How To Maximize The Moment | Matthew 10:16-33 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor
Grand Parkway Baptist Church


How To Maximize The Moment
Matthew 10:16-33

1. There is a purpose for the sending, v. 16
Here Jesus says three things...
a)be wise- intelligent, wise
b)be innocent- to be unmixed
c)beware- to turn your mind or attention to, focus on

2. There is a reason for the experience, v. 18
Two things we have to understand in this verse...
a)“for my sake”
b)“to bear witness"
3. Practice received speech, v. 19-20
4. Hardship reveals the quality of all relationships, v. 21-22
5. To be Christlike is to suffer, v. 24-25
• Hebrews 5:7-10

Three things about suffering...
a)Suffering is a reflection of our identity- “although he was a son...”
b)Suffering is painful learning- "he learned obedience"
c)Suffering accomplishes things in us that nothing else can- “And being made perfect...”
6. Don’t waste your fear, v. 26-33

Mental worship...
1. Would you consider yourself “unmixed” in relation to evil?
2. What have you learned from your suffering?
3. When is the last time you experienced “received speech?”
4. How has hardship affected the quality of your relationships?
5. What has to happen in your life for you to acknowledge Jesus in any and all circumstances
before anybody?
6. Do you waste your fear? If so, on what?

Be sure to follow us:

Instagram

Facebook

Youtube

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

When you're the minority with a microphone and you've got the majority for an audience, I want you to say, Jesus says the same thing about me, then as you say about me when it's easy. If the circumstances of your life alter what you say about Jesus, you are denying Jesus before men. And more importantly, you're denying men and women the opportunity to learn about Jesus. Because if Jesus is only, if you only believe in Jesus when it's easy, and then when it gets hard, you deny him. You never believed in him to begin with.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Amen. Amen. Let's pray together, church. Lord, when we sing uh things like that, that heaven and earth are going to be one, it reminds us what Revelation says, that the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Your kingdom is coming, your will's being done on earth as it is in heaven. Just like you said, Jesus. And so I pray that that would increase our capacity to trust you with all the other things in our life when we see the things that you've done and the things that you are doing. Lord, take away our ability to fear things that we feared when we walked in this room today. And teach us to fear what the only person worth fearing today. Holy Spirit, say something that has our name on it. This is our prayer. We pray in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen, amen. You could have a seat. If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it. Open up to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. Matthew's the first book of the New Testament. He's one of the guys that hung out with Jesus. And after that, he sat down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and kind of said, Hey, I want to record because I want other Christians to know what this was like. And so we're preaching through the book of Matthew. We do not preach topical sermons here. We preach what's called expository sermons. We basically go through a book of the Bible so you can see the scope and the sequence of everything that Jesus was all about. And so let me give you the context of what we're going to read. Jesus has been up to this point, the past couple chapters, Jesus has been the kind of show and tell, he's been showing the disciples, these are all the things and people I have authority over. So you don't have to live in fear. And now he's transferred the responsibility to them, and he said, Hey, you're going to go out and do what you've you've what you've been seeing me do, okay? And so this is the context. Matthew chapter 10. I'll start reading in verse 16. I want to talk to you this morning about how to maximize the moment. How to maximize the moment. What do you mean by that? Here's what I mean. You and I are going to be in circumstances where people need to hear something more than we need to get out of the situation we're in. Let me say that again. You're going to be in circumstances and situations, not of your own making, where it's not going to feel good to you, but the people that you're before, they need to hear something out of you, something about God and Jesus and the faith out of you more than you need to get out of that situation. Translation, they need the truth more than you need relief. So Matthew chapter 10, I'll start reading verse 16. He says, Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you'll be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over when they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and the children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you'll be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in the town, flee to the next. For truly I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is, excuse me, it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If they call