WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.200 One of the things looking at ideas of what we 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:06.620 expect is oftentimes for me when I think about 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:09.859 who I was trying to be when I grew up. When I 00:00:09.859 --> 00:00:12.240 was a kid, I was thinking, what am I going to 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:16.019 do whenever I grow up? And in my mind, my future 00:00:16.019 --> 00:00:20.219 job was doing math on a chalkboard and drawing. 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:22.579 I had no idea what job that was going to be, 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:24.760 but it was going to be doing math on a chalkboard 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:26.920 and drawing. I still haven't quite figured that 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:29.480 one out yet, but who knows? Maybe when I retire, 00:00:29.539 --> 00:00:34.119 I'll get to do that. But with my dad growing 00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:36.960 up being a machinist, the thing that he was always 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:39.280 asking was, if you're so good at math, why don't 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:42.549 you become an engineer? And so that would come 00:00:42.549 --> 00:00:44.509 up from time to time and I was originally going 00:00:44.509 --> 00:00:47.549 to go over to Houston Baptist now Houston Christian 00:00:47.549 --> 00:00:52.009 and get a math major but I was told that maybe 00:00:52.009 --> 00:00:54.429 A &M would be a better place to go and maybe 00:00:54.429 --> 00:00:57.170 go get an architecture major and I went and it 00:00:57.170 --> 00:00:59.810 was like this isn't quite the right fit so what 00:00:59.810 --> 00:01:02.009 would I end up doing well I thought sure I'll 00:01:02.009 --> 00:01:04.469 fall back on an easy degree and I got an engineering 00:01:04.469 --> 00:01:09.549 degree so there we go but then after all of this 00:01:09.549 --> 00:01:12.560 realizing is in my mind was this thought growing 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:15.180 up of, how in the world am I going to be this 00:01:15.180 --> 00:01:19.299 engineer? And I'm so clumsy. I'm not mechanically 00:01:19.299 --> 00:01:22.040 minded. And even more than that, as I was at 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:24.000 school and I did all the classes and I'm thinking, 00:01:24.099 --> 00:01:25.840 how am I going to do this the rest of my life? 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:30.480 And then I ended up going to seminary. And I 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:32.680 guess God didn't need me to make a chemical plant 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:35.959 for him. But in thinking about all this was still 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:39.599 in the back of my mind this question of Is this 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:43.439 really what my dad expected of me? Is this something 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:46.640 that my dad would have actually been happy about? 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:49.459 And in thinking about that is, you know, whenever 00:01:49.459 --> 00:01:51.500 I would then talk to him is always this thought 00:01:51.500 --> 00:01:55.379 in the back of my mind. Are you still happy about 00:01:55.379 --> 00:01:58.400 the direction that I went in? And this idea of 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:00.420 what it is that we think is going to happen, 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:02.620 the direction we're going to go, whenever it 00:02:02.620 --> 00:02:05.900 doesn't happen, how often is it that that ends 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:09.680 up creating in us a feeling disappointment this 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:12.460 sense of being disoriented the idea that you 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:14.280 think you know where you're going and then all 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:16.180 of a sudden everything gets thrown all up in 00:02:16.180 --> 00:02:19.080 the air and you feel a bit discombobulated which 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:20.919 I think is an awesome word but don't ask me how 00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:24.960 to spell it you know we end up seeing at these 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:27.780 times that when the path we thought we were going 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:30.979 to go