Jarek Berga - When God Says No

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Almighty God, you welcome you. Hey there. [00:00:06] Speaker B: If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to, so we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church and click on Contact. With all that said, we, we hope you enjoy the message. [00:00:36] Speaker A: All right. Good morning, everybody. If I haven't had a chance to meet you, my name is Harrick. I'm one of the elders here at Versor Temecula, and I want to welcome you to our Sunday morning gathering. And this morning, we have been in a series in the book of Matthew for many years now. And the reason why we are in this series for many years is because of what I'm going to do today, which is pause that series to talk about something else. Happens all the time. And so we're going to keep going. We're not going to keep going in Matthew. We're going to step into a text that has been on my heart this week, and I think there's something in it for us this morning. So would you pray with me right now to really position ourselves to receive from God what he might want to give us through his word? Father, thank you. Thank you for this morning. Thank you for the people in the room. Thank you for those who are going to be listening later. God, I thank you that you're already at work in each person's life and that that is a great comfort for each of us because you are good, you are trustworthy, you are faithful. And so, Father, would you, in your infinite wisdom this morning, take these words, the words of your scripture, God, the words of this sermon, and apply them by the spirit of Jesus to your people and make these things real to us. God, thank you. This is all for you. It's from you. It's through you. Did you do a fresh work in us this morning? We love you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Sometimes things don't go your way. Let's pray. When they don't, it gets to you. Maybe it's something small. It could be something also that was much bigger, something that really mattered, something that you would hope, something that you were hoping would go differently. Maybe it's something that you prayed about and nothing changed. Maybe it's something you had hoped would shift and it didn't, or maybe it hasn't. For some of you, that's not a small thing, that you're thinking of something big, something that really hurt in that moment. You feel the gap between what you hoped for and what you're actually experiencing. And sometimes we just don't know what to do with that. And when that gap opens up, it's only human to want to carry it on your own. How do we do that? You dwell on it. Maybe it was a moment or a conversation that you replay, or an outcome that you just keep thinking about over and over again, and that thing didn't go the way that you had hoped. There's a lot of different ways we can respond to this. One of them is to try to make something happen, to try to fix it, or another one. This is my preferred path, is just to check out, to get away from it, to retreat into something that feels safer. These aren't the only ways. Sometimes you can start building a case. You can start rehearsing why you're right about what happened and why it shouldn't have gone that way. Eventually, you may even start looking around and comparing your situation to other people's situations, different situations. But it's exactly the same pull for all of us. We likely want to carry these things on our own. When we feel disappointed, when something doesn't go our way without even realizing it, we can even start pulling back from God. And slowly this starts to change. You and me, you can start pulling back from people, or you can start pushing even harder trying to make something happen. Where do you see it in relationships? Short answers, Distance, A different tone, Engaging with someone else. Before you know what's happened, you start to react to what it feels like this means about you. This didn't work out. Maybe I'm the problem. If this person chose them and not me, what does that say about me? And here's the big one. If God didn't come through here, can I trust him? Very subtly, without us even realizing it, what started off as a moment becomes meaning. We make meaning of it. Somewhere in there, whether you say it out loud or not, it starts to feel like God is saying no to you. How do you respond when God says no? That's where the story that we're going to talk about today begins. It starts right there, in a moment where we see one person and things don't go their way. We're going to talk about the story of two brothers, very famous. Cain and Abel. Both bring something to God. One is received, one is not. Cain's offering isn't accepted. And that's where everything starts to turn. Let's look at it together. If you have your Bible, turn over to Genesis, chapter four, first book of the Bible, starting at verse one. If you don't have your Bible, that's okay. We're going to have the verses up here on the screen. And this is chapter four of the first book of the Bible. And just to catch you quickly up to speed up to this point, you see the creation. God