the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household? So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, or not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father? But even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So, everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my father who's in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my father who is in heaven. What does it mean to maximize the moment? I want to point to a few things from the text that help us to do that. Number one, you have to understand that there's a purpose for the sending. There is a purpose for the sending. Here he sends the disciples out. He says, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. He's sending you and I to different circumstances and situations, and there's always a purpose for everything that God does. So there is a purpose to the sending. Now, up to this point, that's not the question. The really quite the question is not, Am I being sent? The question is, Am I prepared? Am I equipped? Am I ready? This is why all through the passage, Jesus is saying, be wise, be ready, be calm, be enduring, be mindful. And here in verse 16 and 17, he says three things. He says, Be wise, be innocent, and beware. Be wise, be innocent and beware. What do you mean? Be wise. Be wise is not, don't be a know-it-all. No one likes that person, okay? It's not just knowledge, it's wisdom, is the application of knowledge. He says, be wise as serpents. And then he says this, be innocent as doves. Now, the Bible was originally written in Greek, and so sometimes if you hear me say, well, what this means in the Greek, that's why I'm saying that, okay? Because it says be innocent. Now we hear the word innocent, like be innocent, and most of us in this room were like, fat chance. Too late for that. Here's what that word means in the Greek. The word innocent is the Greek, and it the Greek word means unmixed, okay? To be unmixed. Romans chapter 16, verse 19 says it like this. He says, Be excellent at what is good and be innocent as to what is evil. So be unmixed. Do not let evil kind of get in you and kind of taint. So when he says, hey, be excellent, but be innocent, he says, be wise, be innocent as doves, he's saying, Hey, be unmixed. This is why a dove is a symbol of peace. Because when you get mixed up on the inside and you're trying to do the right thing and you got some wrong things in you, you will not feel peace at all. If you want to see how what I mean by being unmixed, go home today, pick up your remote to your TV, and flip through every channel in your cable package. And then just ask yourself, hey, can I watch this? Can I be exposed to this and not get mixed up kind of on the inside? This is the way he's saying, hey, be unmixed, okay? And then he says, beware. Beware, what do you mean? Beware of men. Notice the Bible tells us to beware but not to be afraid. Now, beware. Here's a great Greek word. It's praseho. Praseo. Look at me, not proseco. That's what you're gonna sip at brunch today. Okay? This is praseho. Hear this, parents, especially, okay? Students going back to school tomorrow or Tuesday, hear this. It means to turn your mind to, pay attention to, and focus on. The Bible tells us to turn our mind towards people and pay attention so that when we get that little gut hunch, we have a sense. And we've all had that experience before. You know what I'm talking about? Well you're around somebody and they're talking, and you're like, why am I hearing things in my head that I think I'm supposed to be saying? Or maybe, maybe the spirit's kind of warning me about this person. You sense something, but you didn't say something, and then two weeks later, what you sensed but didn't say, it happens. Here's how you know you had that hunch. Your first thought is, and sometimes you say it out loud, I knew it. I knew it. And your friend's like, why didn't you say something? I don't know, but I knew it. You didn't know because if you know, you're gonna say something. No, I knew it. Stop trying to convince people what you knew, and just learn to trust what the spirit's revealing and speak up in that moment. You say, Well, what do you what do you mean? Here's here you go, parents. Uh, after about two weeks of school, when you're sitting down at dinner, just ask your kids, hey, is there anybody your spirit tells you, hey, keep your mind let's let's watch that person with our mind. Watch out for this person. She could make your sophomore year really hard. Hey, he could make your junior year really difficult. Let's be cautious about him. We're not judging anybody, but we are we Jesus said beware of men, and he said, beware of men for a reason, all right? Now, here's some bonus round material. If you have a history of short, intense, traumatic friendships or relationships that don't last and they leave you doubting yourself, it's probably because you're not turning your mind towards people like you should. You are overlooking things instead of looking at things. Does that make sense? Say amen. Don't let that shape how you think about yourself. You've got to learn to trust what you sense and what you know. Here's the second thing, and we're going to maximize a moment. You've got to embrace that there's