We're gonna keep learning about this kingdom in the Gospel
of Matthew, chapter eight.
Go ahead and open your Bibles to Matthew Chapter eight.
And while we're, while we're coming into this every Sunday, we
have a number of guests, by the way, just as Reggie said, so
grateful you're here with us, those of you worshiping with us online,
so grateful that you're joining us.
We're on a journey right now going to the Gospel of Matthew just
chapter by chapter, verse by verse.
Last week we covered the first half of chapter eight.
We're moving on to the second half of chapter eight this morning
now to make sure we're all caught up.
Just want you to know what happened last week.
So Jesus has just come down from the Sermon on the Mount area.
He was on the mountain, he preached the Sermon on the Mount.
He comes down and immediately he just starts displaying unbelievable
power, like lightning bolts shooting out of his eyeballs kind
of power.
He heals a leper, he heals a centurion surgeon just by speaking
it.
When that dude's, that servant's somewhere else, he casts
out the fever from Peter's mother in law.
He casts out some demons.
I mean, he's just on a roll and everybody is looking at him going,
who is this guy, man?
He's something special.
They know he's special, but they still don't quite know who Jesus
is.
It's real early in his ministry and they can't quite figure
him out.
And the reason, you know, they don't quite know who he is is because
how they respond to him when, when they're supposed to follow him,
how they respond when it's supposed to be that I've given myself
to you kind of discipleship.
We're about to jump in and see two people come on the stage.
One of them this overly zealous who says he's going to follow
Jesus, but his faith is super shallow.
And then a person who's underlyzealous who doesn't even want
to follow Jesus because his faith is shallow.
And you're going to begin to see in these two people some of our
problem when it comes to following Jesus.
So let's begin.
Matthew, chapter 8, verse 18, first three verses.
Let's see this first guy that we meet, verse 18.
Now, when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go
over to the other side.
And a scribe came up and said to him, teacher, I will follow you
wherever you go.
And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have
nests.
But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
Okay, we'll stop there.
Guy comes and it says he's a scribe.
And he says, I'll go wherever you go, I'm going with you, Jesus.
Now, it's really intriguing that the first person to come up
to Jesus in this moment would be a scribe.
Because all over the Gospel of Matthew, scribes are like the anti
Jesus people, the scribes and Pharisees, they're the ones who stand
against Jesus.
So it's intriguing that a scribe would be the one to come up
and say, I'll go wherever you go, Jesus.
Now, something you have to know about scribes is they were really
highly regarded people in Judaism.
They were copyists.
And they would copy the law of God, the law of Moses, and many scribes
would have a certain portion that they would copy over and over
and over.
And they could tell you every single dot, every single line, every
single bit of the law, every.
And because of it, they weren't just copyists, they were
teachers.
They were interpreters of the law.
They were highly regarded people because of how well they knew.
Many of them had huge portions of the law of Moses memorized because
they had written it so many times.
So it's intriguing that this guy would come up to Jesus and say,
I want to follow you.
But you might not notice his arrogance when you first read it
until you understand the context of what he's doing.
So in that day, if you wanted to become a rabbi, you had to come
under the teaching of another rabbi.
Now, rabbis in ancient Judaism were like the PhDs.
They were highly regarded people, very educated, and they were
very influential.
And so if an apprentice, if somebody wanted to become a future
rabbi, what they would do is they would sit under the teaching
of various rabbis and they would see which one do they connect
with, which one would advance their career the most.
And then if they found a rabbi, they would basically submit
an application, kind of like you're getting into a PhD program.
They that I want to come under you.
And if he's a good rabbi, he'll have 100 or more people who
would request to come under him.
And he would pick a small handful, maybe 10 to 12.
Think about Jesus and his 12.
And they would get to learn under him and become future rabbis.
That was the way it would work.
And so you have this scribe and he comes up to Jesus, but notice
what he says.
He doesn't say, if you'll take me, I'll choose to follow you.
He says, I'll follow you.
Wherever you go, here's what he's saying.
Jesus, it's your lucky day.
You just won a scribe.
I'm gonna be your follower.
I know I don't actually have to apply for this thing.
Cause, I mean, I'm a scribe.
You want me.
So I just wanted you to know I'm gonna follow you wherever you
go.
I'm gonna be your apprentice.
Lucky you, Jesus.
You don't even see it when you first read it.
