The Rugged Journey to a Beautiful Place - Shaken and Awakened

Okay, so Anybody been to Soldaten, Alaska? Well, uh, we did. Uh I'd never been to Alaska before and we got invited to go up there. I said I got invited to speak And they were kind enough to let my family come up there. You see, Ron, that must be cool going up to Alaska. It was very cool. See, I get invited to Alaska in February. So it was February. Oh, I get invited to Florida in July. I mean that's just kind of how things are for me. I say, well, that's real, oh great. We're going where? When? So we we went up there and um I I a wonderful missionary pilot Dick Page who can land a plane where no plane should ever land, uh amazing veteran missionary pilot. Moody grad and um and and uh he was flying us around and I had to be there for two weeks because I was doing high school assemblies and a lot of stuff. But our um uh uh the family had to get back because they have this thing called school. So uh little kind of a small plane And um it had it had snowed and ice stormed up there a lot at that point. In fact, it was one of those triple freezes that makes things really lumpy on the road. So the first thing we had to do was push the airplane out. I'd never done that before. Usually there's folks who do that for you, but uh Dick and I pushed the plane out. on the runway and all my dear loved ones get in a plane. Karen had actually taken a um uh pinch hitter course So she would understand a little bit about how to do what to do with a plane if the pilot dies, which is a troubling thought right there that Do I really want to know this? But she'd done that, so she's up there in the front seat and I'm back with the kids. No, I'm not. I'm not going. That's right. And um they're about to take off and it was it was a little dicey Because the plane is really bumping up and down the runway. Karen said Dick was playing the engines back and forth, trying to stabilize it And uh it was and the kids in the back were like, yeah, yeah, and they were this is when they learned to pray. And so as they're and as they're as they're speeding up To get some altitude, they're headed right into a big stand of trees. And I mean it's getting really close. And all of a sudden Dick, the veteran, he's he's as cool as can be. He he pulls that thing up and the nose just clears those trees and they head on up and everybody's like it was a pretty freaking out experience They cleared the clouds. And when they did, there were the northern lights. And a privilege a few of us have probably ever had to fly right up there with the Aurora Borealis, one of the great, majestic, magnificent scenes in nature. And I thought that's a bumpy ride to a beautiful place. That's actually How a lot of our experience in life and with Jesus works. It's a bumpy ride a lot of times, and I'm guessing that a number of you in this room are going through one. Or about to. We've had ours. I want to tell you that it's a bumpy ride to something beautiful to see. We'll talk a little bit about that the next few minutes. I don't know what your bumpy ride is. It could be family issues. It could be financial. It could be that you feel like you're having to operate beyond your bandwidth. I've been saying the last few weeks, I've got pretty broad bandwidth, people say. If my bandwidth is this wide, I'm out here. And maybe that's maybe that's where you're at. And it's a bumpy ride because there's just so much. Or a son or daughter or a grandson or granddaughter you love very much is really struggling spiritually. And you bear that burden when you come here. We're going to talk a little bit about that tomorrow in more depth Maybe you're going through a changing season right now. And uh like sometimes when seasons change, it's a bumpy ride and stormy. There's something beyond your control, perhaps Maybe broken plans like Brad talked about, maybe a broken relationship, maybe a mission impossible. Our uh high school football team, Wayne Valley in New Jersey, uh had been a uh two and seven team usually And they had um everybody looked forward to playing them because it was almost an automatic W. New coaches took over, and before very long they were in the st they were state champions in New Jersey. Brad had an opportunity to play on that team And uh I worked with the team. I was a tackle dummy. And uh no, I did I did some um kind of inspirational meetings with them. It was kind of unusual in a public school, but we had some great doors open to us And boy, I would tell you, when when and Brett Doug played until his knee was blown out, but I'll tell you what, they when they came home from practice, they walked like Frankenstein. They were like, oh You know, like hurting in places they didn't know they had them. And uh this coach really, really, really drove them and uh really really pushed him hard. There was a reason for that. I told you they became state champions. Well, and the reason he was always in the weight room making sure they were in there, he pushed them past their limits because he knew what the game was going to require. And it required them being stronger than they were. This is why God brings. more than we've had to lift before into our lives many times, to increase our bench press. Because we're going to have to play harder. And he knows what the game is going to require. You see the three words