I’m Going Under | Chet Pete | Elevation Church

0:00 We're going to be in Luke chapter 7. Everybody just remain standing just for the reading of the word. And then I'll have you seated here in just a moment. We're going to be in Luke chapter 7, verses 1 through 10. As I was preparing to preach today, we have been in this series, See King Jesus. And a pastor said that the series was done last week on Easter Sunday. And I just was like, hey, can I just do a bonus week? Can I just sneak in? Because it's been so powerful what God is doing. And so this is just a bonus week. This is just a bonus week of seeing King Jesus. We're going to be in Luke chapter 7, starting at verse 1. Here's what it says.

0:53 It says, when Jesus had finished saying all of this to the people who were listening. Now, any nosy people is like, what was Jesus talking about? When Jesus said all of this, what was he saying? Okay, keep that in mind. Just for the nosy people, we'll pick that up a little bit later. And then it says he entered Capernaum. There a centurion servant whom his master valued highly was sick and was about to die. Tell your neighbor, say he was down bad.

1:28 Verse three says the centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to ask him, asking him to come and heal the servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. Hey, listen, this man deserves to have you do this. because he loves our nation and has built our synagogues. You know, he's not like them other Roman soldiers. He's not like that. He's been good to us without any back and forth. It just says in verse six, so Jesus went with him.

2:06 You didn't catch it, this general, this centurion general that he oversees about 100 soldiers or at least 100 soldiers. he didn't grow up learning about God didn't learn up learning about Yahweh he's from Rome and Jesus didn't bat an eye to go with him to see what he needed I'm just slowing down for a moment if you felt like you grew up on the wrong side of tracks and didn't know whether or not God would come for you I want you to know that's why he came that's why he came if you're like hey I don't know all these scriptures I I didn't grow up and going to Sunday school and I'm still trying to figure this out. Just like this centurion general, he came to him without batting an eye. So verse six, it says, so he went with him. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him, Lord, don't trouble yourself for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.

3:07 that is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you but say the word say the word and my servant will be healed for I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me I tell this one go and he goes and that one come and he comes I say to my servant do this and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turn around to the crowd following. He said, I tell you, I ain't seen faith like this ever.

3:51 I ain't never seen faith like this. I tell you, I've not found such great faith, even in Israel. Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. I just have to tell you this. Does anybody got faith that you see when they return to the house? Anybody have a return to the house? Like when I go back home, the thing that kept me up all night, God has authority to turn it around. Tell your neighbor, when I go back to the house, when I go back to the house, hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, they found the servant well. Title of my message today is I'm going under. I'm going under.

4:43 Bow your head, close your eyes. Jesus, we love you. We thank you. You're a good God, you're a faithful God. I ask right now that you would do what you want to do. God, his words come out of my mouth. God, I pray you would snatch them at your power, at your authority. And when he hits the ears and the hearts of your sons and daughters, their lives would be changed. We love you. We thank you. And it's in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. You can be seated. You can be seated.

5:14 Just to set a direction for this message, I'm going to tell you a story, a quick story about a vacation my wife and I. went on. We went on vacation together. Just to be clear, me and my wife went on vacation. If the kids were going, that would be a trip. me and my wife were on vacation and uh and uh we were having a good time and one of the couples that traveled with us uh they had this bright idea that we would go on an excursion and uh this is we're gonna go out into a boat and um go out and find a place that we can snorkel and we're gonna go try to find Nemo. And we're excited about it. And so we get on the boat, the captain of our boat, when he gets to the spot, we went out, the waves were a little choppy. And he takes some time to be able to give us all of the safety protocols. He just took control. He's like, let me tell you what you guys are going to do. And he walks through all of the checklists. And then he says, it's time for you guys to go ahead and fasten your life vest. Get your life vest, go ahead and get those fastened up. And so I look around and I noticed that my wife started to put her life vest on. Now, this was surprising to me. Let me tell you why. My wife's amazing. She's beautiful. She's smart. She's amazing. Me and our boys, we are the background singers to the band that we're in.

