

Like you're not supposed to live in isolation, just you, you, and you.

Uh, God wants to use you to impact other people, and it may even be just one other person.

And so we all have to think as leaders.

And so we we want to look beyond just the works that Jesus did, beyond that, into what he set into motion and what he invested and how he invested, in particular his 12 uh disciples, apostles.

Okay.

Uh we started in Mark chapter one, and I want to share this uh this little chart with you because I think this is not only connective tissue and the seven messages of this series, but it's something that I hope you'll keep with you for like the rest of your life because I think you'll find it to be tremendously helpful.

We talk about the process of change.

All right, so you're going about life normal and something changes.

There's a plus or minus.

There's an addition, a subtraction, which leads to disorientation.

All right, a little bit of chaos.

Whenever you're in change, at first it's overwhelming.

And so what do we do?

Well, often because we're confused by the disorientation, disorientation does not feel like growth.

It doesn't feel that way.

It feels like chaos.

So often people don't realize this is part of growth.

It's an essential part of growth.

And if you can't handle the pain of the disorientation, then you'll go for this off ramp here.

And the off-ramp uh might be I'll quit.

If I can quit, I will.

But there's some things that are changes that you can't quit.

So the off-ramp might look like denial.

I'm gonna push this down, I'm gonna pretend it's not there, la la la la la.

Act like it's not there.

And if you do that, you're gonna miss the opportunity for growth.

How do we get out of disorientation?

Three things.

Pray, process, persevere.

Why pray?

Well, when I pray, God will give me revelation.

Revelation will help me to see things I wouldn't normally see.

Why process?

Because sometimes I don't know.

Is this me?

Is this God?

Is this God's word?

I gotta talk to people, I gotta process through uh with mature believers so that I can, you know, work my way through it.

Why persevere?

You gotta persevere because you're probably not gonna wrestle it to the ground in one wrestling match.

I gotta keep going.

I gotta get up and do it again tomorrow.

I'm gonna have new perspective in the morning.

I gotta sleep on it a few times, but I gotta keep working on it.

So if you'll do that and not take the off ramp, eventually you'll get to orientation, which is I get some good questions and some good answers, and eventually I'll settle into a new normal.

All right, that new normal uh looks something like wisdom, strength, toughness.

Um it looks like peace.

I come to peace with some things, not not bliss, but peace.

And so Jesus invites them to put down their nets in Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

But we're gonna see, we see throughout the course of his training of the disciples, one iteration after another of this process of disorientation, orientation, new normal.

When I hit a new normal, get ready for some change.

Okay?

So this is where we've been with this.

Um we're in the sixth message here, and this message is uh the old dog new tricks test.

That's what we're gonna talk about today.

The old dog new tricks test.

How do you teach an old dog new tricks?

Um I want to start with this thought.

Don't let the unconditional love of God become an excuse for you to stay stuck where you are.

God loves me as I am.

Yes, he does.

God gets me.

Absolutely, he gets you.

He gets you better than you get yourself.

I don't know why I do stuff.

Greg, why'd you do that?

I don't know.

I'm not evading the question.

I don't know.

God knows.

God knows why you did what you did, he knows how you got to where you are, he knows the backstory, he knows all the whys, he knows all of that.

So he loves you unconditionally.

My friend, don't allow that to become an excuse to stay stuck where you're where God loves me where I'm.

God does love you where you are, but God loves you too much to leave you there.

God wants to take you to a new place.

And sometimes that new place he wants to take you is out of the chaos, and sometimes the new place he wants to take you is out of your comfort zone.

It's also worth noting that no matter how old you are, no matter what season of life you're in, no matter how change resistant you are, God wants to do new things in you and wants you to change and grow as long as you have breath in your lungs.

You don't just retire, get your pension, and now I'm done growing.

You know, been there, done that.

That's for the young folks.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

And by the way, this old dog new tricks thing, I'm not talking at people of a certain age.

I'm actually talking about we all have a little old dog in us.

I know 20, 25-year-olds that are stuck in their ways, stubborn in an idea.

