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You may take your seat. My name is Lona Williams. I'm the executive pastor here at 2819 Church. And I am so grateful to be given this opportunity to preach the word on this morning. I would be remiss in this moment if we did not take a second, more than a second. We're gonna pause for the cause and we're gonna honor the lead pastor of this church, Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell. If you've been blessed by him, just put your hand. I'll tell you now. Next week is his birthday. And so next Sunday, we want to just honor him and just thank God for the life of the ministry of Pam, and just grateful for him and his wife, Ms. Lena, and their family and, you know, just grateful that they would even give us the opportunity to be able to just minister to God's people. I also just want to shout out my wife, who's in the room. My oldest daughter is back from college for a little while. So grateful for that. To the elders of this house, I thank God for you. And I feel like, like one of them old Baptist churches where you got to name off everybody. The deacons on the roster, members and Christian friends, saints and ain't. Amen. Listen, I'm just grateful for everyone here in the staff with this assignment I've been given. You know, the first gathering was interesting because I don't think I realized that I was preaching to myself. Yeah, I was preaching to myself. It didn't hit me until in the back that this was actually a word for me. So I think I'm just. I'm preaching in the mirror. Y' all just so happen to be in the room with me. But I pray that as it pierces me, that it pierces you as well. Amen. We're going to continue in this series Cross to Commission, as we continue to move through the final stages of Jesus life, His burial and his resurrection. And as we move to that exciting text, Matthew 28:19, which is going to be an amazing Sunday here as we get closer and closer to that. But I've been charged with Matthew chapter 26. And I'm going to read. And I'll be responsible for, excuse me, verses 47 to actually 56. And so I'm not going to read the full text in this moment, but I want to go ahead and preface to say that the crux of my message will probably be between 51 and 56. So we're going to move pretty quickly to get to 50. But if I had to give a title to this preachment, I would call, had to happen. It had to happen. You're wondering why it happened, and God is saying it had to happen. Let's begin, Father. You know, in 19, see, I'm 40 years old now, so 1992, I had to think about that for a minute. In 1992, I was in the Lynnwood Aquatic center going through the graduation for my first swim lesson. I fell in love with swimming, and my mother took me to this facility. And a part of the final class was the ability to not only be able to doggy paddle in the middle of water, but you had to jump off of the diving board. Would you jump off the diving board? And I felt very confident in this endeavor. And so I passed the test with doggy paddling in the middle of the water for five minutes. And then my class then kind of walked our way over to the diving board. To the diving board. All of my classmates jumped into the water easily. And me, being the confident 7 year old that I was, walked up to the diving board, and I confidently walked to the end of the diving board. And when I looked over the edge, I saw 14ft of water beneath me. And slowly but surely, as I stared over the side of that diving board, I could feel my feet slowly backing up. Because you'll learn I don't like heights and I don't like cats. Those are two things I cannot stand. And as I looked over, I said, nope. But unfortunately, as I was walking back, I could not find the strength to get off of the diving board. And I felt myself at the edge doing one of these. And the whole diving board was shaking because I was so nervous to jump off. And my family, my mom and my classmates were on the other end of the pool, and they were saying, jump, Lionel, jump. And I was like, no, I'm not jumping. I refused to jump. And five minutes turned into 30 minutes. Thirty minutes turned into two hours. For two hours, I shut down the Lynwood Aquatics Center. No other classes could go forward because I refused to jump. And in the moment where I thought I had gathered enough strength to jump off of the diving board, I felt this firm yet gentle hand on my back. And it went just like this. Yeah, somebody pushed me. And so I got in the water, and clearly I was alive and well. I got out. I dried off. Everybody clapping, you know, yay. I'm like, okay, I got you, right? I get off, you know, I get into the car. And my mother's like, see? See, you just had to do it. And I was like, no, I don't first off, why you would allow someone to come up behind me and push me in the pool, Right? Like, what is. Where were you? Right? And I was mad because I'm like, I was just about to do it, you know, at the two hour and one minute mark, I was just about to jump. I promise you, I was. You just didn't give me a chance to. And my mother, you know, did not even realize it at the time, but she was being prophetic. She looked in the rearview mirror and she said, lynell, it had to happen. It had to happen. And just as it was with me, as it is with you on this morning, God is trying to move you to a place in your Christian maturity. And some moments have to happen to ensure that you walk in your purpose. Can I help somebody here? This is what I realized. I'm not saying. Let me set the foundation for this text. I am not saying. Saying that bad things are God's fault. Hear me out. Evil is evil. Sin is sin. So what I am not saying is that the catastrophic thing that took place in your life