Good morning, church.
It's great to be here with all of you.
Uh, it's a treat.
I want to thank the Stephensons, the whole staff, the Willis's for inviting
Michelle and I to be here with you guys.
Um, I love this ministry.
I've only been here really a few times and back when I had the hope hat on and,
uh, and, and, and preaching for the poor.
Um, so many people in this ministry have been so generous.
To hope worldwide and to helping the poor and have signed up and gone all
over the world serving and I'm so grateful for that, but I love you guys.
Great to be here this morning.
Let me see if my slide thingy works.
I don't know if that's the official name.
Okay, slide thingy.
All right.
So first of all, greetings from Metro.
All right.
It's the Metro region.
For those of you who don't know, Metro Uh, my wife and I moved up
here, uh, up here being the L.
A.
area, uh, about four years ago, almost four years ago.
And, uh, uh, to really jump in and help out in Metro.
Metro was going through a very difficult time.
Um, they had gone through a very painful split, division in leadership, uh,
difficult times, a lot of dysfunction.
And, like any church, filled with wonderful, amazing people.
And, uh, we, we were called, as Steve was talking about being called, we were called
to come here and be part of that family.
And we've had such a great time at Metro.
We have, we have recovered.
We have rehealed.
And we've still got a long ways to go, but we're on our way to being
a healthy, happy, Growing dynamic church that God has called us to be.
So please keep us in your prayers, but I also see that we've contributed
here to Sumoge and Sanchez Padillas , and oh, we got some people
here that, uh, uh, you guys have kidnapped and taken away from us.
And I know you want the Keys but you can't have 'em all right.
You can't have 'em.
But no, we, we, we obviously share a bond.
We are all family.
Uh, it's great to be here.
Um, I also bring you greetings from the Carrillos.
This is Michelle and I's crew.
Um, our little, uh, our little growing clan.
Our little growing tribe.
We're trying to have kids and, and they're trying to have grandkids.
And, or kids for them and grandkids for us.
And, you know, our, our little, our little tribe is growing.
You know, that's the Mexican retirement plan.
Have lots of kids.
And then they can take care of you, right?
That's the plan.
So we're like, come on, have some more babies.
Let's go.
Let's keep going here.
Uh, well, you know, part of us coming here was really, uh, God's
design, uh, because, uh, I was able to enroll at Fuller Seminary.
And, uh, Michelle and I just completed, we just had spiritual birthdays this year.
Michelle turned 42 and I turned 40 as Christians.
Okay, spiritual birthday, right?
Not, not, not years of life.
But, um...
And, you know, I've been on a journey, we've been on a journey together
of trying to figure things out.
How to be a healthy church.
How to be a healthy disciple.
How to be a strong Christian.
How to, how to do it right.
How to learn from our mistakes.
How to grow through the things we've messed up in.
How to change as we get, how to be the best leaders we can be.
Just, how to keep growing and build the church that reflects the kingdom of God.
And that's, that's a great challenge and that's a great, uh,
learning curve, let me tell you.
Um, and I'm, I'm just about to finish my doctorate, Lord willing, I'll be
graduating in March with a doctorate in spirituality and spiritual health.
Um, but you know, we've been at this a long time.
I mean, probably, you know, a good chunk of this room wasn't
even alive 40 years ago, you know.
Probably most of this room.
Um, uh, Steve was just talking about how that song, uh, Men Who Dream,
how many of you were there in Boston?
I said, I'm looking around, most of the people weren't even alive when this
song came out in Boston back in 1989.
Whoa.
Um, you know, I was at, I so appreciate people who've endured
through the decades, who keep serving.
The other day, uh, last week I was in, uh, New York, actually New Jersey.
For the I still see teachers conference and I was sitting there waiting for my
plane to board and of course, you know how they called for those in active
military to please come on board and You saw some soldiers get up there and
I noticed I was sitting right by the gate That when they would check in they
would say thank you for your service to everybody And I thought you know, that's
that's good and right Because these are men and women who put their lives on
the line for us, who serve, who give.
And you know, that's just, God likes that.
That's, God wants us to give honor and respect where it's due.
He calls us to this.
And I was thinking, you know, I, because of our role now in the MLC and helping
out here, I've been talking to a lot of veterans here, spiritual veterans,
a lot of people who've been here for a very long time, serving and giving.
I'd like everybody who's more than 20 years old in the, let's say
more than 15 years old, stand up.
More than 15 spiritually.
Thank you for your service.
I need to look at everybody else look at these people and tell
them thank you for your service.
I know that sometimes Satan likes to play with our minds and likes to discourage us.
But I want to remind you something.
God is not unjust.
He will not forget your work.
And the love you have shown him as you've helped his people
and continue to help them.
We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what
you hope for may be fully realized.
We don't want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and
patience inherit what has been promised.
I think sometimes Satan likes to, you know, make us feel bad about our lives.
I think he specializes in that.
You know, I think about if you've been here 15, 20, 30 years, 40 years plus like
us, that's a lot of missions collections.
That's a lot of special contributions.
That is a lot of sacrificing.
That is a lot of times you chose not to buy a bigger TV or a
newer car or a new furniture set.
And you gave the money to the church.
Or you gave the money to hope, to help somebody that you will never
meet, you will maybe never see.
And maybe never get to hear a thank you from them.
But you gave anyways.
And you didn't do it once.
You did it again, and again, and again.
And still you continue doing it.
God is watching.
God sees that.
God acknowledges that.