is not what turns out well we see what 00:02:30.979 --> 00:02:35.199 it is that God may be doing beyond what we expected 00:02:35.530 --> 00:02:39.110 that it may turn out that the times whenever 00:02:39.110 --> 00:02:42.229 we see that the disciples are confused about 00:02:42.229 --> 00:02:45.930 what Jesus is trying to say or Paul ends up finding 00:02:45.930 --> 00:02:48.349 one of his first converts in the most unexpected 00:02:48.349 --> 00:02:51.509 way or we end up seeing a vision of heaven that 00:02:51.509 --> 00:02:54.229 may be different from what we expected we still 00:02:54.229 --> 00:02:57.770 end up seeing that God's work while it's not 00:02:57.770 --> 00:03:01.469 what we expect it ends up giving us more than 00:03:01.469 --> 00:03:05.460 we could have ever asked for And so what we want 00:03:05.460 --> 00:03:07.580 to do then is we want to be able to see how is 00:03:07.580 --> 00:03:11.060 it that we understand better how God is doing 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:14.800 much more than we could have ever imagined. And 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:17.879 one of those is when we think about the story 00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:22.400 of Martin Luther. Martin Luther, a German monk, 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:28.219 have you heard of him? Okay, thank you. When 00:03:28.219 --> 00:03:30.479 we're trying to understand a bit about what it 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:32.699 is that he was doing, you've got to understand 00:03:32.699 --> 00:03:35.599 that he also was struggling with whether or not 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:38.259 he was living up to what his father had wanted. 00:03:38.379 --> 00:03:40.860 He was supposed to be a lawyer, and then because 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:44.159 of a crazy thunderstorm, he ended up going to 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:47.599 become a monk, and then later became a professor 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:51.479 at a seminary that was there in Wittenberg. Well, 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.300 the difficulty then is that as much as Luther 00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:57.759 was such a good monk, the problem was is that 00:03:57.759 --> 00:04:01.560 the Word of God just kept getting at him. And 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:04.120 he kept reading more and more from Galatians 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:07.479 and Romans and trying to understand more about 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:12.219 what God was truly saying about grace. And what 00:04:12.219 --> 00:04:14.500 he began to realize is that all this fear that 00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:17.569 he had about whether or not he had done enough 00:04:17.569 --> 00:04:20.250 or confessed enough and seeing how terrible of 00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:22.730 a sinner he was on the inside, which apparently, 00:04:22.750 --> 00:04:25.050 according to his confessor, was nowhere near 00:04:25.050 --> 00:04:28.069 as bad as the other monks, is that he continued 00:04:28.069 --> 00:04:31.829 then to hear from God and to see that grace was 00:04:31.829 --> 00:04:35.810 something freely given, that it was a gift from 00:04:35.810 --> 00:04:38.910 God. And he began to speak and to teach and to 00:04:38.910 --> 00:04:42.949 write about this. But in his mind, what he expected 00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:46.579 was that the church, once they understood what 00:04:46.579 --> 00:04:49.980 he was saying, they were going to agree with 00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:53.620 him completely and help him to revise and reform 00:04:53.620 --> 00:04:56.740 and fix everything that he saw as an abuse in 00:04:56.740 --> 00:05:01.279 the church. But then the problem is, they didn't 00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:05.339 see him as the one telling them what to do. You 00:05:05.339 --> 00:05:08.500 know that thing whenever the kid is going off 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:12.209 to the principal's office? And walking over there 00:05:12.209 --> 00:05:14.930 because the principal's calling them in, and 00:05:14.930 --> 00:05:16.910 the principal already knows that what the kid 00:05:16.910 --> 00:05:20.670 has done is wrong and needs to make sure that 00:05:20.670 --> 00:05:23.230 they're corrected. And so the kid is not going 00:05:23.230 --> 00:05:25.870 to sit there and try to explain to the principal, 00:05:26.389 --> 00:05:29.449 well, this is why I did all these things. Don't 00:05:29.449 --> 00:05:32.069 you understand why it was that I'm in the right? 