Speaker: I wanna tell you about a really cool experiment that took place several
years ago in that 1960s, give or take.
This was called the Stanley Milgram Experiment.
Here's how it worked out.
They hired actors to be learners and then they hired Vol hired.
They asked their volunteers to issue shocks to the learners
when they got the answer wrong.
They wanted to find out how far the participant would go in.
Shocking the person who got the answer wrong.
They found out something that will, that would rock your world.
Most of the participants in the Stanley Milgram experiment shocked the learners
who are just actors all the way up to 450 volts, which is for reference, is
enough to kill you, to create cardiac arrest, to ruin your your central nervous
system to fry your insides and to leave you basically on the floor, the learners.
On the other side of the curtain would make noises every time the
person issued the shock, issue a shock when they got the answer wrong.
And the person would say, ah.
And they would look to the experimenter and say, should I keep going?
And the experimenter said, yes, you must keep going.
And they would keep going up to 450 volts.
Crazy.
Unbelievable.
In fact, this experiment was so shocking that people started to
question how then should people act when it comes to authority?
How do people know a good authority from a bad authority?
In fact, the reason that we even did this experiment in the first place
was because everybody was wondering how did Hitler rise to power and have
all of these people do such evil acts?
And the answer they found that in part was because of authority.
Authority in your life has the power to radically change the way that you
live your life, which is why you have to be careful who your authority is.
You have to ask the question, who should be my life authority?
Who should lead me?
Who should tell me what I think is right?
Who should tell me what I think is wrong?
Because at the end of the day, people are designed to follow.
We're designed to follow somebody, and if we don't follow the rights, somebody.
We could make some really bad decisions that can really hurt a lot of people.
So the question I have for you then is, who are you following?
Who can you trust to lead you the right way?
And how do you know?
How do you know who you can trust?
You need to figure out who in your life or outside of your life is
worth you trusting and following.
We just finished the gospel.
Of Matthew's big meaty section called the Sermon on the Mount.
It's chapters five, six, and seven, and in these chapters, Jesus was
saying all these authoritative things don't steal, don't commit adultery.
He's saying things that other people were surprised by.
In fact, Lewis said last week, he ended on a section where it's where it said
this, when Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at
his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority.
Not as his Christ.
Jesus comes on the scene and says, here's how you're supposed to live life.
And everyone is shocked and amazed saying, wow, who is this guy?
He's got authority.
And here now Jesus is laying down the gutman saying, this is the way life is.
Follow me.
Take the narrow road.
Do what I say.
I'm the Lord.
I'm the judge.
And then people are now wondering, prove it.
Prove it.
If what you're saying is true, Jesus, if what you're saying is authentic.
Then there ought to be a way for us to confirm that what you're saying carries
the authority that you seem to possess.
And so this is Jesus' response.
Now, chapter eight that we're gonna look at tonight is Jesus'
way of saying, here's how you can know that what I'm saying is true.
Here's how you can be confident that I'm an authority that you
can and should trust, and this is a matter of life and death.
You don't want to be this guy issuing shocks because you followed a bad
leader, but following a bad leader isn't just about shocking somebody.
It's really about the way that you experience life.
You ever play the game?
Follow the leader person who's in the front.
They go, they jump over the log, and then you jump over the log and then
they crawl under the tunnel thing and you crawl under the tunnel.
That's a fun game.
Back in elementary school, here's the thing.
Adults play this game too.
Teenagers play this game.
We play all the leader.
The question is, who's the leader?
Not a big deal.
If you're following the leader across the playground and they're on the monkey
bars, and then you go on the monkey bars.
And then they go and they roll in the grass, and then you roll in the grass.
But it starts to get a little sus when your leader starts doing some suss things.
If your leader is using potty language okay, maybe I'm okay with potty language.
If your leader is watching things on the internet or following people,
that your mom and dad would say no.
Then it starts becoming a problem.
Who you follow will make all the difference in the world for you.
Jesus tells you why you should follow him.
In fact, the whole reason Jesus does what he does, he proves his
authority so that you can submit to it.
He tells you, here's what you need to believe.
Here's why you should believe it.
And then he shows you.
Here, let me prove to you why you can trust my words.
You choose Jesus as your authority.
You submit to his authority, man, you're gonna live life the right way.
If you choose your own authority or you choose an authority besides Jesus,
you're gonna have a difficult time.
Because no one is smart enough or wise enough or strong enough to
lead you the way that Jesus can.
He is your only option.
We're gonna go really fast through the gospel of Matthew, specifically chapter
eight tonight, and I wanna show you four scenes where Jesus tells you why
you should submit to his authority.
