Episode Transcript
[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.
[00:00:35] Speaker C: Man, I love testimonies like this morning of God's power and his presence, his faithfulness.
Yeah, it's been an interesting morning. I Woke up at 5:30 or maybe a little bit before, and I feel like I've been awake for a whole day already.
And I usually wake up at that time, which is strange. But it's been a eventful morning. I think it's been a morning of just experiencing his presence and his faithfulness, even when you feel a little bit off.
Woke up this morning feeling sort of anxious and stuff.
Maybe I just was assuming I wouldn't for some reason. I don't know. I'm preaching today, but yeah. So welcome everyone. My name is Mike. I'm one of the elders here.
Yeah, we've been going through a series through Matthew called the King and His Kingdom. It's talking about King Jesus and what his kingdom is like. And Herrick actually highlighted it really well. It's the here, but not yet. And living in this tension of the moment and looking forward to what's going to come eventually.
And so, yeah, I'm actually going to pray to get us started because I need prayer and I want to pray for all of us.
Yeah.
Father, you are faithful, you are good, you are present, and we thank you.
I thank you for the privilege of being able to share your word this morning with your bride, this beautiful church.
And I pray for each of us that you would just open our hearts and our minds to what it is that you want to say, Holy Spirit, that you would rest upon this place and.
Yeah, that Lord, that I wouldn't get in the way of anything that you want to do.
That Jesus, you'd be made much of because you are glorious, you're beautiful.
So I thank you, Lord, you're great. We pray this in your name. Amen.
All right, so it was a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago, walking through the house, and I was looking at where my wife and my wife Marla and my son Levi were looking at the computer. And I'm like, what are they doing over there? And this isn't unusual around our house. Levi has a million questions like, we can't watch a documentary without narrating all the questions happening. And Google searching stuff and pausing and all that stuff because he has so many questions. And we love that about him. And he's a curious boy. And this time he was asking about the Titanic and they were looking at pictures of the Titanic on the bed of the sea in the Atlantic.
And as many of you know, and if you grew up in the 90s, you probably saw the movie the Titanic Sinks, and it was a tragedy. But the Titanic actually launched in 1912. It started in England and then it eventually went to France and then to Ireland, and it was heading over to New York City.
And I don't want to say marketed. It was publicized as being the unsinkable ship.
It led people to believe that this was a ship that gave them security. They expected security, especially when they're going, imagine being 1912, going across the Atlantic Ocean, like, I don't know, like, I really love water, but I don't know about going across the ocean at all. I've seen the videos of these people, freighter ships, and they're getting rocked all over the place.
It doesn't seem fun, but I do love being on boats.
But that's besides the fact this ship, there was an expectation that it would not sink. And so there was multiple different classes of people that were on it. You had the wealthy people that were looking for luxury, they were looking for security and getting across. You had the middle class people that were looking for leisure and adventure. And then you had a big portion of that third class was immigrants that were looking for new beginnings in the Americas.
And all of it was wrapped up in this confidence in the ship's design and expectation that they were going to make it there to the other side of the ocean.
Interesting enough though, the company that was behind the Titanic, the White Star Line Company, never claimed it was unsinkable. It was primarily the publicity around it, the ads that came out from other people that weren't from them, the, the articles that were written about it. And so people, they went in to that boat and they got on it and they expected to get to the other side. And unfortunately, on April 14, 1912, the boat hit an iceberg. And then early in the morning on the 15th, it sank.
But what's interesting is that during that time there was a strange calm that came over that ship.
People were expecting to be just Fine. The motors went off, the lights didn't go off, the band played on.
There's even people that were playing with the ice that had fallen to the deck of the ship. They're throwing it around like it was a game.
One of the first class passengers, Eloise Smith, said there was no commotion, no panic. I had not the least suspicion of the scarcity of lifeboats. There wasn't enough lifeboats either. Crazy, huh?
Dr. Washington Dodge said at no time was there any panic, no evidence of fear.
And so even as the boat was sinking, there was other survivors that couldn't accept the reality of what was happening.
One of the attendants on the boat, Violet Jessup, said she said she couldn't fathom, could not accept the fact that this super perfect creation was to do such a futile thing as sink.
Just think about that for a second. A boat, a futile thing as sink. That's how much hope she had in this thing, the expectation she had around this boat. And then last quote, since I'm full of quotes this morning, Elizabeth Shutes, first class passenger.
