Just Die Already, Matthew 16:13-23

in the presence and focused on the Lord

yeah so first question is when did you

notice it today and now you know a

little bit about your state coming into

your spiritual formation this morning

i'm just kidding but here here's um this

is a struggle I always have i just want

to be vulnerable with you i joked with

the guys that um get the title for the

message for the streaming and all that

good stuff that I I always wrestle with

the sermon titles um for several reasons

i have a I have sometimes a bit of a

creative uncction and I want to do a

good job with that but here's the

problem is that um everything everything

these days turns into clickbait right so

um and I'm not just judging those of you

uh that are young and sprite and and you

know you're you're living in LA maybe uh

single or you know not not bound by any

I don't know responsibilities in the

same way that others of us that have

made other significant life decisions

whether on purpose or by accident are

living in myself multiple children as I

mentioned too many times every

message I don't get the chance to wake

up and go oh you know what am I going to

listen to or go to church today or

whatever else that there's a dynamic

where I was remembering in San Diego

this is when Sue and I had just gotten

married um we were part of a church part

of a local church but we would often

kind of just um you know decide on a on

a Sunday if we were going doing

something else what we might listen to

right a podcast they had podcasts back

then but you had to download it in

advance right or you had an automatic

one on your iPod or whatever right

anyone remember

that no one cares okay so uh they we we

would um maybe go listen to a podcast

but what what what do you end up doing

you even back then many many years ago

you're still scrolling to be like what's

that what's the title that I feel like

is going to feed my soul today right and

and so we do the same thing what's

what's good about all of you is that

some of you might be here because you

saw a catchy title uh whenever we posted

that most of you are not it's because

this is your this is your home right and

and uh the reality is is that but I'm

I'm tempted my my title today does Jesus

have a better offer than the cult of

self i don't know if I love that title

or hate that title i don't know if it's

too long too catchy or perfect uh I

would say probably most of half of you

at least are like "What the heck is he

talking about it's so long what cult of

self that's so uh but here's the here's

the thing um if I would if I would have

titled this just like how the Bible

titles things like it was so boring and

it would be so nice and perfect and

whatever else you know books if you've

ever seen a book they title it and then

you read it and it's something

completely different because they had to

get you to buy the book first to give

you the information." That's just the

tension I feel like we're in even even

in this little setting but what I want

to do is not be too consumed with

clickbait and convincing you to listen

to the message those of you that are

obviously already here it's it's to get

at the root if I if I could pick a title

for this message it's would you die

already but I just felt like that's just

terrible

clickbait depressing not hopeful but I

really feel like that's actually what

Jesus is trying to do here would you die

already man you're quiet i'm going to

need some more affirmation i'm still an

insecure person in process i don't have

the confidence in Christ yet to go

through this whole message with no

interaction with you please so okay

we're all in process so would you die

would you die already uh it is good news

it is good news the problem is is if you

don't if you don't consider yourself

dead uh then you haven't quite uh

responded to Jesus's invitation let me

just start reading because I can tell

I'm about to go on to too many rabbit

trails verse uh 13 of chapter 16 of

Matthew says this now when Jesus came

into the district of Cesaria Philippi

we'll talk about that's a very specific

area that he is going to on purpose

because Jesus is given an ancient

PowerPoint presentation to his disciples

from afar to the region of Cesaria

Philippi he asked his disciples his own

disciples his intimate followers who do

people say that the son of man is

referring to himself and they said "Some

say John the Baptist others say Elijah

others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

These are all normal sayings to really

uh highly respected uh prophets or

ministers of the kingdom in that day he

said to them "But who do you say that I

am?" And so the tension is immediately

not just what are the vibes out there

what are people saying what's the

clickbait on who I am it's I want to

know who the followers closest to me

actually say that I am

have you have you started to understand

who I

am simon Peter responds "You are the

Christ the son of the living

God." And that's the first affirmation

of Christ's identity in the entire

gospel we're in chapter 16 by the

way you are the Christ the son of the

living God and Jesus answered

him "Blessed are you Simon Barjonah." He

uses a specific name "for flesh and

blood has not revealed this to you but

my father who is in heaven." So he's

even emphasizing in this moment you've

started to understand who I am but you

couldn't even do that in your own human

strength and I tell you you are Peter

and on this rock I will build my church

and the gates of hell shall not prevail

against it i will give you the keys of

the kingdom of heaven and whatever you

bind on earth shall shall be bound in

heaven the real Greek is shall have been

bound in heaven and whatever you loose

on earth shall have been loosed in

heaven meaning that these things are

done in heaven now live them out here on

earth then he strictly charged the

disciples to tell no one that he was the

Christ so he's basically

saying you're starting to get it but you

still don't really know what you're

doing and what you're saying so why

don't you hold back a little

bit

and Jesus's wisdom is affirmed by the

next couple sentences and lines from

that time Jesus began to show his

disciples that he must go to Jerusalem

suffer many things everyone say

"Suffer."