creates everything. He creates people as sort of the pinnacle of his creation. And then in chapter three, Adam and Eve, these special people that he picked out, don't listen to him and go their own way. And so what we see in that story is something really interesting. If you don't know the story, there's a serpent that comes in and starts speaking lies, which is weird to us. We don't typically have conversations with the garter snake that we run into. But in the story, this made sense. In the literary genre of the people at the time, this was a personification of evil in the world. And it comes in, it speaks to Adam and Eve. They listen to the snake, they don't listen to the voice of God, and everything starts to go haywire from there. But what's interesting is that Adam and Eve had to be convinced to sin against God, to go and do what God said not to do. But we're going to see a story here where someone can't wait to go against God. And so chapter four, verse one starts like this. The man Adam was intimate with, his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. So Cain is the firstborn. She said, I have had a male child. With the Lord's help, she also gave birth to his brother, Abel. Now, Abel became a shepherd of flocks, but Cain worked the ground. In the course of time, Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also presented an offering, some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but he did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious and he looked despondent. Okay, pause here really fast. You might be like, what does this even mean? Sacrifices, Blood, you know, what's this all about? This would have made perfect sense to the original hearers of this text. They were living in a time and in a place where this was what God had set up for them, God's people. And they were to bring sacrifices and offerings. So they instinctively got this this was a part of how they related to God. This is an important part of their relationship with him. And so you notice that the two brothers are doing what they're supposed to do. Again, if you were to read the books of Scripture in order, you could almost read back into this, like, okay, they're doing what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to bring offerings and Cain's offering, just as a side note, because I know that sometimes this raises questions. It's like, well, why didn't God receive Cain's offering? The truth is, we don't know. There's different possibilities that have been thrown out there. Hey, Abel brought sheep. He brought an offering, a blood offering. And Cain brought something from the ground that was okay. This was a very specific kind of offering where you could bring the produce of the land. It wasn't like the content of the offering was the problem. It was the heart. It was the content of the heart. And we're going to see that here. In verse 6, the Lord said to Cain, why are you furious? Why do you look despondent? If you do what is right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. So now sin is like an animal that wants to take over, that wants to control. But the original command to humankind was, you are to rule. You are to master, as it were, the animals. You had to have dominion over the land and over the animals. And now God flips it on his head. It's like, now this animal, as it were on the inside, wants to control you, and you have to master it. Sin. We keep going. Verse 8. Cain said to his brother Abel, let's go into the field. Ominous. And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother and killed him. This is a tragic story. This is the first instance of a murder. And it's actually what's called fratricide, if I remember correctly. You kill your own sibling. Horrible. By the way, the Bible, you might be here and you might be like, well, the Bible's just a book with a bunch of tales of, like, moral heroes. I don't see one in this particular story. I see somebody turn into a heel. When I was a kid growing up, I watched wrestling all the time. I own it. It's fine. A lot of people did. Millions of people did. Actually, probably people in this room did, if we're honest. I watched wrestling. And part of the reason I watched it is for what's called the heel turn. If you don't know what a heel turn is, it's when you think one way about someone and then they do something and it flips. And all of a sudden it's like this big reveal. This is not who I thought this was. Hulk Hogan did this. You can't get into it right now. I was a Hulkamaniac growing up, and he had a heel turn in wcw. It's a big. It's like the Internet broke before the Internet existed kind of thing. So this is a heel turn. Cain turns heel. And it's tragic. But notice what happens next. Verse 9, the Lord said to Cain, where's your brother? I don't know. Am I my brother's guardian? So there's some defiance there. Then he said, verse 10. What have you done? Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed, alienated from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood. Your brother's blood that you have shed. If you work the ground, it will never again give you its yield. And remember, what did he work? He worked the ground. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth. But Cain answered the Lord. My punishment, it's too great to bear, since you are banishing me today from the face of the earth, and I must hide from your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me. Then the Lord said to him, in that case, whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over. And he placed a mark on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him. Then Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. And that's a theme. When you had east, that's not a good thing. In the Bible, typically, especially in these early chapters, the land of Nod is actually literally the land of wandering. Cain was now a wanderer. He was a rooted person who is now uprooted. And that, for the Hebrew mind, is hell. It's a form of hell. Rootless, brutal. Okay, so let's get into it, shall we? Point number one, for your note takers out there. I've already said this, so I'll just reiterate it. Sometimes things don't go your way. Sometimes things don't go your way. In verses 4 and 5, it says that the Lord had regard for Abel, but not for Cain. And Cain was furious and he looked despondent. So notice this. Cain shows up. He brings something to God. And when God doesn't accept it something is exposed, and God names it. He says, why are you furious? Why has your face fallen? God speaks directly to Cain, and Cain's face falls. You ever seen a person's face fall? You can see it on them. And it's a hint of what's happening inside and where this is headed. So this is the moment that everything turns inside of Cain. Everything starts moving. Life's not going the way he wants it to. And when that happens, he literally hears a no from God. When that happens, things start to surface. They sound like this, I'm being passed over. I'm overlooked. I'm not being treated fairly. Does that resonate anybody in the room? But this is really important. If we just stop there, we'll miss it. There's something underneath it, something much deeper that's happening here. Here's what it sounds like. It's the quiet language of the heart that we often don't hear. Can I trust God if he says no, or if life doesn't go my way? This is the real issue. Things don't go his way. And even though God is right there speaking to him, God is right there speaking to the man. It's hard for Cain to trust him. Guys, is this not what it means to be a human? You can be in and around God, his presence. You can hear his words. He can be speaking to you directly. And it is so hard to trust what he's saying when it's not what you expected, when it's not what you anticipated, when it's not what you wanted. This, this, like, stopped me this week when I read this, like, God is talking to him. Could you imagine what it would be like to have a conversation with the divine? And I'm not talking about, like, what we might experience now, where we have impressions that all that stuff is good and true. What if God in some form or fashion showed up in a manifest way that you can. In some form your senses can identify and recognize as God and he's speaking to you, what do you think you would do? I like to think that I would prostate myself. I'm right there with you. Whatever you say goes. Like, your word is my. You, command is my commission in this life. It doesn't work that way, does it? The human heart is way weaker and more fickle than we know. It's way more broken. We're way more vulnerable than we can ever imagine. You might be like, man, you're making a big leap here, bro. I'm not Cain. What if I was to propose to you that what's in Cain at a seed, in the what's in cane that we see here, like Sprout is present in all of us in seed form. Think about it. Can I trust God when life doesn't go my way? Who here has not grappled with that? Maybe you haven't consciously grappled with it, but it is happening underneath the surface all the time. Passed over, overlooked, not treated fairly. Oftentimes it shows up in what you don't see. Here's the real litmus test or the acid test here. What do you not see in this story? What does Cain not do? He doesn't bring his confusion or pain to God. God is speaking to Cain, and Cain is not responding. He's silent. Did you notice that in the first interaction when God's actually trying to get to his heart before he kills his brother, he's silent. God's speaking to him. There's no response. And I think this is where this connects to us. You can go to God or you can avoid him when things don't go your way, when you get a no, you can go to God or you can step back from him. Cain's story shows us that it's possible to be around God, but not open to him. And sometimes it's not just avoidance. God tells Cain what to do, but Cain doesn't listen. And then he takes matters into his own hands. And then that's when you see him strike down his brother. And this is where it gets real. Because Cain isn't just angry. He's sitting in that moment and he's pondering something, or maybe not pondering something. This is happening in the heart level, whether or not he. He's dealing with it. And it may sound something like this. Ready? God. I thought