When Reality Doesn’t Match Your Expectations: Anchoring Faith in Christ

• Expectation vs. Reality [00:34:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explores the emotional difficulty of when plans or products do not meet expectations, using personal anecdotes to illustrate the frustration and subsequent adjustment required.
• Faith and Trust in God's Provision [00:38:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects the story of finding the right van to trusting God's timing and provision, noting that despite discouragement, the outcome was good.
• Adjusting Expectations [00:40:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the difficulty humans have when reality contradicts their mental pictures or expectations, using analogies like crazy hair day and wrong drink orders to illustrate the emotional struggle of change.
• Identity of Jesus [00:44:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explores the question 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?', contrasting common cultural views (teacher, social agent) with the biblical answer (Messiah, Son of the living God) and explaining why the disciples' initial answers were incomplete.
• Foundation of the Church [00:49:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor interprets 'on this rock I will build my church' as referring to Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah, linking it to the Sermon on the Mount's analogy of building on rock versus sand.
• Keys of the Kingdom [00:52:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects Jesus giving the 'keys of the kingdom' to Peter to the events at Pentecost, where Peter preached to Jews and Gentiles, effectively opening the doors of heaven to all people.
• The Identity of Jesus and the Keys of Heaven [00:53:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects Peter's preaching at Pentecost to the opening of heaven to both Jews and Gentiles, establishing Jesus as the Messiah sent to save the lost.
• The Shift from Waiting to Proclaiming [00:56:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the early church's command to 'wait' with the Great Commission's directive to 'go and tell,' emphasizing that believers are now called to scream the gospel from the mountaintops.
• Submission to Scripture over Personal Opinion [00:58:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to prioritize biblical instruction over personal feelings or cultural norms, urging them to surrender areas of life where their views conflict with Scripture.
• Invitation to Bible School and Spiritual Inquiry [01:00:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor issues a call to serve in Bible school and encourages both mature believers and those confused about Jesus to investigate Scripture, ask questions, and seek answers from trusted leaders.

• Sermon Illustration [00:35:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts shopping for a used van, describing how the vehicle smelled terrible (like snacks and feral cats) and had mechanical issues, leading to discouragement, but ultimately leading them to find the right van across the road.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of receiving an extra chicken nugget at a drive-thru as a rare, positive surprise that can change one's day.
• Sermon Illustration [00:39:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor mentions the disappointment of buying something online that looks different in person, is too cheap/small, or is unusable.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of showing up to school on 'crazy hair day' when it wasn't actually crazy hair day, illustrating the embarrassment of misaligned expectations.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor compares expecting a sweet Coke but receiving unsweet tea to illustrate the disappointment of unmet expectations.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses several analogies to describe the frustration of unmet expectations: showing up to school on 'crazy hair day' when it wasn't actually crazy hair day, ordering a Coke but receiving unsweet tea, and discovering Santa Claus isn't real.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders from the Sermon on the Mount, where the wise man builds his house on the rock (obeying Jesus' words) and the foolish man builds on sand.
• Sermon Illustration [00:53:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the historical narrative of the early church, specifically Peter's role at Pentecost in opening the doors of heaven to Gentiles, and the subsequent arguments within the early church regarding the universality of the gospel message.
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the contrast between Jesus' command to the disciples to 'sit on it' (wait) and the later command in Matthew 28 to 'go into all the nations' to illustrate the shift in the church's mission from preparation to proclamation.

• Pastoral Charge [00:42:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > Use the Bible's table of contents to locate Matthew chapter 16.
• Pastoral Charge [00:50:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > Approach the pastor after the service to discuss the interpretation of Matthew 16:18.
• Pastoral Charge [00:54:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > Read the book of Acts to understand the early church's debates and significance.
• Pastoral Charge [01:00:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > Sign up to serve in Bible school by speaking Jesus to children.
• Pastoral Charge [01:04:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > Engage in personal prayer and reflection during the music time.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:01:25] Good morning, church. My name is Doug Henderson. This is my wife, Carmi.
[00:01:34] Carmi and I went on our first international mission trip together back in 1997, I believe it was.
[00:01:41] In the years that followed, we served on a variety of teams, both at home and abroad.
[00:01:47] Then God gently redirected our hearts toward a new mission where building our family became season of our life. Our children are grown. Some are no longer live at home, and God has begun awakening in us a renewed passion for missions. Carmi's been to Panama three times. Yes. I went
[00:02:15] for the first time last year, and it was there that I met Pastor Roddy, who's, by the way, his redemption story is amazing, if you ever had a chance to hear it. I met his wife, Mary, their
[00:02:29] two sons, Joel and Daniel. This is an entire family of some of the kindest and most giving humans I've met, all because of their love for the Savior. They selflessly serve God and the church family that God has placed under their care, and I wish that you could meet them.
[00:02:49] But another team's going back this year, and Carmi and I are going. It's July 11 through 18. Now, This trip is more than just travel. It's an opportunity to be the hands and the feet of
[00:03:02] Jesus. On a broad scale, we have no idea what the specifics of our responsibilities there are going to be, but on a broad scale, our team will participate in outreach, ministry, and relationship building that can make an eternal impact. But as we prepare to go, we need the support of our
[00:03:20] church family, not just Carmi and I, but our whole team needs the support of our church family. And there's several meaningful ways that you can help. Number one, we ask you to pray faithfully for our safety, for the unity of the team, for open hearts in Panama and for lasting fruit from
[00:03:44] the mission. We also ask you to give financially to help cover travel expenses, ministry supplies and outreach efforts. But I'd also ask you to encourage us intentionally by notes, messages, and reminders that we are being sent with love and support.
[00:04:05] You know, when one part of the body goes, the whole church is actually part of the mission.
[00:04:12] And your support helps to make this ministry possible and allows our team to serve boldly and effectively. I want to thank you even now for partnering with us and helping us share the gospel beyond these walls. We believe God will do amazing things through this opportunity

