Matthew Pt. 78 - Surrender

Oh my goodness, turn your Bibles to Matthew

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

chapter 21. It's about to go down.

We are coming. We are at the very, very, very

end of Jesus ministry. Of course we're going to spend

the whole rest of Matthew here at the end of Jesus's earthly

ministry. I told you, you're going to

understand why they want to crucify him and you're going to

see even more of that this morning.

It's not like Jesus has been pulling punches for the past few

years. If you'll remember, actually

early in his ministry, he cleansed the temple once.

So Jesus cleanses the temple twice in his ministry.

He the first time John tells us early in his ministry, the Bible

says he fashioned a whip. So he took the time to go make a

whip. So this was premeditated in the

book of John. Jesus doesn't lack self-control.

Jesus did what he was doing on purpose because he wanted to do

it, because he was defending his father's house and the people

who are being exploited in his father's house.

So he fashioned a whip and he's cracking that.

Is he landing? Is he landing it on people?

Or is he just popping the thing in the air for dramatic effect?

Either way, I like it a lot. I'm a big fan.

So then we come now to the end of his earthly ministry.

Jesus comes into Jerusalem. The place is packed.

It's Passover. Remember, we've had the

triumphal entry. He's been moving towards the

cross like a man on a mission. He knows what's coming on

Thursday night. He knows what's coming to him

Friday morning. He knows what's coming to him

Friday in the early afternoon and and he still marches forward

to fulfill his mission perfectly and completely because he loves

you and because he loves me, and because he's coming to save the

world from sin, because he's coming to deliver us from evil,

because he's coming to actually crush the serpent's head.

He will have his heel bruised, so to speak, through the

crucifixion, but he will crush the serpent's head through his

resurrection and then through his multiplication throughout

the earth. So he's had the triumphal entry,

and now we pick up of chapter 21 and verse 12.

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and

bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of

the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

He said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a House

of prayer. But you make it to a den of

robbers, and the blind and the lame that came to him in the

temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and

the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the

children crying out in the temple, hosanna to the son of

David, they were indignant. And they said to him, Do you

hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes,

have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing

babies? You have prepared praise.

And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged

there. Heavenly Father, bring us light

and revelation. I pray that you would give your

church Holy Spirit LED imagination that we really could

picture, understand, and fully receive the weight of what

happened that day. So that we can just love and

respect and honor and worship Jesus to a greater depth because

we know Him more, not just knowing about him, but really

knowing him. And I also pray God, that you

would help us to make the right application to our own hearts,

to our own church, and to our own lives.

That we would more deeply surrender the temple that is

Saul Church, that we would more deeply surrender the temple that

is our own personal heart. That you would come in and have

your way. They would look exactly how you

want it to look. That it would be purified and

then empowered in Jesus name, Amen.

That is the prayer that I've been praying church.

That is the expectation that I've had that we as a church

would be surrendered and that we as individuals would be fully

surrendered so that we could fully qualify to receive the

power that he has that he intends for us.

So we have multiple accounts of what happened here on this day.

Mark tells us that after the triumphal entry, it says that

Jesus went into the temple, but it was already late.

He looked around at everything and then retired to Bethany for

the night. So actually, Sunday, triumphal

entry, bump, a bump. Jerusalem is absolutely packed.

People are everywhere. Millions of people have swarmed

on Jerusalem. There's people camping outside

the city. Bethany's packed.

I mean, it's a time, a beautiful festival.

It's family reunion, people everywhere.

And everybody knows who Jesus is and what Jesus is about because

he's been doing this for three years.

You know, somebody who's been healed by Jesus at this point,

you know, somebody who's heard Jesus preach.

He doesn't just have the 12 and people like, I wonder what

that's about. Thousands, many, many thousands

of people are all about him, all around him.

They come and they go as they live their lives.

But everybody knows about Jesus. He hasn't been quiet.

He hasn't been mysterious. He has been bold.

He's been plain. Remember, he started his

ministry cleansing the temple. He finishes his ministry

cleansing the temple. That's what he wants.

He wants everything fully surrendered to him.

But he comes back now Monday. He comes back Monday, not on

Sunday. He comes on Monday.

And he looks into the temple as he premeditated, as he planned,

and he cleanses the place. He has caused a scene.

I mean, imagine a man doing these things.

Actually, imagine it. He turned over the tables.

How do you think he did it? What do you think it looked

like? Do you think he gently shoved

them? Just went from one to the next,

Right? That's the guy who washed his

feet, right? Because that's all he ever did,

right? That's what we're told.

Jesus washes feet. Come Thursday night.

It means something. It's important.

I'm going to emphasize it and I'm going to pound the pulpit

when I get to it. But he cleansed the temple

twice. He formed a whip and cracked it

over people. He's throwing out money

changers. He stops everything.

He takes total control. Can you imagine if everybody had

their cell phones out filming it?

Look at this angry preacher, hashtag angry preacher.

I just don't think it's appropriate for a man of the

Lord. Myself personally, I just think

it's I just, I just don't see where there could ever, ever be

that the appropriate response there.

Well, you should read your Bible and you should read all of

Jesus, not one verse of Jesus. Don't build your old doctrine of

Jesus off one verse. Well, doesn't it mean something?

Of course it does. It means something in in

conjunction with the whole of Scripture and all of who Christ

reveals he is, what is Jesus? Jesus is the right thing at the

right time. Amen.

Jesus is the wisdom of God. Jesus is always appropriate and

right. So if you're about to get stoned

to death because you were just called in adultery and you're

terrified and repentant and humble, Jesus is going to be

very gentle with you. A bruise read He will not break.

