Destiny and Direction by Larry BR

what a joy to be with you today my name is Larry BR I'm one of the pastors here at Elevation Church but all my friends call me lb and uh my wife and I had the distinct privilege of being one of the original eight families 18 plus years ago to start Elevation Church with Eric my friend here and I saw Jay Raven around here and and when we started the church 18 years ago my wife and I moved into our house on a Friday night right when the church started went to the hospital the next Wednesday had our firstborn son here's a picture of how it started uh 18 uh years ago I think we got a picture to pop up there that's that's my my boy Corbin Charles BR and uh and I remember when we took him to eids children's ministry the very first time Miss Marie Neil was the first volunteer to hold him she still holding babies 18 years later at elevation Blakey thank you Marie Neil thank you to all the e kids Heather and Anthony and and all the people that have swn into my son and all of our kids I think the unsung heroes of this ministry are the people that show up every week that serve our children and raise them up and now this is my son this is now this is just u a couple weeks ago my man my boy yeah and so on the on the day he was born my wife wife Janet when she was pregnant we weren't pregnant she was pregnant she would listen to the same songs every day in the morning and there was a song by Chris Tomlin what was it honey it was How Great Is Our God any remember that old song she would listen to it every day and he would jump in her belly he would he would do like cartwheels and on the day he was born he was not jumping to that song my wife got real freaked out she calls me turns out the cord was wrapped around his neck and that was his way of telling us you need to come take me he was we he arrived emergency csection like an hour or so later my wife calls me I'm trying to hold it together and I'm freaking out like babe it's going to be okay and I got off the phone per first person I called was Pastor Stephen and I can't tell you what he told me but I do remember how he made me feel he made me feel like God was with me he's in it fighting for me and God is not against me thank you Pastor Stephen and Pastor Holly for 18 years Faithfully doing that in this house we love you we honor you hey let me give you the passage I want to preach from today it's it's two verses Mark 1: 16 and 17 this is the word that God has given me this is my assignment to deliver it to you today I've been praying that you would be good soil because this is good seed and when good seed meets good soil it produces a great harvest for his glory Mark chapter 1 it says as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen come follow me Jesus said and I will send you out to fish for people one more time let me pray father this is good seed Sons and Daughters of this house and watching online around the world are good soil take your good seed put it in the soil of their heart produce a harvest of righteousness for your glory amen amen let me give you the title then you can have a seat this is the title for today Destiny and Direction look at your favorite person around you give them a hug and say Destiny and direction thank you worship team this is an incredible story because many things are happening in this scene at the same time Peter Andrew Simon well Simon he's Simon Simon is the part of him that's parting on on Saturday night but Peter's the side of him that's praising on Sunday morning you know cuz all of you got a little bit of little bit of Simon in you then you also got some some Peter in you that's that guy he's out casting Nets I don't know what he did the night before but Jesus shows up on the scene an ordinary day in Peter's life that encounters a radical savior that's about to change the trajectory of his life he did not know that was going to happen when he set out on his day at the same time that's happening Jesus is also establishing his Earthly Ministry he's saying it is time to go he's prepared himself for the assignment of going to the cross and now he's going to pick the team to follow him and and he shows up and he's walking along and it says he sees Simon he sees him casting a net into the lake because another thing that's happening at that moment you have no idea what God's doing on your ow you have no idea the stories that are ending and beginning and God is doing something significant in our midst today oh if we would perceive in the spiritual realm what God is doing in this place and because Jesus is about to establish Kingdom culture say Kingdom culture Kingdom culture you see the culture of the world when someone would find a teacher or a rabbi that's what Jesus is about to become to these these disciples is he's about to become their teacher their Rabbi in that culture the way that a rabbi would be selected wouldn't be the rabbi would not come to you oh no he would never stoop so low as to step into your lonely Place rabbis would stand at a distance and people would come to him and beg oh please please could I be your student could I learn from you and they would say well show me how smart you are that's the cult of the world that is religion trying to prove that you should be picked some of you are exhausted because you have lived your whole life trying to prove that you should be picked and Jesus is about to establish Kingdom culture on Earth as it is in heaven that's what he's bringing into the Kingdom on Earth as it is in heaven because it's the upside down culture the first shall be the last and the last shall be the first and Jesus comes to them and he comes to you and he sees you he sees all of you he sees what you did he sees what you're doing right now and he sees what you're going to do in the future and he comes to you and he picks you that's the kind of God that we have that's the kind of Savior that we have he pushes through all of the stuff and he comes to you because he's establishing Kingdom culture and it's beautiful and he takes a criteria that none of us would have ever used to pick his first disciples none of us would have been tall enough good enough smart enough but Jesus says I am doing doing something new something different and I think that same spirit is happening in this place today now this guy named Simon who would later be called Peter he writes two books of the Bible so when Jesus shows up in mark one Simon would have been Peter would have been about mid 20s late 20s and he would write two books of the Bible First Peter and second Peter and in second Peter the very last words he writes some 40 years later after after this incident looking back on his life looking back on all of the high points and low points remember when when Jesus saw him casting a net into the lake and Jesus came to him remembering the denials remembering standing up on Pentecost remember reminding him of all the place where he got it right and got it wrong he looks back with wisdom and he pens the very last words of his second letter this is his last letter his last words and there's something about your last words there's something about the wisdom of your life looking back on it when you want to give somebody the wisdom to say if you only remember one thing this is it he writes this in 2 Peter 3:18 he says but grow in the grace in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Peter gives this profound wisdom looking back he says grow say grow grow some of us are working hard to grow our bank account but are we growing in the Grace we're growing our followers but are we growing our Faith that's what I want to talk about today and Peter says I want you to grow in the grace and knowledge you see when you have knowledge without Grace you're self-righteous I'm trying to prove how smart you are but Grace without knowledge is is a leaky bucket because you can't hold what God reveals to you and Peter speaks to two distinct offices Jesus is so much he's Indescribable but he speaks of two distinct roles that Jesus must occupying your life first is as Savior the second is at Lord because the Savior determines the destiny and the Lord sets the Direction that's what I want to talk about for a few minutes because as we begin a relationship with Jesus we got to grow in that relationship with Jesus it's called progressive revelation progressive revelation I've got my my 12-year-old daughter she will turn 13 next week Miss Carson here she's amazing she's my favorite child that I'm looking at right now we've got four whichever one is in front of me is my favorite kid so progressive revelation is this she says Daddy I love you she drove with me to church this morning she's like Daddy I love you I remember dropping her off in kindergarten her first day she's like Daddy I love you but now when she gets around some of her middle school friend she like Dad I'm like you better say you love me but I know that she'll graduate from high school one day and she'll say Dad I love you she'll get married one day and on the night before her wedding or as I get ready to walk her down the aisle she'll look at me and says Dad I love you then when she holds her firstborn child she will look at me and say Dad I love you she's used the same word her whole life but her understanding has changed over time that is progressive revelation in our relationship with Jesus some of us are stuck in a flannelgraph revelation of Jesus you have not upgraded your definition of Jesus in a very long time and that's what God is trying to do today he's trying to upgrade your definition because you're living in an outdated Revelation and Peter is saying I need you to grow in the grace of Jesus as your lord and savior if we fast forward to one of the pivot Points of Peter's journey and that's who we're really going to focus on today is this character Peter in Matthew chapter 16 it says this starting in verse 13 when Jesus came to the region of cesaria Philippi he asked his disciples who do people say the son of man is now this is about two years after Peter started Jesus on the journey he's been walking with him for a while this is not brand new he's been seeing the Miracles he's heard the sermons he's been there done all the stuff and now Jesus is flipping the script and he's asking him who do they say that I am question for you for those of you who claim Christ if your words are paint and your life is a canvas what portrait of Jesus are you painting to the world if I were to go into the environments around you and see the people closest to you what would they say about Jesus who is Jesus cuz some of you need to understand you are the only Jesus some people will ever see who do they say he did not give you that job for an income he gave you it for influence God put you in that place to exert his influence for his glory oh I love what Jesus is doing here because he's flipping the script he's pushing out the Casual Christianity and he's forcing the complacency to come to the surface because you cannot live at that place and love Jesus at the level that he's called you to and he flips the script and now he continues in the conversations and he flips and he says but what about you who do you say that I am I love this question who do you say that I am all of humanity hinges on this one question all of scripture is pointing to one person and his name is Jesus in the Old Testament Jesus Is concealed and in the New Testament Jesus is revealed this is all about Jesus and the gospel writers as they pen