Howdy. God's word is not easy. It felt almost like saying that. It's almost like I heard the
phrase is gilding the lily, but if you try too hard to keep adding to it and it just ends up
making it almost worse. Oftentimes the idea of what following God's word is, it's amazing how
many different perspectives there are on what that's going to mean. And yet when we see scripture,
we end up discovering that it's even harder than we oftentimes thought it would be.
Some years ago, I was in my first call. It was out in California. And the lead pastor
had called me out there because what was going on was that he was going to be creating a network of
house churches. And he was going to help to oversee the house churches. And I was going to be the
pastor on site for that particular congregation. It was exciting. I was really glad to get to see
everything that was going on. In the midst of it, I was doing a lot of youth work. And I was also
serving to then how do we create a larger youth ministry to this area, meeting with some of the
other churches nearby who didn't have youth workers. And working on this whole plan, it was
like going to be years in the making, so much to get done. And then the lead pastor decided to leave.
And after a year when he went ahead and left, the hard part then was what is going to happen with
my role. I wasn't worried at the time. There was a lot of discussion about what that might mean.
And it was sort of like, okay, I already know this ministry is moving forward. What is the next
step for that? And over the course of two weeks, went from finding out, oh, hey, you might be called
to be the pastor of this place to you no longer have any call here and you're no longer ministering
here in the next month. The thing is, is that all these things had been in place. All of these ideas
for what ministry was going to look like. And then all of a sudden it was just cut out from under me.
And at that moment in time, in front of the regional vice president of the district, I cried
like a baby. It was not pretty. It was one of those like ugly weeping where if you're seeing the
movie and it keeps going too long and you're trying to fast forward, it was pretty bad. And then what
made it even harder was that because I cried at losing my job, I was then sent to mandatory
counseling for six months. Because what's even worse than the idea of struggling with loss is
that even oftentimes we're even afraid when our pastors are willing to show that they're human
too. And that's a hard piece about this is that experiencing what we go through in trying to
follow God's word is that this path is not easy and it doesn't always seem to flow in a way that
makes much sense. But that doesn't mean that we stop trying. See, oftentimes whenever we're
looking for God's blessing, it's on a path that God has in store for us, not the one that we have
in mind. See, some of the questions I want you to have in your mind today. What are the ways in
which God has caused us to wait on him, his way of doing things, what it is that he has in mind?
What are God's blessings flawed because they don't fit our notion or our instincts? And would you
rather have the blessing that you want or the blessing that God wants for you? These questions
may seem like they should be obvious, but in real life, we're constantly showing that they're not.
See, one of the things that I struggled with back then was knowing that I didn't feel like I was
quite ready for what I was meant to do. But I also had absolutely no idea how to get to that point.
What was amazing though is that in the midst of all this trying to figure out how did I mess up,
how did other people mess up, who messed up, trying to figure out who to blame. And yet,
looking back is that even the most broken parts that came afterwards, the person that I had to grow
into was not the person I was before any of that happened. Is it somehow God had to utilize the parts
of this path that I did not get in order to get me to the places where I did not know how to go?
More than that, I would even say that oftentimes we want to place our way of doing things above how
God wants it. The story for that, Abraham. Abraham was promised a nation. God said that he was going
to use Abraham and his wife, Sarah, to give birth to a son who was going to give birth to a son who
would be the beginning of a great nation. Now, they were getting a little bit older. I'm no
biologist, but I'm pretty sure that there are some things about a guy that doesn't work the same
when he's 99. I'm pretty sure there's things about a woman that doesn't work the same way than their 89.
At this moment in time, it is clear that they are struggling to understand what is going on in
their lives. They're struggling to understand what God is going to do. In the midst of it,
they went some very strange paths to get there. Sarah was even having her husband sleep with
her concubine to have a child. And not only was that not the way God was desiring them to go,
but it ended up complicating life for their descendants for centuries, even in some ways
today. The conflicts that arose between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac, that's still
a story we're looking at even today. Why? Because even though God said, this is the path I have for
you, as they're waiting and not understanding how God's plan is going to make sense, what do they
do? They try to take it into their own hands and they try to make it work the best way they think
how. But here's the thing about this. Before Abraham could give birth, before Abraham and
Sarah could give birth to Isaac, Abraham hadn't circumcised anybody. They were supposed to go
through that circumcision and be prepared for what God had to do. See, Abraham and Sarah,
they were spending a long time trying to understand how the weird path that they were taking was
supposed to get to where God wanted them to be. Haven't you ever had those times where it's like
day in, day out, something isn't changing, you're not sure why it is that things are feeling frustrated,
you're not sure how it is you're supposed to get to where you think you're supposed to go,
God wants to do something in your family's life, you're not sure what that's supposed to look like.
God wants to do something in your vocation, in your career, in your purposes, you're not sure
how to find your way there. There are things where you know I'm missing something, I can't quite figure
out why. And no matter how hard you try, he just hasn't shown what that next step is.
But in the midst of that, how many times do we end up making things even harder? Because we're
trying to force things based on what we think we know today. Even in the midst of that though,
God didn't lose his plans. As much as Abraham and Sarah kept making things more difficult,
God still had a plan for Isaac and everything thereafter. See, our way of trying to go about
things, how often do we then pause, look back and say, why did I make this decision and then
that follow up, does that mean that I've now ruined everything because of it? What are the
ways in which God has caused us to wait on him? Are his blessings flawed because they don't fit
our ideas? And would you rather have the blessing you were looking for or the blessing that God has
in mind? One of the things that always has struck me in regard to pastoral ministry is that
serving in a church is actually not complicated. That's like knowing that we need to preach the
Word of God, knowing we need to serve our neighbor, knowing that it's important to stay in prayer and
to comfort one another and to love each other. This is not complicated. What's complicated?