A smoldering Wick, He will not extinguish.

But if you're prideful and you think that you're in charge of

things and you think you're in charge of the faith, that is

actually being a blockade to people really coming to him,

he's going to be very, very, very severe.

God opposes the proud. God gives grace to the humble.

So we're looking at the extremes here when we see Jesus with the

Pharisees. But the caution I give to you is

to not just look to the Pharisees and go those guys,

because that's my temptation. So look at the Pharisees.

Ago, I would have never. Well, maybe so, maybe not.

We'll never know because you weren't there.

But the temptation is to say they're the worst.

Instead of recognizing, has He asked for more surrender from

you? Has he asked for more surrender

from me? I need to look at the Bible.

And if the Bible isn't constantly pointing you back

inside your own heart, then you're looking at the Bible

wrong. You're reading the Bible wrong.

You're reading it like a history lesson exclusively and thinking

that happened, OK, instead of the Holy Spirit applying things

to you and going, hey, yeah, that happened with them.

But what's going on with you? The Bible is living and active.

The Word of God is powerful and it is sharp, and it will divide

between your soul and your spirit to lay you open and go.

I didn't even know I could be divided that way.

And the Lord can say I can perform surgery, I can take out

infection, and I can put in a heart of flesh instead of a

heart of stone. So Jesus is the right thing at

the right time. Jesus has range, as you would

say. He has multiple gears.

He's not just stuck in first gear.

This is all he knows. This is all he does.

Culturally, we're told that Jesus has one gear.

Jesus picks up barnyard animals and he pets them and he washes

people's feet. That's the only gear Jesus has.

So we're told Jesus has multiple gears.

Jesus is the right thing at the right time.

Well, I don't like that Jesus. Well, there's only one Jesus.

There's not your Jesus or Jim Michaels Jesus.

There's just Jesus. And he's the Jesus of Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John. He's the Jesus of Genesis.

He's the Jesus of Revelation. He's the Jesus of the book.

That's the only Jesus that there is.

There is no other. So what do we know about what's

going on here? We know that the Pharisees have

been the gatekeepers. We know the Pharisees are

jealous of him. Why?

Well, because he's obviously all powerful.

He can do anything he wants to. He's healing people non-stop.

So what do they, what do they now get him?

On they go. Actually, you shouldn't be

healing on the Sabbath. So they're trying to show that

they are more spiritual and more holy than them when they do so,

of course, he just blows them up over and over and over.

He humiliates them. He's been doing so for years.

He knows that He's laying down his life this week.

He's not coming to be the victim to anybody.

He's coming to give generously. Nobody takes Jesus's life from

Jesus. Jesus gives his life.

That's his strength, that's his power, that's his choice.

So the Pharisees, the religious rulers, they have been

exploiting people for many, many years in the temple.

So what's going on now is the week of Passover, your family

would buy a lamb to sacrifice to keep in accordance with what had

been happening all the way since Moses.

Remember the Passover, they were in Egypt and the Lord said, I've

brought the 9 plagues and now the 10th plague is I'm going to

kill the first born son. This is the judgment and the

wrath of God being poured out, He said.

But if you apply the blood of the lamb to your doorpost, the

death Angel will pass over your house.

He won't come into your house and kill your son.

He will Passover. And that death will not visit

your household. So they've been celebrating the

Passover, the wrath of God passing over them.

But still somebody had to pay all those lambs for hundreds of

years. All these lambs have been slain.

All these lambs get killed, all these animals.

Blood has to be shed. There can be no forgiveness of

sins without the shedding of blood.

But a lamb's a little bit more expensive.

What if you're really poor and you don't have any money?

Will the Lord made an opportunity for you?

You could buy the Scripture says here, pigeons or or doves, and

they were much, much less expensive.

But also if you were bringing Roman money in when you're

coming to purchase these things. So maybe you're outside of town

and you're buying your lamb, or maybe you don't have any money.

You're very poor and you come into the temple.

Well, the Pharisees have good news for you.

They have a vending machine set up for you so that you can get

exactly what you need. The problem is it's like the

airport. You know how it is at the

airport. You come in with your water and

you get up to TSA and somehow, you know, 20 ounces of water is

a real threat to national security.

So you have to pour it out. I eat a little bit bitter when

I, when I fly. If you couldn't tell the Lord's

dealing with me on that. I always make a big show of it

when I pour my water out. I say I feel safer already.

And then I just kind of move on from there.

So you have to pour out your water.

And then, of course, as soon as you get through TSA, you can now

purchase a bottle of water, lucky you, for $9 or whatever

it's going to be. You know, I got to not go like

I'm trying to preach the right sermon here.

I'm just not. I'm getting in my flesh just

thinking about it. So this is what's going on here.

Oh, do you need some doves? Do you need this?

Do you need that? Well, we're going to take care

of that for you. But also, you brought Roman coin

in and the temple doesn't accept Roman coin.

So we have money changers who will change your money.

So everybody's being exploited and they're being stolen from.

The rates are not good. It's not gracious.

So Jesus sees the poor being exploited.

He sees the money making scheme, like they're not just doing it

as a convenience. Hey, this is the best way to do

it. We want to help people worship

the Lord, but people are profiting and people are

exploiting their neighbors. So none of this is wholesome.

None of this is good, but it's been done this way all the time.

It's just the way it is. Get over it, man.

It's just the way it is. We've been doing this for a long

time. Jesus is not going to get over

it. He's not OK with it.

So he comes in and he causes a scene.

He's loud, he is violent, and he causes a mess.

He turns over the table of the money changers.

Guess what was on the table of the money changers?

Money. Money was all over the place.

