November 20, 2025 • 41 mins
"Reign Check!" This ain't your regular podcast, fam. We're going deep on chasing position versus pursuing God's purpose. Real talk? Too many people got ambition on overdrive but character sitting on the bench. Your ambition can't write checks your character can't cash. That doesn"t work in God's Kingdom.You MUST go through God's school of preparation. That's where God shapes you for the assignment ahead.This Word challenges you to reckon with what you believe versus what you're living. Ready to get your weight up spiritually? Let's go!
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
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Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, Subscribe, and Share
Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Brothers and the Word. My
name is Tim Smith, the youngest child of Clara Jones.
Thanks for watching us on Facebook and YouTube. Thanks for
listening wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe, rate us,
review us, give us five stars. If you only give
us four stars, I'm inclined to believe you are a hater.
The city's back up. It's months we outside. Please like
(00:25):
love and offer this teaching to someone who needs it.
That's the only offering I'm asking you for. Grab your
Bible and take detailed notes. Shout out to Shannon. I
pray all of you will have a Matthew five and
six for the Word of God. Shout out to little
cousin Kayla family. Let's get right into it. The title
of this teaching today is rain check. And no that's
(00:49):
not a typo. I'm not talking about a rain check
like you can't make it to the cookout and you
got to tell your people I'm gonna catch you on
the next one. No, what I am talking about is
r ign to rule, to have authority to sit on
the throne. A rain check a moment where we have
to check our ambition, a moment where we have to
(01:12):
check our motives, a moment where we have to check
our desire to be in charge, to be seen, to
be celebrated, And then we have to ask ourselves, is
what I'm doing? Does this align with the Kingdom of God?
So before we jump into the text, let's talk about
a few things that people are chasing in this life. Understandably. So,
(01:35):
there are some things I feel that people are chasing
in this life and some things they're running after with
everything they get everything they got, first up, money check,
then their status check, how about power check? Don't forget
fame check. For some people it's all about relationships check
(01:56):
check check, and for others it's just playing comfort check.
So we all have a checklist, a list of things
we believe that will validate us, satisfy us, and complete us.
We spend our lives trying to check these boxes, believing
that once we get them all checked, then we will
(02:16):
feel that we have arrived. So today, this is what
we're going to do. We're going to see what Jesus
has to say about our checklist. Today's power word is ambition.
Today's power work is ambition, ambitio. Let's see how this
plays out in this teaching because ambition is simply a
(02:40):
strong desire to do or to achieve something, and it
requires a lot of determination. It requires a lot of
hard work to see it through. Now, ambition, in and
of itself, it's not a bad thing. Let me make
that clear. God gives us desires, God gives us drives.
Audition without surrender is a runaway train. It's a fire
(03:05):
without a fireplace. So what ends up happening is it
becomes all about my kingdom, my glory, my name, my reputation,
my status. And when that's when God has to step
in and give you and I a rain check. So
let me give you a mission. Family. Your mission, should
(03:26):
you choose to squabble up, is to surrender your checklist
to the King and allow him to exchange your ambition
for his assignment. Let's go to the Word. You'll meet
me over in Mark chapter ten. We're going to set
up shop in the Gospel of Mark tenth chapter verses
thirty five through forty. Mark chapter ten, verse thirty five
(03:48):
through forty I'll be reading out of the ESV version,
and James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up
to him and said to him, teacher, we want you
to do for us whatever we ask verse thirty six.
And he said to them, what do you want me
to do for you? And they said to him, grant
(04:08):
us to sit one at your right hand and one
at your left in glory. Jesus said to them, you
do not know what you are asking. Are you able
to drink the cup that I drink? Or to be
baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And
they said to him, we are able. And Jesus said
(04:30):
to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism which I am baptized, you will
be baptized Verse forty. But to sit at my right
hand or at my left, it's not mine to grant.
But it is for those for whom it has been prepared.
(04:52):
Make a special note of that last part of that verse.
But it is for those for whom it has been prepared.
So let's set the scene. Jesus is on his final
road trip to Jerusalem. The cross is on the horizon.
(05:13):
The cross is imminent. Just moments before this. If you
go back to verse thirty three and thirty four, Jesus
pulls twelve disciples aside, and he tells them for the
third time. Mind you, he tells them exactly what's about
to happen to him. He says, look, we're going to Jerusalem,
son of Man. That's me. Will be betrayed, will be
(05:36):
condemned to death. I will be handed over to the Romans.
They will mock me, they will spit on me, they
will flog me, and they will kill me. And three
days later I will rise again. So the atmosphere is intense,
it's thick with the reality of suffering and that. This
(05:58):
is a very heavy, somber moment, and it's right on
the heels of this. This is where our boys James
and John into the chat. Now you got to understand
who these two disciples are. Jesus gave them a nickname.
(06:18):
Their nickname was the Sons of Thunder. I wonder what
they do to get that nickname, the sons of Thunder.
So these two brothers, they had a very fiery intensity.
These are the same two brothers who in Luke chapter nine,
there was a Samaritan village and the village would not
(06:41):
allow Jesus and the disciples to pass through. They turned
them away, and so James and John turned to Jesus
and they asked him this question, Lord, do you want
us to call fire down from heaven and destroy them?
Same man who wrote John three point sixteen, This is
(07:03):
who's saying this. They wanted to burn a whole village down.
They had that smoke in their hearts, all gas, no breaks.
These two would ride or die. But their zeal was
untamed and they were passionate. But they were also misguided.
And so for the sake of this lesson, I am
(07:23):
going to refer to James and John as stack and smoke,
like the two brothers in the movie Center. So if
you hear me say stack, stack and smoke, that's who
I'm referring to. I'm referring to James and John. So,
but this is where this connects to you and I,
And this is why I'm saying this, because if we're honest,
(07:45):
if you and I are honest, we all got a
little smoking stack in us. We all got that impulse
to want God to give us what we want when
we wanted how we want it. We come to Jesus
with our checklist, our demands, our expectations, and we want
him to be our divine delivery service. We treat prayer
(08:08):
like Amazon Prime same day shipping on our blessings. Please,
I need same day shipping, Lord. But let's keep it
buck because this family is interesting because their mother was
in on this too. Over in Matthew's account, it says
that their mother Saloon, let's call her Mama Thunder. She
(08:30):
asks Jesus on behalf of her two sons. She heard
Jesus had this little startup kingdom business thing that he
was getting ready to get off the ground, and so
she decided she wanted to get her sons on the
board of directors. So she was trying to secure the
bag for her boys. Let's pull up. Let's get into
(08:51):
to these verses part A. Taking those Part A the
audacious ask, and we're gonna look at verse thirty five
and thirty seven of Mark ten. Verse thirty five, and
James and John came up to him and said to him, Teacher,
we want you to do for us whatever we ask. Wow,
(09:12):
verse thirty seven, grant us to sit one at your
right hand and one at your left hand in glory.