I'm talking about being flexible to what God wants to show you and where God wants to take you.

There's an interesting scripture in the book of Acts, chapter 2, uh, is a prophecy that actually harkens back to Joel chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention Joel 2 · chapter mention

And it says this, it says, Hey, in the last days, uh God says, I'll pour out my spirit upon you.

And it said, Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

And it said, your young men will see visions.

Your young people will see your young people will be wise beyond their years.

Your why your young people will be able to see beyond their own life experience.

They'll see a vision of the future.

But it said something I like even better, to be honest.

It said, and your old men will dream dreams.

And instead of your old men and women, your older men and women getting stuck in their way, your old men and your old women will be dreamers, which is counter to our nature because what we tend to do as we get older is we get set in our ways.

Now I've been there, done that.

This is how I think.

I've I've I've been dogmatic about this for decades.

So why would I change now?

I'm in.

If you don't like me as I am, I'm too old for new friends.

I I'm too old for new thought.

I this is how this is how I do it.

This is how I do it.

I got my stuff set up.

This is how I he said, no.

When I pour out my spirit, the old men and women are gonna be the dreamers.

You ever you ever wake up from a dream?

You're like, what in the world was that?

You wake up, you don't even get it.

You have no idea.

What was that?

Yeah, I don't know, man.

I was dancing with a penguin in the church atrium.

I don't even know.

I have no idea.

God, what are you up to?

Okay, it says, when I pour out my spirit, regardless of your age, the young people will be wise beyond their years.

The older people will be pushing the young people with new ideas.

So you gotta understand this is God, God wants you to continue to learn new tricks, to be in lockstep with what He's doing.

Um, as I was preparing for this message, and we're gonna go to Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

So if you have your Bible, you can turn there.

If not, I'll be reading portions, it'll be up on the screen.

As I was preparing for this message, I did what I what I do a lot when, especially if I'm trying to understand or teach a narrative in the scripture, I'll sit with, I'll learn as much as I can about the context and the characters, and then I'll just sort of sit with it.

Like take a lot of time to just kind of imagine how it would feel to live in their culture, how it would feel to have their assignment, how it would feel to do what they did.

And as I thought about it, I was thinking about what it would be like to be Peter and Paul and James and John and these people who were the couriers, they were the ambassadors of the new covenant, of taking the Old Testament and the things that everything God had done up to that point to take it and for some of those things to change, not to blow it up, but to take it actually.

There were some elements, some attitudes, some practices that God had ordered up that he's like, you don't have to do that anymore.

Like changes to be the ones who would digest that, internalize it for themselves, and then lead others into it.

And I started to sit and I thought I was thinking about this, like think about how set in their ways these guys are.

Imagine building your life on law that was given by God to man on stone tablets, etched in stone by God Himself.

This wasn't like somebody's like, you know, I think God might have said this.

I don't know.

I couldn't really hear.

There was a lot of static on the other line.

No, this is God on the stone tablets, and Moses comes down off of Sinai.

This is what God said.

No, I'm serious.

I mean, you know, we we we agree to disagree on stuff public policy, social issues, politics.

Well, I see what you're saying.

Let's just agree to disagree.

How are you gonna agree to disagree on stone tablets by God?

This is pretty rigid.

You want to talk about unchangeable?

This is not, you don't delete this.

There is no amendments.

This is God Himself wrote in stone.

Here you go.

This is the beginning of their law, which turns into the Torah, 613 laws.

So now, in every way possible, these guys are rooted, anchored, unchangeable.

We don't mess with this.

Not gonna mess with this.

This was from God.

And not only do you have the tangible stone tablets that God Himself wrote on, but you now have generation after generation of culture, generation after generation of programming.

This is how we do what we do.

So there's no ambiguity around God and you know what he expects of us and what he thinks and how he wants us to think and what he wants us to do.

It's written in stone.

So to be that rooted in that, and then to come to this intersection in human history is Jesus now is the sacrifice.

Jesus has fulfilled the law, and now the new covenant isn't just disposing of the spirit of the law, but some of the rituals and things that you used to have to do.