Satan likes to feel terrible about ourselves.
Man, you realize how much money you get.
By now you could have a bigger, more beautiful house.
By now you could have a 150 square inch TV.
By now you could do this and that.
But let me tell you something.
As somebody who's traveled all over the world and seen many many of our
churches And seeing how grateful all those disciples are for your
sacrifice, for your faithfulness, for your continued giving again and again.
How many lives have been saved?
How many families have been saved?
How many marriages have been saved?
How many people have food to eat, clothes to wear, and a school to go
to because of your faithful service?
So thank you for your service.
Thank you for your faithfulness.
And I just wanted to recognize that because I think it's really important.
We gotta be at least as good as Delta Airlines, right?
In giving thanks.
So we're gonna jump in to the scriptures here.
Um, let's go to God and pray.
Father God, we are so grateful to you, God.
You have blessed us.
In so many ways, God, you've blessed us with the health that we enjoy with the
family that we have with the opportunities living in this country in this part of
the world with so many blessings, God.
And we thank you, God.
We know that we have everything we have is because of your
love and your generosity, God.
Help us now.
To focus our minds and our hearts on you to set aside the worries
and the distractions of life.
And to just be with you for the next 30 minutes and listen to your scriptures.
To be with you and give you our full attention.
Help us to focus our minds and not multitask.
But to think about you and to think about the words that you've written
down that we're going to read.
And to hear you and to see what you would have us see and to understand
what you want us to understand.
Please bless our time together now.
Bless our Bible study as we study your word in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Um, some of you know, uh, that Michelle and I are involved here as
well as a number of other leaders basically to help the region.
To help OC.
We were invited and asked by a number of members.
We were invited and asked by the staff.
To come and help you guys through some difficulties.
Through some challenges that your church is facing right now.
And they're pretty significant challenges.
They're pretty intense things.
And I understand and I'm very aware that even this morning
I'm speaking to a wide range.
There's some people that are, Man, everything's awesome.
The church is awesome.
The leaders are awesome.
Everything's awesome.
What's the problem?
And then there are some who are working through hurt, who are
working through anger, who are working through frustration.
There are some who feel hopeless and are trying to hang on,
trying to grab on to something.
And there are some that feel very hopeful and are excited about the future.
And so we're a mixed crowd.
And so what do you do when you've got a whole bunch of different
people in different places, but you focus on Jesus and you focus on God
because God will provide the answer for all of us, wherever we are.
So this message, and I, I've been thinking, I'm praying about this
for a while, and I've got about 12 messages, but we'll only do one.
Don't worry.
We'll only do one today.
God loves his people.
God loves us all warts and all.
And He knows us.
He knows our strengths.
He knows our weaknesses.
The title of the sermon today is, uh, what is the title?
It didn't come out there.
Eyes and Ears.
That's the title.
That's the title of the sermon.
Eyes and Ears.
And you'll see what I mean and you'll see why.
So Mark chapter 8.
The disciples have forgotten to bring bread.
They just fed the 5, 000.
Remember that scene?
The disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one loaf
they had with them in the boat.
Be careful, Jesus warned them.
Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.
They discussed this with one another and said, It's because we have no bread.
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, Why are you
talking about having no bread?
Do you still not see or understand?
Are your hearts hardened?
Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear?
This is one of those classic scenes in the scriptures.
And this is, this, and this is quintessential example of Mark's gospel.
Mark's is the raw gospel.
And Mark, yeah, it's, it's, it's the real gospel.
If you like raw and real and authentic, Mark is probably your favorite gospel.
And I remember I was sitting in a class at Pepperdine when I was getting
my, my master's divinity there.
And one of the professors was saying, Mark is the idiots gospel.
And I was like, Whoa, can you say that?
You know?
And he says, because the apostles were idiots and Mark doesn't hide it at all.
I was sitting there thinking, dude, you're going to get
struck by lightning, you know.
But as I read, as I read through Mark, I'm like, man, he's right
there, just blown it left and right.
I mean, here, Jesus sent by God to establish the kingdom of God, to help
us learn, to help the people of God.
He wasn't going to a bunch of non Christians.
He was going to God's people, and it's really important that God's
people understand God's will.
And so he was trying to teach God's people what they needed to understand about God.
He was trying to help them get God.
Trying to help them get good religion versus bad religion.
Trying to help them get love versus legalism.
Trying to help them get faith versus worry and doubt and fear.
And so he tells them, be careful, Jesus warned them.
Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.
So we all know what the yeast of the Pharisees, hypocrisy.
Making a religion about what's on the outside.
About really understanding.
The nature of God.
About understanding the importance of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
All those things that Jesus taught.
Understanding God's heart.
It was a heart lesson.
But where were they?
Well, oh no, we forgot the bread.
That's why he's talking to us about this.
Were they getting it?
No, they weren't getting it.
They didn't understand what he was talking about.
They discussed one another and said, It's because we have no bread.
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, Why are you
talking about having no bread?
And, and, and notice the way I'm reading it.
Why are you talking about having no bread?
Because I think that's probably the way he said it.
He's like, Come on, guys.
Wake up.
Get it.
Understand what's happening here.
Understand the lesson I'm trying to teach.
I'm trying to get you to see.
He says, Are your hearts hardened?
Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to see, to hear and understand?
And this is a big theme in the scriptures.
Eyes and ears.
Seeing and understanding what God is doing and how He's working.
Huge theme in the scriptures.
I mean, He just lays it out.
Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears?
But fail to hear.
Sometimes, Jesus would teach them, and then he'd put them through a situation.
And this is actually right in the middle of what's called a
pericope, a set of teachings.
They're all over the Gospel of Mark.
It's when he teaches something, then he does something, and then
they talk about it, and it's like a little set to, to learn a lesson.
So he teaches, and he talks a lot about eyes and ears.
And then he goes off and he heals people and then he challenges
them about, do you get it?
Do you understand what's happening here?
'cause it's a big deal.
So we keep reading Mark chapter eight, and he tells him, he says, don't you
remember when I broke the five loaves?
Of the 5,000?
How many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?
12.
They replied, And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many
basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?
They answered, seven.
He said to them, do you still not understand?
Do you still not get this?
Do you still not understand what's happening?
And it wasn't because they were dumb.
It's because sometimes it's hard to understand.
Sometimes it's hard to get it.
Wait, what is God doing?
, why is this happening?
What is he saying?
What does he mean by that?
And he had tested them.
You remember the test?
Well, we only got a couple piece of fish and a couple of loaves.
We, we need to go down to Rubio's or Baja Fish tacos.
We gotta get a lot more than this.
And he said, you feed them.
Wait a second, Jesus, come on.
What do you, what do you?
And I love the fact that he made them go and pick up the leftovers and there were.
How many baskets?
Twelve baskets of leftovers.
So everybody had to pick up a basket of leftovers.
The lesson of faith.
But they still didn't get it.
They still didn't get it.
Because sometimes, it really is hard to understand.
Why is this happening?
And you need to remember, if you're, you know, if you're If you're in
that state, if you're in the group of everything's awesome, it's great,
love the church, love the leader, I love everything, what's the problem?
Just remember that lesson.
Cause it'll happen.
It'll come around.
And the question is always, do you get it?
Do you understand what's happening?
What about when we're suffering?
When we have to carry our cross?
When we're going through hardship?
When we're being disciplined, do we get it?
When we're in a challenging time, when things are tough, when we're in need,
when we're hungry, when we're thirsty, when we feel challenged, when people get
angry, when people are angry at us, when our wife is angry at us, do we get it?
I remember I was talking to a brother and he said, he said,
why is she always crying?
I said, you know, that's a really good question.
Maybe we should think about that one.
Why is she crying?
Hey, maybe we learned something there.
Do we get it?
When I'm hurt, when I hurt somebody, do I get it?
When my son tells me he's hurt, do I get it?
What that means.
When I'm feeling discouraged, or people are discouraged.
Or I see tears.
Do I take the time to make sure I get it?
That I learn what I need to learn here?
When there's sadness, when there's frustration, when we're going
through times of testing, which is all over scripture, right?
I mean, if there's anything you see in scriptures, lots of tests, lots of
failures, lots of blow its and lots of grace and lots of mercy and lots of love.
And I can't.
Make other people get it.
I gotta make sure I get it.
I gotta make sure I get what God is trying to show me.
What Jesus is trying to teach me.
I'm a leader.
I'm, I'm held double accountability.
Because what I don't get hurts people.
And I gotta get it.
And there's changes that leaders have to be able to get.
So pray for your leaders.
You gotta pray for the staff to get it.
You gotta pray for the MLC to get it.
The MLC is sending in a team to help the region.
We better get it.
I better get it.
God's gonna hold me accountable to getting it.
To seeing and understanding.
To hearing, listening, perceiving, and understanding.
We all have to get it, because you know what?
Here's the crazy thing.
We're all in some position of leadership.
Some of us at work, we're leaders.
Some of us at home, we're the leader.
Some of us, you know, those little people running around, eating all your food.
You're their leader.
And are you getting it?
Do you understand how to do things the right way?
And when you mess up and blow it, do you, are you humble enough?
To stop questioning yourself and get it as leaders, right?
But all of us, you know, as husbands, husbands, do you get it?
Do you get it?
I don't know why she's so grouchy.
Maybe you ought to find out.
Do you get it?
As parents, it's easy to get it when they're little.
You just pick them up and take them.
But when they start becoming as big as you, And they start questioning
you and challenging your authority and questioning your philosophy of
life and your philosophy of family.
Oh, then we get really challenged.
Do we get it?
Yeah, we, we had three kids.
They're adults now.
Thankfully, we're at a pretty cool stage where we just enjoy being together.
But boy, we had some rough years.
And you know who had to grow the most?
Me.
People say, oh, we're going to do a class on how to help you deal with teenagers.
We're going to do a class on how to help you deal with your parents.
How to help parents get it.
Child.
Does the child get it?
Usually not when they're children.
Not when they're teens.
Definitely not.
And they begin to get it in their twenties and then they have kids and
then their kids start challenging them and then they start to get it.
They're like, Oh, I guess dad wasn't as stupid as we thought.
We're, we're, we're moving into that stage where our parents, our kids
are, are appreciating us more and more and we're just enjoying it.
But we went through rough times.
Let me tell you.
Rough times.
And we had the full spectrum.
We're not one of those families where every kid leads a church that
baptized a thousand people last week.
No, we, we had our ups and downs.
We had one kid that became very difficult as a teen.
Extremely difficult.
I was ready to buy a one way ticket to Mexico and send her to my family's ranch.
Say, hey, I'm gonna work it out of her.
And that kid got it.
She's, she's, she's leading a church now.
But boy, was she hard for a while.
We had another one that was the compliant kid.