Jesus wants us to suffer

no one wants to say that jesus wants us

to suffer

many

things many things go to Jerusalem

suffer many things from the elders and

chief priests and scribes and be killed

and on the third day be raised and Peter

took a took him aside peter took him

aside now Peter is

leader this is this is the most

severe 180 that you will see in the

entire Bible

peter acknowledges that he's the son of

God the first

one now all of a sudden Jesus talks

about suffering and Peter's like "Whoa

whoa whoa let me take you aside Rabbi

let me show you some things now that I'm

Simon

Barjonah the rock let the rock tell you

what's up let me tell you what the rock

is

cooking." Four of you got that reference

okay

pulls him aside peter does not like what

Jesus just

said and Peter rebukes him rebuke is as

strong a language as the Bible knows how

we We just hear

rebuke rebuke it's a nice little word

rebuke uh it's like a fight with words

rebuke is I'm going to stand my ground

defy

you that's what Peter is doing to the

son of the living

God son of the living God let me take

you aside let me defy

you far be it from you Lord this shall

never happen to you you don't know what

you're talking about no you're not going

to do this this isn't going to happen

and then Jesus turned to

Peter and gives the same rebuke to Peter

that he gave to the devil in Matthew 4

the beginning of the

gospel get behind me Satan you're a

hindrance to me and and here's really

the only thing we're getting at because

we're going after disciplehip he tells

them that for you are not setting your

mind on the things of God but on the

things of

man there's always two options there's

always two trees in the garden there's

good and

evil and good people can live out evil

doctrine evil ways while still being

good people you can partner with

mindsets that are useless meaningless

and lead to darkness while being an

amazing human being and

Peter acknowledges that this is the son

of God the first one he's an early

adopter and yet he still when Jesus

tells him exactly why he's the son of

God what he's come for and outlines his

mission Peter rejects it completely and

doesn't get

it and Jesus defies him completely and

so how are we to look at this as

disciples we're in a series on

disciplehip we're calling it disruptive

disciplehip in a secular age all that

means is we are inviting Jesus to

disrupt us in our pursuit of him

disciplehip is just who are you

following we're all disciples of

something christians are disciples of

Jesus that's it that's all we're doing

we're learning to follow him die for him

and then be raised up and live for him

and when you consider yourself already

dead there's nothing this world can take

from you because the ultimate thing that

life has over you is life and death and

the gospel says that this is not the end

and therefore the way of Jesus uh cannot

cannot come under the way of the world

the way of the world always comes under

the way of the

kingdom and he demonstrates that in his

life death and resurrection and as he

tries to tell his disciples a piece of

what his mission is they don't

understand it and my

my the way this hit me is I realized

that I still don't get this i still in

my disciplehip don't fully

understand that the gospel of Jesus the

cross and the resurrection is something

so significant that I have to

continually daily understand and live in

and step in and take risk to see does

this actually work and will I actually

live this out or am I a hindrance to

Jesus because I'm ultimately trying to

resist his way

what Peter shows us is the most

committed the most committed one that

sees Jesus for who he is can still have

an entire way of life that's a hindrance

to his

mission that's sobering more of that in

a second but what are we doing with

disciplehip in this moment all we're

doing disciplehip is the intentional

process of becoming like Jesus by

countering the cultural forces that

shape us and then actively living in his

way that's it but here's the thing i I

heard um Simon Synynic gave this uh this

analogy of choice and I I found I found

it helpful he he he talked about um the

shoe salesman here in Los Angeles in the

50s that had a women's shoe store any of

you still shop at women's shoe stores

just curious is it all online or are

there still shoe stores in LA that you