So coin goes flying everywhere. He's causing a scene.

He's making a mess. Who is he?

Well, he's one who has authority.

He's the one in charge of the temple.

He owns the temple. He owns the breath in your

lungs. He owns the ground that you're

standing on. It all belongs to him.

Jerusalem is his city. The whole world is his nation.

Everything belongs to Jesus. So he comes and he acts like he

has authority. That's why nobody stops him.

And they're like, hey, knock it off, calm down.

And everybody trusts him. All the people love him.

It's only the Pharisees and religious leaders who hate him.

The people go, he's awesome. Oh, he's stirring things up.

We thought he was going to like, go after the Romans.

He's kind of like going after the Jewish leaders.

But whatever, I'll stick with him.

I'll stick with him. I'll stick with him till Friday

morning anyway, when it's time to crucify him.

I'm surprised he's going after the Pharisees because those guys

are so spiritual. These guys are so holy because

one time those guys did a good thing.

Did you know that some people can do a good thing and still be

awful? That's crazy, isn't it?

I don't want you to be naive. I don't want you to be ignorant.

Now, I really like that pastor. I really like that preacher.

I really like John Michael. Well, you can like who you like,

but fruit always talks to us over time.

Fruit continually reveals something about somebody's life

over time or the absence thereof.

So Jesus, obviously it says in multiple of the passages and in

Matthew and Mark and in Luke, they all talk about and they

wanted to kill him. Like that was their plan.

They're like, how are we going to kill this guy?

He just disrupted everything this week.

He humiliated us. He's humiliating us in front of

everybody. Everybody in the temple heard

it. That's going to spread.

Jesus went in there. It was crazy.

He was doing this, He was doing that, He was yelling, he was

super angry. He was very mad because his

temple was supposed to be a place of prayer and they turned

it into a den of thieves. He was stopping everybody.

No, you're not going to carry that through here anymore.

This is going to be, there's a, there's a way to act with

reverence. There's a certain way to behave.

There's a time and a place for things.

And the temple is a time and a place for certain things to take

place. Jesus said, we're going to,

we're going to change this. We're going to shift this.

So they hate him for it. They're angry with him and he

humiliates them and then of course, he corrects them again.

As he's being worshipped, the children are rejoicing, shouting

in the temple Hosanna to the Son of David.

The prophecies are being fulfilled.

The Son of David has come to rule over his people and the

children recognize it. The child like the humble,

recognize what's going on and the Pharisees, the prideful,

hated. So that's the big historical

narrative. That's the the swell of what's

going on as we lead into the rest of Holy Week.

But what does this mean for you and I?

Jesus did not just cleanse the temple back then.

He still cleanses His house today in two ways.

He cleanses the church and He cleanses the individual.

Both of those are His temple. Both of those are referred to in

the New Testament as His temple. You are the temple of the Holy

Spirit, you yourself, and also the body of Christ is the temple

of Jesus in His control, under His jurisdiction.

It's no longer a building. His temple is no longer what

stands in Jerusalem or anything else that they would attempt to

rebuild at some point. That will not be His temple.

You are his temple. You will stay his temple.

So what would Jesus cleanse out of his church today?

What do you think If the Lord Jesus were to look at the

American church at large? We'll start there and then we'll

start to zoom in. I think He would want to cleanse

out the Polish. I think he would want to cleanse

pride. I think he would want to cleanse

cowardice. I think he would want to cleanse

consumerism. And it's all a vicious cycle

because the people who go to church in the West, they what

you got for us, preacher? What's this church have for my

family? It's not a terrible question as

long as you don't mean it in the way that you probably mean it.

The church should have the word of God.

It should have the presence of the Lord.

It should have a New Testament family.

Or we're saying we're going to love and follow Jesus.

If you're looking for a lot more than that at Salt, we don't have

much to offer you. We got some exercise bikes in

the back. We got some rubber bands.

Like you haven't walked into the greatest cathedral ever built.

I like beautiful buildings, and I want us to build a beautiful

building one day. I'm not sorry for that.

And yet what do we have to offer you?

Sincerity. That's what I can speak for me.

I have sincerity to offer. I have a pursuit of the Lord to

offer the genuine and sincere. I have a humble fear of God, and

I have a devotion to the word of God.

So if you're in for that, you're in the right place.

If you're looking for a lot more than that, like I don't know

that I've got that to offer you. But as a pastor, it's easy for

pastors to feel the temptation and what came first, the chicken

or the egg, I don't know. It doesn't matter at this point

because either person's repentance can cure it.

So the pastor who wants to please the people versus the

people who want to be pleased and that vicious cycle that

spirals down and all the while the Lord's presence is being

driven out of it. It's a people centered church

instead of a Jesus centered church.

I think Jesus would come to cleanse all those kinds of

things. I think those are some of the

tables he would overturn. Let's not just talk about the

them out there. What table would he sling

inside? Assault church?

I believe it's something connected to hiding.

I believe it's connected to guarding.

I believe it's connected to isolating instead of surrender.

I said that because of what the Lord's been revealing to me.

I'm a pastor who pays attention. I'm a Good Shepherd who's

watching over his walk. Sometimes you probably think I'm

naive to things I'm not. I just don't always put my

finger on everything because I know there's a better Holy

Spirit than me and I trust Him more than me and I trust that as

I pray for you, He can do a lot more work than I can do.

And I'm and I'm also making sure that I'm not being a coward.

I need to speak to so and so. Are they going to receive it?

That's not really my jurisdiction is whether or not

they're going to receive it. Lord, help me walk in wisdom,

not in fear. These are all things I'm

processing as your pastor. These are all things I'm trying

to put together and go, Lord, where?

