Missing What Matters | Ryan Kramer

Hey, if you don't know this, one of our locations, one of our campuses is at Liberty Correctional. We have a service there every single Wednesday night. And can we give it up for them, tuning in, joining us today. I heard this past week we had 102 that were there and altars were full and just ministry happening. And so, man, thank you so much for your generosity because it certainly is impacting and changing lives. Well, here's a question for you, an experience I'm kind of interested to see if you're anything like me. How many of you guys have backed into something accidentally in your car? Like raise your hand if you've ever backed into something, man, hands all over the place. I do find it interesting there's a whole lot more women's hands raised than men's hands. I'm just kidding. Actually, it was more guys raising hands than it was women. But seriously, like when you think about the moment or you're like me, like 30 times you've almost hit something. And when you're backing up, like you're checking the mirrors, you're looking over your shoulder, you're being careful, yet somehow you still hit it. Like somehow you still hit it. And the reason why is because sometimes there's things that we can't see. It's called blind spots, right? Blind spots. And blind spots are dangerous because you can be certain that everything is okay, nothing to be concerned about until it isn't. And I think that blind spots have a way of showing up in a lot of different areas of our life, not just in our driving. But we have blind spots in the way that we engage with people and not recognizing maybe the way that we come across or a response that we have. We have blind spots in our marriage. We have blind spots in our job.

We have blind spots in lots of areas of our life. And I want to suggest to you today that we also have blind spots in our spiritual life. Like I want you to think about this question, what if there's something that is in your spiritual life that you've never questioned before because you assumed that it was okay? Never questioned because you assumed that it was okay, yet it's quietly shaping the way that you think, the way that you live your life, the decisions that you make. Today what we're going to do is we're going to lean into a story out of Matthew chapter eight. It's a story about a miracle that Jesus does. And what's interesting about this miracle is it exposes a spiritual blind spot in many people's lives that they never realized that they had. So we're in week two of a series that we've entitled, That's Crazy. And we've given it this title because, I mean, honestly, some of the miracles that Jesus has done in the Bible are just crazy. But what we've said from the beginning is that Jesus isn't just performing miracles for miracle's sake, that there are principles, there are lessons that He's trying to communicate behind the miracle. And so in this series, we've been looking at some of the deeper truths behind the miracles that Jesus performs and how those miracles help us better see who Jesus is and what it looks like for us to live as followers of Christ. And so today, if you've got your Bible, open that to Matthew 8. If you've got your phone, you can tap the dot on the seat back in front of you, and you can follow along with the notes today. I've entitled today's message, Missing What Matters, Missing What Matters. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for today. We thank You for the opportunity to worship You, not just in song, but in Your Word. And so today, I pray that we would come before You with open hearts, open minds. Lord, help us to be able to identify some blind spots in our life. Lord, not so that we...

would feel guilty about it, but that it can unlock our spiritual lives and draw us closer and closer to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Matthew chapter 8, we're going to be starting in verse 5. And what we see in Matthew 8 is it is on the heels of really the most famous sermon that's ever been preached. The Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is preaching in the earlier chapters of Matthew. And Jesus' desire of preaching this sermon on the side of the mountain is to help people understand what the kingdom of God looks like. And the connection that I want you to see in this series is that as He transitions away, as He comes down off the mountainside, He then begins to engage in numerous different miracles. And these miracles are not isolated events. These miracles are Jesus actually practicing what He's preaching. It's Jesus showing the people around Him, hey, I just preached a message and this is what it looks like in real life. And so, He comes off the mountain from teaching about life in the kingdom and He's talked about the importance of loving your enemies. He's talked about showing mercy and trusting God and just living a different kind of life. And as He comes down, right, He engages the leper, which we talked about last week. And today, He engages the Roman soldier and what we see from these two is that the leper was a social outcast and the Roman soldier represents this oppressive nature and experience that people are really like, Sean, don't want anything to do with the Roman soldier either. And so, it's this idea where Jesus is taking this principle of loving your enemies and He's walking that out with these two miracles. And so, in verse 5, it says that when Jesus returned to Capernaum, that a Roman officer came and pleaded with Him, Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain. And Jesus says, I will come and heal him.

