Gospel Series | Part 2 | Come & See w/ Rachel Stalker

In this powerful House Church gathering, Rachel Stalker invites us into the deeper call of the Gospel—not just to believe it, but to follow Jesus wherever He leads. Building from the invitation of Jesus in John 1 to “come and see,” Rachel walks through the journey of surrender, discipleship, and perspective-shifting faith.

This episode challenges us to ask honest questions: What am I seeking? Will I follow Jesus even when it doesn’t look the way I expected? Do I love Him enough to keep saying yes? Through Scripture, reflection, and a call into deeper waters, Rachel reminds us that the Gospel is not just an answer we hold—it is a Person we follow.

Come sit with us as we explore what it means to surrender our stumbling blocks, follow the Rabbi, and step into the deeper life Jesus is inviting us into.

00:00 Opening Prayer

01:31 Gospel Victory Recap

03:15 Signs Wisdom Stumbling

07:38 What Are You Seeking

11:23 Naming False Gospels

14:11 Surrender And Follow

16:58 Come And See John 1

22:39 King And Lamb Tension

26:27 Deeper Roots Ongoing

29:11 Are You Really King

31:32 John Needs Gospel

33:04 Peter Declares Christ

34:52 Rebuking the Cross

36:59 Follow Me to Death

38:29 Denial and Restoration

41:26 Love and Obedience

43:31 Naming What You Seek

44:51 Breaking the Self-Protection Lie

49:23 Surrender and Listen

51:54 Closing Prayer for Depth

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

The cross does not look like wisdom. The cross does not look like power. It doesn't look like something you want to come under. It looks like defeat. It does not look like fulfillment. But it is all those things. Find a gospel thing that you're seeking. So seeking the lion of Judah. But not to jump to the end of the story, it's not going to look how they expect. Because Jesus is the Lamb of God. He's not just the Lion of Judah. He's both. They weren't expecting the anointed king to be crucified. They expected a king. They just weren't expecting a death on the cross. Jesus, thank you so much for moving and speaking already. Thank you for the vision and the word that you spoke out through Russ. Thank you for what you are going to continue to do and move and break and shift. Lord, I just surrender my words, my thoughts, my heart to you. Would you have your way? Have your way. Amen. So we've been in the the topic of gospel and the theme of gospel. Jay, he preached about what is the gospel. And he talked about this two weeks ago now, but how the gospel in the culture, when they were starting to talk about the gospel, was notifying victory, a new kingdom, good news, the cross in our kingdom, walking out in Jesus' kingdom. The cross was the battlefield, the resurrection was the declaration, and the gospel, the announcement of the truth as one. And so that is the gospel that we as Christians are participating in. Last week, Russ, um, he preached again. It was kind of like, what is this gospel? What is what's going on with this gospel in a personal way? How does it affect me? How Jesus is alive and moving. He talked about how the word transforms us, and when we live under this gospel and under the Jesus, he renowns us, finds us, and he is like a river of living water coming and moving through us in abundance. And so for me, what I feel like the Lord has asked me to speak on is how we engage with the gospel. That is our perspective. And um, the gospel is a worldview, it's a lifestyle, it's something that we're aligning ourselves to, and therefore, when we come into it and we agree with it, we actually have to adjust our worldview. We have to come under a new worldview, and our perspective has to shift. So the Lord started me on 1 Corinthians 1, 22 to 23. If you want to turn there, if not, it's super short, so we don't have to turn there. It says, For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to the Gentiles. So this passage is actually echoing a couple Old Testament passages as well in Isaiah, and it's brought up a couple other times in the New Testament. But basically, what we're seeing in this first passage is that the Jews and the Gentiles were seeking something, and Paul was saying, but we in fact preach Christ crucified. So the thing that they were seeking is somehow in contrast with Christ crucified. So we're gonna break it down real quick. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. So Jews wanted signs, they wanted evidence, they wanted the Old Testament to be proved to them, and they wanted power, they wanted to see it. And they actually said this to Jesus. The Pharisees were like, we need to prove, you need to see more signs. And Jesus said to them, No sign will be given to them except for the sign of the prophet Jonah. And the Jonah was in the whale for three days. So he's saying, No sign will be given to them except for Christ crucified. And obviously, he had other signs, there were other signs, but he's saying that's the sign that you will receive. For the Greeks, the Greeks were seeking after wisdom. The Greeks, I asked Jay about this. Thankfully, he knows this stuff. And he was like, the Greeks, the question that they were wrestling with was, What is truth? And um, they were seeking something that actually brought them face to face with Jesus. They were seeking wisdom and it brought them to Jesus, and they were facing Jesus, and they actually