Where's my flesh getting in the way?

What do you really want? What would obedience look like

for me? Is that boldness led by

conviction from the Holy Spirit, or is that my flesh being sick

and tired of a problem? You see how you've been there.

If you've ever LED people and if you've ever attempted it,

whether it's as a parent or as a boss or anything else, you're

always trying to like, if you're humble before the Lord, you're

like, the issue is clearly the issue.

That's not up for. That's not up for question.

The question is, how should I approach it, Lord?

And that's where we need the wisdom of God.

That's why I pray. Jesus make me like you.

He's the right thing at the right time.

He's got multiple gears to hit and he has range.

And that's what your Michael has to grow in wisdom range, being

the right thing at the right time.

But I know that for us, these things are connected to hiding,

guarding, isolating instead of surrender.

Because specifically also the Lord revealed that last week,

just saying that surrender, that's what we need.

That's where we're at. We need deeper surrender.

We need a deeper yielding, a deeper obedience.

I said there's some of you that the Lord has asked you for

things for weeks. There's a thing.

And he said, hey, can I have that?

And you're like the Lord. The Lord couldn't be asking me

for that. For some of you, he's been

asking for things for months. For some of you, it's been

years. And I've experienced this in my

own life as well, where the Lord's saying, hey, can I have

that? Can I have that?

Can I have that? I surrender all this over here

and I surrender all that over there and he's going, what about

this thing? I go, I surrender this over

here. Lord, look at all that I've

surrendered. He's going, how about this?

I go, Lord, look around like, oh, it's all yours, Jesus, I'm

just going to interrupt you. We worship so I don't have to

listen to you. Just be just be glorified by my

praise and also give me that breakthrough that I've been

standing on and praying for. And Lord, can I have that?

I'm like, oh Lord, I just love you.

Hallelujah, prayer time done. See you later, God, He's gone.

He's patient. He's so kind.

It's ridiculous how patient he is and how kind he is.

It's the goodness of God that has led me to repentance many

times. I know it has for you as well,

but that's what I see in salt. That's what I know what's going

on in salt. There's a deeper surrender that

needs to happen. There needs to be less hiding.

There needs to be no hiding. There's needs to be no guarding.

There needs to be no isolating. There needs to be no lying.

There needs to be truly living in the light as he is in the

light. That's what he's called us to.

But when something is common, when something's prevalent, like

it was in the temple there or like it is in, in, in the

Western church, this is the way we act on.

This is the way we do church folks.

We've been doing church for decades this way.

You put on a Sunday, smile, you know, and that's it.

Like you try and engage with a sermon, you try and engage

during service, but as soon as service is over, you're not like

talking to people about what the Lord was just ministering to you

about. You know, you're talking about

the weak and you're talking about work.

And you know, we're going to keep it shallow and I'm not

going to truly be known or be seen.

Even though that's common, it doesn't make it acceptable to

God. And they thought that because it

was just the way it was, like, why didn't the people create an

uprising? Why didn't the people rise up

against the Jewish leaders and go, this is wicked, this is

evil, this is wrong. You're extorting people, you

know, like who's going to be the prophet who does it in the

airport? I always think maybe I can be

the one who can get our water through the gate like that.

We just need somebody to rise up with conviction.

But like, why do we Alaska that like you just go along together.

The power, the powers, they're just keeping us in place instead

of saying how can I make a difference?

How can I walk in a Holy Spirit boldness.

Well, first of all, in my own temple.

That's how that's where in my own life.

What can I do with me? Lord, I'm going to change the

world. Oh buddy, you can.

First of all, I don't mean to. I'm I'm not a cynic.

You can change the world. Just know you will have to

entirely be changed as a person. I want to change the world.

You can. You can, no problem.

Young men, young women, you want to change the world, You can.

Just know that it's going like your life will be 1 of constant

upheaval in the spirit and that's a good thing.

The Lord will say I want more from you.

I want more from you because you've got to be if you want new

anointing, if you want new blessing, you got to be a new

wineskin and that cost something and that feels like something.

So people mistake something that's common.

They think it makes it acceptable to God.

They think it could even be blessed by God.

The money changers and those selling birds and those, you

know, moving merchandise and selling merchandise.

I don't know what they had. I don't know if they had like I

went to the temple T-shirts or what they had going on, but they

had something there that is very displeasing to the Lord.

And everybody just thought was normal and it was doing, it was

happening under the authority of the priests, but God still hated

what they were doing. That's scary.

So like you, you for so long, you just thought, I thought this

thing was normal. I thought this thing was OK.

I thought this thing was good. I thought this thing was fine.

We're talking about sin and we're talking about things that

aren't sin just because the Lord, we're talking about sin

and we're talking about Isaac, and the Lord just says, can I

have it sin? He, he, he condemns and says it

has to be removed entirely. Isaac, he just says, can I have

him? This could be things in the

church that everyone encourages everyone else in, but God could

still hate it. There could be things in your

own heart that others would say, that's fine, don't worry about

that, But you know, God's been asking you for it.

But what evidence would there be in the church if Jesus had truly

cleansed it? What evidence would there be in

your life if it was fully surrendered to Jesus instead of

partly surrendered to Jesus? There would be his presence.

There would be His power. There would be the fruits of the

Spirit. There would be breakthrough in

prayer. There would be an increase in

love. You know, one thing that's kind

of spooky is I've seen the gifts of the Spirit and operation and

ministries where there were not the fruits of the Spirit, and

there are famous ministries where the gifts of the Spirit

are legitimately in operation. Why would the Lord do that?