a reason for the experience. So, number one, there's a purpose for the sending. Secondly, there's a reason for the experience. There's a difference in purpose and reason, and it's this purpose looks forward to an outcome. Reason looks back at an explanation. Purpose looks forward to an outcome. Reason looks back at an explanation. Why are you telling us that? Because sometimes only in looking back can you see the reason. Sometimes, this is why the phrase is so popular. Hindsight is what? 2020. And it's never been to the eye, doctor. Because only in looking back, sometimes, oh, okay, this is this is why that happened. Now, there's two things right here in verse 18 that I want I don't want you to miss, okay? Jesus says, Beware of men, they'll deliver you over to the court and flog you in their synagogues, and you'll be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness. Now, there's those six words right there can reframe most things in your life if you let them. Let me say it again. You gotta understand, he says, for my sake to bear witness. Let me take them and break them in half. Two little three-word groupings for my sake. Sake here means cause. So what Jesus is saying, like, let me say something crazy. Not all experiences in your life are intended to benefit you. Let me say it again. Not all experiences in your life are intended to benefit you. So stop asking, why is this happening to me? Instead, ask, for whom is this happening to me? Because when God really trusts you, he puts you in circumstances and experiences that are for the benefit of somebody else who's watching you. I'll show you that in a minute in the Bible. But hear me now and believe me in about three minutes. Amen? You know, like I'll give you 90 seconds, okay? You say, What do you mean, not all experiences in life are intended for you? Because he says, you're going through this for my sake. Because if you can't, if you think everything's supposed to benefit you, then you're gonna blame God instead of worship God. Because you're gonna get bitter, you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, how could a loving God like this happen to me? Are you serious? It sounds like this. This God and Jesus thing isn't working for me. I'm gonna have to deconstruct my faith. No, for my sake, if you embrace for my sake. So Jesus is saying, you're in this situation for my sake. Stop trying to figure out how it's gonna benefit and bless you. You're doing you're experiencing this to extend the cause of Christ, okay? This is why there's so much uh uh hardship because Christians in America don't practice stewardship. A friend of mine sent me an article yesterday from the New York Times, and it said, stop pathologic pathologizing, pathologizing your ordinary life. And basically what it says is it means is this is that some things happen in life, it's just life. You don't have a mental health disorder, it's just hard sometimes. You get up and you're sad sometimes. I get up some days and I'm wintry. I'm just kind of like, God, Jesus, we're a long way from the garden and the world's full of stupid people. Can we get rid of some of them? I know that's just me. I know it's just me. And I live less than a minute from here, and I'm talking about the red light right here. I'm just like, for the love of God, can some of these people, why are there so many people in the way? But that's just me. Pray for me. I have to embrace, hey, I'm not going through this for my sake because not every experience of my life is intended to benefit me. That's the first phrase you got to embrace for my sake. Here's a second one to bear witness. To bear witness. To bear witness means to give testimony. What are you testifying to? Most of us get in a situation where we could really bear testimony, we could really give a testimony to the sufficiency of Jesus. I'm not getting my way, but God's gonna get glory. We get in that situation and we go all Anthony Fauci all 111 times on the advice of counsel. I I I plead my belly. The fifth, come on, man. We read your diary. You can't plead nothing. Whoa, hey, listen, if you're a man that old and you're writing about yourself in a diary, you got bigger problems than COVID. That is all I'm gonna say. Because I was like, whoa, oh, this is sad. Now, by the way, okay? To bear witness. And he says this he says you're gonna be dragged before governors and kings. Listen very carefully. Uh, unless Christians, there's some powerful people who are never gonna hear about Jesus unless Christians are willing to get in trouble because you're getting persecuted. You don't want to get in trouble, you don't want to get persecuted, but you get persecuted because you will not back down. Somebody after the first service this morning stopped me and said, Hey, by the way, there's a lawsuit in California. That guy brought a lawsuit to stop Christians from praying in their own homes. Yes, hey, it's coming, folks. You're gonna be drugged before governors and before kings. You might want to own your stuff in a handgun, but I digress anyway. Yes, yes, it's coming because kooky, stupidity, and here's the thing: they expect all you Christians to be nice people and just stand down. Somebody said to me one time, they said, Well, what if