Starting with this first scene, there's 17 verses in it.
Matthew chapter eight, verses one through 17.
This first scene is verses one through four.
This first scene is verses one through four, and it's
when Jesus encounters a leper.
A leper was someone with a skin disease.
In the Old Testament, a leper is someone who wasn't able to have friends or
family contacts because they were put outside, they were unclean, they were
afraid to receive the same transmission, and when this leper came and saw Jesus,
he came and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean, and he does
something that he's not supposed to do.
He comes and he kneels at Jesus' feet.
You're not supposed to do this.
You're unclean.
It would be like someone day with the coronavirus, the flu virus,
and the rhinovirus coming to you and saying, can I have a hug?
You'd be like, bro, get off.
Step back.
This guy doesn't care.
He comes to Jesus and he's tired of living a life that he lives.
He says, Jesus, please if you will.
If you want to, Jesus, you can make me clean.
Here's the most amazing part of this scene.
Jesus should have said, dude, give back.
Stop touching me.
You don't, you're not supposed to do this.
This is unconventional.
This is unclean.
You're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna make me dirty.
But instead, Jesus does something remarkable with this guy.
It says here in verse three, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.
That's against the rules.
You're not supposed to do that, but here's what happens.
Jesus says, I will be clean.
And immediately his leprosy was cleansed and Jesus said to him, see that you say
nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that
Moses commanded for a proof to them.
Jesus touches the leper and get this.
He's not unclean.
Jesus doesn't receive the cleanliness.
Jesus gives wholeness and health.
And protection.
Jesus takes this guy's life, radically changes it and says,
dude, go and see the priest.
Now it's time to offer the sacrifice because you've just been cleansed.
It's like on the Beast games, you just won $10 million.
What are you gonna do with that?
Life is never gonna be the same.
Actually, it's gonna be a little the same 'cause you're gonna give half of
that to the IRS, but the other five, you could do whatever you want with it.
Life is different.
This guy just received a $10 million human.
This is something that wouldn't happen.
Life is different with this guy.
Now, scene number one.
Scene number two, still among the healing, an Italian leader of
men called a centurion comes to Jesus and he says he says, Lord,
my servant is paralyzed at home.
They're lying, paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.
And then Jesus says in verse seven, I will come to him and heal him.
Pretty remarkable because the Centurion pop quiz, answer the
question, is a Centurion a Jew?
No.
He's an Italian.
He's a Gentile.
But this Centurion actually has a lot of help from his Jewish comrades.
They're, they supported him.
In fact, they, it's not in here, Matthew, but in Luke, he records that the
Jewish leader said, please go help him.
Jesus.
He deserves it.
He's a friend to the Jewish people.
He he would be worthy of your care.
And so Jesus says, I will come to him.
I will heal him.
But the next thing that happens is something also super remarkable.
The Centurion says no, sir, no.
Essentially he says this, let me read it to he says, Lord, Adam I am not
worthy to have you come under my roof.
I'm notworthy to have you come to my house.
That's a big thing to say.
He's saying, I'm, you're not, I'm not worthy to have you come in my house.
He says, but.
Only say the word and my servant will be healed.
That is, I know all you have to do Jesus.
You just say the word and even from a distance you can create healing.
Jesus hears this man, and this is the only time in the gospel of
Matthews says this about Jesus.
He marveled his jaw.
If I could say, hit the floor, Jesus you're kidding me.
You get it.
Jesus marveled and said to those who followed him, truly,
I tell you, no one in Israel.
No.
And with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
In other words, he's saying, this guy gets it, this centurion.
He understands, he knows my authority, and Jesus does exactly what he says.
He offers the healing and the sermon has healed that very hour, that scene
number two, scene number three, Jesus goes back to his hometown in Capernaum.
This is where Peter lives, and this is also where Peter's mother-in-law lives.
Peter's mother-in-law means that Peter's married, his wife's mom is sick, and
Jesus sees her lying in bed sick with a fever, so maybe she has the flu.
Some of you guys had that recently.
That kind of went around in my family.
It's not fun, but Jesus goes over to her maybe after the prompting
of Peter, and here's what he does in verse 15, he touched her hand
and the fever left her get this and she rose and began to serve him.
She got up and began the search.
The back here.
Sorry, my thing keeps on disconnecting.
Let
Speaker 2: me,
Speaker: I'm just gonna move closer for this.
Sorry.
Just bear with me, ma'am.
Okay.
So he heals her and then that evening all these other people come to him
and many were oppressed by demons.
And here's what he does.
He cast out spirits with the word and healed all who were sick.
It.
And then Matthew cites the prophet Isaiah and says, he took our
illnesses and bore our diseases.