Yeah, okay, great.
Do this, do that.
Yeah, okay, I'll go.
Go to that country?
Okay, yeah.
Sign up for that?
Yeah, I'll go.
And then she hit a wall.
And said, Dad, Mom, I'm out.
I don't want to go to church.
I don't want to do any of this.
But she had to work through it.
We had to learn.
Michelle and I had to learn what love is.
And she got it.
Still working on her dream, but she got it.
She came back to God.
And then right after that, our son, who was the superstar in the church,
baptizing everybody, organizing everything, inspiring everybody,
offered internships everywhere.
And he hit a wall.
He said, Dad, I'm out.
I don't, I don't like this group.
You guys are weird.
And you know what?
We have a fantastic relationship with all our kids.
And he's still on his journey, which, by the way, we're all
still on our journey, right?
Not him, not just him, all of us.
And he's working it out.
But you know, in every one of those situations, Michelle and I had to get it.
We had to learn.
And they had to get it, too.
They had to come to understand some things.
Disciples of Jesus, boy, there's a lot to get.
There's a lot to learn.
There's a lot to discover.
There's a lot to challenge.
There's a lot of challenges to face.
Okay, what, where am I at?
How am I dealing with that verse?
It's easy to get it when everything's hunky dory going great.
What happens when you have a conflict with a leader?
What happens when your roommate really hurts you?
What happens when somebody blows the confidence you had
in sharing things with them?
And you get deeply here.
Yeah, I've been Christian 40 years.
I got more wounds in the church than outside the church.
So, questions do I get?
I mean, I've had times where I've said, God, what were you thinking?
Creating a church and putting people to run it.
I mean, are you serious?
You know us.
Why not just send angels to run the church?
Then if somebody's really bad and being in trouble, they, bam, zap
them, that's it, they're done.
And yet, he still established the church.
And you think, well, but the church is not supposed to have these problems.
Look at your Bible, read the, read the letters.
Every church was full of problems.
So there must be some lesson in there.
Well, how do I deal with sinful people, which by the way, I'm
one of them, but it's, it's, I'm telling you, it's not easy.
It's hard.
I have a lot of compassion who people feel when people feel fed up.
I get it.
I have a lot of compassion.
Even when people, some people are like, I need to take a break.
I just, all right, dude, you go do that.
Just don't leave the Lord.
Okay.
Just go spend some time with God and rebuild your faith.
And do whatever you got to do to thrive spiritually.
But meanwhile, I'm going to do everything I can to help the church get it.
And make the changes that it needs to make.
So we keep reading.
Let's keep reading.
They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man
and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him,
Jesus asks, Do you see anything?
Normally he never asks this, but he did this time.
Do you see anything?
He looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking around.
Once more Jesus put his hand on the man's eyes.
Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
I, for years, I was like, what happened there?
Was Jesus having a bad day?
Was he, was he like running on low or running on empty and he didn't
recharge his battery that morning?
Maybe he didn't have a quiet time that morning, you know, what, what, what
happened that it took a second touch?
But as I've gotten older in the faith, I realized, you know, sometimes you
just don't see it the first time.
Sometimes it takes a little more Jesus.
Sometimes it takes a second touch.
Maybe a third, maybe a fourth, maybe a fifth.
Before we begin to see things clearly.
Clearly.
It's hard at first.
It's not easy.
Obviously, it wasn't that Jesus was weak that day.
Or running low on power.
Jesus had the power, and you, and you just, even the fact that he asked
him, what do you see, says that Jesus knew exactly what was happening.
He knew we're not all going to get it the first time.
It's going to take a while.
It's, it's going to take some second, maybe third touches, maybe fourth touches.
And some of us will get it quicker than others.
And some of us won't get it to the last minute.
And it's hard because when we get it quickly, we want everybody else to get it.
Hey you, get it.
I got it.
What's your problem?
That's how we are, right?
That's how we are.
Let's keep reading.
Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi.
On the way, he asked them, who do people say I am?
And they replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and
still others, one of the prophets.
But what about you?
He asked.
Who do you say I am?
And Peter answered, You are the Messiah.
This is one of those very powerful moments.
Very powerful moment.
And the interesting thing is, Mark only tells us a little bit of it.
If you want to know more about what happened, you got to go to Matthew.
He's got more details.
Matthew generally puts more details in there.
Some really important details here.
So they go to Caesarea Philippi.
He says, who do they say I am?
And he says, what about you?
Who do you say I am?
Simon Peter.
We're talking about Peter.
You guys know Peter, right?
You saw The Chosen.
You know who Peter is.
He's, he's not always the first to get it.
He's not necessarily the sharpest tool in the shed.
But this time, he got it.
He says, you're the Messiah.
The Son of the Living God.
I bet Jesus took a double take.
He probably like, Peter?
Whoa, you had a good quiet time this morning.
He replied, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For this was, And I love even that he doesn't call him Peter this time.
He, he, he calls him Simon again.
For this was not revealed to you by my flesh.
He's about to give him the name but, So he says, This was not
revealed to you by flesh and blood.
It wasn't your human effort.
But by my Father in Heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter.
And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of
Hades will not overcome it.
This is your Peter and you're going to be the first Pope.
No, he didn't say that.
He said on this rock.
What rock?
That Jesus is the Messiah.
That He is the Savior.
But, hey, it was a very encouraging moment for Peter.
It was a very encouraging moment.
He says, you know what?
You got this from God.
You got it from God.
