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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
This is the Sandals Church Podcast, a place for real people with real struggles learning to follow Jesus. Wherever you are right now, driving, working, or trying to make it through the day, we are really glad you're here. Let's get into today's message.
Pastor Justin McVey:I'm I'm just going to be real right off the bat today. Stand before you just with a really a really heavy heart. I love preaching, but I wasn't supposed to be preaching today. The reason I'm up here sharing and communicating is, because Pastor Fredo's mom unexpectedly passed away. And it's such a it's such a tragedy.
Pastor Justin McVey:And so please keep the Ramos family in your prayers. As I think about what Pastor Fredo is going through, what his family is enduring right now, I do my best to to mourn with them in this loss. But it highlights one of the harshest realities of the human condition, suffering. And the fact that it happens to all of us. Pastor Fredo is a great guy.
Pastor Justin McVey:I mean, aside from his obsession with the Lakers and the Dodgers, I mean, no one's perfect, but he's he's a great dad, a great a great husband, a great pastor as we've all experienced. And I call him my orientation buddy because his first day on the job, I was the one who led him around, who gave him the tour. We had lunch together and we just connected over our love of sports and our love for Jesus, our desire to communicate. And and we've been, man, walking this journey as pastors for almost a decade now. But yet here he is in the midst of great loss and pain and heartbreak.
Pastor Justin McVey:He's suffering. And we've all known someone who we love dearly, who who doesn't deserve it, who who who didn't do anything to bring it upon themselves, but who is suffering deeply. I I have another pastor friend who a little over a year ago was diagnosed with not one but two types of cancer and has been fighting that journey, is still fighting that. It it's just so hard. And and one of the greatest misconceptions about Christianity, about becoming a follower of Christ, the disciple of Jesus is this idea that this somehow when we make the decision to follow Christ, everything just is all of a sudden easy.
Pastor Justin McVey:Everything is all of a sudden great. We're never gonna have any problems. It's all gonna be okay. But that's not just the truth we find in scripture. That's not the reality.
Pastor Justin McVey:You see, the the call to follow Christ is not an exemption from suffering, but rather an invitation to walk through it differently. I wanna say that again because everything from here on out, everything you're gonna hear, everything that I draw out of scripture is built on that truth. That the call to follow Christ is not an exemption for suffering. It doesn't mean we won't experience hard things, suffering and pain. But what it is, man, it's an invitation from Christ himself, from our heavenly father to walk through it in a different way.
Pastor Justin McVey:It's an invitation to embrace suffering with with hope and confidence. An invitation to experience peace in the midst of the chaos. An invitation to to receive an inner strength that prevents us from being crushed by the weight of what we're going through. An invitation to remain faithful, to remain faithful for a moment so that we can experience glory for eternity. It's an invitation to die to self and be resurrected with Christ.
Pastor Justin McVey:Man, I just want to pause right now though. And I want to address some of you right now. You look at your suffering and you say, yeah, that's great for pastor Fredo. That's great for for Christians. But but I brought this on myself.
Pastor Justin McVey:It's my sin. It's my bad choices. And now I'm suffering from the consequences of it. And I want you to know the same truth applies to you. God still cares.
Pastor Justin McVey:God still hurts for you. God still offers to walk through it with you. You see, here's here's the beautiful thing about suffering, that regardless of why it's happening, regardless of what has brought you to that place, God will always and I emphasize God will always use it to draw us into a deeper relationship with him. Listen to what Paul says in in second Corinthians. This is Paul who who wrote most of the New Testament.
Pastor Justin McVey:This is Paul who planted churches all over the world. He says, we were under great pressure. Man, they're being persecuted. They're being ran out of towns. Everything they say is being challenged.
Pastor Justin McVey:He says, it was far beyond our ability to endure. He was one of the strongest Christians, but he says, it brought me to the end so that we despaired of life itself. He says, didn't wanna wake up in the morning. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. That's suffering.
Pastor Justin McVey:But notice what he says, this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God. Suffering brings us to a place where we have to put our hope and our faith and everything we are in God. And notice, it's a God who raises the dead. So no matter why you're there, no matter how far your suffering has taken you down into just the pit of darkness. Listen.