00:05:32.410 --> 00:05:35.810 All the principal expects is, I'm sorry, and 00:05:35.810 --> 00:05:38.129 I won't do it again. That's it. That's all that 00:05:38.129 --> 00:05:41.579 you get. And that's... what Luther was being 00:05:41.579 --> 00:05:45.079 called to when he went to the Diet of Worms, 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:47.420 is that he was coming there to basically say, 00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:51.660 I'm sorry, I won't do this again. And he's standing 00:05:51.660 --> 00:05:54.740 there having all of his writings spread out on 00:05:54.740 --> 00:05:57.279 a table, and he's trying to figure out, what 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:01.300 did I say that was so wrong? Oh my goodness. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.860 And they said, we just want you to recant. Just 00:06:04.860 --> 00:06:07.220 say you were wrong and never do this again. And 00:06:07.220 --> 00:06:10.649 he said, I need to think about it. And so he 00:06:10.649 --> 00:06:15.189 came back after a night of praying and thinking, 00:06:15.709 --> 00:06:18.889 very little sleep. But what he kept praying to 00:06:18.889 --> 00:06:24.230 God was that he would stand on the gospel and 00:06:24.230 --> 00:06:26.829 that nothing could cause his faith to waver. 00:06:27.790 --> 00:06:30.189 And the truth is that he was pretty convinced 00:06:30.189 --> 00:06:34.410 that he was going to end up being taken off and 00:06:34.410 --> 00:06:37.689 martyred for the gospel. by the very church he 00:06:37.689 --> 00:06:42.129 was trying to help reform. But instead, after 00:06:42.129 --> 00:06:45.089 he had said, here I stand, I can do no other, 00:06:45.509 --> 00:06:49.050 or something along those lines, he was taken 00:06:49.050 --> 00:06:52.829 off and hidden away, where he ended up translating 00:06:52.829 --> 00:06:57.310 all of scripture into German, which quite a bit 00:06:57.310 --> 00:07:00.329 to ask of one single person. I'm just trying 00:07:00.329 --> 00:07:02.050 to make sure I get a sermon written every week. 00:07:02.870 --> 00:07:06.600 But more than that, is to realize that his struggle 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:09.860 would continue and that he would be blamed for 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:12.660 so many things that would happen throughout the 00:07:12.660 --> 00:07:17.160 church for centuries to come. What Luther thought 00:07:17.160 --> 00:07:21.379 was going to happen was nowhere near what actually 00:07:21.379 --> 00:07:24.379 came to be. I'm sure Martin Luther did not expect 00:07:24.379 --> 00:07:27.600 his future wife to come along in a smoked fish 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:31.759 barrel. True story. Look it up. But even more 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:34.839 than that, he also didn't know what God was going 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:38.220 to do through him, not just whether or not his 00:07:38.220 --> 00:07:42.500 life might be taken away. But the same thing 00:07:42.500 --> 00:07:44.800 ends up happening with what Jesus speaks to his 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:49.079 disciples, as we look in John 16. The disciples 00:07:49.079 --> 00:07:51.959 are wanting Jesus to speak plainly, and Jesus 00:07:51.959 --> 00:07:55.660 keeps saying, you can go to the Father and you 00:07:55.660 --> 00:07:58.829 can ask Him for anything. and that you don't 00:07:58.829 --> 00:08:01.009 just have to then speak to me hoping the Father 00:08:01.009 --> 00:08:03.430 will hear you. The Father hears you because He 00:08:03.430 --> 00:08:05.990 loves you. And then they finally start saying, 00:08:06.069 --> 00:08:09.470 well, okay, now we understand you, now it's plain. 00:08:10.589 --> 00:08:12.810 And you know that moment where you're like, you 00:08:12.810 --> 00:08:15.389 really don't understand what I'm trying to say. 00:08:16.290 --> 00:08:18.470 And Jesus has one of those moments, but still 00:08:18.470 --> 00:08:24.610 says, you're gonna all abandon me, and yet, there 00:08:24.610 --> 00:08:30.579 is still grace for you. That feeling that sense 00:08:30.579 --> 00:08:33.279 of knowing that the path that you may expect 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:35.860 it's not going to go the direction you thought 00:08:35.860 --> 00:08:40.419 disciples But rather this path is going to have 00:08:40.419 --> 00:08:44.059 to go To the cross and more than that not just 00:08:44.059 --> 00:08:45.940 for Christ himself and what he's going to do 00:08:45.940 --> 00:08:50.700 for our sin, but also for the disciples themselves 00:08:50.700 --> 00:08:55.120 Because they will