Trusting God's Better Plan - Impossible to Possible - Matthew S5E6

All right, all right, what's up, 1122, glad you're here, happy 4th of July, you made it. If you're in church the morning after 4th of July, solid chance you're going to heaven, congratulations. Glad you're here. Open up your Bibles today, book of Matthew. We're continuing through the text this morning. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 17, Matthew 17. We're going to see Jesus rebuke the disciples today. In one of the most profound, difficult ways that he rebukes the disciples in his entire three-year ministry with them, and we're going to look at why and then evaluate in our own hearts if we see in our hearts what was going on in their hearts. But I'd love to pray. Let's pray. Y'all cool with me praying real quick? Thank you, thank you. I'm glad somebody's with me. Let's go. Let's get our hearts ready to hear the word of God so that we leave here differently today. Father, I want to pray something more than any other thing. Lord, I pray that your name today would be exalted, that your name would be exalted over my name, that your name would be exalted over this church. Lord, I pray that every single person in this room would hear clearly from your word today that your spirit would speak to us in areas that we need to change and repent and turn. Lord, I pray that my preaching would not be in persuasive words of wisdom, but a demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power so that our faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but the power of God, and I ask that in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Well, listen. Jesus used an analogy. He was talking about our faith in him, and it was an interesting analogy. He talked about your faith and my faith being like a house.

He said the house of our faith is built on one of two foundations, talking about faith in him. He said your house of faith is either built on a foundation of sand that will not hold, or the house of your faith is built on a foundation of the rock, the rock of Jesus. No matter what happens, it will hold. And he said that there was something that was going to come into all of our lives that would reveal which foundation your house of faith is built on. Do you guys remember what he said would come in and be the revealing factor of your faith? He said storms, storms. He said the winds blew and the rains came, and those that had built their house on the sand fell, and the fall was great. But he said those whose faith and whose house was built on the rock, the storms could come, the rain could come, the wind could come, and their house will stand because it's built on the rock of Jesus Christ. There's nothing that does a better job of revealing what your house of faith is built on other than storms. And so here's a question you and I are about to get to the bottom of hopefully, and it's this, is how are you going to respond when the storms of life come? And specifically, specifically, because this is the storm we're going to see come in the disciples' lives, specifically the storm of when God doesn't do something that you want him to do, that kind of storm. When God doesn't do things the way you think he ought to do them, how do you respond when God allows something in your life that you would have never chosen for yourself or for your family? It's honestly a very, very, very important question to get to the bottom of because here's the harsh reality, is that if you live long enough, if you live long enough, eventually something is going to come into your life and you would have never chosen it for yourself. Old people say amen. Amen. It's coming.

Young people, you know, Jacksonville's full of young, beautiful, perfect people. It's coming, y'all. Something's going to happen. The wheels are going to fall off. And how you respond in that moment, listen carefully, when that thing comes in your life, whatever it is, you know, the diagnosis comes, the marriage falls apart, the child rebels, the child gets sick, the friend betrays, the loved one passes away, the dream dies. Whatever it is, the spouse doesn't ever come. Whatever it is, when that storm hits you, in that moment it's going to reveal something about your character and your faith and here's what it's going to reveal. It's going to reveal whether Jesus is the center of your story or are you the center of your story. That storm when God allows something or he does something in a way you never would have chosen for yourself, it's going to reveal truly whether Jesus is the most important thing in your life or if you're the most important thing in your life. We're about to see the disciples have that moment right there. They're cruising along, they're doing their thing. Jesus is kind of at the height of his popularity. They're kind of popular, too. They never dreamed that for themselves. And they're about to come face-to-face with the reality, check this out, that Jesus' plans for their life are radically different than what they thought Jesus' plans for their life was. And it's going to, y'all, it's going to shake them to their core. Right? It's going to mess them up. Now I think it's important to take just a second to talk about the context of what the disciples just experienced before we see them realizing that Jesus' plan for them is radically different than their plan. And I think it's important to understand what just happened.