Here's the thing about Jesus healing all of this.
Remember, this is on the heels of everything that you just heard in
Matthew chapters five through seven.
This is the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus offers authoritative words.
Take the narrow way.
Don't steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery.
And by the way, let me prove to you that I am who I say I am.
I'm the healer.
I can overcome even the most awful sicknesses that you can imagine.
And this is proof that you can trust him.
Point number one, I want you to submit to Jesus because he rules over sickness.
Jesus proves his authority by showcasing his authority over
sickness, illness, disease, distortion, things that are broken.
Jesus fixes them.
I don't know if I told you guys before, I know I've mentioned it at
least my younger brother had cancer.
He had canceled when he was a kid.
It was an awful situation.
We took him to tons of doctors and he was sick for years.
All these things he, we went to these.
These, I don't know, these organizational, these events, these
parties of sorts where they would invite celebrities there because all
these kids part of this event were dying, and so they brought celebrities
to come and hang out with the kids.
It was really fun.
I got to meet some cool people, but what I found out is that God healed my
brother through the use of chemotherapy and radiation therapy and all these
incredible things, God healed me.
That was remarkable.
That really changed my family's trajectory.
In fact, that was one of the reasons that I knew God was healed.
God healed my brother.
We saw that and I realized, okay, I don't have the doubt God is real, which God and
how do I know that this is the right God?
There's lots of questions in my mind.
Sure.
But I believe that God ruled over sickness.
I saw and I saw that they healed my brother through the means of the doctors.
This is one thing that God continues to do, continues to heal, but not always.
Not always.
In fact, one of the things about sickness is that sickness is not.
Sickness is not always promised to be healed in this life.
Sickness is something that may stay with you, something you might get sick.
You might become sick in ways that leave you in a wheelchair
or leave you bedridden.
God doesn't promise that you're gonna be healthy for your whole
life, but Jesus does promise that he will heal the sickness someday.
I wanna show you three lessons about sickness based on the
people that we just saw.
Starting with the lepard comes to Jesus and says, look, I Lord, I have a
lifelong illness, and then I want you to notice the words I highlight for you.
He comes to Jesus and says, if you will, what you ought to learn from that is
that Jesus doesn't need to heal you.
He's not obligated to change your life.
He's not obligated to take away your sickness.
If you were sick recently, I know we had a flu outta my place.
All the kids were sick and coughing, and Kristen was dying.
She's taking antibiotics right now.
We were all done.
It was awful.
But you know what?
As we got better, we started thinking, God, man, health is awesome.
We love to be healthy.
God does not promise to heal us, though not in this life.
Jesus is not obligated to take away your illness.
But if he does.
It is a good thing that you should thank him for, and you should
say, Lord, I want to be useful to you because you've healed me.
Jesus doesn't mean to heal you.
The leper understands this.
He says, Lord, if you will, you can heal me.
Sickness is under God's domain.
Some of you will get sick in grievous ways.
Some of you'll have friends and family members that get sick, and
maybe God uses that very sickness to take them home to take their lives.
Sickness is under Jesus domain.
Second, I want you to look at now the centurion.
The centurion comes to Jesus and he says, Lord, I am not worthy.
That is Jesus.
You're higher than I'm, you're greater than I'm.
I don't want to bring you to my house.
I'm not worthy to have you enter into my home.
That's the same kind of mindset that I'd love for you to see.
You are not worthy to receive the mercy and grace of Christ.
I want you to think like the centurion as you recognize
that Jesus rules over sickness.
It's not only that he's not obligated, you're not worthy to receive his healing.
You're not in a position to make demands upon Jesus to
say, Jesus, you should heal me.
I'm a good person.
The Centurion knows that about himself.
I'm not a good person, and he was a good guy according to local standards.
People liked him a lot.
He was a help to the church or the Jewish synagogues.
Anyway, I want you to recognize that you are not worthy to receive the
mercy and grace that God offers.
Now, here's the striking thing.
Jesus offers it freely.
But not because you're a good person.
None of us are good people, and what we deserve is not health and wholeness.
What we deserve is condemnation.
Last Peter's mother-in-law, she's like sick.
This is such a flex.
Jesus is like, Hey, I got you.
Homegirl.
Picks her up, touches her.
And she's let me make you a sandwich.
Yep, that's right.
Let's do this.
I'm hungry.
I love this because
Speaker 4: Jesus like he heals her and he's Hey, can I have a sandwich now?
It's so practical.
Speaker: I love this.
Here's the thing, one of the things that we should do, if God does heal us, if
God gives us help, if God gives you two working legs and two great eyeballs, and
two, working like hands and arms, you ought to use your help to serve Jesus.