also have to suffer for all 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.779 that is going to happen in his name That's the 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:01.279 thing about what we end up seeing though is that 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:04.679 as much as we might think we know what God is 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:08.580 going to give us There is so much more that it 00:09:08.580 --> 00:09:12.759 entails But it may very well be a path of struggle 00:09:12.759 --> 00:09:16.279 and turmoil that we may face It's not a path 00:09:16.279 --> 00:09:19.279 that then we think somehow we've lost track of 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:22.299 what God wanted How many times must Luther have 00:09:22.299 --> 00:09:25.320 wondered as he's there in that cell awaiting 00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:28.799 the verdict the next day? whether or not he had 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:33.059 made a misstep, and how often do we wonder whether 00:09:33.059 --> 00:09:36.639 or not God has somehow had a path that we missed 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.460 out on. But you know, we've talked about that 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:43.940 before. More than that, though, is that the gospel 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:47.080 isn't just that our paths don't always go where 00:09:47.080 --> 00:09:52.120 we expect, but also that the gospel itself doesn't 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:56.580 just go where we planned. See, the gospel goes 00:09:56.750 --> 00:10:00.009 wherever the spirit will. And one of those people 00:10:00.009 --> 00:10:02.909 that it ended up going to was named Augustine. 00:10:03.309 --> 00:10:06.529 Augustine had lived in the fourth century. Augustine 00:10:06.529 --> 00:10:08.809 had been trained in rhetoric and philosophy. 00:10:09.049 --> 00:10:12.769 He was a teacher and he loved to argue. And he 00:10:12.769 --> 00:10:17.450 loved the idea of himself being able to argue 00:10:17.450 --> 00:10:21.149 and garner everyone's attention and the status 00:10:21.149 --> 00:10:24.549 that he wanted with it. But more than that, Augustine 00:10:24.549 --> 00:10:28.590 was actually a little bit of a womanizer, and 00:10:28.590 --> 00:10:30.809 there were a lot of things that he was not willing 00:10:30.809 --> 00:10:34.350 to let go of with all the things that he pursued, 00:10:35.110 --> 00:10:38.409 the immorality that he wanted. In his mind, the 00:10:38.409 --> 00:10:43.370 Bible was way too simple, and faith in Jesus 00:10:43.370 --> 00:10:46.669 was way too restrictive. There were too many 00:10:46.669 --> 00:10:49.649 things that he wanted. But the thing about it 00:10:49.649 --> 00:10:52.250 is that as much as we might see him and realize 00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:55.360 Oh my goodness, what a terrible person he may 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:58.600 truly be. Is that he still had a mother praying 00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:02.399 for him. Monica, who was continuing to remember 00:11:02.399 --> 00:11:05.740 him in prayer over and over and speaking to him 00:11:05.740 --> 00:11:08.919 every chance that she had. But there was also 00:11:08.919 --> 00:11:12.919 Bishop Ambrose, who was preaching. You know how 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:15.120 there are those times whenever someone is speaking 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:18.940 and you're not quite paying total attention and 00:11:18.940 --> 00:11:21.919 and Yet something that they said kind of stood 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:25.320 out to you. You can't quite shake it I mean not 00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:27.200 me everybody listens to every single word I've 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:32.279 ever said but other people and Oftentimes exactly 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:37.299 You realize is that as much as he might have 00:11:37.299 --> 00:11:41.419 been arguing is that that word kept getting in 00:11:42.090 --> 00:11:46.429 But more than that his feeling of emptiness Kept 00:11:46.429 --> 00:11:50.870 growing and he couldn't shake it until one day 00:11:50.870 --> 00:11:55.429 he heard a voice Calling him to open his Bible 00:11:55.429 --> 00:11:58.830 and as he's reading Romans 13 and it speaks of 00:11:58.830 --> 00:12:02.730 leaving your sin and to pursue Christ He realized 00:12:02.730 --> 00:12:06.470 it was time and at the age of 31 came to know 00:12:06.470 --> 00:12:10.360 Jesus and would eventually come to become the 