Let that marinate in your spirit for just a moment.
And I want you to go back to how I
started this. Jesus just finished talking to his disciples about
(09:34):
being betrayed, about being mocked, about being spit on, and
about being killed, and smoke and stack pull up on
him talking about promotions. They pull him to the side
to have this conversation with him. This type of conversation
(09:56):
is giving tone, death is giving. Read the room. They
heard kingdom, and their minds went straight to corner offices.
They heard glory, and all they could think of was themselves.
They started picking out furniture for the room, place for
the throne room. And so they come to Jesus with
(10:16):
a blank check. Please understand the arrogance of their requests.
We want you to do for us whatever we ask,
and can we be honest. This is the spirit and
attitude that I feel that has infected the church today
because so often we come to God with our demands
(10:38):
and we disguise them as prayers. We got to disguise
them as prayers, but they are actually our demands. We
come with our wish list, we disguise them as faith.
We say things like Lord, I'm believing you for that promotion,
I'm claiming that house, I'm speaking that relationship into existence,
and there's nothing wrong with asking God for things he
tells us to ask. But when our prayers sound more
(11:03):
like we're placing in order at a drive through restaurant
than surrendering to a sovereign God, that's when we got
a problem. We want Jesus to give us what we
have on our checklist. We want him to rebstamp our plans.
We want him to be the divine co signer on
(11:23):
all of our dreams. But what if your dream isn't
in his plan? What do you want him to do? Then?
What if your checklist doesn't align with his kingdom agenda?
What do you want him to do? Then? What if
what you're asking for could actually destroy you or could
(11:44):
actually pull you away from the presence of God. If
you're taking notes, I want your records down. I must
stop handing God my agenda and start asking for his.
Because their request is specific. Grant us to sit one
at your right hand and one at your left in glory.
(12:08):
These were the prime seats, the positions of ultimate power
and prestige. They wanted to be the vps of Heaven ink.
They were chasing the crown, but they were clueless about
the Cross and what it would take to get there.
So I got a question for you. What blank check
are you asking God to sign? Right now, let's keep going.
(12:31):
Verse thirty six, Part B the revealing question, and he,
Jesus said to them, smoking stack, what do you want
me to do for you? So Jesus and his infinite
wisdom and patience with everything that's looming ahead of him,
he doesn't immediately shut them down. He asked them a question,
(12:54):
what do you want me to do for you? Now?
This is the same question Jesus asked a blind man
in the very next chapter. But the blind man wanted
to see James and John wanted to be seen. The
blind man wanted healing. James and John wanted honor. The
(13:16):
blind man wanted restoration. James and John wanted recognition. Do
you see the difference that HiT's different, that HiT's way different.
Jesus asked this question not because he doesn't know what
they want, but because he wants them to hear themselves.
He wants them to hear the words that are coming
(13:37):
out of their mouths. He wants them to articulate their
desire so that they can confront the motivation behind it.
So he's giving them a mirror, not a blank check.
And this is what God has to do with us.
So many times when we come to God with our demands,
he often asks us, what do you really want? What's
(13:57):
driving this prayer? What's driving this request? Is it my
glory or is it your ego? Is it my kingdom?
Or is it your comfort? Is it my will or
is it your wish? He wants us to get honest
with ourselves before He gets real with us. He's giving
(14:20):
you and I moment to check our hearts. It's a
rain check for my note takers. Write this down. I
must examine the why behind my what before I present
to God. Got a question for you. If Jesus asks you,
(14:42):
what do you want me to do for you? What
would your unfiltered, honest answer be. If he asks you
that question right now, what would your answer be? Think
about that. Let's keep going. PARSI. The Cup and the
Baptism Verse thirty eight, Verse thirty eight, Jesus said to them,
(15:06):
you do not know what you are asking. Are you
able to drink the cup that I drink? Or be
baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? Boom,
Jesus drops the bcy He's essentially saying to them, you
(15:26):
have no clue what you're asking. Then you get specific.
He asked them about a cup. He asked them about
a baptism, and this is a specific cup. And this
is also a specific baptism. So now James and John
(15:47):
are probably thinking, Jesus is just talking about a nice
cup of coffee, maybe a latte, maybe a caramel macchiato
from Starbucks. They thinking, yeah, Jesus, we could drink whatever
you drink, wherever you drinking. Jesus, we got you. You
have an advente, we will have a vente. If you
have a grande, will have grande. We got you. Lord.
(16:09):
They placed in orders for three Carmo marchioties. I got
three Carma marchiotis for stacked smoking Jesus. But here's the thing.
Jesus isn't talking about a Starbucks cup of coffee. He's
talking about a cup of suffering. He's talking about the
(16:31):
cup of sacrifice. He's talking about the cup of God's
wrath that he would drink on the cross. He's talking
about Yosemite, where he would sweat drops of blood and
cry out, Father, if it is possible, let this cup
(16:51):
pass from me. Then he follows up nevertheless, not as
I will, but as you will. So there was nothing
about this cup that was refreshing. There was nothing about
this cup that was enjoyable. It wasn't something that you
sipped casually while scrolling through Instagram. This cup was bitter.
(17:15):
This cup was brutal. This cup was the weight of
the world's sin being poured out on the sinless son
of God. That's just the cup the baptism. He's not
talking about a dip in the Jordan river. The word
baptized coming from a Greek word baptismo. It means to
(17:35):
be overwhelmed. It means to be submerged. It means to
be plunged into something. So he's asking stacking smoke, can
you be plunged into the depths of sorrow and persecution
that I am about to face? And Jesus is asking them,
can you drink this? Are you able to go where
(17:57):
I'm going? Are you able to suffer what I am
about to suffer? Are you able to lay down your
life the way I am about to lay down my life? See,
the path to the throne goes through the tomb, The
path to the crown goes through the cross, and most
of us want to skip that part. We want the resurrection,
(18:21):
but you can keep the crucifixion. We want Easter Sunday.
We love Easter Sunday. We get to dress up, but
we don't want anything to do with Good Friday. So
we want the glory but not the grind. And that's
not shade that scripture. For my note takers, write this down.
I must understand that the path to my greatest glory
(18:45):
often runs through my deepest suffering. I must understand that
the path to my greatest glory often runs through my
deepest suffering. I got a question for you. Are you
willing to drink a cup of sacrifice that God has
(19:08):
for you? You got your name on the cup and
he's calling your name to come and receive your cup?