They just experienced the transfiguration. Now if Pastor Jobi talked about last week, y'all, if y'all want to hear that message, I want to encourage you, I want to challenge you to make sure you listen to it this week. It's phenomenal. Amen? Anybody hear that last week? It's incredible. Go listen to it. It blew me away. But anyway, what happens is Jesus brings the disciples, Peter, James, and John, up on this mountain and the scripture says He was transfigured before them. Bottom line is that Jesus is fully God and fully man, but the disciples had only seen the fully man part, but up on the mountain of transfiguration, Jesus let them see His divinity. I mean, He was like shining and stuff. They saw that He was everything He said He was. He kind of took the veil off and they got to see that He is fully God. On top of that, He was, they go up there, the disciples, He's having a conversation with Moses and Elijah, for crying out loud. That's got to be pretty cool if you're Peter, James, and John and you're seeing that. And if that were not enough, God the Father starts talking. That would be amazing. I don't know about y'all, but I'm thinking that if I'm the disciples, right, and I'm seeing Jesus in His fully divine state, He's having a conversation with Moses and Elijah, and God the Father begins to speak, I would like to think that in that moment, if I saw that and heard that, that my faith would become unshakable. I would hope. But that's not what happens. Now remember, they just experienced the Mount of Transfiguration, they saw Jesus' divinity, they heard God.

I want you to watch what happens next, Matthew 17, 22, check this out. Jesus goes off the Mount of Transfiguration, they've seen Him in His divinity and His power, then He heals a kid, see His power again, and then He's going to drop a bomb on them. Watch this. He's going to basically tell them about the cross and the resurrection. 17, 22, as they were gathered in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day. Now, how do you think, considering that they just came down off the Mount of Transfiguration, saw Jesus, talking to Moses, heard the voice of God, how do you think they're going to respond? Again, I would like to think that I would respond something like this, if I just heard the voice of God and saw Jesus talking to Moses, I come down off the mountain, and He looks at me and says, hey, Matt, I need to let you know, I'm going to get arrested, and I'm going to die, and I'm going to rise again. I would hope that my response would be, well, Jesus, you're God, and I'm not. I don't fully understand everything you just said, but I just saw you up on the mountain, and God's pretty real, and He seems to be a big deal. I trust you. That's what I would hope, that I would respond. You would hope the disciples would, but that's not how they responded. I left out the last little part of that verse, which tells us how they responded. Let me show you how they responded. Look at verse 22 again. It says, as they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, that means be arrested, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day, watch this, and they were greatly distressed. They were greatly distressed. Look at those two words. That was their response.

Immediately after the transfiguration, Jesus is like, hey, I'm gonna get arrested and die and rise again. And they were greatly distressed. I looked up those two words. Because I'm like, I wonder if there's any depth in the story there that that doesn't really show. And honestly, I'm not a big fan of the way that the ESV translated greatly distressed. Because when I hear distressed, I hear stressed out, worried. It's kinda how I feel when I realize that the Dallas Cowboys will likely not win a championship before Jesus comes back. That's how I feel, distressed, right? Stressed out. That's actually not the word that Matthew uses. This word that Matthew's in the Greek is not stressed out or worried. Matthew uses the word lepeo. And I did some research on that. And here's what lepeo means. It's a much stronger word. It literally means to be grieved to the point of profound emotional pain. They were grieved to the point of profound emotional pain. Greatly distressed doesn't capture that. Here's what does. My mom, I don't know if I've ever told y'all this. My mother was an identical twin.

She was born in 1944 and her identical twin, my mom's name's Shirley, and her identical twin was Sharon. They were born in 44 and they were inseparable. They literally, they were best friends. They were best friends. I mean, it was hard to tell where one began and the other ended. It was just they were inseparable. Loved each other profoundly. In 1997, my Aunt Sharon, my mom's identical twin, was killed in a car accident. And I found out before my mom did. And y'all, I had to be the one to tell my mother that her twin was gone. She didn't know. She walked into the door. I was like, mom, sit down. And she could tell something was wrong. And she's like, what? And I said, mom, Aunt Sharon was killed in a car accident. And y'all, the look on her face and the sound that came out of her, I'll never forget it as long as I live. It haunts me. That's LaPelle. And it's this deep, profound, from the gut level grief. And that's the word that Matthew chooses to use to describe their response when Jesus says, I'm gonna be arrested, now I'm gonna die.