Now some of these things are changing, and you're gonna see it gets clunky in the book of Acts.

At certain points, they're like, you know, uh, seems right to the Holy Spirit and to us.

Uh yeah, do that, don't do that.

Uh okay.

Uh you it's just it's rough.

So you're you're you're Peter and you're Paul and you're these guys, and you have to be convinced yourself, and you have to have your own emotions around the things that you knew God was doing.

This is why God essentially in the book of Acts has to hit Paul and Peter upside the head with a two by four to get them to act right.

If you read Acts chapter 9, the Apostle Paul's on the Damascus road and gets like, you know, knocked to the ground.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Paul is so dogmatic, so stubborn and convinced of what how God thinks and what he's up to, that it says he was eager to kill people who didn't agree.

You gotta be pretty rooted to be eager to kill.

Willing to kill is enough of a thing, but eager to.

Why?

Because he's so convinced this is what God's up to.

So he's on his way on the Damascus Road to go kill the bad guys, and he gets knocked to the ground, blinded, and a voice from heaven says, Why are you persecuting me?

It's like, what?

It took that sort of dramatic moment to where now, friend, he gets up, he's blind.

He literally can't see, he's got to be led by the hand to go be mentored by someone he was on his way to kill.

You want to talk about disorientation?

And you ain't taking an off ramp, dude, you're blind, and you're not gonna get your sight back until Ananias and I decide you get it back.

So, disorientation.

That that's Paul in Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 10, Peter gets hit upside the head with a two by four.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Let me show you what it looks like.

Acts chapter 10, verse 9.

Acts 10:9

It says, the next day is Cornelia, uh, I'm sorry, check the verse 1.

In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius.

Think about that now.

Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian regiment.

He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household.

Quick pause.

When you hear God fearing, don't think Christ following.

Because he didn't follow Jesus, he was a Roman soldier.

If you'd asked Cornelius, Cornelius, who is Jesus of Nazareth?

His answer would have been a criminal.

That's who he was.

We had to execute him.

He was crazy.

He thought he was God.

He had convinced people he walked on water.

They were all starting to follow him everywhere.

He was starting a revolution.

We had to put him down.

Okay?

So, so, but he was God-fearing.

He was sincere.

His theology wasn't too good, but he honored God.

He believed in God.

He prayed to God.

It says he gave generously to the poor.

Again, you see his sincerity.

He prayed regularly.

One afternoon, about three o'clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel coming toward him.

Cornelius, the angel said.

Cornelius stared at him in terror.

What is it, sir?

He asked the angel.

And the angel replied, Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering.

God sees your sincerity.

Your theology's off, but your sincerity's on.

And I can work with sincerity.

We're going to get you straightened out.

Verse 5.

Now send some men to Joppa and summon a man named Simon Peter.

Okay?

So Simon Peter at this point has no idea that God is working across town on a different guy, and their paths are about to intersect.

I think it's worth noting here that God sends an angel to let Cornelius know I'm up to something new.

Hey, I want to teach you a new trick.

Alright?

And I'm in this.

But what he doesn't do is have the angel explain everything in detail.

You know?

If I'm Cornelius, I'm like, I need more, I need more than you gave me.

He said, go find Simon Peter.

Well, hold on a second now.

Give me some details.

And what you have to understand is God will often do this.

Well, he'll signal to you, no, I'm in this.

But he doesn't give you everything because God wants Cornelius and Peter to work some things out together.

Go find Simon Peter.

Who's Simon Peter?

You'll find out when you get there.

Go find Simon Peter.

This is very common in the working of God.

If God wanted to, he could remove all doubt.

He could give it to us, it's spelled out, line by line, linear, nice and clear, footnotes, cross-references, everything.

But he goes, just enough, I'm in it, and I'll go find Simon Peter, because I want you guys to have a good, awkward interaction.

You just have to understand, it's more than just the will of God that you understand everything you're supposed to understand about him.

It's a huge part of what Jesus did, what Jesus was about.

God didn't just come to restore man to God, God came to restore man to man.