Because the Lord loves His people and because the Lord is

always going to honor His Word. So that's why.

That's why. How did the Lord move so

powerfully through that guy, through the decades of the

scandal that was going in, that nobody knew about it?

Because God loves His people, and it wasn't about that guy.

The Lord is blessing His people with the gift that He put in

him. Well, I can't believe you would

do that. Well, when you're God, you can

do it however you want to, but until then, the Lord is going to

bless His people. But the fruits of the Spirit are

a different story altogether. Like I said, the fruits of the

Spirit, you can fake those temporarily, but those can never

be faked long term. Somebody knows who you really

are. If you're close to anybody, if

you're married, somebody knows who you really are.

Somebody knows what you're really like.

Pastor, you saying I'm supposed to just share everything all the

time? No, let me make that quick

disclaimer. I'm not saying tell everybody

everything all the time. That's not the point of this.

But the point is somebody ought to know something real.

Somebody ought to know something really real.

Somebody who is actually going to cost your ego for them to

know it. Not just, hey, you know what?

Let me tell the person who did it cost you anything?

Did it feel like you were cutting off your hand?

Then it probably wasn't a big enough step to actually bring

the freedom that you say you want.

If it didn't feel like a death, then there's probably not coming

a resurrection. That's the principle of

Christianity that you can remember.

If it doesn't feel like you're dying, don't expect to be raised

from the dead because that's the qualification for resurrection.

Everybody wants to be resurrected, but nobody wants to

die. I need a resurrection in this

area of my life. Well, then it fully kill it.

You haven't driven A stake through the heart.

You got the thing on life support.

Well, I'm just waiting on the Lord to resurrect it.

It's not dead yet. Kill it and then see what the

Lord might do. What if he doesn't resurrect it?

Aha. We've arrived at the root of the

issue. Like holding on to the thing.

This is, this is my, this is, this is precious to me.

I know. And the Lord wants to be more

precious and he has more to give because the Lord has growth for

you. Step 1, surrender at step one.

Step 2, breakthrough. Hallelujah, it's happening.

Step three, growth and multiplication.

Now we actually have something worth exporting from our lives.

Now we actually have something worth exporting from our church.

Now we got something actually worth giving.

We're not just in survival mode anymore, we're actually growing.

God has growth for you. That's the point of all this.

To be grafted into the tree was good, but now He wants you to

bear fruit. Remember learning about

grafting? You can wound a tree, and then

you can wound a branch and you can bring it into the tree and

they can join together. Fascinating.

To me, that's just crazy. It seems like magic, but it's

real. And then the the life of this

tree, the SAP, the blood of the tree will flow into this branch,

and then this branch can bear fruit.

Too many Christians are satisfied that they've just been

grafted in and they don't want to bear any fruit.

I'm connected to the tree now, and now life flows into you.

Life flows in they that leads to something We talked about the

difference between I just don't want to go to hell.

Well, who does? I just want to go to heaven.

Yeah, me too. And the Lord says, and there is

a continual growth of sanctification that leads to

multiplication. He wants your desires to mature.

The Christian life should look like one of I want new things.

I'm praying new prayers. If I'm praying the same prayers

that I've always prayed, then I'm not maturing.

He wants your perspective to mature.

He wants your battles to change. As you grow in Christ, your

fight should change. Your battles should change.

I used to fight this, and now I fight this, and now I fight

this, and I'm growing and I'm fighting for others.

The younger I am in Christ, the more immature I am in Christ.

I'm staring at myself. See me?

Go on. I'm doing a stare at myself.

Don't, Don't receive any condemnation.

If you're in Christ, there's no condemnation for you, but you

should have a clear identification.

You should know who you are and where you are.

I know who I am in Christ. I'm talking about your degree of

maturity. You need to know where you are

in Christ, in your maturity, and if you're looking at yourself

and thinking about yourself, most of the time that is still

very much the place of a child or a young adult in the faith.

Think about the household and a family.

The 2 year old thinks about nobody but the two year old.

That's all the 2 year old cares about.

And then you come older. The 10 year old helps with the 2

year old and the 18 year old is bringing in income and helping

the household and the adult is thinking about everybody else

and everything else and providing and caring for others.

Identify yourself. I'm not putting you where you

are. Figure it out.

Where are you? Where is your priority?

What's your focus? I think I'm here.

There's no condemnation for that.

Well, I've been here way too long.

OK, so that calls for repentance.

Still no condemnation, but that calls for repentance.

And I go, God help me to grow. God help me to grow.

Spoiler alert, He's going to lead you into surrender next.

That's what's going to come next.

That's what it looks like at any level.

Surrender, surrender, surrender. Don't fake it.

Don't skip a stage. You can't.

Oh, I'm going to. I'm going to focus on others now

to prove my maturity. That's pride.

You are where you are. I don't condemn you.

The Lord doesn't condemn you. But you should understand where

you are. But if you've been fighting the

same battle with your flesh that you've been fighting forever,

there's a good chance that you need to surrender in a way that

you have not yet surrendered. You have not taken the measure

that would guarantee your victory because you don't

actually want freedom as bad as you would say that you do,

Pastor obvious. That's not that's not edgy,

that's basic truth. If you have not yet taken the

measure that would guarantee your victory, it's probably

because you actually don't want victory as much as you want the

thing. I'm trying to use basic logic

there, not like a not something that we could argue over.

How does Jesus handle this situation?

Does Jesus pull the money changers aside privately?

Because that's what everybody would have said as they were

filming it. Look OK.

And then and then they do the the reaction video.

So they go side by side. Here's my problem with the with

the rabbi who who overturned the temple the other day.