Or are you only interested in the cup of celebration.
Let's keep going Part D. I'm calling this the ignorant Yes,
the ignorant yes, Verse thirty nine. And they stack and smoke,
(19:32):
said to him, we are able. What they talking about
ain'talking about? Then? What they talking about? The ain't talking about? Non?
They answer quickly for me, too quickly. There's no hesitation,
there's no you know what, Jesus. Let me think about that.
You know, Jesus, can you go by that first party game?
(19:53):
What was that first part? You said? No, just a
confident cocky we are able. They had no idea what
they were asking for. Their ambition wrote a check their
character couldn't cash. It's like a dude who's never been
in a fight telling Bud Crawford, Yeah, I can take
(20:15):
a punch. Okay, say let us, but look at the
grace of Jesus. Once again, he doesn't laugh in their face.
He says, the cup that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you
will be baptized. And this is a prophetic moment right here.
You're capturing a prophetic moment with these words that Jesus
(20:39):
is uttering to these men. They should have left them alone.
He's telling them their future. And it came true Church history,
and the Bible tells us that James, one of these
sons of Thunder, became the very first of the twelve
Apostles to be Martyred Acts, Chapter twelve says King Herod
(21:00):
had him executed with the sword. So what does that mean,
James drink from the cup. What about his brother John?
John was boiled in oil and survived. Then he was
exiled to the deserted island of Patents, where he suffered
for the word of God. John drank the cup. They
(21:24):
both got a taste of that suffering. They got the
baptism of persecution. Jesus signed them up for a crucifixion
of their own ambitions, and in that they found true glory.
For my note takers, write this down. My quote unquote
(21:46):
yes to God must be a quote unquote yes to
his entire process, not just my preferred sections. Question for you,
have you told God I am able to do something
that you're actually not ready for? And I want you
to be honest. Let's keep going party the sovereign appointment.
(22:12):
Look at verse forty. But to sit at my right
hand or at my left is not mine to grant,
but it is for those whom it has been prepared.
This is the ultimate raincheck. Jesus pulls rank. He says,
those seats that you're asking about, he says, that's above
(22:34):
my pay grade. He said, I'm just the son of
man on this mission. But those seats, that's a decision
for God. The Father, and he doesn't give those seats
out all willy nilly to people who act the loudest.
He gives them to people who have been prepared. And
(22:55):
that's the key right there that unlocks calling that's on
our lives. That's what unlocks your purpose. You and I,
we must be prepared. There are so many things that
we're asking God for and we're not even prepared to
receive them. And just like stack and smoke, we got
(23:16):
all of this ambition and we think we're ready for it,
and God is looking at us like, no, you're not ready.
Think of a child coming to you and asking you
for keys to drive the car and they're nine years old.
You're not going to give them the keys to the car.
Doesn't mean they're not going to drive one day, but
right now, in this moment, guess what. They're not prepared.
(23:40):
The Bible says in Psalm seventy five six through seven,
we're not from the east or from the west, nor
from the desert comes lifting up. But it is God
who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.
So that verse lets us know that promotion doesn't come
(24:05):
from your hustle promotion. I'm talking about divine promotion doesn't
come from your networking, it doesn't come from your resume,
it doesn't come from your years of experience. It comes
from God, and it comes from God when you are prepared.
(24:27):
And this is where God takes out his red pen
and starts marking up our little checklist. We come to
him with our list of demands, our blueprint for our life,
and He looks at it and smiles and says, okay, yeah,
let's a cute planing. Now let me show your mind,
and he starts crossing things out, editing our timeline, changing
(24:48):
our priorities. He's not being a hater. He's being a
loving father who knows what's best for his child. But
so many times we come to God with a whole
Amazon shopping cart. We got forty seven items in our
spiritual card, and we're mad when God doesn't give us
free shipping on all of it. We want the house,
(25:10):
the car, the spouse, the kids, the career, the ministry,
the platform to influence, the income, and the vacation house.
And we want it all by next Tuesday. But what
if God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
What if he's more concerned with your heart than your house.
(25:33):
What if he's more focused on your time with him
than your influence in the world. So let me talk
to you a second about some people in your Bible,
in my Bible who didn't ask for positions the way
stack and smoke are. They were prepared for the elevation.
(25:56):
Start with Joseph. Brother Joseph story starts in Genesis chapter
thirty seven. You should pull up to it. Sometimes you
would have to read from thirty seven all the way through.
His life is incredible. But Joseph didn't ask to be
second in command in Egypt. This man was thrown in
(26:17):
the pit by his brothers because they hated him. He
was sold into slavery, he was falsely accused, he was
in prison. But in the process, guess what was happening
behind the scenes. God was preparing him. Every betrayal was
(26:37):
building his character. Every setback was setting him up. And
when the time came, Pharah put this man in the
number two position of all of Egypt, and millions of
lives were saved. Not because Joseph asked for it, but
because Joseph was ready for it. He was prepared. This
(27:00):
didn't ask to lead Israel out of Egypt. Moses never
would have asked to lead Egypt, to lead Israel out
of Egypt. He tried to talk God out of the assignment.
Moses spent forty years in the wilderness tending sheep, tending
another man's sheep. In the meantime, he's learning patience, he's
(27:21):
learning humility, He's learning dependence on God. And when God
called him, Moses was ready, not because he was qualified,
but because he was prepared. King David didn't ask to
be king. He was annointed as a teenager, but he
didn't sit on the throne for years. He spent time
(27:42):
ducking spears and running from a mad king named Saul.
He was hiding in caves, he was fighting battles, He
was writing psalms, and he was learning to trust God.
He was being prepared in ups security for prominence. He
(28:03):
was being shaped in the wilderness for the palace. He
was being prepared. What about our sister Esther. Esther didn't
ask for the position she had, She was selected for it.
She was a Jewish girl, an orphan living in exile.
But God positioned her in that palace not for her
(28:25):
own glory, but to save her people. When Esther understood
that her position was never about her, that it was
about her purpose. She was willing to risk everything. She said,
if I perish, I perish, so be it, So be it.
She drank a cup of fear and came out victorious.
(28:49):
See James and John, they wanted the seats, but they
didn't want the preparation for the seats. And here's the
plot twist. And I think this is the ultimate irony
of this entire story. Remember they were asking to be
on the right and left of Jesus. But when Jesus
(29:14):
ended up on that cross, who was on his right
and who was on his left? Not Stack, not Smoke,
not Peter, not Nathaniel, not any of the disciples. When
Jesus was lifted up in this ultimate moment of glory
(29:35):
the cross, Jesus had two thieves, one on his right,
one on his left. They got the seats James and
John asked about. But it wasn't a position of honor.