She said she even stayed close to the ship in her lifeboat because she believed the Titanic was still safer than a lifeboat.
Unfortunately, the expectation that this boat was not going to sink led to many dying that day. There was 1500 people that died that day.
You know, I was thinking about this. You know, we might hear this now and be like, oh, that's sort of silly. Like, why would they believe that? But I think we all have expectations that we sort of put our hope in at the end of the day.
You know, they're powerful. They actually, they shape our choices, our emotions, even our faith. It's not expectations are a bad thing. It's just what do we put our hope and our expectations in?
Misplaced expectations, unchecked ones, can backfire on us.
So I was thinking about a couple, and you guys, maybe you don't deal with these ones, but these are just some that I've dealt with.
But when you hear it on the surface, it might be like, I would never think that. But the way I want you to think about it is when things don't go the way you hope, what is your response that really happens? Because that's going to actually reveal what your expectation is underneath the surface.
So one of the ones I've dealt with, maybe you can relate to it.
Expecting to avoid suffering because I'm faithful. I've been faithful. God, why am I suffering right now?
Expecting life to be smooth, safe and comfortable. I mean, I feel like that's an American Thing right there because I've lived rightly, I've done good things or, you know, this is one that I think I've dealt with quite a bit in like the last couple years. Expecting God's plan to always be obvious and make sense immediately.
Yeah, no, it doesn't happen that way. That's why we have each other. There's discernment that happens here and God reveals things. It's beautiful relationally. This is one that. Oh man. When thinking through this, I've dealt with this. I could say sorry to someone right now about this one. I probably should actually.
When thinking someone is going to disappoint me, just thinking of that, I interpret their actions through that lens even when they're trying to bless me.
It's a tough one.
Maybe even with God where you're expecting for change to happen in your life in super dramatic ways.
When you miss out on these small little things that the Holy Spirit's doing on a regular basis. See, today in our text, we run into a moment where the disciples are listening to Jesus and his predictions about what's gonna happen.
It doesn't meet their expectations whatsoever.
And so would you guys turn with Me to Matthew 17, verses 23 through 23.
It'll be up on the screen if you need it and you don't have your Bible, it's fine. I'll be reading from the csb, which I think most of my guys just warning. I have quite a bit of scripture references today, but I think most of them are out of csb. Okay, so let's get started.
As they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus told them, the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.
They will kill him and on the third day he will be raised up. And they were deeply distressed.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: That's it.
[00:10:22] Speaker C: That's the scripture for today.
But there's a lot here.
This is the second time actually. You guys remember probably like a month or so ago, Tom preached on the first time where Peter was rebuked by Jesus because he was like, no, it's not going to happen. And Jesus was like, get behind me, Satan. Big moment.
Definitely don't want to hear that one from Jesus.
But here's the thing is, you know, this time we're coming out of the context of the transfiguration which Tom preached on a couple weeks ago.
Jesus is transfigured.
Peter, James and John are able to see him. They're seeing Elijah and Moses.
Just a powerful moment. But he says, don't, don't tell anyone about that one, you know, and then they come down into a crazy moment of ministry that happens where the disciples are. They've been commissioned to heal, but they can't cast out this demon from this boy. And the father's desperate, and Jesus comes in and he heals this boy. And now they're along the side of the road and Jesus is like, hey, by the way, guys, just going to remind you of something again. I'm going to be betrayed, killed, and raised on the third day.
And they're like, what? They're deeply distressed. They're just not understanding what's going on. I think probably they're hearing the betrayed and they're like, who's going to do that? And the killed part. And they're missing this resurrection portion, the hope that comes in the resurrection.
Many commentators actually commented on that right there.
But my first point for us this morning is misplaced expectations can blind us to God's plan.
The first century, the Jews were expecting, for the most part, I can't say everyone, but many. The common cultural expectation for the Jews at that point was to expect a political and military messiah, like one of the lion, David, that would come and conquer and reestablish the kingdom of Israel.
And there was, I mean, there was plenty of scriptures that would actually lend itself to that. I mean, you see in Psalm 2, Isaiah 9, you could go to Zechariah, you could look at David. There's multiple different ones where you see that the Messiah does come and, and he conquers, but it wasn't happening. They're like, wait a minute, this isn't equaling up.
I mean, they had a hope at that point. Think about Israel at this point. They had gone through Assyria, Babylon, Greece, I mean Persia. I miss Persia in there. And Rome is where they're at right now. And they've been under this oppression by a foreign ruler for like hundreds of years. It's crazy. And so at this point, they're hoping for. They have this expectation around national restoration. And so that's what they're putting the hope in is this conquering Messiah.
