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What if a frustrating interruption turns out to be the exact moment God rewrites your family's story forever? Imagine being yanked from the crowd into a task you never would’ve chosen, only to discover it leads to eternal impact you could’ve never planned. Find out why one man’s reluctant step on the road to Golgotha changed everything, and decide whether you're ready to let God's superior plan override your own.
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/his-plan-or-mine
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📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/his-plan-or-mine
#mlcc #church #churchonline
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LearningTranscript
00:00All right. I want to start out this morning by giving a little caveat, if you will,
00:06to something I'm about to say. I happen to think that the Bible is absolutely perfect.
00:12I think that the Bible is sacred. The Bible was written 100% through God, that God gave men the
00:19words to write, and men wrote down those words. We took those words, we compiled them, and that's
00:24the book of the Bible that we have now. So every word in there is written by God. And I
00:32don't know
00:32about you guys, but I have a chance to do devotions on a daily basis. I hope you guys do.
00:37It's a great
00:37way to either start or end your day or actually just go through, you know, and do multiple during
00:42the day. And I have paper devotions. You know, I go through a book and the actual Bible. And then
00:48if you have your smartphone, you guys know that there's like, you know, three bazillion apps on
00:53your phone. And a lot of these apps, which are free, you can do devotions on. And they'll like
00:59tailor make these devotions for right, you know, for what you want. They'll be like, what's going
01:03on? And, you know, I have one that says, what's going on in your life? And I can be, you
01:06know,
01:07X, Y, Z, P, D, Q. And they'll give me a devotion like tailored for that specific thing. So it's
01:14amazing. And it's great. So I'll do a bunch of devotions. And I love them because, you know,
01:20normally I'll read the word and I'll be like, every time I read the word, I try to say the
01:25same thing. God, show me something new. Because if you're like me and you've been a believer for a
01:29long time, you've probably read the Bible through more than once. So I'm always like, show me
01:33something new in what I'm reading today. And God's always great. He always shows me something new
01:37or teach me something. He'll teach me something or remind me of something. And he reminds me of
01:43something. And it's always, you know, then you go to prayer and you're like, God, thank you so much.
01:47This is great. And I can use this and it just lifts your spirit. And it's amazing. And there's
01:53some times where I will read something that is in a devotion or just something that comes up and I'll
01:58read it and I'll go, God, I don't like that. It's just not cool. You know, not okay. Now,
02:08please understand that when I say that, I'm not saying that because I think it's wrong. I'm not saying
02:13that because I think that the Bible is incorrect. It's absolutely correct. But I'm saying that because
02:18when I read it, I don't like it because it affects me in a way that I didn't want it
02:23to. It's teaching
02:24me something that I didn't want to hear. It's telling me something that I didn't want it to say
02:28because then it makes me look at myself and go, this is somewhere where I'm lacking.
02:34There's been one specific portion of scripture, two verses that keeps coming up. And every time it
02:40comes up, I say the same thing. I get it. I don't like it. Can we stop it? And then
02:45it keeps coming
02:46up. And it's crazy because it's like in my paper devotions, it came up and I was like, oof, that's
02:51rough. And then, you know, in these devotions that I do on my phone, it just keeps coming up and
02:56I'm
02:56like, okay, I get it. But at the same time, it's like God saying, yeah, you just don't get it.
03:01That's why it keeps coming up. And those verses are Isaiah 55, 8 and 9. It says,
03:06for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the
03:12heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
03:17thoughts. Now, again, that's 100% right. And God is totally sovereign and God knows all, God sees all,
03:28God is all, and everything about God is perfect. My problem is when God says that my ways are higher
03:35than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. And when my thoughts and my ways
03:41don't match up with what God's saying, that makes me wrong and that makes my ways wrong.