there was a situation at your church? I said, I pity the fool that comes to this church. There's too many people in here with a concealed handgun license. And I know who you are right now because you're doing this. What'd you say? Say when. Yeah, yeah. Now, now look, look, if you're visiting today, we're nice people, okay? We ain't out to get anybody, but we're not here for your stupidity either. You're gonna get bust a cap in you, chitty chitty, bang bang. Yeah, before governors and kings. Now listen to this, okay? Again, some governors and kings need to hear about Jesus. How they're gonna hear about it? Because you stand your ground. You're not aggressive, you're not mean, you're not obnoxious, you just you just don't bow down. Now, you said, what do you mean? Sometimes you go through things for other people's sake. Don't turn there, but in Daniel chapter 3 in the Old Testament, there's a story of these three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the three friends of Daniel, they got thrown into the fiery furnace, okay? And so what happened was there was a guy named Nebuchadnezzar, king, who said, Listen, I'm gonna make an idol. You better bow down and be politically correct, and we're gonna throw you in the fire. And these cats were like, tell you what, boss, you stoke it up all you want. We our God's able to save us, and even if he does it, we're not gonna worship what you morons worship. And he was so incensed because they expect everybody to tell you, put on mask, shut down your schools and churches, do what we say. I work for Big Pharma, but let's overlook that. So we're to hide now. We done read your diary. You narcissistic little weasel, but I digress anyway. Yes, that's what they told them. They said, Hey, you gotta do this, you gotta do this. And they said, if you don't, we're gonna put you in the furnace. And they said, Put us in there. Listen to this. Testify. Our God is able, and even if he does it, we won't bow down and worship that. They drove him crazy. He threw him in the fire. And I didn't like, yeah, now let's look in on there. And they're in there kind of waving, hey man, turn it up. I need to sweat off some of this baby fat. And he turns to one of his people and says, Hey, did we put how many we put in there? They said, Three. There's four. Where'd the fourth man in the fire come from? And then they brought him out and they said, they're not even the smell of smoke on them. They're like, man, we love that son. Can we do that again tomorrow? Book me, book me an hour. And look at this. Hey, look at here. Here's the we preachers miss this part. Here's the best thing Nebuchadnezzar said: four words. Come out and come here. Come out, because sometimes you're in a situation not for your sake, but for the sake of Christ. So kings and governors can say, Hey man, come out and come here. And then he said this. Oh, by the way, your God is the one true God. And then Nebuchadnezzar, the king, he passes a decree and says, Hey, everyone's got to worship this their God. Hey, you can't force people. Now, if you're visiting today, what you'll notice is that we're not heavy-handed, we don't use guilt, manipulation, we're not gonna dim the lights and hum kumbaya and tell scary stories. Why? Because you can't force anybody into a faith relationship with Christ. We can teach the truth in such a way that God reveals Himself to you and you want that. And you become a person that goes through hardship, and people watch you and they say, Hey, come out and come here. It sounds like this. Hey man, can you have lunch on Tuesday? What they're really saying is, come out and come here. I want to know the God that you know because see, if God is not sovereign, and here's something they understood, but if God is not sovereign, then everything lacks purpose and nothing has a reason to it. And we're just here to endure the willy-nilly experiments of a capricious higher power that we talk about in AA. However, if God is sovereign, then all things have a purpose and there are no maverick molecules in the universe. Here's the third thing you've got to embrace. You gotta practice receive speech. You gotta practice receive speech. Like, where'd you get that? Verse 19. When they deliver you over, not if, or on the outside possibility, the distinct, not when they deliver you over. Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. This is this is what I call received speech. You have to practice received speech. You got to distinguish between the gift of prophecy and received speech. Because a lot of people are like, Why don't you gift of prophecy? No, he's talking about. He's talking about received speech. One is a gift, that's prophecy. Received speech is a responsibility. Most people practice borrowed speech, not received speech, because what they've heard other people say is less threatening than what God is saying. And sometimes in the moment, God will give you things to say, and you're like, something will come up and you'll push nope. No, again, that might just be me. A while back, I had a brutal, like two weeks of ministry. It's crazy, good, busy. People blowing my phone up. Hey man, summer's over. We did the big vacation, that didn't fix it. We did 4th of July. I probably drank a