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:04:27] that we have in panama hey um i'm just going to talk about a couple of ways that you can help our team first of all next sunday during lunchtime we have our spaghetti fundraiser no cooking for you yay if you come and i do want to thank um billy elgin because he
[00:04:57] is doing the cooking and I tasted some of the bread that he's going to make homemade bread.
[00:05:06] Y'all, it was yummy. You do not want to miss that. Um, so that is next Sunday. Sign up out here on the church office door and, um, following the, uh, spaghetti, their spaghetti dinner. There's
[00:05:23] also a dessert auction and I believe also a silent auction. Um, so that's one next Sunday, June 14th. Then we also have, um, a, uh, restaurant that is, that is partnering with us called, um,
[00:05:43] Tacos for Life Grill. And they are doing, um, we're partnering with them on a fundraiser, um on june 23rd from 4 to 8 p.m so come out to tacos for life they're going to give us
[00:06:01] a percentage of their profits for that time frame so two ways that you can help support easy you get food and you and over here you get to visit with your um fellow church members and
[00:06:20] it will be awesome. And thank you guys so much for all your support and all you do for us.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:06:33] Good morning, church. Good morning. It's so good to see you all and to be back in the house of the Lord, ready to worship you this morning and draw closer to the Lord together. I just want to
[00:06:45] welcome you all, whether you have been with us for a long time, or maybe this is one of your first or second Sundays with us. I just want to be the first to tell you how grateful we are as a
[00:06:57] congregation that you have joined us and that you are here and you've chosen to spend your Sunday morning sitting here with us and worshiping the Lord and drawing closer to him with us. And if
[00:07:09] you do not know anybody here, then we would like to make that happen. One of the ways that we know how to get connected with you and to start a relationship with you is to have you fill out
[00:07:22] a connection card. We would love if you would grab one of those in the pew in front of you and fill that out with your information. You can place that card in the offertory plate as it comes
[00:07:33] along a little bit later on in our service. And church, if you have a prayer request that has not yet been heard, maybe you haven't gotten around to Sunday school this morning and there's a prayer
[00:07:43] request weighing heavy on your heart, we want to know what that is. If you would flip that card over and you would write your prayer requests on the back. We do pray over them at our staff
[00:07:54] meeting and we want to know how we could be lifting you up in prayer this week. Because like Doug and Carmi were saying, it is so important to be lifting up not only members of our missions
[00:08:04] and outreach team, but also all of the members in our congregation. Amen. Amen. A church who prays together stays together. I always like to say that. So we want to know how we could be
[00:08:15] lifting you up in prayer. Church, something important to note for this week is that June today is June 7th and June 14th next Sunday are our deacon nomination Sundays. So if you have a person in mind who you think would make a good deacon, we want to know who that is and we would
[00:08:36] appreciate you nominating them so that we can make them a deacon. So there should be deacon nomination forms in the hallway. Am I right about that? I don't want to give you the wrong information there. But there should be some deacon nomination forms on your way out. We would invite
[00:08:54] you to take one of those and to drop it in the box out in the church hallway. Please take a look at your weekly bulletin on the back to see all of our other upcoming events. Like Doug and Carmen
[00:09:06] mentioned, we have our spaghetti Sunday, next Sunday, spaghetti lunch Sunday, so we can support our missions and outreach, among lots of other things that you don't want to miss out on around here. So we invite you to take a look at the back of your weekly bulletin. Church, as we venture into
[00:09:23] our time of worship this morning, I would love to share out of the book of Romans with you.
[00:09:29] Romans chapter 8 verses 1 and 2 says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free
[00:09:44] from the law of sin and death. Because of Jesus, we are free. We are free on a number of levels.
[00:09:52] He has given us his love freely, should we only accept. And we are free from certain death. Amen.
[00:09:58] Amen. Would you stand with us as we worship him for that this morning? Sing, I am free.