6:48 she is the lead 100%. But Whitney can't swim. So I thought she was going to be the designated social media manager for this duration of our vacation. You know, she was going to be taking pictures and videos. I look at her, what are you doing? And she said, well, I want to go see Nemo too.

7:14 So I stepped back to proceed to watch my wife get into this ocean knowing that she can't swim. I'm in position ready to go save her if I need to okay I'm ready to go I'm watching immediately I see the life vets start to come over her neck I see her eyes look like she's about to die within seconds within seconds the the captain of our boat jumps over swims over snatches her up out of the water sits her down says are you okay She finally gets her breath to say she's okay and he looks at her and says, you stay right here. I love that we had a captain on this boat that knew what to do when my wife was going under. What I know in my life is there's times that I've been under pressure.

8:16 There's times that I've been under attack. There's times I was so overwhelmed and I felt the hand of God snatch me out of harm's way. I don't know if you've ever been drowning, drowning before under the pressure of this world. And you experienced the hand of God saving you. I thank God that there was a man on that boat that had authority. But in my life, I thank God that Jesus has all power and all authority. And there's nothing that I could ever go under that he isn't over. Jesus has authority you see I love Luke's gospel because Luke he didn't write his gospel to a Jewish audience he actually wrote it to Gentiles he wrote it to to to Gentiles the people that didn't grow up learning about God and one of the things that he does is he wants you to know like Jesus has all power and authority that the rumors you've heard about him they're true the murmurs that were going to right they're true and one of the ways he does this is he takes time to be able to show when jesus speaks and things happen uh like in luke you see this in in luke chapter 4 uh he comes into the synagogue there's a man that's possessed with the impure spirit and jesus speaks to that demon tells him to come out of this man and immediately he comes out of them and when you go to luke chapter 4 verse 36 look what the people say they said all the people were amazed and said to each other. What words are these? With authority and power, he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out. Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law. She had this fever that wouldn't break. And Jesus takes a moment and he speaks to her and she's healed in an instant. You see, Jesus has authority.

10:13 Then when you get to this storm in Luke chapter 8, Jesus is asleep in the bottom of a boat, wind and waves are blowing from left to right and they're overwhelmed, they're scared. Jesus steps to the tip of the boat with all power and authority and says to the wind, peace, be still because he has all authority. You get to Jairus' daughter, hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, this little girl that had lost her life, but Jesus closes the door behind him, he says, child, my child, arise. and she gets up because Jesus has authority. Jesus speaks to demons and they obey because Jesus has authority over every demonic force that could ever come against you. Jesus speaks and sickness has to obey because Jesus has authority over every virus or illness that could ever attack your body.

11:07 Jesus speaks in the wind and waves have to obey because Jesus has authority over every element that could create a storm in your life. Jesus speaks and death obeys because he rose with all power and authority and he has authority over death, hell, and the grave. My God has authority. My God has authority. but I set you up.

11:41 Here comes the sucker punch. Why is it that demons obey God and you and I, we struggle with disobedience? I said we demons obey God wind and waves obey God but you and I struggle with obeying the voice of God it's been like this since the beginning Adam and Eve y'all had one job Thank you. One tree. Moses, I've called you to deliver the children of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. I don't speak well.

12:40 I'm not the one. Jonah, I need you to go to Nineveh. Nineveh, I'm going to Tarshish. There's this one passage where Jesus heals this man with leprosy. And he tells him, he tells him, he heals him. And he says, hey, listen, don't tell anybody about this. Don't tell anybody about this, okay? Because Jesus knew that the moment word started to spread that they were going to try to kill him, he knew that this was coming. And so look at this in Mark chapter 1, verse 43. This had me cracking up. Jesus went to him and said, once with a strong warning, see that you don't tell this to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them. 45. Instead, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places.