It was a position of execution. It wasn't a throng,
(29:55):
It was a cross. James and John wanted to be
next to him and it's glory, but they weren't. They
weren't willing to be next to him and its suffering.
Let that land. Now for my note takers, I need
you to write this down. I must focus on my
(30:18):
preparation because God is in charge of my promotion. We
please get that. I must focus on my preparation because
God is in charge of my promotion. Got a question
for you? Are you more focused on getting a position
(30:40):
or being prepared for the position. So we come full circle.
We started with a checklist money, status, power, influence, relationships vain.
And we come to Jesus, like James and John of Jesus,
(31:00):
asking for seats of honor, asking for our dreams to
be rubber stamped, asking him to do whatever we ask
of him. We want the glory, we want the rain.
And Jesus looks at us with love in his eyes,
and he holds up a cup. And it's a bitter cup.
(31:22):
It's a cup of sacrifice, it's a cup of service,
it's a cup of suffering. There's a cup of humility,
it's a couple of patience. Here's one. There's a cup
of long suffering. And he asks, can you drink this?
(31:44):
He holds up across and says, the way up, it's down.
The way to live is to die. The way to
rain is to serve, and he takes out his red
Remember that checklist that we started with, He's not just
(32:05):
correcting it, he's rewriting it. He crosses out my glory,
he writes his glory. He crosses out my kingdom and
writes his kingdom. He crosses out my will and writes
that will be done. He crosses out more from me
(32:28):
and writes more of you. He crosses our status and
he writes service. He crosses out power and writes purpose.
And that right there, family, that is the ultimate rain check.
It's trading our little, cheap, temporary crowns for an eternal
(32:55):
weight of glory. And that eternal weight of glory can
only be found at the foot of the cross. So
the question on the floor today is simple, what's on
your checklist? What's on your checklist right now? When you
get down to pray? What do your prayer sound like?
(33:21):
How long are you praying before you start telling God
what you want, before you start telling God what you
need him to do for you. Are you willing to
hand over your checklist to God or are you fearful
that if you give it to him, he's going to
cross some things off of your list. Are you willing
(33:41):
to let God take his red pen to your plans,
your ambitions, and your dreams. Are you willing to trade
your desire to rain for a commitment to serve. Maybe
you've been chasing a position at work. Maybe you've been
(34:02):
chasing your position in your church. Maybe you've been chasing
a position in your family. You've been hustling, you've been grinding,
you've been getting frustrated that God isn't opening the door
for you. But maybe God is saying, I'm not interested
in giving you the position. I'm interested in preparing your heart.
(34:26):
You're in the process of a rain check. The greatest
position you and I will ever have, it's not on
the platform, it's not in the corner office. The greatest
position that you and I can have is on our
knees before Holy God saying not my will, but your
(34:49):
will be done. And that's the upside down kingdom that
Jesus came to build, and he's inviting you into that kingdom.
So let me give you these calls to action. Got
three calls to action called the action number one. If
you're taking those, write this down, audit your prayers this week.
(35:14):
I want you to take a hard look at your
prayer life, and I want you to just take a
moment just write down your request, because some of your
requests you kind of got them on the loop. You've
been requesting them almost every day. So I want you
to just take a moment and write down your request.
And then I want you to look at it. Is
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it a checklist of demands or is it a posture
of surrender? And then I want you to rewrite one
of your checklist prayers into a prayer of surrender. God.
If you don't do this, I'm still going to serve you.
(35:55):
I'm still going to love you. When the three Hebrew
boys Shatrack, me Shack, and a bad Negro were thrown
in that fire, you know what they told the king.
They said, King, if that's what you gotta do, that's
what you got to do. But we're not going to
bow to you. We're not going to bow to your music.
So if you got to throw us in this fire, bruh,
(36:20):
handle your business. That's surrender. That's what surrender looks like.
Surrender is the opposite of compromise. We have to make
sure that there isn't any trace of compromise. In our
prayer when we go before God. Number two, embrace your preparation.
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I want you to identify one area of your life
where you feel like you're in the wilderness, that grind,
that unseen season, that lack season, that season of frustration,
that season where it seems as if nothing is moving
in your favor. It just feels like you're stuck. You
feel like the walls are closing in. It feels like
money is funny, and it's just frustrating. Here's the thing.
(37:10):
Instead of trying to escape that season, do this. Redirect
your perspective and ask God, God, what are you trying
to prepare in me? Right here, right now? And lean
into that prayer. God, what are you saying? God? What
(37:30):
are you teaching me? God? What's in me that's not
like you? God revealed it to me. God is preparing you.
Remember Joseph, Remember Moses, Remember King David, Remember Esther. Those
seasons were frustrating that they went through. They didn't get
a heads up a I'm going to prepare you for this. No,
(37:51):
Moses was in a wilderness for forty years. What are
we complaining about? Number three, Give the offering only offering.
I'm asking you for is that you will share this teaching.
Send this link. Send this podcast to one person who
(38:14):
is chasing a position, who feels frustrated, and who needs
a rain check. Someone you've talked to, someone you've been
talking to. Share the podcast with them. It's the only
offering I'm asking you for. So your three call to
actions Number one, audit your prayers, Number two, embrace your preparation,
and number three give the offering. That's it. That's all.
(38:40):
I pray that just landed on you. I pray that
this teaching really landed on you, really help you to
understand some things that you might be going through. And
so before we get about here, let's close in a
word of prayer. Father, we come before you right now
and we confess that we are James and John. We
(39:03):
are stacking smoke. We have checklists, we have ambitions, we
have desires to reign, and today your word has given
us a rain check. So right now, God, we surrender
our lists to you. Take a red pin to our lives,
cross out our will, and write in yours. Teach us
God that the way up is the way down. Teach
(39:24):
us to embrace the cup of sacrifice and the baptism
of service. Prepare us God in secret, for whatever you
have for us in public, shape our character to handle
the calling that you have placed on our lives. And
if there's anyone under the sound of my voice who
does not know you, who has been chasing their own kingdom,
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I pray that they will surrender right now to you. God.
Your word says in Romans tend that if we confess
with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and believe in
our heart that God raised him from the dead, we
will be saved. So right now I pray for the
person to just say, Jesus, I surrender my throne to you,
(40:06):
be the Lord of my life, forgive me, save me.
So God, we thank you for the newness of life.