Pastor Justin McVey:And God can raise you up. Today's passage that we're going to look at, I believe, is one of the most important passages in all of the Gospels because we get to see a side of Jesus that's often missed. We get to see a vulnerability displayed nowhere else in scripture as he walks through just tremendous pain, tremendous agony as he struggles with the reality of of the cross that is ahead of him. Man, as as Jesus begins his journey here in the Garden Of Gethsemane, we we see Jesus. Jesus who was fully God, fully divine, fully human at the same time.
Pastor Justin McVey:He's crushed with grief. He's completely overwhelmed. He begs his father for another way out. And yet in the midst of that suffering, in the midst of that anguish, he rises from the Garden Of Gethsemane and he faces what's ahead with a hope, with a confidence, dare I say, with a boldness that that didn't come from his circumstances or his situation, but it came because of a relationship with his father. And that same hope, that same confidence, that same boldness is available to us.
Pastor Justin McVey:God desires to to give it to us. So let's take a look at the path through suffering that Jesus lays out for us. If you've got your bibles, you can turn to Matthew chapter 26. We're gonna be starting in verse 36. Remember, Jesus has has just finished the last supper with the disciples.
Pastor Justin McVey:He's given them all of the wisdom he has for them, everything he can pack in. They've observed Passover and the Lord's Supper together. And that's where we pick up. Says, then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane. Gethsemane literally means olive press.
Pastor Justin McVey:It would have been the place where the olives were crushed so that the oil could be extracted. And how fitting that this is where Jesus would go. Man, just to to be crushed, to be molded. Man. He said, sit here.
Pastor Justin McVey:He tells his disciples, hang out right here while I go over there to pray. And then he took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John. That's his inner circle. Those three got to go to deeper places with Jesus. They walked with him just on a closer level.
Pastor Justin McVey:But notice what happens. He, Jesus, became anguished and distressed. Hang on to those words. We're gonna talk about it. He told them, my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.
Pastor Justin McVey:He says, stay here and watch with me. He he went on a little further then and he bowed his face to the ground and he prayed, my father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. Then he he returned to the disciples and he found them asleep. Come on, guys.
Pastor Justin McVey:He said to Peter, couldn't you watch with me even for one hour? Keep watch and pray so that you will not give in to temptation for the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. First thing we learn from Jesus is this. Don't isolate in times of suffering. Invite others in to the struggle.
Pastor Justin McVey:Now, want to be clear. There's a difference between being alone or even feeling lonely in isolation. Man, Jesus was no stranger to to being alone. In fact, he purposely took time alone to recharge, to reconnect with his father. And that's a good thing.
Pastor Justin McVey:But he never isolated. You see, isolation says I can do this on my own. Isolation pushes other people away. Isolation says I don't I don't need anyone. We tell ourselves this lie that we can get through it on our own because we don't wanna hear what other people have to say.
Pastor Justin McVey:And so as a result, we we withdraw from society. We withdraw from others and we convince ourselves we're okay. Solomon, the the wisest king ever to live writes this in Proverbs eighteen one. He says, one who isolates himself pursues selfish desires. He rebels against all sound wisdom.
Pastor Justin McVey:When you shut off any outside influence, when you push away those who could help you, those who could speak truth into your life, when you isolate like that, man, you're never gonna find healing. You're never gonna progress. Think about it. Jesus invited his his three closest friends, his his three closest friends to walk with him in this moment, to to help carry a small piece of the burden that he was going through, to fight alongside of him as he battled through the season of suffering. And more than anything else, and this is important, to pray with him, to pray for him.
Pastor Justin McVey:Romans fifteen thirty, Paul speaking again, he says, dear brothers and sisters, he's writing to this church, the believers in Rome. He says, I urge you, I beg you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Join in my struggle. He invites them in. He says, all right, guys, I need you. I'm not going to isolate.
Pastor Justin McVey:I need you in my struggle. And here's how he asked them to do it. By praying to God for me. Man, if Jesus, if Paul invited others to to walk with them in the midst of their suffering, who are we to think that we can somehow do it on our own? That we've somehow got this?
Pastor Justin McVey:Man, Solomon again in Ecclesiastes, a verse a lot of us know, says two people are better off than one for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. That's why it's so important to have those people in our lives because when we struggle, when we suffer, there's a good chance we're gonna fall. And we need someone. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.