13:54 The more that I wrestled with this text, I realized that many of us, we've surrendered our lives to Jesus, but we're struggling with submitting to his authority. Today, my plea to you is to go under the authority of God. You want his love, but you reject his wisdom. didn't just want to save you he wants to lead you he wants to guide you and so today I wanted to slow down for a moment to just charge you in this in this season of your life to make a decision say I'm going to obey the voice of God I'm going to do what he said to do now just for a moment there may be someone in the room that's like hey I've never heard God speak to me. I don't even know what you mean when you say that. I heard a pastor say this once. I'm going to try to give this to you really quick about hearing the voice of God just for a moment, because I think it'll help you in this journey. We know that God is in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and the Spirit, right? All right, and we know this. We know this. In John chapter 1, it says, in the beginning was the, and the Word was with God, and the Word. So when I open up my Bible, I am interacting with God the Father. He wants to speak to you. So you can't just come to church on Sunday and that's the only time you talk to them. Open up your Bible on Monday. Open up your Bible on Tuesday. Figure out a Bible reading plan. Find something. Just open up them. Spend time with them. The second thing is, is it says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

15:41 God will use Jesus in the flesh with someone around you to speak to you. You ever been thinking about something and five people came and start talking about it? And you're like, what are you doing? How did you know that? You ever showed up on a Sunday morning, pastor's preaching, he's like, he's been following me. What is going on? I can't get it. God will use Jesus to speak through someone in the flesh to confirm what he wants to speak to you. And last, we have the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of you. This is still small voice. There's sometimes that the Holy Spirit gives me just a supernatural peace that I know I'm where I'm supposed to be. And then sometimes there's just an unsettledness that'll make me feel like I got to move. Something's changing, something shifting. So the only way that you get more and more sensitive to this is to spend more time with him.

16:39 So I just wanted to take a moment to help someone that maybe is struggling, but like, how do I hear God's voice? Read his word. Get into a community where God could speak to some people and have some time where you're silent, where the Holy Spirit could give you peace, could make you restless, could make you move, could comfort you. there's a lot of things you know to do you just haven't done love your neighbor you don't have to pray about that.

17:12 You don't have to. It's in the book. It's in the book. That's the God, the Father talking. That's it. He has all authority. And so let's go for a moment and talk about what it means to go under the authority of God. The first thing you have to do, write this down, is you have to go under control. Under control. I need a cup of water if somebody can get me a water. Under control.

17:41 As I was thinking about this, I realized once I wrote down the word control, many of you would have got mad. She's like, I'm a grown man. I'm a grown woman. Ain't nobody controlling me. I do what I want to do. I go where I want to go. You see, I love this series. It was C, King Jesus. And when we talk about kings, kings rule territory. And when you made a decision to give your life to Jesus, your life became his jurisdiction. And this is you making a decision to say, I am now under the control of King Jesus.

18:34 But here's the thing that I know to be true is that some of you need to renew your relationship with authority. that when I say control, when I say authority, your mind goes back, if you're from some generation, to when you went out and had to go get a switch. That's where your mind goes. That's where your mind goes. Or you know this, a hard head means a... You see? You see what I mean? You need to renew your relationship with authority, because here's what I know to be true. If you see authority through the lens of anger, your relationship with God will be driven by fear. If you see authority through the lens of anger, your relationship with God will be driven by fear. Let's go back to the text because I don't see anger in the text.

19:29 This centurion general is giving a picture of what the authority of God really looks like. Go to verse one. It says, when Jesus had finished saying all of this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion servant, watch this, whom his master valued highly was sick. Whom his master valued highly. The master values you highly. I went and looked up that phrase, and it's a phrase, and intimos, intimos, intimos, held in high honor, prized in precious. you see I don't see anger in this authority I see love when you see authority through the lens of anger your relationship will be driven by fear but if you see authority through the lens of love your relationship will be driven by appreciation you'll say thank you God for your word over my life thank you for correcting me thank you for challenging me. Can I talk to the students for a moment? Your parents, grandparents, whoever, they love you. Your youth leaders, they love you. When they correct you, don't see it. They're just mad at me. They're just hating. Negative aura. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What if you saw it through the lens of love? They're challenging me because they want the best for me. They're raising their voice because they're like, no, stop that because it's hurting you. Turn! This is where you need to go. I talked to the youth, but y'all needed it too.