rejected it. And because we preach Christ crucified, we preach that a God loved the world so much that he sent his only son to die, to live a perfect life and die a death for us, so that death would be ultimately defeated forever, and that we might be saved through him. And even though he didn't know sin and we did, he became the perfect Lamb, the Lamb of God, to die so that we might live. And we preach that. That is the gospel, that's Christ crucified, but that is also the stumbling block to Jews and folly to the Gentiles. So it's a stumbling block. The cross becomes a stumbling block to them because what they're seeking doesn't match the reality. What they're seeking doesn't match the reality of the gospel. It doesn't look like wisdom. The cross does not look like wisdom, the cross does not look like power, it doesn't look like something you want to come under. It looks like defeat, it does not look like fulfillment, but it is all those things. It doesn't look like it, and therefore it's a stumbling block. We think it's foolishness, it's offensive, it's silly. So what I started to realize with this first verse, it with this verse that the Lord was calling me to is that the things that we seek, even though they might not be evil, they might not be bad. The things that we're seeking, Jesus did signs. He is wisdom, he is power. There's an entire book on wisdom in the Old Testament. Proverbs is all about wisdom. Wisdom is not bad, these are not evil things, but the things that we seek are things that become stumbling blocks if we do not surrender them. So the very things that the Jews and the Greeks were desiring was actually Jesus. It's fulfilled in Jesus. The very thing that they were seeking is the kingdom, but they couldn't get there. They missed it. So what I started to realize is that the things that we are seeking are stumbling blocks to walking in the fullness of the gospel and receiving the fullness of the gospel. So I'm hoping I can get through this in a good amount of time, but I want to invite you guys on a journey with me because for me, processing through this was a journey. And my journeys always come with questions. If you have walked with me at all, you know questions are very important to me. And the first question that I have for you is, what are you seeking? And I actually want to pause here because part of us being we're small, we're house, we're house script. We can actually pause right here, and I'm gonna give you a couple minutes to reflect and answer the question before I say anything else. What are you seeking? You can write it down actually on paper if you need it, or you can call your phones. Desires are things that we seek. Are actually things that we seek. Because we for some reason are choosing a lie, we're choosing to believe this over a truth. So there's some something in that that we're seeking. There's things that we're actually avoiding. The not seeking is seeking, because I'm avoiding that, so I actually want to do anything but that. That's seeking. So if there's things that you're not seeking, if there's a lie that comes to mind, if there's a desire, again, it doesn't have to be wisdom and power, not evil. What are you seeking? At least one thing. So I'm not Jewish. If you want to write a list, write a list. Well, you can journal later. I'm not Jewish, I'm not Greek, I'm not from the ancient Inner Eastern world, but wisdom is still and has been a stumbling block for me in my life. And it's not the wisdom of God that has made me stumble, but it's me looking and seeking for words of advice before going to God. It's me seeking other people's opinions before I pray, before I go to the word. It's me idolizing pretty sermons or people who say pretty words or quotes from books. That has been a stumbling block for me in my life. Power has been a stumbling block for me in my life, not because I wanted it, because I avoided it for years. And in fact, the Lord was like, Hi, this is a part of who I am, and you are rejecting a piece of me. The power of the Holy Spirit is real. And I was afraid of it for a little bit there. And so it became a stumbling block because I was avoiding it. So these things that we are seeking are things that we think are either good for us or things that we need, they're important to us. They might even be something that I'm seeking, but from Jesus, from his kingdom. I'm seeking it from Christianity. That's what Simon the Magician is a pretty good example of in the Bible. I'm not going to go there, but he was seeking the thing that he was seeking, but from Jesus. And there's danger in this. You find a gospel thing that you're seeking. It exists in the world already, it exists. You will find a gospel, and it might even have the word Christian on it. You will find you can't find it, you'll make it a gospel. It will become a gospel to you. The thing that you're seeking will become like a gospel to us. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve God and money. And now put anything in the place of money. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve two gospels. I again, I'm not saying it's not biblical. And what we're going to get into when I get into the Bible is that what the disciples were speaking was biblical, but their perspective changed the way that they were seeking it. So a couple more questions, but they're not. I'm just going to ask them quickly. Are you seeking his kingdom or are you seeking your perspective of it? Are you ignoring the parts that make you uncomfortable? Or are you facing them? Are you ignoring parts of God? Are you so focused on what you need that you might be missing the thing that he's pointing you to? Am I seeking his kingdom? Or am I just seeking my perspective of it? Am I ignoring the parts that make me uncomfortable about the gospel? Or am I facing them? Am I ignoring parts of who God is? Am I so focused on what I need that I'm missing the thing he's inviting me into? What I'm doing here, what I'm starting to do here, is I want us to name what we're seeking. Name it. There's something that we're holding on to. I want us to name it. Because if I ignore it and I never name it, I'm still holding on to it. It doesn't stop the thing, it doesn't stop me from seeking that thing if I just ignore it. I'm still grabbing hold of it. So I have to name it. I have to bring it to Jesus. I have to open up my hands and say, please, I give this to you. And then I have to follow him wherever he goes. I want to break us out of this is the gospel, this is the kingdom, and bring us into God. Let me follow you today. Where are you going today? I want to break us out of we have the answer. We have Jesus. That's different. He is the answer, but we don't have the answer. That sounds a lot like what the Greeks are going after. They wanted the truth. What's the truth? What's the answer? I have the answer. No, I have Jesus. He's the one refining, renewing, he's the one moving. I want us to be willing to let Jesus shape our perspectives for him to teach us, him to disciple us. Because the gospel of Jesus Christ is bigger than my perspective of it. So I'm inviting you into a position of surrender and a life of obedience to Jesus, which you're already in. You're already in. We are seeking a gospel. And we've decided that Jesus, that his gospel is the truth. And we've said yes to coming under his yoke. So this first question, this what are you seeking? It helps us name our stumbling blocks, bring them to Jesus and follow his gospel. Because I'm not bringing to them and holding on, no. I gotta open my hand and be like, okay, now what? And that brings me to our next question. Again, Jesus is asking, What are you seeking? And he's about to ask us another question. The next question is, Will you follow me? What are you seeking? And then, will you follow me? And that's not an answer. Because I give him the things that I'm seeking. It's not an answer to the thing that I'm seeking. It actually kind of provokes me a little bit. I'm like, what do you mean? Will you follow me? Like all of this stuff, and there's so much going on. And he's like, Yeah, but when you follow me, come with me. And that's the beginning of discipleship. And that's actually really what Russ talked about in the vision he had of the people at the edge of the oceans dancing in the shore, gliding us deeper. That's what my message is. It's how are we getting deeper? So I actually do want you to turn to this. Turn to John 1, not first John 1. John 1, starting in verse 35. Um, this is just after John the Baptist or John the Baptist baptized Jesus. John the Baptist has this confession of faith. He says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And then in verse 35, he's starting to talk to his disciples the next day. And he says, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked, and Jesus walked by and he said, Behold the Lamb of God. I won't get into it because we don't have time, but the lamb of God that is talking about the sacrificial lamb that was going to cover sin. It was going to cover the sins of the world. And it did. The Levitical law, they had to bring lambs. It also is referenced Pharaoh in Egypt, Passover. It's kept there. Abraham and Isaac, the lamb of God is connected there. Genesis, it's connected all the way back to Genesis when God Himself made garments and skins and clothed Adam and Eve. So he is declaring this thing. He's declaring something over them. And the disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. My first question, it is. That's where I got it from. They said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher. Rabbi is a form of respect. Honestly, I think we need to start calling Jesus rabbi again. We need to let him teach us. They said to him, Rabbi, where are you staying? So they were focused all on the physical. He's like, What are you seeking? Like, we're seeking where you're staying because we want to come with you. And he said to them, Come and you will see. So they came and they saw where he was staying. And they say to him that day, power. So come and see. They saw physically where he was staying, but they're about to see a whole lot more. Come and see. Their eyes are actually about to be spiritually open because they're gonna Jesus Christ. And something changed in them in those in the rest of that day from the 10th hour on. Because in verse 40, it says, one of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ. So immediately he's running to tell his brother. So something happened. He came and he actually saw. This is important because it's revealing what they're what they were seeking. We have found the Messiah. That means that they were seeking for the Messiah. Messiah is the Hebrew word for anointed one. Christ is the Greek word for the