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:10:03] Good morning again. Taking off my missions hat and putting on my deacon's cap, okay?

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:14:05] Again, my name is Doug Henderson. It's a pleasure for me to serve as not only one of your deacons, but also your deacon chair. And we have a few things that we'd like to pray about this morning.
[00:14:16] Right before the service started, Tom Nixon made me aware that Cindy London, who is Cynthia Caldwell's daughter, is in the ER this morning. We're not sure exactly why or exactly where, but Tom is on it and he's going to find out and let us know. So we want to be
[00:14:33] praying for Cindy. We also want to remember VBS coming up starts this Thursday. I'm sure if you have nothing going on and you just have this great desire to serve in VBS, they still could find a
[00:14:48] place for you to minister Thursday through Saturday or Sunday. So we'd love for you to take part in that. Again, Deacon Nominations, we want to remember that coming up. Names being received today and next week. Let's pray for Pastor David and for Emily and for Rylan. They
[00:15:08] are on their way to Orlando this morning for the Southern Baptist Convention this week. So we want to remember them. We also want to remember Pastor Chris as he preaches for us today in Pastor David's
[00:15:22] absence. Let's remember our mission team. And also I'm going to pray for Peyton Monroe this morning. So if you would, let's join together in prayer. Heavenly Father, what an honor and a privilege it is to be able to be in your house today. Thank you for health and strength. And
[00:15:38] we may have some aches and pains, but you allowed us to be able to get out of bed and out of the house this morning to gather together as a church family for worship. Father, we thank you that
[00:15:53] you hear our prayer this morning. We do want to pray for Cindy. Lord, even though we're not aware of her circumstance right now, we know that you completely know everything that's going on in her
[00:16:06] life at this moment. We pray for her. We pray for the doctors that are tending to her and that her needs will be met. We pray for VBS coming up this next week, Lord. I know that that's a great
[00:16:18] ministry opportunity for our church as we reach out to our community.
[00:16:24] I thank you for those who have already volunteered to help in Vacation Bible School.
[00:16:31] We pray for the young hearts that are going to be coming and participating. Lord, that their hearts would be tender and open to the gospel message that's going to be shared with them.
[00:16:42] We pray for our deacon nominations, Lord, over the next couple of weeks.
[00:16:47] We pray for the men that may be asked to serve.
[00:16:51] We pray for good, strong servant leaders in our church, Lord, and that the men that you want to be serving here would be put in those positions.
[00:17:01] We pray for Pastor Dave and for his wife, Emily, and for Ryland as they travel to the Southern Baptist Convention today.
[00:17:08] Lord, give them traveling mercy.
[00:17:10] We know some of the history of the convention, Lord, some of the things that have taken place there the last few years, and we just pray for peace, pray that decisions would be made decently and in order, and we just thank that our pastor
[00:17:27] desires to go and to be a part of that. Pray for Pastor Chris this morning as he preaches in Pastor David's absence. Lord, may your word go out with power. We pray for our mission team
[00:17:41] this morning, Lord. I thank you for those that have stepped up and are willing and able to go to Panama again this year. I do pray for our unity, for our safety. I pray for the hearts of
[00:17:55] the people in Panama, Lord, that that will be fertile soil for the work that we'll do there that week in July. Also, it's good to see Peyton this morning, Father, and just pray that as he is
[00:18:10] right now just in a waiting pattern and waiting for the next step that you reveal to him. We thank you for his faith and for his confidence in you. And we thank you for the way that you
[00:18:24] have already moved in his life. And we trust that the place that you sent him to, Lord, abroad is going to be significantly impacted because of his witness and because of his ministry.
[00:18:41] Lord, as we've gathered together today, we're not aware of every single hurt and hang-up and problem that our church family has brought in the doors with them today.
[00:18:52] But I'm so glad that you do.
[00:18:54] And I ask you, Lord, to search our hearts, minister to those needs that we have today, and just help us to bask in your glory today as we worship you.
[00:19:06] In Jesus' name, amen.

[00:19:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:19:11] Amen. Would you stand with us as we continue to worship the Lord together this morning?

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:19:51] earth with joy, trembles at his voice, trembles at his voice. Sing it out, how great.

[00:20:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:20:12] Time where we pause for just a moment. We want to take up our offering. And if you're

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:30:34] watching online, of course, you can always give at sbcmoresville.com. But if you're in the room with us and it's your first time, or maybe it's your first couple of times, we're not asking you to give during this time. We would rather have a relationship with you.
[00:30:46] We want you to take that connect card that's in your pew or scan what's in your bulletin and just let us know who you are. Let us know that you're here today. Give us a way to contact you
[00:30:56] so that we can call or touch base with you this week, just to say, thank you for being here and maybe go grab lunch. That's always a good thing, right? I think it's great. Always looking for
[00:31:07] any excuse for that. Really, we do value relationship and we do value this time that we set apart, that we can give to a holy God.