But there's this arrogance as he's coming, thinking that he's providing
a gift to Jesus.
And the reason he's coming to Jesus is because he's just found
the rabbi who will most advance his career.
See, that's how you picked a rabbi.
You had to find somebody who was either wise, who was powerful,
who was connected, or someone who could make your career advance.
It looked really good on your resume.
Think of the apostle Paul.
He tells in his early life that he was trained under Gamaliel.
That carried a lot of weight in Judaism, because the rabbi you
choose, it's like the doctoral program.
If you go to Harvard to get it, whoa, that's a big deal.
If you go to Podunk somewhere else and get it, people go, I don't
even know that's a real PhD.
Who you hitch your train up to is going to matter immensely.
And so he's just heard Jesus teach a sermon on the mount and said,
that dude's got wisdom like nobody else.
He's just been casting lightning bolts out of his eyeballs.
Unbelievable power.
I want to hitch my wagon to this guy because he's going to advance
my career.
Which is why Jesus answer is, listen, friend, I know the only reason
you're coming to me is because you think this is going to look good
on your resume.
You think it's going to benefit you.
Let me go ahead and help you out.
Foxes may have holes, birds may have nests, but as for me, I
got nothing for you.
I got no place to lay my head.
I'm going to be a traveling vagabond rabbi.
I don't have institutional authority.
You're not going to get ahead.
You're not going to get any kind of advancement in your career.
In fact, it's going to be the opposite.
It is career suicide to hit your wagon to me.
You just need to know that.
And apparently this guy said, peace, I'm out.
He doesn't follow Jesus, you see, he was just trying to follow
Jesus for what he could get out of this rabbi Jesus.
And what a danger we have.
That so Many of us come to Jesus because what we'll get out
of it.
Well, I know, I know, man.
He'll take care of me.
I know he'll fit me in and meet my needs and provide for me.
It's going to be for me.
And the moment Jesus says, no, I'm not about you and giving you
everything you want, so many people say, peace, I'm out.
I was in it for what he gave me.
And if he's not going to give me what I want, I'll choose somebody
else.
I'll switch religions, I'll switch philosophies, I'll do something
else because I'm only in it for what I get out of it.
That was the first guy.
And Jesus said, I don't accept shallow followers.
I don't accept people who come to me only for what they get out
of me.
Like they can use me up like I'm some kind of genie in a bottle.
You can just rub and get what you want.
I don't choose shallow followers.
It was true for the guy who was overly zealous.
It was true for the guy who was underly zealous, the one we're
about to come to next.
And you're going to see his shallow faith.
In verses 21 and 22, it says, another of the disciples said to
him, lord, let me first go and bury my father.
And Jesus said to him, follow me and leave the dead to bury their
own dead.
I gotta stop here and go, that sounds pretty cruel.
I mean, you should go like Jesus.
Come on, man, chill out.
The dude just lost his dad.
Let him go bury his dad first.
But there's one thing you gotta remember.
I want to remind you who Jesus is.
He's the man who took on the cross to pay for our sin and shame.
And he's invited us into his family.
He is not about to be cruel and mean and hurtful.
He's not doing that to this man over here.
We know Jesus way too well to assume that's what he's doing.
There's some debate about why Jesus said what he said, but most
believe that what's likely going on is that this guy's father
wasn't actually dead yet.
He was saying, let me wait until my father dies so that when
I bury him, I receive his inheritance.
And once I have that money, then I'll be able to travel around
with you, Jesus.
But it's not really convenient for me right now.
So when I get some things together, then I'll come and I'll
follow You.
And what does Jesus say?
He said, let the spiritually dead people go bury their own dead.
Let those people who aren't alive to me go do that kind of stuff.
But you follow me right now.
I cannot tell you how many people over the decades of being
a pastor I have met who said, I know, man.
God's working in my life, and I know I need to follow him, but
I just.
I'm not quite ready yet.
Maybe next Sunday, maybe next month, maybe next year.
I gotta clean some things up in my life.
I gotta get some things figured out first.
I gotta make sure that more people could be here for my baptism.
I gotta do something else.
Just.
It's not convenient for me right now.
And we miss everything that the Lord has for us.
I'm curious.
How many of you in this room are parents?
Raise your hand if you're a parent.
Okay, A lot of you.
How many of you were actually ready to have a child because it
was convenient for you?
