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Life Tabernacle Church Podcast
Biblical preaching and passionate teaching from Life Tabernacle Church in Vinton, Virginia.
Pastor Dallas Herndon and guest ministers teach verse-by-verse through Scripture, exploring the teachings of Jesus Christ and applying them to everyday Christian life.
Topics include:
• Prayer
• Discipleship
• Faith and doubt
• Spiritual formation
• Biblical theology
• Living the Gospel
New sermons recorded live each week from Life Tabernacle Church.
Speak the name of Jesus over it. Right? You can't control certain things but you know what you can't control? You can control your mouth calling on the name of the lord. And it's only by his name that anything changes and he says, I am he.
Speaker 1:It just shows us how much power is in that name.
Speaker 2:Hello, friends. Welcome to the Life Tabernacle Church podcast. It's an honor to be with you today. This podcast serves as our church's weekly sermon archive. Tune in each week to hear what God is speaking in our community.
Speaker 2:Be sure to follow and share with a friend. We hope you enjoy today's message.
Speaker 1:Today, we're gonna behold a topic that is something that all of us can relate to, and that's gonna be the death of control. Look at your neighbor and say, control. Look at your other neighbor and say, stop controlling me, alright? Alright. The death of control will be in John chapter 18 verses one through 12.
Speaker 1:If you have your Bibles, go there with me now. If not, it will be on the screen behind me. When you're ready, say I'm ready. And if you're really ready for the word, say, I'm ready. I'm ready.
Speaker 1:Alright, let's go. John eighteen one, this is the word of the lord. When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side, there was a garden and he and his disciples went into it. Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew this place because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
Speaker 1:So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees and they were carrying torches and lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, I am he, Jesus said. And Judas, the traitor was standing there with them. When Jesus said, I am He, they drew back and fell to the ground.
Speaker 1:Again, He asked them, who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they said. Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go. This happened so the words that he had spoken would be fulfilled.
Speaker 1:I've not lost one of those you have gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword drew it and struck the high priest servant cutting off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away. Shall I not drink the cup the father has given me?
Speaker 1:Then the detachment of soldiers with his commanders and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him. My friends, this is the word of the Lord. Would you pray over the word with me this morning? Lord, we are grateful to be in your presence.
Speaker 1:Lord, we are honored to be people who get to sit with your word and to understand it more, but not only to just receive information, but to just look at the mystery and beauty of who you are. God, I pray you would stir our hearts in a special way this, Easter and Lenten season would help us to understand what you're trying to teach us about control. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Control.
Speaker 1:Control. Control is something that we need in our lives, right? Control can be good or it can be bad. For example, here's some good things of good control. You should probably have a good control over your money, right?
Speaker 1:Right? You should have a decent ability to control how many funds that you have and how many funds you let go. I know my mom for a season of her life really like going to goodwill, alright? And she would go to Goodwill and she would sometimes lose control and she come back with too many clothes. Right?
Speaker 1:And she would say, oh, it's not that much. They were only a dollar apiece. But if you do that, you know, after time again, you're like, oh, I have a lot of clothes. Right? But in essence, we should have good control of our finances.
Speaker 1:We should be good stewards of the money that God's given us. We should also be in control of our health as much as we can. Right? Right? There's certain things that go on in our bodies that we can't control.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we have genetics that make us more susceptible to having certain diseases and those are things that we can't control but what we can control is what we put in our body. Again, I've said it like four weeks in a row, I love chocolate cake. I love chocolate ice cream and I know if I don't practice self control and if I continue to eat all the goodies my wife makes, when I turn 40, I'm going to be four hundred pounds, right? I got to get control over how many sweets I eat. We got to be able to control what we put in.
Speaker 1:We should be able to control how much we move our bodies and exercise. These are things that we have control over. We should be able to control those things. Another thing that we should be able to control is our attitudes, right? Sometimes you wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
Speaker 1:Who's with me there sometimes? You wake up and you say, you know what? I should just go back to bed today and restart. That has been me once or twice. But for the most part, we can really determine what our attitude is going to be.
Speaker 1:We can control that. And we would preferably like to have good attitudes. We're Christians. Just as a reminder, we're filled with God's spirit and it would be best if we had good attitudes and we were able to control them. We're not perfect.
Speaker 1:I've never met a perfect person. The only perfect man I've ever met is the one who is on the cross. That is the man of Jesus. That's the only perfect one I know. But so I'm not asking that we'd be perfect with our attitudes, but we should be able to control them for the most part.