was God's fault. Now I am saying, though, that the Christian life is not without suffering. Suffering is part and parcel of our Christian experience, right? But catastrophic, like unbelievable things that seem evil. The Bible is very clear. It says that God tempts no man with evil. Now, what he will do is he will redeem a negative thing. He will redeem it and somehow get something out of it, but he is not the cause of it. So when we think about this preachment, I don't want you to think from the lens of something catastrophic or evil, because God is not the author of either one. But when it comes to our suffering, this is the part that we have to think through. Now, in the reality of this text, we're going to find that Jesus is coming out of the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter, James, and John. And this is something I didn't say the first gathering, but I also want you to realize this. The disciples were also there, too. Now, they weren't in the secret place, but as Jesus is walking out, the rest of the disciples are in the space. And I can prove it to you later on, because if you look at the last verse, 56, the Bible says that the disciples fled. They were present, but they were silent. All right, we'll preach that later. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. So we find now that Jesus is coming out of the Garden of Gethsemane. He just said, not my will, but thy will. Be done. We've just had this experience with Peter, James, and Jesus, John, and then all of a sudden, the Bible says that Judas shows up. Now, here is the thing. Jesus has resolved that he was ready to do God's will, but his disciples were not. The scene was uncomfortable. The scene was chaotic. You've got all these people coming. You've got Judas leading the crowd. They've got swords, they've got clubs. They're going crazy. You got Peter in the room with his weapon, his side ready to go. And Jesus is the calmest person in the space. And I don't know about you, but have you ever been in a moment where you have felt extremely uncomfortable? Have you ever been in a place where everything is falling apart around you and you don't know what to do? Have you ever felt more uncomfortable than you can even imagine? Or maybe have you been trying to discern how God would allow you to sit in a season like this? A season where you have been the most obedient, and it just so happened to be the season that you've had the most pain. Listen to me. The fact that it is hard does not mean that you miss God. Okay? All right. Just because it hurts doesn't mean you're off. If obedience led Jesus into the garden of Gethsemane, why do you think obedience will always lead you into comfort? Lord, I'm obedient, not my will. But your will ushers you right into the place of pain. The story that I'm about to walk with you through is a story about reactions. It's a story about emotional control. It's a story about purpose. And the text is not just happening to Jesus. It's actually happening to us. Jesus is the greatest example of how to manage our emotions in the midst of chaos. And Jesus shows us what to do in these moments. And other people in the text show us what not to do. It is a mirror to our lives to see if we look like Jesus when all hell hits the fan. I've got to push this very quickly. But as we look at the story, in verse 47, it says that while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the 12. Now, this is what is so interesting to me. While he was still speaking. So Jesus is technically still in the garden of Gethsemane. Judas comes and meets him in the garden. And this is where I was confused. How was it that Judas knew where Jesus was? He knew the garden. He knew the routine. He knew the rhythm. This is the thing. Your deepest wounds will always come from people who have had access to your patterns because they likely studied you before they stabbed you. Let's keep going. Now, now, now we see this. It says this. It says, and with the great crowd of swords and clubs and chief priests and elders and people. Now, the betrayer had given them a sign saying that all the one I kiss is the man sees him. And he came up to Jesus, and at once he said, greetings, Rabbi. And he kissed him. What's interesting is this. He came with a great crowd. They were chief priests and elders. If we were to contemporize this in the modern day. These were church leaders. Yeah, these were church leaders. People who stood in the front and would proclaim the books of the Jewish community. They would read from the Torah. But they were religious folks, and they sat there to capture Jesus, all in the name of God. In other words, they misused the name of God for their own spiritual purpose. And I know you've never seen that before. I know you've never experienced that before. You've never seen wayward preachers who try to use the name of God to, you know, purposely prop themselves up and say, Jesus said, I know you've never been in a church where a preacher will stand before you and say, the Holy Spirit said, 300 people in this room have a hundred dollars. Amen. I feel. I feel the holy. Oh, sh. I feel them in the room. Right? That is a lie. They are just like the individuals in the text, Using religiosity to force an agenda to keep their status. Yeah, the Holy Spirit didn't tell you 300 people in here got a hundred dollars. Say that y' all over budget and y' all need to raise this money or you're gonna go in a hole. Say you didn't get an honorarium and the pastor told you that you had to raise up your offering so you can go home with something in your pockets. Is that too real? Am I being too real? I'm telling the truth, right? All right, let's keep going. I just want to make sure I said that. All right, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Verse 50. Jesus said to him, friends, do what you came to do. Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. I didn't even see that they laid hands on him. How dare you lay hands on my father? All right, Greek. The Greek says this. The word friend is not like a friend. We understand. Not like a friend or a brother. The word in Greek actually means an associate or comrade. So when you see him, say, do what you've come to do. Jesus is not confused. He's not panicking. He's not stressed out. He's not saying, I'm okay with what you're doing. He's actually saying, I'm okay with what God is doing through you. He's saying, I am not surrendering to Judas. He's saying, I'm surrendering to the will of the Father. That's not passivity. That is purpose in action. He's saying, when you're anchored in purpose, you don't have to fight everything that hurts. Wait, wait. Let me do it. Let me do it. Okay. All right. When you are anchored in purpose, you don't have to fight everything that hurts. Some things you just gotta let it happen. Some things you have to experience because it had to happen. How do I know? Let me pose this question to you, and maybe this will speak to your truth. What if God can't complete what you keep interrupting? What if the thing you fear is actually the thing that's forming you? What if the pressure you feel is actually the proof that God trusts you? Jesus. I felt that. But just do me a quick favor. I know we don't do this here, but just nudge somebody if you can and say, I'm good. God's got me. Yeah. God's got me. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I felt like I was a little Baptist. That was good. I felt good. All right, here we go. Point number one. Let's get to the text. Let's get to the text. Point number one. It had to happen so Christ could reveal what's inside of you. It had to happen so Christ could reveal what's inside of you. Let's look at this. Verse 51. It says, and behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand. Now, mind you, Matthew never reveals the name of the person. We all know it's Peter, but he never reveals the name of this person. I will talk to you about why that's the case in a second. And he drew his sword and struck the servant John 18 says his name was Malchus, the high priest, and cut his ear. Church. We need to pause for the cause here because Matthew is showing us something subtle and very severe. Peter did not swing because he was brave. He swung because he was unhealed. He swung because he was emotionally unmanaged. Peter swung because swinging was easier than surrendering. And I know. I know what you're saying. No, no, no. That. That. That's not us. That's not us. We don't. We don't swing like that. No, no, no. That can't be us. You. You've got a sword in the hand that was supposed to be surrendered. And how do I know? Pressure will always reveal your reflex. Put you in a pressured place, and I'll tell you exactly how you respond. For some of you, your sword is not a physical sword. For some of you, your sword is pulling back out of conversations. For some of you, it's manipulation. For some of you, it's going numb. For some of you, it's an angry attitude. For some of you, it's cutting remarks. For some of you, your sword is stoned, stonewalling. For some of you, it's playing the white knight, the savior. For some of you, it's running instead of confrontation. For some of you, your sword is your spouse. You've turned your spouse into a project instead of a partner, and you call it having standards. For some of you, your sword is your silence. You've been cunning people with it for years. For some of you, the people who are the closest to you have the most emotional scars from your mouth. And then you call it being direct. Your sword is whatever you reach for when your world is spinning out of control. And Peter's swing did not begin in the garden moment. No, no, no, no, no. It did not begin in the garden moment when he slept, when God needed him the most. Jesus was praying and Peter was asleep instead of being attentive. And I know you're asking to yourself, how's that me? That's not me. Well, let me ask you this. When was the last time you opened your Bible without a crisis forcing you there? When was the last time you sat with God when you didn't need something from him? I know I'm preaching better than you speaking, but that's okay. You've been running on last year's prayer, trying to fight this year's battle. How's that working? You neglected the secret place, and now you're panicking in the public place. Show me how you would respond when all hell breaks loose. Now we find ourselves a pressure moment. No clarity. No peace. No power. And you're wondering why you keep swinging at the things that you should be praying through. Peter is not our cautionary tale. Peter is our testimony. If we do not wake up. Watch this. Peter's sword was already in his hand before the mob arrived. He just hadn't drawn it yet. And now, in the moment that demanded stability, he walked into it with chaos. Peter's swing was not bravery. It was brokenness. It is the visible manifestation of an invisible wound. Emotions will force you to swing and miss. The real issue in other texts and other gospels. The Bible says that Peter actually cut off the ear of Malchus. Now, this is the thing that confused me a little bit, honestly, because it's not like he didn't know how to use a sword. So why would he cut off an ear? Why didn't he cut off his head? Why didn't he stab him in the heart? Why didn't he stab him? To try to injure him and to kill him. You're trying to defend the Lord. So why would he just cut off an ear? That doesn't make sense. And as I thought