Now what's interesting about this text that we've got to understand is that for Jewish custom, which that's the audience in which Matthew is writing to in this moment, that Jews, like they avoided the homes of Gentiles at all costs because if they were to go into a Gentile home, they would be considered religiously unclean. So what Jesus is doing here is He's going totally against what's custom of their day. And watch what the officer says in verse 8, he says, Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come into my home. He's saying that because of the custom of the day. And the officer says this, he says, just say the word. Say it from where you are and my servant will be healed. Verse 9 says, I know this because I am under authority. I'm under a third authority of my superior officers and when I have authority over my soldiers, I only need to say go and they go, or come and they come. And if I say to my slaves do this, they do it. In verse 10, he says, when Jesus heard this, He was amazed. If you got your Bible, circle that phrase that He was amazed. And so then He turns to those that were following Him and He says to them, I tell you the truth that I haven't seen faith like this in all of Israel. I mean, think about that statement by Jesus for just a second. Out of all the people that Jesus has encountered, we're talking about community leaders, we're talking about religious leaders, we're talking about churchgoers to the synagogue, we're talking about His disciples that are with Him. Out of all of these people, it was the outsider that got His attention. I think it's fascinating that if you were to look in the Bible, there's only two places that state that Jesus was amazed, only two instances or examples. The first one is this, it's Matthew chapter 8, which you can also read about this story in Luke chapter 7. It's two different perspectives of the same story, and it's about this soldier's faith. But then there's another time that Jesus is amazed in Scripture, and I don't know if you remember this, but it's in Mark chapter 6.

But here's the thing about Mark chapter 6, Jesus isn't amazed by their faith, he's amazed by their unbelief. Mark chapter 6 is the part where Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth, and I don't know if you remember this, but Jesus is wanting to do these miracles, he's wanting to move in people's lives, and he is limited in what he can do. The Bible says he only did a few miracles and then he left because of their unbelief. And I just, I want you to just kind of process that and the contrast for just a second. You've got, you've got the soldier here where Jesus is amazed by his faith, and this soldier barely even knew Jesus. And then you've got the town that Jesus is amazed by their unbelief, and they were always around Jesus. I think it kind of, it kind of helps us see that just because we're around the things of God doesn't necessarily mean we're in the things of God in our life. And so this is a big deal for Jesus, and that's why he then shifts to the next verse, and he has this like teaching moment with his disciples, and essentially he prophesies here, and he says in verse 11, he's like, listen, I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world, from the east and the west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven. I don't know if you're connecting the dots here, but if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that verse is about you. You're a Gentile, I'm a Gentile. And in verse 12 he says, but many of the Israelites, those from whom the kingdom was prepared for, will be thrown into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So what's Jesus trying to communicate here? I think he's trying to help us see the kind of faith that we need to have in our lives in order for us to spend eternity in the kingdom of heaven. But he's also giving a warning, and this warning is certainly directed to the Jews because that's the context of what we're reading today, but it is also a warning around a reality or a truth that applies to all of our lives. And it's this, the warning is don't mistake familiarity with Jesus with faith in Jesus.

And that's a heavy statement for the American church. That's a heavy statement. Don't confuse an awareness of Jesus. Don't confuse the fact that we grew up and we went to church or whatever and so we know about Jesus. Don't confuse any of that with faith in Jesus. So essentially through the lens of our culture today, Jesus is warning that it is possible to know the Bible stories, that it is possible to sing the songs, to memorize the verses. It's possible to attend church from time to time. It's possible to wear a cross around your neck. It's possible to tattoo it on your arm. It's possible to have the bumper sticker on the back of your car. It's possible to tune into Christian radio from time to time. It's possible to do all of those things and assume that we're good. When we're not, it's a blind spot. Verse 13 says, then Jesus said to the Roman officer, go back home because you believed it has happened. The young servant was healed that same hour. It's a crazy story. It's a crazy story, and you can't help but to really kind of ponder and wonder, like, what was it about this man's faith that amazed Jesus? What was it about his faith that then moved Jesus to meet his need? And I want to kind of, I want to give you three things that I feel like the Lord has revealed to me out of this passage this week, three things that I believe act as kind of like parking sensors. Anybody thankful for parking sensors on your car and it keeping you from running into the whatever is in your blind spot? And these three I would consider as parking sensors for our Christian life. The first one is this, is faith sees Jesus differently. The kind of faith that amazes Jesus, it just sees him differently.