Speaker 1:Those are some things that we should maybe have control over, but there's also some bad forms of control. What about can I tell a funny story from yesterday? Yesterday, we were sitting over here setting up for the yard sale and I had made a little coffee station because you gotta have coffee. Right? And, sister Stephanie went to making her coffee and, and and she started putting some sugar in it.
Speaker 1:And and and I thought to myself, she's putting more sugar in that than she should. And I briefly said something and then I didn't have to say much because her mother Patty was like, Stephanie, stop putting so much sugar in that cup. And Stephanie was like, this is my coffee mama. I'm gonna make it how I want it, how I like it. Right?
Speaker 1:We can't control how much sugar Stephanie puts in her coffee other than not buying any more sugar for the church but she'll just buy some more and put it back there. Right? We can't control it. That's what you do. That's what said.
Speaker 1:She said that's what I did. Right? We can't control how she makes her coffee. She may we can maybe make suggestions. Sometimes we make suggestions too much when people aren't asking for them.
Speaker 1:Right? Yeah. Oh yeah. Well that's right. And so and that's a good point.
Speaker 1:We and sometimes obviously, we want to control some aspects of our kids' lives like my kids are little and I had to control how much sugar I give my kids, right? If I give my kids too much sugar, then we're not going to bed early and they are just wild. Marcella had one jelly bean last night and she was off the walls. It was crazy. One jelly bean.
Speaker 1:Right? And so in that sense, yes, or when your kids are little and your kids say something wild or they say their first cuss word. You know what I'm saying? Semi said a cuss word a few months ago. I'm like, where did you learn that?
Speaker 1:You're not even preschool. Know, where where did you learn that? From your cousin? Who was it? Right?
Speaker 1:And I'm like I so I and I couldn't even control that but I can control afterwards say, hey honey, don't say that word. That's a bad four letter word. Alright? Right? But we went but but when our kids grow up and I can only imagine, we can only control so much of their lives.
Speaker 1:Right? I don't know about you but there's people in my life who make decisions that I think are dumb. Right? I think there's some things that people do, family members, friends, etcetera that they should do something else than what they're doing. Because from my perspective, I wish I had control over their lives because they are hurting themselves.
Speaker 1:They are spending too much money on this. They are living a lifestyle that is going to lead to death. Right? You see some people in your lives, they are not happy and and you want to control that and you want to say hey you want to stop that and sometimes as the spirit leads us we maybe will nudge people right but for the most part we can't control how people live. The only person we can really control is ourselves and sometimes we're even bad at that.
Speaker 1:But that's a bad thing to try to control others. It's not good. Or if you try to control situations that are out of your hands, right? Sometimes we try to play god in certain aspects of life and we're not god and we can't control it. When I think about trying to control others because that's perhaps one of the biggest areas that we try to exert influence on others.
Speaker 1:What's interesting is when we try to control others lives, when we try to manipulate how people live, that's really the essence of what witchcraft is. I know that might sound weird but witchcraft is a practice. It's a idolatrous, pagan practice. And the reason why people practice witchcraft and the reason why actually if you go around Roanoke for just a day and go into different stores, you'll see a bunch of different witchcraft stuff. You'll see tarot cards, lots of boards, lots of different books.
Speaker 1:Right? And the reason why people are pursuing witchcraft in this hour more and more is because they want control. And there's some level of control that you can actually obtain through witchcraft. It's demonic control. Right?
Speaker 1:It's really and I know that might sound weird like why is he talking about this? Because one form of witchcraft is called manipulation. When you try to manipulate people, tell them this is how they should live your life, you guilt them into stuff, gaslight gaslight people into living a certain way, that's manipulation. And what that really is is witchcraft. And how many times have we probably done that ourselves trying to manipulate how certain people think about us or what they're doing.
Speaker 1:We don't like what they're doing. So we try to manipulate them and that's not good my friends. God doesn't manipulate us. We choose to love God and serve Him and in response He tells us what to do. God doesn't make anyone choose Him.
Speaker 1:He gives us the free choice. Adam and Eve freely grabbed of the fruit of the tree in the garden. They had a choice and we have a choice as well. And so as I think about this topic of control and how to begin trying to not control others or other things in life that we can't control. There's no one better on the topic of how this is modeled than Jesus himself.
Speaker 1:In this story that we just read in John chapter eight eighteen, we see Jesus give up control but we also see him gain control. It's a it's a paradox and it's something that we wanna look at. I don't know about you. I make this last comment. I was talking to one of my friends.