But Jesus came and he was preaching repentance and serving the poor and dying on a cross. And their expectations, like, wait, what's going on here? We don't understand what's going on.
Even though you look at, there's scriptures that also point to the suffering Messiah, like Isaiah 53.
And so, you know, I think this, this lends itself to if we only take part of God's word and we don't take the Whole counsel of God into consideration. It can lead us astray. I think this is a moment where this is happening here. You know, half of God's word leads to half baked expectations is another way you could say it's.
But I can't be too hard on the disciples because quite honestly, I've done the same thing. And I've had my own sinking ship moments where my reality didn't match up to God's word.
And I was thinking about a time.
I've shared a little bit of this with you guys in the past.
About 16 years ago, Marla and I, we were praying about where we're supposed to move and God told us to come out here.
And we're like, we're full of faith, we're gonna go.
And then about a couple months later, I started dealing with probably like the darkest moment I've had of my life. I want to say about three years of just the craziest intense anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and depression. When I look back on it, I didn't really say depression in the moment, but when I look back on it, I was really depressed.
And there was a moment where, I mean, these thoughts about God, about myself, about others, they were coming so quick and so heavy. I didn't know what to do. Like, I was confused. There was a moment like when we moved to Temecula, I remember sitting on the ground in our bathroom and I was in tears.
I was like, I was overwhelmed.
And I was saying, like, God, where are you at? Like, can I even trust you anymore? Like, this is how bad. Like, guys, I don't know if you've ever had a moment like that, but a grown man in his 30s sitting on the ground in the bathroom crying is not a pretty moment. And you can laugh at it. I mean, that's fine. I sort of laugh at it now, but it was really serious.
But I had this moment where I was like thinking about it. I'm like, I have this unspoken expectation here. I sort of mentioned it before.
God will prevent my suffering if I'm faithful.
I've been faithful. We went out on faith, but that was my expectation. And he was rocking that expectation in that moment. I did get some professional care because I definitely needed it during that time. But I also got care from the church at the same time. And probably one of the greatest gifts I was given was that I was given godly counsel to look at the scriptures and allow those to reform what was going on inside of me. My thoughts. Proverbs 28:26 says the one who trusts in himself is a fool, but the one who walks in wisdom will be safe.
I wanted that safety so bad.
My thoughts were betraying me.
I needed something to grab onto.
Romans 12, 2. This is really formative. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
I needed that renewing of my mind, that my false expectations would be knocked down and be replaced with truth.
See, just like these thoughts I was having, misplaced expectations need to be repented of and replaced with what is true.
So, a scripture, this one.
There's two scriptures I prayed on a regular basis during that time. Here's the first one. I just want you guys to read along. I think it's going to be up on the screen here in a second. Philippians 4, 4 through 9.
This is written by the Apostle Paul when he's imprisoned. Just think about that. He's imprisoned. He knows he's probably going to die.
And he writes this to the Philippians.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice.
Let your graciousness be known to everyone.
The Lord is near.
Do not worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Then he goes on and he says, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell on these things.
Dwell on these things.
Do what you have learned and received and heard from me and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
So I prayed this over and over, and I looked in Scripture over and over for what was gonna be something that I could grab onto, what could I replace this false thing with? And it was hope. It was rejoicing in the Lord. Even when I didn't feel like it. Like, oh, that really. I don't really like this moment. And I'm like, all right, Lord, you can use this, too. I trust you.
Cause I was about to, like. I felt like I was gonna fall away from the faith. During that time, I was like, is God even real?
It's a really painful moment. I just want to acknowledge that. Like, if you're in a moment like that.
I don't know if anyone in this room has been in a room this size. I imagine someone has been. Honestly, it's one of the scariest moments of your life.
Like, the thing that was truest to me, I'm like, do I even believe it anymore? And that was the kind of moment I was in.
But here's the thing is, I realized that I look back on that moment. I don't ever want to live it again.
But I wouldn't take it away for the world, you know, because it was through these trials that God used as a refining tool to bring me into Greater Faith.
James 1, 2, 4. Count it all. Joy.
Yeah, count it all joy. My brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. God was using that moment, just like I believe he was using the moment with the disciples on the.
In Galilee, on the side of the road to use that trial to be able to form them more into the image of Jesus.