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:31:42] win sometimes I just want to bow out I want to throw in the towel now my mistakes start missing the truth and I know somebody who loves to use all the little broken pieces bringing strength to my weakness oh you're telling my soul
[00:32:09] it's not to see you stand me a million chances it's your great thing me a million see making all things good work it out like you said you would there's no reason to doubt you
[00:32:48] lord i can't live without you you're telling my it's your me a million all right it's time for

[00:33:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:33:48] Children's Church, all of our kids through third grade, you can go if you would like.
[00:33:56] You're going to have an awesome time today. I know who your teacher is. It's going to be fun.
[00:34:02] Awesome. While they're leaving, I have one point that I want you to get today. So open your bulletin, find that notes section, get you a pen. We're going to go ahead and get the one point
[00:34:13] up front so you don't miss it. In case my mind and my mouth go somewhere my heart didn't intend this morning, right? All right. Are you ready? Jesus is, go ahead and get that much. Jesus is
[00:34:28] Messiah, son of the living God. That's it today. See you later. Just picking. Don't you wish lunch was that quick? I don't think so. Not today. I do want you to go ahead and get that up front.
[00:34:47] that is the point that we're going to be around all day today. When's the last time that you expected something to happen and it didn't happen? Or you expected something to happen a certain way
[00:35:04] and it didn't happen that way? How did you react? What did it do for you? It's not always bad.
[00:35:11] Sometimes it is. I mean, for most of us, if something doesn't go our way, it's pretty bad, right? We always want it to go our way, but it's not always bad. Sometimes it is. I can
[00:35:20] remember when we were shopping for our van, the one that we drive now, years ago. We've been driving that thing for a long time. We looked at several things online and we went and, you know,
[00:35:30] we see lots of pictures and they take really good pictures of these vans online and they post them.
[00:35:36] And then you go look at it and it looks nothing like what you saw, right? Some of you have been there. Some of you have looked at homes and found that to be true as well. But you show up and you
[00:35:46] just almost don't recognize that. Yeah, it's the same paint color, but that is not the van we saw online, right? Well, we'd had that experience several times and we were just kind of getting frustrated and we'd made appointments to see several vehicles out of town a couple hours away.
[00:35:59] So we drove and get to the end of the day. Nothing was panning out. We didn't like anything we were seeing. Things just weren't lining up. And we come to the last van that we'd scheduled to see that
[00:36:11] day. And we pulled in and it was the same color. It was the same van. And they had mentioned that there was some damage and we saw that damage and it wasn't horrible. It was okay. But can I tell
[00:36:24] you that what you see in pictures does not prepare you for what you might smell in a vehicle.
[00:36:31] We opened the doors to that van that had been sitting in the heat all day and that smell, it didn't knock us down, but it could have, right? So I don't know if you've ever been on a trip with
[00:36:45] teenagers and they start opening snacks in the back that just don't smell great. You know, Funyun, Slim Jims, all those kinds of things. It smelled like somebody had opened up a bunch of those, thrown them in the van, tossed in about 10 feral cats and let them go at it to see who
[00:37:00] wins the prize. It was nasty. It was really bad. We decided, you know what? We are overcomers.
[00:37:09] We're going to take this van for a ride.
[00:37:12] You know, it's just a smell, right?
[00:37:14] We can clean something.
[00:37:16] So we get in.
[00:37:17] We drive it a couple of blocks away.
[00:37:19] We find a parking lot.
[00:37:21] And we start opening all the little compartments and trying to open doors and touching all the buttons.
[00:37:27] And we pop the hood.
[00:37:27] You know, we're making sure everything works, trying to give it a really decent look over.
[00:37:33] And there were some problems.
[00:37:35] Some of the buttons didn't work.
[00:37:36] I think the back gate didn't want to open up. And, and so, you know what, that's, we're not going to overcome that. And these other things, sorry, not going to happen. We get back in the
[00:37:46] van, we drive as we're approaching the dealership and you look over the sea of vehicles in that dealership parking lot, you start to see heads pop up from behind cars. And it looks like a
[00:37:57] whack-a-mole game. I mean, people are looking, who is driving that nasty van? Are they going to go inside and talk to somebody about this thing. They were curious. They were scared. I don't want to
[00:38:06] get blamed for this thing. All right. Not me. Um, I really think we could have driven off with that van and then it just written it off. They wouldn't have called the cops. I think it would have been
[00:38:17] okay. I think we could have had ourselves a free van that day. Um, at the end of that, we were kind of discouraged. I mean, we were, we'd looked at a lot and you know, we could have just gone home.
[00:38:30] we went across the road, found the van that we have. It's wonderful. God did a great thing. But in that moment, we were done and it took everything we had to go look at one more van.
[00:38:43] But we did and we're glad we did. So it worked out. Not everything is awful, right? Sometimes you don't expect something and it's a good surprise. Like when you go through the drive-thru and you order some nuggets and you open it up and you know you're counting to make sure they
