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

Everybody else may not have heard the word you heard. Everybody else may not have gotten to the revelation you got but you have to say to yourself, then god will take care of them but as for me and my house, I'm doing what god called me to do. If it means taking a stand, I'm going to take a stand. If it means speaking out for god, I'm going to speak out for god because god's too good to me to sit back here on the fence and miss what he going to bless me with. Amen. Because Peter stands up. He says, you the Messiah. You are the son of god. [01:01:54] (35 seconds)

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. 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. [01:07:57] (25 seconds)

It's not enough to just know what the word on the street is. It's not enough. Hear this, to just repeat what everybody else says. But there comes a moment 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. [00:53:02] (32 seconds)

I found there have been times where I've been tired, when I've been down, and I've just said, I just gotta get to god's house and no matter how I felt when I got there, I felt better when I left because in the presence of the lord is fullness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore and so on this coming Friday, we're going to gather in this room for just about an hour to spend some time with god as we're getting ready for a holy week and Easter and all that god's going to do. We're going to prepare ourselves because we don't want to go into the next chapter unprepared. [00:31:24] (34 seconds)

They've seen now firsthand that this is not an ordinary preacher. This is not an average rabbi but there's something special about Jesus Christ and one of the blessings of getting close to Jesus is seeing the power that he has. It's seeing how he can speak into nothing and it becomes something. By speaking and telling mountains to get out of his way, By telling dead folk to get up and they get up and say, what we going to eat for lunch? Because Jesus has power and one of the things I love about serving him is that he does not block us from seeing that power. [00:44:20] (37 seconds)

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. How many of you know there have been some times where you were going round in circles looking for something, only to finally take a moment and realize it was right there? I'm not gonna ask how many times have you looked for something that was in your hand because I don't want anybody to think less of you. [00:41:46] (42 seconds)

Jesus says, the cross is growing bigger in the horizon. The hammer's rigging. The hour's coming where I can't do no more work. And I can't leave here till my work is done. And you 12 going to have to change the world. So I need to put you to the test right now. Go on record. Who you say? I am. And it's interesting. He says this. I believe they start looking around at each other. Because you know how it is in a class when everybody get put on blast, nobody wanna talk first. [00:57:58] (32 seconds)

You can believe this. You don't have to stay in a stuck place anymore. But you can take this stand. You can make a decision for him and watch as god will guide you each step of the way. Peter takes this stand and then Jesus goes on to say to him, alright. Now that I know you believe, I'm gonna build the church on you, and the gates of hell shall not prevail. Remember, they're standing at the temple and the altars to a god that they that Greeks believe has power over hell. And Jesus says, no. [01:05:09] (47 seconds)

And 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. Challenges that should not have found us if we had just saw the opportunity that was sitting right there. And uniquely in this text, in this sixteenth chapter, we see a great example of some brothers who missed something that's right in front of them. 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. [00:43:10] (36 seconds)

this is the key. Because if he takes you too high, you'll fall back on your face. And Jesus says, I can't get y'all ready for what you going to do on Pentecost until you know who the son of man is. What you going to look like trying to get 3,000 people saved? And you don't really believe what you're saying. And 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. Yeah. And Jesus says, before you get to the next chapter, [00:57:12] (40 seconds)

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? And Jesus says, enough of this, leave it straddling the fence, enough of y'all being with me up close and not knowing who I am. It's time for you to give an answer because [00:54:52] (28 seconds)

if you're going to get to the next chapter, you gotta learn this lesson now. Yeah. And I've learned that there's some things on our journey that god needs us to get before we can go to the next level. In school, I I remember when I was registering for classes, my my second year of college and there were some classes I wanted to take but I couldn't take yet because there were prerequisites and I could not take the next level class until I took the first level class but this is the key and passed it successfully. And [00:55:20] (38 seconds)

we think just because we hanging with Jesus, We entitled to whatever he's going to give us and Jesus says, just because you've been with me for two years, don't mean you entitled to this but you can't get to your next level until you pass this test and Jesus is trying to teach us saying, I've got more on your journey for you but you can't get it until you have an answer. I can't bless you the way I want to bless you when you're living on the fence. I can't open doors for you the way I want to when your life is half good and half not. Because [00:56:35] (37 seconds)

Maybe, just maybe, our assignment in this time for our lives is to get off the fence so we can show other people it's safe here. We're living in a season where many people are stuck because they're scared that if they get off the fence or take a stand for god, there's nothing there. They've watched people and and whether it's Christian nationalists or evangelicals in some ranks take these weird stands that don't seem like they forgot, but everybody else say they are. And they're wondering, is that what it really means to speak out on issues that god never said focus on? And they're scared to take it, but maybe god's calling us to show some others. [01:04:20] (49 seconds)

You may have grown up in the house with preachers, with deacons, with leaders but you going to have to answer for yourself. Who do you say? He is. Not the who does your mama say? Not just who does your daddy say? 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. Here it is. Because your answer to this question is either going to put you all in [00:53:34] (32 seconds)