go to what would they be who goes to a

shoe store what are they

called okay dsl Nordstrom's just curious

just curious for some for some of you

significant others first time hearing

about this or it's just a no whatever uh

so the shoe salesman he he had this

incredible intuition

uh to not just the mind of a woman but

to the mind of decision-making he goes

this is what this is what happens um a

lady would walk into the store could I

please try this on uh sure here you go

uh and could I try this one on sure here

you go uh and could I also try this one

on uh sure which one would you like to

take

back because he goes if you give them

three choices they will choose none if

you give them two choices they will

choose

one only give them two

choices now before any of you consider

me a sexist that just thinks that women

have a small brain or something like

that that application I'm not saying

that first of all I I think if we're

talking about a simple brain that's the

male brain i was bombasted with the idea

that women would benefit or think that

way too that's because I'm always

thinking that way just give me two

choices

right we are bombarded with choice with

our pursuit of freedom we want the

restrictions are we want to we want to

to get rid of anything that limits our

ability to have choice and yet we all

understand that too much choice is

overwhelming the gospel is always simple

god always makes it simple for his

people again from the

garden there's two trees there's good

and evil follow me or follow the way of

the world the way of the world isn't

evil humans the way of the world are

mindsets worldviews and perspectives

that lead to death ultimately

and the way of the kingdom leads to life

and what he's inviting us into is a

mindset perspective and worldview that

leads to life and yet we live in a world

that has perspectives that influence

ours and sometimes in the name of Jesus

you're the son of God i follow you i'll

die for you and then we find out well

until they're suffering and we find that

Peter is still dealing with

this up until the night that Jesus is

betrayed he still

cannot live into what he says he's going

to i'll die for

you he says that later in the gospels

right and then of course he denies him

three

times and he almost cannot take the

shame that comes with that and Jesus

restores him and he becomes the leader

of the church that transforms the

earth uh so we're going after a kind of

disciplehip that has four aspects to it

imitating

Jesus from just not just belief to

actually following him that's

intentional in our formation where we

actually practice intentional rhythms

and practices that shape the heart mind

soul and inner alignment with his ways

that's why we're going after things like

fasting scripture prayer and we're going

to be going through others throughout

the year countercultural living we have

to understand that following Jesus means

leave living against the cultural norms

of of individualism of our secular age

consumerism superficiality all these

things and saying "How in the midst of

this do I demonstrate and live into

another realm into another world?" And

then finally we have to live in an

accountable community if we don't then

we're still just trying to do this Jesus

stuff on our own and the hard part about

that is when you come in and under an

accountable community we screw this up

royally

royally uh you know I love it when

churches have just like whether it's a

vision board or they have a night where

everyone just like posts wonderful

things that have happened to them or

things the Lord's done in their life um

I think I have nightmares of like if we

if we had one where everyone posts like

the hurt from the church this like

church that still happened despite the

fact that you're here and you love it

and then I'd have to like read and

process each one i think that's my worst

nightmare because it's it's a reality we

are so imperfect as amazing as and as

much as I love this community and I'm so

proud to be a part of it and it just

boggles my mind that we get to do this

in this moment in history we have so

many flaws so many issues and and at the

end of the day when we ask you to be

accountable to a community we're

basically saying would you risk being

hurt and trust Jesus anyway

right but that's what any relational

depth is ever whether you're talking