Pastor Justin McVey:Man, I struggle with this. I'll I'll just be honest. I struggle inviting others in. My wife says it's because I'm socially awkward. There may be a little truth to that.
Pastor Justin McVey:I don't know. But I I think it goes a little deeper than that. There's a reality that trusting it is hard for me. I've shared in the past. I've been open with my struggles, with my wounds, and it's been weaponized against me.
Pastor Justin McVey:It's been used to hurt me. It's been used against me. And so it's it's difficult for me to trust, if I'm quite honest. Not only that, but I hate asking for help. I I I still have this mindset and I know it's not right, but this mindset that that makes me appear weak, that I should be able to do it on my own, that I can get through it.
Pastor Justin McVey:And God sees that and I'm telling you, God keeps bringing me to places where I have to to ask for help, where I have to invite others in. Just just this Tuesday, I'm I'm walking into our our weekly staff meeting and I'm getting things started. I'm talking with the team and my cell phone goes off. And I look at it and it's my teenage daughter. And and I don't think much about it.
Pastor Justin McVey:I'm like, ah, she's just calling to see if she can go to her boyfriend's ball game or something. And so I just I ignore it, set it down and then the phone starts ringing again. As a parent, when you get that back to back call, that's when you know. You know something's wrong. And so so I pick up the phone and I kinda walk out of the room and I'm like, hey, what's up?
Pastor Justin McVey:And all I hear is hysterical sobbing. I'm like, oh no, what happened? And and I had to spend a couple minutes calming her down, you know, take a deep breath, release it. Alright. Tell me what happened.
Pastor Justin McVey:And she eventually was able to communicate to me that she had just had a blowout. Going down the freeway 70 miles an hour, probably faster, I know my teenage daughter, and and tire just blows out. So she's now on the side of the freeway, cars are zooming by. I've been there, I've experienced it. It is not pleasant.
Pastor Justin McVey:If you ever had a blowout at high speeds, it is scary. Man, it'll make you think about eternity for a second. And so I'm like, alright. Alright. I'll be there.
Pastor Justin McVey:I'll be there. So I get there. We we get her off to the side of the road where she needs to be. I take a look. I'm like, alright.
Pastor Justin McVey:I can do this. My my man card clearance is not real high, but changing a spare tire, I've checked that box. I got that I got that certification. So I'm like, got this. I go to the back of the car.
Pastor Justin McVey:I open it up. I take out the spare. Oh, wait. No. There is no spare.
Pastor Justin McVey:I'm like what in the world? And I'm thinking this is what you get when you buy the bottom of the line model. You don't even get the spare. Like, that's alright. That's alright.
Pastor Justin McVey:I'm like, this is technological age so I just type in tire shops and I start calling up. First shop, do you have those? Oh, well we can get it for you. I'm like, no I need it now. Thank you.
Pastor Justin McVey:Bye. On shop, I'm pretty sure it was like 17. Like, I had just lost count. Like, I'm getting desperate here. And I'm like, please.
Pastor Justin McVey:And he's like, hold on. Let me check and see. And he checks and goes, I got something that'll work. I'm like, that's all I need. That's all I need.
Pastor Justin McVey:Alright. So my wife was actually closer to the shop. She picks up the tire. She brings it by. Now we're all out there.
Pastor Justin McVey:By the time she gets there, like, I'm on it. I got the car jacked up. I I got the blown out tire and wheel off. They're setting off to the side. They're ready to go.
Pastor Justin McVey:And so I pick up the spare and I go over and I bend down and I start to go in like that. And I don't know if I bumped the car. I don't know if a wind came by. I don't know if it was the semi that drove by. But all of a sudden the car starts moving.
Pastor Justin McVey:And all of a sudden the jack tips over and the car crashes onto the jack. Your pastor cussed. Out loud multiple times. And in that moment, I I knew. I knew I was in over my head.
Pastor Justin McVey:My man car did not have clearance and certification to handle this sort of of an emergency. I didn't know what to do. But praise God for friends who like actually like have mechanics tools, who know what they're doing like instantly. I'm like, I can't do this. And I called up, buddy answered.
Pastor Justin McVey:I said, I need your help. He's like, I got you bro. I got you. And he was there in the flash, know, he had everything we need. We got that car jacked up.
Pastor Justin McVey:We got things moved around. And before you know it, spares on, daughter's going off. And and my bud actually enjoyed the chance to be able to come and help me out. When you invite people in, it actually man, it does something for them too. People wanna help.