We thank you for the new Kingdom, and Jesus Mighty
and natreless name. Amen and Amen family listen. Thank you
for watching us on Facebook and YouTube. To our podcast
(40:30):
platforms Speaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio. Thanks for listening wherever
you get your podcasts. Please subscribe like rate us, review
us give us five stars. If you only give us
four stars, uninclined to believe you are a hater. New
podcasts will drop every Friday, so check your app. Remember,
(40:52):
get into the word of God, and the word of
God will get into you and we'll see you next time. Peace,
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Brothers and the Word. My
name is Tim Smith, the youngest child of Clara Jones.
Thanks for watching us on Facebook and YouTube. Thanks for
listening wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe, rate us,
review us, give us five stars. If you only give
us four stars, I'm inclined to believe you are a hater.
The city's back up. It's months we outside. Please like
(00:25):
love and offer this teaching to someone who needs it.
That's the only offering I'm asking you for. Grab your
Bible and take detailed notes. Shout out to Shannon. I
pray all of you will have a Matthew five and
six for the Word of God. Shout out to little
cousin Kayla family. Let's get right into it. The title
of this teaching today is rain check. And no that's
(00:49):
not a typo. I'm not talking about a rain check
like you can't make it to the cookout and you
got to tell your people I'm gonna catch you on
the next one. No, what I am talking about is
r ign to rule, to have authority to sit on
the throne. A rain check a moment where we have
to check our ambition, a moment where we have to
(01:12):
check our motives, a moment where we have to check
our desire to be in charge, to be seen, to
be celebrated, And then we have to ask ourselves, is
what I'm doing? Does this align with the Kingdom of God?
So before we jump into the text, let's talk about
a few things that people are chasing in this life. Understandably. So,
(01:35):
there are some things I feel that people are chasing
in this life and some things they're running after with
everything they get everything they got, first up, money check,
then their status check, how about power check? Don't forget
fame check. For some people it's all about relationships check
(01:56):
check check, and for others it's just playing comfort check.
So we all have a checklist, a list of things
we believe that will validate us, satisfy us, and complete us.
We spend our lives trying to check these boxes, believing
that once we get them all checked, then we will
(02:16):
feel that we have arrived. So today, this is what
we're going to do. We're going to see what Jesus
has to say about our checklist. Today's power word is ambition.
Today's power work is ambition, ambitio. Let's see how this
plays out in this teaching because ambition is simply a
(02:40):
strong desire to do or to achieve something, and it
requires a lot of determination. It requires a lot of
hard work to see it through. Now, ambition, in and
of itself, it's not a bad thing. Let me make
that clear. God gives us desires, God gives us drives.
Audition without surrender is a runaway train. It's a fire
(03:05):
without a fireplace. So what ends up happening is it
becomes all about my kingdom, my glory, my name, my reputation,
my status. And when that's when God has to step
in and give you and I a rain check. So
let me give you a mission. Family. Your mission, should
(03:26):
you choose to squabble up, is to surrender your checklist
to the King and allow him to exchange your ambition
for his assignment. Let's go to the Word. You'll meet
me over in Mark chapter ten. We're going to set
up shop in the Gospel of Mark tenth chapter verses
thirty five through forty. Mark chapter ten, verse thirty five
(03:48):
through forty I'll be reading out of the ESV version,
and James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up
to him and said to him, teacher, we want you
to do for us whatever we ask verse thirty six.
And he said to them, what do you want me
to do for you? And they said to him, grant
(04:08):
us to sit one at your right hand and one
at your left in glory. Jesus said to them, you
do not know what you are asking. Are you able
to drink the cup that I drink? Or to be
baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And
they said to him, we are able. And Jesus said
(04:30):
to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism which I am baptized, you will
be baptized Verse forty. But to sit at my right
hand or at my left, it's not mine to grant.
But it is for those for whom it has been prepared.
(04:52):
Make a special note of that last part of that verse.
But it is for those for whom it has been prepared.
So let's set the scene. Jesus is on his final
road trip to Jerusalem. The cross is on the horizon.
(05:13):
The cross is imminent. Just moments before this. If you
go back to verse thirty three and thirty four, Jesus
pulls twelve disciples aside, and he tells them for the
third time. Mind you, he tells them exactly what's about
to happen to him. He says, look, we're going to Jerusalem,
son of Man. That's me. Will be betrayed, will be
(05:36):
condemned to death. I will be handed over to the Romans.
They will mock me, they will spit on me, they
will flog me, and they will kill me. And three
days later I will rise again. So the atmosphere is intense,
it's thick with the reality of suffering and that. This
(05:58):
is a very heavy, somber moment, and it's right on
the heels of this. This is where our boys James
and John into the chat. Now you got to understand
who these two disciples are. Jesus gave them a nickname.
(06:18):
Their nickname was the Sons of Thunder. I wonder what
they do to get that nickname, the sons of Thunder.
So these two brothers, they had a very fiery intensity.
These are the same two brothers who in Luke chapter nine,
there was a Samaritan village and the village would not
(06:41):
allow Jesus and the disciples to pass through. They turned
them away, and so James and John turned to Jesus
and they asked him this question, Lord, do you want
us to call fire down from heaven and destroy them?
Same man who wrote John three point sixteen, This is
(07:03):
who's saying this. They wanted to burn a whole village down.
They had that smoke in their hearts, all gas, no breaks.
These two would ride or die. But their zeal was
untamed and they were passionate. But they were also misguided.
And so for the sake of this lesson, I am
(07:23):
going to refer to James and John as stack and smoke,
like the two brothers in the movie Center. So if
you hear me say stack, stack and smoke, that's who
I'm referring to. I'm referring to James and John. So,
but this is where this connects to you and I,
And this is why I'm saying this, because if we're honest,
(07:45):
if you and I are honest, we all got a
little smoking stack in us. We all got that impulse
to want God to give us what we want when
we wanted how we want it. We come to Jesus
with our checklist, our demands, our expectations, and we want
him to be our divine delivery service. We treat prayer
(08:08):
like Amazon Prime same day shipping on our blessings. Please,
I need same day shipping, Lord. But let's keep it
buck because this family is interesting because their mother was
in on this too. Over in Matthew's account, it says
that their mother Saloon, let's call her Mama Thunder. She
(08:30):
asks Jesus on behalf of her two sons. She heard
Jesus had this little startup kingdom business thing that he
was getting ready to get off the ground, and so
she decided she wanted to get her sons on the
board of directors. So she was trying to secure the
bag for her boys. Let's pull up. Let's get into
(08:51):
to these verses part A. Taking those Part A the
audacious ask, and we're gonna look at verse thirty five
and thirty seven of Mark ten. Verse thirty five, and
James and John came up to him and said to him, Teacher,
we want you to do for us whatever we ask. Wow,
(09:12):
verse thirty seven, grant us to sit one at your
right hand and one at your left hand in glory.