I was doing all the right stuff. Why did it turn out this way? You know that place? I know that place. I've lived there. For me, I sensed God calling me and leading me into pastoral ministry. Eighteen years ago, and I was working at a law firm at the time. For years after that, nothing changed. Nothing changed for years. Maybe for you, it's not a calling. Maybe it's a relationship that you long for. Maybe it's a career path. Maybe it's a decision that you prayed about and it didn't turn out the way you'd hoped or a path that you envisioned your family or your child or yourself going down that has not materialized. You thought it would work out. You ask God to move, and then nothing. And here's what. As I've reflected On my own life, my own experience, reflected on Cain's experience here, what might be going on in him underneath it, there's that question, God, did you forget me? God's still speaking, but do we know what to do with that? If I'm honest, as I reflect on my own life, there's this pull to just start figuring things out on my own. Instead of bringing that honestly to God, I kind of kept it to myself and just tried to move forward. But you can see now, and I can see now, looking back, reflecting on my life and experience, God wasn't just working on the outcome. He was working on my heart in the midst of it. And some of you are there right now. You're trying to follow God, you're trying to follow his ways, or you're exploring what that looks like, or you're thinking about it, but something is off. And instead of bringing that to God, it's so easy to start carrying it on our own, isn't it? This was Cain's moment of decision. And instead of humbling himself, he hardens his heart. Where is God speaking in your life right now, and you're finding it hard to trust him? Where is God speaking in your life right now and you're finding it hard to trust him? That may be your moment of decision. When God says no, don't shut him out. When God says no, do not shut him out. Second point for my note takers. How you respond is revealing. How you respond is revealing. In verses 6 to 7, God basically asks Cain, like, why are you furious? If you do what's right, won't you be accepted? Sin is crouching at the door. God goes straight to Cain's heart and asks him these questions. Here's what's interesting about that, though. And as a parent, I so often don't do this. God's not addressing the behavior first. He's naming what's happening inside of Cain first. And we get a feel for what is happening inside of Cain based on his response. And it's not great, is it? Here's what's interesting, though. Thinking through this particular passage this week, something that struck me. Cain's response is revealing because God's no to him didn't put his response in there, it exposed it. I'm in my 40s now, so it feels like yearly blood work is more important than it's ever been. And other kinds of tests, some of which I'm really not looking forward to.45 unless they push me up. It's totally possible if you don't Know what I'm talking about? Don't sweat it. Enjoy your youth. Yearly blood work. I used to laugh at that. Like, why? Healthy as a horse. Clydesdale. As I get older. That's a Santa Claus reference. Probably went over everybody's head. But next time you watch Santa Claus in December, you'll be like, that was actually a good line. It's like getting blood work done. Interestingly high cholesterol. When that needle goes in to draw the blood, it doesn't inject cholesterol into the system. It draws out the blood and it reveals what's already there. Vitamin deficiency or whatever it is. Oh, yeah, but nobody would be like, Quest Diagnostics introduced this vitamin deficiency into my system. Therefore, it is them who is to blame and who talks like that. It's already weird what you're saying. And then you say it like that, and it's like, okay, there was a point to this blood work. This is like getting blood work done. Like, the blood work doesn't create anything. It just shows you what's already there, what's already coursing through your veins. When God says no, just shows you what's already there. And maybe you felt this. Maybe you replay the moment, that conversation, that decision, that outcome that didn't go the way you'd hoped, and you start to realize this isn't just about what happened. There's something taking place underneath it. For me, as I was sitting there processing a calling, waiting for years, seemingly in the wilderness, it wasn't just a situation. It was, will God come through? Have I heard him properly? Is he trustworthy? That's what's happening. Situations, just exposing that. I'm having these questions. So it's never just about reacting to what happened. It's reacting to what it feels like it means about us as people. Like, am I alone? Am I enough? Am I overlooked? Am I defective? Can God be trusted? God wants to get to that space with Cain and he never does. Does that shock anyone else? You can stand before the Lord of the Universe and he can pursue a human heart, and the person is no better off for it. Does this not make you shake a little bit in this. In your seat, like, most of you are here every week. I'm