And that's where we all get it from.
From God.
If we take the time to listen.
If we take the time to look and to perceive, if we put our effort into
understanding, and don't assume we got it already, and don't assume
we understand everything, and don't assume we're, we're, we're okay,
but keep that open, hungry heart, no matter what we may think is going on.
He got it.
Yay, Peter.
This is you, the Messiah, Jesus replied.
It wasn't by human flesh you figured this out, God told you this.
And you were listening.
Verse 21, From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must
go to Jerusalem and suffer many things.
He's trying to get them to understand how this is all going to work.
He says, You must suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief
priests, and the teachers of the law, and then he must be killed, and on
the third day he'd be raised to life.
He's explaining the whole plan.
We always want to know, what's the plan?
And Jesus is explaining the plan.
But Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
Never, Lord, he said.
This shall never happen to you.
Uh oh.
Very dangerous trying to disciple Jesus.
Then Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.
You are a stumbling block to me, and you do not have in mind the concerns
of God, but merely human concerns.
Whoa.
I don't know how you would feel if Jesus told you that.
I think I would just drop dead right there.
If Jesus called me Satan.
I mean, man, he just got the biggest compliment.
He just got held up in front of everybody.
What a great job.
What a great victory.
And then he blows it.
But it's an understandable blow it.
He loves Jesus.
He's like, Jesus, that can't happen to you.
I'm not gonna let that happen to you.
And, and, you know, Peter's a fairly emotional guy.
No way we'll fight to the end.
You remember, Peter's the one that cut the guy's ear off, right?
Instead of thinking, Is this God's will?
And what is God doing here?
What is God showing me?
That's a very important question.
And he says, You do not have in mind the things of God, But merely
Human concerns, you're thinking like a human, which is natural, right?
Why aren't we humans?
But we're called to think like God to see things from his perspective.
That's what getting it is.
That's the challenge for every one of us.
I'm not preaching at a group or at a person or a few people.
I'm preaching all of us because this is all of our challenge.
To not give in to our human emotion.
To not act like humans.
Act like godly people.
Handle things the way God would handle them.
I mean, they...
It was hard, guys.
It was hard.
Poor Peter.
It was tough.
Walking around with Jesus and
getting it.
Remember when he was washing feet and Peter was like, No,
Lord, don't wash my feet.
And Jesus said, then I have no part with you.
Oh, in that case, wash me, the whole thing.
Give me a full car wash.
And it's, it's just, sometimes it's hard to get it.
And I don't think Peter had a bad heart.
I think Peter was like, oh, I don't deserve to have you wash my feet, Jesus.
So you can't do that.
And Peter's like, there you go, and Jesus was like, there you
go again, thinking like a human.
Think like God.
Dying with Jesus.
Oh, you're not going to die, Jesus.
We're going to all die with you.
And then he denies him three times.
So I don't know the guy.
Never met that dude.
Three times.
And Peter, he doesn't have a bad heart.
He's, he's pretty ashamed.
And Jesus has to come and restore him.
Bring him back in because Peter was feeling pretty lousy.
Because it takes him so long.
Sometimes it's frustrating not getting it.
And you know, Peter, bless his heart, he gets to stand up and
do the Acts 2 sermon, right?
In the last days, quoting Joel, and my spirit will be poured
out on all people, all nations.
In other words, not just Jews.
Men and women, not just males.
Young and old, not just male Jews, over 30.
Everybody!
He opens the door, the universal gospel, the, the talk about, um, diversity.
I mean, this is, this is, Jesus was the original diversity guy.
Just bringing everybody, unleashing the Holy spirit on everybody.
You don't have to be a male Jew over 30.
You can be from any background.
And Oh, what an incredible message.
Gee, Peter preached that message and then wouldn't go in the house of a Gentile.
Jesus told them, you will preach the gospel.
In Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, to the ends of the earth.
Go take this gospel and make disciples of what?
All nations.
Panta ta ethne.
Where we get the word ethnicity.
To all people from every race and background.
What did the apostles do?
They all hung out in Jerusalem.
It took God sending a persecution to get them out of Jerusalem.
And then even then it says everybody went except the leaders.
Like what the?
Still not getting it.
And God had to send visions.
You know, the whole thing with the animals coming down on the sheet and all that.
Just to get Peter to get it.
To understand, Dude, this is for everybody.
And, and Peter is not a bad guy.
He's a good guy.
Just took him a while.
All of us.
It takes us a while.
And some things we get really fast.
It takes us a while and the whole world is waiting for us all to get it, to be
the church that Jesus died for, right?
Getting it is very serious.
It's not, I mean, I say some jokes about it because sometimes
we got to laugh at ourselves.
But.
Jesus said, whoever has will be given more and they will have an abundance.
Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.
This is why I speak to them in parables.
Though seeing, they do not see.
Though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah.
You will be ever hearing, but never understanding.
You will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.
For this, people's hearts has become calloused.
They hardly hear with their ears and they've closed their eyes.
Otherwise...
They might see with their ears, hear with their ears, see with
their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts.
God heal them.
This is his promise.
This is his promise, but Jesus quoted this because he knew a lot
of people are not going to get it.
And you know, you know how many disciples he had at the end of three year ministry?
120.
It's difficult to get it.
It's challenging to get it.
It's easy to miss it.
A key to this is listening.
Paying close attention.
What is God saying?
What is the scripture telling me?
How different am I?
I mean, 46 times in the book of Revelation, He talks about hearing.