So here's the thing. When these moments come, we have to examine our expectations, how we're feeling, and go trace them back to what are they rooted in? Are they rooted in God's word, or are they rooted in culture and comfort?
Because if they're rooted in culture and comfort, sinking ships, God's word, that's something different.
But, you know, you could know what God's will is and still struggle at the same time. And we're gonna get there in probably a couple months, maybe a couple more months. But in Matthew 26, you see Jesus in the garden, and he's having a moment, like a heavy moment.
He actually prayed three times the same thing.
He said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
That moment where he knows he's going to the cross and he's like, he's bleeding, he's sweating blood. In that moment.
He's like, I don't. This is gonna be really painful. This is gonna be really hard. But I trust you, Father Derek Prince calls this posture reverent submission, and he explains it in this way.
Jesus was heard not because he prayed loudly, but because he was reverently, because of his reverent submission.
He yielded his will to the Father, trusting that the Father's way was best.
Reverent submission is when we recognize who the Father is and we trust him and we yield to his plan at all cost.
This is why yielding our hopes and our expectations, our plans, to the Father actually isn't weakness.
It's power because it's his. It's powerful in him.
But so for me, the turning point wasn't, you know, my expectations being changed.
It was actually what held this moment together for me was the cross. And that's my second point here. The cross confronts and refines our expectations.
See, the cross shows us the kind of king that we have, Jesus and the kind of kingdom that he brings.
Mark 10:45 says, for even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.
Jesus lived the perfect life that we couldn't. He died the death that we deserve.
And he rose again on the third day, conquering Satan, sin, and death.
And if you ever wondered, like, what God thinks of you, you can look at the cross. I actually think that the cross might be the greatest apologetic for the fact that God loves you and he desires to have a relationship for you, with you. Sorry for you, with you.
See, the disciples, they didn't expect the cross. They were looking for the crown. In that moment, they were looking for the crown.
And actually Jesus said, you know what? My way is actually perfect. It's loving. It's forming you into the people that I desire for you to be.
And so you may ask, like, why can I trust him to redefine my expectations?
And I'm gonna say it's because he's holy.
Vinny talked about it earlier. He prayed it with the kids this morning. He's holy.
He's perfect in character.
Morally, he's perfect, but also he's completely trustworthy.
He doesn't get swayed by the craziness of this world and the sin and all that stuff. He is faithful to do exactly what he set out to do with renewing all things.
Those of you that are in the eat and speak journals, we're in Isaiah right now, we just read a couple days ago. This moment that, like, always, just floors me. Isaiah 6, Isaiah's in the throne room, and the seraphim are saying, just over and over, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
You know, this moment right there where Isaiah sees the holiness of God.
He's like, I'm a man of unclean lips, unclean people.
And, you know, you guys know the story and all that kind of stuff. But beautiful moment.
Psalm 18:30 says, God, his way is perfect.
The word of the Lord proves true.
He's a shield for those who take refuge in him.
I've been sort of on a journey of like, understanding this holiness of God thing for a while now. One of the and why it makes such a difference, you might ask that.
Here's a quote that's helped me out quite a bit.
Some of you may know it. It's by a person named Jackie Hill Perry in her book on holiness. Yeah, Dorian, I see you over there.
If God is holy, then he can't sin.
If God can't sin, then he can't sin against me.
If he can't sin against me, shouldn't that make him the most trustworthy being there is?
Just think about that for a second. He can't sin against me. Doesn't that make him the most trustworthy being Derek Prince? Actually, he writes a little bit about this too, and how we can trust in Him.
He says, when you think about renouncing your own will and embracing the will of God, let me suggest you bear three truths in mind. First of all, God loves you more than you can love yourself.
Second, God understands you better than you understand yourself.
And third, God wants only the best for you.
When you truly yield to God's will, you will discover that it is what the Bible says it is, good and acceptable and perfect.
So when we look at the cross, we can see both his love and his holiness.
He's sovereign and he loves you guys so much.
And because he's holy, we can trust him completely.
So let me ask you this.
What is it that God is asking you to yield to him today?
Is there a relationship, maybe a job or an opportunity?
Maybe there's a sickness that you've been dealing with for a long time and you haven't been healed the way you were hoping you'd be healed yet.
A plan that isn't unfolding the way you had hoped.
See, we can yield to the Father because He's.
It's a powerful thing, and he is powerful.
And like Herrick said earlier, even if we don't get that in that moment, he's actually going to be with us.