Jesus rules over sickness.
And so when you get sick, it's under his domain.
When you're getting, when you get healthy again, it is under his domain.
He heals you.
He chooses to keep you alive.
He chooses to make you walk and talk and keep you from hacking out your lungs.
When you're healthy, use your health to serve Jesus.
Why?
Because he rules over it all.
He's giving you health, not so you can serve yourself, but so
you can serve him, which is gonna look a lot like serving others.
Continuing onto our text, I want to take a look now at verses 23 through
27, we're skipping verses 18 to 22.
We're gonna come back to that at the end.
This is a section that you guys know.
This is where Jesus says, Hey let's go into a boat.
We're gonna cross over.
And in the middle of that, Jesus knocks out.
He's so tired after a long day of teaching, he's in the bottom of the ship
and the ship now, as they're crossing the sea of Galilee, is storm top.
I don't know if you've ever been on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
It's not fun.
Sea of Galilee is big, not an ocean, but it's big enough to
have these large storms take place that can actually take a boat out.
Pretty gnarly.
So the boat is taking in all this water.
In fact, they found a boat recently in the Sea of Galilee that was pretty close,
dated to the close to the time of Christ.
This is what it looks like.
In fact, this is where the images come from, that you'll see today that show
us what the boat actually look like.
So the disciples are in the boat.
This is much bigger than it looks like.
But Jesus is underneath here taking his news.
He's so tired that even in the midst of a storm he's taking a nap.
That's the kind of Jesus that we have.
He's working hard, serving all day long.
Takes a nap in the boat.
The disciples are freaking out because they're taking in so much water.
They're afraid that they're going to drown us.
So they say, Jesus, save us.
We're perishing.
We're dying.
Jesus, get up,
Speaker 4: please.
We're about to grow.
We're about to drown.
Speaker: Jesus probably is.
Wipes his eyes a little bit, looks around, sees the waves, looks at
them and says, why are y'all afraid?
What's wrong?
What, what's going on?
What are you afraid of?
In fact, that the term there owe you a little faith is it's, that's
a good translation, but it's like saying it's like a nickname.
It's like calling someone little faith.
Why are you afraid?
Little faith?
It's like you give someone a cute nickname.
I think he's teasing his disciples a little bit.
It's saying, what are you doing?
Like, why are you so afraid about this?
Don't you know by now?
Then he rose.
Jesus gets out of the hole of the ship.
He gets up and stands up, right?
He's sitting he's still climbing out.
He rose and he rebukes the winds in the sea.
I don't know what this sounded like.
Maybe Jesus put his hands up.
Maybe he just offered a word and said, stop.
Maybe, I don't know, maybe he called it.
He said, Lord, stop.
I don't know what he did, but he rebukes the winds in the sea.
Now get this.
You have to imagine this, okay?
I know today you, you know the story, but imagine you're in a storm tossed boat.
Things are coming, there's waves crashing down.
You hear the, his of the wind.
You see the waves are huge.
They're coming into the boat and then Jesus stands up.
We don't even know how he does that.
He's standing up on a boat that's being storm tossed, and then he says
something like this, maybe quiet.
And then in that same moment, everything just, and you could hear a pin drop.
Now tell me you are in that moment.
Tell me, you would not be freaked out.
You'd be like, I'm about to go myself over this boat.
This is not right.
This is weird.
What just happened?
I'm about losing it.
Lord, this, I don't know if this is better or worse.
I don't know if it's better that we're in the storm stop sea, or that you're
in here and you could stop to sea.
I don't know what to do with this, but Jesus calms the sea.
There's a great calm.
A great calm.
Now notice here in verse 24, there's a great storm.
Jesus gets up and now there's great calm, massive tumult, sudden
quietness, and the men marvel.
Here's the word again.
Marvel.
Jesus marvels at the sumter's faith.
Now the men marvel at Jesus saying, who is this?
Who?
Who do we have in the book, guys?
Peter, who is this?
James?
Who is this?
John Who is this?
And it is funny 'cause I'm wondering if they're thinking about Psalm
67 or Psalm 65, verse seven.
They know that Psalms like this say that God is the one who steals the
roaring of the seas and the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.
God does this, and yet we just had this guy talk to you in the wind, in
the waves and say, stop and everything stopped, and now everything's great, calm.
He's freaking out.
Point number two, you ought to submit to Jesus because he rules over nature.
Only God can do what Jesus does, and Jesus does what God does.
Therefore, Jesus is God.
His authoritative words and the sermon on the mountain.
Verses or chapters five through seven are now affirmed in chapter eight.
Authoritative words.