Speaker 1:One of my friends has went through, a lot of traumatic things in their life. A lot of bad things happen in their childhood that have been carried with them for a long time. And what they said to me was is Dallas, the reason why I try to control everything, the way the reason why I I was a control freak is because there were certain things that happened to me when I was young that I couldn't control. So now that I'm older, I try to control everything because the feeling of being out of control or things happening to you uncontrollably is a horrible feeling. And so wherever you're at today, maybe you've been a control freak in your lives, maybe you've tried to manipulate others or whatever you come to in the sermon, as you come to the top of of control, I want us to look at the person of Jesus with fresh eyes and to see what he has to teach us about control, about giving up control.
Speaker 1:What is a godly form of control to have in our lives? So, if you have your Bibles still, go back to John 18 and let us walk back through this passage together. John 18. John eighteen one says this, when he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side, there was a garden and he and his disciples went into it.
Speaker 1:So what's going on in this story? So we are quickly heading towards the cross. Last week, we looked at a story that took place in the upper room. And then next week, we're going to look at a story of Jesus and Pontius Pilate as we head towards the crucifixion and the resurrection. And this story is taking place right before Jesus is getting arrested, and he's in the Garden Of Gethsemane.
Speaker 1:And in the Garden Of Gethsemane is where Jesus pours his heart out before the father, and he prays, Lord, if it's your will, take this cup away, but if it's not, help me to be able to obey you and walk through it. Not my will be done, but your will be done. That is this story. That prayer has just happened. And it says after he finished praying, he left with his disciples.
Speaker 1:So they're in this place, the arrest is getting ready to transpire. And Judas, who was one of his disciples, is about to betray him. Look back at John eighteen two and three. It says, now Judas, who betrayed him, another translation said, who was betraying him knew the place because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials and chief priests and the Pharisees, and they were carrying torches, lanterns, and weapons.
Speaker 1:Let's pause there. So Judas, everybody say Judas. He's one of the most negative characters in all the Bible. We know him as the person who betrayed Jesus. But before he was actually going to betray Jesus right here in this story, Judas had spent the last three or so years of his life walking with Jesus every day.
Speaker 1:He loved him, it seemed. He walked with him. He listened to his teachings. He saw him do miracles. I mean, can you imagine seeing Jesus raise someone from the dead?
Speaker 1:Or anybody from the dead for that but Jesus raised somebody from the dead and you're an eyewitness. A man who's been in the grave for four days and you're there watching it all and just a few days later you decide I'm going to betray him because I don't think Jesus is who I think he is. And Judas, for 30, sells Jesus to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And Judas though had walked with him. He had been with Jesus but it seems that he didn't belong to Jesus.
Speaker 1:That's important in the story. I want you to hold on to that. So as you can picture, Maddox, can you come here real quick? Can you help me? Come here.
Speaker 1:I need you to help me with the sermon real quick. If you don't want to, that's fine. You don't want to? Okay. Cool.
Speaker 1:Can you be Jesus for a moment? Thanks. Okay. Just to put this in your mind, I want you to frame this. This is Jesus and the you stay right there.
Speaker 1:That's fine. Cause Jesus is chilling. And so Jesus okay and his disciples are here in the garden. And over here walking towards them is Judas and the Roman soldiers, Pharisees and Sadducees and they're on their way to Jesus. And so what's interesting is Judas had been with Jesus everyday yet he decides I'm gonna turn him in.
Speaker 1:I'm sick of this. I'm gonna take matters into my own hands. I'm going to try to control the situation. Right? And so on their way, the normal response because if I was Jesus and the 11 over here and I saw a bunch of Roman soldiers with big old like you know swords and shields and spears.
Speaker 1:I would probably be heading the other way. Right? That would be the normal thing to do. That's how you control the situation. You run away.
Speaker 1:But you know what Jesus does? Now you're not chilling. So while Judas is on his way Jesus does this, he approaches them. He approaches them and Jesus stands right here that's great and so Jesus wastes no time and he meets them right where they are and that's why it says in verse four Jesus knowing all that was going to happen to him. What does that mean?
Speaker 1:Jesus knows what's about to happen right there. He knows he's about to be beaten. He's gonna be bruised. All his skin is going to be stripped off by the cat of nine tails. He's gonna be forced to carry a 300 pound cross for almost three miles.
Speaker 1:His lungs are gonna fill with blood. Every single ounce of that blood would eventually pour out into the ground. All alone. He knows what's about to transpire. And also the bible says for the joy set before him he endured the cross.