little too much, that didn't fix it. That was my favorite because it was a woman. Yeah, I was like, what man? She was like, I probably had a little too much red wine. I said, How do you know? She goes, I bought a pack of cigarettes. And I said, Do you smoke? She goes, I hadn't smoked since college. How old are you? I'm 49. Yeah, you drank too much. But anyway, it's just life. By the way, hey, I don't say you'd be perfect. I met some couple, they said, we can't meet till 7:45. He works in the med center, and now we've got to get kids. I said, That's great. And so I was having lunch with a pastor friend of mine. He said, Man, you look tired. I said, I'm exhausted. I am poured out. So don't need anything for me during this lunch. Let's just eat and talk about food and complain about our wives because I got no capacity to help you today. I'm empty. The fuel indicator light is on on the dashboard of my soul. And then he goes, Oh, okay. Let me ask you a question. Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth? And he said, Why are you so tired? And you, I took a breath to tell him how hard it's been the last two weeks. And it's like the Holy Spirit just said, Shut up. You want pity from him or presence from me? And he looked at me, he said, You okay? And I said, I think I'm having a stroke. Hang on a second. See, and he said, I said, it's just crazy. I said, here's the thing: it is a privilege when people ask you for help. And he said, I uh yeah, but you seem like you were starting to say something. I said, I was, but here's what I realized: the Lord will give me more in presence than you could give me in pity, so I'm not gonna settle for your pity today. I want your pity. Because if I started telling you about the past two weeks, you'd probably pay for lunch. You know the worst people that troll for pity, people in ministry. Tell me how tired it is, how hard it is, and boy. And he said, Yeah, I'm tired too. I mean, I mean, I can't wait till four o'clock to get here every day. You quit, you, you, you, you work till four. Hey man, Dolly Parton, think about it, nine to five, bro. What are y'all doing over here? He said, Yeah, in the summer we go home early every day. I just pulled out my phone, texting Wade Burgess. Wade is our executive pastor. He's the tight-lipped one you see in the lobby walking around like this. Like he's a predator on crack or something. Like one of those little small dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Yeah, yeah. I say, hey man, so-and-so church, they go home at four o'clock. Good for them. We work till five every day. Any other questions? Just checking. Just checking. I walked away from lunch. We had lunch over an hour. I gotta go, I got an appointment. Walk in the parking lot. He goes, Man, I really want to know how to pray for you. Can you tell me anything about your two week? I can tell you this I get more from God's presence than I do from your pity. I don't need your pity, man. I am blessed. I am so honored, I get to do what I do. That's received speech. Now I've since saw him. He Me a text, he said, hey man, that messed me up in a good way. Thanks for thanks for that. I said, Why? He said, I think I troll for my people's pity. Most people in ministry do. And your people get sick of it. See, the issue is not can we trust God to give us words to say as much as can God trust us to say what he wants said. Ladies, can you imagine a guy kind of rolling up on you? Hey, mama, let me holler at you. Just here's received speech. I pray to Jesus, I could be a woman for six months. I ain't trans, but I can fix a lot of fools. See, I want to say crazy stuff like, you know what? I think if I dated you, I would hate myself, so walk away. Oh, I would relish that. I would see you coming and be like, no, no. You're bringing Kool-Aid to a gin party. Go away. But anyway, here's the fourth thing you gotta understand. You still with me say amen. Here's the fourth thing you gotta understand. Hardship reveals the quality of all relationships. You're like, what? Hardship reveals the quality of all relationships. Verse 21, look at it. Like, where are you getting this right out of the Bible? Brother will deliver brother over to death. The father, his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Hardship reveals the quality of all relationship. Now I know, look at me, people in the section right here. I know that sometimes I say stuff and I see y'all looking at each other like this guy, really? I shave my legs for this. Hardship reveals the quality of our relationship. Let me bring it down to where you live, okay? This is why couples who've been married a long time have a different thoughts about your wedding than your bridesmaids do. Have you been to a wedding in the past two years? Say amen. Yeah, here's what happens. You get married, that's great, and then you have cocktail hour where they serve watered-down drinks, and you make us wait two hours while you take pictures, okay? And all if you've been married more than 20 years in this room, say amen. Here's what these people are thinking. They just said amen. While y'all have to take pictures, they're thinking, y'all gonna look at them pictures maybe five times in your entire life. You gotta be waiting