about marriage or a significant other or

even a family relationship it doesn't

matter if you want deep relationship

with anyone you have to risk some

measure of risk and trust that that

person can let you down and hurt you and

they will that's the promise and Jesus

is saying you're going to be let down

you're going to suffer you're even going

to

die and the good news is it's not the

end so here's what we want to do let's

look at let's look at a couple of things

that come out of this passage i've

already touched on some of them and then

what do we respond and what do we do

about it so in verses 13 to 20 Jesus is

at this point at the beginning of the

passage he's still a positive figure

among the wider followers that are

interested in him and following him but

he's pressing the disciples for their

response and and he's always upping the

standard for his disciples he's not

letting them just have some sort of

surface level understanding of who he is

and yet he's patient and gets that

they're in process and that this is not

perfect so again this is the first

acknowledgement of Peter uh saying that

this is the Messiah massive deal you are

the Christ the son of the living God

this is even a shift from what that he

said about him just a few chapters

before in Matthew 14 and this isn't just

this is let me just read you what um RT

France says in his commentary on Matthew

he says "In contrast to the title son of

God this demonstrates that Peter has

finally come to a deep and personal

recognition of Jesus's unique

relationship to the father." So it's a

huge huge deal this is massively

significant because it indicates that

Peter apparently the first to do so

among the disciples sees in Jesus

something that goes beyond some merely

nationalistic fervor that's to even put

this in context to maybe modern day

it's not just a nationalistic fervor to

an awareness of Jesus's special

relationship with God so he's starting

to get that this is bigger than

just some Jewish thing and this is

something that God is

on and then we see his name the rock

peter is it's you are Peter when he says

you are Peter that's paralleling that

you are the Christ so it's like Jesus is

saying "Since you can tell me who I am

Peter I'm going to tell you who you

are." And he calls him out and again

there's this picture I think we have

back there of Cesaria Philippi or you

don't know what it is if you're doing

the slides but um there's a picture of

this uh geographic location there you go

um Sue and I had the privilege of going

there a couple times on tours to Israel

uh this area is uh one of our favorite

spots it doesn't take long to go there

um but you should you should know here's

a couple tidbits from my notes on this

place it's the capital uh of Herod

Phillip where there were a bunch of

Herods it was also colonized at one

point by Alexander the Great beautiful

place but it was a very pagan place

there were like no Jews in there it was

very fertile and and therefore they

thought that the fertility god actually

worked because of how fertile this place

was so um there was a spring you can see

the little kind of uh divot hole in the

rock that dark place there's a spring in

there so you can literally see exactly

the geography that what they saw in the

ancient

world and there was a belief in

resurrecting the fertility god back to

life every year and they had all kinds

of you know parades and ceremonies and

things of that nature uh pan was the

name of that god there it was a statue

that was a six- foot tall phallic object

for lack of a better term so don't spend

too much time thinking about that uh

we're at church after all uh would this

they would parade this object throughout

the the land and the men would sacrifice

to it by pleasuring themselves that's

the kind of town they were in so to a

Jew this they'd also have prostitutes

and priests having um sex with goats and

all kinds of other animalistic um

beautiful uh acts of worship and and

many believe this place uh would never

exist at the same time as Jesus Christ

the son of God like right next door but

this is right on their path towards

Jerusalem so he stops says they came to

this area and Jesus chose to give this

speech and have this exchange with Peter

here who do you say the son of man is on

this rock this was known as the rock and

this was also known as the gates of