[00:38:58] gave you every single one. You ordered six, you're getting six, right? You're going to, yeah. And so you count and there's seven. Seventh nugget. All right. That's rare. That's like gold. You just won the lottery, right? That can change your day. And the smile on your face might change somebody
[00:39:17] else's day too, as you head into the rest of whatever's happening for you that day.
[00:39:22] Surprises are not always bad. And sometimes the smallest thing can make a big difference in our life. You've probably seen this in ads, right? You've probably seen something online or seen a commercial 42 times and you're like, you're right. I do have to have that. And you order it and it
[00:39:46] comes home and it's so cheap your kid can't even play with it or it's just not what you expected or it's much smaller or much bigger than you thought it might be and it's just not usable
[00:39:56] and you were just really, really disappointed. Right. When our expectation about a plan or a product or a person just doesn't seem to line up with reality. A lot of times it's hard for us
[00:40:09] to make an adjustment to deal with reality. Sometimes we get, we get pretty angry. We get frustrated. There are things didn't go our way. You know, it kind of makes us angry, but change is difficult. So don't give yourself a really, really hard time. And it's not like you
[00:40:27] had a habit of doing something and somebody made you change it. Now you have to do things a whole new way. That's, that's not really exactly what we're talking about, but you had a picture in
[00:40:35] your mind and you got to the thing and it wasn't that way. And now you're upset about it. And emotionally that's hard to change. But realistically, if we just kind of jump on board and,
[00:40:45] oh, this is how it is. I need to send this thing back or I just need to deal with it. We're going to move on. This is what is really true about this thing. So we're just going to be right from here
[00:40:54] even though I was wrong up till now. And sometimes we can do that. It's kind of like when you're in school and you have all those special days and it's crazy hair day and you
[00:41:06] get everything all done and it looks really ridiculous and you're so proud of it and you show up and today's not crazy hair day. Not. But you are crazy hair day and you have to walk around
[00:41:19] like that all day or it's like when you order a coke and you're expecting a little bite when you when you get that first sip something really sweet and what you got was unsweet tea and you're like
[00:41:33] oh that is yeah I hear you that's disappointing that we don't want that or maybe maybe it's like this maybe it's you find out that you know what Santa Claus just isn't the guy I thought he was
[00:41:45] all these years. And now I just don't even want to do Christmas. You know, it could be kind of like that. It's hard for us to kind of overcome that and kind of move on. Eventually we do.
[00:41:56] Eventually we kind of get to things and we move on. But once that picture is in our head, it's a tough adjustment, right? So when we see something in scripture or when we run in
[00:42:10] to something and learn something about God that doesn't exactly line up with what we might have imagined or what we've thought for a really long time, that adjustment can be difficult too. But I'm promising you that Jesus is worth the investigation to find out, was I right? Is this
[00:42:27] right? What's the truth? Find the truth in this matter. Investigate. Ask questions. Go seek it out. It's worth the effort to be right about who Jesus is. In our passage today, we're going to be
[00:42:39] in Matthew chapter 16, verses 13 through 20. And while you're trying to find that, I'll give you just a little bit of context of where we're at.
[00:42:47] If you need help finding that, don't be scared of the table of contents.
[00:42:50] It's there for a reason.
[00:42:52] Be sure that you use that if you need it.
[00:42:54] Matthew is the first book of the New Testament.
[00:42:56] So if that helps out, I hope you can get there quickly.
[00:43:00] As you're looking, just let me tell you this.
[00:43:03] Jesus has already been baptized.
[00:43:04] We're quite a ways into Jesus's ministry.
[00:43:08] John the Baptist baptized him earlier.
[00:43:11] He has done a number of miracles.
[00:43:13] He has preached to vast numbers of people on mountainsides.
[00:43:18] He has spent time discipling the people who are closest to him.
[00:43:24] And he has very recently used miracles of feeding the 5,000 and feeding the 4,000 as an object lesson for his disciples.
[00:43:33] And they're kind of in the midst of a discussion as we jump into our passage today.
[00:43:37] And he's warned them to be very cautious about some of the things that the Pharisees are teaching.
[00:43:44] And he used this picture of the bread as an example.
[00:43:49] And if you want to read that, that's in the passage before what we're picking up on today.
[00:43:53] So today, we've already had all these things happen.
[00:43:55] Where we're at in our conversation, Jesus opens with a question.
[00:44:00] And here's the question that he opens with.
[00:44:05] Verse 13.
[00:44:07] When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is?
[00:44:16] Who do people, Jesus is claiming that title.
[00:44:19] Who do people say that I am?
[00:44:22] What are people saying about me?
[00:44:23] So you think about that today.
[00:44:24] You ask that question amongst friends.
[00:44:27] You ask it at the dinner table.
[00:44:28] You ask it just random people at Walmart.
[00:44:31] Who do people say Jesus is today?
[00:44:33] You get a lot of different answers.
[00:44:34] You get a lot of creative answers.