But still, even knowing that he's holy, he's trustworthy, it can be really hard. I want to acknowledge that it can be really hard to trust him in those moments.
And the disciples, they needed some help too.
And that's why he gives us the Holy Spirit, guys.
So third point for you this morning, Holy Spirit helps us reframe our expectations in his truth.
The disciples after resurrected Jesus is in town, hanging out and all that stuff. The disciples in Acts 1, verse 6, he says they go, hey, are you going to restore the kingdom? And he's like, okay, guys.
See, they're still hoping for the restored kingdom. At that point, in that moment.
And it wasn't until Acts 2 at Pentecost, you know, that crazy moment when tongues of fire came down, they were filled, that Peter went out and he preached a fire message of the Gospel. And all of a sudden things started to come a little bit more into light. You know, 3,000 people were saved that day. But it didn't even fully come in that moment because you look further in the book of Acts and God continues to reveal more and more through the Holy Spirit to the guys.
And so we're not much different than that. We're very much the same way. We need our eyes to be opened, to be able to see what the Spirit is doing and leading us into truth.
Paul prays this for the Ephesian Church also when he was in prison.
It says in Ephesians 1, 17, 19. He says, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, eyes of our heart being enlightened through the Holy Spirit, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the mighty works of his strength.
See, the Spirit helps.
He helps. He helps reframe our expectations of who he is, what he's doing.
So I'm going to give you guys a couple different ways that he does this. It's not an exhaustive list. We don't have time for that because it's. It could get pretty long.
But a couple things that I found really helpful on this journey. I can speak from my own experience and what I've seen God do in a lot of other people. And these have been helpful ones to sort of ground us and give us a place to be able to work from.
Romans 8, 15, 17 says, for you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba. Father, the Spirit Himself testifies together with our Spirit that we are God's children. And if children also heirs, heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
It's an interesting one. We suffer with him, be glorified with Him. He's not. We're going to suffer. There's going to be moments of that. But here's what I want to draw you to is this portion of, like, received a spirit of adoption. We cry out, abba, Father.
We were on vacation maybe last year or something. I don't remember exactly when it was, but we were. I think we were at the pool.
I think we were at the pool. I just. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember this.
We had an Israeli family that was near us. And I saw, like, how the dad was interacting with the kids. And his kids were pretty small.
And I've read ABBA plenty of times. And for those of you who don't know, it's sort of like saying, like, endearing reference to dad, like daddy or papa is the way it's meant. And the little boys were saying, abba, Abba, Abba. And I was like, oh. It started to register with me in a way that it never registered before. And then I thought about my own kids and how, like, those of you have little ones, you probably remember this.
They start walking, but when they start walking, they're actually like falling forward, which I guess we're supposed to do it that way, but they're following forward.
But then they get going so fast that they're about to fall over completely. But then ABBA catches them the same way the father catches us. Guys, he's with us. He's close.
His character is for good, for us.
And so the Holy Spirit reminds us of these things. I think of there is a sister in this church that prays ABBA often. And it always sort of hits me because I'm like, oh, our Father, he's good.
He's never going to forsake us or leave us another we, just two of them together.
He guides us into all truth.
He will testify about me. That's Jesus talking there.
He'll testify about Jesus. John 16:13. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.
For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
He will guide us into all truth. Church.
He's the Spirit of truth that guides us into the truth.
John 17 talks about Jesus saying, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.
John 15:25. When the counselor comes, the one who will send you, who I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father will testify of me. So the Spirit leads us in the truth and points us to Jesus over and over again. Our identity is set. We are children. He testifies the truth and he points us to Jesus over and over again. So the other verse that I said I would tell you about during that sort of dark moment, that sinking ship moment that I had, and I've shared this with some of you guys before.
God led me to John 10:10 during that season.
And I think it testified to the fact that this isn't going to be an easy journey.
But Jesus is better and he desires better for all of us.
The thief comes only to steal, kill, steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Have you guys ever had that moment where you're reading through the scripture and if you haven't, I will pray for you that you will.
Where there's a scripture that just pops off the page, it be like, comes, like, fully emboldened, highlighted in your brain, in your heart, and then at that point, somehow it gets stuck in your heart and nothing can get it out. That's a really good thing, by the way. It's like replacing those false things, things and with really good things.
This is something that the Spirit does. He testifies of what's true, and he also points us to Jesus. This is one of those scriptures that happened for me where he illuminated it. Actually, there's a really cool story that I don't have time to go through about that as well, but it marked me.