If you got a problem and I can see his point.

OK, I can see his point. Things have gotten out of hand

in the temple. OK, so I can see his point.

They're acting like they admit to truce and appeasement and now

comes their stupidity talking to this 2000 year old Tik Toker

here. And then they come back with,

but he should have handled it differently.

That's always what people say when you correct something that

they didn't want corrected at all.

I deal with that all the time. Joe Michael, look, I'm OK with

what you said, but I don't like the way that you said it.

And I say, dear brother in Christ, please tell me how you

say it. And then they go and I go, so

your opinion means nothing to me and I will lose 0 minutes of

sleep tonight over it because you don't actually care about

the issue. You're not addressing it.

You're not speaking to it. I was ready to humble myself and

learn from you when you were going to go to Michael.

I think you do that wrong. Here's how I've always done it.

I've seen to be very fruitful and Joe Michael can go, wow,

faithful brother who's not a coward and afraid to fight and

also has a wise application. I can learn and grow from that.

But critics will only just go, you're doing it wrong.

And I go, how do you do it? And they go, it's not about me,

It's about you doing it wrong. It's hard to pay attention to

that. It's hard to receive from that.

Does Jesus pull the money changers aside like others would

have told him to and speak to them privately?

Hey, guys. Hey, hey, hey.

Can I get all the money changers?

Yeah. All you.

Just three minutes. It's really been on my heart

lately and I've really been praying about it a whole lot for

a long time. What's your point, Pastor?

My point is that if if the private dealing with your sin

hasn't dealt with your sin, if the private surrender hasn't

yielded to breakthrough in fruit, you're probably playing

it too safe and you need to stop.

There's something that you need to open up.

There's something that needs to be exposed that feels like

death. Good.

Now we know we're getting close. Now we know we're actually going

to drive some nails into something.

The ego, the ego is going to have to get on the cross once

again, man, it's so easy to preach and it's so easy to Amen.

Whenever I'm like, you got to pick up your cross and follow

him, Amen. Until we make it look like

something, right? You got to love your wife until

we get real, Amen. I love my wife.

And then we get real specific and go, that's a high bar.

You got to submit to your husband.

Actually, you don't get many amens on that one, ironically.

And then especially when you start to spell it out, then it's

like, how dare you read the Bible out loud to me?

And then also don't you dare me. I agree.

I just don't agree with your application.

It's easy to keep it vague though.

You got to take up your cross and follow Jesus.

Amen, Pastor. He, my pastor preaches that word

and here is what it will look like.

Specifically, I disagree with his application there.

How convenient. How convenient for you and how

unfortunate for you you still think somebody's taking

something good from you instead of the Lord blessing you with

something better. He doesn't take the money

changers aside privately. Guys guys, just something for

you to think about. Would y'all please pray about

this and consider it? He doesn't discreetly ask to

speak with those selling pigeons.

He doesn't approach the priests to share his concerns.

He throws tables, he flips chairs, he cracks a whip in the

beginning of the ministry, in front of the biggest crowd

possible. If you're trying to manage your

sins in private, it's not going to kill your sins.

Then if it is, congratulations, that's fine.

But if it's not, then take them public.

Take them to someone that it would hurt to tell so that your

ego can be fully killed and crushed so that you can be

accountable. Why isn't there any power in the

church? Because people are concealing

their sin, duh. Because people aren't hungry.

People conceal their sin, pastor.

Obvious kind of stuff. But here's the good news.

Jesus doesn't flip tables to just make a mess.

He clears space for the Kingdom to come.

Keep looking, it gets better. Verse 13, he said to them, it is

written, my house shall be called a House of prayer.

God make us a House of prayer. Make me a House of prayer, but

you make it a den of robbers. So he's cleansed, He's created

this scene. I don't know how long we're

talking, 5 minutes of upheaval, shouting, preaching, yelling,

and everybody's going. He's talking to them that way.

I thought those were supposed to be our heroes.

Verse 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple,

and he healed them again. I'm not sick of seeing Jesus

healing people. He's done it over and over and

over. Jesus heals people.

What happens when things get cleansed right away?

Power comes in. The humble get helped.

The blind and the lame come in. Jesus, will you help us?

Exactly. Now the humble can be served.

What do you do with the prideful rebuke and humiliation?

That's what they got. He waited long enough for them,

but then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he

healed them. Look what God can do with a

clean house. Imagine God can.

Imagine what God can do with a clean church.

Imagine what God can do with you and me.

When we're cleaned out and we go, I surrender it.

Seriously. And really?

And I'm telling my brother about it, and I'm telling my sister

about it. I'm telling my spouse about it.

The giant thing that's been there for the past four decades,

the giant thing that's been there for the past two years,

the small thing that's always just kind of been just just

always there, just kind of like, just just this little annoying

hangnail in your life. And the Lord was always going,

you could be free of that. You could be free, like, yeah,

but I like this part. And then finally, just go, you

know what? I'm confessing it so that I can

be free. This is what the Lord is doing.

This is what the Lord wants to do for us in this season to

bring real freedom with a clean house.

He brings healing. When there's a clean house,

there's power and there's grace and there's breakthrough and

there's blessing and there's glory.

Look at Jesus with the lowly and the poor in spirit.

He will not press you down farther when you have made

yourself low. There will not be humiliation

for you, your brother, your sister, she will not humiliate

you. When they when you confess, they

won't say, how could you? They'll say, Oh my goodness,

let's take it to the Lord. They'll weep with those who

weep. They'll mourn with those who

mourn. They're not going to put your

business out to the world. And if they do, you're not going

to care because you've actually come to that place of humility

where you go, people think I'm bad, I'm worse than they'll ever

know. And Jesus is actually the hero,

not me. What a freedom do not have to

keep up a facade. What a relief for people to go.