Listening.
75 times in the Gospels, Jesus talks about listening.
Listen up!
The classic prayer.
Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad.
It's the prayer that every Orthodox Jew prays every day.
Jews probably pray it every day.
What's it say?
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is God and He is One.
It's the command.
Listen up, people!
That's the command.
We gotta pay attention.
492 times in the New Testament.
References.
Okay, just footnote, I didn't check them all.
I saw this on a Bible study website, so I'll check them.
When I get time, I'll check them, make sure they're all really there.
But the point is, there's a lot.
But we keep reading in that very same scripture, Matthew 13, 16.
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.
For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people long to see
what you see, but did not see it.
And to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.
We have the Gospels.
We have Jesus.
To listen to.
To read.
And we, among the millions of disciples of Jesus, that have lived
throughout history, are so blessed.
You know, people have only had Bibles for about the last 150 years.
Maybe, maybe 200 years.
They had to memorize scriptures.
They had to look at the pictures on the church walls to figure
out what the message was.
And we're so blessed.
We have it, nice little leather on or fake leather on books.
Audio, video.
We got series to watch, chosen.
We have many ways to hear and see, but the question is, are we hearing and seeing?
You know somebody sat at Kodak.
How many of you guys remember Kodak?
Kodak company.
All the old people.
We all remember Kodak.
Man, there was a time that anything you want to do with pictures was Kodak.
You had to go to a Kodak place to get it printed, to get it developed.
You had to, there were Kodak pictures.
Your pictures in the back said Kodak all over it.
And the, you know, people had Kodak camera.
I mean, they were, they were talking about a monopoly.
They just, they controlled everything.
But one day at some meeting and I'm surmising here, but at some meeting,
somebody said, you know, there's this new thing called digital medias.
I think we should get involved in that.
And some leaders said, nah, it'll never take ground.
It'll never take hold.
And they lost, they lost out.
They pretty much disappeared because they didn't get it.
They didn't get it.
Remember Blockbuster?
If you wanted to see a movie, you had to go to Blockbuster.
And at some point, somebody in a meeting said, Hey, there's this
little group called Netflix, and they're putting these red boxes out.
Do you think we should do that?
And somebody said, Nah, it'll never take hold.
Netflix is a blip on the screen, they'll be gone.
How many of us have Netflix?
Yeah, how many of us have been to a blockbuster in the last five years?
Yeah, no, you all went, nope.
Because they didn't get it.
They didn't get it, they didn't understand, they didn't realize.
And let me tell you something.
I actually started out, before I started spirituality, I was working on a PhD in,
in, in, uh, organizational leadership.
And as I was studying this, I, I, I came across this one article that
talked about how the worst groups to change, guess what groups they are?
Churches.
Other organ, I mean, corporate world, they get it because, look, if we
don't change in time, then we lose out, we, we, we lose everything.
And everybody likes to laugh about Blockbuster and Kodak, and nobody wants
to be the next Blockbuster or Kodak.
And they're trying to keep up and trying to make changes as needed.
For churches, it's really hard.
They're the worst at making changes that need to happen.
But there's good reasons.
There's the fact that we don't want to make the wrong changes.
In other words, we don't want to give in to social pressure.
We want to make sure we're following scripture.
We want to make sure we're doing what the Bible says, not what people
are telling us we should be doing.
And that's a good instinct.
That's a right instinct.
Plenty of scriptures about that.
In the last days, there'll be terrible times and on describes basically what's
happening in our world right now.
And that's a good instinct.
You gotta be careful.
Because the second one is we confuse doctrine and culture.
And we don't know the difference between.
What is right because the scripture says it, and what is right because
that's how we've always done it.
And it worked in the past.
Why wouldn't it work now?
And learning to get it
with God.
With the Holy Spirit.
Eyes fixed on Jesus.
Mind on things of above.
That's how we're gonna get it.
That's how we can get it.
That's how we can navigate.
All these challenges of influences and teachings and every wind of teaching and
yet respond appropriately to the wrongs in the world, the wrongs in the church.
Deal with those wrongs the way Jesus would deal with them.
I'm not saying put our heads in the sand and pretend there's no problems.
No, deal with it.
Because we live in the light, right?
Because we live, at least we're trying to live, honest lives.
Churches don't get it all the time, Ephesus.
Jesus said whoever has ears, let him hear what the spirit says with the churches.
Smyrna, whoever has ears, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches,
Pergamum, whoever has ears, let him, let him hear what the spirit says
in the churches, Tiritrea, whoever has ears, let them hear what the
spirit says to the churches, and Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea.
With all of these churches, oh, the spirit warned them, and you know the scary.
The scary thing in there is if you don't get it, I'm gonna
take your lampstand away.
And that represented the spirit of God.
We gotta make sure we all get it.
This is why I went to Pepperdine for seven years, driving up
for seven years from San Diego.
To try to learn, to try to get it.
That's why I met Fuller.
That's why a lot of us are digging in, reading our scriptures and praying
about this and trying to figure out what does the church need to change.
Let me tell you something, all churches of all denominations
are going through it right now.
Going through very challenging times.
Some of the Barna and different groups that have studied what's happening in
the religious world, in the Christian world, So 30 percent of church members
stopped going during the pandemic.
And a lot of those people aren't coming back.
And many, many, many churches are shrinking dramatically.
It's not just us.
We like to think we're so special, but we are special because Jesus loves
us, but we're not special because we're better than anybody else.