It wrecked them out to the point of profound emotional grief. Now, here's the thing. Why are they grieved right there? Like, why are they flipping out? Why are they emotionally grieved? Well, number one, they love Jesus. I mean, I don't wanna diminish that. They love Jesus. But here's the other thing. Here's why it upended them. And we're gonna see what I'm about to say is right here in a minute. But here's the other reason that they were profoundly grieved because Jesus just completely upended their plans that they had for their life. We're gonna see in a minute. What Jesus' word said, hey, I'm gonna get arrested. I'm gonna die. That statement completely upended their plans they had for their life. That's why they were grieving. And you're like, what are you talking about, Matt? Well, you have to remember, a little background. You have to remember these guys were Jews. And every little Jewish boy grows up and he's really, really fired up about one thing. He's fired up about the Messiah being born potentially in his generation. Every generation of Jewish people,

they were excited that the Messiah might be born in their generation. They were hoping beyond hope that they might get to see it. Now, what did they think the Messiah, the Savior was gonna do when he showed up? They knew that he was gonna be the Savior of God's people and that he was gonna be a conquering king. They knew the Messiah was gonna come and he was gonna restore glory back to the kingdom of Israel. You know, back in the day, you had David, you had Solomon, and they had powerful, powerful kingdoms. But over the years, bad kings caused that to diminish. Rome comes in, takes over Israel. They're essentially in this moment slaves. And so they're waiting for the Messiah to come over and kill all their enemies, reestablish the throne, sit on the throne, and reign. That's what they think the Messiah is coming to do. Now, all of a sudden, this guy named Jesus from Nazareth shows up and that guy can walk on water, y'all. He can walk on water. He calms storms with the sound of his voice and they see it. He raised a little girl from the dead. He fed 15,000 people with two fish and five loaves. And so these disciples, they saw all of it. much more, and so understand that these men are absolutely convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Messiah.

Now here's the thing, the best part for those men, the disciples, the best part out of all of it, and honestly, I like the show Chosen because I think they did a really good job of showing this, but the best part for the disciples is that the Messiah, the future king of Israel, asked them to be his boys. Like they, these guys were fishermen. They had no status, they had nothing, and the Messiah, the future king of Israel, just asked them to be in his inner circle of power, and so all of a sudden, these former fisherman nobodies are now in the inner circle of the king of kings. They have a future, they have lives that matter, they're gonna be advisors to the king of Israel, and so when Jesus says, hey, I'm gonna be arrested, and I'm gonna die, it shatters their expectations for their future, and it flipped them completely out. I'll give you two things that that moment reveals in the heart of the disciples, and I'm gonna apply it and we'll be done, but I'm gonna give you two things. That moment where Jesus literally shares the gospel with them, I don't know if you caught that, and he shares the gospel, and they flip out. Two things that reveals, number one, and by the way, evaluate your heart, and see if you see this in your life, and I've been doing it all week. Number one, 1122, they were so preoccupied

with their plans and their desires that they completely missed out on God's better plan. They were so focused on what they wanted. They were so focused on what they thought was right, they were so focused on their plans that Jesus just laid out his plan, and instead of rejoicing in it, it caused them to grieve. They completely missed it. Now, Jesus literally just told them one of the most amazing things they would ever hear in their entire life, but they got so caught up on the whole arrest and death thing, they missed it. Did you catch what it was? I'm gonna read it to you again. They're so focused on themselves here, they miss a pretty important detail of what Jesus just said. Look at 1722 again. Since they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they were killed, and they start flipping out, because that's not what they signed up for, and they missed this last part, which is kind of important, and he will be raised on the third day, and they were greatly distressed. I have never seen that until this week. I was looking at that, and I got a smile on my face, and I thought, my goodness. Jesus just gave them the best news

they're ever gonna hear in their whole life. He just told them, I'm gonna be a propitiation for your sins. I'm walking to the cross. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna be the last sacrifice. I'm gonna die so that you don't have to die, and then he says this. He's like, oh, but don't worry. I'm gonna rise from the dead. He just said, I'm going to conquer death. That's pretty good news, don't you think? And yet, they grieved. Church, they were so absorbed in themselves. They were so focused on what they wanted, and their expectations, they completely missed the greatest news they would ever hear. I was thinking about it, because my temptation, I'm gonna say this. It's easy to do. You know, we dog these guys like, man, how'd you do that? But it's easy to do when you don't have all the information, right? It's easy to miss the point. You can get so focused on what you want, what your plans are, and what your desires are, that you kind of miss the message, and I have a tendency to look at these guys and go, my gosh, they're idiots, but then the Spirit convicted me,