Pastor Justin McVey:They're willing to walk with us in difficult times. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Yeah. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor who lived in Nazi Germany during the holocaust. And he says this, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's word to him.
Pastor Justin McVey:He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged. Man, it's so huge. Man, I do wanna put this disclaimer. Be careful about who you invite in. Jesus didn't even bring in all 12 disciples.
Pastor Justin McVey:He brought in three, three who he was close to, three who he knew. Look for people who are wise. Right? Like you've you've seen it in their own lives. Man, don't be getting relationship advice from someone who's been divorced three times.
Pastor Justin McVey:Right? Don't be getting business and financial advice from someone who's run three companies into the ground. Right? Just find someone who's wise. Right?
Pastor Justin McVey:Find someone who's honest, who will speak the truth to you, but who'll do it with kindness, grace and truth. Find someone who's loyal, who's gonna be there for you. Find someone who's okay with the silence, who's willing to just sit there with you in your pain and in your suffering. They don't need to offer advice, just their presence. Most of all, we mentioned it earlier.
Pastor Justin McVey:Find someone who will pray. Find someone who will pray for you, pray with you, pray over you, draw others into prayer. I'm so blessed at my campus. Man, I have so many people, man, who are like, man, whatever you need pastor Justin, you just tell us. We're praying for you.
Pastor Justin McVey:Even this week I was getting texts for prayers and people reaching out and it's so so powerful. And I'll say this too, if those people you invite in, if it feels like they fall asleep on you, show them some grace. Show them some grace. Jesus wakes up the disciples after they've fallen asleep. He says, listen, I know your heart guys.
Pastor Justin McVey:I know the spirit is willing but the body is weak. It's like Peter, I know you just needed a Red Bull. It's okay. It's okay. Just pray with me Peter.
Pastor Justin McVey:I'm bringing you back into this. And there's already enough pain and hurt. Let's let's realize that maybe they're going through it too. Maybe there are things happening in their life and even in the midst of our pain and suffering, we can love on them. I think it's interesting that the last time Jesus drew these three together, if you go back in scripture, he he draws them together and he leads them up on the mountain and they get to experience him in all of his glory.
Pastor Justin McVey:So we call the Mount Of Transfiguration. Jesus starts glowing all of a sudden, Moses and Elijah are there. There's a voice from heaven. This is my son in whom I am well. Like all of the things and they're like, oh my gosh.
Pastor Justin McVey:Peter falls down says something stupid. That was his specialty. Know, but they got they got to see the fullness of God's divinity of his glory that Jesus was fully God. But in this moment, Jesus now invites them up on a mountain and they get to see his grief. They get to see his agony.
Pastor Justin McVey:They get to see the fullness of his humanity. It's a beautiful and an extremely powerful theological truth that is foundational to what we believe is that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. And and as that he he reveals this to the disciples. He opens himself up and shows them this side, which leads us to the second thing we learn from Jesus. Don't pretend.
Pastor Justin McVey:Be honest about your pain. Just be open and honest. I mean, we talk about inviting people in. Who in your life knows the real version of what you're carrying? Like like the unedited, raw cut, unrated version.
Pastor Justin McVey:Not the pretty one, but what you're really going through. Who are those people that you have been open and honest and transparent with? You see, we're really good at saying I'm fine. I'm good. Everything's okay.
Pastor Justin McVey:But the reality is that we are slowly falling apart in the silence. Piece by piece, struggling with this deep suffering. We've gotta get over that. Then we say, I'm fine, and our marriage is on the rocks. Doing great.
Pastor Justin McVey:Finances are a mess. Man, yeah, yeah, feeling feeling good, but we're a functional addict. Yeah. Life's life's okay when we've lost more people in our lives than we can actually count. And we're so tired of going to funerals and memorial services.
Pastor Justin McVey:Look at the language Matthew uses. I told you to to circle this, pay attention to this to describe Jesus. Anguished and distressed. These words literally refer to like physically being able to see the the anxiety. There was a convulsed like the his body, I imagine was just, man, it was tight.
Pastor Justin McVey:His body language just didn't even wanna move. His his man, his muscles were probably sore. There was this despair and anxiety that was visible on his face. Scripture goes as far to say that that he he actually sweat drops of blood. It was that intense.