[00:44:36] And some of them are really close and some of them aren't quite right.
[00:44:39] Here's a couple that I've heard just watching some on the street kind of videos over the last week.
[00:44:44] Jesus is a good teacher.
[00:44:46] I mean, we hear that a lot.
[00:44:49] I heard one, it was a couple days ago.
[00:44:52] Jesus was a nonviolent social change agent.
[00:44:58] I mean, maybe, maybe.
[00:45:02] You could make that argument for me.
[00:45:04] Yeah.
[00:45:06] To some, he is just whatever you believe him to be.
[00:45:10] And if you need encouragement, Jesus is good encouragement.
[00:45:13] If you need, like, somebody to look up to, Jesus is a really good guy.
[00:45:17] If you need somebody to aspire to, Jesus did some really great things.
[00:45:22] You should go do some really great things.
[00:45:25] For others, he's just some other mystical person to be named amongst other mystical spiritual leaders.
[00:45:31] And all of these answers are out there, and you'll hear all kinds of different things.
[00:45:38] Some of these may have some truth in them, but they just don't quite add up to the full picture of who Jesus is when we look at who Jesus is.
[00:45:47] So what did the disciples give as the answer to who do people say that I am?
[00:45:52] Verse 14 tells us what they have found.
[00:45:57] And they said, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
[00:46:04] Now I had to stop for a minute here.
[00:46:07] And we hear this a lot.
[00:46:08] This is familiar.
[00:46:09] I mean, we hear this so often.
[00:46:10] We don't actually stop sometimes to think about what this means.
[00:46:14] And on the outset, when you start to think about this, it might seem a little crazy that this is Jesus and you say that he's one of the prophets who may have come back or you say he's John the Baptist who baptized him
[00:46:28] like they were together at one point.
[00:46:30] Like we saw you guys together and now you're saying he might be John the Baptist.
[00:46:35] That's the one that kind of throws me just a little bit.
[00:46:37] Like in my mind, one of them has to be a time traveler, right, for this thing to happen.
[00:46:41] I mean, it's just got to be.
[00:46:43] But when you look at this, when you really dig into where a lot of this comes from, it's not really absurd like it kind of seems on the surface.
[00:46:51] A lot of this comes from passages in the Old Testament that kind of informed tradition, that kind of got repeated over and over and over and over and over.
[00:47:01] And there was an expectation that Messiah was going to be something different than what actually Jesus showed up to be.
[00:47:08] And it's not too far off.
[00:47:10] off. It wouldn't have been crazy to hear these things. It's wrong. It's the wrong answer. And it doesn't quite give the picture of who Jesus really is. But what this did, it unearthed some expectations about the Messiah that just weren't going to be true. The Jewish people expected a
[00:47:28] Messiah that was going to bring political power, maybe even some wealth, maybe some clout back into the Jewish people. They were looking for something in the here and now. And Jesus came not for that,
[00:47:40] but to redeem lost people for a future in heaven.
[00:47:45] And that's a difference that they just weren't ready for.
[00:47:48] And just like us, when we come into something that we weren't really expecting, like we had a picture in our mind of something and we come to it and it's not exactly what we thought,
[00:47:57] there's some pushback on some of those things.
[00:47:59] And there's pushback in some of this.
[00:48:02] But Jesus doesn't dig too much.
[00:48:04] He just kind of leaves it and kind of lets it be what it is.
[00:48:06] He's looking for the answer and he gets it.
[00:48:09] and then he goes on and he digs a little deeper and he says okay who do you say that i am and peter pipes up peter pipes up and he says verse 15 and 16 but you he asked them who do you say
[00:48:29] that i am simon peter answered you are the messiah the son of the living god peter gets it Peter gets it.
[00:48:38] But check out the next verse.
[00:48:41] Jesus responded, Simon, son of Jonah, you were blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father in heaven.
[00:48:51] It's almost like you can see this small group class happening and Jesus has them all sitting down and he starts with a question and then he digs a little deeper and then he's encouraging them after they answer correctly.
[00:49:04] And he says, you know what?
[00:49:06] you didn't hear this from the people around you good for you for recognizing that I am Messiah son of the living God that didn't come from people around you that was something that was knowledge that God granted you in your heart in your mind and you've accepted it and you've
[00:49:25] proclaimed it good for you then he goes on and Jesus responded we just read we'll jump to 18 and also I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the forces
[00:49:48] of Hades will not overpower it. This phrase is debated a lot and what exactly is it that Christ will build his church on or who exactly is it that Christ will build his church on? There are those
[00:50:07] that say that it's Peter, like Peter is the one who Christ will build his church on. I think when you look at this, I think what we see is Jesus saying, I will build my church on the foundation
[00:50:23] of Peter's claim that I am Messiah, son of the living God. I think that's what we see here. I think there's good evidence for that. If you want to talk about that later, if you've got questions,
[00:50:34] if you're just interested, I would love to dig into a lot of what that is, but I don't have time to do it up here today, but I think there is sufficient evidence to say that we can be confident