Let that marinate in your spirit for just a moment.
And I want you to go back to how I
started this. Jesus just finished talking to his disciples about
(09:34):
being betrayed, about being mocked, about being spit on, and
about being killed, and smoke and stack pull up on
him talking about promotions. They pull him to the side
to have this conversation with him. This type of conversation
(09:56):
is giving tone, death is giving. Read the room. They
heard kingdom, and their minds went straight to corner offices.
They heard glory, and all they could think of was themselves.
They started picking out furniture for the room, place for
the throne room. And so they come to Jesus with
(10:16):
a blank check. Please understand the arrogance of their requests.
We want you to do for us whatever we ask,
and can we be honest. This is the spirit and
attitude that I feel that has infected the church today
because so often we come to God with our demands
(10:38):
and we disguise them as prayers. We got to disguise
them as prayers, but they are actually our demands. We
come with our wish list, we disguise them as faith.
We say things like Lord, I'm believing you for that promotion,
I'm claiming that house, I'm speaking that relationship into existence,
and there's nothing wrong with asking God for things he
tells us to ask. But when our prayers sound more
(11:03):
like we're placing in order at a drive through restaurant
than surrendering to a sovereign God, that's when we got
a problem. We want Jesus to give us what we
have on our checklist. We want him to rebstamp our plans.
We want him to be the divine co signer on
(11:23):
all of our dreams. But what if your dream isn't
in his plan? What do you want him to do? Then?
What if your checklist doesn't align with his kingdom agenda?
What do you want him to do? Then? What if
what you're asking for could actually destroy you or could
(11:44):
actually pull you away from the presence of God. If
you're taking notes, I want your records down. I must
stop handing God my agenda and start asking for his.
Because their request is specific. Grant us to sit one
at your right hand and one at your left in glory.
(12:08):
These were the prime seats, the positions of ultimate power
and prestige. They wanted to be the vps of Heaven ink.
They were chasing the crown, but they were clueless about
the Cross and what it would take to get there.
So I got a question for you. What blank check
are you asking God to sign? Right now, let's keep going.
(12:31):
Verse thirty six, Part B the revealing question, and he,
Jesus said to them, smoking stack, what do you want
me to do for you? So Jesus and his infinite
wisdom and patience with everything that's looming ahead of him,
he doesn't immediately shut them down. He asked them a question,
(12:54):
what do you want me to do for you? Now?
This is the same question Jesus asked a blind man
in the very next chapter. But the blind man wanted
to see James and John wanted to be seen. The
blind man wanted healing. James and John wanted honor. The
(13:16):
blind man wanted restoration. James and John wanted recognition. Do
you see the difference that HiT's different, that HiT's way different.
Jesus asked this question not because he doesn't know what
they want, but because he wants them to hear themselves.
He wants them to hear the words that are coming
(13:37):
out of their mouths. He wants them to articulate their
desire so that they can confront the motivation behind it.
So he's giving them a mirror, not a blank check.
And this is what God has to do with us.
So many times when we come to God with our demands,
he often asks us, what do you really want? What's
(13:57):
driving this prayer? What's driving this request? Is it my
glory or is it your ego? Is it my kingdom?
Or is it your comfort? Is it my will or
is it your wish? He wants us to get honest
with ourselves before He gets real with us. He's giving
(14:20):
you and I moment to check our hearts. It's a
rain check for my note takers. Write this down. I
must examine the why behind my what before I present
to God. Got a question for you. If Jesus asks you,
(14:42):
what do you want me to do for you? What
would your unfiltered, honest answer be. If he asks you
that question right now, what would your answer be? Think
about that. Let's keep going. PARSI. The Cup and the
Baptism Verse thirty eight, Verse thirty eight, Jesus said to them,
(15:06):
you do not know what you are asking. Are you
able to drink the cup that I drink? Or be
baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? Boom,
Jesus drops the bcy He's essentially saying to them, you
(15:26):
have no clue what you're asking. Then you get specific.
He asked them about a cup. He asked them about
a baptism, and this is a specific cup. And this
is also a specific baptism. So now James and John
(15:47):
are probably thinking, Jesus is just talking about a nice
cup of coffee, maybe a latte, maybe a caramel macchiato
from Starbucks. They thinking, yeah, Jesus, we could drink whatever
you drink, wherever you drinking. Jesus, we got you. You
have an advente, we will have a vente. If you
have a grande, will have grande. We got you. Lord.
(16:09):
They placed in orders for three Carmo marchioties. I got
three Carma marchiotis for stacked smoking Jesus. But here's the thing.
Jesus isn't talking about a Starbucks cup of coffee. He's
talking about a cup of suffering. He's talking about the
(16:31):
cup of sacrifice. He's talking about the cup of God's
wrath that he would drink on the cross. He's talking
about Yosemite, where he would sweat drops of blood and
cry out, Father, if it is possible, let this cup
(16:51):
pass from me. Then he follows up nevertheless, not as
I will, but as you will. So there was nothing
about this cup that was refreshing. There was nothing about
this cup that was enjoyable. It wasn't something that you
sipped casually while scrolling through Instagram. This cup was bitter.
(17:15):
This cup was brutal. This cup was the weight of
the world's sin being poured out on the sinless son
of God. That's just the cup the baptism. He's not
talking about a dip in the Jordan river. The word
baptized coming from a Greek word baptismo. It means to
(17:35):
be overwhelmed. It means to be submerged. It means to
be plunged into something. So he's asking stacking smoke, can
you be plunged into the depths of sorrow and persecution
that I am about to face? And Jesus is asking them,
can you drink this? Are you able to go where
(17:57):
I'm going? Are you able to suffer what I am
about to suffer? Are you able to lay down your
life the way I am about to lay down my life? See,
the path to the throne goes through the tomb, The
path to the crown goes through the cross, and most
of us want to skip that part. We want the resurrection,
(18:21):
but you can keep the crucifixion. We want Easter Sunday.
We love Easter Sunday. We get to dress up, but
we don't want anything to do with Good Friday. So
we want the glory but not the grind. And that's
not shade that scripture. For my note takers, write this down.
I must understand that the path to my greatest glory
(18:45):
often runs through my deepest suffering. I must understand that
the path to my greatest glory often runs through my
deepest suffering. I got a question for you. Are you
willing to drink a cup of sacrifice that God has
(19:08):
for you? You got your name on the cup and
he's calling your name to come and receive your cup?
Or are you only interested in the cup of celebration.
Let's keep going Part D. I'm calling this the ignorant Yes,
the ignorant yes, Verse thirty nine. And they stack and smoke,
(19:32):
said to him, we are able. What they talking about
ain'talking about? Then? What they talking about? The ain't talking about? Non?
