Who Do You Say That I Am

When Pastor Steph asked me to speak months ago, I really was before the Lord. And it's like, all right, Lord, what. What is it that you want me to share? And I had it figured out and I was going to speak out of Matthew, and we're going to be in Matthew tonight, but it's a whole different theme, just the Lord's declaration of what would happen at the end of times and how we should react. And it was going to be great, right?

But I'm not going to speak on that, so it might not be so great.

About a week and a half ago, I heard the Lord ask me a question, and tonight was birthed out of that question. And the question was, what will she think of me?

So I'm sitting in my car in a Walmart parking lot and the Lord asked me this question.

He said, what will she think of me?

And there's a story behind that and it's going to be hard for me to share because I messed up.

My daughter, my oldest daughter had just gotten a car and is all excited and it was a Saturday and I had promised her I would take her out, we would get her some stuff for her car. Joyous occasion. Everything's good. We went and we got the car washed and then we went to Walmart to get a few things since it was close. And we went through the checkout and I wanted some change back, but I.

So you know how you can ask for change, right? You can get cash. Am I the only one that does that? Okay, so I was getting $20 back. Well, the problem was is we had just got her car washed at Auto Bell, and I wanted to tip the young man who did the work right, but I didn't have any cash on me.

So we went through the self checkout, which if Walmart, you're listening, you need to get rid of those. But we went through the self checkout and I got $20 back, but I didn't want to give the young man the whole 20, so I needed some change.

So I went up to the service desk and there were three people behind the service desk. There were two young ladies and a young man. The young man came open first, so he called me up and I said, can I. Would it be okay if I got some change? Can you give me change for this?

He goes, you'll have to buy something. I said, well, I actually just did.

And I got $20 back. And I'm trying to explain to him now, I just need change. And the young lady to his left, my right who's probably about half my age.

She looks at me real murky, very condescendingly, says, he said, you're going to have to buy something.

Well, Confession time. That did not sit well with me.

And Jesus helped me to let it go the first time she said it.

But you know how the devil is, right? I'm not saying she was the devil, but she was speaking for him. And you can laugh because I spoke with him in my inner, or spoke for him in my interaction with him. And that's what I want to tell you about.

She, she said it again with a lot more angst the second time, right? And my response to her was not what Jesus would have said. I didn't yell at her, I didn't start cussing at her, but it wasn't Christlike, it was very quick witted, very sharp in return, right? I returned the favor.

And my 16 year old daughter is standing there and have you ever said something you knew immediately you shouldn't have said it, right? Well, this was that time and I know my daughter well enough to know I was embarrassing her.

Not happy about that, not happy about any of it.

And finally I had enough wisdom to go, hey, can you just get a manager, right? And here's the funny thing is I worked for Walmart for just shy of 10 years putting myself through college. So that makes it worse because I know the frustration they deal with, right? I know what it's like to be dealt with harshly and rudely when you don't deserve it.

And I got the manager and I said, hey, all I want is some change. And I, and I was trying to explain the situation, I asked for the change. The young man's being very polite, she's being very smart with me, you know, and I'm, I'm telling on her like a two year old child.

And man, guys was just not good, right? I responded wrongly.

And man, I walked out embarrassed, embarrassed for myself, embarrassed for my daughter. We got in the car and the Lord said, what will she think of me?

And man, I apologized to my daughter and said, hey, I'm sorry I embarrassed you.

And then we went home and before I could get a chance to tell my wife about it, my daughter already had, right? It goes, I got in trouble and my wife has this way of letting me know I did wrong without telling me I did wrong. And she did that, she told me without telling me. And I said, I've already apologized to Ava, that's our oldest daughter. And she goes, yes, she told me.

And I could tell by the way, she responded that my apology was not enough.

Right. So, you know, I'm repenting. I'm like, lord, I blew it. I messed up. You know What?

Yeah. What is she going to think of you? Probably the same thing she thinks of me right now, which is not good.

So that was on a Saturday. On Sunday, we come to church, you know, and here I am. I'm Elder Jonathan. And they want the elders to come pray at the altar. And I'm like, lord, I can't do this.