Authoritative works you ever been in a, an airplane with a lot of turbulence.
I found that recently turbulence can actually be really dangerous.
This flight attendant broke her ankle stop by, broke her ankle in
seven places when turbulence causes the plane to shoot up 500 feet.
Isn't that crazy?
You're in an airplane and the turbulence hits it and just sends it sailing
into the sky, another 500 feet.
That's a pretty big deal.
The gravitational of forces that would push you down are gnarly.
I was in an airplane situation with a lot of turbulence.
It was a small plane.
It wasn't like a big 7 47, 7 4 7.
I don't know even know where we're going, but I was by youth
group and my youth pastor was in there and she was freaking out.
Yes.
I said she, a long time ago, there was a girl there who was just losing her mind.
She was sitting in the airplane scene, clutching it so hard,
her knuckles are turning white.
I look at her and, the plane is shaking pretty violently and I thought can be
helpful to her and I can encourage her.
It's a nice thing for me to do.
There was no romantic vibes there.
It was not that kind of thing.
It was just like, Hey, I wanna help her.
So I unbuckle my seat and I walk over to Gavin was her name.
I walk over to Gavin.
And I kneel by not Jasmine, Jasmine knee up next to her seat.
I said, Hey ya, it's cool.
We pray with you.
This is all right.
We're gonna live.
And so she's okay.
Just freaking out, holding the thing really tightly.
So I prayed with her and I said, all right, head back to my seat.
Before I die, I turn around and then I die.
Guys say, what's the worst thing?
Kidding.
It's a terribly stupid thing.
But imagine this, I go to ya and I say, Hey ya, watch this
Speaker 2: calm.
Speaker 4: And then the plane just smooth sailing.
Imagine what happened there.
I think she'd have every reason to be like, you get outta my face.
That's a terrifying, don't ever do this
Speaker: again.
Just imagine if you had that kind of power that Jesus has.
Jesus calms the waves.
Imagine you have this power.
What would you do with Jesus palate?
I don't know.
Maybe you probably make fun of your friends, but you have, you'd
have some fun with your friends.
They go to the bathroom and you park the sea in the toilet.
Like they, she does her hair and then outside she gets a
tornado right on her head.
Speaker 3: Only your head,
Speaker: he comes outside.
It's a cold day.
He's swd in warm clothes and then you flip a switch and it's 110 outside.
Goes inside changes, he comes back out.
You flip a switch at 65 degrees in the answer.
We would do all sorts of fun things.
Jesus doesn't do these things in order to entertain.
He's not just trying to do fun things to get our attention.
He's trying to make a point, and the point is, he's the Lord over everything.
He's the Lord over nature.
He has the power to control and contain all things.
Why wouldn't you trust him?
Why wouldn't you follow him?
I learned that when you're in an airplane and you hit turbulence, one
of the people that you look at is who?
Speaker 3: Your mom?
Speaker: Yes.
If your mom's with you.
Besides your mom, if she's not there.
You look at the flight attendant.
Yes.
And if the flight attendant's freaking out, you have permission to freak out
because things are getting really bad.
But who you really want to see is the pilot, right?
You can look at the flight attendant 'cause they've been
doing that for a minute, but I'm wanna see what the pilot's doing.
If he's comfortable, then I can be like, okay I can trust this.
I, we're probably gonna land.
It's probably not a big deal.
But if I see a pilot gripping the yoke, and he's flipping out, I'm in trouble.
We're all in trouble.
We're gonna die.
Jesus is the pilot of everyone's life.
Even if you're not a Christian, he's piloting your life.
He's controlling the ups and the downs, and when turbulence hits,
it's not like he's surprised by it.
In fact, he wrote into the Turbulences on purpose.
You might be freaking out 'cause you're in the cabin saying what's happening?
I don't know where we're going.
I'm looking out the window.
There's no way for me to go.
I'm stuck.
What's gonna happen, Lord?
But the pilot, Jesus, he's piloting my life and he knows exactly what he's doing.
You want to trust him?
Now, how crazy is it if I get up out of my seat, I got buckle my
seat from the regular class seats and I go to the pilot's books and
Speaker 4: pilot
Speaker: what's going
Speaker 4: on?
Like it's crazy back here.
Help us.
Let me in there.
I can fix this.
And yet all
Speaker: the time we go to Jesus all the time.
We hear Jesus.
I know you control nature and I know you control sickness, but if you just
let me control my life, I'll be better.
If you just let me fly the airplane and my
Speaker 4: life, things are gonna be way better.
You don't know half of what you need to know.
Speaker: I submit to Jesus because he rules over nature.
Submit to his leadership because he knows where he's going submit to his
word because he's smarter than you are.