the story of Jesus going through Humanity it's what created the Casual crowd to come to Christ because they're asking are these Miracles really happening but then the critics and the Skeptics are say what did he say but then the Pharisees and the teachers of the laws are all saying who does he think he is then even Herod King Herod and pilate Kings and people in authority would say are you a king all of creation has been asking the question who is Jesus and it's the question that Jesus brings his disciples to In This Moment and he asks him very pointedly who do you say that I am and I think my assignment today is to ask everybody under the sound of my voice the most important question you could ever ask because your destiny is determined by a decision and the decision is who is Jesus it's not about being a good person it's not about trying harder it's not about religious attendance it's not about scripture reading it is about who is Jesus who is your Jesus he's the Alpha and the Omega he's the author and perfector of our faith he is the bright and Morning Star he is the Cornerstone he is the great high priest he is the head of the church he is the Holy One he is The Great I Am he is Jehovah he is Emmanuel he is Our Redeemer our prophet and our savior and in this moment in verse 17 here is or in verse 16 Simon Peter answered you are the Messiah the Son of the Living God Jesus replied blessed are you Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by my Father in Heaven you are the Messiah it means savior Redeemer and what Jesus came to save you from is not your bad decisions a bad marriage or a bad job he came to save you from your sins that's why he had to Die to Save You of your sins to redeem you from it oh but some of us come to church because we feel bad and we follow Jesus for two years and I got the Bible but I've never seen him as the Messiah and it's beautiful for the scripture says this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but my father what he's saying is the grace you see you and I are dead dead in our sin we're born dead the scriptural the definition that theologians have agreed to throughout time is dead means you're dead dead it means you're so dead you cannot make a live Choice it means that you don't come to God because it's a good idea or it's a cool emotional thing that somebody got stirred up inside of you no what it means is that right now the grace of God is going forward and some of you are leaning in because when I picture this scene because this is the scene where Jesus became the Messiah of Peter he had been walking with him for two years but he had never been forgiven of his sins I think until that moment because in that moment the grace of God the spirit of God made him go you're the Messiah he was a revelation it says this it says this in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 it says for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith this is not from yourselves it is a gift of God so the grace of God goes forth and the grace is what enables you to consider him the grace is what enables you to look at him now Faith is your response to the grace that you just received some of you have been coming to church for a very long time but you have resisted the grace standing on the outside because you feel like I'm too dirty I've done too much I need to clean myself up before I come to God you'll come to Elevation every week you'll sit in the same seat but you have not trusted in him as your lord and savior you've stood at a distance Peter traveled with Jesus for two years but this is the moment that his Destiny was secured in the hands of his savior because he said you are the Messiah and I believe the grace of God is leaning into your heart right now and for some of you it is beating out of your chest and God is saying will you respond to the grace that is going forth it is by grace through faith faith is your response will you receive it you can't save yourself but will you receive the grace and normally we would give an invitation for salvation at the end of The Experience I'm not going to wait till then because I want it to do it right now and I'm not going to bring the band up there's going to be no pad behind this and what I'm going to do in just a second at all of our locations I'm going to ask all of you who need to begin a relationship with Jesus to stand to your feet I'm in just a second and some you're like oh my gosh you're going to make me stand to my feet yes he died a very public death for you he did he died a very public death and the reason I want some of you to stand is because you're sitting down in sin and I need you to remember that the next time the voice of the enemy tries to get you to sit in that sin you can stand and say no I have been redeemed I have been forgiven my Jehovah Gyra my Jehovah ni Jehovah sh he's changed me he's redeemed me this is not emotionalism this is not me being a good motivational speaker I'm not that good but the grace of God is that good and so to all of our locations and online this is for you too and if you need to stand to place your faith in Jesus I'm going to ask you with the count of three without hesitation the boldly stand I know all eyes open normally we do every head bowed every nope eyes open eyes wide open clear conscience making a commitment to follow Jesus no longer doing it in the shadows standing out in the bright lights of Christ they're already standing here at Valentine if you need to place your faith in Jesus stand to your feet one two three stand up oh my soul hey hey stand to your feet all of our location sumon at Lake Norman summon in Raleigh right now stand to your feet stand to your feet come on stay standing stay standing stay standing in all of our locations I don't know what it looks like other where we're right here so many are standing hey stay standing stay standing here's what we're going to do we're going to say a prayer together stay standing Saints stay standing we're going to say a prayer together out loud there's nothing magical about these words but the Bible says when you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead you will be saved and if you have placed your faith in Jesus and you're around these people oh be praying for them be praying with me but there are a couple people you haven't stood yet and what I want to tell you standing doesn't save you Jesus saves you but standing is our response to take a stand so if you need to still stand stand to your feet right now church family let's say this prayer out loud Eyes Wide Open clear conscience knowing that we are following Jesus as our savior pray this with me I believe that Jesus Christ I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is the Son of God who died on the cross died on the cross and Rose from the grave to forgive me of my sins forgive me of my I give you my life I give you my life I give you my sin I give you my I give you my shame my sh forgive me forgive me and I'll spend my life I'll spend my life following you following you now give God the biggest praise you can give him in this place hey hey if you're around those people hug them high five them let them know that they're not alone we're proud of you come on give him a heart don't let him be alone all of our locations church family surround them love on him do it do it do [Applause] it ain't that beautiful an't that beautiful oh you can sit back down but you can stand up anytime you need to is God not good oh My Soul Your Destiny your destiny is connected to a decision and the decision is who is Jesus some he's a fairy tale a figment of their imagination or he's a fictional character no for some of you he just became your Messiah your savior that's exactly what Peter said to do grow in the grace as Jesus Our Savior and Lord but here's the reality it's easier to trust Jesus with my destiny than my direction it is so much easier to say one day byy and by Jesus I'll trust you with that but trust you with the here and now that's so much harder why is it hard to trust Jesus with the direction of Our Lives you see saved is used in multiple ways I was saved meaning there was a moment that Jesus became your you are the Messiah that moment for some of you that moment just happened June 30th side note today is my birthday the best birthday present I could ever have is to be with my church family and so in scripture thank you in scripture you were saved you will be saved meaning you will see him face to face and he will say either well done good and faithful servant or depart from me for I never knew you you see religious activity does not matter in that moment that's why you got to have this moment that the revelation of God the grace is you're the Messiah and the faith is I choose to receive it I was saved I will be saved being made like him one day when we see him but between these two I'm being saved the sanctification this is trusting Jesus with the direction of Our Lives why is it so hard to trust Jesus with the direction and I want to show you from Peter's life why he struggled with this fund Al Faith issue because to say Jesus I One Day by and by but I got my plan I got my goal I got my thing now would you bless my thing in jesus' name if I'm honest I live in that place anybody else would you confess with me that you why do we struggle with that and I'm going to go to a story in Peter's Journey that I think so poignantly paints a picture of the tension that we face of why is it hard to trust Jesus with the direction of Our Lives in Mark chapter 6 it says the apostles gathered around Jesus and reported them all they had done and taught let me give you a little context up to to Mark chapter 6 Jesus had been performing Miracles he'd been casting out demons he had been preaching the word of God and then he eventually he gets to the point that he's prepping his disciples for when he would leave because he says after I go it must continue on so those of you the ones that I picked that I revealed myself to you it is going to be your assignment to do what I have been doing so he sends them out like no Arc principle 2 by two and they're going to go cast out demons they're going to preach uh and they're going they're going to perform Miracles and now they come back to Jesus like goog you know googly little school kids like Jesus look what we did we talked to Demons I'm and I here's the reality of what I was reading that scripture this morning I saw some of us living beneath the authority Jesus gave us why are you living underneath that oppressive Spirit when God give you authority over it stop it stop it start standing in the authority he has given you I'm not talking about walking into work slapping your boss in the forehead say get out demon I'm not saying dumb stuff but I am saying God will give you the strength to endure up under it quit wilting underneath it stand in the authority he's given you it's insulting when you act like that stop it so they go out and then they come back to Jesus and now they're like reporting to him Jesus it was amazing we cast out demons it was incredible and then verse 31 then because so so many people were coming and going they did not even get a chance to eat they were hungry he said to them come by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest so they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place now let me pause there Jesus says you're tired you're hungry you're exhausted come on let's go get some rest a quiet place by ourselves what picture