anointed one. The anointed one is the king, because that would be the person who would be anointed in order to rule. So what they're saying is, we have found the king. In other words, we have found the king. So they were searching for the king. He brought him to Jesus, and he brought Peter to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. Next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Besseda, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. He's saying, We have found the one who is fulfilling the law and the prophets. We have found the one we've been waiting for. In other words, he's saying, We have found a king. Israel collectively was waiting on a king. And Jewish people today are still waiting. They are waiting on a king. They were waiting on a king. This is what they were waiting for. This is what they were seeking. Nathaniel said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. He's inviting him in. He's inviting him into coming and actually seeing. It's the beginning of following. Now Philip is echoing the same invitation that Jesus actually gave. Come and see. Come and you will see. And Nathaniel, Jesus saw Nathaniel coming towards him. Said to him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, you know me. Jesus answered him, Before Philip called to you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the King of Israel. So now we have the three, these three beginning disciples on the beginning of their journey, they encounter Jesus. Something radically shifts in like 30 seconds to it happens very quick. And they're immediately calling him. They're saying, You are the son of God, you are the king. You are the king. So what are they seeking? Well, they're seeking a king. We can see it with everything that they're saying. They're seeking a king, the promised king of the Old Testament prophecy of a physical kingdom. They're seeking the lion of Judah. But not to jump to the end of the story, it's not going to look how they expect. Because Jesus is the Lamb of God. He's not just the Lion of Judah, he's both. They weren't expecting the anointed king to be crucified. They expected a king. They just weren't expecting a death on the cross. I mean, there were prophecies about this: the suffering servant, the serpent being lifted up by Moses. There were prophecies in the Old Testament pointing that he would be crucified, that he would suffer. But they weren't expecting it. They didn't want it. And it became a stumbling block for them. And these are his disciples. Jesus, though, he doesn't deal with this problem yet. He doesn't address it. He's not like, no, he goes, he invites them in. He invites them closer. He says, come and see. Will you follow me? Will you follow me? And they do follow him. And they do come and see. But this first, this first piece, it's this first perspective shift, where they're set, they're starting to realize this is the gospel. This is him. This is the king. This is the fulfillment. And they're aligning themselves to him, calling him rabbi, calling him king. The gospel is both simple and multifaceted. It's something that we can understand in 30 seconds. People come to Jesus in less than a minute. And yet sometimes it takes us a lifetime to unravel. And even then, we're discovering layers of depth of the gospel that we are living under: freedom, life, truth, obedience. So in 30 seconds, Andrew is running to tell his brother. He's like, so much has changed, and he's only had a glimpse, only a glimpse of Jesus. Less than a day, and he is completely wrecked. It's already changed everything for him. And yet, what he's promising, what we have in Jesus, is to follow him. We have a lifetime of unraveling what the gospel means. And we need it because it is so big. And Jesus in verse 50, Jesus answered Nathaniel. He says, Because did I read that part? Yeah, I did. Nathaniel goes, You're the son of God immediately. He said, Because I said to you, I saw you under a fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these, he said to him. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Now that last part is actually referencing Jacob's ladder, Israel, um, who encountered God and saw a vision of angels ascending and descending. And what Jesus is saying here is I am a greater revelation in terms of connection with God than your predecessor. Predecessor, no, predecessor, thank you, Israel. It's through Jesus. But sometimes, and this is the sure metaphor, sometimes we stop at belief. We stop at recognizing and seeing this is the gospel, but that's just the beginning. Knowing that this is the gospel and having that first perspective shift is not the end of the story. It's we are invited into a continual seeking, which means continually surrendering, continually taking these things that I'm seeking, giving them to Jesus again and again. It's a continual walk, continually coming and seeing, following, being taught, continually coming under the gospel every day. Keep asking this question will you follow me? Come with me. Will you continue to see every day? But it reminds me of things that the parable with the seeds in Matthew 13. I'm gonna talk about have to turn there, but when they um specifically the ones that there's rocks in the ground and they throw the seeds, and the seeds quickly sprout up, and there, but there's not enough root, and there's not a depth to the soil. And