Speaker 1:Jesus knows that I have to go to the cross and endure those things for these people. For you and for me. In knowing all those things Jesus wastes no time and he approaches them and he asked them a simple question. He says, who is it you want? Why are you here?
Speaker 1:Who do you want? I mean if I was the soldiers and the sadducees and pharisees and I was looking for this guy named Jesus I'm thinking that he's some fugitive and he's gonna be on the run. He wastes no time. Jesus loses control to what the world would do because in the world sense, if you were Jesus, what the world would do is run away. We would hide.
Speaker 1:We would try to not let this thing happen. But Jesus dies to worldly control and he gives control to the father. And he says, father, I'll do it. So actually what's funny here is while Jesus is losing control he actually has the control. And he says who do you want?
Speaker 1:Who is it you want? And they're like, you know they're they're probably caught off guard. Jesus is actually controlling the situation. Who is it you want? I mean no criminal does this.
Speaker 1:I mean I've never committed a crime. I would like to think I turned myself in but a lot of people are on the run. Right? But Jesus wastes no time. Who is it you want?
Speaker 1:And then His response, if your back hurts you can sit down. Okay good, thank you. You are good right now? Okay. They said Jesus of Nazareth.
Speaker 1:There's other people named Jesus presumably, right? Jesus isn't the only Jesus who's ever lived. Jesus was more of a popular name. It was the name Yeshua or Joshua. And they're specific though.
Speaker 1:We're not just looking for any Jesus. We're looking from Jesus of Nazareth. That's And where he was from. That was his hometown. He was born in Bethlehem but he was really raised in Nazareth.
Speaker 1:That was his home base. And they said we're looking for Jesus of Nazareth and what does Jesus say? I am He. Look at your neighbor and say I am. You don't have to say, do you Sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, good. Look at your other neighbor and say, I am. What does that remind you of? Back in the book of Exodus, Moses, you remember that guy? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Moses is out working in the field. He's shepherding the flock of his father-in-law, and he sees a bush on fire, but it's not consumed. He says, that's curious. Let's go check that out. He goes over the fire and it's not just a fire.
Speaker 1:From the fire, God speaks and God reveals who he is. He says, Moses, I am that I am. I am the I am. I am the great I am. And that's how we know the name of God.
Speaker 1:It's what we call Yahweh, which means I am that I am or I will be what I will be. And all throughout the book of John, Jesus says stuff like I am the way. Right? I am the life. I am the truth.
Speaker 1:I am the good shepherd. I am the door. And in this moment Jesus makes no confusion. He looks them right in his face their faces and says I am he. That's me.
Speaker 1:It's me. And when I say, when someone asks, hey, where's Dallas? Who's Dallas? And I say, oh, it's me. It has no power or authority, right?
Speaker 1:I'm just Dallas Herndon, right? But when Jesus says I am he something happens. This is what happens. You can take a seat dreamer. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Got the picture going on? What an interesting confrontation. He says I am he And it says, and Judas the traitor was standing there with them. Remember, Judas had been on this side with Jesus. Now he's on this side.
Speaker 1:Okay. And John's reminding you that Judas was betraying him. He doesn't want you to forget it. Judas is over here. And when he says I am he verse six says, they drew back and fell to the ground.
Speaker 1:Wow. What mystery. He just says I am He and what happens? They are overwhelmed by the presence of God. They hit the ground.
Speaker 1:They fall back and they presumably fall to their knees and they are just confused. Are filled with fear but they are also feared with awe. Now they are maybe rethinking like do we really want to arrest this guy? Just the mention of his name causes them to fall. My friend do you know what Philippians two ten and eleven says?
Speaker 1:It says, At that name, can you say the name? Every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the father. There is no confusion. The majesty of Jesus is on full display and he didn't even do a miracle. He didn't even teach a good sermon.
Speaker 1:All he was All he did was introduce himself. I am he. And on that note, listen closely. As you look in your own lives, as we're trying to deal with this topic of control, as you try to control your kid, as you try to control a situation. If anything, if you don't hear anything else today, hear this.
Speaker 1:Speak the name of Jesus over it. Right? You can't control certain things but you know what you can't control? You can control your mouth calling on the name of the Lord and it's only by his name that anything changes and he says I am he. It just shows us how much power is in that name.
Speaker 1:Why does Jesus teach us to pray in his name Matt? He says when you pray, pray in my name. That's why at the end of every prayer we say, in the name of Jesus, amen. We don't just say that because it sounds fluffy. We don't say that just because it's cool and that's just what we do.