Pastor Justin McVey:Jesus himself says, my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Said, I don't know if I can go on any further. I don't know if I can do this. Jesus, fully God, fully man, doesn't doesn't spiritualize his pain. He doesn't minimize what he's going through.
Pastor Justin McVey:He doesn't say, I'm fine. He tells the truth. Pastor Timothy Keller puts it this way. He says, Jesus did not face death with stoic indifference. He faced it with screams and tears.
Pastor Justin McVey:Then Keller asked the question, if the son of God was allowed to be overwhelmed, why do we think we aren't? Why do we think we have to have it all together? If Jesus could be honest with his pain, why can't we? Listen, back in the day, when I was doing youth ministry at our Hunter Park campus, I walked with a young man through some really difficult things. And, this young man is actually on staff now.
Pastor Justin McVey:But as we were walking through this, I remember meeting in my office. I remember him sharing everything that he was going through. And so in my wise pastorally like mode, I was like, hey, have you tried this? You should do this. And I'm like trying to give him advice in the midst of his suffering, his hurt, and his pain, which by the way, that's the worst thing you can do.
Pastor Justin McVey:And he looks at me. He says, you don't know me pastor Justin. Like, what do you mean I don't know you? You've been in youth group for two years. You've shared everything with me.
Pastor Justin McVey:I I know about all your mess bro. He goes, you don't know what my life is like. He goes, you're not hood. He goes, you don't know where I live. You don't know what I go through.
Pastor Justin McVey:You don't know what my life is like. You don't know. And I had to stop and pause in the moment. And I looked at the time at my rainbow sandals, my ripped skinny jeans, my polo with the collar popped because that was how we did it back then. And in that moment I had the most clarity that I'd had in that conversation.
Pastor Justin McVey:I said, Jose, you're right. I I don't know what you're going through, but God does. Listen to what Hebrews four says. This high priest of ours, talking about Jesus, he understands our weaknesses. He faced all of the same testings we do.
Pastor Justin McVey:Everything we went through, Jesus got went through. Yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy. Not judgment, not advice, not release from the suffering, but mercy.
Pastor Justin McVey:And we will find grace, undeserved gift to help us when we need it most. Jesus knows you. He knows exactly what you're going through because he went through it. He's been there. We we have this saying around Sandals.
Pastor Justin McVey:If you've been here, you've heard it. You never heal unless you're Real. Real. See? Healing begins when honesty begins.
Pastor Justin McVey:You never heal if you keep pretending nothing's wrong. Then Jesus knows what you're going through. He's experienced it. You can be open and honest with him. But we we stuff so much inside.
Pastor Justin McVey:We hide it. Listen, I believe one of the major contributors to the mental health crisis that we're seeing in the world around us, that we're experiencing in our society, is because we've lost the ability to mourn. Now, if you look up the definition of mourning, it is an outward expression of pain and loss. Listen, we lack the cultural mechanisms to express the depths of our pain and our grief and our suffering and our hurt. And as a result, we stuff it down.
Pastor Justin McVey:As a result, we don't deal with it. As a result, we hide it. We pretend everything is okay. And what it does is it short circuits our emotional and spiritual wiring because we're we're not allowed to talk about it. We're not allowed to say it.
Pastor Justin McVey:We're not allowed to mourn. So often when I when I talk to families who are grieving, I encourage them it's okay to mourn. You need to cry. You need to scream. You need to be angry with God.
Pastor Justin McVey:That's okay. Man, in ancient culture, like memorials, funerals would last weeks as they mourned, as they dealt with that pain and loss. You see, we've gotta bring it out. John one five reminds us that the light, John is speaking of Jesus, the light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not, cannot, will not overcome it.
Pastor Justin McVey:And listen church, when you expose what has been hiding in the darkness, No matter how gnarly, no matter how dirty, no matter how black and you bring that to the light, when you you share that with God, when you say, here it is, here's my mess, Here's my suffering. Here's what I'm going through. It shines his light on it. When you bring it out of the darkness, when you name it, it can no longer control you. Listen, that is when healing begins.
Pastor Justin McVey:When that happens, it can no longer harm you because listen, it cannot overcome the light of Jesus. Hang on to that. Hold on that. Don't ever forget that. Let's go back to the garden.