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:12.820 bishop of Hippo and one of the most influential 00:12:12.820 --> 00:12:16.019 writers in the Christian church, which of course 00:12:16.019 --> 00:12:18.480 goes to show you for all those wondering about 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:21.320 kids in their 20s and if they fall away, there 00:12:21.320 --> 00:12:25.379 is still hope for them in their 30s. But the 00:12:25.379 --> 00:12:28.240 same thing though ends up happening with Paul. 00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:31.919 Paul had an idea in his mind of who it was that 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:35.299 he was supposed to pursue, not who it was necessarily. 00:12:35.580 --> 00:12:38.919 who God had in mind to call. See, Paul was going 00:12:38.919 --> 00:12:41.159 to go off to Asia and to proclaim the gospel, 00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:44.220 but time and time again, the Spirit stopped him. 00:12:44.940 --> 00:12:47.879 We don't know how. We don't know if it was just 00:12:47.879 --> 00:12:51.399 the dreams that he had that said, don't go, or 00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:53.539 maybe there was an angel standing there with 00:12:53.539 --> 00:12:55.820 a giant sword saying, don't go this way, Paul. 00:12:56.639 --> 00:13:01.679 Or even if maybe it was just circumstances, time 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:06.600 and time again. Every time you think that you're 00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:10.000 supposed to go somewhere, and you can't seem 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.059 to get there. There were times whenever I would 00:13:14.059 --> 00:13:18.220 wonder about that in my own life, because I wanted 00:13:18.220 --> 00:13:21.399 to live up to my father's reputation, but my 00:13:21.399 --> 00:13:25.559 father's legacy and his expectations. And then 00:13:25.559 --> 00:13:28.000 three times that I tried to do like him and to 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:32.379 enlist in the Army, and three times the military 00:13:32.379 --> 00:13:36.600 said no. until finally realizing there are just 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:38.399 some times when the spirit's working and you 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:42.919 just have to listen. Because so many times what 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:47.299 we may feel as us failing oftentimes is just 00:13:47.299 --> 00:13:51.000 God saying, I have something else in mind for 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:55.019 you. Because the thing is, is that as much as 00:13:55.019 --> 00:13:59.200 Paul couldn't go to Asia, God said, go to Macedonia. 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:02.940 And as he went, instead of the man that he saw 00:14:02.940 --> 00:14:04.919 in his dream. Instead, as he's walking by the 00:14:04.919 --> 00:14:09.159 riverside, he sees a woman named Lydia, who was 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:11.620 ready to hear the gospel and became the first 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:15.600 convert in that European area. See, Lydia became 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:18.899 a person of peace, a person who was open to the 00:14:18.899 --> 00:14:22.080 gospel, a person who was not only ready, but 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:25.879 who would then call others to her side, others 00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:27.980 who would then come to know the gospel as well. 00:14:29.620 --> 00:14:32.080 But oftentimes we don't expect that the gospel 00:14:32.080 --> 00:14:34.340 is going to go wherever God decides. We don't 00:14:34.340 --> 00:14:37.539 realize that. But more than that, we also don't 00:14:37.539 --> 00:14:41.200 realize what it is that the gospel is doing even 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:45.220 as it reaches each and every person. See, one 00:14:45.220 --> 00:14:48.159 of the things that we end up seeing in our scripture 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:51.659 reading as we look at Revelation is the life 00:14:51.659 --> 00:14:57.039 of the world that is to come. See, What we see 00:14:57.039 --> 00:14:59.600 in Revelation ends up helping us to understand 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:03.580 a bit more about how God is reaching to all people, 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:08.100 and how God's vision for his kingdom is bigger 00:15:08.100 --> 00:15:10.220 and more beautiful than anything we had imagined. 