Stop Playing the Fence | No More Middle Ground (Matthew 16) Sermon

Who do you say? I am. And Jesus says, y'all been with me all this time and in order to get where we're going, you first gotta answer this question. Hear this, because your answer to this question is either going to put you all in or take you out. And there comes a moment my brothers and my sisters, where you have to decide, am I all in or am I out? [00:16:22] (28 seconds)  #AllInOrOut

where you gotta answer it for yourself. And my brothers and my sisters, it does not matter how long you've been in church. You could have been born on the second pew, raised in the downstairs, grew up on the choir, sang in all the groups, been a part of the musicians, served in all the ministries, but there's coming a day. Yeah. Well, you gotta answer that question for yourself. You may have grown up in the house with preachers, with deacons, with leaders, but you going have to answer for yourself. Who do you say? He is. [00:15:46] (30 seconds)  #OwnYourFaith

Somebody missed that. Jesus is not saying here, who do people say, I am? But instead, he replaces the pronoun I for son of man. Now, throughout Matthew, he does this often. Matthew eight twenty, he says, foxes have dens, birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Matthew nine and six, he says, but I want you to know that the son of man has authority on Earth to forgive sins. [00:10:41] (28 seconds)  #SonOfManRevealed

You cannot live the Christian journey on the fence. I believe it's a sin before god. Christians who still on the fence. When they say, yeah, I I I give god most of my life. There there there there's some areas that that that I don't wanna really let him be lord over. [00:16:50] (27 seconds)  #NoFenceChristianity

Even when you fell short, he said, it's okay. He wrapped his loving arms around you and said, it's alright, my child. Because you're all the way in, I've got you all in my hands. For a second, every head bowed, every eye closed. I want you for a moment to think about the areas of your life where you need to go all in. The areas where you've been straddling the fence. The areas where you've been waiting, saying, I don't know if I'm going give that to god yet. [00:30:42] (40 seconds)  #GoAllIn

We engage in conversations and we talk about what god has done but yet, we don't fully realize all of where he is in our lives. We miss the signs over and over, and we have to get to a point where we ask ourselves, do we really know Jesus? Because as we said the other week in the blueprint, because not everybody who calls them really knows them. Jesus said, don't get fooled. [00:12:27] (27 seconds)  #DoYouKnowJesus

I I I yes, I I I'm I'm gonna come to church. Yes, I'm gonna serve him a little bit but I'm not gonna trust him in some stuff because trusting him in some stuff means I don't have control. And if I don't have control, I don't know how it's going to turn out. And some of us know what it's like to live on the fence. How many of know there have been seasons of your life where you realize you are on the fence? [00:17:17] (27 seconds)  #StopHalfServing

I was surprised at how easy it was to find, and I think she was a little frustrated that I found it so easily after she was looking for so long. But I've learned, my brothers and my sisters, that many of us have missed things that are right in front of us. I'm not just referring to things that require us to search for a little while, not things that require us to dig under and see that something that might have been hiding it, but rather things that were open and should have been as obvious as day. [00:04:10] (34 seconds)  #DontMissWhatsObvious

How many of you know there have been some times where you've looked back over life and got upset with yourself? Because you couldn't blame anybody but yourself that you didn't see the opportunity that was right there. It was clear as day. It was as sunny as a great day outside but yet you missed it and then you spent time upset because you didn't see what was right in your face. The truth of the matter is if we could push it even further, many of us can go down the laundry list of opportunities that we shoulda had, but we missed them. [00:05:19] (34 seconds)  #SeizeObviousOpportunities

These disciples by the time of this text have been with Jesus for now over two years. They're no longer rookies on the road with Jesus. They have seen him do some great miracles. They have seen him feed thousands of people with two fish and five loaves of bread. They've watched him walk into every city he goes into with no money, but yet never go hungry. [00:06:12] (24 seconds)  #SeasonedDisciples

He doesn't get it all right. He's not perfect after this. Don't think that just because you got one revelation, you're gonna be perfect. Just because you took one saying, everything gonna be right in your life. No. He messes up, makes mistakes. Oh, is there anybody here who's got a testimony That since you went all in for god, you've seen that even when things didn't go right, he still picked you up. Even when you fell short, he said, it's okay. [00:29:49] (56 seconds)  #GraceWhenYouFall

But the reality is, they're standing in front of Jesus. They've been with him all this time and they still don't realize who he is. And if we could push this a step further, how many of us have been around Jesus and still don't fully recognize him? Amen. Copy. [00:11:54] (25 seconds)  #RecognizeJesus

maybe just maybe some of us struggle in bringing others to Christ not because we don't know the words to say but because we don't fully believe what we're trying to buy sell them. And Jesus says, before you get to the next chapter, I need y'all to answer this question. Who do you say? Jesus says, the cross is growing bigger in the horizon. [00:20:06] (30 seconds)  #BelieveToLeadOthers

So now, enough of this playing the fence stuff. Enough of you not knowing what you really believe. Let me turn the heat up, and Jesus says, alright. Who do you say It's not enough. Hear this, to just repeat what everybody else says. But there comes a moment [00:15:18] (28 seconds)  #OwnYourBelief

So, Jesus is not asking them, who do I pronoun say, who do they say I am? He's saying, who do they say the son of man is? But but this is it. But he is the son of man. So he's standing there as the son of man and asking them, who do y'all say the son of man is? And [00:11:09] (30 seconds)  #WhoDoYouSayHeIs

And for many years, Eric, I read this text and just assumed this was Jesus saying, what is the word on the street about me? You know, we we we hear it and we say, Jesus asking him, what is everybody saying about me? But that's not what the scripture says. The Bible says right here in verse 13, what do people say the son of man [00:10:14] (27 seconds)  #ClarifyTheQuestion