Pastor Justin McVey:Back to Jesus. Verse 42. Jesus left them and prayed. My father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done. When he turned to them again, he found them sleeping for they couldn't keep their eyes open.
Pastor Justin McVey:So he went to pray a third time saying the same things. Then he came to the disciples and said, go ahead and sleep. It's okay guys. Have your rest. And then look, the time has come.
Pastor Justin McVey:The son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Hold on to verse 46. Up, let's be going. Now, it's it's really easy to miss in the English translation. But there there is a a shift between Jesus's first prayer and his second prayer.
Pastor Justin McVey:You see in verse 39, as as Jesus prays, his his attitude is this of I I don't want to go to the cross. Father, is there any other way we can do this? Can can you change things? Can we change the plan? Is there something else we can do?
Pastor Justin McVey:And he comes, he encounters the disciples and he goes back to pray and there's a shift. Because when he prays the second time, he changes and now he's saying, all right, God, this is your will. It's the only way that I'll do it. Give me the strength. Give me the strength.
Pastor Justin McVey:Make your will my will. Man, give me the strength to obey. You see the final thing Jesus teaches us, this path to surrender, he says, don't run. Don't run. Surrender to the father's will.
Pastor Justin McVey:Listen, we're hardwired as human beings for self preservation. And as a result, we don't we don't wanna surrender. Scientists call it fight or flight. Like, literally when the pain hits, when we feel threatened, we either square up and get ready to throw fists or or we turn the other way and we run and we get out of there and we avoid. At a much deeper level, it's really about control.
Pastor Justin McVey:It's about escaping. You see, either try to control the situation with force, with anger, or we try to escape it, avoid it. We deny it. We numb it. But Jesus Jesus didn't give in to these natural instincts.
Pastor Justin McVey:You see, or flight is about self preservation. It's about saving your life. But Jesus says there's another way, surrender. Jesus says, here's the deal. You need to to let go of your life and you need to trust the one who gives life.
Pastor Justin McVey:Matthew sixteen twenty four, it's my life verse. I come back to it over and over again. It's a constant challenge and a reminder. Jesus says to his disciples, if any of you wants to be my follower, you wanna follow me, you wanna know me, you wanna call yourself a disciple of Jesus, you wanna go through suffering, you wanna make it through, you must give up your own way. You can't do it your way anymore.
Pastor Justin McVey:Your way is broken. Your way is doesn't work. Your way has failed so many times and you know it. Instead, he says, take up your cross. Not avoid it, not run from suffering.
Pastor Justin McVey:He says, take up the suffering, take up the cross. Follow me on the path through. That's why David could write, man, even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because Jesus says, follow me through. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. If you try to hang on to everything that you value, if you try to hang on to this this identity that you've built, the problem is it will keep you from moving through.
Pastor Justin McVey:It'll keep you from moving through the garden of suffering. It'll keep you moving through the cross. It'll keep you from moving through the grave. You will never come to the resurrection. You will never experience life.
Pastor Justin McVey:But Jesus says, if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. If you're willing to let go of your life and follow me through the suffering, you will experience resurrection life. You will experience hope and joy and peace and confidence like you have never imagined before in your life. Listen, we we've gotta break this mindset that surrender is losing. That that that we're waving the white flag that it's a sign of of weakness.
Pastor Justin McVey:Yes. It means letting go of control and that's exactly what Jesus desires for us. Some of you are like, that makes no sense. And you're absolutely right. Which is why I have Isaiah fifty five eight for you.
Pastor Justin McVey:Jesus is God is speaking. He says, my thoughts are not like your thoughts. Nothing like your thoughts says the Lord. My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. Man, my granny would remind me all the time.
Pastor Justin McVey:You're always gonna get a granny quote in my sermons just in case you're wondering. She would say, people may have dreams, but God has plans. Justin, don't ignore God's plans. Listen, church, you may have dreams. You may have imaginations of everything that could be, of everything you want your life to be, of the way it's supposed to play out.
Pastor Justin McVey:They've been built on Disney movies and Netflix shows. And it is it is everything you could ever imagine, the most perfect life. Those are just your dreams. God's got plans. Plans beyond anything you could ever come up with.
Pastor Justin McVey:Plans better than anything you could ever do. Plans for a hope and for a future. Man, that's the God we serve. That's why James writes and he says, humble yourself before God. That word humble literally means to come before him.
