Welcome to the Daily Disciple Podcast, where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus, our teacher. Welcome, welcome everyone to the Daily Disciple Podcast. My name is Calvin and it is a pleasure to be with you all today. I hope you guys are ready.
So grab your Bibles, your cup of coffee, cup of tea. We're going to be in the Gospel of Matthew today so you can turn your Bibles there in Matthew chapter 16. And the question that I have for you, oh I never told you the title of the podcast and that might be because the title might change. I've had a few but I have a feeling that it is going to be called stumbling block.
I'm pretty sure it will be called stumbling block and we'll see there might be another title. But thank you for joining us today. Go grab your Bible, go grab your journal, cup of coffee or cup of tea right now. But I have a feeling that we all are going to kind of experience this passage or understand this in a little bit different way.
But the question that I have for everyone today and it's another obvious question you know me I asked blatantly obvious questions but have you ever put your foot in your mouth? Now I don't mean the literal foot unless you're you know three probably three years of age but the proverbial putting your foot in your mouth saying something that you just shouldn't have said saying something that you know you didn't need to say or you deeply regret saying it after you've said it. You know and I definitely have done this more times than I can remember but I do have one time that I can vividly remember and it was back when I was probably around in the eighth grade and we were on a field trip and we were just talking to each other had nothing to do with the trip or anything but while we were eating lunch we somehow got on the topic of conversation on going to places that we didn't like to go to and going to places that you know our parents had to take us or places that we didn't like places that were you know just something that we just did not want to do or you didn't want to go there. So if you didn't want to go there and there was this one large grocery store chain that had a humongous butcher section when I was a child and my mother always used to make me go and line up while she would do the shopping or other grocery shopping to pick up whatever meat I was the meat picker upper in my family me and my older sister but whatever we needed if it was chicken or beef or whatever I was the kid that had to line up and I had a vivid I could still feel it to this day I have a vivid memory of the smell of all the meats and just the look of the pieces of meat that were there in raw and there was some you know dare I say you know like small animals like rabbits and things like that that were a shock to me that people actually ate so you know and then seeing all the blood in the guts and stuff when they would be chopping up to me and just never put a good taste in my mouth anyway just to paint you that picture so you understood maybe you can have some solace on you can have some you could feel for me a little bit but I mentioned that that was one of the worst places that I wanted to go that I didn't like it for all of those reasons and one of my classmates turned to me and said that that's where her father works.
So just like I paused right now I immediately paused in shock because of what I said and I didn't mean to cause any harm or to be mean but she was visibly upset and even though I apologize I still felt completely stupid for saying that out of out loud in a group and I'm never and I've never ever forgotten it and probably because I don't think that I've ever been that embarrassed for saying the wrong thing before since then thankfully but we all have said the wrong thing from time to time. I've said some harsh things without thinking and I've hurt people and then I have other friends who agreed with me back with that in that story of course I did but that doesn't necessarily help it doesn't matter I've also said things particularly to my wife and my children in times in which I had all the good intentions that exist but it wasn't what she wanted to hear it wasn't what my kids wanted to hear so there wasn't any life in what I said in fact it could be the opposite to what I said to my friend that hurt her I wasn't trying to hurt her just like I wasn't trying to hurt my wife anyway but it's a reality that sometimes the things that we may say or do with good intentions can go awry and then you say well how because I'm the one with the good intentions I meant everything wholeheartedly you say because I had all these good intentions in mind I wasn't dying or sorry I wasn't trying to defend her offend or hurt anyone but we could also try to tell people you know how we feel about situations or how we want them to feel about a situation and that's not always a healthy way to deal with life either and in this passage that we're going to be reading from today in the gospel of Matthew we get to see how Jesus feels about our good intentions sometimes so we are going to be in the gospel of Matthew and we are going to be in chapter 16 of the gospel of Matthew we are going to start at verse 21 and we will go from verses 21 to 24. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders the chief priests and the teachers of the law and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
Never Lord he said this shall never happen to you Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan you are a stumbling block to me you do not have in mind the concerns of God but merely human concerns then Jesus said to his disciples whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. That's a heavy passage and when I was reading it spoke to me so much about all of the mistakes in the problems the things that I do and I think will have good intentions so that's all that matters but Jesus tells Peter that he that he Peter has become a stumbling block to Jesus to put that in more modern terms Jesus telling Peter what you're saying is a hazard to me it's a it's hazardous to me you're tripping me up you remember when you were a kid or maybe you were a good kid and you didn't do this but when you were a kid and you'd be with your friends and you'd be walking you'd always be trying to trip each other you know but you would do it secretly you wouldn't want to just do it you know so they know you're just walking and you just slide your foot and try to trip them and that might be a fun thought but what about a stranger tries to trip you while you're walking with your daughter's birthday cake completely different feeling right because we have human concerns most of the time in our lives that can be in conflict with God and his plans we can become like Peter and say and do something to our most loved most beloved people friends and family that are that cause far more or I should say that do that does far more than putting your foot in your mouth the proverbial foot in your mouth but we focus on human concerns and not the concerns of God how do we know the concerns in the heart of and the heart of God Jesus our apprentice we can't be him but we can continue to study him and his ways to pursue more and more of a godly mindset and I will be quite honest in my heart in saying this but that can often be in conflict with the world's view you see all Peter wanted to do is keep Jesus alive to keep him from harm and danger and those are all good things good human things but in complete contrast to God's plan so forget about putting your foot in your mouth but let's think honestly about ourselves right now and let's think about what are we trying to prevent God from doing in our lives or the people who are closest to us his thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not like our ways let's dig deep in ourselves today and let's examine possible ways that we could be saying no to God I would never let that happen or who do you see that could be that who do you see that could possibly be a stumbling block to you that you can now use this opportunity to pray for this person to God for revelation in their lives because if God has spoken to you about something and you know that this is the right thing that he's called you into someone might be speaking in their heart but they might not understand the path that you're on so praying for them is one of the most biggest and strongest most powerful things that you can do so God can put a revelation in their heart that could be useful to help open up their eyes so that they can experience the kingdom of God like how you're experiencing the kingdom of God but let's also keep in mind yes that can happen to us but we are often more that person to other people so let's just take a step back and let's just humble ourselves for a moment and know that we often think of things in our personal you know our personal emotional experience in life how we feel about things and I don't think that there's anything wrong about that but I think when we're encountering something dare I say something that God is trying to do or build in someone's life let's not you know involve jealousy or hatred or spitefulness or you know try to cause confusion or anything like that because our feelings are trying to lie to us into doing those things but let's go back to the source let's go back to the root of it all and let's bring all of our issues to Jesus so he can reveal to us the things that we need to speak life into other people's lives not become a tripping hazard or stumbling block but a step a helpful step or an aid so my prayer for all of us today is that we examine ourselves in such a way that we know that we're speaking and we're promoting the God narrative and all that means is we're trying to be like Jesus and we're trying to follow Jesus's life and his mindset and his apprenticeship we want to be good stewards of the gifts that he gave us and we want to be able to give those good gifts on to others so that they can find the kingdom as well but we can't do that if we're purely focused on the things of this world and how to navigate this world because I have a feeling that God already knows how we need to navigate this world so if he's given us instructions and we follow them I don't think that we will be a tripping hazard or stumbling block to anyone but we will be an aid and a guide for each other in the kingdom take care friends have a great day thanks for listening to the daily disciple podcast we truly hope that you were encouraged by it today now if you would like to support or if you have any questions about the daily disciple podcast feel free to contact us through our inland 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