So when getting God's word into us so that the Holy Spirit can bring it out in moments where we need clarity, where we need vision, where we need hope, it's really important.
So, yeah. And that's actually what leads me into the next thing I wanted to share with you guys.
What's probably been the most powerful discipline that I've had, I've developed in my life. It's been around for a lot longer than me, of course, over, like the last 10 years. Hebrews 10:23 says, Let us hold onto the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.
Tom Yeechley is an author.
He said in his book that's About Prayer, that the habit of regularly reminding the Lord of his promises to us in prayer will bring vitality to our prayer lives and increase our faith.
What has happened is God has led me to his promises over and over and over. I see him in his scripture and I actually, I started underlining them, started putting boxes around them, and I put promise next to it, or I put a P next to it where I'd put someone's name next to it.
What I think what Tom talks about in his book, which has been really helpful for me. But something that I've seen that's been beautiful is that I'll ask the Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do with this?
What do you want me to do with this promise?
And a lot of times he'll bring to mind someone, someone I care about, someone who's a part of our church, maybe like one of my kids or my wife or maybe even me.
And he'll say, pray through this promise.
Claim this promise.
Now, I don't approach it in a way that's like you said it, you need to do it right now. Not like a child in that sense. I can't be a child in that sense. But I try not to be. And what Tom talks about is very similar to what Derek Prince was talking about and what we saw in Jesus.
He says, though we boldly ask, we humbly submit our wills to his will. We don't get to name when it happens. We just get to hope into this thing. And maybe, like Eric was talking about earlier, like, maybe that healing that we were hoping for doesn't come now. Maybe it's later. Maybe it doesn't come until, you know, new heavens, new Earth and all that stuff. But we can press into those promises that he's given us.
The book, just in case you guys are curious. It's called Praying Over God's Promises, the Lost Art of Taking him at His Word by Tom Yeakley.
It's been super impactful.
It's helped me in forming things that I can hold onto instead of living in expectations that aren't real and aren't grounded in scripture.
And I think it could be helpful for you guys, too. So I'd suggest.
Here's the application piece.
When you see God's promises in His Word, underline it. Ask the Holy Spirit, how is it that you want me to pray into this? Maybe write it on notecard and put some name on the back of it?
There's multiple different ways you can do that, but it's a powerful thing because we can take him at his word because he is faithful with his promises.
All right, I'm going to share a little story with you guys. A band. You can come on up.
We were in Yosemite last month. It was pretty awesome.
If you've ever been there or seen Ansel Adams photograph of Yosemite, you'll agree with me.
But one of my highlights of the whole trip actually wasn't being in the park, which is sort of crazy.
We decided to listen to a book when we were Going to Yosemite on the way there and part of the way back, we listened to the Hiding place by Corrie Ten Boom.
It's a powerful story of during World War II of a family that was placed there in the Netherlands. They're Dutch.
And during the occupation of the Third Reich Christian family and in the past.
I was like, impressed with Corrie. That was the person, the character that I was like, man, Corey. I want faith like her. But this time around, the Holy Spirit highlighted her sister Betsy.
Now, Betsy was sort of like, after their mother passed away, she was the matriarch of the family.
Both ladies never married. They lived at home. They helped their father with his clock making shop and repair shop. But at the same time, when the Third Reich came in and they were starting to take Jews away, they started hiding the Jews in their house. And they were actually. They were part of the underground that was moving them out to places that were safer for them where they wouldn't be found getting them food and caring for them.
And unfortunately, they got caught.
And then they were imprisoned.
And then they were put in concentration camps.
By God's grace, the two girls got to go together into the concentration camp.
Their situation was horrible. Like, super cold, like winters in Germany.
Barracks full of fleas.
Horrible. Like, they're treated horribly. Being made to stand outside for hours on end, early, early in the morning, not sleeping hardly at all.
But God met them there in a powerful way. Somehow they got a Bible in there, which was amazing, like, and all that. And they got to keep it in there as well. And they had these moments of like, where they got to minister to all the women in the barracks.
They'd sing praises to God. They'd read scripture together.
They would see that even in that Philippians 4 scripture, Rejoice, rejoice in the Lord at all times. Like, they were able to do that because this is so cool. They're like, Corey's like, to her sister Betsy, how can we do that? We're in flea infested barracks right now.
They came to realize that the fleas are what kept their oppressors out of the barracks. So they were able to have freedom to praise God.