are you seeing in your head like we're goingon to get on a boat this is going to be amazing we're going to go to a BNB get some R&R I'm going to get a Manny Petty I'm going to put my feet up in a hammock this is going to be freaking amazing I I need some rest what image of rest comes to mind some mom or dad you've been working all week in a job you don't even like and you're like if I can just get to Friday night I'm going to get some rest and you got this picture of rest in your head of what you think it's going to be but then you come home the kids are running around the house naked stuff is burning on the stove the dogs are barking it is complete chaos do any of you look at that and go like no because all of us have an image of what we're expecting but what do we do when what we picture doesn't line up with what we see because the story continues with the disciples here he says but many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them this is the feeding of the 5,000 when Jesus landed and saw such a large crowd he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a Shepherd he began to teach them many things Jesus had compassion for them what did the disciples feel for the crowds contempt frustration are you freaking kidding me Jesus question for you Jesus says let's go to a quiet place buy ourselves to a solid AR place and get some rest they get across the lake does this line up with anybody's picture of what you thought rest would be no but what do you do when it doesn't line up with what you thought it would be so question was Jesus lying to them like it was Jes like who doing them like I just need to get in the boat so I'll lie to you just to get you here no Jesus is incapable of lying he is truth he is truth personified he by defin is truth he is the truth did Jesus just not was waiting for them on the other side of the lake no he's omnicient he's all knowing so he knew what was on the other side of the lake and he did not lie to the disciples so how do you dis explain the discrepancy they had a different definition of rest and here's where it's so hard to trust Jesus with the direction because when you have a different definition you won't trust the direction wow you see when Jesus says let's go to a solitary Place buy ourselves to get some rest it's the same word that is used of Jesus in Mark chapter 1 it says he was baptized and then he was driven by the spirit Into the Wilderness you see what you and I call Wilderness God calls rest Jesus was taken to the Wilderness because the Wilderness is the place that you experience Grace cuz the only way you experience Grace is when you get to the end of yourself and you see the beginning of God oh Jesus is taking him to the Wilderness not to punish them but to speak to them because the Wilderness is the place that gives you the grace that you start with I can't but you can Grace is what gives you the ability to look at a situation you want to run from and you say I won't but God nevertheless your will be done Grace is what gives you the capacity to say I'm not but you are are they had a different definition Pastor Tim when you you lead so much you lead so well in our church leads our next gen team's phenomenal leader as a leader don't settle for common language push for Unity of definition because I was doing marital counseling couple years ago with a young couple just been married like six or eight months and they both come in and their arms crossed just not like it they love each other they just don't like each each other and they said we just don't communicate very well and I asked the wife I said how do you define communication she goes I think about him all day long when he's at work and I wonder what he's doing and how he's feeling and how he's experiencing all of those things and I cannot wait till the moment he walks in the door and I just want him to share the deepest darkest parts of his Stars don't spare any detail give me everything that happened in your day and I asked him how was your day and all he said is fine she had a definition of communication I asked him toine communication he said we just need to have more sex you'll never have Unity when you got different definitions you might have a common word but you don't have a common definition I just gave somebody marital counseling in here praise the Lord won't God do it but you you won't trust God with the direction when it doesn't line up with your definition and that's where the disciples are at and it's this amazing journey of some of you that you're sitting in a situation you didn't think it would look like this you I wanted to get married and this isn't what I picture I wanted so much to get out of high school to be my own person but now I got the dysfunction and this isn't what I thought it was going to be and what happens is when it doesn't line up according to your definition you withhold and you don't trust God with a direction anymore not because you don't love God you just don't want to be disappointed anymore that's what I saw for some of you holding on to this outdated definition maybe just maybe Holy Spirit would you upgrade somebody's definition in here a good marriage Define it sacrificial rather than receiving what what would be an upgraded defin take whatever area you're frustrated in right now God upgrade their definition let them see it differently let them see it as you see it not as we've defined it but let us see as you see it and now the disciples have been watching Jesus preach for about 9 hours 9 hours it started about 9 in the morning now Peter's going to come to him at 6:00 in the evening they've been sitting back they're like oh my gosh good someone LJ can you please play the Hammond B3 and close this thing up can we shut this thing down because the disciples remember they're hungry they're tired they're exhausted and they're looking at the whole scene and I think they're resenting everything that's going down Jesus had compassion they did not so finally they all nudged Peter like you're the obnoxious one go say something to him but verse 35 it says by this time it was late in the day so the disciples came to him this is a remote place they said and it's already very late send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countrysides and Villages and buy themselves something to eat but he answered them you give them something to eat is this the most interesting scene oh because because here's the reality the Wilderness means desolate places but also desolate people Jesus brought them to the Wilderness to see the Wilderness and their Wilderness was the people without a Shepherd that's why he had compassion on them and they come to Jesus hey Jesus is late in today can you send him away to give him something to eat Jesus said I've been feeding him for five hours I've been feeding him for nine hours I've been feeding him since I stepped off the boat I've been feeding them the bread of life the word of God you just haven't seen it cuz you were so starving in the carnal flesh you could not see what I was doing in the spirit here's the reality the reason you couldn't see me feeding them is because you were feeding yourself why is it so hard to trust God with a direction because you're feeding the wrong things and Jesus said you give them something to eat he like we don't have anything and he goes you're right because you've been feeding your doubt and your insecurity you've been feeding all of your carnal stuff since we got here you're right you don't have anything for them to eat but I'm good and I'm great and I'm going to feed the people and I'm going to use your frustrated heart to serve them so take the bread and break it and Jesus fed the people but the miracle was not for the 5,000 it was for the disciples and they did not see it because they had the wrong definition of what rest looked like you see the kingdom culture the upside down culture that Jesus is establishing is those who refresh others will they themselves be refreshed one person thank you and then if you skip a couple verses Jesus finishes the miracle he puts the disciples on the boat and he sends him back across the lake in chapter 6 verse 51 it says this Jesus he goes up to the Mountaintop he's up there praying and they're they're they're rowing back across the lake to where the the journey began it's taking them five times as long and they're only going gone half as far it speaks to them doing it in their own flesh and in their own frustration into their own flesh in verse 51 it says this says then he climbed into the butt with them the wind died down they were completely amazed you've never heard this verse before 52 for they had not understood about the loaves their hearts were hardened what did the conversation sound like on the boat after they fed the 5,000 oh look at Jesus up there on the mountain thinks he's better than us you you're just going to sit up there and now we got to roll back oh now here you come walking across the water finally you showed up Jesus we've been doing this all day haven't you seen us we're still hungry we're still tired and they were offended the reason some of you cannot feed someone around you has been feeding your own offense and here's the thing because Jesus immediately after he said I'm the Messiah he began to talk about I must go to the cross and die and then he gave them these these marching orders if anyone would come after me he must pick up a cross daily deny himself and follow me it's a cheat code because to follow the direction can only happen with a denial and and now one of the pivot Points in Peter's Journey where all this thing comes full circle here you see in Luke chapter 22 this is we fast forward in the timeline of our savior we're going to go to uh we're going to go to the the Last Supper this is the Thursday night meal it's about 6: p.m. Jesus would hang on a cross 12 hours later is when he would be sentenced and then he would be crucified and at this last supper he looks at at Peter he says this in verse 31 he says Simon Simon anytime you see a name repeated in scripture it's a Hebrew ter term of intimacy when you read a double name read it as a whisper what it means that God is close Moses Moses Simon Simon he doesn't call him Peter it's very important you see that he called him Simon Simon Simon Satan is asked to sift you as wheat and if that me that's me my eyes get really wide like what and call it for me by name yeah because he sees how deadly you can be when you're when you're following the direction he sees the the the weapon you can become in the hands of a master but when you don't follow the direction it's the people that you're leading that get punished and he says to him Satan's asked you but I have prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail oh if I'm if I just stop there Jesus is praying for me by name I'm good I'm covered I pray that your faith would not fail but then he said to him and when you turn back strengthen your brothers but he replied Lord I'm ready to go to prison and to death Jesus answered I tell you Peter before the rooster crows today you will deny three times that you know me here's the truth of what I want to tell you today your destiny is connected to decision but the direction is is directed by the daily denials of self if anyone would come after me pick up his cross daily and follow me this is this is what Jesus is saying to him he says you're going to deny me three times Peter you're going to deny me and what happens is you're going