Hades because they thought it had access

point to this underworld and Jesus is

saying on this rock I will build my

church and the gates of

Hades will not

prevail in this exchange with Peter it's

also the first use of the term eklesia

which is the Greek term for assembly

church or gathering in the gospels so in

this moment Peter is promised that he

will become the foundation on which

Christ is going to build the

church the point is this jesus is

encouraging his disciples that no matter

how his eklesia his church may be

attacked in a given place or a given

time his church can never be

extinguished and will never permanently

be

defeated he's promising endurance

forever and he's making as bold a

statement as he can possibly

make and then verse 19 it shows how

Jesus is building this church on Peter

the keys of the kingdom talking about

authority to bind and

loose really all this is referring to is

an opening to the entrance of God's

kingdom through their witness and the

preaching and the apostolic ministry

that they have but here's here's what I

I'm I'm fascinated with he tells them

not to tell anybody this happens

throughout the gospels on several

occasions in this one why does he tell

them not to tell anybody

i think the best rationale is is Peter

and the others views of Jesus is still

inadequate they still don't fully get it

number one so number one they don't

fully get it it's inadequate their view

so if they went around telling everyone

they would be kind of partially telling

the gospel they didn't they they would

not say you know something because you

can regurgitate the accurate information

like we do today oh I took the class i

passed the test i got an A i therefore

know physics no you don't

yeah I

Yeah just going to give some personal

examples such as I don't remember one

thing I ever took a test on some of you

might i don't just because you took a

test on something and guessed it doesn't

mean you know anything the Jewish

understanding of knowing meant that as a

disciple that you lived it out and in

this context a rabbi would affirm you

that this disciple knows the gospel and

he's basically saying they don't know

the

gospel and yet he's affirming Peter that

this is a big

breakthrough second Peter's not yet

prepared for the road to the cross

anymore than he was the night it

occurred meaning he doesn't know it and

he's not ready for it so why does Jesus

tell them not to tell anyone uh because

they still don't know what they're

talking about and they're still not what

ready to live in what he's putting on

offer and

third this is this is shown in the the

verses that I haven't read but go right

after neither Peter nor any of the

disciples recognize and understand that

Jesus's death will precede the

establishment of the church and that

Jesus's followers were are going to

suffer before God's kingdom

triumphs so it's a big deal

now looking at the final couple verses

you see that the issue then that they're

bringing up is exposed peter cannot see

past the need of Jesus's suffering or

his own suffering jesus is promising

that this is going to be difficult it's

going to be

challenging and I think often even today

we look at the modern world and what

we're trying to do is to eliminate and

minimize suffering as much as possible

the heart of that can be as good as it

gets when Christians are trying to

minimize other people's hurting and

suffering and injustice that's exactly

what the gospel should lead us to do

however when with this obsession of

minimize suffering leads us to a life

where we're trying to avoid challenges

avoid pain avoid sitting in the the

darkness of life and feeling like we

don't if if I enter into this I don't

know if I can survive it or that

thinking that that means that we're off

or we're wrong you've missed the gospel

the gospel takes

people into the dying into the suffering

into the unknown into the like my life

is not my own

stuff and that's where the dreams that

we have kept going back to over the last

season how do we dream how do we bring

big dreams God-sized dreams kingdom

dreams and at the same time

say "I'm gonna die today

again but I'm a dreamer i've got big

dreams god's given me so many

dreams about

dying

death pain

i I

just I just feel like we still I I still

don't

fully get the

tension and the ugly side of the church

is when you stop