Raise your hand.
It was convenient for you?
Okay.
It was not convenient for me.
Go ahead and tell you that.
I hear this all the time.
There are some people who desperately want to have children
and they can't.
And it harms their heart so deeply.
And there are other people who keep using these cues.
When I get a little bit more money in the bank account, when we
get a little more stability in our life, when things are worse,
then we'll have some children.
I want to go ahead and tell you how this works.
If you're waiting until you have enough money, it's convenient.
You ain't never going to have children because they never become
convenient and they always cost more than you have.
I've got six of them.
And I can tell you that gospel truth, it's the same thing with Christ.
If you're waiting until it's convenient, until everything's figured
out and worked out, you ain't ever gonna follow Jesus Christ.
He says, don't wait till it's convenient.
Follow me now.
Come to me now.
You see, they were missing it because they thought they could come
to Jesus with some shallow faith.
I'm coming to you for what I get out of it, or I'm coming to you
when it's convenient.
But if it's not.
And apparently this guy didn't follow Jesus either because it just
wasn't convenient for him.
But here's what I want you to understand.
The only people who really follow Jesus are those who do it
when it's hard, not when it's easy.
Or maybe you can Think about it this way.
I got three points for you.
Here's the first one.
The true test of discipleship is following Jesus when it's costly,
not when it's convenient.
I want you to maybe write that down, maybe jot that on your notes,
on your phone.
You need to know this.
The true test of your discipleship, of your followership,
of Jesus, is following him when it's costly, not when it's convenient.
Anybody can follow Jesus when it's convenient, when it feels beneficial.
But the moment it gets costly, that's when you discover whether
you're really following him for his sake or for your own sake.
And God's going to test every single one of us on that one.
There will be moments when it's not going to be convenient.
And the question is, will we follow him anyway?
There are going to be moments when storms come rolling in, and
the question is, are we still going to trust in Jesus?
In fact, this is exactly where Matthew goes next.
You're going to see his disciples follow him literally right
into the storm, so they can learn the test of their own discipleship.
Let's keep on moving in the story.
Pick back up in verse 23.
Here's what it says next.
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.
And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the
boat was being swamped by the waves.
But he was asleep, and they went and woke him, saying, save us,
Lord, we are perishing.
And he said to them, why are you afraid, O you of little faith?
Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was
a great calm.
And the men marveled, saying, what sort of man is this that even
winds and sea obey him?
Now, let's stop there.
That last question that they asked, what sort of man is this?
That's the million dollar question.
They're basically saying, who is this guy?
Who in the world is this guy that the winds and the waves obey
him?
I want you to hear me as clearly as I can.
Your answer to that question will determine absolutely everything
about your life, your eternity.
Who is Jesus?
Who is he, really?
Because if you don't have that figured out, you'll never be able
to follow Him.
Not when it gets hard.
Who is Jesus?
This story actually tells us who he is.
There are some details in it that you might miss that are really
powerful in training us in understanding who Jesus is and what
he can do.
So the first thing is, it says that there was a great storm on the
Sea of Galilee, and they're in a boat.
Now, I've had the privilege of going with Pastor Gary to Israel.
And we were there in the Sea of Galilee.
Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but it's not a sea like
ocean.
It's a lake.
It's a really big lake.
And you can see right across it.
And there are kind of mountains all the way around it.
And because of those mountains, it's lower than sea level.
Sometimes storm clouds can kind of get stuck in those mountains
and they'll just start swirling and storms can come almost
out of nowhere.
My wife and I were there and it was like crystal clear glass.
And then out of nowhere, the storm came rolling in.
And it was huge waves that were crusting over the side.
Just this massive storm.
And I was trying to picture what it would be like.
I have it on my phone.
You hear the wind just blowing like crazy.
And you gotta remember they didn't have like massive boats and
barges.
They had this little bitty fishing boat that would have just
been up and down, just tossed around.
And this would happen on an ordinary case when a storm came in.
But there's a word in here that is unusual when it says a great
storm.
The word actually in Greek is seismos.
Think of seismic activity.
The word seismos literally means earthquake.
What it's saying is probably not a physical earthquake, but in
the Bible, when the word earthquake, seismos is used, it's
almost always talking about something apocalyptic, something
supernatural.
In other words, this was not likely just a weather pattern.