about that, I realized that for some of us, we respond just like him. Our emotional swings are not coming from a place of what's happening in that moment. They're coming from what you never healed five years ago. They're coming from places you didn't heal 20 years ago. And you keep blaming your circumstances, but your circumstances didn't create your chaos. They exposed it. Amen. Lights. All right. David Riccio in his book called Triggers, says this what triggers show us is where we have not yet become free. You're not reacting to what they did. You're reacting to what you never dealt with. Yeah. Your response has nothing to do with the moment. Your response has everything to do with what you have not addressed. It's like me, for some reason, and this is just me. I love to cook. I love to cook. I love to bake. I love to cook. You know, I do have some peach cobbler. Staff knows I call it double crusted. Slap your own peach cobbler. Yes, yes. Double crusted Slap your mama peach cobbler. It is that good. You want to slap your mama because it is delicious. Amen. Double crusted Crust on the top, crust on the bottom. It's real, but for. Yeah, it's good. See, I got you. But this is the thing. This is the thing. For some reason, whenever I cook, I don't know why this happens to me every single time. But when I cook, I burn myself some way, shape or form. Like, I don't know why that happens. I burn myself. And when I do, I know that it's gonna be good. If I burn myself, that's how I know it's gonna be good. Cause I'm putting my foot in it, you know? Like, I'm in that thing. So, you know, I'm like, oh, yeah, little oil pop on me. I'm like, oh, yeah, this about to be good right here? Yeah, Dar, it's about to be good right here. In fact, I burned myself right there. It was good. It was good. But this is the thing. Whenever I do burn myself, my son, who is just like me, he loves to go get band aids. He loves to go get Band Aid. He'll grab a band aid and give it to me. And if you're not careful with a child, they'll use up all the band aids on everything for like, you don't even have a scratch. You just feel like, I need a band aid. You know what I'm saying? But with the band aid, I always put it on, and because I become frustrated, I pull the band aid off. I pull it off usually after a day, assuming that it's healed. And because I don't give it the space to be healed. The scar, number one, can never properly be handled by my body to fix. But number two, it always leaves a scar. The wound becomes a scar and a scar that can be visible. Do you understand what I'm saying? If you're not careful, the thing that you don't deal with today will become the scar of the future. Does that make sense? Let's keep going. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. Look at point number two. Point number two. It had to happen so Christ could draw you in to depend on him. Look at verse 52. Then Jesus said to him, put your sword back in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Jesus in this moment is rebuking Peter, but it's not a traditional rebuke. It is a very subtle, very clear and surgical rebuke. Look what he says. He says, put your sword back. Watch this in its place. He doesn't say, throw your sword away. He doesn't say, give your sword to somebody else. He doesn't say, give me the sword. He says, I don't want you to think that the sword is bad, right? I don't want you to think that your emotions are bad. He doesn't say there's anything wrong with having them. He says, but I want you to put them in their place. Your emotions aren't the enemy. Your timing is. And if we're honest, your responses are oftentimes your emotions just leading. They're dictating, they're controlling, they're interrupting. Your emotions were designed to inform you and not to control you. And this is how I know this is true. It's like the phrase when we say, take the wheel, Jesus, right? Oftentimes what we will do as believers, as we actually will. We will take the wheel. We allow our emotions to take the wheel. We put Jesus in the passenger seat. And if we're honest, some of us actually push Jesus out of the car completely. And then we drive with our emotions and watch this, our lives wind up in the ditch. And then we have the audacity to say, well, Jesus, why did you allow this to happen to me? Because we have not given our emotions the proper place in our lives. We. We. We. We. We. We. Jesus does not destroy emotions. He does not ignore them. Jesus himself had emotions. Look at Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 15. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. In other words, Jesus has experienced every emotion that we experience, and yet he has chosen because your emotional response is our choice. He has chosen not to sin. Jesus teaches us how to discipline our emotions. He never says, I don't want you to be passionate. In fact, he never says that you cannot be angry. The Bible says to be angry, but sin not. I want you to put your passions where they belong. Put them in their place. I'm going to say this very clearly. If the only way you know how to feel safe is to stay in control, you will always interpret surrender as danger. You have made control your God and called it wisdom, Lord. All right, all right, that's fine. I'll keep going. Hear me. Control is not safety, it's a sword. Control is not wisdom, it's self protection. And self protection oftentimes becomes self sabotage. How do I know? Let me ask you this. What have you been calling wisdom that is really just fear with a better vocabulary word. Okay. What has your self protection already cost you that you're still not ready to admit? How about this? What impulses have you masqueraded as discernment? I'm