So when we got the right doctrine on baptism, Amen, let's share about baptism,
but There are other people out there that have incredible faith and love God deeply.
Let's learn from them.
I like Jesus definition.
Whoever does my Father's will is my mother, brother, and sister.
And we gotta pray for each other.
Because everybody's struggling.
Christianity is struggling right now.
And I think it's great.
Because it's making us question ourselves.
You know, the Hollywood paints us as being this legalistic, self righteous,
condemning, judgmental people.
Stephen King has really got something against Christianity.
Every bad guy in his movie is some Christian.
I know that's not who I am.
But I do know I have that in me.
And I gotta watch it.
And I gotta crucify it.
Because I know I can be judgmental.
My kids showed me that.
They're like, Dad, it's in your eyes.
Dad, it's in your voice.
You're judging me.
And I have to learn to not be that guy.
But entire churches have to figure that out.
And guess what?
You guys are in a challenge as a church.
You gotta figure out some things.
You gotta grow.
But Jesus is here.
It's hard.
Jesus said, Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad
is the road that leads to destruction.
And many enter through it, but small is the gate, and narrow the
road that leads to life and only...
How many?
A few find it.
That's a scary scripture.
That's a scary one.
I mean, I'm dying to ask Jesus, Okay, Jesus, what do you mean by few?
Are we talking a handful?
Are we talking a couple of million?
Are we talking about one billion out of eight billion?
What is a few exactly?
And you know, I know what Jesus said.
You don't need to worry about it.
You need to make sure that you are doing what you need to be doing.
You don't need to be judging other people's faith.
You don't need to be judging the Lord's servants.
Check your own heart.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Not your neighbor's.
Love your neighbor.
Be an example of God to your neighbor.
Well, who's my neighbor?
Well, in case there's any doubt, how about your enemies?
Love your neighbors, too.
You love your enemies, too.
Oh, do I really have to love him?
That guy's a jerk.
Yeah, you really gotta love him.
That brother doesn't get it!
Probably gonna need some more love.
Probably gonna have to be like Jesus to help him get it.
Leaders must get it.
Pray for your leaders.
Pray for the MLC.
Pray for your staff.
Pray for the elders.
Pray for your Bible talk leaders.
They have to get it.
If they don't get it, people get hurt.
So pray for us.
And remember, you're a leader too.
You're a leader at home.
You're a leader with your family.
And some, many of you have other leadership roles.
Spouses must get it.
Parents must get it.
Disciples must get it.
Followers must get it.
And everyone is a leader and everyone is a follower as well.
What do we gotta get?
We gotta get humility.
Real humility.
Be able to face where we blow it.
Be able to understand our blind spots.
Allow that to humble us.
Realize how much we need each other.
How much, first of all, how much we need God.
How much we need each other.
How much we all need help.
We need radical honesty.
I won't see my issues if I'm not honest.
I won't recognize where I need help if I'm not honest.
Gotta be honest.
Forgiveness.
Oh man, does this require a lot of forgiveness.
God does not treat us according to our sins.
Thank God.
He continually forgives.
He's very gracious.
He's very merciful.
And he always gives people...
time to change.
And in my opinion, oftentimes I feel like it's too much time.
That brother should have got it by now.
That's just your, it's overdue for getting it.
But it's usually, that's very subjective.
God knows hearts.
God knows.
And we have to practice compassion.
It's the only way we're gonna get there.
You know, in any organization, an organizational truism, Any group
you join, join a car club, join a, a crew team, join, whatever.
It's always starts out wonder, woo, awesome, everything's great, and then
you start having conflicts, and then you see problems with people and then
you don't like the way this happens.
And then that's the real test of love and faith Then, then it kicks
in, man, I thought everybody walked on water when I joined the church,
and then I saw people sinking.
And then I saw people sinful, even leaders sinful.
And it's like, whoa, wait, this isn't what I thought I was joining.
Actually, it is.
It's the real church.
Again, look at our Bibles, right?
It's, the only way this works is with a lot of love and compassion.
A lot of mercy and forgiveness.
It takes a lot of authentic spirituality.
To be able to discover the kingdom of God.
And to live in that.
No rock throwing.
So tempting, isn't it?
Especially when somebody throws a rock at you, you just want to pick
one up and throw it right back.
I remember me and my friends, whenever we got in this big
field, we'd have rock fights.
It's the kind of stupid thing boys do, you know?
And then somebody would get hit, and have to go get stitches, and our parents
were like, What were you thinking?
But we do that.
When people attack us and hurt us, we want to pick up a rock
and throw it right at them.
Jesus said, let him who's without sin throw the first rock.
That's the upside down kingdom.
No judging.
Whoa, that's a really hard one.
Guys, we have judgmentalism deep in our DNA.
And we're not going to detox that in one decision.
But by practicing and practicing.
I remember one of my kids when he was, well I gave away who it is,
he, he, he said I hate that region.
It was another region.
I was like, dude, why?
He goes, because they're so judgmental and self righteous.
And I said, wow.
So you just decided everybody in that region is judgmental and self righteous,
that's quite a judgment you got there.
And he was like, all right, dad.
But we do that.
We do that.
I would never do that.
How do you know?
Have you walked a mile in his moccasins?
Have you lived in her house?
And, and, and the worst is when leaders are judgmental.
Because their judgment is accepted as the truth.
We gotta be really careful.
No defensiveness.
Oh, that's a hard one.
Boy, I have, I have wrestled and riled on the floor like a demon
possessed dude with that one.