and like, Matt, you do it all the time. I'll give you an example, and this story is maybe a little bit too much information, but you'll hang with me. You know, so I live in Houston. I preach here about six times a year, come up at least once a month, and hang out, and help, you know, just pastor here, and I love it here, and it's amazing here, but I live in Houston. We live on the water in Houston, and we have two dogs, two golden retrievers, and they are worthless in the name of Jesus. Absolutely worthless. No point in their existence whatsoever. And I love them, but they're worthless, and they, this has never happened to me before. I've had dogs my whole life, and I grew up in, you know, East Texas, and we had dogs, and dogs would get fleas every once in a while, but you give them a flea collar, give them some medicine, it goes away. These dogs, about a month ago, got fleas. and y'all, it turned into a manifestation of like biblical proportions. We bathed them and scrubbed them and we're like vacuuming everything and go away and give them medicine, they go away and then they go out in the yard and they come back and they'd be covered in fleas again.

And called my uncle who's a vet, he's like, man, you probably have some kind of hatch or something out in the yard and they're picking them up and it's just like, he's like, you gotta spray your yard with chemicals and like spray it down. So my wife is telling me constantly, she's giving me the message, man, I need you to go spray the yard, I'm tired of these fleas. Go spray the yard, I'm tired of these fleas. Well, y'all, I don't wanna spray the yard because I've had cancer before and I just, I don't like messing with chemicals and I'd rather, I'm not gonna say it, but anyway, I don't like these dogs anyway and like, I'm like, I'm not gonna spray the yard. Well, I travel a ton and by the grace of God, I got to leave in the middle of the Biblical Proportion Flea Manifestation and I left and Jen's fighting hand-to-hand combat with fleas and she's texting me the whole time like, hey, this is getting worse, this is getting worse, this is getting worse and she kind of didn't talk about it for a couple of days, so I'm hoping maybe it's gone away, it's gotten better or whatever and I'm about to go home and it's been a couple weeks since I've been home and man, I'm gonna talk to you for a second because you'll get this, especially if you're married, you'll really get it if you aren't married, but if you've been away from your wife for a couple weeks, you have certain expectations about how you're gonna spend

your time when you get home, amen? Thank you. And so it'd been a couple weeks, so I had some expectations and because we're married and so I decide that I'm gonna get home and potentially work a program but I get home late and if you're my age and you get home late, I don't care if it's been a month, you're like, sleep, married relation, we're going to sleep, right? So we go to sleep and but before we go to sleep, she looks at me kind of playfully, smiles at me and she goes, I got plans for you tomorrow, boy. And I look at her and go, girl, I'm here to serve you any way you need, right? My son is about to crawl under his chair over here, he's here for the first time in 11, how you think you got here, boy? Anyway, next morning, she gets up, read your Bible, goes, works out, I kind of slept in late, I was tired and I woke up and y'all, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. I put on the Rocky IV like theme song, get ready, took a shower, put on some cologne because you know, and then she walks in the door and she looks at me and she smiles and she goes, you ready for our plans? I'm like, girl, you know I'm ready. She kind of pauses, like this, she goes, are you wearing cologne? Like, yeah, I'm wearing cologne.

And she says, why are you wearing cologne? We're just going to spray the fleas out in the backyard. I'm like, oh, like when you said you had plans, I thought you meant you had plans. Now, check this out, I had plans for passionate marital relations. She had plans for effective flea eradication. And I completely and totally and utterly missed it. And you know what my response was, honestly? You know what my response was? Y'all ready for this? I was greatly distressed. I was. I was greatly distressed. Wasn't grieved, but I was distressed, all right? Y'all, I'm being funny here, but that's what literally happened with Jesus and the disciples. They have these expectations, we're going to be something important in the kingdom, we got a future, we're going to have rank. And then Jesus just drops a bomb on them and goes, hey, this is going to go down way different than you thought it was going to go down. And they grieved. They forgot something in that moment. They forgot, number one, he's God, he's the God that was on the Mount of Transfiguration. Number two, they forgot that God works all things for the good of those that love him

