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[WW] The Edge of Yikes! · The Wesley Word

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Wesley Wear.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, like Grace Ann said, my name is Natalie.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I am a pastor down in Georgia.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: The actual area is called Hamilton Mill.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: No one has ever heard of that, and that is totally okay.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: You've heard of Hamilton Mill?
• 0:25
  unknown: I'm from Georgia.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so you're from Georgia.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Have you heard of Hamilton Mill though?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: See, even people in Georgia haven't typically heard of it.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're near the Mall of Georgia.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you ever go to Georgia, you wouldn't go for the mall.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: But if you did, there is one there, and you could stop off and you will see the sign for Hamilton Mill.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it is not a short drive necessarily here.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so I love to come to Clemson Wesley for two main reasons.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: One is spill the beans.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then two is typically my little sister, Grace Ann.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: But if I'm honest, really option two is also spill the beans.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so I have checked their hours.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: They will be open after this.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that is where you can find me.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I won't hold us too much past that.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I love when Steve asks me to come because I love college.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like I love college and I love the age and the life that you're living right now.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of um, there's a lot of life change that is happening for all of you.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: But that can also be really overwhelming.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know how many of you are in the feeling of overwhelming now as you're looking at there's like me.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: It is me.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um as you're coming closer to finals and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um you've done spring break, right?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you're like ready for finals now at this point.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we're gonna have some fun tonight.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a reason I love college though, ministry-wise, is because especially when you're gathered in places like this, college students are asking all of the right questions.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: And typically, when you're gathered in spaces like this, you're looking to God for the answers.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And do you feel like you're asking yourself internally a lot of questions right now?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like they can be really big, like, who am I?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: What am I supposed to be doing on this earth?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what job am I supposed to work?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: What's my life going to look like?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Who am I supposed to be in this world?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I try really hard not to ask people uh, what's your major?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the reasons that is, is because that can be a really overwhelming question for at least a few of you in here who are like, I think I'm gonna change for the 15th time.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's overwhelming because what that question really is is like, so what's the rest of your life gonna look like?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of pressure that that can feel like.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, somebody's like, oh my god, that's too much pressure.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: I hadn't thought about that before.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of good questions happening.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it made me think of a scripture that I want to cover with you guys this morning.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we have it um for the screens, maybe it's 50-50 shot with my slides, but it's from Matthew 16.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: And here's uh what the scripture says When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: They replied, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: But what about you?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: He asked.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then he ordered his disciples to not tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And from that moment on, Jesus began to explain to the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and that he must suffer many things at the hands of the elders and chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day raised to life.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: So Peter took him aside and he began to rebuke Jesus.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Never, Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus turned back to Peter in one of the greatest lines in scripture.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Get behind me, Satan! He says, You are a stumbling block to me.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: For whoever wants to save their life will lose it.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: But whoever loses their life for me will find it.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So this scripture is smack dab in the middle of a major turn in Matthew 16.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: It is when Jesus very literally sets his face towards Jerusalem, where he's gonna make choices for you and for me and for the salvation of the world.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And he is intentional from this point on.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you read through the Gospel of Matthew, once you get to Matthew 16, there is no going back for Jesus.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this would have been a little crazy for the disciples.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Here's why, because up to this point, they've had to make some sacrifices, don't get me wrong, but there's also been some really cool things that have been happening.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like people are really excited about Jesus.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: The crowds are all coming around.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: There's like people from everywhere.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: They're getting invited to parties and to dinners, and like they keep showing up in places, and for whatever reason, people have these big jugs of water, just hoping Jesus is gonna like walk by and do some miracles and like wine, wine, wine, wine.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: But everything shifts when they go to Caesarea Philippi.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: The mood shifts.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus begins to prepare the disciples for what's to come.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this is foundational for their life, and it's foundational for their faith.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually think it's pretty foundational for us too this afternoon.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because first, Jesus asks the disciples, Who do people say I am?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter proudly responds, you are the Messiah, you're the son of the living God.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, boom, got it.