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:12.700 But you see, we don't always have that in our 00:15:12.700 --> 00:15:17.799 mind. There were so long where the vision of 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:21.580 Americans, or what I should say is white Americans, 00:15:22.259 --> 00:15:25.179 was a very specific idea of what heaven would 00:15:25.179 --> 00:15:28.419 be like. And even whenever we got to a point 00:15:28.419 --> 00:15:31.500 of finally getting past slavery is that even 00:15:31.500 --> 00:15:35.179 though we saw black Americans having faith, how 00:15:35.179 --> 00:15:39.460 long it was that the white mainstream could not 00:15:39.460 --> 00:15:42.960 imagine that their idea of heaven included those 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:47.879 people. And that's the thing about this is that 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:51.580 Christians could spend so long taking scripture 00:15:51.580 --> 00:15:55.379 and telling themselves, all throughout slavery 00:15:55.379 --> 00:15:57.720 and even afterward that what they were looking 00:15:57.720 --> 00:16:03.080 at and doing was God's idea. How often is it 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:05.980 that we can take things that are clearly not 00:16:05.980 --> 00:16:09.000 what Jesus would have wanted but somehow tell 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.740 ourselves it's exactly what we're supposed to 00:16:11.740 --> 00:16:15.879 do. But you see, the black church didn't end 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:19.759 up just giving up, just when the mainstream church 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:23.200 didn't want them. Even whenever whites didn't 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:26.259 want the blacks sitting next to them, they end 00:16:26.259 --> 00:16:29.460 up creating their own churches, their own bishops, 00:16:29.659 --> 00:16:32.539 their own pastors, their own preachers, those 00:16:32.539 --> 00:16:35.440 who could be deacons in their community. Whenever 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:38.179 we wonder why there are so many different denominations 00:16:38.179 --> 00:16:40.919 that have the same root word but teach the same 00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:43.279 thing and yet they're separated and we realize 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:46.279 that many of them started because of this. Because 00:16:46.279 --> 00:16:48.799 of people just not wanting to sit next to somebody 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:53.980 else. But how often is it that we do that because 00:16:53.980 --> 00:16:58.179 we think of ourselves as the ones worthy and 00:16:58.179 --> 00:17:01.220 we wonder how God lets all those other people 00:17:01.220 --> 00:17:07.279 in. This idea of realizing that it's not about 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:11.339 the Christians but rather about the Christ. Whenever 00:17:11.339 --> 00:17:13.480 the missionaries would go to different foreign 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:16.019 lands and the indigenous populations would have 00:17:16.019 --> 00:17:20.190 to realize the missionaries are not the same 00:17:20.190 --> 00:17:24.829 as the Christ they proclaim. Even so, the image 00:17:24.829 --> 00:17:28.769 of heaven ends up showing something deeper and 00:17:28.769 --> 00:17:30.769 more beautiful than what we could have imagined. 00:17:31.529 --> 00:17:34.829 Because all the different stones throughout the 00:17:34.829 --> 00:17:37.069 wall, and to realize that they are all part of 00:17:37.069 --> 00:17:42.609 this one pearl stone, this one unified foundation, 00:17:44.609 --> 00:17:47.589 that heaven's gates are wide open in a place 00:17:47.589 --> 00:17:54.549 with no temple, no sun, and open gates. Because 00:17:54.549 --> 00:17:58.529 instead of seeing Jesus present in this one spot 00:17:58.529 --> 00:18:01.710 is to realize when God is walking among you, 00:18:01.990 --> 00:18:04.349 living with you, breathing with you, you don't 00:18:04.349 --> 00:18:07.589 have to go to this one other place to find Him. 00:18:07.829 --> 00:18:11.269 He's there, right there with you, speaking to 00:18:11.269 --> 00:18:16.359 you, walking with you. showing you what He always 00:18:16.359 --> 00:18:21.980 desired, what God's expectations truly are, not 00:18:21.980 --> 00:18:25.640 just what we thought they would be. Or even further, 00:18:26.180 --> 00:18:28.680 you don't need a sun whenever the light of the 00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:32.619 world is already there, lighting your path showing 00:18:32.619 --> 00:18:35.440 you where it is to go and what it is that we 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:41.579 do. But more than that, how is heaven so beautiful 00:18:41.579 --> 00:18:45.779 and so perfect when the gates are wide open. 00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:49.500 See, it speaks twice in that chapter about the 00:18:49.500 --> 00:18:51.640 sinners and all the terrible people who have 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:55.640 no place in heaven and yet the gates are wide 00:18:55.640 --> 00:19:00.160 open. Why is that? How do they make that possible? 