to want to walk away from me but when you turn back it means when you repent and come back the right direction strengthen your brothers you know what the word strengthen means there means to feed connect the dots earlier to feeding of the 5,000 Peter was only feeding himself which he didn't see how he could feed the people and Jesus is trying to connect some Dots here the only way that you're going to be able to feed somebody else is If you deny yourself here's the reality the direction of your life is daily it is multiple times every day you're going to come to these Crossroads and the direction will be determined by do I deny Jesus or do I deny myself that's where life comes down to the dire of your life is connected to the denial let me ask at the opposite side what are you feeding that God told you to starve if you want something to die starve it starve it holy spirit make it plain in this house today some of you are feeding self-deprecation and that's what's going to grow some of you are feeding greed and envy you're feeding insecurity you're feeding the assuming the worst of others you're feeding those lustful thoughts you're feeding gossip and slander and what God is trying to tell you is the direction of your life is connected to the denial in your life if you want something to die starve it I want to make it plain what is the thing that God told you to starve deny that thing can I be really honest I am addicted to my opinion I said it I am I am so addicted to my opinion like I if I almost feel like sometimes if I don't share my opinion I get like a visceral response like I'm going to throw up like no one has ever been one to the gospel by my opinion no one has ever been redeemed because of my opinion yet I can become so addicted to my opinion I'm going to start in opinion a Anonymous Club anybody else want to join my opinion Club thank you for a few don't leave me up here by myself what would it look like if you went on a 21-day opinion fast you want that thing to die starve it I I don't want it to be an ethereal deny yourself I want it to be very practical what are you feeding and God said you need to starve that thing write it down in your phone write it down in that piece of paper that pen you're going to steal anyway just I'm serious here's what God told me to tell some of you an unnamed enemy will never be defeated you only hide your friends and you expose your enemies and what happens is when you do not expose that thing you make it a friend God will not deliver you from your friends he will deliver you from your enemies what do you need to starve now we fast forward Jesus goes to the Cross Peter denies Jesus three times just like he said and in one of the Gospels it says that Peter saw Jesus and he wept bitterly because his Direction he felt like had been so derailed by his denial of Jesus he went back to where it all began he went back to being a fisherman and I love the fact that our savior said I cannot leave you like that oh he sees you and the beauty of the grace of God as it comes to you and it calls you by name and as Jesus saw Peter out fishing he called to him here's the image I need you to see as you're going your direction and you're denying Jesus because you're not denying yourself the grace of God is still calling your name it's still calling your name and when it said Peter Simon Simon when you have turned back means to repent Jesus I've been feeding that thing forgive me I've been going my own Direction forgive me and then you come back and strengthen your brothers in John 21 we have this intimate story of Jesus coming to Peter and he calls him in and he has a meal waiting for him on the shore oh just this beautiful picture of the grace of God and he comes to him in verse 15 it says and when they had finished e eating Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of John do you love me more than these yes Lord you know that I love you Jesus said feed my Lambs Jesus would ask him three times one for each of the denials but I think what's even better there is Peter Peter responds three times with the word Lord you see I showed you the moment where Jesus became the Savior this is the moment where Jesus became the Lord because the Lord determines the direction and he asks Peter Peter do you love me and he goes you know that I love you there's three different words to describe love and Jesus asked do you Agape me do you love me like your Lord Peter responds back with you know that I love you fileo I love you like a brother you see Jesus is so gracious he's correcting his definition as he asked him second time I didn't ask you if you love me like a brother I said do you love me like your lord feed my sheep there's something so much deeper going on here it's significant that he gives him three times the opportunity to respond Lord and then again Jesus said Simon do you love me he answered yes Lord you know that I love you take care of my sheep the third time he said to him Simon son of John do you love me Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time do you love me he said Lord you know all things you know that I love you Jesus said feed my sheep this would not have been the first time that Peter would have heard you feed them remember back to the feeding of the 5,000 you give him something to eat I I don't have anything you're right you don't have anything because you've been feeding yourself but now you went to the Wilderness with your own despair you went to the Wilderness because of your own decisions you went to the Wilderness because you went back to old things and you denied me but I love you so much I came to the Wilderness to bring you out of it that's how good our God is and three times he asked him do you love me do you you love me here's how I picture the whole scene the second time and the third time Peter's face is down because you can't he can't even look himself in the eyes let alone look Jesus in the face I picture Jesus reaching in and grabbing Peter by the chin at that table and lifting his chin and he looks Grace in the face do you love me feed my sheep you didn't have anything to feed him the first time now what you just ate the grace that's what you're going to go feed that's why I called you out Peter three times do you love me do you love me now feed my sheep used him the word Lord three times and then Verse 18 He says very truly I tell you when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted you see maturity is not a product of age it's a byproduct of Direction some of you are very old and you are so immature into Faith because you have gone your own Direction you went where you wanted to go you picked out your outfit and you did what you wanted and she says I will not love you any less but you will not be aware of how much I love you when you live like that and you can't feed anybody else when you've been feeding yourself and the reason that you're putting on that new outfit is you're trying to cover that old part of you that only I can only I can cover that you went where you wanted but here's the moment that Jesus became the Lord of Peter's life but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will lead you or someone else will dress you and lead you to where you do not want to go Lord I don't know if I want to go that direction you'll either deny Jesus or you'll deny yourself and the beauty of our God is he he'll bring you back to that point again and again and again and again and someone else will address you lead you do not want to go Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God and then he said follow me I thought Jesus only asked Peter once to follow him follow me I'll make you Fishers of Men the first time was the learn how to fish the second time was to learn how to feed and when Jesus becomes the Lord of your life you start be more concerned with feeding others than feeding yourself stand your feet at all of our locations I'm going to pray for you in just a second and as I was praying for everybody in our church I I kept getting this image of people feeling like but but lb you don't know I got these big decisions in life I got these big decisions I need to make here's what I have looking back as as an old man the direction of your life is controlled more by the small daily denials than the big decisions it always is because here's the image I want to give you when my kids were young I would take them to the beach and the waves would come in at an angle and so every time they would go out and surf they would just get pushed out just a little bit and they go out Surf and they just get pushed upshore just a little bit and they go out and surf again they just just little little little little little directional shifts and they just get pushed upshore upshore and 10 minutes later their way over here and they wonder how did I get here no one of those was a big decision it was small self-denials that were not chosen but the grace of God calls your voice and he says Peter when you come back strengthen your brothers making Jesus the savior of your life is a one-time decision he holds you in his hand no man can take you from it if you can't save yourself you can't unsave yourself but the decision for him to be Lord is a daily many times a day daily decision will I deny him or will I deny me but but I want to challenge you at a very practical level what's the thing you've been feeding that God said I need you to starve deny that thing as you do that that will be the grace that you will feed the others father I thank you that your word is true it's strong it's right it's powerful it's effective I pray for everyone at the sound of my voice who made the decision today that trust Jesus as their savior hallelujah and amen their calling is an election sure and you hold them in their hands nobody can take you from it but the decision to let you be Lord Of Our Lives is a many time a day decision make it plain in our lives show us one area that we have been feeding that you have called us to starve give us the grace in that space to deny that thing rather than to deny you and every time we deny ourselves we receive more of your grace not to be kept to ourselves but to be given out to the world father we love you we honor you we praise you we thank you and all God's people said amen hey thank you for watching the Elevation Church YouTube I want you to subscribe that way you can know when we go live and post new content make sure leave me a comment let me know what spoke to you today where you're watching from and what we can pray for you about and if you'd like to support the ministry financially you can click the give button now and help us continue reaching people around the world for Jesus Christ thanks again I'll see you next time