Jesus didn't just go to pilot school.
He invented everything.
So much more to say about that.
But let's continue on.
Matthew chapter 8 28 to 34.
I have another scene for you in this particular scene.
This is one of the famous scenes that you know about.
Jesus crosses the ocean or the Sea of Galilee to this place called gatherings.
Or that guitar.
There's a couple names for it.
But anyway, he goes to this place called the Gines.
He encounters two demon possessed men.
They're flipping out.
They're hanging out in the tombs, and then they come to Jesus.
And here's what's amazing.
They come to Jesus, and I want you to see what they say to him.
Okay?
Pay attention.
Demons.
Remember we're talking about demons.
Notice how they talk to Jesus.
They come to Jesus.
And here's what happens.
Verse 29, behold they cried out.
Ah.
Behold they cried out.
What have you to do with us.
Oh, what do they call 'em?
Son of
Speaker 2: God.
Son
Speaker: of God.
These are demons.
Aren't demons liars?
Aren't they deceivers?
And yet they come to him.
They come to Jesus and they acknowledge who he really is.
They say, oh, what have you to do with this son of God?
Have you come here to torment us before the time they recognize
their timeframe is short.
God promises to deal with all the demonic entities at some
point, and the demons begged him.
Notice they're begging you.
They're pleading with Jesus.
Please Jesus, if you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.
Now we know this is Gentile territory because there's pigs there.
Jewish people did not hang out with pigs.
They're unclean.
Verse 32, Jesus lets them.
They asked for his permission.
Jesus says, okay.
He says, go.
So they came out, went into the pigs, and they drown in the waters.
The pigs all collect together.
They run over the cliff and they drown The demons drown the pigs
at Jesus word, the herdsman.
Now think about the herdsman.
They see this account.
Remember the disciples?
They just saw Jesus calm the water.
They freaked out the herdsmen.
They're freaking out too.
They go back to the city and they tell everyone what happened.
All the city came out to me, Jesus, and they welcomed him gladly and
said, please come and teach us and tell us all the things that you know.
You must be important.
We'd love to have you come and tell us what's true.
They welcome him into the city and he became their king, and
they all lived happily ever after.
Go ahead and underline that in your Bible.
Go that part crazy.
Here's what really happens.
They came out to meet Jesus and when they saw him.
They begged him to leave.
Remember, the demons are begging him.
The two tormented men begged him.
They said, please heal us.
The demons begged him, and the demons are saying, please let us go to the pigs.
These people are begging him to leave.
Isn't that crazy?
They're saying, it's better for you to leave us and get away from us than for
us to have these demon possessed men.
We'd rather have the demon possessed men and our pigs than have you
come and disrupt all of our lives.
This is crazy, right?
I'm stunned by this, and maybe you should be stunned too, because this
is something you may not pay close attention to, but point number three
is you want to submit to Jesus because he also ruled over the spiritual realm.
Jesus has full authority over everything out there.
The demons ask for his permission.
The demons flee.
They treble, they ask, please send us over here.
And Jesus says, go.
And then they go.
Jesus doesn't have to negotiate, doesn't argue.
He just tells them, go.
And then they go, Jesus only has to say it one time.
Unlike your parents who probably say things multiple times,
honestly, I'm gonna single mice.
Jesus only says it once and they respond.
Today there's a lot of options for spiritual leadership.
In fact, one of the things that I did when I was in high
school, I don't recommend this.
Please don't do this.
I'm just telling you what I did.
It's an example.
It's an illustration.
I'm not telling you to do what I did.
This is what I did.
Don't do what I did.
Please don't do what I did.
Don't tell your parents I told you to do this.
Don't do what I did.
Is this clear?
No.
I played with the Ouija board.
We asked in all sorts of fun questions, don't do this.
We asked fun questions.
And it was silly.
We were laughing.
We thought it was totally weird.
But then I had one question that came to my mind.
I was already learning about church and Jesus, and I started following
Jesus, at least in some way.
I said to the Ouija board, which is this demonic device where you
conjure up the dead, don't do it.
I said to the Ouija board, is Jesus really the way, the truth and the life and that
no one comes in the Father except for him.
I knew John 14, six.
We all have our hands on that little.
Puck, whatever it is, it does this thing, which is really weird, by the way guys.
It's such a freaky thing.
It does the thing and it takes us all the way down to the, yes.
I was the,
Speaker 4: I was flipping out 'cause I'm like, no, why would the, this
is supposed to be from the devil.
How?
Why is the devil telling me that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life?
I don't get it.
Speaker: This story makes a little more sense to me though.
Because even though the demons are not on God's side, they
are still under his authority.