03:46And as a control freak, that doesn't work for me. Because I'm sitting there going, I don't think
03:53you understand. See, this is what's going on and this is my plan and you're telling me my plan is
03:59wrong
04:01and my plan is not wrong. God's saying, my plan is perfect. Trust me. Listen to me. I'm like,
04:13okay, but you're not telling me what's coming next. You're telling me nothing. You're just saying,
04:17trust me. Sometimes God does things in our lives that we look at and they don't make sense. They
04:26in fact seem impossible, but God knows tomorrow when we can't see past yesterday. Today, we're
04:33going to see that even in Jesus' darkest hour, God still saw what was needed for today, tomorrow,
04:38and he made that happen in one man's life. Normally we would set aside this day for Palm
04:44Sunday. And I know you guys are like, wait, he's not preaching on Palm Sunday. What's he doing?
04:48Instead, I'm going to continue right where Pastor Mark left off. So if you want to go with me to
04:53Luke 23,
04:54we're going to start in verse 26. In fact, that's pretty much where we're going to sit is verse 26.
05:00I want to give you kind of a cliff notes version of where we're at to this point in case
05:04you were
05:04gone last week. Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane after praying in Gethsemane. And after he was
05:11arrested, Jesus got taken and he gets to play ping pong in between two rulers who both think that they
05:17know what they're doing, two so-called leaders who think that they're in charge. So he goes to Pilate,
05:23Pilate doesn't work. He goes to Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas says, hey, aren't you Jesus?
05:28Aren't you that magician guy? Ooh, give me a show. Give me a show. Right? And Jesus is battered and
05:35he's bruised and he's been persecuted all night and he can barely stand at this point. And Herod
05:41wants a show. And when he doesn't get it, Herod's like, this guy's lame. Send him back to Pilate.
05:46Let Pilate deal with him. And the thing is, is both Pilate and Herod don't know what to do with
05:52Jesus because Jesus hasn't really done anything wrong at this point. Right? So Jesus has been
06:00going back and forth to Herod and Pilate. He's been mocked unmercifully. I know they say that sticks
06:07and stones, you know, or, you know, what it was, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words
06:10will never hurt me. Words hurt, man. Especially the words that he was getting. He's been beaten to the
06:16point of death. And now he finally went back to Pilate for the last time. And Pilate's almost
06:23begging him. It seems like if you read the scriptures, you know, isn't there anything
06:26that you can tell me? Is there anything that you can do to tell me that you're innocent? Like
06:30Pilate doesn't see anything wrong with Jesus. He's got this crowd outside that's saying, crucify him,
06:35crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate's going, what's going on? Like he didn't do anything wrong.
06:43Pastor Mark also talked about a man named Barabbas, a man that's barely in the Bible,
06:48but a man that played a key part in Jesus' crucifixion. You see, because Barabbas was the
06:56guy that was supposed to be on the cross that Jesus ended up carrying to Golgotha. That was
07:02Barabbas's death. And Pilate in honestly, a really sharp move, a really smart move. Remember he
07:11said, if I offer them Barabbas, this guy, that's the worst of the worst. I mean, this guy is
07:15terrible. Nobody likes this guy. Everybody wants to see him gone. If I offer them either Barabbas or
07:21this innocent man, they're going to take Jesus off the hook. And instead, the crowd is so intent
07:28on crucifying Jesus that they have to release the worst of the worst. And now Barabbas, a man that we
07:34know barely nothing about, a man whose plan was anarchy and chaos, a man whose plan was murder and
07:41strife and dissent, all of a sudden God said, that's not my plan. And now he's a free man.
07:48And Jesus takes his spot on the cross.