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you can tell that he's really excited that Peter got this right, okay?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because he tells Peter, you're blessed, and I'm gonna make you the rock that I build my entire church on, and I'm gonna literally give you the keys to the kingdom, which if Peter was like me, he's like, hold up there, boss.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I lose keys a lot, and I'm not sure the implications that that might have for the kingdom, right?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: But you can tell that Peter has answered the question correctly because of Jesus' excitement.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: But then it kind of takes a whole 180, right?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And now Jesus is saying to Peter, get behind me, Satan, because you do not have the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine that kind of a whiplash in one day where you're like, man, I'm gonna be the rock?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then you're like, Am I Satan?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's a pretty big whiplash, right?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says this whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: For whoever wants to save their life will what?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Lose it.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: But whoever loses their life will save it.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that this scripture has some of the most fundamental questions, the most important questions we could ever ask ourselves.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think if you can think about these questions now and firm them up for your life now, it could change the trajectory of your entire life, of your family's life.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think for some of you, if you really took these questions seriously, it could change the trajectory of the church and of Christianity as a whole.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So the questions I want to ask you this afternoon, I want you to think about if you bring notes, you can write them down.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: If not, just commit them to memory, okay?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, who do you say Jesus is?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Who do you say Jesus is?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Not who your parents told you Jesus was, not even who Steve says Jesus is, not who I say Jesus is, but who do you say Jesus is?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think people can spend their entire Christian lives and never answer this question for themselves.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Who is Jesus to you?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is he good?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Is he kind?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Is he the Messiah?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Is he this far-off concept, or is he a close by sacred friend?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Who do you say Jesus is?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And this scripture tells us that once we figure out the answer to that question, God can use that to change the face of the world.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: God just needed one person, one person to say, I know who Jesus is, and he used that person as the literal rock for the church.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: But there are modern days examples of this all the time.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Or even not too recently, but people like Mother Teresa or Dietrich Bonhoeffer or even Martin Luther King Jr., they were all people who knew who Jesus was to them.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it changed the course of their entire life.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: So who do you say Jesus is?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Who do you say Jesus is?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Number two.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Once you figure that out, what concerns do you have in mind?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: What concerns do you have in mind?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: When Jesus starts telling you about what the road ahead is gonna look like, what concerns do you have in mind?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because I don't think Peter was that wrong, right?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like if one of your very best friends in the whole world came up to you after tonight's service and was like, hey, I just want to let you know I'm gonna have to die.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then in three days, I'm gonna come back from the dead.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: We would all be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's have some conversations, right?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: So Peter's not that far off.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting though, because Jesus says, you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: Human concerns aren't necessarily a bad thing.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Human concerns are normal, right?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like it is okay to be concerned.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: But the thing is, is that God rarely lets us worry about those things if we want a life of faith.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: God rarely leaves us in our comfort zone.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And our human concerns are what keeps us from moving out of our comfort zone.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because in my experience and in the experience of hundreds of years of faith before me, and really the entire Bible, God rarely calls people to stay in their comfort zone.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: God doesn't call people up and just say, Hey, it's me, God.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Just wanted to check in with you, letting you know you're doing great.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Change nothing about your life.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Just really keep it all the same.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing needs the same.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: If that was how our God acted, we would have a really boring faith, one, but like we'd have like a three-page Bible, right?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: That is not how God shows up in the world.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: God is never interested in us doing the comfortable thing.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: So when God comes calling, which God is going to if God has not already, when God comes calling, what concerns do you have in mind?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have human concerns?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, will I have enough money?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Will my family be okay?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Will I get that really good job or a good car or good benefits?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Will I, will I, will I?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you have the concerns of God?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Concerns for things like love and peace and hope and healing and restoration and justice.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: These are the concerns of God.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, whoever wants to save their life must what?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Lose it.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: But whoever loses their life will find it in me.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is asking us in a way to die, but he's also asking us in a really profound way to live.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: To live for Jesus.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Which brings me to question number three.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: What do you live for?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to live for?