what a joy to be with you today my name is Larry BR I&#39;m one of the pastors here at Elevation Church but all my friends call me lb and uh my wife and I had the distinct privilege of being one of the original eight families 18 plus years ago to start Elevation Church with Eric my friend here and I saw Jay Raven around here and and when we started the church 18 years ago my wife and I moved into our house on a Friday night right when the church started went to the hospital the next Wednesday had our firstborn son here&#39;s a picture of how it started uh 18 uh years ago I think we got a picture to pop up there that&#39;s that&#39;s my my boy Corbin Charles BR and uh and I remember when we took him to eids children&#39;s ministry the very first time Miss Marie Neil was the first volunteer to hold him she still holding babies 18 years later at elevation Blakey thank you Marie Neil thank you to all the e kids Heather and Anthony and and all the people that have swn into my son and all of our kids I think the unsung heroes of this ministry are the people that show up every week that serve our children and raise them up and now this is my son this is now this is just u a couple weeks ago my man my boy yeah and so on the on the day he was born my wife wife Janet when she was pregnant we weren&#39;t pregnant she was pregnant she would listen to the same songs every day in the morning and there was a song by Chris Tomlin what was it honey it was How Great Is Our God any remember that old song she would listen to it every day and he would jump in her belly he would he would do like cartwheels and on the day he was born he was not jumping to that song my wife got real freaked out she calls me turns out the cord was wrapped around his neck and that was his way of telling us you need to come take me he was we he arrived emergency csection like an hour or so later my wife calls me I&#39;m trying to hold it together and I&#39;m freaking out like babe it&#39;s going to be okay and I got off the phone per first person I called was Pastor Stephen and I can&#39;t tell you what he told me but I do remember how he made me feel he made me feel like God was with me he&#39;s in it fighting for me and God is not against me thank you Pastor Stephen and Pastor Holly for 18 years Faithfully doing that in this house we love you we honor you hey let me give you the passage I want to preach from today it&#39;s it&#39;s two verses Mark 1: 16 and 17 this is the word that God has given me this is my assignment to deliver it to you today I&#39;ve been praying that you would be good soil because this is good seed and when good seed meets good soil it produces a great harvest for his glory Mark chapter 1 it says as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen come follow me Jesus said and I will send you out to fish for people one more time let me pray father this is good seed Sons and Daughters of this house and watching online around the world are good soil take your good seed put it in the soil of their heart produce a harvest of righteousness for your glory amen amen let me give you the title then you can have a seat this is the title for today Destiny and Direction look at your favorite person around you give them a hug and say Destiny and direction thank you worship team this is an incredible story because many things are happening in this scene at the same time Peter Andrew Simon well Simon he&#39;s Simon Simon is the part of him that&#39;s parting on on Saturday night but Peter&#39;s the side of him that&#39;s praising on Sunday morning you know cuz all of you got a little bit of little bit of Simon in you then you also got some some Peter in you that&#39;s that guy he&#39;s out casting Nets I don&#39;t know what he did the night before but Jesus shows up on the scene an ordinary day in Peter&#39;s life that encounters a radical savior that&#39;s about to change the trajectory of his life he did not know that was going to happen when he set out on his day at the same time that&#39;s happening Jesus is also establishing his Earthly Ministry he&#39;s saying it is time to go he&#39;s prepared himself for the assignment of going to the cross and now he&#39;s going to pick the team to follow him and and he shows up and he&#39;s walking along and it says he sees Simon he sees him casting a net into the lake because another thing that&#39;s happening at that moment you have no idea what God&#39;s doing on your ow you have no idea the stories that are ending and beginning and God is doing something significant in our midst today oh if we would perceive in the spiritual realm what God is doing in this place and because Jesus is about to establish Kingdom culture say Kingdom culture Kingdom culture you see the culture of the world when someone would find a teacher or a rabbi that&#39;s what Jesus is about to become to these these disciples is he&#39;s about to become their teacher their Rabbi in that culture the way that a rabbi would be selected wouldn&#39;t be the rabbi would not come to you oh no he would never stoop so low as to step into your lonely Place rabbis would stand at a distance and people would come to him and beg oh please please could I be your student could I learn from you and they would say well show me how smart you are that&#39;s the cult of the world that is religion trying to prove that you should be picked some of you are exhausted because you have lived your whole life trying to prove that you should be picked and Jesus is about to establish Kingdom culture on Earth as it is in heaven that&#39;s what he&#39;s bringing into the Kingdom on Earth as it is in heaven because it&#39;s the upside down culture the first shall be the last and the last shall be the first and Jesus comes to them and he comes to you and he sees you he sees all of you he sees what you did he sees what you&#39;re doing right now and he sees what you&#39;re going to do in the future and he comes to you and he picks you that&#39;s the kind of God that we have that&#39;s the kind of Savior that we have he pushes through all of the stuff and he comes to you because he&#39;s establishing Kingdom culture and it&#39;s beautiful and he takes a criteria that none of us would have ever used to pick his first disciples none of us would have been tall enough good enough smart enough but Jesus says I am doing doing something new something different and I think that same spirit is happening in this place today now this guy named Simon who would later be called Peter he writes two books of the Bible so when Jesus shows up in mark one Simon would have been Peter would have been about mid 20s late 20s and he would write two books of the Bible First Peter and second Peter and in second Peter the very last words he writes some 40 years later after after this incident looking back on his life looking back on all of the high points and low points remember when when Jesus saw him casting a net into the lake and Jesus came to him remembering the denials remembering standing up on Pentecost remember reminding him of all the place where he got it right and got it wrong he looks back with wisdom and he pens the very last words of his second letter this is his last letter his last words and there&#39;s something about your last words there&#39;s something about the wisdom of your life looking back on it when you want to give somebody the wisdom to say if you only remember one thing this is it he writes this in 2 Peter 3:18 he says but grow in the grace in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Peter gives this profound wisdom looking back he says grow say grow grow some of us are working hard to grow our bank account but are we growing in the Grace we&#39;re growing our followers but are we growing our Faith that&#39;s what I want to talk about today and Peter says I want you to grow in the grace and knowledge you see when you have knowledge without Grace you&#39;re self-righteous I&#39;m trying to prove how smart you are but Grace without knowledge is is a leaky bucket because you can&#39;t hold what God reveals to you and Peter speaks to two distinct offices Jesus is so much he&#39;s Indescribable but he speaks of two distinct roles that Jesus must occupying your life first is as Savior the second is at Lord because the Savior determines the destiny and the Lord sets the Direction that&#39;s what I want to talk about for a few minutes because as we begin a relationship with Jesus we got to grow in that relationship with Jesus it&#39;s called progressive revelation progressive revelation I&#39;ve got my my 12-year-old daughter she will turn 13 next week Miss Carson here she&#39;s amazing she&#39;s my favorite child that I&#39;m looking at right now we&#39;ve got four whichever one is in front of me is my favorite kid so progressive revelation is this she says Daddy I love you she drove with me to church this morning she&#39;s like Daddy I love you I remember dropping her off in kindergarten her first day she&#39;s like Daddy I love you but now when she gets around some of her middle school friend she like Dad I&#39;m like you better say you love me but I know that she&#39;ll graduate from high school one day and she&#39;ll say Dad I love you she&#39;ll get married one day and on the night before her wedding or as I get ready to walk her down the aisle she&#39;ll look at me and says Dad I love you then when she holds her firstborn child she will look at me and say Dad I love you she&#39;s used the same word her whole life but her understanding has changed over time that is progressive revelation in our relationship with Jesus some of us are stuck in a flannelgraph revelation of Jesus you have not upgraded your definition of Jesus in a very long time and that&#39;s what God is trying to do today he&#39;s trying to upgrade your definition because you&#39;re living in an outdated Revelation and Peter is saying I need you to grow in the grace of Jesus as your lord and savior if we fast forward to one of the pivot Points of Peter&#39;s journey and that&#39;s who we&#39;re really going to focus on today is this character Peter in Matthew chapter 16 it says this starting in verse 13 when Jesus came to the region of cesaria Philippi he asked his disciples who do people say the son of man is now this is about two years after Peter started Jesus on the journey he&#39;s been walking with him for a while this is not brand new he&#39;s been seeing the Miracles he&#39;s heard the sermons he&#39;s been there done all the stuff and now Jesus is flipping the script and he&#39;s asking him who do they say that I am question for you for those of you who claim Christ if your words are paint and your life is a canvas what portrait of Jesus are you painting to the world if I were to go into the environments around you and see the people closest to you what would they say about Jesus who is Jesus cuz some of you need to understand you are the only Jesus some people will ever see who do they say he did not give you that job for an income he gave you it for influence God put you in that place to exert his influence for his glory oh I love what Jesus is doing here because he&#39;s flipping the script he&#39;s pushing out the Casual Christianity and he&#39;s forcing the complacency to come to the surface because you cannot live at that place and love Jesus at the level that he&#39;s called you to and he flips the script and now he continues in the conversations and he flips and he says but what about you who do you say that I am I love this question who do you say that I am all of humanity hinges on this one question all of scripture is pointing to one person and his name is Jesus in the Old Testament Jesus Is concealed and in the New Testament Jesus is revealed this is all about Jesus and the gospel writers as they pen the story of Jesus going through Humanity it&#39;s what created the Casual crowd to come to Christ because they&#39;re asking are these Miracles really happening but then the critics and the Skeptics are say what did he say but then the Pharisees and the teachers of the laws are all saying who does he think he is then even Herod King Herod and pilate Kings and people in authority would say are you a king all of creation has been asking the question who is Jesus and it&#39;s