here every week. I'm listening to this stuff, too. I'm listening to what's being said. I'm listening to the word being proclaimed. Have you ever thought this might not help me at all? And it just depends on my posture? Am I open or closed? Naturally? If you slow down and think about it, you're like, oh yeah, Jesus taught about this. The seed, the parable, the sower goes out and he casts seed and it falls in these different places. And then depending on the quality of the soil that it falls in, you have these different responses. You guys know what I'm talking about. Some of you do, some of you don't. If you don't know, that's okay. This is in the New Testament. This is part of Jesus teaching that the openness, the receptivity of the soil. He's in an agrarian culture. This made sense of them. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me because I'm not going out sowing seed in Crown Hill ever. But they would have understood this. Like they see this happen and it's like the word goes out and then what kind of soil is it going to find? For Cain, it was like the seeds went out and they just bounced off the ground and the birds came up and ate it. No growth, no fruit. Actually, it was something very different. It was the first murder. Now it's just nightly news, but could you imagine what it would have been like to be there for the first one? Now we're desensitized to it, right? But it gets everywhere. It's in our faces. If you have the unfortunate. Actually, let me just pause. If you're watching news all the time and you're seeing this stuff, murder was once not normal. Conflict that ended in destruction was not the way it is now. The way it is what we're used to and it sits in front of us. It's now it's entertainment. But it wasn't so in the beginning, this was not the way God intended things to be. And what's crazy to me is that Cain could have avoided this. Cain could have stopped God told him, like sin is crouching, it wants to control you. Which by the way, I don't know how you feel about this, but I love that I don't have to identify with my sin too much. God calls it like an animal that wants to control. And so it's like, this isn't like I'm my sin. My sin is something to deal with. I don't know who that's for. But you know who you are. That was for you. But that doesn't mean. On the one hand you don't need to over identify with it. On the other hand, if you're walking around unaware of it, you're in trouble because it will get you. I remember being in South Africa and we did this safari and we were out for hours on this kind of open Land Cruiser type of vehicle. And we're driving through and we see all these different animals. We saw hippos. We saw all kinds of stuff. And there was this one particular animal that was very scary. They were. I think it was water buffaloes. And Tom's not here. Who's done this before in South Africa? Okay, was it water buffaloes that you're like. That's the one you don't. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think, Paul, you went to. Right? Yeah. And so it's nighttime. It's getting very dark out there. And we're still out on this open. This open vehicle. And we come across the water buffalo. And it was like, the one thing I did not want to see was this water buffalo in front of us. Now, granted, we're with experienced guides. They know what they're doing, but we're still talking about a wild animal. And that's a weird position to be in. When we got home from this safari, you had to get out of the vehicle, and then you had to walk to your hotel, which sounds fine other than it's open and you're literally in the park, so anything could snag you on your way. Do you guys understand what I'm saying here? This is not the Sheridan or the Ramada or whatever. I don't even know what the Ramada is that even a thing anymore. Just totally dated myself. I have stayed in a Hotel since 1995, the Hyatt Place. You have to walk to your. Like you could be literally eaten by an animal that thankfully none of us have been. And I don't think the animals love necessarily hanging out where there's light and people. But it was a distinct possibility. And you know what? I wasn't flippant. Why? Because I'd like to come home in one piece. Not in many. I like being alive. I'd like to come home from South Africa and tell someone about it rather than be face to face with my Lord and tell him about it. I do want to see him, and it's going to be cool. But it would have been like. He would have been like, hey, I told you, crouching. I was like, I didn't. Was that supposed to take that literally? Was this a metaphor? But the big idea here is, and there is a point to this, you're careful when you know that something could get you. Are you careful with your heart? Are you aware of the fact that sin is stalking you and me and that God doesn't want you to get eaten? That's so weird. God doesn't want you overtaken by sin. He wants to control sin. Wants to control Cain, though he never brings that deeper layer to God. And we can do the same. And if you're a note taker, this isn't one of my points, but you're going to want to write this down because I think this is pretty helpful. What