This was something from the pit of hell itself, an apocalyptic
move of the enemy.
Because remember, the devil knows that Jesus is in that boat
and he wants him dead along with all his disciples.
And so this is probably some demonic gale force wind and massive
waves that scared these people who grew up on the water.
These are fishermen.
They knew the waves, they knew the storms, and they're scared to
death thinking they're about to die.
There's something supernatural going on.
But I love my favorite part of the whole story is what Jesus is
doing.
Did you notice it?
That brother is just dead asleep in the boat.
This is not a yacht.
He's not like down in the bed covered up.
Like water is splashing all over his face.
And his disciples are freaking out and he is dead asleep.
That's what you call a peace that surpasses understanding.
I don't know if you know this or not, but, like, sleep is like
the truest sign of peace.
There are some of us, and I'm one of them who struggles sometimes
with sleep.
It's interesting.
You can ask my wife.
It literally started to happen the day the baton was passed on to
me, about nine years ago.
When I became the pastor of this church.
All of a sudden I couldn't sleep anymore because of the pressure.
It's hard sometimes.
There are many of you who have stressful jobs or circumstances in
your life.
And one of the first places you start to see it well up is that
you don't sleep well because anxiety robs us of peace.
Sleep is a symbol of peace.
And there is no stronger symbol than Jesus in the middle of
a storm with waves crashing on him and he's dead asleep.
But think about why he's that way.
He knows who he is and what the Father is doing.
He knows that any moment he can stand up and just calm the storms.
So he's not afraid.
He knows his destiny.
The Father's asking him to go to the cross and he's going to die.
He's not going to die on a boat.
He's not worried one iota.
He's completely at peace because he knows who he is and what
he can do.
But the disciples, they don't.
They don't yet know who this guy is.
And so they are freaking out, screaming, we're perishing, we're
dying.
Save us.
Because they just don't know who Jesus is and what he can do.
They lack faith.
That's why he said what he said.
He said, why are you afraid?
Oh, you of little faith?
He's actually answering his own question.
He says, why are you afraid?
And that he uses a noun.
Use small faith ones.
The reason you're afraid is because your faith is small in me.
You don't know who I am and you don't know what I can do.
And I want to go ahead and tell you every time fear and anxiety
well up inside of you and inside of me.
That robs us of peace.
It is showing us someplace in our life where we don't know who
Jesus is and what he can do.
Maybe you could write it down this way, just a way to remember
it.
Any surge of fear and chaos is the direct result of some shortage
of faith in Christ.
I want you to see how these part together.
Any surge of fear, any welling up of fear in your life when there's
some chaos going on, always the direct result of some place where
you're falling short on your faith in Christ.
Any surge of fear and chaos is the direct result of some shortage
of Faith in Christ.
100% of the time.
Now, I'm not saying you don't believe in Jesus Christ if you have
fear.
I'm not saying if you have an anxious thought, well, you must not
be a believer.
You have no faith in Jesus.
What I'm saying is that God has given you a gift when you have
fear and anxiety.
And that gift is, is to examine a compartment of your life
that you have either not invited Jesus into, or you don't
see what Jesus can do in that situation because of who he is.
So is it a fear in your work?
A fear with one of your children?
Is it a fear in your finances?
Is a fear of some kind of struggle that you can't seem to overcome?
Whatever that thing is, that compartment God is revealing to you,
a place where you are not trusting in who God is and how he
can move in that area of your life.
It's a gift, a painful gift, but it's a gift.
Now, I want to forewarn you about that particular gift.
It's a dangerous gift because you can weaponize that gift.
I'm telling you from experience that you can do that.
My wife is looking at me right now, and she's biting her pen because
she doesn't want me to tell what I'm about to tell, because she
doesn't want me to look bad.
That's why she don't want me to tell it, because I made this mistake
just this week.
Just a couple days ago, my wife and I were sitting together
and we were talking, and she was just sharing something that she
was feeling anxious about.
And I got all Holy Roller on her, and I said, let me tell you
this great point.
You need to know you should write this down, Virginia.
I didn't say that.
I didn't.
I wanted to.
I didn't say that.
But I'm talking about, you know, there's a surge of fear in
this chaotic moment you're having.
Baby, it's probably some shortage of faith in Christ.
I.
I tell her this truth, and she immediately went.
I mean, it was like laser beam.
If I wasn't married to you, I might kill you right now.