the question that Jesus brings his disciples to In This Moment and he asks him very pointedly who do you say that I am and I think my assignment today is to ask everybody under the sound of my voice the most important question you could ever ask because your destiny is determined by a decision and the decision is who is Jesus it&#39;s not about being a good person it&#39;s not about trying harder it&#39;s not about religious attendance it&#39;s not about scripture reading it is about who is Jesus who is your Jesus he&#39;s the Alpha and the Omega he&#39;s the author and perfector of our faith he is the bright and Morning Star he is the Cornerstone he is the great high priest he is the head of the church he is the Holy One he is The Great I Am he is Jehovah he is Emmanuel he is Our Redeemer our prophet and our savior and in this moment in verse 17 here is or in verse 16 Simon Peter answered you are the Messiah the Son of the Living God Jesus replied blessed are you Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by my Father in Heaven you are the Messiah it means savior Redeemer and what Jesus came to save you from is not your bad decisions a bad marriage or a bad job he came to save you from your sins that&#39;s why he had to Die to Save You of your sins to redeem you from it oh but some of us come to church because we feel bad and we follow Jesus for two years and I got the Bible but I&#39;ve never seen him as the Messiah and it&#39;s beautiful for the scripture says this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but my father what he&#39;s saying is the grace you see you and I are dead dead in our sin we&#39;re born dead the scriptural the definition that theologians have agreed to throughout time is dead means you&#39;re dead dead it means you&#39;re so dead you cannot make a live Choice it means that you don&#39;t come to God because it&#39;s a good idea or it&#39;s a cool emotional thing that somebody got stirred up inside of you no what it means is that right now the grace of God is going forward and some of you are leaning in because when I picture this scene because this is the scene where Jesus became the Messiah of Peter he had been walking with him for two years but he had never been forgiven of his sins I think until that moment because in that moment the grace of God the spirit of God made him go you&#39;re the Messiah he was a revelation it says this it says this in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 it says for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith this is not from yourselves it is a gift of God so the grace of God goes forth and the grace is what enables you to consider him the grace is what enables you to look at him now Faith is your response to the grace that you just received some of you have been coming to church for a very long time but you have resisted the grace standing on the outside because you feel like I&#39;m too dirty I&#39;ve done too much I need to clean myself up before I come to God you&#39;ll come to Elevation every week you&#39;ll sit in the same seat but you have not trusted in him as your lord and savior you&#39;ve stood at a distance Peter traveled with Jesus for two years but this is the moment that his Destiny was secured in the hands of his savior because he said you are the Messiah and I believe the grace of God is leaning into your heart right now and for some of you it is beating out of your chest and God is saying will you respond to the grace that is going forth it is by grace through faith faith is your response will you receive it you can&#39;t save yourself but will you receive the grace and normally we would give an invitation for salvation at the end of The Experience I&#39;m not going to wait till then because I want it to do it right now and I&#39;m not going to bring the band up there&#39;s going to be no pad behind this and what I&#39;m going to do in just a second at all of our locations I&#39;m going to ask all of you who need to begin a relationship with Jesus to stand to your feet I&#39;m in just a second and some you&#39;re like oh my gosh you&#39;re going to make me stand to my feet yes he died a very public death for you he did he died a very public death and the reason I want some of you to stand is because you&#39;re sitting down in sin and I need you to remember that the next time the voice of the enemy tries to get you to sit in that sin you can stand and say no I have been redeemed I have been forgiven my Jehovah Gyra my Jehovah ni Jehovah sh he&#39;s changed me he&#39;s redeemed me this is not emotionalism this is not me being a good motivational speaker I&#39;m not that good but the grace of God is that good and so to all of our locations and online this is for you too and if you need to stand to place your faith in Jesus I&#39;m going to ask you with the count of three without hesitation the boldly stand I know all eyes open normally we do every head bowed every nope eyes open eyes wide open clear conscience making a commitment to follow Jesus no longer doing it in the shadows standing out in the bright lights of Christ they&#39;re already standing here at Valentine if you need to place your faith in Jesus stand to your feet one two three stand up oh my soul hey hey stand to your feet all of our location sumon at Lake Norman summon in Raleigh right now stand to your feet stand to your feet come on stay standing stay standing stay standing in all of our locations I don&#39;t know what it looks like other where we&#39;re right here so many are standing hey stay standing stay standing here&#39;s what we&#39;re going to do we&#39;re going to say a prayer together stay standing Saints stay standing we&#39;re going to say a prayer together out loud there&#39;s nothing magical about these words but the Bible says when you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead you will be saved and if you have placed your faith in Jesus and you&#39;re around these people oh be praying for them be praying with me but there are a couple people you haven&#39;t stood yet and what I want to tell you standing doesn&#39;t save you Jesus saves you but standing is our response to take a stand so if you need to still stand stand to your feet right now church family let&#39;s say this prayer out loud Eyes Wide Open clear conscience knowing that we are following Jesus as our savior pray this with me I believe that Jesus Christ I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is the Son of God who died on the cross died on the cross and Rose from the grave to forgive me of my sins forgive me of my I give you my life I give you my life I give you my sin I give you my I give you my shame my sh forgive me forgive me and I&#39;ll spend my life I&#39;ll spend my life following you following you now give God the biggest praise you can give him in this place hey hey if you&#39;re around those people hug them high five them let them know that they&#39;re not alone we&#39;re proud of you come on give him a heart don&#39;t let him be alone all of our locations church family surround them love on him do it do it do [Applause] it ain&#39;t that beautiful an&#39;t that beautiful oh you can sit back down but you can stand up anytime you need to is God not good oh My Soul Your Destiny your destiny is connected to a decision and the decision is who is Jesus some he&#39;s a fairy tale a figment of their imagination or he&#39;s a fictional character no for some of you he just became your Messiah your savior that&#39;s exactly what Peter said to do grow in the grace as Jesus Our Savior and Lord but here&#39;s the reality it&#39;s easier to trust Jesus with my destiny than my direction it is so much easier to say one day byy and by Jesus I&#39;ll trust you with that but trust you with the here and now that&#39;s so much harder why is it hard to trust Jesus with the direction of Our Lives you see saved is used in multiple ways I was saved meaning there was a moment that Jesus became your you are the Messiah that moment for some of you that moment just happened June 30th side note today is my birthday the best birthday present I could ever have is to be with my church family and so in scripture thank you in scripture you were saved you will be saved meaning you will see him face to face and he will say either well done good and faithful servant or depart from me for I never knew you you see religious activity does not matter in that moment that&#39;s why you got to have this moment that the revelation of God the grace is you&#39;re the Messiah and the faith is I choose to receive it I was saved I will be saved being made like him one day when we see him but between these two I&#39;m being saved the sanctification this is trusting Jesus with the direction of Our Lives why is it so hard to trust Jesus with the direction and I want to show you from Peter&#39;s life why he struggled with this fund Al Faith issue because to say Jesus I One Day by and by but I got my plan I got my goal I got my thing now would you bless my thing in jesus&#39; name if I&#39;m honest I live in that place anybody else would you confess with me that you why do we struggle with that and I&#39;m going to go to a story in Peter&#39;s Journey that I think so poignantly paints a picture of the tension that we face of why is it hard to trust Jesus with the direction of Our Lives in Mark chapter 6 it says the apostles gathered around Jesus and reported them all they had done and taught let me give you a little context up to to Mark chapter 6 Jesus had been performing Miracles he&#39;d been casting out demons he had been preaching the word of God and then he eventually he gets to the point that he&#39;s prepping his disciples for when he would leave because he says after I go it must continue on so those of you the ones that I picked that I revealed myself to you it is going to be your assignment to do what I have been doing so he sends them out like no Arc principle 2 by two and they&#39;re going to go cast out demons they&#39;re going to preach uh and they&#39;re going they&#39;re going to perform Miracles and now they come back to Jesus like goog you know googly little school kids like Jesus look what we did we talked to Demons I&#39;m and I here&#39;s the reality of what I was reading that scripture this morning I saw some of us living beneath the authority Jesus gave us why are you living underneath that oppressive Spirit when God give you authority over it stop it stop it start standing in the authority he has given you I&#39;m not talking about walking into work slapping your boss in the forehead say get out demon I&#39;m not saying dumb stuff but I am saying God will give you the strength to endure up under it quit wilting underneath it stand in the authority he&#39;s given you it&#39;s insulting when you act like that stop it so they go out and then they come back to Jesus and now they&#39;re like reporting to him Jesus it was amazing we cast out demons it was incredible and then verse 31 then because so so many people were coming and going they did not even get a chance to eat they were hungry he said to them come by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest so they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place now let me pause there Jesus says you&#39;re tired you&#39;re hungry you&#39;re exhausted come on let&#39;s go get some rest a quiet place by ourselves what picture are you seeing in your head like we&#39;re goingon to get on a boat this is going to be amazing we&#39;re going