They answer quickly for me, too quickly. There's no hesitation,
there's no you know what, Jesus. Let me think about that.
You know, Jesus, can you go by that first party game?
(19:53):
What was that first part? You said? No, just a
confident cocky we are able. They had no idea what
they were asking for. Their ambition wrote a check their
character couldn't cash. It's like a dude who's never been
in a fight telling Bud Crawford, Yeah, I can take
(20:15):
a punch. Okay, say let us, but look at the
grace of Jesus. Once again, he doesn't laugh in their face.
He says, the cup that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you
will be baptized. And this is a prophetic moment right here.
You're capturing a prophetic moment with these words that Jesus
(20:39):
is uttering to these men. They should have left them alone.
He's telling them their future. And it came true Church history,
and the Bible tells us that James, one of these
sons of Thunder, became the very first of the twelve
Apostles to be Martyred Acts, Chapter twelve says King Herod
(21:00):
had him executed with the sword. So what does that mean,
James drink from the cup. What about his brother John?
John was boiled in oil and survived. Then he was
exiled to the deserted island of Patents, where he suffered
for the word of God. John drank the cup. They
(21:24):
both got a taste of that suffering. They got the
baptism of persecution. Jesus signed them up for a crucifixion
of their own ambitions, and in that they found true glory.
For my note takers, write this down. My quote unquote
(21:46):
yes to God must be a quote unquote yes to
his entire process, not just my preferred sections. Question for you,
have you told God I am able to do something
that you're actually not ready for? And I want you
to be honest. Let's keep going party the sovereign appointment.
(22:12):
Look at verse forty. But to sit at my right
hand or at my left is not mine to grant,
but it is for those whom it has been prepared.
This is the ultimate raincheck. Jesus pulls rank. He says,
those seats that you're asking about, he says, that's above
(22:34):
my pay grade. He said, I'm just the son of
man on this mission. But those seats, that's a decision
for God. The Father, and he doesn't give those seats
out all willy nilly to people who act the loudest.
He gives them to people who have been prepared. And
(22:55):
that's the key right there that unlocks calling that's on
our lives. That's what unlocks your purpose. You and I,
we must be prepared. There are so many things that
we're asking God for and we're not even prepared to
receive them. And just like stack and smoke, we got
(23:16):
all of this ambition and we think we're ready for it,
and God is looking at us like, no, you're not ready.
Think of a child coming to you and asking you
for keys to drive the car and they're nine years old.
You're not going to give them the keys to the car.
Doesn't mean they're not going to drive one day, but
right now, in this moment, guess what. They're not prepared.
(23:40):
The Bible says in Psalm seventy five six through seven,
we're not from the east or from the west, nor
from the desert comes lifting up. But it is God
who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.
So that verse lets us know that promotion doesn't come
(24:05):
from your hustle promotion. I'm talking about divine promotion doesn't
come from your networking, it doesn't come from your resume,
it doesn't come from your years of experience. It comes
from God, and it comes from God when you are prepared.
(24:27):
And this is where God takes out his red pen
and starts marking up our little checklist. We come to
him with our list of demands, our blueprint for our life,
and He looks at it and smiles and says, okay, yeah,
let's a cute planing. Now let me show your mind,
and he starts crossing things out, editing our timeline, changing
(24:48):
our priorities. He's not being a hater. He's being a
loving father who knows what's best for his child. But
so many times we come to God with a whole
Amazon shopping cart. We got forty seven items in our
spiritual card, and we're mad when God doesn't give us
free shipping on all of it. We want the house,
(25:10):
the car, the spouse, the kids, the career, the ministry,
the platform to influence, the income, and the vacation house.
And we want it all by next Tuesday. But what
if God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
What if he's more concerned with your heart than your house.
(25:33):
What if he's more focused on your time with him
than your influence in the world. So let me talk
to you a second about some people in your Bible,
in my Bible who didn't ask for positions the way
stack and smoke are. They were prepared for the elevation.
(25:56):
Start with Joseph. Brother Joseph story starts in Genesis chapter
thirty seven. You should pull up to it. Sometimes you
would have to read from thirty seven all the way through.
His life is incredible. But Joseph didn't ask to be
second in command in Egypt. This man was thrown in
(26:17):
the pit by his brothers because they hated him. He
was sold into slavery, he was falsely accused, he was
in prison. But in the process, guess what was happening
behind the scenes. God was preparing him. Every betrayal was
(26:37):
building his character. Every setback was setting him up. And
when the time came, Pharah put this man in the
number two position of all of Egypt, and millions of
lives were saved. Not because Joseph asked for it, but
because Joseph was ready for it. He was prepared. This
(27:00):
didn't ask to lead Israel out of Egypt. Moses never
would have asked to lead Egypt, to lead Israel out
of Egypt. He tried to talk God out of the assignment.
Moses spent forty years in the wilderness tending sheep, tending
another man's sheep. In the meantime, he's learning patience, he's
(27:21):
learning humility, He's learning dependence on God. And when God
called him, Moses was ready, not because he was qualified,
but because he was prepared. King David didn't ask to
be king. He was annointed as a teenager, but he
didn't sit on the throne for years. He spent time
(27:42):
ducking spears and running from a mad king named Saul.
He was hiding in caves, he was fighting battles, He
was writing psalms, and he was learning to trust God.
He was being prepared in ups security for prominence. He
(28:03):
was being shaped in the wilderness for the palace. He
was being prepared. What about our sister Esther. Esther didn't
ask for the position she had, She was selected for it.
She was a Jewish girl, an orphan living in exile.
But God positioned her in that palace not for her
(28:25):
own glory, but to save her people. When Esther understood
that her position was never about her, that it was
about her purpose. She was willing to risk everything. She said,
if I perish, I perish, so be it, So be it.
She drank a cup of fear and came out victorious.
(28:49):
See James and John, they wanted the seats, but they
didn't want the preparation for the seats. And here's the
plot twist. And I think this is the ultimate irony
of this entire story. Remember they were asking to be
on the right and left of Jesus. But when Jesus
(29:14):
ended up on that cross, who was on his right
and who was on his left? Not Stack, not Smoke,
not Peter, not Nathaniel, not any of the disciples. When
Jesus was lifted up in this ultimate moment of glory
(29:35):
the cross, Jesus had two thieves, one on his right,
one on his left. They got the seats James and
John asked about. But it wasn't a position of honor.
It was a position of execution. It wasn't a throng,
(29:55):
It was a cross. James and John wanted to be
next to him and it's glory, but they weren't. They
weren't willing to be next to him and its suffering.