two hours to eat a cold dinner. You better get back in here, get this thing going. And then you come back and your bridesmaids, they all, at your wedding party, the DJ's like, hey folks, the wedding party's coming back. Get on your feet, wave your napkin, blah, blah, blah. And then they come in and you think you're doing something we've never seen. Like they come in, they stop, and then they've seen it. Please stop. Now, look at me. That's when you can tell, look at me. Ah, uh, look at me. Here's what people have been married more than 20 years realize that you don't. It's not the best days that shape your relationship, it's the worst days. This is why people have been married a long time. Your old knucklehead friends come in. Hey, hey, here's Skippy and Lucy. Like, I'm gonna go get refresh my drink. Hey, man, you got any crown royal up in here? You got someone on the top shell? I'll take middle shell, whatever. We're not hating on you, we're not saying, oh, that's crazy. We're just saying, hey, it ain't the good days that shape your marriage. It's the bad days. Marcy and I got married in January of '93, May of '93, like what's that? January, February, March, April, five months later. I was in the Rat Recreation Aerobic Center, seminary, playing, waiting to play, pick up basketball. I had a shirt to bus driver. Wow, I'm gonna take all you fools to school. We got we got next. Here we go. I'm standing there. Guy comes in on crutches, got a big brace from here to his ankle. What happened? I tore my ACL. $17,800. My wife's got a good job. Insurance paid for it all. 30 minutes later, I'm rishing on the floor like Gumby. I tore my ACL, uh, tore my MCL, and tore up my meniscus. We didn't have insurance. I had to go to John Peter Smith County Hospital in Fort Worth. That's where they send the people from the jail. But in God's providence, I remember his name was Kevin. And he was, yeah, he said, Yeah, I'm finishing up. I'm fixing to go to a residency with Dr. James Andrews. Google that name. He's the guy that works on all the professional athletes. And he said, Hey, I'm you're not what I normally usually get a bunch of old people and drunks and prisoners. Thanks for acknowledging I'm not. And he said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a new procedure on you. Man, this is great. He did spend a night in the hospital. My wife comes to pick me up. I mean, she's like, oh my gosh, uh we get my my car was I had a car like four years old at the time, but it was doing this spitting and sputtering thing. You couldn't figure it out, wouldn't do it all the time. We're loaded up, my wife's overwhelmed, we're driving home from the hospital, we're coming up to a red light, blum, blum, blum, bl, and he just dies. Marcy breaks down crying. I'm like, on morphine. You got any more than pills? I feel some pain coming on. My wife's melting down. A cop pulls up behind us on his PA. Hey folks, can you move it out of the intersection? Really? You idiot? You think we chose this? My wife's crying. He just starts pushing, he has the push paddle in front of his car. He starts pushing us through the intersection. We get going, we get home. I'm just like, oh babe, I'm so sorry. We're gonna get through the I know, I'm so sorry. And I'm like, I can't walk. My wife can't stop crying. What's going on here? Four days later, I had to go start paying for that. By the way, it wasn't seven. I went to a county hospital, it was only like $15,280. Had my piece of paper, my crutches. I go up there, I'm waiting in a room full of people that you don't want to be around. And they called Mr. McLennan. I walked up and she said, Okay, uh, you're gonna hear to start your payment. Yeah, how much money do you have today? And as I'm I said, uh $42. She goes, give me $40. She goes, Are you a seminary student? I said, Yes, ma'am. She goes, Are you up on the hill? That's what people in Fort Worth call seminary. I said, Yeah, I'm at Southwestern. She goes, Okay, all right. Grab this big silver stamping thing and went, go chunk, and handed it to me. And she goes, Enjoy your ministry. I looked down, I said, paid in full. I threw them crutches down. Let's get up out of here now. I went home, I just put that on the table. I said, Hey, God has not abandoned us, honey. Our car may not work, but my leg is going too. Now, here's the best part. Because they didn't have to pay that, took my car to the deal the next day. Some old boy, I love these kind of people. These are my people. Look like he maybe went to the eighth grade, come walking out. He goes, What does it do? And I say, Well, it kind of spits and sputters, isn't it? Maybe a full pump, fuel pump. He said, Nah, it's your second gear switch on your transmission, maybe about $157 for tax. That's exactly what it was. See, when we don't trust God at work, everything becomes everything's cancer, nothing's measles. Oh my gosh, this is horrible. And then you take matters into your own hands. See, hardship reveals the quality of all relationships. Here's a little marriage homework for you, men. Change what you say to each other. Because I had to sleep in a separate room, have my leg all propped up, my wife waiting on me hand and foot. That part wasn't bad, by the way. But it realized in that