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to live for?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to live for that particular major or that particular job or that particular lifestyle or that particular status?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you want to perhaps live for something a little bit more?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to live for?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: I brought this book, Bob Goff, Dream Big.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Any Bob Goff fans in here?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Just a couple.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you might have heard this before, but I'm kind of a really big Bob Goff fan.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: I really love him.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love all of his books.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: But this one he shares a story in.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: I suggest all of them, by the way.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just do a plug for Bob Goff real quick.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: This is a little ad in the podcast.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Bob Goff has some really great books.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: If you haven't read, start with Love Does, but then conclude with Dream Big.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: And Bob Goff tells this story in this book about a trip to Somalia.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he's got this organization that they're in countries all across the world.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: And what they're really interested in is kind of doing the impossible, going to really warn torn war tour areas and getting people to lay down their weapons.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And particularly they're interested in working with children, specifically girls, a lot of the times, to help them with education that they might have a shot at life instead of being shot at.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a really, really cool thing.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're in Somalia.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't know anything about Somalia, it's not a particularly super safe place.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so he goes there, he comes out of the airport for his very first trip there, and there's two cars to move him.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: And the one car is this smaller vehicle, and it's got tinted out windows, and that's for him.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's another car in front of him that is completely open air, and it's got six big guys in it with six machine guns.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's like, cool, so we're doing this.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Got it.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: So he gets in the car and they're driving down the road, and he says it kind of reminded him like a scene from Call of Duty.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody here ever play Call of Duty?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: I have not, so I don't know what that means, but I can't, I can't imagine that it's particularly good.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're driving down the road, the two of these cars, and this one car cuts in between the two cars.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we know that this is not good, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: And Bob says he knows it's not good, one, because you could just tell it's not good, and two, because the driver looks over at him and says, uh oh, this is not good.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so the the protection car in front of now that middle car swerves around and starts shooting at this middle car, which also means that his car is what, like in the line of fire, right?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, I've never been in a shootout before.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Me neither.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, I'm not really sure like what the proper protocol or behavior or what to do.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so he was like, All I know to do is just go, yikes.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know about you, but if all I'm gonna do is scream out one word, it's not gonna be yikes in that scenario, right?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: But the point, he says, and I want to read this specifically to what he says, is as he reflected on this moment, I've been spending my whole life trying to become more and more comfortable.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: I have a nice house, I have a nice car, I even have a nice boat.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: But what I've discovered is that comfortable people don't need Jesus.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Desperate people do.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And God doesn't want us living in the middle of comfortable anymore.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: He wants us living on the edge of yikes.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: You guys are at a point in your lives where you are naturally on the edge of yikes in a lot of ways.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: You have the potential to make choices now that are uncomfortable, that might be hard, that might be a little bit crazy to the rest of the world, but it will keep you out of your comfort zone and in the Jesus zone.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, what I hear the scripture telling us, and what I hear this Bob Goff story telling us, is to want to figure out who Jesus is to you.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Figure it out, guys.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Spend that time, figure out who Jesus is to you, and then care about the concerns of God.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Then figure out what you want to live for, to really live for.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that will keep you on the edge of yikes.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I want you to do me a favor and stand up.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is like a little bit of a trust exercise here.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know me that well, so it's like kind of scary.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um close your eyes for me.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I want you just to repeat after me pretty loudly, okay?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yikes.
• 18:43
  unknown: Yikes!
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: One more time, yikes! Yikes! Now open your eyes.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: My prayer for you is that you will live your life as uncomfortable as you are now, and as close to the edge of yikes as you are now.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Holy God, we thank you so much for your son Jesus.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you for the life that he lived and the way that he loved and the way that he is calling and speaking to us each and every day.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: God, my prayer for all of us and for these students specifically is that they would hear your voice calling to them.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: That as they ask the big questions of life, the hard questions of life, the difficult questions of life, that they would feel your Holy Spirit nudging them into the uncomfortable places, into the edge of yikes, that they might come to know you more, and that they might come to live into your purposes for them.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: God, would you bless them and their work and their study and their laughter and their naps.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: God, would you multiply their effort for your kingdom?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's in your son's holy name that I pray.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: The Wesley Word is a production of the Clemson Wesley Foundation.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Clemson Wesley, check out our website or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, get out there and love your neighbor.