Speaker 1:We say that because it's the name that associates ourselves with the one true heavenly God who has all power and authority and control over all things. We are calling on his name when we say his name. He says I am he. They fall to the ground. Maybe it takes them a minute to get up too.
Speaker 1:They are very confused because now they are standing before a man who doesn't seem like a fugitive but he seems more like God than anything else. And Jesus wastes no time. He says, who is it you're looking for? And you would think, dude, you know what? Actually, we're looking for, Barney.
Speaker 1:Anybody got here now? But we're looking for somebody else because we don't wanna arrest you. Because this doesn't seem right. But he asked, who are you looking for? And they say, Jesus of Nazareth.
Speaker 1:And Jesus tells them in verses eight and nine. Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go. Verse nine. This happened so that the words he has spoken would be fulfilled.
Speaker 1:I have not lost one of those you gave me. Now, I want you to track with me for a minute because this is probably gonna blow your mind. Is it blowed blown my mind? It says that these things took place so that the word of god would be fulfilled and that word was this, I have not lost one of you that gave that you gave me. John six thirty nine says this, so early in the gospel of John, this is what Jesus says.
Speaker 1:And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up on the last day. Then in the upper room, literally hours before this event, Jesus says in John 17, while I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that scripture would be fulfilled. Two things. Jesus saying, I have protected these disciples by my name.
Speaker 1:The power of the name of Jesus. So when we call on his name, it means something. But there's something in this story that's gonna hit you. Jesus says that I have done these things to protect them. So presumably Jesus asked the authorities twice, who are you looking for?
Speaker 1:And Jesus was their response both times was Jesus of Nazareth. Right? And Jesus says, yes I'm he and so since you're just looking for me, don't touch them. They're my sheep. You are not gonna touch them.
Speaker 1:You're not gonna hurt them. They belong to me and since you're looking for me your business is with me not them. Don't punish them for me. It's a beautiful image. Jesus is the good shepherd.
Speaker 1:He's protecting them. He's making sure they don't get thrown into the crucifixion with them the next day. What a beautiful image of Jesus covering us and protecting us. And if you are under that name, if you trust in Jesus, you have that same protection. What a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:But the sad part of the story is this. Jesus says, I have said these things, I have done these things so that these who are mine will not be touched. The sad part is there's a guy over there who had walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, kept the money bag for Jesus, done miracles for Jesus, prophesied with Jesus, did a bunch of good stuff with and for Jesus, yet he is not one of those who's protected. And Judas, the son of destruction, meets a terrible end. Jesus couldn't protect him.
Speaker 1:Do you know why? Because Judas didn't belong to him. He belonged to Satan. If you want the protection of the almighty, if you want god, you have to have the king first. So many people I meet, even people who think they're Christians, think that they can do whatever they want with their lives and then just have God put a stamp on it.
Speaker 1:Right? They can just do anything. They can sleep with whoever they want. They can talk however they want. They can manipulate whatever they want.
Speaker 1:They can live life however they want and then just ask God. Hey God would you bless it. It doesn't work like that my friends. He protects and can take care of those who are actually his sheep. My friends don't be confused.
Speaker 1:There is power in his name but we must know him. Not act like we know him not kind of talk like we know him but we must know him and actually be a sheep because that other verse in the Bible, I don't know if you've ever read it. I'm sure you have. It's probably the most terrifying in all this verse in all the scriptures. It says, not everybody who says, lord, lord, will be saved.
Speaker 1:Lord, we prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We went to church in your name. We we did all these good things in your name. And Jesus is going to say to those people on that day, depart from me.
Speaker 1:I never knew you. There is too many Christians who don't know Jesus actually. There is so many churches filled with people who think they know Jesus but they actually don't. And so today the reflection for us is do we really know Jesus or do we just think we know Him? I look at my own life.
Speaker 1:I know I love Jesus but I think every day is He the Lord of my life today? He was the Lord of my life yesterday but is He the Lord of my life today? Jesus protects those who are His. Let's wrap this up. Keaton, you can come up please.
Speaker 1:John eighteen ten and eleven. It says, then Simon Peter who had a sword, oh bless Simon Peter, drew it and struck the high priest servant cutting off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away. Shall I not drink the cup the father has given me?
Speaker 1:So, you know, Peter, who loves Peter? Raise your hand. Who just loves the character of Peter? I just love Peter. That's why I love the gospel of Mark.