I can't pray for anybody right now. So I didn't. I just stood up there, and.

Finally, Nathan. Pastor Nathan was busy. And then finally I'm like, okay, he's by himself. And I went up to him and I said, hey, I need you to pray for me. And I told him what happened, man.

And it broke. You know, I'm crying. And Nathan, his wisdom is praying. Everything I'm worried about, he's praying for that without me telling him.

And I really felt the release of the Lord. I felt like, okay, I'm forgiven. I'm washed.

But then I'm like, oh, all right, Lord, I got to address why that happened, right? And that's what we're going to look at tonight. We're going to take. I'm going to kind of take you through the journey I've been through the last week and a half with the Lord. So if you'll turn in your Bibles to Matthew, Go to chapter 16.

And when the Lord asked me, what will she think of me?

I immediately knew what he was wanting me to read in His Word.

I knew it because Jesus asked a similar question to the disciples in the Bible. So let's look at this. So it's Matthew 16. Jesus is with his disciples, and they come to a region of Caesarea, Philippi. And we don't go into all the background of that.

There's. There's a lot going on there. There was a place called the Gates of Hades in Caesarea Philippi. And this is not a night to get real theological. So that's more.

For your information. It just brings a better understanding of scripture. When you read that, what Jesus tells Peter and he says, listen, on this rock, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell or Hades will not prevail against it. There's theological context in that. My goal is not to get into a whole lot of that tonight, but I just want to, like, bare my soul with you guys about what I've been going through the last week and a half.

With this particular situation, it's time to go.

So Jesus asked this question. He goes, listen, who do people say the Son of man is? And they replied, some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And then he said, well, what about you guys?

Who do you say that I am? And Peter answered, and he says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And it's interesting how Jesus responds to Peter when he says that. And he says, listen, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 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. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. And what's interesting is when Peter asks or when Jesus asked this question to his disciples, and he goes, listen, who do they say that I am?

Has the Lord ever asked you a question? And there's like, he's trying to get something in you, but he wants you to dig a little deeper than the question he's asking you. I really believe, like, that's what's going on here.

He's like, listen, you guys are the ones out there living among the people, right? Their declaration of who I am is a reflection of who you're portraying me to be. So who. Who do they say that I am?

And their response was, you know, pretty good. We would want to be these people, right? John the Baptist, Elijah, others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Listen, those aren't bad people to be right, but they're still not Jesus.

You understand what I'm saying? We can reflect him as bad as. Like I did, right? We can reflect him as good. Either one is still not Jesus, Right?

Anything less than the declaration that he's the Son of God is not the right declaration.

And when we live moments in our lives where the people we live it in front of can't deduct who Jesus rightly is by our actions and our words, we've declared him as less than he is.

Does that make sense?

And I really think that's what Jesus is getting at here. He's like, listen, who do you portray me to be right? And it's less than who he is? That's their response. Those people are less than who I am.

And then he asked well, what about you? And Simon says, peter says this, you are the son of the living God. And Jesus response to that was, you're right, this was not revealed to you by man. It was revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. A revelation of the Son of God, which, where we declare with our mouths, you are the Son of God.

It's by revelation only. It's the foundation of the Church. Because Jesus response is, listen, you're Peter, a man that can declare me as the Son of God. I can build on that. That's the foundation of my bride.

My bride are those people who can declare me as the Son of God, who I truly am. That's my bride.

But it's one thing to have a revelation where we declare it with our mouth. It's a whole different thing to declare it through our actions and our words and interactions with other people.

Because if you flip the page to verse 21, Jesus starts telling his disciples, here's what that means. This is what your declaration of me as the Son of God, here's what that means.

It means this.

I must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law. And I must be killed on the third day and be raised to life.

And this is where Peter has an issue, right? He just got declaring that the person talking to him is the Son of God. And now he can't accept the definition of what that means because he begins to rebuke Jesus. He's like, lord, Lord, never, never. That will never happen to you.