I'll prove it.

John 17, before Jesus goes to the cross, his high priestly prayer, he prays, God, I pray that they may be one.

As you are in me and I am in you, may we be in them and them in us, and that they may love one another.

So that the world will believe that you sent me.

By this, all men will know you're my disciples, that you love one another.

First John 4.

Hey, anyone who claims to love God whom they've not seen, and yet doesn't love brothers and sisters whom they have seen says, is a liar.

So so it is absolutely, yes, we we love the God who we don't see and and and we worship him and we know that he's there, and it's in him that we live, move, and have our being.

But it's in us he lives, moves, and has his being.

And there's a lot of the work, the deep theological, the deep spiritual work that happens when Peter and Cornelius meet each other, not just an angel telling you something that God said.

Okay.

So it says verse 9.

The next day, as Cornelius' messengers were nearing town, Peter went up on a flat roof to pray.

And it was about noon, and he was hungry, and while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

It says he saw a sky open, it's something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners, and in the sheet there were all sorts of animals, reptiles and birds.

And then a voice said to him, Get up, Peter, kill and eat them.

Okay, well, the significance of this kill and eat them is just like, well, what's the big deal?

It's eating some animals.

Well, no, that's a it's a part of the law, right?

The the the stone law, so to speak, the unchangeable.

No, this is what God wants us to eat and not eat.

And the whole essence of the law in the Old Testament ultimately was separating.

Well, I want to set you apart, consecrate you, set you apart.

And now God has set them apart to clarify they would learn some things, but now I'm sending you in.

This is a huge part of this transition.

And so he's hearing, kill and eat this stuff.

And and look what he says, verse 14.

No, Lord, he says, I have never.

No, Lord, I have never.

This is how rooted, this is how sure Peter is that he's right.

No, Lord, I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.

But the voice spoke again.

Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.

The same vision repeated three times.

In case you you missed it, Peter, we know you tend to do things three times like denial and stuff like that.

So we just want to make sure you get like three times, okay?

Unmistakable.

And then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.

And look at this.

Now, now this is where it gets good.

Verse 17.

Peter was very perplexed.

Notice Peter goes from being stubborn to confused.

It's a step in the right direction.

No, Lord, I've never.

No.

Whoa.

He goes from whoa to hmm.

And the quicker you can go from whoa to hmm, you're moving in the right, we're moving towards orientation.

Okay?

Um, how do you deal with the anxiety that comes along with seismic change?

All right, I know anxiety is a broad topic, and there's a lot, I mean, I'm not saying I have the cure all for anxiety because I know there's a lot to it, and I'm not equipped to speak into all of it.

But I'm talking about the anxiety that has come on because I am in between covenants, because I'm making big changes, because something that I assumed to be right or assumed to be true, or something that was true, is now changing, and I feel anxiety.

How do I do that?

Okay, the way you deal with your anxiety is you you become flexible.

How do I become flexible?

You become curious.

That's how you do it.

When I'm inflexible, I'm I'm anxious.

Why?

Because my ideas are in stone, my thoughts are in stone, my plan is in stone.

It's all in stone.

When it's in stone, it's rigid, it's not flexible.

How do I become flexible?

I become curious.

And we see Peter do this before our very eyes in Acts 10.

He goes from no to.

And then look what's next.

It says he was perplexed, and then he asks this question What could the vision mean?

I'm starting to move to what could now he starts to ask a question.

What could this mean?

See, I've always thought this stuff was unclean, and I had a visceral reaction was like, eat this reptile or whatever.

It's like, eh, what?

No.

And then it's like, I mean, this is disorienting business.

Can you imagine?

You're on the roof, you're praying, you have this divine vision, and it's all about killing and eating reptiles?

You're like, really, God?

Like, what?

Is this worth your time?

Like, what are you talking about?

Why are you telling me about reptiles?

Why do you want me to eat these animals?

These are unclean animals.

What's the point?

And the voice says, hey, what I've called clean, if I've called something clean, let no one call it unclean.

He doesn't understand.

This makes no sense.