you don't bring to God will find a way out in your relationships. Able. It may not look like murder, but it can look like a lot of things. It leaks out for us. It probably looks more like distance, words coming out sharper than you intended. God says you can rule it or it will rule you. Bring it into the light. That frustration, that comparison, that question you keep replaying. Say it to him like it really is to God. So let me ask you, where are you staying on the surface instead of bringing something to God? Where are you staying on the surface instead of bringing that to God? Your response is revealing. And this is point number three, last one. Your response reveals what you trust. Your response reveals what you trust. Verse nine. Where's your brother? God comes to Cain. But this is really interesting. Not with an accusation, but with an invitation. But Cain deflects. I don't know. You tell me. And later, Cain's response. This is too much. No grief, no repentance, just protecting himself. This is about trust. And so Cain closes off. I was thinking about it this week and the picture of a drawbridge came to mind. Do you guys know what a drawbridge is? If you think like a fortress of some kind and you have this bridge that comes down, what does it allow you to do? When the drawbridge is down, you get to cross, right? So think of a drawbridge. When something feels threatening, what's natural to do with the drawbridge? Pull it up. You feel safer, right? It goes up. It's not necessarily because you want to shut God out, but because this feels safer. The bridge is up. What does that look like? Practically? It means you might still show up, but nothing is getting through. You're there, but you're not actually letting God into what is actually going on. At a heart level. We see this in relationships, right? When maybe somebody approaches you with something, all of a sudden your walls go up, your arms cross and you retreat into this fortress. And someone may be talking to you, but it's like nothing's getting in the drawbridge. That's what it looks like. It can look that way in our relationship with people. It can even look that way in our relationship with God. I was thinking back to that season in my life that I was telling you guys about. Long season of waiting. It felt like God was just delaying things, maybe even taking me on a detour. But looking back with, by the way, reflection is a beautiful thing. Just is. If you don't have time to reflect on your life and the ways God has been at work in it, it might be time to set aside some because the most interesting things pop up and make sense. Dots connect. That's an aside. As I've reflected on my story, on things I've been through, on this particular situation that I mentioned earlier, it was not a delay. It wasn't. It was his design to get to my heart. He wanted my heart. I already shared some of the things that were stirring in that delay. What felt like a delay, it wasn't. But I couldn't see that because my bridge was up. And for some of you, that may be exactly where you are today. You may be going through something that feels like a delay, maybe even a detour, and you just can't see what God is doing yet. So let me ask you a question. Where might your bridge be up right now? Where might your bridge be up right now? Where is God speaking to you and addressing you? Potentially even. But it's just really hard to trust him. That might be where the bridge is up. We've been talking this morning primarily about Cain, but hopefully it's clear by now this isn't just Cain. This is humanity. Which by implication means this could be any of us. I don't think God leaves the story of Cain in the scriptures so we can be like, thank God I'm not Cain. I think that would be missing the point. Not going to learn from him unless we can identify at least a little bit with him. And hopefully that's happening to some degree. This is us. And here's the problem. When God is speaking and his words are hard or they don't make sense, we just don't naturally move toward him. We don't. We may hear his words, but are we listening? It's very hard to actually listen when they're not what we want to hear. And so what might this look like? We might pull back. We might. We might protect. We might even pretend. Ned Flanders, right? For those of you who aren't Simpson fans, that's a Simpsons reference. Again, really. 1990s. I just lived there in that space with the Ramada, watching the Simpsons. So we might pretend like Ned Flanders. Everything is fine. But I remember this one episode where I think Ned's like eye starts to twitch. Anybody watch see that one where it's like he's holding so much in and he's like, I'm fine. And then all of a sudden, like he just can't stop. His left eye or whatever is just like twitching, just holding it in. We may not have that particular thing, but it's going to show up somewhere. It's going to show up somewhere, man. We don't just struggle to trust God. Left to ourselves, we don't really want to move towards him. What Jesus, though, responds differently. There's a sweet name I haven't mentioned yet today. Our Lord Jesus. He responds differently. He finds