and are called according to his purpose, even if they don't see it. And so that's the first thing, and let me give you a second real quick. The first thing is they get so, in that moment where they're grieving, we just literally gave them the gospel, they're so preoccupied with their desires and what they think is best for their life that they completely miss the opportunity to be a part of the kingdom. And then they forget that God has a better plan for their life, that they completely miss that God had a better plan for their life. Here's the second thing that moment showed, last thing it showed. And this is a little darker, but it's pretty real. That moment where they grieved It shows that the disciples were using Jesus when Jesus shared the gospel with them, as a means to their end. it's just a little bit darker. And then they forget that God has a better plan for their life. They were using Jesus as a means to their end. And listen, here's the thing. These guys gave up a lot to follow Jesus, and so I don't think these guys were evil. I know that Judas was.

Judas was 100% doing it for his ends. The other guys, I think they loved him. They were ready to die for him, but there was, and they're about to show you, I'm not sure what I'm talking about. There's this moment here that reveals that there was a little part of these guys' hearts that they were absolutely following Jesus for what they could get out of the deal. So they leave here. I'm not gonna get into this because I gotta land the plane here. I got a few minutes. I gotta check this out. So that right after they grieve, they immediately go, they're walking around. These two Jewish temple leaders walk up to Peter and go, hey, does your master, does he pay the temple tax? So there was a tax that went to the temple. This was not a Roman tax. This was a Jewish tax, and so that they gave to the Jewish temple every year, and so they're like, is Jesus gonna pay the temple tax? And Peter's like, I don't know. So he goes back to Jesus. Like, Jesus, are we paying the temple tax? Because you're kind of a big deal, and Jesus looks at Peter and says this. He's like, hey, looked at Peter and says, let me ask you a question.

He said, if you're a son of the king and the king taxes the country, do you have to pay the tax? And Peter goes, no. If you're a son of the king, you don't have to pay the tax. Jesus said, exactly, exactly. And guess what, Peter? I'm the son of the king. I don't have to pay the temple tax. Jesus is about to walk to a cross, and he's gonna die, and he's gonna say, to tell us to die, and the veil of the temple is gonna get torn from top to bottom, giving us access to the temple and the presence of Almighty God. He's like, I don't have to pay that. I'm the son of the king, but we're gonna pay it anyway. And then he sends Peter, it's that famous story. He sends Peter to go fish, and a fish provides the drachma tax out of its mouth. What's Jesus doing? He's realizing, Jesus realized these guys have an entitlement issue. These guys are following him for all the wrong reasons, and so the story happens so that he can show them entitlement has no place in the kingdom of God. If anybody didn't have to pay the temple tax, it was Jesus, he paid it, and he sent them to a lake for a fish to provide to show them, you follow Jesus. You put him first, and I will take care of you, okay? Now, last part here.

Right after that, that he's looking at them and go, if there's any part of you that you're doing this for you, there's an entitlement thing in your life, you're missing the boat. They're walking down the road, and the disciples say one of the dumbest things that they ever say to Jesus, Matthew 18, one. And at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? It was a theme, it was this thread that constantly followed the disciples around. They were constantly wanting to know. Keep in mind, they're gonna be his advisors. They're big deals now, so they're wondering, like, which one of us is gonna be tops? Which one of us is gonna be the highest rank? Jesus, we know you're number one. We thought Peter was number two, but you just told him he was like Satan, and so now we got a shot. And so, hey, Jesus, which one of us is gonna be greatest in the kingdom? You just see their hearts right there. After all that Jesus has said, and all that he's done, and all the ways that he's lowered himself and humbled himself and served and washed feet and loved, they're still fighting for people to look at them, and Jesus says one of the harshest statements that he will ever, ever, ever say to these men

that don't get it. Like, Jesus is intentionally walking to a cross, and these guys are trying to grasp a crown, and I want you to watch what Jesus says to them. Matthew 18, one, at the time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? In other words, which one of us is gonna be tops? And Jesus called to him a child. It was in, that word in the Greek means little child. It's not a toddler, it was like an infant. Somebody must have been holding an infant, and so he brings him over, and then look at verse three, and this is the rebuke. Jesus said, truly, I say to you. Now, he's speaking to the disciples here, the men that just said, we wanna be the best, we wanna be tops. Look what he says to them. He says, truly, I say to you, and y'all have heard this from Pastor Joe, but anytime he says truly, that means y'all need to listen. Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will be tops. never enter the kingdom of heaven. Dang, Jesus, whoa, how big of a deal to Jesus is it if you're following him because there's kind of something you think you deserve from him. These guys are doing it, y'all, and he says, unless you turn,