You're this, you go. Yeah.

And actually even more like our boys were little.

It was Elijah Fain. He was a little guy.

I was. I got up one Saturday morning

and I go, look, you know, I pop in his room and he's not in his

bed. He's not in his room.

And I go look around our house, which didn't take very long.

And I'm like, where's Bubba? And.

I go back in his room and I like walk in.

I'm like, I peek under his bed and he's right there laying

under his bed with a little pack of nerds.

And as soon as I see him, he goes, I'm eating these like just

full of shame, full of kind of he's like eating his little

purple nerds under his bed and he he's his daddy walking around

his house looking for him. As soon as I find him, I'm

eating these like freedom. Oh, I'm ashamed and I'm

delivered and I'm like, and of course, you know, as a dad, you

got like, you know, this is like a hilarious parent story and you

have to act like, son, are you supposed to be, you know, no,

Sir. All right, you know, I was

gracious, you know, he confessed and and we move forward.

But I could relate. I felt compassion for him

because I could relate. I didn't feel, you know, you're

not supposed to have Canada. I didn't feel that.

I felt like, buddy, I know that feeling.

I know that one, the shame, the condemnation, the way, the way,

the way, the way, the way, the way, the way the secret.

And then finally, so I mean these Lord goes give me those

throwing those in the trash. Let me make you a meal.

Let me make you breakfast. Let me make you bacon and eggs

and orange juice and hash Browns and it'll be hot and good and

no, it won't be grape flavored nerds, but it'll be good for

you. It'll be good for your soul.

It'll bless you. That's what the Lord does with

cleansing. That's what the Lord does with

restoration. He goes if you'll humble

yourself and if you'll confess and it, by the way, it's always

best to confess before the exposure happens.

Or if you saw on social media this week, the CEO and his

mistress is this is, you know, the, if you're not familiar,

there's at concerts, they're going around, they're showing

loving couples. Oh, look at this cute couple.

Look at this cute couple. And they put them up on the big

screen. They go to a couple, a man's

holding a woman. She covers her face, turns

around and he drops to the floor to avoid the camera.

And everybody goes, that was awkward.

And the guy hosting the concert says they're either having an

affair or they're just very, very, very shy.

Turns out it was the obvious scenario.

What a devastation. What a humiliation for both of

them, for their spouses, for their children.

I mean, like, that's kind of the extreme example, right?

To be exposed in that way. But God opposes the proud.

He'll give grace to the humble. And if you'll humble yourself,

the Lord doesn't want to expose you on a Jumbotron.

The Lord doesn't want you turned into a meme on the Internet.

The Lord doesn't want you mocked.

He doesn't want you shamed. He wants you restored.

Don't get found out. Just give it up.

Give it up to the Lord. Give it up and trust in His

grace. Well, I'm afraid that people,

you know, people aren't going to get everything right.

I'll make you that promise too. But also, the Lord is keeping

the books and the Lord wants to bless.

The Lord wants to bring refreshment when he has a clean

dwelling place. He is unhindered by anything.

The rebuke in the discipline of Jesus is not rejection.

It's invitation for healing and it's invitation for fellowship.

There is a place, there is a time for upheaval, and it comes

to the hungry person's life. So if you're praying for power

and if you're praying for breakthrough, it must come to a

qualified vessel. If you want fresh wine, you'll

have to be a fresh wineskin. But that process will hurt.

In the in the book series The Lion, the Witch and the

Wardrobe, there's a character, he steals some gold.

It's a fictional children's story.

It's allegorical about Christ and the church and the world and

the war that we're in. He's the character's name is

Eustace. He steals some gold and it has a

curse on it and it turns him into a dragon.

So he becomes sad. He's got this bracelet on.

It's creating excruciating pain because he's too big for the

bracelet now. And he's he's this hideous

dragon and he knows he's not like his friends anymore.

He's different, He's separated from fellowship with them.

So he will claw at the scales and he'll RIP some of the scales

off, but there's just so much more under there.

And he'll claw at the scales and RIP some scales off, but there's

just so much more under there. Aslan is the lion, he represents

Jesus. And Aslan says it can come off,

but I'm going to have to take it off of you.

And it was scared to have Aslan take it off of him because the

measure that Eustace kept using was just enough, but he didn't.

He wouldn't make it hurt. Eustace would never do it to the

point where it would hurt. He would go, I can't go any

farther, I can't go any deeper. And as Lance said, I can, I can

heal you. And Eustace goes OK.

And he surrendered. And he said as he sank his claws

into me, it felt like they went all the way down to my heart.

And he said the pain was unlike anything I'd ever felt in my

entire life, and the only way I could bear it was the sheer

pleasure of having the stuff peel off.

I don't want that kind of pain. But that's where that kind of

freedom is. That's that's how we get a new

wineskin. And now, now the breakthrough,

the blessing and the growth. I tried doing it.

Yeah, but you didn't cut your hand off because you weren't

willing to go that far. I tried.

I tried. I tried.

I tried what a Yoda say. There is no try.

There is only do. And many of us are.

I'm trying. I'm trying.

Well, good news is, you don't have to try anymore.

If you'll surrender to the king, he'll do all the work because

he's the only one who can. Anyway, surrender is the only

thing he asks of you. Hebrews 12.

I'm going to read to you from verse 7.

It is for discipline that you have to endure.

I'm sorry, I'm reading to you from verse 5.

Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you

as sons? My son, do not regard lightly

the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when you are reproved

by him. For the Lord disciplines the one

He loves, and he chastises every son whom he receives.