The soldier didn't see Jesus as somebody that would be helpful for his life. He saw Jesus as the Lord of all. He recognized the authority that Jesus had. And it was in that authority that he then settles who Jesus really is. This man didn't need an explanation. He didn't need Jesus to do a demonstration. He didn't even need Jesus to come to his house, because once he settled who Jesus was, everything else became secondary. And I wonder if that's something that we should wrestle with today. Like it's one thing to say that we believe in Jesus. It's one thing to even say that Jesus is above it all, that he has authority over all things. But I think the real question then becomes, is everything else in our life then secondary? Or are there things in our life that are primary and Jesus becomes secondary? See, I think many of us struggle, and I've struggled with it from time to time too, that we're really good at saying that Jesus is above all, but the struggle that we have is the way in which we live our life. It's almost like we just kind of add a little bit of Jesus on our life here and there, right? If you like steak, it's like putting a little bit of seasoning on a steak, right? Because a steak needs a little bit of seasoning. Listen, if you don't season your steak, like I'm not sure TC is the right church home for you today. Like, it's important to season a steak. But here's what we do. We treat Jesus like seasoning, a little Jesus on Sunday, one or two times a month, a little Jesus when life begins to get difficult or we find ourselves in trouble, a little bit of Jesus on our hopes and our dreams and our plans. And I've been there, like, I can't tell you how many times I have moved in a direction or made a decision because it was what I thought was best or what I wanted. And as I began to move, I would pray, God, bless this decision or work this thing out, right?

And then when it didn't happen, then I began to look at God as not being faithful because He didn't bless my plan. And that's not the kind of faith that gets Jesus' attention in our life. It's not the kind of faith that frees Him up, right? Like Matthew 6, He performed a couple miracles and left because of their unbelief. And some of us may wonder, like, why is God not moving in my life? Why does everything just keep like it's, it's like I'm stuck in this cycle and it's the same patterns over and over again. And my question to you would be is, maybe there's a degree of unbelief in your life that is causing Jesus to maybe do a few things and then leave. It was this man's faith that ultimately moves Jesus to do what Jesus was wanting to do. I think when we begin to see Jesus differently, we begin to see Him for who He really is, that He reigns above it all, that it, it positions us to be able to do the second thing, right? The second sensor that goes off to warn us about our spiritual lives, and that is a faith that trusts Jesus completely. Like we begin to see Him differently, but now because we see Him differently, we're going to begin to trust Him completely. If you pay close attention to the story, like the, the soldier doesn't tell Jesus how to heal, he doesn't tell Him when to heal or where to heal, all the soldier says is just say the word. Just say the word. In other words, Jesus, I trust you to handle this however you see fit. You see, these are the moments in our life where, where, where faith and control start to collide. Have you, have you ever had a situation in your life where faith and control are, are colliding? You're wanting to believe, but, but you can't help yourself from trying to control and manage the situation, right? Because most of us, like most of us, we, we want the plan, we, God, what, what are you going to do?

We want to know all the details and we want to know the timelines and we want to, we want some guarantees before, before we actually obey what He's wanting us to do. But the problem is, is faith, the kind of faith that moves Jesus doesn't demand all the answers in order to obey. I mean, think about your life right now. Think about some of the things that, that, that you're navigating. How much stress comes from trying to control what only God can control? How much energy have you wasted worrying about scenarios that haven't happened? They may never happen. The chances are they're not going to happen the exact way. And yet you're spending all of this emotional energy and losing sleep at night. Like how, how many prayers, this is, this is out of the three, this is the one that hits me right between the eyes. How many prayers do you pray trying to persuade God instead of just surrendering to Him? Like, God, come on, like fix this and bless this and, and do this and, and all the while there's not really a surrendering to, to where He's leading you. It's like, this is the path that you're wanting to go and the things that you think will make your life easier and you're trying to persuade God to, to give you those things. And like we talked about last week, God's not in the business of making our life easier. He's in the business of making us more like His Son. And what does that mean? That means lots of breaking things off. That means it's kind of like the, the Jeremiah, the potter's wheel, right? And it talks about what the Father does and He's, it's molding on the potter's wheel. And it talks about this period where it essentially is, it's taking on a form that, that God doesn't want and so He breaks it down and He begins to reshape it. And that really ultimately is what a picture of what our life looks like. It is the Father's hands that are shaping and as the form begins to veer off course of us becoming more like Jesus, then there is grace, but at some point there is a breaking and that breaking down is painful.