07:53So Pilate has nothing left. Pilate says, fine, if there's nothing else I can do, if that's all you
07:57guys want, we're going to, you know, he's been scourged at this point. Jesus is so near death
08:03that it's surprising that he's made it this far on his human body. And he says, fine, then take him
08:09and crucify him. Give him a death that the Romans say for people that, I mean, this is the worst
08:17possible death that they could actually give. And they give it to an innocent man who's done nothing
08:24wrong because a crowd says, that's what we want. So at this point, that's where we're at. Jesus is
08:33found guilty. Jesus has to pick up his cross and start carrying it to Golgotha. This morning, we're
08:40going to talk about another man who we know little to nothing about, and yet played another key role
08:45in Jesus' crucifixion. And just like Barabbas, who didn't see God's plan, who didn't know that God's
08:53plan was greater than his, who didn't see that God's way was better than his, but he does by the
08:58end of today. We're going to see that. I actually thought about naming this sermon, right place,
09:04right time. This morning, we're talking about Simon of Cyrene. This is somebody that we know
09:13little to nothing about. Let me tell you what we know. Simon of Cyrene is in three verses in the
09:21entire Bible, in three books of the entire Bible. In Luke 23, 26, it says, and as they led him
09:30away,
09:30they seized one Simon of Cyrene who was coming in from the country, and they laid on him the cross
09:35to carry it behind Jesus. So we know his name is Simon. We know he's from Cyrene. We know he
09:43came in
09:44from the country, and we know that they laid the cross on him to carry for Jesus. That's what we
09:50got so far. Now go to Matthew 27, 32, where it says, as they went out, they found a man
09:56of Cyrene,
09:57Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. Not much extra there, except for one very
10:04important word that you need to look at. And that word in that verse is the word compelled.
10:11That means that this was not Simon's choice. Simon did not want to carry this man's cross.
10:16Simon did not want to be in this position, but the Romans said, you don't have a choice.
10:21Go pick up that cross and carry it for this convict.
10:28The last verse we see him in is Mark 15, 21. It says, and they compelled a passerby, Simon of
10:35Cyrene,
10:35who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus to carry his cross.
10:42Again, we don't get a lot of extra information there. They use the same word compelled, which is
10:46very important, but we get just a little bit extra. And that's Simon was a daddy. He had two kids,
10:52Alexander and Rufus. And why Mark would put that in? I guess we'll find out in a couple of minutes
10:59because it's vital that he put that in there. We know very little about, uh, about Simon. We know
11:07he's from Cyrene. Cyrene was a Greek colony that was located in Libya, which is in Africa. I found
11:14out when I looked it up in the Google maps and it's about 783 miles from Jerusalem. So it's a
11:22track.
11:23Now, um, scholars believe for the Passover, Simon decided to come to Jerusalem to celebrate
11:31Passover from Cyrene. So he made a trip and he came all the way in from Cyrene to celebrate
11:37Passover. That's what we know. That's all we know about Simon. Not what his life goals were,
11:45not how old he was, not, not, not, um, you know, what kind of a man he was, not anything
11:51other than the
11:52fact that he's a man. He's from Cyrene and he's forced to carry his cross. That's all we know
11:58about him. At this point, Jesus is carrying his cross to Golgotha, otherwise known as the skull
12:06to be crucified. Now I want to point something out. And this is very important. We got to remember
12:11how weak Jesus was at this point. He had been flogged. He'd been beaten.
12:19He'd been spit on. He'd been mocked. And he's still carrying this cross.
12:29If you go back to the garden of Gethsemane, which I think we, we, we kind of bypass a lot,
12:34right? That, well, that's where Jesus prayed before he was arrested. And then Judas came and
12:38kissed him on the cheek and, and, you know, Simon lops off the ear and, and, and off he goes.
12:43But we miss a very important part. You see, uh, the whole sweating of blood thing
12:48that some people actually think isn't true is an absolute medical thing. It's called,
12:52I'm going to get this wrong. He, hematrodosis. I think I got that right.
12:58It's a medical thing that happens to you when you, when you get to that point where you stress so
13:03much,
13:03where you're under so much pressure, when there's so much anxiety and just angst in your body that,
13:10that you, you can't, you know, fear. And when your body gets to that point, this happens.
13:15Now, normally when this happens to, to a human being, somebody like you, somebody like me,
13:19somebody like Jesus, who was 100% human, it could take weeks to recover from.
13:25It could cause death. And that's before anything even started. This is when Jesus was in Gethsemane,
13:32just praying, Father, is there anything else we can do?
13:36But your will, not mine.
13:42Now, this is a map of Jesus's journey to Golgotha. It's blurry. Believe it or not, this is, that's Israel.
13:50And this is the Via Della Rosa. And you'll see number one is where he starts.