that word does not mean repent. It doesn't mean like repent of your sins and get saved. I believe he, I know, Jesus uses the word doesn't mean that because the disciples are saved. It means that once you're a Christian and you're doing something really, really dumb, you have to stop doing it and go the other way. That's the word Jesus is using here. Bottom line, these guys are like, who's gonna be tops, who's gonna be great? And Jesus essentially looks at them and says, boys, you are acting like lost people that don't know God. That part of your heart that wants to be seen, you're acting like a lost person that doesn't know God. Let me ask you a question. I've just got a few more minutes here. Listen carefully. If I were to ask you this question, how would you answer? If I were to ask you, what was the primary purpose for Jesus dying on a cross? By the way, one of the things I took away from this is that constantly Jesus was calling his shot that he was gonna walk to a cross, don't ever let anybody ever tell you that Jesus was a victim going to the cross. He absolutely intentionally walked to the cross. But what would you say was his primary reason for dying on a cross and rising again? I think we would say, well, obviously he was dying to make a sacrifice for our sins

so that we could trust in him and receive his righteousness and you'd be dead right. You could say Jesus walked to a cross because he loves us and he wanted us to have a relationship, be reconciled back to God and what we were created for and you'd be dead right. But if I were to ask you a question, what was Jesus' number one goal? What is like the number one thing he was doing? What would you say? He actually, right before the cross, says like his thing. It's like the thing. All that other stuff, super important, but you said this is it. Y'all ready for it? Don't turn to listen carefully. It's John 12, 27. Jesus is about to walk to the cross. He's about to die. He's about to become our sin and he's praying to his father. I want you to watch what he says, John 12, 27. Red letters here. He says, Jesus said, now my soul is troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. Lord, should I ask you to save me from this hour? Watch what he says. But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. Jesus said, this is the purpose.

I'm walking to the cross. Watch what he says, verse 28. Father, glorify your name. He said, for this is the reason that I'm walking to the cross. This is the purpose for I've come to this hour because God, my father, I want your name to be glorified. To be glorified. That word means to be put first. It means to be seen. It means to be put out so that people can focus on that. He's like, this is why I'm coming to the cross because Lord, Father, I want your name to be exalted. Watch what God says. Can we bring that back up, guys? Verse 28, he says, glorify your name and then a voice came from heaven. God started talking, saying, I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. Y'all, check it out. Jesus was walking around saying, look at the Father, while the disciples are walking around saying, look at me. Jesus was humbling himself to the point of death and the disciples were trying to raise themselves to the point where they had power and control and Jesus says, when you're doing that, you better turn because you are acting just like somebody that doesn't know God. The action step, I'm just gonna give this quickly. The action step, he tells them.

He says, you better turn or you're just gonna miss the whole thing and then he tells them what turning looks like and this is what I want you to dig into. He says, you gotta humble yourself like a child. That's the action step. That's what we do when we walk out of here. If we see any of this in our lives and if you live long enough, you will. If you're so focused on what you want for your life that you are not even paying attention to what God might want or if there's a little part of your heart that you're following Jesus because you think he owes you something, this is the action step. Humble yourself like a child and when I got to this place in the sermon, y'all, you know what I did? did, been thinking the disciples were stupid the whole time. Like, what in the world is wrong with these guys? And something hit me like a ton of bricks. I do the same thing all the time. I can't tell you how many times in my life that looking back, God had a plan for me the entire time. I just couldn't see it yet. And I just get frustrated and frustrated because it's not going my way. And now that I'm old and busted, I look back, I look back and realize our God is faithful the entire time.