I don't want to overwork a parable, but basically, what I what I feel like the Lord is showing me that this is that following Jesus is that taking out the rocks, surrendering it, and he can grow a root deeper there, taking out another rock, surrendering it to Jesus. Oh, there's depths of soil there, and he is able to work the ground because he is our gardener. It doesn't just stop if we just let if we leave those things there and we're just good and happy with the seeing and believing, then as soon as the sun comes out, when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no roots, they withered away. I do not want you to be peoples without root. I do not want to be a person without roots. On a hot, sunny day, I want to be able to stand. I do not want to be scorched by the sun, and neither does he. He doesn't want us scorched because the sun is scorchy. It is uh it is scorchy some days and some seasons and some months and some years. And so that's when we have a third question that begins to pop up. What are you seeking as Jesus asking us? The will you follow me as Jesus asking us? But this third question is us coming to Jesus and being like, are you who you say you are? Sometimes it's a question and sometimes it's a declaration and a statement. Are you who you say you are? Because it doesn't feel like it today. Are you? Because what in the world is going on? Are you who you I said that you were? Do I need another perspective shift? Did I miss something? Are you who you say that you are if it doesn't look the way that I think it should? We need that continual renewing. John the Baptist, John, the one who declared the way for Jesus, who proclaimed Jesus coming, the one who said, This is the Lamb of God, the one who witnessed the Holy Spirit. He witnessed the Holy Spirit coming upon him. He heard the Father speaking over Jesus, the one who baptized Jesus. This John, he was in prison. The son got sculpchy. It didn't feel like Jesus was who he said he was. It did not feel like Jesus was the king, he had the anointed one. Like it, it wasn't the king. So what did he do? He came to him, he couldn't go. He sent his disciples to Jesus. He named the thing he was seeking. He said, Are you still who you said you were? Are you who I said that you were? He named it, he sent his disciples, he said, go and see, go and get the perspective that I need. Go and listen, go and see. And then he the exact question that he asked is, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? He's still seeking, he's still seeking the same thing. He wants God, he wants that the one that he's been working for, preparing for. Are you the one to come? Shall we look for another? And Jesus answered them. The two disciples, and they say, He says, Go and tell John what you hear and see. Go and tell him what you hear and see. He needs my perspective. Go and tell him the gospel. Go and tell him the good news. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the death hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have given church to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. But nothing changed for John. Everything changed. His perspective changed. He received the gospel and he needed it because the sun was scorching. But nothing changed. He remained in that prison. He was executed and he died. But he needed to hear the gospel again. We need this in a continual walk. We need this perspective adjustment. I want to focus in on Peter now in his story and watch his perspective adjustment. So if you turn to Matthew 16, Peter, and just to be clear, Matthew 16, 13 through 20 is some incredible stuff. And it actually adds to what's going on here, but I don't have time to like explain explain that right now. But if you want to look it up, homework assignment, go do it. It's really incredible. Matthew 16, 13, we're gonna go from there. Um, but Matthew 16, 16. This is when Peter is declaring and speaking out who he says that Jesus is. So Jesus is saying, Who do people say that I am? And they're like, Well, John the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah, one of the prophets. And he says that he says to them, Okay, but who do you say that I am? And then Peter is, Well, you are the Christ. He's saying, You're the anointed one, you're the king, you are the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, and he says, He says, That faith, that perspective that you have, it's not coming from man. He says, It's coming from God. Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my father in heaven, it's God who shifts our perspective. But he's still declaring the same thing. He's still saying, You're the king. We're about to watch that perspective get rattled. Because in verse 20, it says, Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. So he's owning it now. He's saying, Yeah, I'm the king, I'm the anointed one, but don't tell anyone. From that time on, verse 21, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. So he is so stuck in the thing that he is holding. He is taking a king. He's so stuck in this position. He's looking Jesus in the eye. He's stuck here. He's saying, No, that cannot be the gospel. What you're talking about right now, I that no, because this is this has to be true. My perspective of the way it's going to look has to be true to the point where he's rebuking Jesus. But do you want, yeah, okay. Side