Pastor Justin McVey:It was a word used when when someone would come before the king and they would kneel before the king and plead for his mercy. And they would literally bow down and the king could take their life in that moment. But there was a trust if they had served the king. There was a confidence in knowing that the king cared enough that he was gonna that he's gonna spare their lives. That really means surrender.
Pastor Justin McVey:Everything you are. Your entire life, humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil. He will flee from you. Come close to God and he will come close to you.
Pastor Justin McVey:Everything in this if you look at the grammar in the Greek, everything is happening simultaneously here is what James is talking about. He says, as you do this, as you humble yourself before God, the devil will not be able any longer, man, to drag you through the mud. He he he he'll lose his influence on you. You'll be able to resist him. He'll leave you.
Pastor Justin McVey:And in that moment, you will draw close to God. Because listen, what will happen is as you fall at God's feet, he will kneel down and he will lift you up he will embrace you and he will come close to you. I started today by talking about pastor Fredo and his family. And the truth is there's there's nothing I can say to explain that kind of suffering and that loss that all of us either have gone through or will go through. Christianity doesn't give us easy solution for our suffering.
Pastor Justin McVey:But what it does give us, it gives us a savior who suffered just like we suffer. Gives us a savior who knows grief just like we grieve. A savior who knows pain more intense than anything we will ever experience. A savior who knows what it's like to cry out to God. Can you please change things?
Pastor Justin McVey:Is there any other way? But here's the best part. Look at the very last verse of that passage again, verse 46. Jesus says, up, let's be going. Christianity gives us a savior who gets up, who gets up.
Pastor Justin McVey:In the midst of the suffering in the garden, he gets up and he walks to meet the mob that will falsely arrest him. He gets up to to walk to the mob that will will eventually turn him over to Pilate, who will turn him over to be crucified. He gets up so that he can he can walk to Golgotha so that he can be hung on a cross. He gets up so that so that he can surrender his life so that he can be buried. He gets up to walk through the suffering.
Pastor Justin McVey:And then three days, three days in a grave. Three days again down in darkness. But listen, it was only three days because he rose again. Man, come on. He rose and we can too.
Pastor Justin McVey:Someone listening to this sermon right now is suffering. You you didn't expect it. You didn't choose it. Everything in you wants to fight or just simply give up and disappear. Listen.
Pastor Justin McVey:Jesus understands where you're at more than you know. He sat in the same darkness. He asked the same questions. He felt the same way. And then he got up.
Pastor Justin McVey:Not because the pain was gone. Not because the suffering was removed. But because he trusted the father more than he feared what was ahead. You can get up in two. The the path is is right in front of you.
Pastor Justin McVey:Listen, stop isolating. Invite people in who can help you carry the weight. So stop pretending it's okay. Share the unedited truth about what you're dealing with, what you're going through, about the hurting that you're experiencing. Stop running.
Pastor Justin McVey:You've been fighting against God's plan. You've been ignoring his presence. But today is the day you say, alright God, not my will, but yours. I surrender. Elizabeth Elliot was a missionary, man, who went and shared the gospel with the very people who had murdered her family and friends.
Pastor Justin McVey:Man, you wanna talk about suffering? She goes and this is what she says. She says, the will of God is not a place you go, but a person you surrender to. So surrender the grief, surrender the fear, surrender the anger, Surrender the desire to control. Surrender the questions.
Pastor Justin McVey:And trust. Trust that the father, the father who met Jesus in the midst of his suffering, that he will meet you in the midst of yours, and he will lead you through. Let's pray. Father, I thank you. I thank you that you are a God who knows our hurt, who knows our pain.
Pastor Justin McVey:A God who walks alongside of us as we go through it. God, I pray that we'd be reminded of the truth that you never leave us or forsake us, God. But I pray for those in this place, those who are suffering, those who feel the weight, God, of the world upon their shoulders, God. Those who are at the end. God who despair of life.
Pastor Justin McVey:I pray, pray that they would know your presence. They would know your love God. For that they would see your hand reaching out to them and they would take hold. They would allow you to to lift them up, God, and to lead them through the suffering. God, give us strength to trust you, to seek you, to know you.
Pastor Justin McVey:We pray this in your name. Amen.