We don't like that. Like we don't want the uncomfortableness. We don't, right, we don't want those things in our life, but when we see Jesus differently then we begin to recognize that if He is above all things, if He reigns above it all, then that means everything that I walk through in my life, whether I like it or I don't like it, if I'm walking through it and He reigns above it all, then that means He has a purpose for it. And when we settle that in our mind, then it positions us to be able to trust Him. I mean, I think about like in my own life, like yes, I'm a pastor, but I wrestle with all of the same things. And just to be transparent, like there are moments when I find myself carrying things that God never intended for me to carry, wondering like how are we gonna reach people and how are we gonna care for the flock of 2,000 people that would call TC, their church home, which means if they go through trauma in their life, we're the ones that they call. Like how are we going to care for them? There are moments that I'm wondering how are we going to possibly fund what's next? How are we going to move forward in this immeasurably more campaign in order to reach more people and to care for more people and disciple more people? There are even moments, like honestly, where I wonder if I'm even enough for what God has called us to do. And I go down that road, and I wrestle, and at some point down the road, God has to begin to break that down and begin to show me that, Ryan, your job, right, is to trust, not control. It's something we all wrestle with in our life, and the reason why we have to see Him differently so that we can trust Him completely is because we've got to understand that faith, that faith isn't measured by what we say we believe, it's measured by what we do with what we believe. And that's the tension that you and I live in every day of our life. So when we see Him differently and we begin to trust Him completely, what faith then does is it responds immediately. This soldier didn't just believe, he acted on what he believed.

He came to Jesus, and he asked, and he trusted. And friend, I just, I wonder if one of the greatest dangers of Christianity in the American culture today is that we've reduced faith to something we believe but rarely do. Like we want enough of Jesus to help us, we want enough of Jesus to comfort us and to bless us, but not so much of Him that He disrupts our lives, all right? Not so much of Him that it requires a response, that we have to do something that we don't want to do, that we're uncomfortable with, like we want enough to be blessed and to have an easy life, but we don't want enough to be disrupted or inconvenienced. And it is a type of faith that the American culture, and it's, I mean, it's human, it's human nature, right? But it's predominant in American culture today because we have adjusted this idea of faith and it's become more abstract and theoretical. And that's why you hear people on TV and they're like, I'm a man of faith or a woman of faith, but they don't live their life that way. And what I would say is that it could be easy to judge them, but when we hold up. of the mirror, what does that look like in our own life? Because friend, when faith, real faith, authentic faith becomes passive, it loses its power. Can't help but to think about the faith of people like Noah. Like when you look in the Bible, none of them were perfect. They were all as dysfunctional as we are. And you look at somebody like Noah, who ends up building, has the faith to build a boat when they had never seen rain before, and God takes his faith and his willingness to obey, to preserve humanity. Or Abraham, who left everything that was familiar to him, and because of that, a nation was born.

Joseph, who remained faithful in prison, and a generation ended up surviving a famine. Ruth, who stayed when it would have been way easier for her to leave, and her legacy ends up changing history. Esther, who risked her life before the king, and a nation was rescued. Or Peter, who preaches, even after denying Jesus, think about the guilt that he carried with that, and yet he stepped forward to preach, and thousands came to Christ, and a movement was born. So it could be easy to see their faith in their stories, and oftentimes harder to see our faith in our own. And it raises a question that, personally, I've been wrestling with all week. A question that I hope that, today, you would wrestle with yourself, and the question is very simple, but it confronts a little bit. Here's the question. What does the last month of my life reveal about what I really believe about Jesus? What is the last month? Because, at the end of the day, how we live our life reveals, really, what we believe. Let me drill down a little bit more with another question. Where are you struggling the most right now? Marriage, finances, relationships, future, calling? Priorities, forgiveness?

Whatever that thing is that you're struggling with the most right now in this season, this last month of your life, we have to ask this question. Are we responding to that thing with trust or with control? Do you believe God reigns above it all, even that situation? Or do you feel like you've got to help Him out? Do you feel like you've got to manage it? Friend, when trust begins to decrease in our life, control increases. And that's the thing that you can walk away with to help you identify, like, the more that we control or try to control the situation in our life, what it's helping us see is that we're trusting Him less. And so what would it look like today? What would it look like for you to to begin to let go of whatever that thing is? To take it to the Lord in prayer, to surrender it to Him and say, God, whether you work this thing out, the way that I hope it works out, or whether you don't. I trust you with it. I decide today to take my hands off and to trust you with it, because I trust you. I trust that you reign above it all. I trust that if it's your desire that I walk through it and I experience it and it's a negative situation, then I trust that you're going to use it ultimately for my good. Friends, faith. Faith says that, God, I trust you

even when I don't understand. Control says, God, I'll trust you once I understand. Faith gets God's attention. Faith empowers him to move. Control causes him to pack up camp and to move on. Friend, if you want to see more of God's activity in your life, it comes through surrender. It comes through seeing Him differently, trusting Him completely, and obeying, responding immediately to what He leads in our life. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, make sure you subscribe. Also, if something spoke to you in a special way, share it with a friend, because you never know how it could transform someone's life. If you're interested in checking out our service times, make sure you go to our website at transformtlh.com. And we hope to see you at TC on a Sunday. Thanks so much, and have a great day.