21:16 So you make a decision to go under the control of God. And just to give you a little illustration, my boys are 14 years old now, and we are in this season of starting to think about what it means to get a learner's permit and start to drive. I need you to pray for us. I need you to speak in tongues. I need you to go to the holy place for us. Can you do that for one of your pastors here at the church? Okay. So we took the boys out to drive for the first time in the church parking lot. If you've had that experience, wave your hand at me. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Now we get in the car. We get in the car, close the door. And you can ask my boys. I closed the door and I looked at them. I said, be quiet.

22:11 I said, I'm God. what I say do, do it. Ask no questions. Don't say a word, just nod. I immediately was setting a tone to let them know that they were, I was in control. That they were under my authority. And so I got a little quick video, a little quick video, I want to show you, they're going to throw it up right now. A little quick video of this moment where we're on the road. Check this out. Break, break. Start turning. Turn, turn, turn hard. Break. Break. Keep turning. Keep turning. Keep turning.

23:02 Keep turning. There you go. Now start letting it straight up. There you go. Now you can start gassing and go forward a little bit. my son Carter was driving but he was under my direction he was driving the vehicle but what you heard was my voice turn turn turn some of you aren't shifting when he says shift you aren't moving when he says move turn turn turn some of you when he says turn left you say I'm gonna turn right and and I'm saying no turn turn turn when he said turn he was turning you away from trouble when he said turn he was saying turn away from tribulation when he said turn he was leading you to a land flowing with milk and honey I'm just trying to slow down enough he was in control so you won't crash Break!

24:07 Break! Break! Break! You're about to go over a cliff You're about to destroy your life Break Stop it right now It's ruining your life Break Break so your life won't be broken You're driving, but he's directing.

24:41 Did you notice how quiet it was? The only voice you could hear was mine because I was in control. You have to make a decision. Say, I'm going under his control. After you get that right, you're like, hey, I made a decision. He's king. He's king. He's king. what he says, I do. Then you go undercover. You go under cover. You go under his control. Now you go under cover. Many of you watch too much Netflix and all you're thinking about being a FBI agent going under cover. I'm talking about the protection of God.

25:28 And in order to receive his protection, there has to be a level of trust. like I trust that he will cover me I trust that he's he's over all of my life he's over what I'm dealing with he has a different altitude I'm I'm covered and so when you go to to verse 8 listen to this he says for I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me I tell this one go and he goes I'll tell that one come and he comes I say to my servant do this and he does it did you see the cadence no back and forth I say this one go I say this when come I say this when do this he does it God tell us go where Who gonna be there?

26:25 What time do I come home? Because you know I don't drive at night. Just for the sake of some levity, I wanted you to see how we reject his commands, what we love his covering. the more that I walk with God, I realize they go together. I can't have his covering without his commands.

27:03 This is, again, we want his love, but we reject his wisdom. We've made a decision to surrender. God, I'll give my life to you, but I won't submit. But protect me, God. cover me God. The covering was in the command. The covering was in his word. The covering, the protection that you needed was in you being obedient to what God told you to do.

27:37 Another illustration for you. I just want this to stick. I want you to remember it this week. I was thinking about Che Che she's on our leadership team and helps lead so much with the worship team and she drives a Jeep and I had this picture in my mind of like Che's amazing she keeps us together on a lot of different things with communication she's brilliant she's so brilliant I would have thought she lost her mind if this was her imagine there is a hailstorm there's a hailstorm and uh shay's driving her jeep with the top down windows down and i'm talking a hailstorm and i just had in my mind shay driving down the street with her jeep just getting hit in the head with hailstones i had in my mind you know the the rearview mirror just getting crashed with hell. I had in my mind the interior of the car beginning a disaster. And I had in my mind, I'm like, that's what some of our lives look like. We're riding around, elements is tearing up our lives. When we had an opportunity to be covered, what would it look like for you to say, I'm not living my life exposed to the elements. I'm not living my life out here. Now, I'm not saying wind won't come. I'm not saying rain won't come. I'm just saying I'm covered.