himself in a garden. Actually, Cain would have been bringing these offerings just outside of the Garden of Eden, maybe at the gate, as it were. But Jesus was in a garden under pressure, when everything in him could have pulled back. He's at the end of his life, as it were. He's in agony, he's suffering. God has called him to do something and he's actually like hoping that there's another way which tells us that he was fully human, fully divine, but also so human. Who hasn't faced something overwhelming and been like, is there any other way? Please, just any other way? And the divine answer was, sorry, I wasn't sorry. Just no. Silence. And then his response. Not my will, but yours be done. So where we close off drawbridge can come up. Jesus stays open. Jesus keeps his bridge down so that yours never has to come up. On the cross, he takes upon himself what our way. Rejection, exposure, abandonment, death. It doesn't have to be literal death. We're not necessarily out killing each other, but there are impacts of sin on our relationships that do have a way of killing relationship. He takes all of that onto himself so that in him, Hyuthus, when you are passed over, you can be received. He receives the ultimate no so that no lesser no to you is proof that God is against you. It actually can become a place where you learn to trust God. God's no. And Christ can become a come on in when, when God says no, don't shut him out. I'm about to land the plane here. When God says no, that is not rejection. In that moment when you can feel your chest start to tighten and you don't know what it means, you don't have to raise that drawbridge anymore. Because on the cross, Jesus did the exact opposite. Fully exposed, no defense, no hiding, no retribution from Jesus. He could have called a legion of angels and torched all those Romans. He could Have. But he didn't do that. He stayed open to the Father so that in your worst moment, you can be assured that he will move towards you, not away from you. The scriptures actually talk about, and this has come up several times over the last few months, going to come up again. The scriptures actually talk about how Jesus is our high priest and he lives to make intercession for us. Did you know that Jesus is praying for you continually so that nothing, no sin, no failure, no fear, has to keep you from the Father anymore? Jesus is making sure that the access to the Father stays open. You don't have to keep the bridge up. God is still moving towards you. So how do we respond? Well, it's not by pretending that everything is fine like Ned Flanders. It's not by forcing better feelings. It's not by fury. Hopefully Cain's story taught us that. It's not by allowing our passions to rule us, allowing the animal to take over that animal inside of sin. Which, by the way, that may be kind of offensive to hear, like we all have an animal trying to kill us. Like an inside that we have to master. Temecula is quite nice. I don't know if you know this. I moved from the hood of North Park. It's not really the hood, but it feels that way when I've seen some things. This place is nice. It's clean. It's the cleanest place I think I've ever lived in, barring south Orange County. It rivals it, if you can believe it. It's pretty close. This is a nice place. But I know the secret. You ready? It's exactly the same as everywhere else. What do I mean by that? Not in terms of economics. I'm not talking about economics. I'm not talking about comfort. I'm not talking about those things. I'd say it's way higher here than in most places. So what am I talking about? We struggle to trust God just as much as anyone else. We have our own unique flavor of it, which oftentimes looks more like fake it till you make it, or in some cases, fury. But either way, it's the same human condition. So we don't respond well by pretending, by forcing. We can't respond well through fury. But here's what we can do. And I just want you guys to know this. As a pastor in this city that I love, I've been here for eight years now, this is probably the hardest thing. You ready? Here's how you respond to this. You bring what's really happening to him in this World in this place. You're managing your life. I'm managing my life. Right. We're managing calendars, we're managing finances. We're managing this, this, this. We can become managers. That's all we do. We just manage. Manage, manage. What I'm talking about right now requires slowing down. It actually requires getting familiar with the inner terrain of your soul. And no one's gonna help you do this. Your boss won't. The people in your household probably won't either. Not because they don't love you or care about you, because they just have needs and you have responsibilities. And that's how this world, that's how it works. This isn't just gonna happen. This takes intentional resistance. I don't know who here likes the idea of being like a resisting. I think in this place, it's pretty attractive to resist. Let me ask you a question. Who or what are you resisting? Is it the animal that wants to wreck you, or is it something else? Or has your animal deceived you into making it about someone or