But Corrie learned a lot from her sister. Her sister had this, like, this heart that reflected Jesus in a beautiful way.
Here's something that Betsy said. She says, see, now that I see now that God allowed it to happen so that we might be able to help others with our knowledge of what suffering can do. And so that we might be able to show that there is forgiveness Even for those who have wronged us.
Then she goes on to say, we must tell them speaking to the Nazis about the love of God.
We can't hate them.
We must pray that they will see God's light and be saved.
Corrie was very challenged by this.
Betsy. This is what just bled out of her.
She ended up dying there.
But during that time, she actually got favor with some of these from some of the Nazis that were oppressing her to the point where when she did pass away, what they would do is they'd be in the infirmary and they'd just throw their body in another room. They just pile up bodies in there.
And Cory knew that. And so she was like, I really want to see my sister. They allowed her to come in and see her sister, but she was afraid to go in there because she didn't want to see her sister in that state, piled up in piles of bodies. I mean, who would want to see that? Her closest friend.
This is what she said when she saw her sister.
When I saw her lying there, I could hardly believe that Betsy was dead.
I had been expecting her death, but seeing it was something else.
The peace on her face was the most astonishing thing of all.
She had gone through hell, yet she was completely at rest.
See, Betsy 10 boom. Had no false expectations about what was going to happen. She knew the suffering she was going to endure as she cling to Jesus, to the cross.
She formed her expectations around her savior and what he promised was true.
And she could walk through it in dignity and at peace and praising God and sharing the light of the world with other people, even those that were trying to kill her.
See church.
The Titanic sank, but the one who died on the cross and rose again will never sink.
That's why we can place our hope in him. He's unsinkable.
We look at the cross and we see it.
He's holy. He's perfect.
He loves us with a love that we will never understand.
He's trustworthy, but we need help, like I said before. And so that's why I want to pray over us. I want to pray, actually. Ephesians 1:17, 19.
This is actually a prayer that I pray for many of you, for our church, on a regular basis because I think there's a lot of power in this.
Eric's going to set up a response in a second, but would you guys stand to your feet real quick for me if you can?
Let's pray.
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you church.
Everyone in this room, the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
Yes, Spirit. Help us to see Jesus more clearly, please.
I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling.
Open our eyes, Spirit.
What is the wealth of his glorious inheritance? In the saints, we know that we are secure in your hands.
What is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the mighty working of his strength?
Yeah. Holy Spirit, would you open our eyes to see the glory of Jesus more?
That our false expectations would be squashed, that we'd be able to see the truth of who we are and whose we are, and that it won't be easy, but you are present with us in all of it.
That our circumstances don't define us.
You do, Lord.
And you are glorious.
Yeah. Would you rise, faith in this room, please, Lord?
Help us.
Help us.
We love you, Jesus. You're glorious. We pray this in your name.
Amen.
Thanks, buddy.
[00:48:26] Speaker A: Can I have the prayer team come to the front?
Okay.
We got some time.
Mike. So much goodness and beauty in this message. Thank you.
I just want to ask the question, the Titanic imagery, have you placed your hope in any unsinkable ships?
Maybe it's the market, the stock market.
So, like, all my eggs are in this 401k. Or how about real estate?
The stock market just keeps going up, and if you zoom way out, nobody can time it, but you can predict it.
Real estate, somewhat similar.
[00:49:15] Speaker C: Man.
[00:49:15] Speaker A: Have you put your hope in any unsinkable ships that culture has put in front of you?
Maybe it's not that.
Maybe, like me, it's the crowd, the approval and the applause of the room.
Think about just my life in general.
[00:49:34] Speaker C: That's.
[00:49:36] Speaker A: Man, avoiding those booze, big deal to me.
But as I think about our Lord, before I get into Jesus, about politics, about a politician, a political party, whether that's on the right or the left or somewhere in between, are there any unsinkable ships that you've placed your hope in?
Maybe it's none of those things. Maybe it's a little more. Maybe it's leisure. Like Mike mentioned the different classes of the Titanic, and there was the upper class, that was leisure.
I'm looking at Mike as though he's going to confirm what I'm saying.
There's leisure, then there was the lower class. There was new beginnings. I've already forgotten the middle class.
Adventure.
[00:50:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:50:26] Speaker A: Are these part of your hope in life? Leisure, adventure, travel.
I just need a Vacation.
There's so many things we could put our hope in. Right?