The entire time, and I've seen it over and over and over again. Something comes into my life, cancer, marriage difficulty, betrayal, and I grieve and flip out. Not realizing that God always works together everything in our lives good for those that love him and are called according to his purpose. Our God is faithful, action step. When something comes into our life, we do what disciples should have done at the beginning, humble ourselves, you're God, I'm not, I trust you. Last thing, how do you do that? Because it's totally the opposite of what we do naturally in flesh. How do we humble ourselves? How do we leave here today? And then like if tomorrow something bad happens, how do we not flip out and grieve? Because that's not our plan. If you're single and you really want to get married and it's taken a long time, you have a child, or you want a child and you can't have a child, how do you humble yourself and just trust the Lord? You know, I'm gonna give you the answer. Jesus actually gives us the answer and it is gonna be so unsatisfying for a lot of us. How Jesus said that what we can do to humble ourselves on a daily basis so that we walk the way he wants us to. You know what it is? Jesus told us, he said, we pray.

We pray. He actually said there's something very specific though that you pray. He's like, you want to humble yourself? If you want to humble yourself, this is what you pray. He said, this is it. He said, you pray, our Father who art in heaven, and do y'all remember what the very first thing he told us to pray? He said, when you pray, pray like this. And he didn't say, Father, I'm in heaven, pray for your provision, or pray for your safety, or pray for your grandkids. He said, the very first thing that ought to come out of your mouth when you pray is this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. You've said it a bunch of times if you're a guy in a football locker room. You know what it means? You know what you were praying when you prayed that? It literally means, Father, I want your name to be lifted above my name. Did you know when you were praying that, that's what you were praying? Jesus says, when you pray, when your feet hit the floor in the morning, let this be the first thing that comes out of your mouth. Father, I want your name to be glorified. God, I want your name to be lifted above my name. I want you to be seen, not me.

And there's something about that that begins to orient your heart towards him, not you. God killed this in me about 15 years ago. In a really interesting way, when I was a young pastor, man, I'm like everybody else. I wanted to, I did it for Jesus, I really did. But there was a little part of my heart, looking back on it, that I wanted to be successful. I wanted people to know me. I wanted to be able to write books and speak at conferences. I thought a lot about legacy and stupid stuff. I thought a lot about legacy and stupid stuff like that in a selfish way. And I had a moment where God just killed that in me. I was, when I was in Austin, Austin Stone, and we were full of college kids, and I did a Bible study one night, about 150 college kids, and I was given an illustration on W.A. Criswell, pastor of First Baptist Dallas. And he was, hands down, the biggest deal with the exception of one other guy in the country and his name was W.A. Criswell, massive church, First Baptist Dallas, everybody listened to him on the radio and I'm given this illustration about W.A. Criswell and those college kids, like 2015, 2016 or something, they're looking at me like I'm from Mars. And I kind of said, hey, how many of y'all know who W.A. Criswell is? One kid raised their hand, I was like, where are you from?

He goes, Dallas, I was like, that's what I thought. And just, it stopped me and I was like, how many of y'all heard of John Bassanio? He's pastor of First Baptist Houston, massive church, unbelievable preacher, nobody heard of him. And then I dropped the big one on him, I was like, how many of y'all heard of Adrian Rogers? Nobody, these are Christian kids. Adrian Rogers, by the way, W.A. Criswell would, hands down, be the Matt Chandler of that generation. Adrian Rogers would be the pastor of Joe B. Martin of that generation. Everybody in the country knew their names, listened to them, read their books, and man, you fast forward 20-something years, ain't none of those people even know their name, and y'all, it was like shackles fell off me. It was one of the most freeing things that ever happened in my life. Because it hit me, ain't nobody know W.A. Criswell. They're not gonna know me. And I felt so much freedom. I felt so much freedom to embrace that famous quote, but I think it's Francis of Assisi where he says, preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten. Point is, y'all, listen, if there's any part of you that's going out there and doing something so that you can get credit for it, can I just, this is kind of bad news, nobody's gonna remember you other than maybe

your grandkids in like 15 years. So you might as well live for what's gonna outlive you, and that's the glory of God. Almost, yeah, yeah, all right, here it is. I'm gonna skip kingdom come, because that just means what you're saying is you walk out the doors, and if you're a businessman, you're asking his kingdom to come, not yours. You're gonna be the best stay-at-home mom you can ever be for his kingdom. You're gonna be the best football player in the world for his kingdom. You're gonna be the best businessman, businessman for his kingdom. Be the best teacher for his kingdom, and it'll give you a reason to get up in the morning, and then the last one's the hardest one. Father, I want your will to be done. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Church, that's difficult to pray. Because you know what that literally means in the Greek? You're praying, God, I don't want what I want. I want what you want. That's a dangerous thing to pray. Could you pray that and mean it right now? God, I don't want what I want in my life, but I trust you so much that I want what you want. How do you do that, man?