29:10 I'm covered. Tell your neighbor, say, I'm covered. I'm covered. I feel God on that. I'm covered by the blood of God. I'm covered. My family's covered. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus, because I made a decision to follow them. My kids won't experience the same pain that I experienced because I'm covered.

29:35 Is there anybody that would take a minute to say, I thank God for covering me? I didn't do everything right, but he covered me. I messed up time and time again, but he covered me. Thank you, Jesus, for covering me. I'm under cover. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Tell five people I'm under cover. I'm under cover. I'm under cover. Thank you, God. The last one, you make a decision to go under the authority of God. You go under construction. You see, in the text, I notice what this centurion general, what he says. Go to verse six.

30:38 It says, it says, so Jesus went with him. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to him saying, listen to this. Lord don't trouble yourself for I don't deserve you to have to have you come under my roof that is why I did not consider myself worthy to come out to you but say the word and my servant will be healed for I myself and a man under authority he said this he says you don't have to come under my roof because everything under my roof is under your authority so he said that's what he said you don't have to come under my roof just say the word because everything under my roof is under your authority remember earlier i said um jesus had said all of this he said all of this and it was like the nosy people what was he what was he saying well we're gonna go back now to see the context of this i really believe it's gonna bless you because watch what Jesus just got finished saying.

31:40 Watch what Jesus just got finished saying. This is Luke chapter 6, verse 46. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? right like right before he's teaching he gets done teaching walks up then he meets the centurion why do you call me lord lord and do not do what i say as for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice i will show you what they are like they are like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the rock on a foundation, the foundation on a rock. When a flood came and the torrent struck that house, but could not shake it because it was well built. I want a life that's well built.

32:36 I want a life that's well built. I want a marriage that's well built. I want a ministry that's well built. Can we thank God for the church that God is building in his place? He is building his house. I love it. Pastor told us, he said, the blessing of our church isn't because of how talented we are. Is it because, no, no, no, it was because we were obedient. We were crazy enough to do the things that God said do. Scared, trembling. I want a life that's well built. But then he says in verse 49, but the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. the moment the torrent struck that house it collapsed and its destruction was complete another way of saying its destruction was complete is saying it went under the destruction of the business was complete it went bankrupt lost it all the the experience it went under.

33:51 Here's the thing that I want to encourage you with, is I thank God that we see a picture of King Jesus, not only speaking, but we see him being a carpenter. So even though there's some damage that may has occurred, I thank God that my life, because I'm under his authority, I'm under construction. He knows how to put some pieces back together. He knows how to fix what was broken. He knows has to mend those places that only he knows that's hurting you. I want to thank God that because I'm under his authority, his skilled hand has the ability to put some walls up that need to go up, to tear some walls down that need to come down, to be able to make sure that my life will be built on a foundation that would last. I want you to make a decision today.

34:51 See, I'm going to go under the authority of God. I'm going to make a decision today to put my faith in Jesus. And no longer will I hear words that come from God and I just do it my own way. Do it in my own strength. Do it in my own ability. I'd love if everybody could stand on your feet. Many of us in the room have made a decision to give our lives to Jesus.

35:35 We've surrendered to him. We believe in our heart that Jesus is the son of God. And we've confessed with our mouth that God raised him from the dead. We've surrendered. many of us right now in this moment, there's a step of obedience that we need to take. For some, it might be getting baptized at one of our locations today.

36:00 Next week we'll be in Houston. If you wanna get baptized in Houston, go to elevationchurch.org to sign up. Maybe that's your step of obedience, you know, to let everybody know I belong to Jesus.