They still have to ask his permission to do their evil deeds.
And so I wonder if in that particular situation, if God made them tell the truth
or if they're telling the truth, serve some nefarious purpose that I couldn't
tell, either went they told me the truth.
Guys, the problem is that there's so many different options for you today.
You have the internet, you have ai.
You can search for all sorts of spiritual leadership in your life.
You can look your chakras up and try to cleanse yourself with all
these different kinds of things.
You can start looking at astrology charts and asking, okay, what's my sign?
When was I born?
Who should I marry there for?
You can start looking at tarot cards and ask the cards, okay what's my future
gonna hold and who am I gonna marry and how much money am I gonna have?
And you might even get curious and say let me just ask the cards.
If Jesus is supposed to be the one I'm supposed to follow, and maybe they'll
tell me the truth, maybe they won't.
Guys, this is so dangerous.
This is so dangerous.
And furthermore, why would you go to that when you can go to Jesus?
Why would you go to a second class or an imitation, a cheap knockoff,
or rather than going to Jesus?
I don't want you to overestimate or underestimate the power of demons, and
that's what's behind all these options.
There's demonic forces that want you to be entrapped in their teaching.
That's the point.
So if they have to tell you a little bit of truth so that you can swallow the
whole lie, then that's what they'll do.
I want you to be very careful about who you allow to lead you.
' cause you may unwitting me.
Learn to follow demonic forces.
Don't underestimate them.
Don't overestimate, but don't underestimate them.
Next I want you to expect demons to use truth.
Only when it fits their purposes, they will do it.
As I just told you now, I was looking at the Ouija board.
It told me the truth is Jesus the way, the truth in life.
Now, only he's the only way to the Father.
I said yes, which again, freaked me out.
I don't expect them to always lie, which is what makes him even
more dangerous, not more helpful.
Number three, don't submit to lesser powers.
Go to the source.
Submit not to the spiritual mediums that are offered to you.
Submit to Jesus.
Jesus is the true power.
He's the one who has all the answers.
He's the one who says, come to me and I will give you rest.
I've got the answers for you.
I've got all the solutions.
I've got every heartache that you have, every problem that you come to
me with, I can resolve that or I may not resolve it, and I may drive you
through the turbulence on purpose 'cause it's gonna, it's gonna serve you.
All right, our last passage here, Matthew 18, H 18 through 22.
I skipped this because it made sense to be our last point,
and it's gonna be a quick one.
Here's what happens now.
When Jesus saw a crowd around him, notice this.
He gave orders.
He didn't give a request.
He gave orders to his disciples to go over to the other side.
They're about to go and they're gonna experience the wind and the waves.
So two people come up to him.
He is grind and a disciple.
The scribe comes up and says to him, teacher, I'll follow you
wherever you go I'll be your guy.
Jesus pushes back on him and says, wait a minute, foxes have holes.
Birds of the air have nest, but the sun man has nowhere to lay his head.
In other words, are you sure that you're ready to sacrifice
your comfort to be my disciple?
You don't know how he answers.
Person number two comes up to him.
Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my dad.
To which Jesus answers follow me and let the dead bury their own
dead Sounds super callous of Jesus.
Oh dude, his dad just died.
Go let him bury his dad.
But Jesus isn't doing this.
The guy that comes to Jesus and says, let me bury my dad, is essentially
saying, let me wait until my dad dies and then I'll come and do what you want.
And Jesus is saying, no thanks.
It's not how this works.
He says, if there's gonna be, if my leading of your life is inconvenience,
you ought to expect that these guys come to Jesus with conditions.
But Jesus says.
No conditions.
If you're gonna be my disciple, you must surrender all.
I am the authority.
I make the rules.
You follow me.
Point number four, you need to submit to Jesus without conditions.
Your life, your choices today, right now really matter for the rest of your life.
I want you to give Jesus full access into your life and gonna say, Jesus, whatever
you want me to do, I'm gonna do that.
If you don't like who I'm dating, I want you to tell me not to date that person.
Use wisdom, use people that I love to tell me not to do that, and I'll do that.
Jesus, if you want me to get this certain kind of job, or you want me to
go to this certain kind of school, or you want me to do this certain kind of
thing, and maybe I don't like doing that 'cause it's not my, it's not my cup of
tea and Jesus says it, I'm gonna do it.
Jesus is often gonna challenge you.
If you're always comfortable as a Christian, you're
probably not following Jesus.
You're following you and you're calling it Christian.
Jesus will always push you outside of your comfort zone.
He'll make things hard for you, and that's because he's a good leader.
He makes things hard for you so that you can learn and you can grow.