Oftentimes one of the hardest parts is whenever people say, I want to see this in our church,
in our community. And then when you let them know what's needed to make it happen,
then I don't want to. I wish that that were exaggerating. I have literally heard the words,
no, I don't want to. Time and time again. This is what we see that's needed. This is what we need
to do to get there. Nope, never mind. I don't want to. Our desire to go down our path gets in the way
oftentimes of what God is trying to show us his path is meant to be, especially we see that with
Peter. In our gospel, Peter is discussing and sharing and so are the disciples. What do people
think of Jesus? Now you may be wondering, why would anybody think that Jesus is John the Baptist?
They're two separate people. Well, not everybody had seen John the Baptist. They may have just heard
of these different people, but also remember Herod had taken John's life and was mentally,
emotionally being haunted by thinking that that's who Jesus was now. Or Elijah. Elijah was seen to
symbolize the end of all things. Is that what Jesus is here to do? Just to bring everything to a
close? Was Jesus a prophet? Was he someone who is there just to be able to proclaim what God had to
say? But it was more than just that. Moses had predicted a prophet who would be greater than
him, the one who was going to come into usher in the new kingdom. And so when Peter says, you are the
Christ, this is actually a bigger deal than what people were expecting. Because the Christ,
it's not just a word. We oftentimes say Jesus Christ and we treat it almost like it's His last name.
Okay, Christ, Jesus. It's like somebody tries to reach out from the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints or whatever and the alphabetical part puts the Jesus Christ first. And so you look
at the color ID and you're like, Jesus Christ is calling. I don't want to pick up. I don't know what
it's about. And the thing is, is that we oftentimes just treat that name as just words. But Christ,
Christ means the King who's come to bring forgiveness and life to his people.
And it was a very deep meaning that Peter didn't quite get. You see, when Jesus is asking Peter
and he's saying, who do you say that I am? It's actually not singular you. Okay, see, this is
actually one reason why it is that they need more Texans to translate the Bible. It should have been
y'all. It should have been y'all. Because Jesus is saying, okay, all of you disciples, what have
y'all been discussing with each other? What have y'all understood? Peter's just the first one to say
it. He's the loudest and he's the one who jumps in there. But it also turns out that Peter didn't
even quite know what it meant in the first place. Because when we're looking at next steps, are we
asking what those steps are going to be that God is desiring of us? Or are we asking what next steps
we think make the most sense? You see, here's the part about that just similar to the way in which
I will oftentimes keep talking longer than I should have on a first day and then somehow not find my
way to a second date. Even so, Peter had a habit of continuing to keep talking when he should have
just closed his mouth. And that's the thing about what ends up happening next. Jesus is trying to
explain more about what the Christ is meant to do. What is the Christ meant to do? But what does
that include? Suffering and dying and then rising again. Did that make any sense to Peter whatsoever?
Absolutely not. And what does he do? He takes Jesus and he says, you've got to stop this. He rebukes him.
When you have the king of kings standing there telling you the path that he needs to follow,
what sense does it make for us to tell him what path makes better sense to us?
And unfortunately, this happened in front of a lot of people. So Jesus can't just ignore it.
He has to make it very clear to Peter. Get behind me, Satan. There are times whenever this road,
you have to look at the people that you care about the most and you have to tell them to stop sometimes.
You have to tell them the parts that they don't want to hear. And sometimes that's not just on my
end of it. That's where many of you find yourselves too. It's the times whenever the Christian life
is not going to just be the happy sermons and feeling good after a Bible study. This is also
the times when you have to sit down for coffee with somebody and say, hey, this is a bad idea and you
need to stop. This didn't mean though that God had given up on Peter, just like God has not given up
on us. You see, as we're looking at this question of are we genuinely asking how God is leading us
at each step, even when it requires sacrifice, serving, and humility on our part? This is not an
easy ask. There's also a lot of really difficult stuff that we're going to have to do. And I don't
just mean in general. I also mean as a congregation here. You are going to be pushed. You are going
to be challenged. And there are going to be times where things are going to be hard and you're not
going to be sure how to figure it out. But that doesn't mean that either you've messed up or that
somehow God's plan has somehow failed. It just means that sometimes the path is going to be difficult.
But that's the thing about Jesus is that Jesus is not here to affirm your old ways of looking at
things. Some of you are a little bit older than me, maybe by a year or two. A few of you are a
little younger than me, maybe by a year or two. Jonathan, you're only like two or three years
younger than me, right? Yeah, we'll go with that. I swear, he goes to the same gym that I do. It was
great. I totally out bench pressed him. I have absolutely no idea. But it was good to see you
though. With it though is our ways of looking at God and what we expect of his plan. God isn't here
to try to let you know that you've got it all figured out. When we're pursuing what we want
instead of ignoring what it is that God is trying to say, that's idolatry. But you're also not being
left in that place. So this is not me coming up here to say, okay, now all of your ways of doing
things, you know what they're messed up, just let go. Yeah, there's the door. This is also to say that
your sins are forgiven. Even the times when you thought that you had it figured out and you just
said, I don't want to. Because even so, God still has a plan and a direction for you. God still has a
plan. So sometimes God is calling us in spite of us. But that's a good part about grace.
Is that that forgiveness is today. And that path is still in front of you for tomorrow.
So whatever God may be challenging you with today, doesn't mean that you've fallen off the path.
Just means that he's showing you what that might look like. And that it may be a little different
for tomorrow. Thanks be to God.