[00:50:43] in that. And so Jesus says, Peter, you're right. And on this rock, I will build my church and the forces of Hades will not overpower it. When you go back in Matthew to the Sermon on the Mount,
[00:51:05] Jesus is talking and towards the end of it in chapter seven, he gives a picture of a wise man and a foolish man. And this story is probably familiar to you. The foolish man built his house
[00:51:21] on the what? The foolish man built his house on the sand, right? And the wise man built his house on the rock. And what did Jesus say the rock was in that story? It says like, the wise person
[00:51:38] is the one who hears my words and does what I say. The one who walks in faith, trusting Jesus, obeying Jesus is the wise one. That foundation is crucial. Who is Jesus?
[00:52:01] Who do you say Jesus is? What is your personal claim about the person of Jesus?
[00:52:15] Jesus says right here, I believe that that confession is the foundation. He goes on in verse 19, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth is
[00:52:40] already bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven. When I look at this passage and I read this passage, I can't help but be reminded of what's coming in the early
[00:52:51] life of the church. And I think that's kind of, this is kind of Jesus saying, you don't know what's coming, but I got some good ideas about some really cool stuff that's coming. When you
[00:52:59] look at the beginning of the church after Jesus had been crucified, risen again, he'd spent some time with the disciples and some other people. He ascended to heaven. He told the people, he told his disciples to kind of just hang tight and wait, right? Just wait. I'm going to be with my father,
[00:53:17] but I'm going to send help. All right. I'm going to send help. And he did. And when he sent the Holy Spirit, who was it that gave the message that opened the keys, opened the doors of heaven like
[00:53:30] somebody using a key to open heaven to not only the Jews but the Gentiles? It was Peter. Peter was the one at Pentecost that stood and preached to people from all over many different languages and
[00:53:48] every person there heard what Peter was saying in their language. That is something that God did.
[00:53:56] Peter was given the privilege, the responsibility, the opportunity to open the doors of heaven for us.
[00:54:10] Not only did Jesus come for the Jewish people, but Romans tells us that all have sinned.
[00:54:19] And Jesus has come so that anybody who calls on the name of the Lord would be saved.
[00:54:25] This was big news.
[00:54:27] This was a big deal.
[00:54:28] and later on in the early beginnings of the church, there was lots of argument about this very thing. It got fleshed out. It got worked out. And I hope you go read about it. I hope you go
[00:54:42] read all of Acts today. Just go dig in this afternoon and find out what was the early church talking about? Why is this such a big deal? Go find out. It was a really, really big deal
[00:54:56] for these disciples of Jesus to say, you know what? This message is for everybody.
[00:55:05] And that's good news for us. That's really, really good news for us. So let's go back to our little small group, right? Jesus is opened with a question. He digs a little deeper with a second question. He affirms the answer that he gets. He gives some encouragement about some of
[00:55:22] the things that are going to happen in the future. And then the very next thing, unless you've read ahead in our mind is, now go tell everybody I'm the Messiah. No, that's not what he said. He said,
[00:55:33] all right, sit on it. Don't tell anybody. God has revealed this to you. I am confirming this. I am the son of God, the Messiah, the one sent to save the lost, the one sent to die for your sins. He's,
[00:55:49] he is the guy, but I don't want you to tell anybody yet. Jesus had more that he needed to do.
[00:55:56] there were more things that had to fall in place there were more miracles as you read through the book of Matthew that are going to happen there are more pictures that he needs to give people
[00:56:05] before all of the turmoil starts when the religious leaders can put to paper that Jesus is claiming to be God once that happens we see some events being triggered that lead to the cross. He said, it's not time for that yet. I just want you to wait. I just want you to wait.
[00:56:31] Fast forward to now, we're not being told to wait. We're not being told to wait at all. Jesus wants you to scream it from the mountaintops. When you go to the very end of Matthew and you look at the
[00:56:49] end of Matthew chapter 28 verse 19, you find another verse that's very familiar. It's go into of the nations, preach, baptize, teach people about who I am, right? Teach people here, teach your neighbors, teach people in your region, teach people all around the world that I am the Messiah,
[00:57:09] the Son of God, the one who's came to save the lost. And we are under that directive. That is our job. We are the ones who get the privilege of being in relationship with Jesus, that get the
[00:57:23] privilege of being able to approach God anytime we want to, just because we have a question or we have a concern or we want to share how much he means to us, or, or we just want to just break
[00:57:35] down and, and just reach out and say, help, whatever it is, we have the authority because of Jesus sitting at the right hand of the father as our high priest to have access to God at any
[00:57:52] moment. All God asks of us is that we would recognize the sin in our life, that we would admit there's nothing that we can do because of that sin to fix our relationship with him.
[00:58:06] And because of what Jesus did, we trust that he would fix that relationship based on his sacrifice on the cross and his love for us. And he wants you to live your life like that really means something.