something else? We have to bring what's actually here, here. And if you don't, God help you and me. Your confusion, your frustration, your disappointment, even your doubt. Bring it to God. Here's the interesting part about all this. He's omniscient, which means he knows everything. So did you know? You can't surprise him. He's like, oh, Mike. What? Just getting a little bit older. I'm in my 40s now. I'm into my fifth decade. Haven't finished it, but I'm starting it. Even just being around for a while, I'm, like, picking up patterns in life. I can kind of, you know, and hopefully by the time I'm 80, if I make it, I'll really have this stuff dialed in. God doesn't have to piece anything together. He doesn't even have to rely on patterns. He can just look at the point you and me in front of him and be like, I know. I know it all inside out, backwards and forwards, past, present, future. He knows it all. And yet he's the one that asks keen questions. Maybe today he's asking you a question. He's inviting you to answer it. Maybe for you, the answer sounds like God, I don't get it. God, I'm disappointed. God, I believe, Help my unbelief. That's what it looks like to really bring it to God. So here's what we're going to do. Before I call the band back up, we're going to do a quick exercise And I'm going to land this plane. I really am. I keep getting text messages from my brothers and the number just keeps going up. I'm like, boy, I've been preaching for a while. So it started off with six, now it's at 17. I shouldn't bring this to the pulpit. It's quite distracting. So I'm going to invite you to close your eyes. If you can do it without falling asleep. I know that that's hard. Just try. If you can't, just keep them open. I don't want to embarrass you here. I want you to think about a recent moment where things did not go your way. Or maybe a situation where things are not going your way right now. Maybe where God said no. What's straighter to surface in you? What are you paying attention to? What you notice inside? Like what surfaced? What questions, what doubts, what fears? What did that moment say about you? What did it start to say about God. With your eyes closed? He knows everything. In the quiet of your own heart. You can even say something to him right now. You can just tell him, God, I'm hurt, I don't understand. Help me. What would it look like to bring that to him and let you meet him there? Bring it to him. We're almost done. Just a few more seconds, You can open your eyes and you can stand up. I'm going to invite you to stand if you're able. I'm going to call the band to the front, Guys. When God says no, you don't have to close off. You don't have to keep the bridge up. You can lower it. God's not moving away from you, he's moving towards you. When God says no, don't shut him out. Not because everything makes sense, it very well may not, but because he's good. So there's the invitation, that moment that you thought about, bring it to him. If you need help, we'd love to pray for you. I'm invite the prayer team up to the front. Actually, if you're on the prayer team today, would you make your way to the front? Well, I've trusted men and women that would love to pray for you. If God has stirred up anything in this time that you think like, ah, it's time, it's time to bring it to him. Let me pray for us and we'll go into a response which for some of you it may just look like praise. It may just look like thank you, thank you that you're open. Even when I'm self protective and you welcome me and receive me and pursue me. That's as good a reason for praise as I can think of. So you can come up and receive prayer, or you can stand your seat and just praise whatever that response is for you. I'm gonna pray for you. Father, thank you for the ways in which you have loved us and honored us as human beings and dignified us by pursuing us. God, whatever situation we may find ourselves in, it's not devoid of your grace. It invites us to put the drawbridge down so that grace could come and flow in. God, would we be a community that's shaped less and less by the world and the values of the world and more and more by the culture of the kingdom? More and more by your radical pursuit of us. God, I thank you that Cain was loved. Cain made poor choices, but he was deeply loved. God. And I thank you for the brother that we didn't even talk about Abel, the one who brought the right offerings, the one who had the right heart and still suffered. And I thank you that there's people here whose experience resonates more with that than with Cain right now. You see them. Thank you for that. And I see Jesus in them. May they experience and receive your love in all the ways that you desire to give them an experience of your love this morning. For the rest of us, Father, if there's cane, like distrust that's in our hearts that you're surfacing today like blood work, may we not ignore the results of the blood work, but actually address the underlying issues, get to the root so that we can be healed. Thank you that you long to meet us in these places. Would you have your way? We love you, Father. It's in your name we pray. Amen.