This seems like a petty thing for God to be coming to me and talking to me about.

Doing something this profound?

This seems petty.

But he did something right.

He was perplexed.

And it says that he asked, What does this mean?

And just then the men sent from Cornelius' house came to Simon's house and standing, they're standing outside the gate.

Look at this, verse 18.

They asked if the man Simon Peter was staying there.

Meanwhile, look at this.

Peter was puzzling over the vision.

That's good.

That's good.

He went from perplexed to puzzling.

Okay?

He was stubbornly, no, I'm out.

No, Lord.

He's telling God, no.

God, no, not interested.

Then he was perplexed.

Now he's puzzling.

We're moving here toward orientation quickly.

He's puzzling over the vision.

And the Holy Spirit said to him, These three men have come looking for you.

Get up, go with them, go downstairs without hesitation.

Don't worry, I've sent them.

So Peter went down and said, I'm the man you're looking for.

Why have you come?

And they say, Well, Cornelius, Roman officer, he's a devout, God-fearing man, well respected by the Jews.

A holy angel instructed him and summoned him to come to your house so we can hear your message.

So Peter goes with them.

Now listen.

Everything that's about to happen right now happened because Peter chose to let God teach him a new trick.

Because he had every opportunity in his human humanity and his free will to say, no, Lord, I have never.

And friend, I want to tell you, there are some people that God wants to use to lead.

And to lead what he's doing right now, who disqualify themselves because they say, No, Lord, I have never.

And they're not willing to be perplexed.

And they're not willing to be puzzled.

And they're not willing to ask, what could the vision mean?

And they're not willing to say, Lord, if you're in it, I'm going.

And Peter says, Lord, if you're in it, I'm going.

And so now he finds himself going to Cornelius' house.

Look at this, verse 24.

As they arrived in Caesarea the following day, Cornelius was waiting for them, and he had called together his relatives and close friends.

As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshipped him.

But Peter pulled him up and said, Stand up, I'm a human being just like you.

So they talked together and went inside, and there were many others assembled.

Come on.

Are you seeing that?

This is so beautiful.

Think about this.

You have Cornelius, whose heart is sincere.

That's a good dude.

He's a Roman officer.

Rome is over the Jewish people.

He's in the power position.

He's part of the group of people that put Jesus on the cross.

A Roman officer, if you study centurions and the Roman military, you would see that if you weren't born into a family with substance, uh like a patriarch type family, a family with wealth, but you were ambitious and you're like, you know what, I don't want to stay here, I don't want to stay broke, I don't want to stay in this, I want to come up, you would go in the military.

Because the military is where you could go, you could move your way up, no matter who your daddy was, your mommy was, you you could go into the military, and if you perform well in battle and you were disciplined and you were dependable and and and you were uh you you you swore allegiance to Caesar and you did everything the right way and you were exceptional, you would be judged on your merits.

And if so doing, you're now moved up, and now you're in centurion, you're over a hundred, and you're getting paid 60 times the average soldier, your income just went up, and now you can set your next generation up for success.

Cornelius is a guy who was either born into it or he fought his way up through it, and now here he is, but he senses God's up to something.

You don't you do understand?

Peter wasn't the only dog learning a new trick here.

Cornelius, as he finds out that the one they crucified is actually God incarnate, who Jesus really was, he was gonna have to accept some things, he was gonna have to accept Jesus, he was gonna have to accept some new ideas that were gonna be disorienting for him that could put him in jeopardy, that could put him at risk.

So you have Peter and Cornelius learning a new trick together.

God gave them just enough.

Go find Simon Peter, kill and eat the reptiles.

Oh, I don't need anything unclean.

Don't call anything unclean.

What are you talking about, unclean?

Guys show up.

He sees Cornelius.

And I love the awkward interaction.

Cornelius, I mean, he's called his whole family.

Like, I don't know what God's up to, but I ain't gonna miss it.

I'm gonna get my family here.

We're all gonna experience this together as family friends.

He packed the house out.

Can you?

He's going, I don't know who this Simon Peter guy is, but he must be one bad dude because God sent an angel to tell me to go find him.