just. I discern. I discern this moment. No, that is just your faulty impulses getting you in seasons that you're praying God to pull you out of. And God won't move because God didn't put you there. All right, watch this. We cannot ask God for peace when we are gripping our emotional weapons. Whenever we reach for something, when we're afraid, we keep saying, lord, help me, while refusing to release it. And he is saying, I want to help you, but you will not let go. And what emotions we hold on in our hands reveal what we don't trust God to hold. Show me what you can't let go of, and I'll show you what you worship. That's why Jesus says, put it back in its place. Jesus is discipling Peter's emotions and ours. The correction had to happen so that he could no longer respond emotionally, but respond like Christ. Point number three, and I'm almost done. It had to happen so Christ could form obedience inside of you. What do I mean? All right, look at the text. Verse number 53. Do you think that I cannot appeal to the Father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels? Jesus is saying, peter, I'm not here because I lack options. I'm not. I'm here because I have obedience. Jesus literally says, all right, so a legion is 6,000, right? 6,000, right. So if he says that, if Allegiant is 6,000, Jesus is saying, I can send 72,000 angels at my disposal. You talk about clapback Jesus like, oh, I'm the king of clap back. I got you, right? Watch this. He had enough spiritual control to discern the moment and hold back the gates of heaven, which he could have released. So my question to you is then why can't you hold your tongue in traffic? Where's Rhonda? Shata. All right, Jesus could have escaped. He could have retaliated. He could have shut it down, but he didn't. Not because he was not powerless. He did it because he was powerful. I'm gonna say this real slowly for you. Real authority is not doing what you have the power to do. It is resisting what you have the right to do. Power is not in what you can do. Power is in what you won't do. And Jesus had the right to fight. He had the right to command the angels. But purpose always speaks louder than pain. Now. Now you're probably wondering, okay, well, then what? How do I delineate between an unhealthy response and a healthy response? If Jesus is modeling for us what a healthy response to pain and being obedient is? So how do I define what an unhealthy response is? That's very simple. An unhealthy response says, do anything right now. Just do it. Just to the wind. Just yolo. Just do it all. And a healthy response says, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. An unhealthy response says, run, escape, quit, freeze. But a healthy response says, hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering. Unhealthy says, rewrite the story so you won't get hurt. But healthy says, run with endurance. The race that is set before us. An unhealthy response says that the plan is failing and you need to take control. But a healthy response says, trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not to thy own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. If this was a Baptist church, this is when I would feel good and start hooping. But he would say now. Unhealthy says, now or never. But a healthy response says, I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. An unhealthy response says that the pain is proof that you're failing. But a healthy response says, let patience have its perfect work, that you may be completely. An unhealthy response says, what you're feeling, you'll feel forever. But a healthy response says, for I consider that the suffering of this present world shall not compare to the glory that shall be revealed. Hear me. Every shortcut the enemy offers you is sabotage, wrapped in relief. The devil's exits always look like entrances. Lord help us. He's not trying to destroy you openly. The enemy is trying to reroute you suddenly. And the reroute feels like a rescue until it realizes where you realize where it led you. How do you know if this is true? Well, let me ask you this. Where are you tempted to rush? What God is trying to refine? What are you trying to get out of that? God is trying to get inside of you. Jesus could have called the angels, but he used his power over the pain. And if Jesus canceled the purpose, we would still be on our way to hell. His escape would have cost us everything. He said, not my will, but thy will, and so would yours. It had to happen. Point number four, as I come to the close. It had to happen because the scriptures had to be revealed. If you look at 54 through 56, Jesus is explaining to those who are in the space. He says, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? And at the hour Jesus said to the crowds, have you come out? Had you come out? As against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me. Day after day I sat at the temple teaching, you didn't seize me. But all this had to take place. The scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Listen to the tone of Jesus. He's not irritated, he's not anxious, he's not shaken. And if some of us will be honest with ourselves, if we were put in the same place, our response would probably not look like Jesus. He is rooted. Jesus was the calmest Person in all of the chaos, in something that he could have prevented. And that's what happens when you know the outcome. When you know the outcome, when you know he'll never leave you nor forsake you. It doesn't matter what comes your way. When I know the outcome, I'm trusting his word. He says, now then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled. Translation, if I stop this, I stop what God said. If I protect myself, which