00:19:01.420 --> 00:19:04.799 Because it's not the good people that find their 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:09.700 way to get in. It's that all people need to be 00:19:09.700 --> 00:19:14.210 cleansed and purified before they enter. Because 00:19:14.210 --> 00:19:18.190 when Christ Jesus is the gate, He is the door, 00:19:18.630 --> 00:19:22.450 then through Him all people have grace and hope. 00:19:23.990 --> 00:19:28.990 It's that only through Him is anyone made right 00:19:28.990 --> 00:19:33.089 in God's eyes. So that as we come to know Him, 00:19:34.009 --> 00:19:36.930 all the things that we've struggled with are 00:19:36.930 --> 00:19:41.609 transformed by His glory. Our idea of what it 00:19:41.609 --> 00:19:44.289 is that we're looking for, it's not about what 00:19:44.289 --> 00:19:47.910 we're trying to bring to God, but rather is coming 00:19:47.910 --> 00:19:50.490 to God and saying, God, what is it that you have 00:19:50.490 --> 00:19:54.250 for me? See, when we look at all these pieces, 00:19:54.950 --> 00:19:58.390 when we look at what it is, how our expectations 00:19:58.390 --> 00:20:01.990 limit what it is that God is doing, but we realize 00:20:01.990 --> 00:20:06.549 that God's plan is so unlimited. When we realized 00:20:06.549 --> 00:20:08.630 that the disciples thought that they needed to 00:20:08.630 --> 00:20:11.650 control what they were coming to God with But 00:20:11.650 --> 00:20:15.769 Jesus came to give them peace Or when Paul thought 00:20:15.769 --> 00:20:17.690 that he had a strategy for where he was gonna 00:20:17.690 --> 00:20:20.549 go and who he was gonna reach and then not only 00:20:20.549 --> 00:20:24.349 did the Gentiles come to know Jesus But now he 00:20:24.349 --> 00:20:28.529 was going off to the women folk Not realizing 00:20:28.529 --> 00:20:32.309 how much they needed them to spread the gospel 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:36.940 And then imagining ourselves to somehow be worthy 00:20:36.940 --> 00:20:40.539 of the reward of heaven, only to have God show 00:20:40.539 --> 00:20:43.460 that it's only through Christ that any of us 00:20:43.460 --> 00:20:46.240 have been made worthy. Not just the ones that 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:49.400 we think belong there, but for all people in 00:20:49.400 --> 00:20:53.519 Christ. Then we realize that God is the one to 00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:58.420 transform our expectations and what we think 00:20:58.420 --> 00:21:03.220 we want. Not to something different. but to something 00:21:03.220 --> 00:21:07.400 better. Because our expectations of what we look 00:21:07.400 --> 00:21:13.660 for limits what God does. And that's why so often 00:21:13.660 --> 00:21:19.539 God is so happy to disappoint us. Because so 00:21:19.539 --> 00:21:22.180 often whenever we see that what we wanted does 00:21:22.180 --> 00:21:25.500 not pan out, then we realize that that's when 00:21:25.500 --> 00:21:28.039 God can start doing what he had in mind in the 00:21:28.039 --> 00:21:32.950 first place. because what God has in mind goes 00:21:32.950 --> 00:21:36.690 beyond anything that we could imagine. So the 00:21:36.690 --> 00:21:40.609 good part is that when I finally did break down 00:21:40.609 --> 00:21:45.390 and pause and go to my dad and say, dad, do you 00:21:45.390 --> 00:21:49.009 actually feel proud of me? I didn't become an 00:21:49.009 --> 00:21:51.390 engineer. I went to a different church than the 00:21:51.390 --> 00:21:54.809 one I grew up in and I don't have the mechanical 00:21:54.809 --> 00:21:59.509 mind that you do. He said, son, You follow Jesus, 00:21:59.890 --> 00:22:02.369 you take Him everywhere you go, and you're fully 00:22:02.369 --> 00:22:04.609 capable of whatever He puts in front of you. 00:22:05.009 --> 00:22:09.470 I couldn't be more proud. Because the thing that 00:22:09.470 --> 00:22:15.190 God is looking for is what He has in mind. So 00:22:15.190 --> 00:22:18.829 may we continue to pursue what the Father has 00:22:18.829 --> 00:22:22.089 in mind for us, not what we think He wanted for 00:22:22.089 --> 00:22:26.430 us, but rather what He has truly given us in 00:22:26.430 --> 00:22:30.720 Christ Jesus. by His salvation and by His grace. 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:32.460 Thanks be to God.