moment, by the grace of God, five months in, it's one thing to say I love you to your wife. It's another thing to say I need you. Uh-oh, I lost you there, didn't I mean? Yeah. So here's what I want you to do. That little three word for I love you, I want you to put a different word in that middle. You can say I love you, but if you've been married, especially over 20 years, I love you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right. Well, you should. I bore your children, you knucklehead, and I put up with your nonsense. Start putting words in there like, I need you, I respect you, I admire you. And every once in a while, ladies, you put in there, I resent you. That's a wake-up call to us. What'd you say? Yes, yeah. If all you do is say to each other, I love you, you're you're on cruise control. You're not feeling it. Here's the fifth thing to be Christ-like is to suffer. To be Christ-like is to suffer. If you're gonna maximize the moment and not spit the bit, you gotta embrace to be Christ-like is to suffer. Where do you get that? Verse 24. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and a servant like his master. It is enough. You are not above. It is enough. What do you mean? We think Christ suffered so we wouldn't have to. No, Jesus Christ suffered so we would know how to. This is why I say to be Christ-like is to suffer. Pay attention to the little words like above and enough. We're not above Jesus. We want to think we're above Jesus. Here Jesus is saying, You're not above me, you're below me, so that you can be like me when suffering finds you. Okay? The Bible says it like this in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 7. He says, In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. Hear that part. He was heard. Why is that a big deal? Because sometimes you pray and you're not getting what you want. You're like, well, God's not hearing me. Look at me. Yes, he is. He's just saying no. He was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And so to summarize, God was able to save him, God heard him, he was God's son, and yet God didn't save him. Why? Because he was saving you and qualifying Jesus as your high priest. You say, now I can get one of those. What's the other one? He was qualifying Jesus as your high priest. Every once in a while you'll come across a cynic, an atheist, and an agnostic or somebody. I've run into many of them over the years. And they say, Oh, so you believe Jesus was perfect? Yes, yes. Now why does the Bible say in Hebrews and being made perfect? If he was perfect, how could he be made perfect? And I'm like, okay, this is the best you got. This is your one bullet, Barney. You're pulling this out? Yeah, perfection here doesn't refer to Jesus' morality, okay? It refers to his completeness. Him being perfected, complete, made whole. In other words, look at me. I say it like this. Jesus had to suffer so that when you suffer, you're praying to a God who relates to your suffering. He suffered so he could be a complete and the full, he could have the full experience of humanity and so he could be your high priest, which is why the Bible says we do not have a high priest who cannot associate with our sufferings. But he was in the same way tempted as we were, and yet without sin. Here's three things about suffering you want to embrace. Number one, suffering is a reflection of our identity. It's a reflection of our identity. Although he was a son, he was a son. He learned obedience to what he suffered. So it's a reflection of your identity. Secondly, suffering is painful learning. It's painful learning. It says he learned obedience to what he suffered. It's hard to learn from suffering if you're always trying to get out of what God wants to walk you through. Instead of asking, why isn't this over? Just ask this different question. What have I not learned yet? Lord, what's still for me to learn here? And here's the third thing: suffering accomplishes things in us that nothing else can. He was made complete. Suffering accomplishes in us things that nothing else can. Am I saying you should go out and desire to suffer? Not at all. Look at me though. I am saying you're going to suffer as a Christian. And when you do, what are you going to acknowledge about God? This is what the text is about today. One last thing. You still with me? Say amen. Here's the last thing. If you're going to maximize the moment, don't waste your fear. Don't waste your fear. Look at verse 26. He says, I love this. Jesus is so funny. So, in conclusion, have no fear of them. The disciples are like, say what? You just told us you're sending us out as sheep among wolves, and they're going to drag us before kings and governors. And we're going, well, come on, man. What? He says, So have no fear of them. For nothing is covered that will be revealed or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops, and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, he's talking about kings and governors. Look at this. But rather, he's talking about himself. Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father, but even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. Look at me. The reason you fear is because you don't understand your value. You've outsourced your value to whoever you're dating right now. And that's why fear is so prevalent in us nowadays. That's why there's such a mental health crisis. It's like, oh my gosh, I can't blah, blah, blah. Hey, you should understand your value. And you should never spend time with somebody who does not understand and recognize and respect your value. Because if you do, you're inviting fear into your life. So when I say don't waste your fear, here's what I mean: any fear that is not put towards Jesus is wasted fear, and wasted fear only increases your experience of fear and the power fear has over you. There's two little words, there's the same word twice, and the word is so. Verse 26 and verse 32. He says, So, have no fear of them. We just talked about that, okay? See, what leverages this ability is again knowing your value. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. And then in verse 32, he says, This so, this is the concluding statement of the whole section. So, everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my father who's in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my father who's in heaven. The word acknowledges, one less word to learn today. Acknowledges is the Greek word homologeo. Homologeo, and it means this to say the same thing about. So what we can't miss here today is that Jesus is saying that when the heat is on, when it gets hard, when you're being treated unfairly, when your boyfriend cheats on you, your girlfriend breaks up with you, when you're the minority with a microphone and you've got the majority for an audience, I want you to say, Jesus says the same thing about me, then as you say about me when it's easy. If the circumstances of your life alter what you say about Jesus, you are denying Jesus before men. And more importantly, you're denying men and women the opportunity to learn about Jesus. Because if Jesus is only, if you only believe in Jesus when it's easy, and then when it gets hard, you deny him. You never believed in him to begin with. This is what Jesus is saying. He's like, hey man, when it's easy, I mean, how hard is that? This is why chapter 7 is so, verse 21, so jarring for people. He says, Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, will not cast out demons in your name, perform many miracles. Hear what Jesus says. He says, I will tell them plainly. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. You you said one thing about me when it was good, but when it was hard, you said a totally different thing. You didn't acknowledge me before men. I put you before, I put you in hardship before people so they could see my sufficiency. And you split the bit. You said, No, man, that God thing isn't working for me anymore. And this is the essence of what the Bible's saying to us today. Don't waste your fear on people. Jesus says, fear me. I close with one question. Simply this. Does what you say about God, does it change based on how well your life is going? Because if people think, oh, God's this, one day he's good, and one day he's bad, and one day he's sovereign, and one day he's not listening, blah, blah, blah, then why should anybody believe in that God? Why should you believe in that God? I wouldn't want to believe in that God. But if there is a God in this world, and there is, and hear this He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, then why would you not want to believe in that God? In a world of so much uncertainty, why would you not want to link your life with that much certainty? Let's pray together. If you're our guest today, just relax. We like to teach what the Bible actually says, and then we give you some soul space to think about it. So questions come on the screen. We'll talk about those in our community groups. You can take a picture with your phone. That's but right now just ask the Lord, hey, what have my name on it today? What I need you to think about a little bit. Let's just think for like a minute. Lord, that's our simple prayer today. Is that we acknowledge that you are our everything, so we ask you to be our everything. People are gonna disappoint us. And teach us not to take that personally, but also we're gonna we're gonna turn our mind towards them and we're gonna mark this. Not because we're judgmental, but we deserve better. That's why we're gonna beware of men, beware of women, beware of other 11th grade girls who can be mean. Oh man, they can be mean. We're not here to hate, but we're also not here to take it. And so, Holy Spirit, thank you for the truth. Let it wake us up and equip us for what is to come. Because when we're put before kings and governors, we want to smile and we want to respond in such a way that they say, Come out and come here. I want to know the God that you know. This is evangelism in the Bible, and we want that to be our experience. So we ask for it in Jesus' name when everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

Thank you for listening to this message. Be sure to give us a five star rating and review and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you'd like to go deeper with our sermon content, you can hear more on our Circling Back with Neil McClendon podcast at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.