And I realized something.
I had just turned that truth into a weapon to beat my wife over
the head.
Because what it felt like to her is I was saying, you have no
faith.
That's your problem.
You just don't believe.
She didn't need me to tell her that in that moment.
And what I realized is, this is a danger point for you.
When I tell you that truth, you can leave this place and you
start going, oh, yeah, you're afraid.
Why?
You don't have faith.
You're afraid.
You don't have faith.
You start condemning everybody else.
When the only person you're supposed to be looking at is the
one in the mirror.
This is a tool not for you to condemn others, but for you to look
in the mirror and say, what is the Lord trying to show you?
So don't say, well, Jason said, don't you do that about anybody
else.
You just look in the mirror every time you have fear and anxiety,
and you ask yourself, what am I learning about myself?
And how do I need to invite Jesus in here?
Because there's some place where I'm not trusting in who Jesus
is and what he can do.
That's what was happening with the disciples.
They didn't really know who he was and what he could do.
That's why Jesus did what he did.
In response, he says, why do you have such little faith?
Why are you afraid?
Because you don't know who I am.
Then he stands up and he shows them who he is.
It doesn't say.
It only says he rebukes it.
But in Mark, it says, he says two words.
Peace and be still.
Be still is one word in Greek.
Peace, be still.
Those two words.
And then it says that the storm doesn't, like, slowly dissipate
and the waves.
Slowly.
It says, immediately the storm is gone.
And it goes from massive waves to, like, glass, supernaturally.
And that's why they go, who is this guy?
Their minds are blowing because in all their life, they have
only ever heard of one person who had power over the winds and
the waves.
One person who could separate the Red Sea.
And it wasn't Moses.
It was Yahweh God.
Only one person who could bring the storm upon Jonah to make
him have to jump overboard.
And it was not Jonah.
It was Yahweh God.
One person.
When you read all the Psalms and you see there's a person who
has power over the winds and the waves.
It is Yahweh God and Yahweh alone.
And now they see this man who speaks to the winds and the waves,
and they go, who is this guy?
Could he be Yahweh God among us?
Jesus is revealing himself so that they would have the faith to
trust him and pay whatever price to follow him.
Now, you would think that anybody who saw the supernatural
power of God would come down before him and bow down and say,
you must be king.
We're going to follow you.
But if you thought that, you'd be dead wrong.
Because we're about to see the last story that we're going to deal
with and how people who should have bowed down to Jesus didn't.
Let's move on, move to verse 28.
We're going to read from 28 to 33.
It says, and when he came to the other side of the country of
the Gadarenes, two demon possessed men met him coming out
of the tombs so fierce that no one could pass that way.
And behold, they cried out, what have you to do with us, O son
of God?
Have you come here to torment us before the time Now, a herd of
many pigs was feeding at some distance from them, and the demons
begged him, saying, if you cast us out, send us away into the
herd of pigs.
And he said to them, go.
So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd
rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.
The herdsmen fled and going into the city, they told everything,
especially what happened to the demon possessed men.
Now we're going to pause there.
So you have a moment now when Jesus displays his glory on the biggest
level, not just over nature now, but over the entire demonic
world.
Now, he has been casting out demons up to this point, but he's
been doing a one by one, like, okay, you cast out that demon, you
cast out that demon.
But this particular situation was totally different.
Doesn't tell us in Matthew, but if you go over to the Gospel
of Mark, Jesus asks one of those demoniacs, what's your name?
To the demon?
And the demon answers, legion, because we are many.
Now, legion was the term for a group of soldiers in the Roman imperial
army of 6,000 soldiers.
So likely there were several thousand demons in these two people.
This is why they had incredibly supernatural strength.
Again, Matthew doesn't tell us, but Mark says that they were
bound with metal chains and they would break them like they were
putty.
Supernatural strength because of the raw power of these demons
that are inside of these two men.
Now I'm going to take a little break here and do a little bunny
throw.
I think this is worth hearing before I move back to the story.
There are three things we learn about demons in this that I
think are really, really important.
The first thing we learn is that demons are real.
Jesus was speaking to demons and he claimed they're real.
So either Jesus is lying or.
Or demons are real.
And I'm pretty sure that Jesus wasn't lying, which means that demons
are real.
There are so many people that I meet that think that that's just
what they thought way back then.