And here's what. Here's what I know about Jesus our Lord, the one who reveals to us what it means to be fully human. He's fully God, but he's also fully human. Yes. There's mystery.
He was born, the crowd booed him.
He was jeered, he was mistreated.
Our Lord had no wealth on a human level to speak of.
He had two or three items that were valuable, like they fought over that if you like, but he had nothing as far as it. As far as it goes. He didn't have any wealth. He didn't have any political power.
He didn't even have his honor, which is the most important thing in that culture that you could have in our culture. That's not necessarily the most important thing in that culture that Jesus was a part of. That was the most important thing. That's what everybody lived for, was honor.
Where were you in the power rankings of society and Jesus at the bottom?
He lost everything. Why? So he could get you and me back to rescue and redeem humanity and mankind.
He said no to the crowd so he can say yes to the cross. And what was he given? A crown when he was raised from the dead and God seated him in his right hand man. We have all kinds of unmet expectations. So I just want to ask the question this morning. What do you put your hope in today?
What do you put your hope in if it's not Jesus, the unsinkable one, as Mike shared here at the end of his message. Know that you're putting your hope in something that will fail you. Eventually the applause will end the man. I love it when things are chill. That will end too. Disease will be around the corner.
Tragedy strikes us all.
If you put your hope and everything is the way that I want it to be, that will come to an end.
Somebody will show up at your front door and knock, even though it says no soliciting.
It's over. My great day is ruined. Spoiled.
We have no control. It's an illusion.
And man power.
Power is going to let us down too. If any of these things you put your hope in, you know that they're sinkable.
I just want to invite you to come and get prayer.
I want to invite you to come and get prayer. And actually I want to kind of challenge you to repent.
Strong word, I know, but it's a biblical word and it's just a word that means a change of mind. So I'm not saying I'm asking you to say, like, is my mind aligned with God's plans and purposes for my life as revealed in Scripture, as Mike was talking about, if the answer is no in any way, shape or form, you get the privilege and the benefit and the responsibility of repenting and saying, here's what I'm putting my hope in. Mike set the example.
He shared what kind of hope he had that were misplaced hope.
And he's now gone before you. And I'm just asking you, like, will you follow in that path, wherever that exists in your life, come and confess it. Come and receive prayer.
Now, I want to also invite any of you who are maybe going through a season of suffering where God's maybe not meeting your expectations. We talked about this a little bit earlier when we had Vinnie share the healing that God did in his life. Maybe you're on the flip side where you're like, I have this thing or these things that have not been resolved and my prayers have not been answered.
And I'm waiting. I want to invite you to come and receive prayers so that you can experience Jesus holding you.
You can experience Jesus seeing you.
And this is a step of trust to say, like, jesus, I don't know how this is gonna work out. I don't know what you're gonna do, but I know who you are.
And even if my hopes have sank to the bottom, I know that they will rise with you in your timing and in your way. And so it's an act of faith to come up and receive. And last, but certainly not least, I wanna honor what David mentioned. You might need to go and pray for someone today.
There might be something that's on your mind right now.
In fact, I would encourage you take five seconds and be like God, is there someone you want me to pray for? Maybe your job today is not to come up and receive. Maybe you have a gift that God wants you to give someone else.
And so everybody here in this room is a priest, if you like.
You are here. You're a representative of God. You're here to offer him praises and offering him thanksgiving as you praise Him.
That's a very valid and worthy response. Some of you have been sent on rescue missions in this room. That's a strong language. I think you know what I mean.
God has something he wants to do through you. He wants to ease someone's burden. He wants to lighten someone's load, and he wants to do it as you take your hands out of your pockets and go and pray for someone. So I'm going to pray for us and then I'm going to hand it off to the band. Father, thank you for what you're doing.
Would you encourage prod move our hearts to where any unmet expectations that reveal misplaced hopes can be confessed and repented of so that we can experience refreshing in your presence? It's not to shame us. You want to show us what's going on inside so that you can realign it around your word and your purposes. Because a rightly ordered life is a beautiful life.
A rightly ordered interior world is.
You could do much with that.
And so I ask that you would move on our hearts and that you would also bless and minister to those who are waiting who are in that in between space of unanswered prayer maybe of expectations that have been confounded by circumstances that you would meet them and you would hold them.
Thank you, Father. Would you give courage to those that you're sending to bless through prayer other people in this room? We love you, Jamie. Pray Amen.
[00:56:42] Speaker C: All right.
[00:56:42] Speaker A: Enjoy him.