13:54And he has to carry the cross from number one, all the way down
14:02to where it says 10 to 14. That's about roughly a third of a mile.
14:10Now, when I read that, it kind of surprised me because I kind of thought that when Jesus was
14:14carrying his cross, it was, you know, it was a 10 mile jaunt, right? Like he had to walk a
14:18long way.
14:19And when I, when I heard it was a third of a mile, it really kind of made me go,
14:23huh?
14:23Yesterday, I took, I took the dogs on a walk and I walked like four and a half miles.
14:27And I'm going, it's a third of a mile, you know?
14:31But when you're at that point where your body has nothing left, when you've given everything
14:35that you have to give plus more, when he's already went through Gethsemane, where, where
14:40that alone should, should knock him out for weeks, if not kill him.
14:43Then he had the floggings. He had the beatings. You have the blood loss.
14:47You have everything that he went through compiled on that. And we have to remember that the Bible
14:52says that Jesus was 100% God. Does anybody disagree with that? I hope not. But he was
14:58also 100% man. He felt pain. He felt fear. He felt that stuff. He felt joy. But at this
15:06point, his 100% human body that he's dealing with, that, that, that just, you know, he's
15:12given it, everything he's got, gives out, he's done. He has nothing left to give.
15:20Even if his brain says, you can do it, pick it up. His body's like, I don't care. I can't
15:24anymore. And Jesus collapses in the street. Jesus can't do it anymore. He can't carry the
15:30cross that they're going to put him on, that they're going to hang him on, that they're going
15:33to kill him on. He can't carry that anymore. And he collapses in the street. And as he collapses
15:41in the street, the guards look around and who do they see? Oh, there's a strong looking
15:47guy. Let's pull him out of the crowd. He can help carry the cross.
15:53Simon gets pulled out of the crowd. He carries the cross. Now put yourself in Simon's shoes
15:57for just a second. I have no idea if, if, if in Cyrene, they know who Jesus is. I mean,
16:04I know Jesus was pretty popular at this point, but we're talking 800 miles away in Bible times.
16:08It's not like you can get an email. Hey, Simon, check out this, you know, sermon on the mountain.
16:13It was amazing. He fed 5,000. It's crazy. You know, you don't get that. There's no Pony Express.
16:19There's no snail mail. There's no email. There's no text. There's no nothing. So we have no idea
16:23whether Simon knew who Jesus was or not. And even if he didn't know who Jesus was, we have no
16:28idea if
16:29at that point he knew who Jesus was. All he knows is Simon comes to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.
16:34He sees this crowd, this, this, this ruckus, this, this chaos happening in the streets. He has no idea
16:40what's going on. And now he's got these soldiers that are yelling at him saying, Hey, I need you to
16:47come up here and you're going to carry this convict's cross. Well, no, I'm not. I didn't do anything
16:55wrong. I shouldn't have to carry this thing. I shouldn't have to get all bloody. I shouldn't
17:00have to get the splinters from the wood. It's his fault. He's the one that's being crucified.
17:07He's the one that did whatever it was that Rome said, you're so bad. We're going to put you up
17:12there.
17:12You're going to be on that cross. Congratulations. I didn't do anything. I'm just here to celebrate
17:17Passover. I'm not even from Jerusalem for Pete's sake. But Simon doesn't have a choice. Whether he likes it
17:25or not, he's carrying that cross for this convict, this man that was sentenced to death, the worst
17:31possible death. We don't know how far Simon had to carry the cross. We don't know if, you know,
17:44did him and Jesus have any type of conversation, you know? In the movie, I don't know if you've seen
17:51the passion of the Christ when Simon, the man that plays Simon in the movie picks up the cross and
17:56he's carrying it. He actually like has Jesus like hoist up on the other side. It's almost like he
18:00carries Jesus up there too, right? Did he make eye contact with the Savior? Did he see, you know,
18:09did, we have no idea. The Bible doesn't say anything that happened. All we know is Simon carried the cross
18:15from the point where Jesus fell to the point where Jesus would be hung on. That's what we know.
18:24Now, let's look at Isaiah 55, 8, 9 again. It says,
18:28For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
18:32For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
18:35and my thoughts than your thought.