note. This desire is not bad. We he just affirmed it. He just said, this thing that you just said is literally from the Father. You didn't get that from man. You're not making this up. This is biblical. I am the Christ. You're just missing another piece of it. I am the Christ. He's saying that. He said, that is from God. He just affirmed that desire. So this isn't necessarily bad, but it's becoming a stumbling block so much that Jesus turns around to him and says, Get behind me, Satan. You are an hindrance to me, for you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Are we treating our stumbling blocks like that? I don't know that I am. So Christ, it wasn't the anointed one, it wasn't the king that was the problem. The Christ that he was that the problem, excuse me, the problem was that he was to be crucified. That was the thing that was tripping them up. So then in verse 24, Jesus told his disciples, and he's pushing it even more. He's pushing the second question. The what are you seeking? He just broke that. He said, Nope, open up your hands, because if you want the gospel, then you can't keep holding on to just that. You got to hold on to all of what the gospel is and all that I'm inviting you into. So he broke that open. What are you seeking? Okay, open hands. I'm holding it out, Lord. And then he said, Now, if anyone would come after me, let them deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. It's that question again. Will you follow me? But he's pushing it, it's deeper. Will you follow me to death? Will you follow me if it doesn't look the way you want it to look? Will you follow me when all else around you looks confusing and like it's failing? Will you follow me? And he's asking this question again, but they know more. They've walked with Jesus, they've followed him, they've experienced him, they've seen miracles, they've done miracles. They were sent out, they've seen, and they understand. And so there's more weight to this question. In John 13, now it's also in Matthew, I think it's also in the other ones, but in John 13, it's talking about Peter. It well, we know the next part of the story is that Peter is going to deny Jesus three times. And so in John 13, he is having a conversation beforehand. And Jesus is saying, Where I'm going, you can't come with me. And Peter's like, no. What do you mean? Of course I'm coming with you. I'm following you. So he's full set on this following Jesus. And sometimes we are. We're fully set in following. And he's like, again, he asks the same question. He's like, Will you lay down your life for me? Will you follow me unto death? And he tells Peter at this point that he's going to deny him three times. And he does. And jumping ahead to John 21, is when Peter, after Jesus has died, after he has denied Jesus, he sees and he encounters a risen Lord. He encounters a risen Christ. And Jesus asked him, Do you love me? In John 21, he asked him, Do you love me three times for the three times that you denied? He asked him, Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Do you love me? Tend my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. And each time he's saying, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Yes, Lord. And then he explicitly in John 21, 18, he's going to explain to Peter how he's going to die. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. And when you are old, you would stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. He was telling him, You're going to die on the cross. And the next thing is, follow me. Will you follow me? Jesus asked him again and again the amount of times that we hear this invitation, because it is a journey into the depths, into the fullness of the gospel. It's bigger and bigger every time because we can see the gospel clearer. We can see the kingdom clearer. We can also see the stuff that we're stumbling over a little bit clearer, too. When we see, we really do surrender. We surrender it to him, we follow him. So this question has been taking on new meaning. It's getting deeper, it's getting heavier. And because I what I realized is, okay, this is kind of funny because of Princess Bride, but like I was thinking about Princess Bride and I was like, oh my gosh, it's kind of like this. But he's asking, every time he's asking, follow me, will you follow me? He's actually saying, Do you love me? The connection here in John 21 to after it all happened, he said, Do you love me? Every time Jesus is asking us, will you follow me? He's saying, Do you love me? It's like in Princess Pride, this is the connection. Is that Wesley was every time he said as you wish, he was really saying, I love you. And I love that. And I think that's what Jesus is doing here. He's saying, Do you love me? Because loving and following go hand in hand. He connects it. He connects it in John 14. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. He connects it. That's Jesus connecting it. It's connected way in the Old Testament. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul. I cannot separate love from following Jesus because it was Jesus' obedience to the Father and his love for us that even opened this whole gospel up. Like it's the core of the gospel. Love is the core of the gospel. So, of course, it would be core to our response to the gospel. Following is following him in love. What are you seeking? Will you follow me continually? And then as it comes up, we have the question are you who you say you are? I want to give us a little bit more time right now. I'm kind of at the end, but I want to give a couple examples. But this is this is, I want us to engage with this. I started off by having you write down, what are you seeking? But this next piece of the will you him. So I want to give an example of it so you guys can take it and now interact with it even here and interact with it this week. What are you seeking? Um, like. I said there's desires that we're seeking. They're not even bad. Some of them aren't bad. Some of these things are biblical. There's lies that we're seeking over truth. We're preferring it. There's incomplete truth that for some reason feels better than the complete truth. We just are avoiding digging into it. There's the not seeking or the not the avoiding of no, but that means I'm actually seeking something else. If I'm avoiding it, I'm seeking something else. So these are the things that we're seeking. Sin. I think we like to say we're not seeking it. And no, I don't want it. But there's an aspect of if I choose it, there's then I have sought it. So I want to give an example of a lie. Because last Sunday the Lord broke through probably like 25 lies in in a particular area. And who knew that you could have that many half meany truths and all connected? And it was it was wonderful breakthrough. But um I had a lie that I was seeking. So basically, what I've come to realize about lies is it's actually the reason. So we're not seeking a lie. What we're seeking is to hide a truth. So we believe a lie because there's something that's actually more painful behind it. So the lie that one of the lies that I broke on this day was that I'm not competitive. Which is see, people are laughing. It's hysterical because that is an obvious lie for me. Like, what do you mean, Rachel? You're not competitive. Like, no, I uh no, this Jay, I can see everyone look at Jay's face. He is clearly there's judgment, but this is this was the lie that I was I have I have said this since high school. Like I have said I am not competitive since middle school, high school. Why this Sunday it broke. I was saying I'm not competitive because really that was much easier to say than to say the truth, which is I don't want to be disappointed by things that I care about. That was the truth. So I said I didn't care, I'm not competitive to protect myself. So really, what was I seeking? I was seeking to protect myself. Protect myself. I was seeking to protect myself. Now, what happened when I brought it attered? No, but I had to bring that I'm protecting myself to Jesus and be like, what do I do with this? I don't want this because if I'm going to abide in your gospel and if I'm going to come under your yoke and I want the fullness of your gospel, if I keep holding on to this desire, this seeking to protect myself, then I'm going to miss it. Because I can't protect myself and have him protect me. You can't serve two gospels. I can't serve this gospel of, no, I can protect myself. That's what I was believing. I was like, yeah, I can obviously protect myself from harm, from failure, from these things. No, what he's inviting me into is no, I will protect you. And you can care about something. And even if you get disappointed, I'm the one protecting you. That's this got that's what's in this gospel. That's part of it. That's the depth of it. And I know it's like small and it feels simple, but it's not because that impacts my relationship with other people, it impacts my relationship with God, which is uh a little bit more important, but it and it impacts my relationship with myself too. Like this lie affects everything. And what does he do? He's okay, but will you follow me? And I don't want to get into the details of what that means and the steps that he gave me, but we have the Holy Spirit in us, and the Holy Spirit is convicting us and giving us like giving us steps, he's speaking to us. So he gave me steps. He was like, Yes, this is the thing that you have just surrendered, and I want you to go here. Because these questions that are going to come up on us now are like, okay, will you follow me? Okay, but where? To what? With who? When? How? And those are the questions you ask your rabbi. Those are the questions you ask your teacher, those are the questions you ask on a journey. You're going on a journey with Jesus. It is a lifelong continual journey. So that is the message. I want to um give a couple, give some space now for us to look back at that list or the words or the things that you wrote down. And I want you to hear Jesus ask you, okay. I want you to surrender them to Jesus. And I want you to say, okay, hear Jesus say, Will you follow me? And listen to him tell you where to go. And the thing is, it could be that this thing in your hand, you throw it away, he's gonna invite you to do something else. Maybe he's gonna deal with this thing in a different way. I the Holy Spirit and God are gonna work. Jesus is going to work, he is going to respond. I can't give you that answer because this is your walk. This is your walk with Jesus. So can we put on a little music tonight and do a just a little bit of time to dig into this? You can put a walk. Do you guys know what I'm asking you to do? Do I need to explain it again? What are you seeking? Will you follow me?