Cause they didn't know.
They didn't understand things.
You know, they just didn't have science and explanations.
So they blamed everything on the demons.
Well, that may be true to some degree, but Jesus said demons were
real.
So the demonic forces are real.
Second thing you learn about demons in this is that they actually
know who Jesus is way more than his disciples.
It's unusual, but if you read the four gospels, Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John, the highest view of Jesus comes from the mouth
of demons.
I mean, notice what happened.
The disciples go, who is this guy?
And what do the demons say?
You are the Son of God?
Have you come early because we know you are the Son of God.
They know who Jesus is when his disciples don't.
But just because they know who Jesus is doesn't mean they submit
to him.
The third thing you learn about demons in this particular passage
is they have one purpose.
To steal, kill and destroy.
Just like their master, the devil.
That's why they exist.
I mean, look.
Look at how they behave.
Here they are, and they're oppressing and possessing these two
men.
And these two men are so dangerous, people can't even walk
by because they can get harmed by them.
It doesn't tell us in Matthew, but in Mark.
It tells us they would even hurt themselves.
Because that's what the demons are trying to do.
Hurt themselves and everybody else around them.
And then whenever he casts the demons into the pigs, what happens?
All the pigs die.
Why?
Because the demons have one goal.
To destroy.
So they take all the pigs and they go into the Sea of Galilee and
there's just pig carcasses everywhere.
Because that's what demons do.
They steal, they kill and they destroy.
Now, here's why you need to hear this.
I see way too many people playing around with the occult and
the demonic like it's some kind of game or entertainment.
And we don't even realize that we're cracking the door open because
we're playing around with Ouija boards and stuff like that,
letting the demonic come inside of us.
And they have one goal.
They want to steal everything God is doing in your life.
They want to kill your body.
They want to destroy your soul.
How dare we let them in when we know who they are?
We must recognize the danger of the demonic forces in this world
around us because they're real and they want to harm the people
of God.
But that doesn't mean we should be afraid of them.
Because we know what the story tells us about who's really in charge.
And those of us who are in Christ Jesus know that all Jesus
had to do was say one word, go.
And thousands and thousands of demons had to flee those two men
and go into the herd of pigs be killed.
They had to submit to Jesus because they knew he's the high commander
of the universe.
Now listen, if you're not in Christ, then you have reason to be
afraid.
You should get that right before this service is over.
But if you are in Christ Jesus, you don't have to be afraid
of the demonic forces.
You just come under the blood of Jesus Christ and you let him be
in charge and he overcomes the enemy.
That's exactly what he shows his disciples right here.
All he had to say, go.
And they were gone.
And here's these two men in their right mind, completely transformed.
The whole town comes over, they look right at these demon possessed
people and you think they would go, oh Jesus, we must worship
you.
You are God.
Well, let's see how they respond.
Verse 34, finish up the passage.
And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus.
And, and when they saw him, they fell down and worshiped him.
No, no, actually that's not what it says.
And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus.
And when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.
If that's not the biggest kick in the pants right there, I don't
know what is.
Jesus does the greatest of miracles in the demonic world.
They all see his divine power.
They know these two men and they see how changed they are.
And instead of saying we worship you, they say, get out of
here, we don't want you here.
Now what in the world would compel them to do that?
The answer is simple.
Because Jesus was messing their business up and they wanted
him gone.
And what you need to know is he's.
He's in what's called the Decapolis.
This was the Gentile region on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
These were not Jewish people.
That's why they're dealing in swine, because Jewish people couldn't
be around pigs.
But these are Gentiles.
And it says, it doesn't say it in Matthew, but in Mark it says there
are probably around 2000 herd of pigs there or heads of pigs there
in that area.
This was likely the herd of the entire village, not just like
one person's herd.
And so the entire village lost all their income from their pig business.
And they come over there and they realize this guy is meddling
with their little kingdom.
And they don't like it.
So they say, get out.
And that right there shows us one of the greatest dangers of all.
You and I can experience the truth that Jesus is king, but the
moment he starts meddling with our little kingdom, we want him out.
Listen, I want you to hear this.
This is a danger for every one of us in this room because we might
not know whose kingdom we're actually building.
Ours or Jesus.
The Lord revealed this to me the other day in a really painful
way.
It was when I was at Dallas Baptist University preaching in chapel.
I get to go there from time to time.