to go to a BNB get some R&amp;R I&#39;m going to get a Manny Petty I&#39;m going to put my feet up in a hammock this is going to be freaking amazing I I need some rest what image of rest comes to mind some mom or dad you&#39;ve been working all week in a job you don&#39;t even like and you&#39;re like if I can just get to Friday night I&#39;m going to get some rest and you got this picture of rest in your head of what you think it&#39;s going to be but then you come home the kids are running around the house naked stuff is burning on the stove the dogs are barking it is complete chaos do any of you look at that and go like no because all of us have an image of what we&#39;re expecting but what do we do when what we picture doesn&#39;t line up with what we see because the story continues with the disciples here he says but many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them this is the feeding of the 5,000 when Jesus landed and saw such a large crowd he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a Shepherd he began to teach them many things Jesus had compassion for them what did the disciples feel for the crowds contempt frustration are you freaking kidding me Jesus question for you Jesus says let&#39;s go to a quiet place buy ourselves to a solid AR place and get some rest they get across the lake does this line up with anybody&#39;s picture of what you thought rest would be no but what do you do when it doesn&#39;t line up with what you thought it would be so question was Jesus lying to them like it was Jes like who doing them like I just need to get in the boat so I&#39;ll lie to you just to get you here no Jesus is incapable of lying he is truth he is truth personified he by defin is truth he is the truth did Jesus just not was waiting for them on the other side of the lake no he&#39;s omnicient he&#39;s all knowing so he knew what was on the other side of the lake and he did not lie to the disciples so how do you dis explain the discrepancy they had a different definition of rest and here&#39;s where it&#39;s so hard to trust Jesus with the direction because when you have a different definition you won&#39;t trust the direction wow you see when Jesus says let&#39;s go to a solitary Place buy ourselves to get some rest it&#39;s the same word that is used of Jesus in Mark chapter 1 it says he was baptized and then he was driven by the spirit Into the Wilderness you see what you and I call Wilderness God calls rest Jesus was taken to the Wilderness because the Wilderness is the place that you experience Grace cuz the only way you experience Grace is when you get to the end of yourself and you see the beginning of God oh Jesus is taking him to the Wilderness not to punish them but to speak to them because the Wilderness is the place that gives you the grace that you start with I can&#39;t but you can Grace is what gives you the ability to look at a situation you want to run from and you say I won&#39;t but God nevertheless your will be done Grace is what gives you the capacity to say I&#39;m not but you are are they had a different definition Pastor Tim when you you lead so much you lead so well in our church leads our next gen team&#39;s phenomenal leader as a leader don&#39;t settle for common language push for Unity of definition because I was doing marital counseling couple years ago with a young couple just been married like six or eight months and they both come in and their arms crossed just not like it they love each other they just don&#39;t like each each other and they said we just don&#39;t communicate very well and I asked the wife I said how do you define communication she goes I think about him all day long when he&#39;s at work and I wonder what he&#39;s doing and how he&#39;s feeling and how he&#39;s experiencing all of those things and I cannot wait till the moment he walks in the door and I just want him to share the deepest darkest parts of his Stars don&#39;t spare any detail give me everything that happened in your day and I asked him how was your day and all he said is fine she had a definition of communication I asked him toine communication he said we just need to have more sex you&#39;ll never have Unity when you got different definitions you might have a common word but you don&#39;t have a common definition I just gave somebody marital counseling in here praise the Lord won&#39;t God do it but you you won&#39;t trust God with the direction when it doesn&#39;t line up with your definition and that&#39;s where the disciples are at and it&#39;s this amazing journey of some of you that you&#39;re sitting in a situation you didn&#39;t think it would look like this you I wanted to get married and this isn&#39;t what I picture I wanted so much to get out of high school to be my own person but now I got the dysfunction and this isn&#39;t what I thought it was going to be and what happens is when it doesn&#39;t line up according to your definition you withhold and you don&#39;t trust God with a direction anymore not because you don&#39;t love God you just don&#39;t want to be disappointed anymore that&#39;s what I saw for some of you holding on to this outdated definition maybe just maybe Holy Spirit would you upgrade somebody&#39;s definition in here a good marriage Define it sacrificial rather than receiving what what would be an upgraded defin take whatever area you&#39;re frustrated in right now God upgrade their definition let them see it differently let them see it as you see it not as we&#39;ve defined it but let us see as you see it and now the disciples have been watching Jesus preach for about 9 hours 9 hours it started about 9 in the morning now Peter&#39;s going to come to him at 6:00 in the evening they&#39;ve been sitting back they&#39;re like oh my gosh good someone LJ can you please play the Hammond B3 and close this thing up can we shut this thing down because the disciples remember they&#39;re hungry they&#39;re tired they&#39;re exhausted and they&#39;re looking at the whole scene and I think they&#39;re resenting everything that&#39;s going down Jesus had compassion they did not so finally they all nudged Peter like you&#39;re the obnoxious one go say something to him but verse 35 it says by this time it was late in the day so the disciples came to him this is a remote place they said and it&#39;s already very late send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countrysides and Villages and buy themselves something to eat but he answered them you give them something to eat is this the most interesting scene oh because because here&#39;s the reality the Wilderness means desolate places but also desolate people Jesus brought them to the Wilderness to see the Wilderness and their Wilderness was the people without a Shepherd that&#39;s why he had compassion on them and they come to Jesus hey Jesus is late in today can you send him away to give him something to eat Jesus said I&#39;ve been feeding him for five hours I&#39;ve been feeding him for nine hours I&#39;ve been feeding him since I stepped off the boat I&#39;ve been feeding them the bread of life the word of God you just haven&#39;t seen it cuz you were so starving in the carnal flesh you could not see what I was doing in the spirit here&#39;s the reality the reason you couldn&#39;t see me feeding them is because you were feeding yourself why is it so hard to trust God with a direction because you&#39;re feeding the wrong things and Jesus said you give them something to eat he like we don&#39;t have anything and he goes you&#39;re right because you&#39;ve been feeding your doubt and your insecurity you&#39;ve been feeding all of your carnal stuff since we got here you&#39;re right you don&#39;t have anything for them to eat but I&#39;m good and I&#39;m great and I&#39;m going to feed the people and I&#39;m going to use your frustrated heart to serve them so take the bread and break it and Jesus fed the people but the miracle was not for the 5,000 it was for the disciples and they did not see it because they had the wrong definition of what rest looked like you see the kingdom culture the upside down culture that Jesus is establishing is those who refresh others will they themselves be refreshed one person thank you and then if you skip a couple verses Jesus finishes the miracle he puts the disciples on the boat and he sends him back across the lake in chapter 6 verse 51 it says this Jesus he goes up to the Mountaintop he&#39;s up there praying and they&#39;re they&#39;re they&#39;re rowing back across the lake to where the the journey began it&#39;s taking them five times as long and they&#39;re only going gone half as far it speaks to them doing it in their own flesh and in their own frustration into their own flesh in verse 51 it says this says then he climbed into the butt with them the wind died down they were completely amazed you&#39;ve never heard this verse before 52 for they had not understood about the loaves their hearts were hardened what did the conversation sound like on the boat after they fed the 5,000 oh look at Jesus up there on the mountain thinks he&#39;s better than us you you&#39;re just going to sit up there and now we got to roll back oh now here you come walking across the water finally you showed up Jesus we&#39;ve been doing this all day haven&#39;t you seen us we&#39;re still hungry we&#39;re still tired and they were offended the reason some of you cannot feed someone around you has been feeding your own offense and here&#39;s the thing because Jesus immediately after he said I&#39;m the Messiah he began to talk about I must go to the cross and die and then he gave them these these marching orders if anyone would come after me he must pick up a cross daily deny himself and follow me it&#39;s a cheat code because to follow the direction can only happen with a denial and and now one of the pivot Points in Peter&#39;s Journey where all this thing comes full circle here you see in Luke chapter 22 this is we fast forward in the timeline of our savior we&#39;re going to go to uh we&#39;re going to go to the the Last Supper this is the Thursday night meal it&#39;s about 6: p.m. Jesus would hang on a cross 12 hours later is when he would be sentenced and then he would be crucified and at this last supper he looks at at Peter he says this in verse 31 he says Simon Simon anytime you see a name repeated in scripture it&#39;s a Hebrew ter term of intimacy when you read a double name read it as a whisper what it means that God is close Moses Moses Simon Simon he doesn&#39;t call him Peter it&#39;s very important you see that he called him Simon Simon Simon Satan is asked to sift you as wheat and if that me that&#39;s me my eyes get really wide like what and call it for me by name yeah because he sees how deadly you can be when you&#39;re when you&#39;re following the direction he sees the the the weapon you can become in the hands of a master but when you don&#39;t follow the direction it&#39;s the people that you&#39;re leading that get punished and he says to him Satan&#39;s asked you but I have prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail oh if I&#39;m if I just stop there Jesus is praying for me by name I&#39;m good I&#39;m covered I pray that your faith would not fail but then he said to him and when you turn back strengthen your brothers but he replied Lord I&#39;m ready to go to prison and to death Jesus answered I tell you Peter before the rooster crows today you will deny three times that you know me here&#39;s