Speaker 1:And Peter, who loves Jesus, who's getting ready to actually disown Jesus in the neck pretty much the next story. He pulls out a sword and he goes to swing it towards the high priest slave which is named Malcus. The high the the servant's name was Malcus. Am I get because I was talking to my mom about this. She's like, why did he cut his ear off?
Speaker 1:And I said, I think he was probably aiming for the neck and he had bad aim or god, Jesus was like like he said a quick prayer like, oop, move that sword and it kind of just moved over, right? Funny, you can laugh, right? We don't know why he just cut off his ear. Perhaps, perhaps him cutting off the ear was symbolic of the people who would not listen to him right before him. That the people who had heard Jesus but they were gonna cut Jesus off here in just a shoot for a shoot for just a few hours.
Speaker 1:They were cutting it off. And and Peter takes matter into his own hands. He tries to obtain control through a worldly earthly power. He swings the sword, cuts the ear off, and Jesus is like, put your sword away. We're not taking the kingdom like this.
Speaker 1:We're not overcoming like this. I'm not going to overcome by mere political power. I'm not starting a war. I'm not some person you're just gonna follow. That's why Judas was mad.
Speaker 1:He wanted Jesus to be a political figure, a political rebel who was just gonna overthrow everybody else and Jesus says, no. We're going to do it through death. That's how we're going to do it. But what I love though is is what you don't get in this story is what happens in Luke. In Luke's version of the story, after Peter chops the ear off, it says this, Jesus answered, no more of this.
Speaker 1:Peter, stop it. Put the sword away. And then it says, and he touched the man's ear and healed him. Don't you love that? I mean he just chopped it off.
Speaker 1:It's wiggling on the ground and bleeding. Jesus picks it up, pops it back on his head and all good. He performs a surgery right there. Maybe that's why Luke tells us because Luke was a physician and he was aware of these things. He heals the man's ear.
Speaker 1:But here's the fun part when you look at this whole story. What Judas did Jesus couldn't control. But Peter makes a dumb mistake cuts a guy's ear off but because Peter belonged to Jesus he's able to make it right. You cut his ear off, I'll slap it back on because you're my sheep. And my friends, I know this.
Speaker 1:I make mistakes. I know my daughter makes mistakes. She gets in trouble sometimes but she's still my daughter. We make mistakes. We don't always get it right.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we don't always hear God perfectly, but you know what? When we are his, we are truly his. He can work it out. Sometimes you'll have a conversation with somebody and you'll Oh, did I say all the right things? Maybe maybe I messed up or or maybe you make a mistake and you're trying to evangelize and you're, did I say the right words?
Speaker 1:Don't worry. Jesus has control and he has control because you belong to him. You've given that control to him. Last verse, verse 12. It says, then the detachment of soldiers with its command and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus.
Speaker 1:They bound him. My friends, Jesus gives up full control of the situation. He willingly goes. He willingly goes to the cross because he willingly goes all the go to the cross. He has all control now.
Speaker 1:He has all power. He has all authority. He has all glory and honor. And what we can learn from the story is simply this to let go of control. Let go of control in your life my friends.
Speaker 1:You can't fix somebody. Jesus can. You can't fix them. You, Jesus can. Let's pray.
Speaker 1:Lord, we thank you for this morning. Lord, we thank you for your word. Lord, I believe your word is powerful even when we are not. That even when we are weak, you are strong. And Jesus as we have looked at the gospel of John as we have tracked through the past few weeks, Lord, we see over and over and over Jesus that you are doing life in a different way.
Speaker 1:A few weeks ago, we looked at this story where Jesus someone poured oil on your feet and it was costly. It was a costly sacrifice. It was not normal, but it's normal in the kingdom. We looked at how you had an opportunity to become and be crowned king in that moment, but you rejected it so that you would go to the cross. You rejected one opportunity for a better one.
Speaker 1:We looked last week at the death of doubt. That we can trust you even when it doesn't make sense. We have to die to our doubts and we have to just trust in you even when it doesn't make sense. And today, we are reminded, Jesus, that you willingly gave up control of the situation knowing that your father had control of the situation. And that we, as your children, as your as your beloved, must learn to do the same.
Speaker 1:We can't control our family members. We can't control our friends. We can't even control really what happens on in the world around us to some degree. But what we can control is our mouths calling on the name of the Lord. What we can control is following you if our hearts and what we can control is fixing our eyes on you even when we make mistakes.
Speaker 1:Lord, we wanna we don't wanna be a people who manipulate others, who guilt people into doing this or that, or shame people into doing this or that either. But, Lord, we wanna be a people who give all control to you.