And listen, I'm the type of person, I'm like, if I was in Peter's shoes, why would I be declaring that who he's telling me he is is not who he is?

There's clearly a lack of surrender on Peter's part to the lordship of Jesus.

Like I said, it's one thing for us to declare with our mouth, you are the Lord. And it's a whole different thing to accept what that means.

And it's not always easy to accept.

It's not always easy to accept him for who he is. A couple of years ago, I heard the Lord say, well, a few years now, probably three or four, trying to remember exactly, but I heard the Lord tell me one time when I was praying, he's like, you might want to get to know me a little better or you're going to be disappointed with who I am.

And what he was telling me is, listen, you have this image of me and your mind, and it's a good image, but it's not really who I am. There's more to me than what you know. And that's what Peter, I believe, is struggling with. There's more to Jesus than what he knew.

And he's rejecting the parts of Jesus that. That he's not comfortable with, right? He's rejecting those things about the Lord that he's not willing to surrender to.

And because of that, listen to Jesus response.

He says, Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block for me because you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. And then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever wants to, excuse me, whoever loses his life for me will find it.

What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world but yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some of you standing here will not taste death before you see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So there's a couple of things that.

A couple of points I want to talk about in context of this scripture, and then a few more and we'll try to wrap up.

We can receive a revelation of Jesus as the Son of God, right? But until we surrender ourselves to that fully, we will live contrary to the revelation we received.

And that's what the Lord was poking his finger on me. He's like, that's contrary to who you know, I am.

That. That's not part of my personality. That's yours. You did that all on your own, right? Anybody been there?

Come on, don't leave me hanging. Somebody. Somebody joined me in my misery, all right?

But you know what I mean? It's like you do something that may be out of character, right? And Jesus, he's like, that's. I can't get behind you on that one, right?

Because, man, that just wasn't who I wanted that young lady to think of me as, right?

So what will help us live in such a way where we don't contradict who Jesus is?

So I started asking this question to the Lord. And, you know, man, his response right away, I'll have to be was not, well, do this, this, and this. His response was to start showing me other places where I had responses that may not have been bad in the eyes of this world, but they may have even been justified.

But they just weren't the nature of Jesus.

It just wasn't something that Jesus could get behind.

You understand what I'm saying? It's like you stayed upset with that person just a little too longer than you should have, right? Or you poked and prodded there just maybe with the wrong spirit.

Or maybe you declared your rights right there and those rights just weren't important to me. That's not what I was going for.

Just those little things, right? But they come from somewhere, and they come from those parts that aren't fully surrendered to Jesus as Savior.

Right? Just those little things. The Lord gave me some instruction, and I'm going to pause to follow that instruction. But who was here last week, right? Listen, if you weren't here, you would be amiss.

If you don't go back and listen to Pastor Abe's message from last week, you. I'm telling you, this is not one of those things where I'm stepping out of line of the character of Jesus. I'm telling you, go back and listen to his message. Because if I would have done what he talked to us about last week in that time, I wouldn't be up here confessing that I messed up, that I misrepresented Jesus. Thank you.

I honor Abe tonight because if I would have just went, and I can't do it like Abe does, but if I would have just went, holy Spirit, come on in, I invite you in. If I would have just. If I would have pulled an Abe, I would have been okay. Right? But I didn't.

And therefore I wasn't. So this is a sermon illustration of how Abe gets it right and Jonathan gets it wrong. Okay? That's what this is. No, but I want to honor you for that man.

And I know Abe doesn't like this kind of thing, but give honor where honor is due, right? We are some blessed individuals.

We are. To sit under this type of revelation and teaching that we get to sit under is just. It's incredible. So thank you for showing up on a Wednesday night. I pat yourself on the back.

So where was I? I got off track. What was I talking about? I was talking about Abe. Yes, I was talking about Abe.

Surrender. That's where I was.

So I want to talk about the place of surrender quickly. I have 2s words that I want to talk about. One is surrender. We'll get to the other one here in just a second.

But Luke 9 is actually Luke 9 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. Verse 51.