You're always comfortable.
You're likely not growing.
Jesus calls us to submit to him without conditions.
These two guys who would be disciples say, oh I wanna follow you wherever you go.
And Jesus said, I don't have a home.
Are you ready to be homeless?
For my sake.
The other disciple said, let me go first, bury my father.
And he said, look, it's now or never.
Follow me right now and trust that I'll take care of you.
Trust that I need to take care of your dad.
Jesus doesn't want you to offer him conditions.
Speaking of conditions, back in the
back in the forties, 1945 specifically, the Germans had basically lost
the war, and so their commander after Hitler killed himself.
Came to the axis and said, please let us offer you a conditional surrender.
And they said, not a chance.
This is a full, unconditional surrender.
You don't get to make any pleas.
We will dictate the terms of your surrender.
And that's exactly what happened.
Germany had no choice but to agree with what was being demanded.
And so the newspapers ran.
The newspapers ran the headline.
Donnet has ordered unconditional surrender of all German troops.
The E day comes to, to, to the fore.
They celebrate wildly.
That's exactly the situation you would iron in.
When we come to Jesus, we're not coming to Jesus and saying, Hey, here's what
I don't want you to mess up Jesus.
I want to keep this, and this.
I like my situation.
I like my house.
I like my car.
I like my grades.
I like this and that.
You don't get to dictate the terms of Jesus.
It's not half of my hands are up and the police tell you to put your hands up.
You put your hands up like this.
You don't do this.
You wanna see your hands, right?
That's what they say.
Show me your hands.
This happened to me once.
I was going home late at night, and I fit the description of a sus dude.
So this cop pointed the light at, he pulled me over and said, show us your
hands and step backward toward us.
I'm okay.
So I do my thing and I step back forward and then they do the thing.
They take my backpack off and they start patting me down saying,
do you have any weapons on you?
Any sharp objects that are gonna poke me?
And I said, no.
And they start looking in my backpack.
And anyway, long story short, what they wanted from me was full surrender.
They didn't want me to say I can, I have one hand up and one hand in my pocket.
How about both hands down, but I'll just keep them really close in my body.
There was no negotiation.
They had their guns drawn.
They said, this is what we want to do.
Okay?
You're in authority.
I have no power.
I'm vulnerable.
Hands are up.
You do whatever you gotta do.
Jesus doesn't want us to just come to him and say I'll do what you want.
If you do this for me and Jesus, if you promise never to send me to China, if you
promised to never make me give up my fill in the blank, then I'll be your disciple.
So many of us do this, but here's the awesome thing, even though we're not.
We're not in the best position to bargain with you.
When you put your hands up to Jesus and you say, I submit, I
will no longer rebel against you.
I will be your servant.
You can be the master when you do this like the prodigal son, the
father doesn't just say, okay fine.
You can be part of my family, sit over there on that side of the
house where I'll never see you.
No.
He welcomes me and he says, come in.
Gives you the best robe, puts nice clothes in your body, accepts you and
celebrates because you are part of the family and you're not just a servant
in the back where no one sees you.
You're a real legitimate part of the family, takes care
of you, you welcomes you.
This is what submission to Jesus should look like.
You give him everything and then he gives you everything.
Jesus has authoritative words that he matches with his authoritative words.
Question for you is, whatcha gonna do with that?
You might say with your words yeah, Jesus is Lord, but your life has to match that.
When I was young, I used to watch this TV show called something
like Magic Secrets Revealed.
This happened in the nineties.
This guy got a lot of flack because he was telling people how magic tricks were done.
It was super awesome and also terrible 'cause I just felt
like my childhood was ruined.
But I watched it anyway.
It was interesting to watch all the magic tricks that he, he shared.
People hated him for it, especially magicians.
But whatever.
He made his money, did his thing.
Jesus is not a magician.
This is where I started the graphic, a get to there.
But Jesus is not a magician.
Jesus is not doing the magic tricks.
Someone's not gonna show up in 2000 years and be like here's
how Jesus magic tricks work.
They reveal Jesus doesn't have the desire to entertain you.
He's not trying to pull rabbits outta the hat just to make your life happy.
Jesus is not trying to entertain you.
He's trying to save you.
His acts are not magic, a miracle.
And they're meant to showcase and testify that he's the Lord and you're the servant.
Submit to Jesus.
That's the call.
Let's pray.
God, give us grace now to not only submit to Jesus in our minds,
but to do that in our lives.
Help us in our small groups to put application that makes sense to think of
it, to do it, to let you shape our lives.
Tenderize our hearts, Lord, humble us.
Help us to see who you are and to respond accordingly.
We ask this in Jesus name.
Amen.