I have found that one is what I told you earlier. You just, young people, I just look back at my life, and I've gone through so much, and can I just tell you that every single time he has been faithful, and you see him be faithful enough that you're just like, look, Lord, I don't, this may be really difficult, whatever I'm about to face, but I'm either gonna like, you know, get over this, or I'm going to heaven, but either way, I'm making it out alive because you're God. The other thing is that it's gotta hit you deep down in your soul for you to be able to pray that. God, I don't want what I want, I want what you want. You have to truly believe in the core of your being that he is worthy of whatever it is he brings into your life, whatever sacrifice you have to make. Last week, my wife and I came face-to-face with how difficult that is to pray. I'll tell you a story, and I'll pray and be done. My sweet little girl, Annie, was born in 2002, and she's my only daughter, and she is the light of my life, and I adore her. I'll never forget the first time that she actually showed me affection. She was about two, and she's kind of ornery, so it took her a while to like me, but she was about two, and she put my face in her hands one time, and she was like, Daddy, I love you, and I pulled out my wallet

and started handing her credit cards, y'all. I'm like. Back up, I was holding her for the first time in the hospital, and I'm looking at this little girl, looking at me, and I'm more in love than I thought I could be for anybody, you know, and I took my finger, and I did like that little gesture, and I took my finger, and I did like that, like a cross on her forehead, and I prayed this prayer. I said, Lord Jesus, this girl is for you. Lord, she's yours, and I meant every word of it until the day about a year ago when she told me that she was gonna go to the mission field in a foreign country. Y'all, I've sent a lot of folks to the mission field over the years, talked to parents that were upset and frustrated and freaked out and grieving, and looked at them like, you need to trust the Lord. He's worthy. You need to trust the Lord. He loves your kids more than you love your kids. You need to trust the Lord. He's worthy of it all, and that sounds great until your daughter says, I'm coming to a crazy place in the name of Jesus. Last week, Jennifer and I were at their church, and they were commissioning them to leave, and at the end, we sat on this big couch. We were all going to pray on them, and Jennifer sat beside Annie and her husband, my son-in-law, and I just sat right in front of them on the coffee table. And I got down on my knees,

and I put my hands on my daughter, and I just get wrecked out because it hit me like a ton of bricks. I do not want to pray for her to leave. I don't want to say, God, I trust you, Lord, because I'm like, right now I'm not trusting you, God. I don't want to let her go. And I start bawling. Y'all just out of the blue. I don't know if it was from the Holy Spirit because it wasn't for me. I felt like the Holy Spirit just asked me a question. Is he worthy? And I started praying, and I was like, Lord, I don't want to let her go, but you're worthy, and I trust you. Is there anything in your life that you're not trusting to God? Is there any part of your life that you're flipping out on because you're missing what God has in your life? I'm telling you, He's faithful, and He's worthy. Amen? Let's pray. And He's worthy. Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word today. Lord, I just want to lift up anybody in this room, specifically anybody that's dealing with frustration with you, maybe anger with you. There's some folks in this room, God, that are holding on by a thread. Holy Spirit, right now, speak deeply into their hearts and their minds and their souls that you have them. You will never let them go. You're faithful, and you're worthy. Lord, help us to live lives where we howl your name with our life. Help us to live lives where we long for your kingdom to come. And Lord, help us to live lives where we literally don't want what we want, but want what you want because you are good. And we ask that in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, let's stand together. We're going to respond. Today, we're a church that believes that this time right now is super important. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to sing and worship God because He's worthy. Amen? He's worthy of it all, y'all. And we're going to sing it. I'm going to invite you to bring your first and your best because God is worthy of our first and best. And our last thing is, listen, there's some folks in the room that you're, it may not be many, but there's some. This is exactly where you're at. And God was speaking to you today. Listen, maybe it was a sign of surrender to Him. Say, God, I don't want what I want. I want what you want. And you need to show that to Him physically. You come forward. You surrender your life to Him. Let's pray. Father, we love you. And I pray that as we sing now, it would be a sweet song in your ear.