Go Pats.
And I was over there preaching and I was super excited about it.
I've done it probably, I don't know, eight or nine times.
And every time I go, it's a beautiful moment.
And we get more DBU students in the church, which I absolutely
love.
But this time before going, I felt like the Lord telling me that
I wasn't supposed to preach a normal sermon.
He wanted me to do something different.
What he wanted me to do, I believed, was to go over there and
just open with a word of prayer saying, lord, let your word
be enough.
And then just to quote from memory the book of Ephesians 1 through
6.
And then to close in prayer saying, let your word work in Jesus
name, amen and send people off.
And I was nervous but excited and I thought, okay, Lord, you're
going to do something special.
I'm ready to serve you.
So that particular Wednesday morning, we normally do staff prayer
at nine.
I said, staff, let's go over to DBU altogether and we'll have
prayer over there on campus.
And then we can all come to the church Chapel at 10 o' clock
and it'll be a great time.
So we're there at 9am and we're praying with the staff.
And I'm there and others are praying.
But I have this impression from the Lord.
Not an audible voice, but very strong impression that the Lord was
saying, jason, I just want you to have a heads up.
I'm going to make you mess up.
When you deliver the book of Ephesians, I'm going to make you
stumble over the words.
Which, by the way, was hard to hear.
One, I'm a perfectionist.
And two, I've been working on this thing for like a year.
I know the book of Ephesians backwards and forwards.
I know it so exceptionally well.
And you know, my first answer is, why?
Why, Lord, would you do that to me?
And his answer back was kind.
He just said, well, Jason, if You deliver it flawlessly, they're
going to be more impressed with you than my word.
And so I'm going to allow you to mess up so they'll be more impressed
with my word than with you.
And my answer back was comical, now that I look at it.
But I said to the Lord, well, Lord, you're infinite in power.
You can make me deliver it perfectly and still cause them to
be impressed with your word.
So why don't you do that instead?
Literally, that's what I pray.
And I felt the Lord chuckle at me.
That happens from time to time when I'm praying.
And then the Lord said, he was kind, and he said, no, Jason, you
don't understand.
I'm doing this for your sake, too.
Because you see, Jason, you're okay building my kingdom as long
as your kingdom is built with it.
But if I want to build my kingdom at the expense of yours,
you're not okay with it.
Shows me you're building the wrong kingdom.
You want to talk about a thousand daggers in my back on that
one.
All I could say was, touche, Lord.
You're right.
I don't know how much this is going to hurt, but be gentle.
I go up there trembling, and I start.
And within six verses, I lose my place and have to go find it back
in the book, which I never mess up.
In the first chapter of the book of Ephesians.
It's like the Lord just showing off, going like, I'm in control
of this, Jason.
Now, by the grace of God, I was able to finish the rest of it
fairly well.
And God did what he wanted to do, but he reminded me or showed
me and exposed in me where my heart is.
My tendency, I have a tendency to only build his kingdom when mine
gets to be built with it.
That struggles so much when he wants to build his kingdom at the
expense of mine.
But he has to do it.
Not just in me, in you, too.
Third point I want you to write down.
It's a hard one, but here's what it is.
Jesus must build his kingdom at the expense of yours, or you're
really only building your kingdom.
Jesus must build his kingdom at the expense of your kingdom.
That's the only way you know you're building his kingdom instead
of your own.
Listen.
Hear me, friends.
There's a great danger that every single one of us has into trying
to use Jesus for our own benefit.
That's the first would be disciple who said, yeah, I want to
follow you because it's going to look good on my resume, because
he was building his own kingdom.
And when Jesus said, you're not going to build your kingdom,
you're going to build my kingdom because I'm the king, he
was out.
Or that next one who said, when it's convenient for me, I'll
come to you because then it'll be easy for me.
And Jesus said, no, you do it now because I'm the king and you
serve me or you're not a part of my kingdom.
I want you to hear this as clearly as I can possibly say this.
If you're not willing to build his kingdom at the expense of yours,
then he's not your king, and therefore you are not a part of his
kingdom.
It's that plain and simple.
Every single one of us has a throne on top of our heart, and there
was somebody sitting on top of that throne.
It is either me or it is King Jesus.
There are too many people that I meet that treat Jesus as if he's
their wingman.
Oh, man.
My homeboy Jesus, he's with me.