that are at the top of your notes here from the book of Zechariah. Not by might. Three little words, each one syllable. It is so hard for us to get that. It's so hard for me to get that and so critical that we do. Look at your first line in here. God wants to make you stronger than you've ever been, so he makes you weak. What? Yep He wants to make you stronger than you never been, and his strange ways of God are to make you weak. Let me give you a couple examples. In Genesis 32, we have the story of Jacob. A schemer, a man who's always got a plan, always a way to make make things happen, figure out how he can get it done. He wrestles, you remember, with the angel, and when the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip. So that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. The sun rose above him as he passed Panail, and he was limping because of his hip. As you know, what happened there was his name was changed, from Jacob basically the cheat, to Israel, prince with God. But it cost him something. He would limp. the rest of his life. A constant reminder that for him to become a prince with God, he had to be weak. Let's look at another example and go over to 2 Corinthians and we're very familiar with this about Paul. He said, you know, God showed me stuff he never showed anybody else. And because of these surpassing great revelations, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given this a preemptive strike from God, knowing that Paul struggled with pride. I was given a thorn in my flesh, nobody's sure what it was. There are a lot of theories and indications, perhaps hints in scripture, that it might have been something with his eyesight. Can you imagine? Traveling the world with the gospel, writing these letters that become the the Bible, and he's got eye problems. How frustrating. Whatever it was, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan. Satan didn't give it to him God gave it to him, but Satan exploited it. He always does that. He tries to fight your weak spot and exploit that. I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. You got anything like that? But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. Make you weak so you can get stronger. Therefore I will boast all the boast all the more. I'm boasting about my weaknesses. So that Christ's power, see, the lesser is of me, the more God there is. So that's Christ's power rests on me I've got power I've never had before. That is why for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses and insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties for when I am weak Then I am strong. Once again, makes them weak. The limp, the thorn, to make them stronger than they've ever been. When you buy concert tickets or tickets to an event, you want to get a front row seat? You want to be right up there in the best seats in the house Oh, the view there is fantastic. The experience is more uh intense than anywhere else. And the better seats you have, the higher the price. It is that way spiritually. For the best seats, to see the glory and the goodness of God, as few get to see it, are the most expensive seats. You pay a price For those seats. And believe me, the view is worth it. We'll take a look real quickly here at three decisive issues in our journey to a new power and freedom in our lives. Remember where we started? That God has shaken us in some way or another. to awaken us to want his new thing. I said we would talk about five superpowers. They are in essence the components of a new thing God does in lives that he really wants to enrich and empower. Brad talked about the first one this morning. I would call it a new responsiveness. Listening to the voice of the Spirit and becoming really good at hearing the voice coming from the tower, like the flight controller in the tower. Hearing that voice, feeling that prompting, knowing what you're being prompted to do or not to do, and doing it. That is that is the great adventure of the Christian life. Guided by the Holy Spirit, prompted. He's all day long He's like the police dispatcher. The cop is up, gets up in the morning. He doesn't know where he's gonna go. He doesn't know what he's gonna do. The dispatcher comes out and says, there's a robbery in progress at the uh deli at the on uh fourth and elm I'm going to I didn't know I was going to Fourth and Elm today to the Delhi. He's going to the Delhi. The Holy Spirit's God's dispatcher. He's got all kinds of things that he wants you to be a part of that he's doing. But you've got to pay attention. Brad talked about that this morning. So there's he he he shakes us to get us to wake up To be more sensitive, to be more responsive to his Holy Spirit. Now tonight we got another new and I'll tell you what that is in a few minutes. But these five components, a new a new uh responsiveness. Okay, here's the three issues. And we got a hero. We got a poster boy for it. Simon Peter. I hear a lot of people say, I don't think I could ever be a Paul. I think I could be a Peter. I think most people are like, Peter's just so human, you're like, uh, I can't be Paul. But I think I could do Peter. Well, okay. Let's look at his life and his journey to the new thing God wanted to do in the life of this fisherman. Here's the first issue, the struggle of self-reliance. The struggle of self-reliance. I'll