So Peter comes in, right?

As a Jewish man under the oppression of the Roman government.

He's in the weak position, and Cornelius is like Peter's like, no, no, no, man, get up, get up, get up, get up.

I'm just a human like you.

Clunky, awkward.

The powerful soldiers bowing to the one who's been subjugated, and they they don't even know how to interact.

And look what Peter says here.

He says, Peter told him verse 28, you know it's against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to even associate with you.

It's the first time Peter's been in the home of a Gentile.

Now look at this.

But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.

Oh, okay, okay, hold on.

A few minutes ago he was like, What could the vision mean?

Why would God interrupt me in the middle of the day to bring down a sheet and tell me to eat snakes and lizards and stuff?

Why, why reptiles?

Like, what?

This seems like a weird conversation, but oh has nothing to do with animals.

It has everything to do with people.

It has everything to do with Jesus didn't come to restore, just restore man to God.

That's part of it.

That's a huge part of it.

But he came to restore man to man.

Oh, this was about Cornelius.

This is about these Gentiles.

This is about the ends of the earth.

This is about people not like me.

Look, look what he says.

But but God showed me that I no longer think of anyone.

I no longer think, I should no longer think of anyone as impure, unclean.

So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for.

Now tell me why you sent for me.

And they go on.

And guys, you just go read it, man.

Acts 10.

Oh, so beautiful.

You've got Cornelius and Peter, and they brought their little entourages, and they're all like praying together, and the Holy Spirit is working in them.

And there's this thing that if if the angel had just said, Cornelius, this is all the things you need to believe, and then left him in his home, no, he wouldn't have got it like he did to go meet Simon Peter.

And Peter, if all you do is no, Lord, I have never, and you never let yourself be perplexed and puzzled.

And what does the vision mean?

And you never came out of your house and you never walked in the home of a Gentile for the first time, you miss the experience of a lifetime.

This is one of the most beautiful moments in human history.

It's at the cross between the old covenant, old testament, and everything that was embedded in the law, and now through Jesus.

Oh, what Jesus is doing is the as the ultimate Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and restores us to one another and to God.

And Peter's just like, whoa, this is what God's up to.

But he had to be willing to come out of his, I have never.

Verse 34, Peter replied, I see very clearly, God shows no favoritism in every nation.

He accepts those who fear him and do what is right.

And this is the message of good news for the people of Israel that there is peace with God through Christ Jesus, who is Lord of all.

Alright, I end with two quick thoughts.

The first is Peter could have never handled Acts 10 in Mark 1.

Put down your nets, follow me.

Imagine if God started with this.

It would have scared him off.

He had to go through iterations of God's faithfulness.

He had to go through iterations of seeing Jesus.

He had to see the resurrection.

He had to see the hand of God.

He had to get there to be able to go, this is a bigger change than I ever thought.

But God has a way of taking us on that journey.

You know, um, my my my wife uh there's something the other day.

She gets our sons uh on the bus in the morning.

And so both of our sons are on the autism spectrum.

Our 11-year-old son is, you know, he doesn't like getting on the bus at this point.

He likes the bus, but he doesn't like getting up early.

He goes to a special school, so he has to get on the bus way, way early.

It's dark out when she's getting him on.

And so he's been starting to get really resistant.

Like he doesn't want to get on the bus.

So she wakes him up in the morning.

Hey buddy, it's time to get up.

He's like, he's like, first thing out of his mouth, I don't want to get on the bus.

And so so Shaylin at first was kind of fighting him on it, and then she just went ninja like a full ninja.

She's like, What are you talking about?

The bus?

I don't care about the bus.

Let's go get some breakfast.

He's like, Really?

She's like, Yeah, what do you want?

He's like, peanut butter and jelly.

She's like, Cool, cool.

Now he's he's upstairs, and so you know how it is when you first wake up going downstairs, it feels like you're taking your life in your own hands.

So she's like this.

She's like, hey, hey, we got some stairs here.

You know, you don't want to mess with those.

Climb on my back, keep your blanket.