18:41See, God's way equals the right way.
18:46If Simon's upset that he has to carry the cross, I don't think we can blame. I don't think we
18:50can
18:50blame him. I'm telling you, I think I would be too. I wouldn't want to go carry this guy's cross.
18:56But something happened that day. I don't know if he talked to Jesus. I don't know whether he made
19:00eye contact with Jesus. Maybe he just carried, maybe he didn't do anything. Maybe he looked at the
19:04ground and carried the cross. And then when Jesus was up there, he watched what happened while Jesus was
19:08hanging on the cross. He saw the skies go dark. He heard what Jesus was saying. Something changed in Simon
19:15in that day. We don't know if Simon's family was there. We don't know if he went home and told
19:22them what happened. We have no clue, but something in there changed. And Mark said something. Mark said
19:30in that, that Simon was a father to Alexander and Rufus. Why put that in there? That's kind of
19:37bizarre. Why throw that in there? Romans 16, 13 says, greet Rufus chosen in the Lord. Also his mother
19:45who has been a mother to me as well. This is Paul talking. Rufus and Mark.
19:57In Mark, it says that Simon was the father of Rufus. So Simon went home. Simon's family found Jesus
20:07that day because of Simon, because Simon had to realize that God's ways were higher than his ways.
20:14He didn't want to carry the cross. He didn't want to take that walk. He didn't want to have to
20:19deal
20:19with that stuff. Chances are that he was getting hit with stuff just like Jesus was. He was getting
20:24spit on. It's not like he had a force field around him and everything was. No, chances are he had
20:30all
20:30that too, but it changed him. And because of that, his family helped start the church. And in fact,
20:37Paul says that, um, says greet Rufus chosen in the Lord. Also his mother who has been a mother to
20:44me as
20:44well. Simon's wife was like a mother to Paul
20:51because God's ways equal the right way.
20:59Jesus is,
21:01I can't imagine suffering that Jesus is going through at this point.
21:06I just can't. Jesus is carrying his cross up to, uh, up to the point where his body gives out.
21:12And
21:12then he, this man helps him carry it the rest of the way. And then as we know, they put
21:17Jesus on the
21:18cross. They put nails in his arms. They put nails in his legs. They hang him up there. He's got
21:23a crown
21:23of thorns on him. The, the, the, the amount of excruciating, I just, I can't even imagine.
21:28And quite frankly, I don't even want to imagine. And this is what he's going through. This is what
21:34he's dealing with.
21:39He's innocent. Pilate knows he's innocent. Herod knows he's innocent. And yet he's still carrying
21:43the cross. He's still going up. He's still sacrificing his life. And while he's sacrificing
21:48his life, while he's carrying his cross, while he is at that point where his, his, his earthly body,
21:55that, that body that's 100% human gives up and can't give him any more, while he's at that point,
22:01he's still teaching. He's still laying the groundwork for the church. He's still saying,
22:06I need to prepare the way for the people that are going to come and spread my news after I'm
22:12gone.
22:18Simon was there for Passover and nothing else. He was forced to carry the cross of a convicted man.
22:24And none of this way was Simon's choice. None of it was anything he wanted to do,
22:29but God knew better because God's ways were better.
22:34You got to wonder if Simon afterwards, like, I want to ask Simon, like what his mindset was after
22:41this was done. Cause I can almost guarantee you that if Simon could hop back in time,
22:46that they wouldn't have to ask him if he wanted to come out of the crowd. He'd say,
22:49can I carry his cross? He'd say, can I take his place? This is my savior. This is my God.
23:02Simon took the cross the rest of the way to Golgotha.
23:06And then Jesus did the rest.
23:08Jesus took the nails in his hand and his feet.
23:13He hung there on the cross, naked and humiliated while people made fun of him and laughed at him.
23:21If you're God, if you're, if you're really the son of God, I mean, you say you're the son of
23:25God.
23:25Why don't you just come on down? What are you doing up there?
23:31You're nothing.
23:34You're a magician. That's all you are. Ooh, I can do tricks.