dreaming and you just live in death and

depression that's not the gospel it's

just that your dreams have to be bigger

than your own life

the key to know whether you're dreaming

accurately is that your dreams could not

possibly be contained in your own life

and your death might be the catalyst for

your

dreams to

explode every great leader if they had a

dream worth dying for and they died the

dream went

on and that works outside the kingdom of

Jesus if that's just a tidbit of the way

that the world works imagine this gospel

and if every single one of our dreams

was connected to this reality if if I

couldn't tell you the dreams of my life

apart from the gospel and that I'd be

willing to lay my life down for these

dreams then you know you're getting

somewhere because this world and this

life and this body cannot enslave you to

your dreams and keep you from them and

your life then becomes the place that

you sew the seeds towards those dreams

and your dream is big enough and it's

extending into a place of eternity where

it will take generations to live it

out and that's really hard because

that's so that's that's so overwhelming

and that's so impossible and that's kind

of the point our dreams are meant to be

impossible

the kingdom if you think that you can

control and dictate your life in the

kingdom of Jesus you simply have not

understood how good how massive how

significant his plans are and his dreams

are for

you peter can't see past the needs of

his own suffering he makes an about face

he rebukes Jesus and then Jesus rebukes

him

you know my my um my little one my my

four-year-old it's amazing to me how she

can um in one moment we just had a

moment this week um you know we got a we

got a truck for the church to to haul

this uh big trailer in every week and

it's a hideous truck it's all bent up i

bought from a construction site and uh

she loves the truck like she every time

I take her out there um just to like

move it around or something she wants to

sit in the front seat right and and and

she just tells me literally 75 times a

minute "Daddy I love the truck i love

Daddy I love this truck i love this

truck." And she she calls it my truck i

love my truck Daddy or our truck

something like that she said over and

over again "I love our truck Daddy i

love this

truck." And uh she she like found in the

midst of that I don't know she found

like a few like some loose change and

and she's just so excited it's like she

she's in the truck and she finds some

change and goes "Hey can I use these

pennies?" And they were all quarters uh

can I use these pennies uh to go to Dank

Donuts and ride the rides cuz there's

this doughnut place in Big Bear called

Dank Donuts haven't been there it is

phenomenal i break all of my fasting and

dietary convictions for Dank Donuts in

Big

Bear and um so there's these like old

school rides that just like a pony that

just does this for like it doesn't even

go straight it just kind of does this

for like 45 seconds and the

four-year-old thinks that's phenomenal

she's been to Disney she's been to every

theme park Los Angeles

has but the broken down pony ride at the

Dank Donuts in Big Bear Lake California

that's her

dream and so she's just getting excited

about everything i love this truck i

love this pennies that can we can go

well you said we can go riding dad I

love you Daddy i love you over and over

and over again like all the love all the

love and I'm just like we've just done

such a good job with this one i just

like life is complete i love her so

much 5 seconds

later i don't know what happened i mean

a sibling like took a penny and um I

hate you

the purity of her love the passion of

her

hate one moment in one moment and I

think I'm above

that i'm exactly the same i just

spiritualize it because my theology is

so

good bless their

heart that's how we were learned in I

grew up in the south when you hate

someone you're really not you just say

bless their heart that

means I'm not allowed to curse them so I

will bless them with a

curse curse of spirit bless of mouth you

don't know what I really mean but

everyone does and that's just me trying

to process my old

self with my new self's verbs

language not everything i mean James

talks about the power of the tongue yeah

uh the tongue could be deceitful it can

say the right thing with the wrong

[Music]