tell you who struggles most with this. See if I'm describing anybody in this room. You are gifted. You are successful. You are competent. You are intelligent. You have rich experience. You're a planner You're a fixer. You're an analyzer. I fit several of those descriptions. Those are the people who struggle the most with self-reliance, which is the deterrent. to the biggest things God wants to do in and through you. Okay, we know Peter's weaknesses. Before we get to him, let's show, can I show you Peter's great strength? Why did Jesus not give up on him? He's such a loser sometimes. But here's there's one trait Peter had that is why Jesus continued to believe in him. Let's go there. This is when he's been out all night fishing, hasn't caught anything. Any good fisherman knows if he didn't catch him at night, you're not going to catch him at noon when it gets hot and they go deeper. So he's and he's just Jesus has borrowed his boat Great acoustics, Jesus invented acoustics. So you're out and he knows he talks over the water. It's going to carry. Master, we worked hard all night. Haven't caught anything. He's saying Jesus I just cleaned the nets. I don't want to have to do that again. Everybody's gonna laugh at me. The guys here are gonna think I'm idiots. They're all going to bed. I'm going fishing again. But because you say so I got one reason to do this. This makes no sense to a professional fisherman. But you say so, I will let down the nets. Here's Simon Peter's great strength. If Jesus says it, Peter does it. He makes a lot of mistakes in his life. But if Jesus says it, if Jesus says, come get out of the boat and walk on water, Peter just says, if that's you, I will. He said, come. He did. He doesn't like Gentiles. Jesus says, go to the Gentiles. He does. This is his great strength. I hope that's true of you. If Jesus says it, that's all the reason you need, whether it makes sense or not. Now let's look at Peter's great weakness. It's displayed in Mark chapter 8. Look at this. Jesus began to teach them, this is a pretty traumatic moment, that the Son of Man must suffer many things This think imagine where they're hearing this. This is not their messianic dream. And be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed. And then for three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this. And Peter took him aside. And began to rebuke him. Excuse me, Jesus. You can't do that. How many of you are glad Peter lost this one? Imagine if Peter had prevailed. By the way, sometimes people who love you will try to talk you out of what they don't know but you know is the will of God. Be careful. Because sometimes it's very people very close to you. Who will be an instrument to take you out of God's will? Turned and looked at his disciples, he said, get behind me, Satan. Do you know what happened a few minutes before? Jesus said, I know you all guys, you took the survey, you said, some people think I'm John the Baptist, some people think I'm Elijah. Who do you say I am? Jesus always brings it down to you. Peter goes, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah, the Son of a living God. Jesus says, blessed are you. This is a few minutes later. Blessed are you. Get behind me, Satan. This is pretty pretty fast. Can you be that good and that bad that fast? Apparently. Here's, and let's go to John 18. Peter's at it again. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen, went out and asked them, who is it you want? This is in Gethsemane when they come to arrest him. Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, All Jesus says is I am he and says the whole group fell backwards. He teaches his disciples, I'm he. Boom, boom. That's in the uh Greek. And they fell to the ground. Again he asked them, who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they said. Jesus answered, I told you I'm here. If you're looking for me, then let these men, his disciples, go. This happened so the words he had spoken would be fulfilled. I have not lost one of those you gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and did ear surgery. Now the fisherman becomes an ear surgeon. Struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. Servant's name was Malchus. Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away. Shall I drink not drink the cup the Father has given me? Here's Peter's great weakness. Peter's will keeps getting in the way of God's will. And so does mine sometimes. And so does yours. Peter's will keeps getting in the way of God's will. Listen, I'll tell you this, providence sometimes looks messy. Doesn't it? In the short term, looking through today's window, it looks messy. It really looked messy here. And Peter says, well, I've got to take care of this. No. In fact, listen to this quote. Because we think that God's mind and ours are the same, we set goals for God. We know what we want, and so we put it in the mouth of God. Ooh. Ooh, that's too true. We make, we try to make the way we want it, God's will. See, Peter had a narrative. He had a narrative. Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus is going to come in as a conqueror. He didn't like the real God's narrative. We have a narrative of the way it ought to be. And that narrative is not God's. Doug, when he was in uh college, he was really good with uh um baseball cards. I mean like he was like a Blue chop, blue chop, blue chop investor, blue chip, good night, Ryan, investor in baseball cards, and for a little while he owned a 1966 blue Mustang We had to drive it back as I can't afford this. So we were driving it back to New Jersey, Karen and I were from Wheaton. I will tell you, when you're driving a Mustang, I mean everybody's looking like this, you know, and they're we got to a gas station and they're like, hey, what you got under there? How many horses you got, man? I don't know what's under there It's not my car. But it was like, we were the coolest thing at the gas station, I'll tell you, because we had this m- I didn't like driving it. Oh, I mean felt cool, you know. It's like, hey, for once I'm a cool guy. But you know what? What I'm cool? I'm spoiled. I have power steering This thing I had to literally turn myself into, you know, a pretzel every time I wanted to turn the dumb thing. I said, this is enough for me, man. This baby is so hard. It's fun to drive, but it's hard to turn. Some of us, God says, you are so hard to turn. Oh, I know he said it to me. You got this forward momentum in your direction, and you're a victim of your own momentum. Because I'm changing things and you're just speeding right along and I tried to turn you and you are so hard to turn. A make it happen person, it's in your notes, has to come to a place where they can't. Nothing will work. None of your chariots, none of your horses. Peter had that happen to him. I call it flesh-flops. Not flip-flops Flesh flops. I tried it in my flesh and it flopped. All my experience, all my intelligence, all my creativity, all my words. A make it happen personesto. Come to a place where they can't. So God, what does he do? He brings us into out-of-control places. That's happened a lot the last couple of years, to liberate us from the bondage of self-reliance, and that's what it is. The bondage of I can do this, I can figure this out, I can fix this, I got this. and to strip us of our confidence in the flesh. And the battle rages until we reach the point Where we can really, truly, almost desperately realize it is not by might. It is not by power. And I've tried all the might and all the power I can. And until I get to a point where that is useless, I'll just keep trying to do it by might and power. In the Hebrew, The word might is kind of a military term. It's about no nothing any group can do can do this. The Hebrew word there for power is an individual word. Nothing you've got can do it. Nothing your group's got can do it. You know what their situation was? They were supposed to be building the new temple, and they were surrounded by enemies who didn't want it and were happy that it had been sitting there and not there for many years and determined to stop them, sending letters to the government and everything to stop them. Attacking if they have to? The people were the they're trying to, they're dealing with a bunch of discouraged people who had kind of given up and taken 15 years off When Solomon built his temple, he had an army. They got no army. But they're surrounded by all kinds of people. God says, I'm going to get you to the point where you know you can't. It is not by might. Whatever your might is, it is not by power. This poem may speak to somebody. He sat by the fire of sevenfold heat as he watched by the precious ore, and closer he bent with a searching gaze as he heated it more and more. He knew he had ore that could stand the test, and he wanted the finest gold to mold as a crown for the king to wear, set with gems of price untold. So we laid our gold in the burning fire, though we fain would have said to him, nay. And he watched the dross that we had not seen. As it melted and passed away. And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright, and our eyes were so dim with tears as we saw the fire, not the master's hand. And we questioned with anxious fear. Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow as it mirrored a form above that bent over the fire. though unseen by us, with a look of infinite love. Can we think that it pleases his loving heart to cause a moment of pain? Ah no, but he saw through the present cross the bliss of eternal gain. So he waited there with a watchful eye, with a love that is strong and sure. And his goal did not suffer a bit more heat than was needed. To make it pure. That is the refiner's fire. So let me tell you what this, when you reach the point where you say, I'm out of me. I'm done being the fixer, the analyzer, the the the the boss, the the doer, the make it happener. It's your white flag moment. It's a white flag moment. For this is one of the things God has shaken us to birthen us a component of his new thing. This morning a new responsiveness to the Holy Spirit. Tonight, a new surrender. Oh, I'm sure there's been a time when you sang, or at least thought of, um, all to Jesus, I surrender. Here's the problem. You all keeps changing. And a while ago, all to Jesus doesn't include all that's happened in your life since that all. God's goal is to get me out of the way to make room for him. There's just too much Ron and not enough of him. Maybe you can put your name in here. So those of you who are musicians, You uh may know the name of one of the greatest virtuoso violinists. He's composed many many uh things that are played by concert