Got your blanket?

Yeah.

All right.

So she takes him down the steps, okay?

Gets him in the kitchen.

He's making his breakfast.

She's like, hey, you know, you're gonna be hungry a little bit later.

So let's just put together a lunch.

He's like, I don't want to get on the bus.

She's like, man, why do you keep talking about the bus, man?

I don't care about the bus.

I'm talking about lunch.

You're gonna be hungry later or what?

Yeah?

All right.

So what do you want, the banana or the orange?

He's like, both?

She's like.

So they go through, they pack the lunch together.

She's like, you know, you probably gotta get your clothes on.

So we'll just go drive around in the car.

She's like, Mom, I don't want to get on the bus.

She's like, we're going for a drive, man.

Gets on the car, the drive.

She parks right at the bus stop.

Pretty soon the bus starts coming.

He's like, I probably ought to get on the bus.

Now the reality is he loves the bus.

He actually loves the bus.

The problem is when he first wakes up, he's not ready for the bus.

All he can think about is his fatigue.

All he can think about is every step it would take to get to the bus.

But she just takes him one step at a time.

And friend, I want to tell you, we have a beautiful picture of Jesus taking them from Mark 1 to Mark 2 to Mark 3 to Acts 10.

Kill and eat.

Don't call anything unclean, I've called clean.

What?

All of these years of law, all these years of tradition, culture, all these good things.

They were right for their time, but I'm going to do something a little different.

I'm not blowing this up.

I'm shifting it.

I'm changing it.

You're going to relate differently to it.

I'm going to take what was, I'm going to take the spirit of the law, and I'm going to do this with it.

And I'm going to, okay, I'm going to take you from being set apart and I'm taking you in.

Well, I got a new thing I want to do.

And for some of you, you're in that spot.

You're in that spot now.

Look back on the iterations of change.

Here's your action step for the week, right?

Take some time.

Get quiet with the Lord.

Get quiet with your mind.

Get quiet with your Bible.

Get quiet with your prayer.

And catalog all the things God has done in your life.

His faithfulness.

Think of what this represents for you.

Pluses and minuses and disorientation into orientation.

Things that you had no clue what God was doing when he was doing it.

Now in hindsight, you look back and go, I get what he was up to.

Totally understand it.

The things that have led to your maturity, your strength, your wisdom, your peace, all of these things.

And catalog them.

The wins, the losses, the lessons, all of it.

Because all of it has led up to where God has you right now.

Right now.

And He loves you unconditionally.

But don't let that become an excuse for you staying stuck where you are.

You have a choice.

You have a choice.

I have never.

Will your I have never turn into perplexed, puzzled, and eventually going, ah, I get what God's up to.

Are you going to take that journey or will you stop right there?

This is, I swear, my last thing, and then I promise I'm dying.

I I YouTube how to teach an old dog new tricks.

And I watched a bunch of videos.

I don't even have a dog, but if I ever get an old dog, I know how to teach him a new trick.

It can be done.

It can be done.

And there's all kinds of teaching on how to do it.

But one of the things that hit me in one of the videos I watched was this.

They said, oh, old, old dogs have a harder time learning new tricks because they're set in their ways, because they get tired more quickly.

So you got to break it down to smaller chunks of, okay, go ahead and do this.

And they said, when they don't get it right, don't punish them.

But when they do get it right, incentivize.

Okay, so there's all this stuff.

But then it said this in some ways, old dogs are easier to get a new trick for this reason.

They have years of trusting their master.

That was YouTube, dude.

I didn't even, that wasn't it was YouTube.

Who to thunk it?

No, it said a young dog, a puppy, you're trying to get the puppy to trust the master.

So you can teach, you know, new tricks of the old dog, the old dog goes, Oh no, no, I know my master.

So I'll get with this new trick.

I'll do it in the capacity I can handle it.

I'll take what, I'll take what you give me, Lord.

But today I want to encourage you.

If God's calling you into something new, don't get stubborn, get perplexed, then get puzzled, then get curious, and allow God to take you where He wants you to go.

Amen.