SPEAKER_02 50:47

Jesus, thank you, God. Thank you, James. Thank you, James. Jesus. Thank you, God. Thank you, James. Thank you, James. Yes, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Yes, Jesus. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you that you are Rabbi and you are Lord. We don't just call you Rabbi, we call you Lord, you are King. And you also came and you died for us. You made a way. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. That wasn't just one a one-time thing, but you have opened up the gates. You have ripped the veil. You have showed us your way so that we can walk in it, that we can walk in it, not just see it, that we can walk in it. Lord, guide our feet. Guide our feet to walk in your way, to go deep into the ocean, to not stop at the shore. Lord, take away any fear right now in your name. Take away fear, fear of the depth. Take it away. Take away any fear of going deeper right now. Take it away. Take away the fear, Lord, of facing the things, anything, facing the lies, facing a desire. Take away those fears. Fear has no place in love, and the gospel is based in love. You are love, Lord. Thank you. Thank you that we get to walk this. We are not walking alone, we're walking with you. Lord, thank you that you have given us steps. You are calling us forward. Where are you calling us to, oh God? Where are you calling me to? Where? What are you drawing me to? Where are you pulling me, God? God, guide me. Where are you going? Where are you going so I can come with you? God, where are you going? I want to come with you, God. God, lead me. Lead us, God. Teach us your ways, God. Renew my mind. Renew my heart. Renew my steps. Lord, we surrender. We take this thing that we have been seeking and we surrender it. And guess what? When it reveals something else, we take that and we surrender that too. We bring it at your feet. We lay it at your feet. And then you ask us, will you follow me? We say yes. We will follow you. We will follow you even if even if it doesn't look like how we expect. We will follow you even if it hurts. We will follow you.

SPEAKER_02 54:42

We will follow you.

SPEAKER_00 54:44

We will follow you. We will follow you, Jesus. We surrender. You have our lives, oh God. You have our lives. You have our hearts. Where would I go? Where would I run to? Where would I go? There is nowhere I would rather be. There is no place I would rather be than in your presence. God, I thank you that you are a good shepherd. I thank you that you are a good shepherd. You know us. You speak and we hear your voice. Lord, I ask that you would destroy that lie that we can't hear you. Destroy it. We hear your voice. You call to us and we hear your voice. We feel you. We feel peace. We feel love. We know your truth. We know your truth. We hear your words. We receive your words over our life. We receive your guiding. Oh God, would you move this week? Would you move this week? This is not just a today thing. This is a life thing. Would you move this week? Would you move this month? Would you move this year? That this would shape our perspectives, that our perspectives would be shaped because we aren't just seeking one thing. We are seeking that you would continually meet with us, continually renew us, continually have your way in our lives, that we would continually come under the gospel, continually come under your yoke, continually come under your teaching. We come under, we come into alignment with your vision, your perspective. Let that be our way of life, oh God. Let that change, let that be our way of life. Our way of living.