Wanting to defend myself.
But you don't understand, I serve, I sacrifice, I give.
You know how much I've done for the church?
Because I've made one little mistake, now you're crucifying me.
And that's all perspective, right?
Instead of just trusting God.
What does he say?
Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.
And He will lift you up.
What does it say?
He will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun.
Even though you're not really righteous, but you're trying.
He'll make you shine.
He'll help you out.
No self righteousness.
Those people, that leader, that Bible talk, that brother, that
sister, you see how sinful she is?
Yeah, but so does God.
And Jesus died on a cross for her.
So I take the warning serious.
Who are you to judge?
Lord's servant.
So, well, so what's the answer?
Well, we got to really love each other.
Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, because you don't
have the things of God in mind.
So what do we got to do?
Have the things of God in mind.
God can get us through this.
God can help anybody change.
And here's my experience.
If they don't change, God takes them out.
I've seen it.
Again and again.
Have in mind the concerns of God.
Merely human concerns, not merely human concerns.
And have the prayer, May your kingdom come, and your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven.
So many times I want to say, No, I want it this way.
I think it should be like this.
I think the church should do this.
Why do we sing that?
Why did they change that song?
I love that song the way it was.
And we have sometimes too many opinions.
We have to remember to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done.
And we're going to have to keep seeking the kingdom of God.
First, priority.
And there are many important, there are serious things we've got to deal with.
I'm not trying to lighten those up.
There are serious things, there are hearts involved.
But we must do it spiritually.
Not all churches survive these kind of changes.
Some of them self destruct.
It depends on how many godly people are in the room.
It depends on how many people love God more than themselves.
Who are willing to do things God's way, even when it hurts.
Even when it's so difficult.
But to do it the way Jesus would do it.
And keep our eyes fixed on Him.
In this world, He said, you will have trouble.
But take heart.
I've overcome the world.
He did it.
He overcame.
Sometimes, you know, I remember one time I thought, This is not fair.
Jesus never came to church.
You realize he ascended into heaven before the church even started?
Like, why didn't he come to church?
Why couldn't we watch how he handled the church?
Oh no, he had to leave.
Actually, he answered that question.
He said, it's better for me to leave so I can send you the Holy Spirit.
Because I can only be in one place at one time with a few people.
But the Holy Spirit can be with everybody, all the time, everywhere.
He can be with you.
So did Jesus have a solution?
Absolutely.
But we need to hear the spirit.
We need to see what the spirit is telling us.
We need to listen and see, hear and understand, seek first God's
kingdom, and do God's will.
We need to get Jesus.
I want to close out with this.
You know, in Metro, we went through a really difficult time.
Really painful time.
A lot of division, a lot of dysfunction, a lot of hurt, a lot of anger.
It was, it was rough and these, these guys would know they were there.
They were just kids, but they were watching it.
It was tough.
So we had to deal with all that stuff.
We had to get real.
We had to get honest.
We had to face things.
We had to work through it.
We had to do it in a godly way.
And as we dealt with the elephants in the room, went after the sacred cows, restored
relationships, reconciled conflicts.
We sat down we wrote a vision for who we want to be and this was our vision of
who the Metro Church will be We're not there yet, but who we're gonna be a church
in love with God led by Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit where leadership is
humble spiritual and strong a Church with great worship where the members all
walk with God and are driven by faith and unified by purpose Where mutual respect
permeates the fellowship as we help each other get to heaven Where love is supreme
and easily seen, felt, and experienced.
A church where personal conviction is high and grace is abundant.
Where renewal and formation is constant and conflicts are resolved spiritually.
A church where everyone serves, gives generously, and is fruitful.
A church that has a great Kingdom Kids ministry, giving all children hope.
A church where there's great dating, great, great teens,
great Kingdom Kids ministry.
Great campus, great singles ministry where marriages and
families can thrive and shine.
A church that serves the community and takes care of each other,
having no needy among ourselves.
A church where our children become Christians and feel proud of this family.
A church with strong women's and men's ministries.
A church that continually raises up new, young, and older leaders.
And is able to send out trained leaders to start new churches and new ministries.
A church that welcomes everybody from every race and ethnicity and background.
A church that is family, abundant in faith, fruit, and fun.
That's the church Jesus died for.
That's the church we signed up for, isn't it?
That's the church we keep giving for and sacrificing.
That's the church why we're here, but you know what?
It doesn't just happen.
We're not there yet in Metro, but we're on our way.
We're marching along, and we're pretty excited about it.
But we had to go through some pretty painful stuff to get there.
So, let's keep our eyes on Jesus.
Let's seek the kingdom first.
Let's be rich in grace and mercy.
Let's love each other, even our enemies.
And we'll get through this.
Can't fix everybody else, but I can fix what I'm doing.
I can fix my eyes on Jesus.
God bless you all.
Oh,
I think we really, really need to fix our eyes on Jesus.
I brought a couple of books that I think will help us, that I want to recommend.
I know some of these you guys have already read.
But this one, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
It's actually a really easy read.
Looks thick and ominous, but it's actually an easy book to read.
And, and there's no hidden agenda here.
It's not so that we can set up everybody to think a certain way,
other than just fix your eyes on Jesus.
And it's called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Homer.
And then the other one is Life with God.
And this one's deeper, richer.
And you'll have to move slower through this, but boy, is it powerful for
helping us focus on God and on Jesus.
Life with God, by Richard Foster.
God bless you all.