violinists. His name was Niccolò Paganini Um and I know that sounds like something you may have ordered at an Italian restaurant, but Paganini was one of the world's great violinists. I tell you this story. It's a story told about him that really, really uh struck me. Um he had packed out The major auditorium in Paris. It was like a rock concert back in the day. You're like a violin concert, maybe not your thing, but let me tell you, it was like a rock concert when Paganini came to Paris. And a packed auditorium, and he started to play his first piece and a string broke. He started to play it again. A second string broke. Eventually, three out of the four strings on that violin broke. Increasingly the people are getting restless, they're getting a little grumpy. Some are like, let's get out of here. And he held up his hand and he said, please wait. Paganini with one string. And he began to play a single string. To their amazement, it was one of the most moving pieces they had ever heard. What's the greatest way to see and demonstrate the skill of an artist like that? See what he can do when he has almost nothing to work with. How does our master demonstrate his great skill? He will play beautiful music through broken strings when we have virtually nothing to give him. It will be a masterpiece. So you've got you've got that that struggle over self-reliance The outcome of that struggle will decide the level of power at which you will live for Christ. Because here's the second issue, the sovereignty of the Most High God. You got the struggle over self-reliance up against the sovereignty of the most high God. Those who live most powerfully, those who live most peacefully are those who live with the conscious awareness, not just the theology, the conscious awareness that their God is totally in control. Totally in control. Lamentations 5. 19. You Lord reign forever. Your throne endures from generation to generation. Psalm 11, oh I love this. Psalm 11 ans asked a very timely question. Psalm 11 says When the foundations are shaken, relevant. When the foundations are being destroyed, does it feel like to you know that's happening at all? The stuff that's never moved before is moving When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? The answer is very unexpected. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth and his eyes examine them. Everything's moving except the throne of God. And if that's where your if that's where your confidence is, if that's where your security is, if that's where your great values are, it ain't moving. COVID? Elections? Headlines? Bad report from the doctor? He says, when the foundations are shaken, the answer is, your Lord is on his throne. He is in his holy temple. The sovereignty of the Most High God. And then Proverbs 19. 21, my COVID verse. Many other plans in a person's heart. How many? Remember when you said happy new year in 2020? How'd that work out Give your resolutions, your plans. You have so much for that in February. But it is the Lord's purpose. Nothing changed about the Lord's purpose. Let me give you some examples real quick from Scripture that will show us how to handle the times when we're out of us, we're out of solutions with the sovereignty of the Most High God. 2 Chronicles 20. Jehoshaphat. I've never known anybody to name their kid that. What would you call him for a nickname? Hosh? A fat? I don't know what you call him, but anyway, Jehoshaphat is had a vast army coming against him. It looks like they're about to be annihilated. Look at how he responds. Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? Now you could look at this vast army. You could decide what you're going to do by counting how many are in that army. By looking at their weaponry. You could make your decisions based on on what the news is saying that day. Nope. Are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand. I know that's a powerful army, but powerful and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. I love this prayer. Have you learned this one? How many times have we said that? We don't know what to do. But our eyes are upon you. That's the sovereignty. That's Jehoshaphat's example. Let's go to Hezekiah. Oh, Hezekiah, listen to this. This is in Isaiah 36. Sennacherib's Assyrian army has literally on a juggernaut. They have taken one one major area after another after another. Every area has said, our God, we have our God. And like Yeah, you got your God, watch this, and they roll him over. Hezekiah is next. Jerusalem is next Do not let Hezekiah mislead you. This is the captain of the army talking to the people of the city. Don't let Hezekiah mislead you. The Lord will deliver us. Have the gods of any nation stopped us? No gods have stopped us why you think yours will. We are unstoppable. Nobody's been able to be delivered from the hand of the king of Assyria. Who all the gods of these countries have been able to, who of them has been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand? What's so different about this? Well, let's see how Hezekiah responds. Hezekiah received this letter, it's a surrender letter from the messengers and read it. And then he went up to the temple of the Lord. And he he gave God the letter. He spread it out before the Lord. I've done that with some emails I've gotten. I've done that with some agendas I've had. I've done that with a stack of bills we couldn't pay You spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. Notice his prayer. This is how to pray in an overwhelming situation. Notice how he starts. Lord, we got a problem here. This is a really big army. Nope. Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. How does he start? With a big army? With a big problem? He starts with a big God. Is that how you start your prayers? Start your prayers with your big God. You'll pray differently. Give ear, Lord. Here, open your eyes, Lord, and see. By the way, Lord, listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these people and their lands. Notice this, praying in faith is not denial of the issue He's like, Lord, this is a real problem. He's not saying, oh, this is fine. You're God, and it's fine He said, they have rolled over everybody. They've thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them. They were not gods, but only wooden stone fashioned by human hands. Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kings of the earth may know, Lord, you are the only God. Alright, you want to know how to pray with an overwhelming situation? You start with praise, even if you don't feel like it. You start with your big God. You remind yourself of the majesty, the sovereignty, the total rule of your God over this situation which looks totally out of control. Secondly, you go to the problem. You articulate, it isn't that God's informed of the problem. You're inviting him into it. He already knows. But he he really states the issue. He said, Lord, this is a sub that's a bad situation. He wants you to specifically commit it to him. And then the petition. And God simply said to Hezekiah, because you prayed, I will. And Sennacherib is wiped out. His army is wiped out. He goes back home, and his own sons rise up and kill him. Nothing man could do. But you see, this is what happens when you live in the conscious awareness that your God is in control. That's how to pray when there is no way. I'm not going to look it up. You can see for yourself. You know the story. But it says an Old Testament example of a turbulent life lived victoriously. Poor Joseph, the pampered child, the privileged child, suddenly a slave, almost murdered by his brothers. Family hates him. Now a slave in a foreign land with a language he does not speak. But he really is a he's a great worker, and so he's he's in the house of a very powerful guy, Potiphar the military guy. That's working out really good. That's a good deal. So Potiphar's wife says, what a hunk. And starts coming on to him. We don't know her name. Might have been Patty Farr, I don't know exactly what her name was, uh Pattifarr's wife, but um but Patty Farr starts uh making eyes and trying to seduce him and And he gets he loses a job because he did the right thing. That's really nice. He did the right thing and he's fired for it and thrown into prison. Oh, oh, oh, but then some of the guys there who were king's servants, they had dreams, and Joseph goes, dreams? Did you say dreams? I do dreams. And he interprets the dreams. And he's looking out for other people while he's in prison. Nobody does that. He does. One of the guys gets out, the other one is executed. The one who gets out says, I'll get you out of here. Forgets about him for two years. You ever feel like your last hope walked out the door? That's how Joseph was. His last tope walked out the door, and Joseph was there for two more long years, day after day after day. Where is this God of his? But you remember what happens when his brothers come? Genesis 45. He says to his brothers, don't be distressed or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God Who's the actor? His brothers? No. It would look like his brothers. The actor. God sent me ahead of you. So then it was not you who sent me here It should look like it. But God, he made me father to Pharaoh, Lord of his entire household, ruler of all Egypt. You intended to harm me. But God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being saved. See, here's the deal, guys. Through your evil, what happened was God was using it to position me to save many lives, by the way, including yours. And so this is the story of Joseph, the story of our lives. When you get the sovereignty of your God, and it is it's in your heart, it's in your soul, it is your operating reality, not not what you're feeling, not what you're seeing, not what's happening in the election, not what's happening in the economy, not what's happening to The deciding factor is the sovereignty of the most high God. The struggle over self-reliance. You've reached the end of you, and now you relax in the sovereignty of the most high God. It's an awesome way to live. Which leads us to the surrender of the strong. The starting point I want to show you. You've already seen the words, four words. The starting point for Peter moving to Jesus, new thing in his life, was four little words. And this really hit me as I read it recently. Put your sword away. For Peter's sword was his way to make things happen. It was his way to fix things. It was his way to be in charge. And Jesus said, I don't need your sword. Put your source of power and strength and solution, put it away. This is the beginning of a turning point for Peter. I don't know what your sword is. You good with