Let that land. Now for my note takers, I need
you to write this down. I must focus on my
(30:18):
preparation because God is in charge of my promotion. We
please get that. I must focus on my preparation because
God is in charge of my promotion. Got a question
for you? Are you more focused on getting a position
(30:40):
or being prepared for the position. So we come full circle.
We started with a checklist money, status, power, influence, relationships vain.
And we come to Jesus, like James and John of Jesus,
(31:00):
asking for seats of honor, asking for our dreams to
be rubber stamped, asking him to do whatever we ask
of him. We want the glory, we want the rain.
And Jesus looks at us with love in his eyes,
and he holds up a cup. And it's a bitter cup.
(31:22):
It's a cup of sacrifice, it's a cup of service,
it's a cup of suffering. There's a cup of humility,
it's a couple of patience. Here's one. There's a cup
of long suffering. And he asks, can you drink this?
(31:44):
He holds up across and says, the way up, it's down.
The way to live is to die. The way to
rain is to serve, and he takes out his red
Remember that checklist that we started with, He's not just
(32:05):
correcting it, he's rewriting it. He crosses out my glory,
he writes his glory. He crosses out my kingdom and
writes his kingdom. He crosses out my will and writes
that will be done. He crosses out more from me
(32:28):
and writes more of you. He crosses our status and
he writes service. He crosses out power and writes purpose.
And that right there, family, that is the ultimate rain check.
It's trading our little, cheap, temporary crowns for an eternal
(32:55):
weight of glory. And that eternal weight of glory can
only be found at the foot of the cross. So
the question on the floor today is simple, what's on
your checklist? What's on your checklist right now? When you
get down to pray? What do your prayer sound like?
(33:21):
How long are you praying before you start telling God
what you want, before you start telling God what you
need him to do for you. Are you willing to
hand over your checklist to God or are you fearful
that if you give it to him, he's going to
cross some things off of your list. Are you willing
(33:41):
to let God take his red pen to your plans,
your ambitions, and your dreams. Are you willing to trade
your desire to rain for a commitment to serve. Maybe
you've been chasing a position at work. Maybe you've been
(34:02):
chasing your position in your church. Maybe you've been chasing
a position in your family. You've been hustling, you've been grinding,
you've been getting frustrated that God isn't opening the door
for you. But maybe God is saying, I'm not interested
in giving you the position. I'm interested in preparing your heart.
(34:26):
You're in the process of a rain check. The greatest
position you and I will ever have, it's not on
the platform, it's not in the corner office. The greatest
position that you and I can have is on our
knees before Holy God saying not my will, but your
(34:49):
will be done. And that's the upside down kingdom that
Jesus came to build, and he's inviting you into that kingdom.
So let me give you these calls to action. Got
three calls to action called the action number one. If
you're taking those, write this down, audit your prayers this week.
(35:14):
I want you to take a hard look at your
prayer life, and I want you to just take a
moment just write down your request, because some of your
requests you kind of got them on the loop. You've
been requesting them almost every day. So I want you
to just take a moment and write down your request.
And then I want you to look at it. Is
(35:35):
it a checklist of demands or is it a posture
of surrender? And then I want you to rewrite one
of your checklist prayers into a prayer of surrender. God.
If you don't do this, I'm still going to serve you.
(35:55):
I'm still going to love you. When the three Hebrew
boys Shatrack, me Shack, and a bad Negro were thrown
in that fire, you know what they told the king.
They said, King, if that's what you gotta do, that's
what you got to do. But we're not going to
bow to you. We're not going to bow to your music.
So if you got to throw us in this fire, bruh,
(36:20):
handle your business. That's surrender. That's what surrender looks like.
Surrender is the opposite of compromise. We have to make
sure that there isn't any trace of compromise. In our
prayer when we go before God. Number two, embrace your preparation.
(36:44):
I want you to identify one area of your life
where you feel like you're in the wilderness, that grind,
that unseen season, that lack season, that season of frustration,
that season where it seems as if nothing is moving
in your favor. It just feels like you're stuck. You
feel like the walls are closing in. It feels like
money is funny, and it's just frustrating. Here's the thing.
(37:10):
Instead of trying to escape that season, do this. Redirect
your perspective and ask God, God, what are you trying
to prepare in me? Right here, right now? And lean
into that prayer. God, what are you saying? God? What
(37:30):
are you teaching me? God? What's in me that's not
like you? God revealed it to me. God is preparing you.
Remember Joseph, Remember Moses, Remember King David, Remember Esther. Those
seasons were frustrating that they went through. They didn't get
a heads up a I'm going to prepare you for this. No,
(37:51):
Moses was in a wilderness for forty years. What are
we complaining about? Number three, Give the offering only offering.
I'm asking you for is that you will share this teaching.
Send this link. Send this podcast to one person who
(38:14):
is chasing a position, who feels frustrated, and who needs
a rain check. Someone you've talked to, someone you've been
talking to. Share the podcast with them. It's the only
offering I'm asking you for. So your three call to
actions Number one, audit your prayers, Number two, embrace your preparation,
and number three give the offering. That's it. That's all.
(38:40):
I pray that just landed on you. I pray that
this teaching really landed on you, really help you to
understand some things that you might be going through. And
so before we get about here, let's close in a
word of prayer. Father, we come before you right now
and we confess that we are James and John. We
(39:03):
are stacking smoke. We have checklists, we have ambitions, we
have desires to reign, and today your word has given
us a rain check. So right now, God, we surrender
our lists to you. Take a red pin to our lives,
cross out our will, and write in yours. Teach us
God that the way up is the way down. Teach
(39:24):
us to embrace the cup of sacrifice and the baptism
of service. Prepare us God in secret, for whatever you
have for us in public, shape our character to handle
the calling that you have placed on our lives. And
if there's anyone under the sound of my voice who
does not know you, who has been chasing their own kingdom,
(39:46):
I pray that they will surrender right now to you. God.
Your word says in Romans tend that if we confess
with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and believe in
our heart that God raised him from the dead, we
will be saved. So right now I pray for the
person to just say, Jesus, I surrender my throne to you,
(40:06):
be the Lord of my life, forgive me, save me.
So God, we thank you for the newness of life.
We thank you for the new Kingdom, and Jesus Mighty
and natreless name. Amen and Amen family listen. Thank you
for watching us on Facebook and YouTube. To our podcast
(40:30):
platforms Speaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio. Thanks for listening wherever
you get your podcasts. Please subscribe like rate us, review
us give us five stars. If you only give us
four stars, uninclined to believe you are a hater. New
podcasts will drop every Friday, so check your app. Remember,
(40:52):
get into the word of God, and the word of
God will get into you and we'll see you next time. Peace,
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