[00:58:21] Live your life based on what he says is right, based on what he says we should do. And when we run into something where I feel like I need to do this, but scripture says I need to approach it
[00:58:34] this way, then we leave what I think because it doesn't matter and we do what scripture says is right. As we mature in our faith, we're going to run into those situations. I pray that you run
[00:58:48] into those situations because it means you're taking your faith seriously and you're trying to do what God wants. When you run into a situation where I have always thought that I should do this, and to me, it seems right that we should do this, but scripture says that this is
[00:59:12] the right way to go. Then we do what scripture says. That could be very, very many different things in your life. That could be a stance on an issue. That could be the way you raise your kids.
[00:59:28] That could be the language that you use on a regular basis.
[00:59:31] That could be the things that you watch.
[00:59:33] It could be any number of things.
[00:59:34] If God has called your attention to it, recognize it, surrender it, and begin to do it His way.
[00:59:56] Now that we have this new directive to go and to tell, I want to remind you that we're doing that all week this week.
[01:00:04] We're going to be doing it as we have a chance to with Bible school.
[01:00:08] I see a lot of faces whose names aren't on that list yet.
[01:00:12] really, if you're looking for somewhere to serve, we would love to offer you the opportunity to speak Jesus into the life of some kids this week. So we're going to spend some time teaching them exactly this, that Jesus is Messiah, the perfect, powerful, proven son of God,
[01:00:31] that Jesus is God's plan for forgiveness so that we can have a relationship with him.
[01:00:38] as emily comes and gets ready to help us with our invitation i just want to challenge you with a couple things this morning some of you have lived and walked with jesus for a long time
[01:00:54] maybe you've forgotten the weight that sin bears on you because jesus has been carrying that view for a while spend some time just thanking him for that just spend some time with jesus today just
[01:01:12] just thanking him for his forgiveness, thanking him that we get to look back on the story completed and written. I mean, we've got all of it here. When we think about the disciples and the people they were talking to, they were living it out and looking for things. They didn't have
[01:01:33] the whole picture. Some of you know exactly who Jesus is, and you know the sin he's calling you to leave behind and you've been resisting it for you this morning i want to challenge you to name
[01:01:50] that sin some of those questions i would say your investigation needs to start with who jesus said he is so start with scripture what did the people around jesus say about him who did they believe
[01:02:04] him to be start there see what the actual claims of jesus and the people who loved him are from there, write lots of questions down and come talk to somebody. We've got lots of leaders here. You
[01:02:18] may know very mature Christians in your life. Talk to them. Find somebody you trust that loves Jesus who will walk with you through this and help you find real answers. Jesus is not afraid of your
[01:02:33] questions. If you're looking for truth, that's always going to lead to him and he knows that.
[01:02:37] so ask away ask away find the answers and some of us some of you you may know somebody who is confused about who jesus is and you know that they are because you see it in their life
[01:03:05] you hear it when you have conversations you hear it when you talk about important issues some of you need to just be praying for that person and be willing to help them find those answers. Sometimes that can be hard, but it starts with you acknowledging that and talking to God.
[01:03:41] So as Emily plays for just a little bit, you talk to God about whatever he's talked to you about today. If he's challenged you with something, acknowledge it. If you don't think he has, ask him what that might be. Just spend some time talking to him. In a few moments, Emily's going
[01:04:04] to start singing, and we would ask that you would stand and join us in that as we celebrate who God is before we leave this place today church's pastor chris said we're just going to spend a

[01:04:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[01:04:25] moment in our seats or maybe even up at the altar what he challenged us to do so he's right up there if you maybe need someone to pray with or if you just need to spend a quiet moment at your seat
[01:04:43] being obedient and listening for the lord's voice that's how we're going to spend the next few

[01:04:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:04:48] help us to see you clearly the voices that try to pull us in lots of different directions

[01:09:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:09:37] God help build our expectations of you based out of scripture and not based out of tradition not based out of who others say that you are not based out of what we want in life but God
[01:09:50] in who God give us a burning desire to tell other people about who you are help us to to see the need of forgiveness in other people's lives Jesus it's in your name that we pray all right don't
[01:10:07] forget two things heading out don't forget to sign up for the spaghetti dinner on your way out and also those deacon nominations are really important spend some time praying about those things and that handout i think is in your bulletin if you're ready you can go ahead and
[01:10:20] drop that but i would encourage you to spend some time praying about it thank you guys