the truth of what I want to tell you today your destiny is connected to decision but the direction is is directed by the daily denials of self if anyone would come after me pick up his cross daily and follow me this is this is what Jesus is saying to him he says you&#39;re going to deny me three times Peter you&#39;re going to deny me and what happens is you&#39;re going to want to walk away from me but when you turn back it means when you repent and come back the right direction strengthen your brothers you know what the word strengthen means there means to feed connect the dots earlier to feeding of the 5,000 Peter was only feeding himself which he didn&#39;t see how he could feed the people and Jesus is trying to connect some Dots here the only way that you&#39;re going to be able to feed somebody else is If you deny yourself here&#39;s the reality the direction of your life is daily it is multiple times every day you&#39;re going to come to these Crossroads and the direction will be determined by do I deny Jesus or do I deny myself that&#39;s where life comes down to the dire of your life is connected to the denial let me ask at the opposite side what are you feeding that God told you to starve if you want something to die starve it starve it holy spirit make it plain in this house today some of you are feeding self-deprecation and that&#39;s what&#39;s going to grow some of you are feeding greed and envy you&#39;re feeding insecurity you&#39;re feeding the assuming the worst of others you&#39;re feeding those lustful thoughts you&#39;re feeding gossip and slander and what God is trying to tell you is the direction of your life is connected to the denial in your life if you want something to die starve it I want to make it plain what is the thing that God told you to starve deny that thing can I be really honest I am addicted to my opinion I said it I am I am so addicted to my opinion like I if I almost feel like sometimes if I don&#39;t share my opinion I get like a visceral response like I&#39;m going to throw up like no one has ever been one to the gospel by my opinion no one has ever been redeemed because of my opinion yet I can become so addicted to my opinion I&#39;m going to start in opinion a Anonymous Club anybody else want to join my opinion Club thank you for a few don&#39;t leave me up here by myself what would it look like if you went on a 21-day opinion fast you want that thing to die starve it I I don&#39;t want it to be an ethereal deny yourself I want it to be very practical what are you feeding and God said you need to starve that thing write it down in your phone write it down in that piece of paper that pen you&#39;re going to steal anyway just I&#39;m serious here&#39;s what God told me to tell some of you an unnamed enemy will never be defeated you only hide your friends and you expose your enemies and what happens is when you do not expose that thing you make it a friend God will not deliver you from your friends he will deliver you from your enemies what do you need to starve now we fast forward Jesus goes to the Cross Peter denies Jesus three times just like he said and in one of the Gospels it says that Peter saw Jesus and he wept bitterly because his Direction he felt like had been so derailed by his denial of Jesus he went back to where it all began he went back to being a fisherman and I love the fact that our savior said I cannot leave you like that oh he sees you and the beauty of the grace of God as it comes to you and it calls you by name and as Jesus saw Peter out fishing he called to him here&#39;s the image I need you to see as you&#39;re going your direction and you&#39;re denying Jesus because you&#39;re not denying yourself the grace of God is still calling your name it&#39;s still calling your name and when it said Peter Simon Simon when you have turned back means to repent Jesus I&#39;ve been feeding that thing forgive me I&#39;ve been going my own Direction forgive me and then you come back and strengthen your brothers in John 21 we have this intimate story of Jesus coming to Peter and he calls him in and he has a meal waiting for him on the shore oh just this beautiful picture of the grace of God and he comes to him in verse 15 it says and when they had finished e eating Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of John do you love me more than these yes Lord you know that I love you Jesus said feed my Lambs Jesus would ask him three times one for each of the denials but I think what&#39;s even better there is Peter Peter responds three times with the word Lord you see I showed you the moment where Jesus became the Savior this is the moment where Jesus became the Lord because the Lord determines the direction and he asks Peter Peter do you love me and he goes you know that I love you there&#39;s three different words to describe love and Jesus asked do you Agape me do you love me like your Lord Peter responds back with you know that I love you fileo I love you like a brother you see Jesus is so gracious he&#39;s correcting his definition as he asked him second time I didn&#39;t ask you if you love me like a brother I said do you love me like your lord feed my sheep there&#39;s something so much deeper going on here it&#39;s significant that he gives him three times the opportunity to respond Lord and then again Jesus said Simon do you love me he answered yes Lord you know that I love you take care of my sheep the third time he said to him Simon son of John do you love me Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time do you love me he said Lord you know all things you know that I love you Jesus said feed my sheep this would not have been the first time that Peter would have heard you feed them remember back to the feeding of the 5,000 you give him something to eat I I don&#39;t have anything you&#39;re right you don&#39;t have anything because you&#39;ve been feeding yourself but now you went to the Wilderness with your own despair you went to the Wilderness because of your own decisions you went to the Wilderness because you went back to old things and you denied me but I love you so much I came to the Wilderness to bring you out of it that&#39;s how good our God is and three times he asked him do you love me do you you love me here&#39;s how I picture the whole scene the second time and the third time Peter&#39;s face is down because you can&#39;t he can&#39;t even look himself in the eyes let alone look Jesus in the face I picture Jesus reaching in and grabbing Peter by the chin at that table and lifting his chin and he looks Grace in the face do you love me feed my sheep you didn&#39;t have anything to feed him the first time now what you just ate the grace that&#39;s what you&#39;re going to go feed that&#39;s why I called you out Peter three times do you love me do you love me now feed my sheep used him the word Lord three times and then Verse 18 He says very truly I tell you when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted you see maturity is not a product of age it&#39;s a byproduct of Direction some of you are very old and you are so immature into Faith because you have gone your own Direction you went where you wanted to go you picked out your outfit and you did what you wanted and she says I will not love you any less but you will not be aware of how much I love you when you live like that and you can&#39;t feed anybody else when you&#39;ve been feeding yourself and the reason that you&#39;re putting on that new outfit is you&#39;re trying to cover that old part of you that only I can only I can cover that you went where you wanted but here&#39;s the moment that Jesus became the Lord of Peter&#39;s life but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will lead you or someone else will dress you and lead you to where you do not want to go Lord I don&#39;t know if I want to go that direction you&#39;ll either deny Jesus or you&#39;ll deny yourself and the beauty of our God is he he&#39;ll bring you back to that point again and again and again and again and someone else will address you lead you do not want to go Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God and then he said follow me I thought Jesus only asked Peter once to follow him follow me I&#39;ll make you Fishers of Men the first time was the learn how to fish the second time was to learn how to feed and when Jesus becomes the Lord of your life you start be more concerned with feeding others than feeding yourself stand your feet at all of our locations I&#39;m going to pray for you in just a second and as I was praying for everybody in our church I I kept getting this image of people feeling like but but lb you don&#39;t know I got these big decisions in life I got these big decisions I need to make here&#39;s what I have looking back as as an old man the direction of your life is controlled more by the small daily denials than the big decisions it always is because here&#39;s the image I want to give you when my kids were young I would take them to the beach and the waves would come in at an angle and so every time they would go out and surf they would just get pushed out just a little bit and they go out Surf and they just get pushed upshore just a little bit and they go out and surf again they just just little little little little little directional shifts and they just get pushed upshore upshore and 10 minutes later their way over here and they wonder how did I get here no one of those was a big decision it was small self-denials that were not chosen but the grace of God calls your voice and he says Peter when you come back strengthen your brothers making Jesus the savior of your life is a one-time decision he holds you in his hand no man can take you from it if you can&#39;t save yourself you can&#39;t unsave yourself but the decision for him to be Lord is a daily many times a day daily decision will I deny him or will I deny me but but I want to challenge you at a very practical level what&#39;s the thing you&#39;ve been feeding that God said I need you to starve deny that thing as you do that that will be the grace that you will feed the others father I thank you that your word is true it&#39;s strong it&#39;s right it&#39;s powerful it&#39;s effective I pray for everyone at the sound of my voice who made the decision today that trust Jesus as their savior hallelujah and amen their calling is an election sure and you hold them in their hands nobody can take you from it but the decision to let you be Lord Of Our Lives is a many time a day decision make it plain in our lives show us one area that we have been feeding that you have called us to starve give us the grace in that space to deny that thing rather than to deny you and every time we deny ourselves we receive more of your grace not to be kept to ourselves but to be given out to the world father we love you we honor you we praise you we thank you and all God&#39;s people said amen hey thank you for watching the Elevation Church YouTube I want you to subscribe that way you can know when we go live and post new content make sure leave me a comment let me know what spoke to you today where you&#39;re watching from and what we can pray for you about and if you&#39;d like to support the ministry financially you can click the give button now and help us continue reaching people around the world for Jesus Christ thanks again I&#39;ll see you next time

Transcript for:Destiny and Direction by Larry BR

Transcript for:
Destiny and Direction by Larry BR