When I have trouble, I go to him.
He's always there for me.
He's my bro.
He's my wingman.
Jesus ain't nobody's wingman.
If we're lucky, we get to be his wingman.
He's the king.
We're the servants.
He's gotta be on the throne.
But the only way he can get on the throne is if we dethrone ourselves.
And the only way peace comes to us is if we dethrone ourselves
and say, when I am on the throne, I screw up my life over and
over and over.
This storm is caused by my own life and I'm perishing in this storm.
Oh, Jesus, save me.
You're getting off the throne.
You're putting Jesus on the throne.
That's when you experience the peace that surpasses all understanding.
That's when he takes over and you experience just how good it is
to be a part of his family.
Listen, Jesus doesn't call us to come under his leadership because
he's arrogant.
He does it because he deserves that post.
Because didn't he do the same thing?
He did not build his own kingdom.
He built the kingdom of his father.
He came to Earth not to build his own kingdom, but to be.
To be rejected, spat on, made fun of, ridiculed, tortured and murdered.
All that to build his father's kingdom.
And in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying, I don't want
to do this, but, Daddy, I trust you and I will not be afraid
because your plan is perfect.
Jesus showed us what it looks like to actually be a follower of
the Father's ways, because he did it when it was the highest cost,
not when it was convenient.
And therefore he turns around and says, would you follow me?
Would you let me be king?
Would you experience what I could do in your life when you let
me in the boat?
Because I can calm every single storm doesn't mean he's going
to take away every single situation.
It may be like Peter, who walked on the water when the waves
were still going.
As long as he was looking at Jesus, he was at peace.
Jesus can bring peace in the middle of the circumstances when
he's standing in your boat, but you got to invite him in.
I'm going to give you that opportunity.
This baptistery is on this stage for one purpose.
It gives you a chance to dethrone yourself.
It's a picture of death.
You saying, that guy who was on the throne, he's dead and gone.
And when you come up out of that water, it's a picture that Jesus
is now on this throne.
And I want myself to know it.
And everybody else, it's me drawing a line in the sand.
I've kicked myself off.
I put Jesus on.
There are some of you, and you know that you need to take the step.
You have known it for months, and you're just like that second
disciple.
But it's just not convenient for me right now.
Maybe next week, maybe next month, maybe next year.
Jesus says, let the spiritually dead keep on waiting.
You follow me now, today, some of you need to stop playing around
with this and finally get afraid enough to say, I'm perishing.
Jesus, save me.
And he can save you.
Today.
You're gonna have a chance in just a moment.
One last thing before I invite you to come.
There are some of you, perhaps many of you, in this room, and you
are going through storms just like those people in that boat.
And it feels like wave after wave is just hidden upon you.
And you don't know how you're going to overcome that addiction.
You don't know how to overcome that mountain of debt.
You don't know how you're going to overcome that broken relationship
and marriage.
You don't know how you're going to fix that thing at work.
You don't know how you're going to solve that problem.
You have no idea.
If it just feels like you're drowning and you're overwhelmed,
I want to remind you that's the time to call out to Jesus.
They at least said perishing Jesus, save us now.
Their faith was so small, they had no idea who he was.
Yet Jesus still calmed the storm with their little bitty faith.
You don't have to have gargantuan faith.
You just got to come to Jesus.
So if you're here this morning and you're in some kind of storm
and you need the Lord to bring peace to solve your problem, or maybe
just to bring peace to your heart in the middle of the problem,
you don't have to believe big.
You just have to believe in the right person.
It's not the size of your faith that matters.
It's the one in whom you have faith that matters.
And it's time to exercise that faith.
I want to encourage you to stand to your feet right now.
I want to invite the prayer team to come around.
This is a chance for you to remember who Jesus Christ is.
Not to rush out of here, not to think I'm talking to somebody
else but you.
If you need prayer today, you're in the middle of a storm and
you need the power of Jesus to bring peace in the storm.
You come, let us know, we'll join hands and we'll pray for you.
If you need to come bow down, you can do that, too.
But most importantly, if you know that you need Jesus to be king
of your life, because he's not.
There's just too many compartments in your life.
You don't find any place where he's really Lord.
You're still living for yourself.
It's time to dethrone yourself and to put Jesus on the throne.
If that's you, you can come, let us know.
We'll help you take that step of faith.
Respond as you need to.