Luke writes, from that time on, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. It's almost like a pivot point in the life of Jesus, right? He came to die on the cross to be a sacrifice for our sins.

And as the time approached for him to go up to heaven, Jesus turned his face and surrendered to the cross, right? Jerusalem, the place of surrender for Jesus. And right after that, we start reading of all these people who are like, you know what, Lord, I'm going with you. Woo hoo, it's Sunday, I'm going with you, right? But I got to take care of something first, right?

Just let me do this one thing and then I'm all yours. And there's three different scenarios there. We won't go through them, you can read them.

But basically what it is is these three areas that the Lord shows us that these people weren't surrendered in. There were things they held above Jesus.

And he goes on again to talk about taking up the cross and following the Lord. Place of surrender, right? Because that's the only place where we can live out the revelation that he indeed is the Son of God.

Like I said, it's one thing to declare it with your mouth. It's a whole different thing to live a life daily where our life declares, indeed he is the Son of God.

The revelation from him is a gift.

Yes, I'm the Son of God. Our declaration means more than we will know.

But just as important is our place of surrender, where we can live out what that really means. It takes a place of maturity. And if we're honest with ourselves, we don't always live in that place.

But the best way to get back there when you fall out of it, is to admit, lord, I was wrong.

I should not have said that. I should not have done that. I should not have treated that person that way. I misrepresented who you were.

It's the place of surrender.

I'm going to jump ahead in the story and then I'm going to come back.

In Luke 24, verse 13 through 35. And you guys are probably familiar with this story. It's the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, right? Who's familiar with that? Okay, so real quick, a little bit of background.

This was after the death of Jesus on the cross. These two disciples, unlike the disciples or unlike the people we heard about earlier, who said, hey, I'll follow you to the cross and didn't go, these guys actually made it there, right? They Made it to Jerusalem, they made it to the place of the surrender. The problem is, is they left, right? That's the problem.

They left the place of surrender. So for the sake of time, they're walking away. Jesus walks up beside them, starts having a conversation with them. But because they're no longer in a place of surrender, they don't recognize who Jesus is, Right? We've all been there.

We're out of a place of surrender to the Lord and we can't even recognize who he is and what he's doing in that moment. And that's where these guys are. They're like, man, we had hoped he was the fulfillment of the promise.

We thought he was our Savior, right? And we start using words like that when we're walking away from a place of surrender, right? Even if we don't say them out loud, it begins to get in our spirit and resonate. And we start really doubting whether or not he is who he says he is.

But this is the beauty of the Lord. This is what he calls us to. And it fixes every one of those issues.

He calls us to the secret place to fellowship and intimacy with him, where he continues to reveal who he is. And because it's endued with power and in the Spirit, we can accept him for who he is.

It's in the bible.

Because one of those disciples got an inkling, right? And they're like, maybe we should invite this guy who's broke down. What would happen? He's given this revelation. Maybe we should invite him back to eat with us.

And when they got in the room with Jesus and they began to break bread with him, their eyes were opened and now he's Jesus again.

But if they would have never invited him to that place, they would have remained in a place of hopelessness, in a place where they're disillusioned about the man walking beside them.

It's the same thing in Matthew 16, right? After all that happens, what does Jesus do? He invites three disciples. Where? Up on the mountain, right?

A place away with him so that he can begin to show them once again who he is.

I shared this with Pastor Steph. Ah, gosh. Several months ago. But I was praying one time, and I heard the Lord declare over the refuge, this place will be a house of elders. And listen, that has nothing to do with Jonathan Daniel being an elder.

Nothing. Zero.

It was the Lord's desire for the level of maturity, right? With the refuge, they will be an elder to this community.

They will be a people of intimacy and maturity. With me and able to help my body in this community.

And listen, we are well on our way. Well on our way.

But in order for that to complete itself, we've got to break bread with Jesus. We have got to get in a place, accept his invitation to get to know him for who he really is.

And listen, the amount of overwhelming blessing that those around us will receive when our daily walk more consistently lines up with our declaration of him, of Jesus, will be astonishing.