spirit peter said the wrong the right

thing and then the wrong thing with the

right spirit and then the wrong

spirit i want to read to you what what

Jesus's encounter with the enemy was in

Matthew 4 early in the gospels this is

when Jesus is being tempted in the

wilderness and fasting so it connects

perfectly to our

practice jesus said to the devil "Again

it is written you shall not put the Lord

your God to the test." Again the devil

took Jesus to a very high mountain

showed him all the kingdoms of the world

and their glory and he said to him "All

these I will give you if you will fall

down and worship me." Then Jesus said to

him "Be gone Satan for it is written you

shall worship the Lord your God and him

alone shall you serve." Then the devil

left him and behold angels came and

ministered to him

so Peter's words here in the chapter

that we're in aggressively protest

against what Jesus has said about his

death and

resurrection but the point is this jesus

is calling out the same thing in Peter

as he just called out in the devil the

devil is trying to get

Jesus the easy path to what he came for

just bow down and worship and you don't

have to go through all the suffering

i'll just make it real easy for

you he just the devil just wants the

human desire i just want to be

worshiped and what the what Matthew is

so brilliantly doing here is basically

showing us that Peter is

us we say with our lips that this is

king and yet the reality is when we're

confronted with the realities of

following the king we really don't want

it we don't want the pain we don't want

the hardship we don't want the

suffering but the beauty is that this

isn't the end of the

gospels this isn't the end of Peter's

story and it's not the end of yours and

it's not the end of

mine look face to face with our capacity

to buckle when we're confronted with

suffering that's the point what will you

do when you're confronted with

suffering

now the only thing that we

need is a friend my my friend Jim

Caveell who we just had dinner with this

week was wearing a hat to dinner

Wednesday and the hat just said "I'm

already

dead." He he had the audacity to give me

credit for that like I had that in a

sermon that he heard a while back i

don't even remember so it probably

wasn't me he's getting old so maybe he's

just selective memory but I like the

phrase and I like the hat and if you can

find that merch we'll sell it out here

for like discount no profit i just want

people to understand I'm already dead is

the

gospel i'm already dead is what I get up

every day and confront every challenge

in life i can face this because I'm

already dead what What is consumed in

that phrase i can't raise myself

i can't breathe life on dead

things i can't consider myself dead to

sin and alive to Christ as Paul says

that's not possible so the gospel is not

possible therefore I've surrendered to

another story in another

way and therefore there's hope because

I'm not living under the weight of

performance and achievement and

everything else the secular lie wants to

give me there's a fresh worldview and

I'm already dead and the good news is

all I have to do is follow him

i'm following him or I'm not there's

only two trees there's only two choices

i'm following him or I'm not are you

following him or are you

not and do your steps match your

tongue that's really the only thing

happening

here confront your

heart look what you're stepping into

check your

mouth hunger for

more would you stand i want to pray and

the team can come up we're going to

worship into

this a few things for us to apply you

can get close your eyes you can just get

in a comfortable state of just response

i want us to walk away today we have two

choices but I want you to step into just

one worldviews

matter theology matters but theology

doesn't matter because we have to have

the right words theology matters because

what you believe will dictate your

actions and the problem that we have is

that we have believers that declare one

thing and have the best theology and yet

their feet don't follow

myself included this is a daily

task of getting up and surrendering to

the way of Jesus that his story is

better than mine and that I want to live

a life of dreams that can't be fulfilled

in my

lifetime that doesn't mean you don't set

goals and fiveyear plans and all of

those things it's just that's not the

preeminent that's not the ultimate

that's just a piece of how I set up both

my daily life my fiveyear plan my

10-year plan

i I believe in all of it a fresh mission

statement for your family we were

processing that this week it's all of

that stuff that bigness these dreams are

so good you should do that for your

career you should do that for your

relationships all that's

great but your ultimate dream has to

connect with this gospel and this cross

and it has to start with I'm already

dead and I'm constantly learning to put

the world view of the kingdom and the

worldview currently of this world which

is an individual self-centered cult of

self focused on eliminating suffering

and the gospel says follow me into it

and trust me in the process and maybe

God isn't punishing you he may he often

doesn't bring the suffering to you he

uses it and if you reject him in the

wilderness the wilderness of your

suffering you miss out at knowing where

God is you keep looking for him in the

promised land and he's still waiting for

you in the wilderness to show up for you

and to be with you in your pain the

spirit led Jesus into the wilderness he

didn't wait for him in the promised

land some of us that's just a mindset

shift right now you think he's waiting

for you somewhere that you aren't and

he's with you right now and he wants to

know you and he wants to lift up your

eyes and he wants to be with you in the

[Music]

process holy Spirit we invite you shift

our worldview right now in Jesus name

renew our minds renew our hearts

so invite this team to lead us and then

I want to close with another

moment but as we worship I want you to

see how Jesus's tone here is so intense

but remember so much of our problem as

Christians and the clickbait that's out

there in the hemispheres that that makes

me cringe is when Christians lose the

tone of Jesus and it's not because Jesus

was kind and nice all the time jesus was

so compassionate and patient to the

marginalized he's he's fragile with them

he calls them friend daughter child but

then to the religious leaders he's

calling them hypocrites and vipers he

uses his most intense language here in

all the gospels his most intense

language is to his

disciples it's the worst thing he said

to anyone is right here

sometimes the harsh

voice of Jesus is what we need because

he's calling you higher to another way