23:38Look at you now. You're hanging up there. You're dying. Come on. Prove it. Prove it.
23:46What does Jesus say?
23:48Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
23:57Jesus took the pain and humiliation of being on the cross.
24:02And then he died.
24:05And after he took the pain and he took the humiliation of being on the cross, he died and he
24:10took our sins on his shoulders.
24:16This is Holy Week.
24:20Today, he triumphantly went in and people called him King of Kings.
24:24They said, Lord of Lords.
24:25He said, he's the Messiah.
24:28They said, hallelujah.
24:32And in a week's time, I'm going to say crucify him.
24:39There's a word that I used to, I used to like.
24:44And quite frankly, I've grown to dislike quite a bit.
24:48And that word is coincidence.
24:52God does not work in coincidences.
24:58You're dealing with something.
24:59You're trying to figure something out and you open up the Bible and you're struggling with it.
25:03And you're just like, oh, I don't even know.
25:04But this is what, you know, I'm supposed to read in my Bible today.
25:06And the Bible verse tells you exactly what God wants you to hear for exactly what's going on in your
25:11life.
25:11And you're like, what a coincidence.
25:13That's crazy.
25:14I mean, how does that happen?
25:16And then, or you're driving down the street and something just happened.
25:20And you're trying to make sense of it.
25:21And you can't make sense of it.
25:22And you turn on the radio because normally you listen to talk radio, but today you're just like, I just
25:25don't want to hear anybody talk.
25:26So you turn on the radio station and a worship song plays.
25:29And the worship song tells you exactly what's needed in your life.
25:32And God lifts your spirits.
25:33And you're like, man, what a coincidence.
25:37Or you go to Passover to celebrate Passover just because you want to celebrate it and have fun in the
25:43festivities or maybe hang out with friends.
25:45And you get pulled out of a crowd to carry the cross of a convicted criminal up to the point
25:50where he has to die.
25:51And it changes your life.
25:53And you say, what a coincidence.
25:56God does not work in coincidences.
26:01Every step you take.
26:05Every decision that comes.
26:07Every way that your wife, or sorry, maybe.
26:13I won't say no, but every point that your life points you is exactly where God wants you to go.
26:19And you have a choice.
26:21You can either do things your way or you can do things God's way.
26:26And if you do things God's way and you remember that God's ways are higher than your ways and God's
26:31thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
26:33And when you make those decisions in your life, even if they don't make sense, even if they're impossible sounding
26:38in your brain, in your soul, and you go, I don't get it.
26:41It doesn't make sense.
26:42But God, your ways are better than mine.
26:44And your thoughts are better than mine.
26:46So I'm going to trust you.
26:48If you do that, it's going to possibly drive you nuts as a control freak.
26:57Because it will.
26:58If you're like me, you want to know.
27:02But if you do that, it's going to take you exactly where you're supposed to go.
27:06Simon's family are sitting there in heaven right now because Simon picked up a cross and carried it for a
27:13convicted felon.
27:14For a man that was going to die.
27:19God's plans are not our plans.
27:20They're better.
27:21They're perfect.
27:22The question is, will we trust God enough to listen to his plans?
27:25Or are we going to not and suffer through ours?
27:29Let's pray.
27:33Father God, in this Palm Sunday where we celebrate you, we celebrate who you are.
27:39You're our king.
27:40You're our Lord.
27:43You are our shepherd.
27:47Father, I pray that we remember the sacrifice that you made.
27:50That we remember the suffering that you went through.
27:54That we remember everything that you did to take our sins on your shoulders, Father.
27:59That we don't deserve it, Father.
28:01We don't, I mean, not even close, but we thank you for that.
28:05And I pray that in this holy week, every day, we wake up and we remember the sacrifice that you
28:09made for us.
28:10That this week becomes something that we not only rejoice that we have the salvation that you sacrificed yourself for,
28:18but that we say thank you for sacrificing yourself and we don't forget that, Father.
28:21And that we share that with others.
28:23We thank you.
28:24We praise you.
28:25In your name we pray.
28:26Amen.
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