I can from my own pain, I prevent myself from this purpose, which is to die on the cross. He's saying, this is not happening to me. This is happening for the sake of. Of what God promised. So what you have been calling confusion, heaven has been calling completion. What we've been calling a breakdown. Father's been calling it a setup. How differently would you carry this season if you actually believe that God already wrote the ending? What have you been calling falling apart that God has been calling falling into place? How much of your purpose have you already delayed by protecting yourself from the pain? Purpose does not make pain painless. It gives pain purpose. I'll say this. You can survive the what if you know the why. You can survive the what if you know the why and purpose will carry what comfort cannot cure. It had to happen not because God is cruel, but because God is completing something that required a season in your life. And in mind. Somebody in here is saying, I am not about to waste this pain. This pain will not be wasted. These tears will not be wasted. This heartache will not be wasted. This. This financial trouble will not be wasted. This relationship that fell apart will not waste be wasted. I am going to use this opportunity not to lean in myself, but to lean into the father and say, I trust you. It had to happen. Why? So that you father can be glorified not about me, but about him. And if we're honest with ourselves, some of us have blamed God for seasons where he was trying to form you in it and not force you through it. It's like a pottery class my wife and I took. I'm bad at it. But you had to put your foot on the wheel, and you know, it started spinning. And if you. If you were too forceful, pottery would tape in or it would fall out. And then you have to start over. You have to get another block of pottery, slam it onto the plate, then you hit the wheel, and you form it. And you form it. You form it, you form it. If you're not careful, you'll keep breaking. And if some of us are going to be honest with one another, this Is the season where we feel like we keep breaking. We keep blaming the potter, but it's actually the clay. We are brittle. We are broken. And we keep saying, father, do something. You see me in this pain. You see me. You see me. You see me crying. You see my heart broken. You see me trying do something. And God is saying, son and daughter, it had to happen. It had to happen. Because I'm about to use what you were experiencing to form you into what I need you to be in this next season and watch this man. If some of us would be honest, I want to say this. Let me tell you this first. The story I shared with you in the beginning about the me on the diving board and getting nervous and being pushed. The part that I never shared with you was this. The whole while that I was up there, looking down at that 14ft dropped into that water, what I failed to recognize that it was the Kelly. The lifeguard was actually waiting water out there the whole time. For two hours. The lifeguard was just waiting on me to jump. I was nervous to jump in. I was nervous to trust. I was fearful of what would happen. And the Savior was right there the whole time. And some of us need to do what I did not get the opportunity to do. Some of us need to take a moment and say, I'm sorry because you were there the whole time. I cursed you, and you were right there. I yelled in my prayer closet, but you were right there. I fought this emotion and this pain, but you were there the whole time. You kept me in the midst of my trials and tribulations, and I was still mad. I never missed a meal, and I'm still mad. Breath in my body, but I was still mad. Money in the bank, but I was still mad. And this is the moment where some of us have to say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for how I showed up, Father. And I trust you that in the season it has to happen. It had to happen so that you would get the glory out of this pain. You would get the glory out of this moment. So we're just gonna bathe this sermon with one stanza of this song. And I just want. I want. I want the lights down so that you can have an independent and private moment with God and just tell him, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
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When I just sing another song. Take me back to where we started I opened up my heart to you.
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I'm sorry and I'm sorry.
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Forgive us When I come with my own agenda and I'm sorry.
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But I.
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Forgot that you're enough to take me back to where we started I open up my heart to. Caught up in your presence.
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A
Jesus I.
- [45:59]
B
Just wanna sit here at your feet caught up in this holy moment.
- [46:14]
A
I.
- [46:14]
B
Never wanna leave you. And I'm not here for blessings I'm.
- [46:26]
A
Not here for blessings Jesus you don't.
- [46:31]
B
Know me anything know me anything more and more than anything that you can you I just want you I just.
- [46:47]
A
Want you Lord I just want you I just want you I just want.
- [46:51]
B
You I just want you and nothing else and nothing else nothing else will do I just I just want you.
- [47:06]
A
You.
- [47:09]
B
Nothing else and nothing else.
- [47:16]
A
And.
- [47:16]
B
Nothing else I just want you.
- [47:24]
A
And.
- [47:24]
B
Nothing else nothing else nothing else nothing else nothing else we'll do else I just want you nothing else nothing else nothing else nothing else nothing else will nothing else.