words? Your personality, turn on the personality, you can get things. How do you make things happen? Connections? Intelligence? Your resume. Little games you play to get your true get your way. Your talent. And we've all got our sword. You've got ways you get things done, make things happen, get people to do what you need them to do or want them to do. Put it away. I don't want to see your sword again, Peter. Your sword is the symbol of your issues of control The sword was Peter's weapon to control the situation. What's yours? Put it away. You know where the new Peter begins? Luke 22, 62. After boasting. That he would be the last one down, the last man standing for Jesus. He can't admit to a 12-year-old girl that he even knew Jesus Will you read this in the Greek? Where it says he wept bitterly. Literally, it means wailing out loud. Imagine this strong, virile fisherman, not caring who hears him So desperately broken. He's wailing out loud He is totally broken. It's an old hymn that says, The dearest idol I have known. Help me tear it from thy throne to worship only thee. Write this in your notes. The breaking of a child of God. is the making of that child of God. And God rocks Peter to his core To make him finally become the rock he promised to make him. But to become the rock, he had to be rocked to his core. That's where the total surrender comes in. And without that, there's too much of you. To live God's new and powerful thing. Look at what happened with Peter. After that, he went from being a chicken to a tiger. Not long afterwards he will stand on a street corner with some of the crucifiers of Jesus in the crowd and say, you have crucified the Lord Christ. And 3,000 people will come to Christ. He couldn't admit to a yellow little girl he knew him. Now he preaches to the city. He went from being combative to caring. Read 1 Peter, written by him. See the new Peter in 1 Peter. You will see he talks like, he uses the word precious three times. Can you imagine Peter saying, it's precious? This didn't sound like, you know, this gentle little word. He's talking about precious blood, precious savior. He never talked that way before. He goes from wanting to be the star of the disciples And when he writes 1 Peter, he says, I'm just a shepherd. I'm not a star. I'm just a shepherd. He goes from a bigot against Gentiles to a bridge between Jews and Gentiles. He goes from his sword to a cross. That's a new thing. That's how he becomes a world changer. Here's some challenging questions on God's new thing quiz. Will I run ahead and make plans? I hate to ask this. I get I convict myself. Will I run ahead and make plans? Or will I await orders? I'm not moving until God says to do something. Yeah, but I gotta do something. I mean, I gotta make something happen here. Somebody's gotta do something. I gotta do it. Put your sword away. Will I flesh it? Because God's taking too long? It's just taking too long. I gotta do something. Really? Will I get out of God's way? And will I stay out of his way? I'm going to wrap up in just a moment here. Jonathan Goforth, if we'd been alive about 100 years ago, you would have known his name. He was a great missionary statesman in China. I read this and I thought that's his profound Here's what he said to his leaders back then. Brethren, the Spirit of God is with us still. Pentecost is yet within our grasp. If revival is being withheld from us, It is because some idols remain still enthroned. Because we still insist on placing our reliance on human schemes, because we still refuse to face the unchangeable truth that it is not by might But by my spirit. Gail was a precious volunteer who worked in our first office in New Jersey. And uh she came in one Monday morning, always faithful. You knew she'd be there Monday morning early. And she said, this is one of the most special weekends of my life. We said, well, what was it? And we wish she had told us. She said I got baptized yesterday. She took me a long time to get around to it, but she said I got baptized yesterday. She was glowing. And um she said, and and and and I I I had this with me. I said, Oh yeah, right. Well doing it the uh you know Baptist way. You gotta do this, right? She said, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's that's not why I had it She said, I took that with me. Because that was my white flag. Somebody here Before you go, fly your white flag. In some part of your life there's a new surrender. It's time. Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I'm doing a new thing. Springing up in front of you. Do you not perceive it? Pay the price for the best seats in the house. Let's pray. Lord, we are addicted many times to control Self reliance. Be in the hero. Be in the fixer. Be in the make it happen person. There's so much you want to do if we just get out of your way And you shake us. So we'll finally desperately come to the point of surrender. We thought we took care of that a long time ago. But stuff has happened. And we still got that stuff. Lord, I pray you would liberate each of us here from whatever idol, whatever obstacle, whatever Me first part of our life. And may we leave here with a new spring in our step, a new sense of expectancy, anticipation, and relief That what we've been carrying so long is now safely in the hands of the sovereign Most High God. In Jesus' name. Amen