It is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons, for what son is there whom His

Father does not discipline? If you're left without

discipline, and which all have participated, then you are

illegitimate children and you're not sons.

Besides this, we have earthly fathers who disciplined us, and

we respected them for it. Shall we not much more be a sub?

Be subject to the Father of spirits, and we live.

For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to

them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share in

His Holiness. For the moment all discipline

seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields

the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have

been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping

hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths

for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of

joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone

and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no

root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it

many be defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy, like

Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the

blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent,

though he sought it with tears. Humble, humbling words, warning

words, faithful words. God is giving us good news, not

bad news. Church, how is it good news?

Because you can be lukewarm, you can be self deceived, you can be

stiff necked and still deeply loved by Jesus.

Just like we looked last week, the church in Laodicea and we're

closing. We're going to sing a song as we

do. Still loved.

You're still loved. You're still loved.

Cleansing of Jesus is not rejection, it is reunion.

But not everyone is going to celebrate a cleanse, worship

filled life. Some are going to criticize it

like the Pharisees did. The prideful think that the

humble aren't worshipping correctly.

I've told you this many times before, never listen to a

backslider. They're the worst.

They're the worst. Listen to the godless, Listen to

the faithless, but the backslider is turned from the

Lord and now wants to pull you away.

They're the worst. The worst I've ever seen are the

former pastors. Absolute wolves.

They think they've been there and got the T-shirt.

They think they know something. Snakes.

The Pharisees are those kinds of snakes.

But the humble, childlike Christians will always praise

God like the children did in the temple, because it has been

divinely prepared that they should do so.

Childlike Christians will always have opponents.

A prideful look at childlike faith, not with wonder and

humility, but they look at it with criticism and accusations.

They tell you things like faith's not that simple.

I'm telling you it is that simple.

It is as simple as surrender. It is as simple as death and as

life. The pure and simple worship from

the humble is a confrontation to the enemies of God, and it's a

confrontation to the prideful in the church.

And that's why we even build theologies and we build systems

and ideas and ways of teaching to keep people from being more

humble. Why?

Because I'm not that humble. So when I see humility in you,

it exposes me. And I go, oh, brother, brother,

brother, you're good. You're good.

No, no, no, no. And I want to provide a false

comfort for you. God help me if I ever do that to

you. God help you if you ever do that

to somebody else. And He will if we repent.

If you sense the Lord wants to flip your tables, it's not

because He's rejecting you. It's what.

It's because He wants to fill you with more of himself.

He wants to throw things out so he can heal the blind, so he can

heal the lame, so he can deliver and so he can bless.

So here's the question. What would Jesus change if He

had full access to your heart and your life?

What has He been asking to take out of your temple?

Don't plan your defense anymore. Don't bolt your tables to the

floor so that he can't turn them over.

Don't get better at hiding. We're going to sing a song and

then I'm going to dismiss you. This is called re surrender, and

that's our prayer. Would you stand and you can

pray? You can go to the altar, you can

kneel, you can go wherever you want.

Just pray. Before we turn to our lives upon

the old, the things we did at first, You're cleaning out the

temple. You're cleaning out the dirt.

We are your territory, Lord. We are your church.

We are your people, you are God. We are.

The temple makes us holy like you are.

And you see a holy nation, the flock

to come to crave the chosen generation.

People go to pray. So I will strive to please you.

We're only here to get seen for everyone.

We buy the ship. It's early.

We are the people in the Bible. We.

Your people, with your presence, make us a place where you

delight to the world. May we Lord has correction.

Oh Lord, I shepherd, if you are seems well, your love has worn

as please stay new. Your life is perfect and your

job is true. As we run to you will restore

what we run into you. You are restoring as we.

We are your temple. Make us home like you are.

We are your children. Set us a heart.

The. We're coming and when I'm

walking we're running. God, we need resurrender.

So we resurrender. You're calling.

We're coming. And I walking, We're running

God, we need resurrender, so we resurrender.

You're calling by coming. I'm walking.

I'm running like we need. We surrender, so we resurrender.

We are hauling. We're coming.

We're not walking. We're running like we need.

We surrender. So we resurrender.

I'm calling, not walking, we're running.

God, we need, we surrender, so we resurrender.

You're calling. We're coming.

We're not walking, We're running.

God we need. We surrender, so we resurrender.

To begin with your God, we are your people.

You are a God. We are your temple.

Leave us all be like you are. We are your children.

We set our hearts and we're glory.

Make us holy light here and we're coming.

We're not walking, we're running.

God we need re surrender. So we resurrendered.

You're coming. I come in and I walk and I run

in. God we resurrendered.

We resurrendered. We love you.

God, we love you. God we trust you.

God, we need you. Lord, we know Your Word is

accomplished what you sent it to, and we know it's going to

continue to work in US. God, I prayed you would protect

the seeds of the Word and that the enemy wouldn't steal them

away. I pray that they wouldn't be

choked out by thorns. I pray that our soil wouldn't be

Stony. I pray you would make us good

soil now, that we would bear fruit and that we will multiply

that. I pray that the promise of

freedom and pleasures forevermore would so far

outweigh the fear of pain. I pray that our hunger and our

our eagerness for breakthrough and deliverance would be bigger

than our egos. Jesus, we thank you for your

perfect example of. Humility and for your love.

Heal the blind. Heal the.

Lame and strengthen us for your work.

Send us out with a real testimony, with something fresh.

Where you get all the glory. In Jesus name, Jesus name now

the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face Shinedown

upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance

upon you and give you great peace in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen.