SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll join us on this journey as we follow Jesus towards the empty.
SPEAKER_00: On the front end of spring break, our family spent a few days at Lake Washita.
SPEAKER_00: And while we were there, one of the activities uh that we um enjoyed was a trail ride on horseback.
SPEAKER_00: It had been at least a decade since I had gotten on top of a horse and gone for a horse ride.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just kind of my nature.
SPEAKER_00: When I haven't done something in a long time, I get a little bit nervous.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't nervous about an accident.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't nervous that I would embarrass myself, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um, that I would be on some kind of YouTube or TikTok video of a trail ride gone wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And so in the hours leading up to this horseback ride, I just kind of had to keep telling myself, uh, how hard can this be?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how hard can this be?
SPEAKER_00: Like kids from across our county go to Hope Landing every single summer for horseback riding camp.
SPEAKER_00: And I hear no reports of anything going wrong, right?
SPEAKER_00: So certainly a man in his 40s, I would think, could get on top of a horse and ride it around a trail because this horse had gone on that exact same trail hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think if this horse had gone hundreds and thousands of times on this same trail, it would know all you need to do is to follow the horse that's right in front of you, and everything will be okay.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking all of these things as I get on top of the horse and I saddle my horse.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Bo, and the stable hand comes by and pats Bo on the side of the head, and she looks at me in all seriousness, and she just says, just so you know, Bo likes to do his own thing.
SPEAKER_00: She said, We're gonna be out on the trail, and um he is going to want to go off the trail whenever the opportunity presents itself.
SPEAKER_00: She then added, You can let him do that and let him go off the trail, and eventually he'll find his way back, or you can grab the reins, grab blow on the reins, and give him a firm tug to try to keep him in line with everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: Her comments got my attention because, golly, she was right.
SPEAKER_00: Um, every opportunity, and there was always an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: That horse named Bo always wanted to go left or he wanted to go right, and he never wanted to go just straight ahead, following the horse that was in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, especially at the beginning of the ride, when Bo would make that move and you could see when he was gonna make that move, his head would turn and he'd start to sniff.
SPEAKER_00: I'd give him a big tug and try to get him to stay in line, follow that horse in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what that horse would do?
SPEAKER_00: He would stop.
SPEAKER_00: He would snort and he would wait.
SPEAKER_00: He would stop and he would snort and he would wait until I let go of the reins, until I loosened my grip on the reins so he could go the way that he wanted to go.
SPEAKER_00: Bo, he had his mind made up at the very beginning of that trail ride.
SPEAKER_00: He was gonna go on this uh trail walk for himself as the horse, and it would be on his own terms.
SPEAKER_00: He was gonna cut through all the brush, and he was gonna weave in and out of all the trees.
SPEAKER_00: So by the middle of our ride, Bo had worn me out.
SPEAKER_00: I'd been dodging all this thorny brush.
SPEAKER_00: I had been avoiding all these low-hanging branches that occasionally whop me on the side of the head.
SPEAKER_00: And then he decided to skirt between these two trees, and he made it through the trees just fine, but my knee did not.
SPEAKER_00: He skirted through them and he just rammed my knee into the trunk of a tree.
SPEAKER_00: He was just doing what he wanted to do, refusing to follow that horse in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: He was following what he saw with his eyes and what he wanted with his heart, and I was really frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: I was frustrated with Bo for all the reasons I've already listed for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I was frustrated a little bit with myself.
SPEAKER_00: Not just because I couldn't control a horse, but also because riding Bo on that day and seeing him always want to go to the left or to the right and never following the horse that was right in front of him felt like a metaphor for my life.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it feels like a metaphor for your life.
SPEAKER_00: That too often I follow just what I see with my eyes, or I follow what I want or desire in my heart, and I just decide I'm going to do life on my own terms.
SPEAKER_00: Which means I don't follow the one who's right out in front of me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't follow my leader, I don't follow my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We've been singing about him all this morning.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're continuing our series that we began last week, Following Jesus, a series that will take us all the way to Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Like we talked about last week, the main reason that you and I don't follow Jesus Christ is because we have forgotten that important childhood lesson of be careful who you follow.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we follow the wrong leader.
SPEAKER_00: It could be a friend, it could be a family member, a celebrity, a TV personality, or that wrong leader could be you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the reason you won't answer or I won't answer the call to get up and to follow Jesus Christ is because many days I'm just like that horse named Bo.
SPEAKER_00: I want to follow my eyes, I want to follow my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I want to do life on my own terms.
SPEAKER_00: I want to have it my way.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this isn't a new problem.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a new kind of outlook on life for people or even for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this has been a constant struggle for the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: For thousands of years, they have uh wanted to follow their eyes or just listen to their heart or just live life on their own terms.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, after the nation of Israel had followed God through the wilderness for 40 years and finally they had arrived in the promised land, um, a new period in the life of Israel begins.
SPEAKER_00: It's called the period of the judges.
SPEAKER_00: So think about that.
SPEAKER_00: They've arrived in the promised land after 40 years in the wilderness, 40 years when God proved his character.
SPEAKER_00: For 40 years, God proved that he was faithful, he always provided for them.
SPEAKER_00: For 40 years, God proved that he was powerful, he was constantly defending and fighting for his people.
SPEAKER_00: For 40 years, God proved that he was merciful, he would forgive their sins.
SPEAKER_00: For 40 years, God proved his character.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think when the people finally arrive in the land, they would happily follow God's lead.
SPEAKER_00: But the book of Judges tells a completely different story.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the book of Judges, the people never go straight, they always go left or right.
SPEAKER_00: They never follow the horse of the Lord that's right out in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they just do and live life on their own terms, how they want to live it.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Judges just tells this downward spiraling story of God's people and their deepening corruption.
SPEAKER_00: The very end of Judges summarizes, gives this assessment of the people.
SPEAKER_00: It says this.
SPEAKER_00: Judges 21, verse 25 says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, At that time, people did whatever they felt like doing.
SPEAKER_00: Hear it one more time.
SPEAKER_00: At that time, people did whatever they felt like doing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about that assessment at the very end of Judges just for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: First, let's let's highlight the word people.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the word people.
SPEAKER_00: No one is excluded.
SPEAKER_00: That means everyone is included.
SPEAKER_00: This verse diagnoses an epidemic.
SPEAKER_00: And it also serves as an indictment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about one person or one family or one clan or one tribe.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about the people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go and highlight another word, the word whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Or as some people say, whatebbs, if you like that.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
SPEAKER_00: No opinion, no attitude, no behavior is off the table.
SPEAKER_00: In the time of the judges, anything goes.
SPEAKER_00: So why did the people do whatever?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because of the next word.
SPEAKER_00: Felt.
SPEAKER_00: People during the time of judges were guided by how they felt.
SPEAKER_00: If it makes me happy, I'm all for it.
SPEAKER_00: If I think it'll give me fulfillment, sign me up.
SPEAKER_00: If I think it's gonna make me successful or bring me pleasure, give me a double.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, the word doing.
SPEAKER_00: In the time of judges, the people not only felt all these things, they acted upon their feelings.
SPEAKER_00: They had behaviors and habits and ways of life that were driven by how they felt.
SPEAKER_00: That was an assessment of God's people during the time of Judges.
SPEAKER_00: It's that phrase, at that time.
SPEAKER_00: At that time, this is the assessment of how God's people were living in the world.
SPEAKER_00: But do you think it could also apply this way?
SPEAKER_00: And we could say, at this time?
SPEAKER_00: At this time, people do or did whatever they felt like doing.
SPEAKER_00: Like we can just make it all present tense.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to apply that assessment to our country and to our culture and say, yes, people do do whatever they feel like doing at this time.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is off the table.
SPEAKER_00: Everything goes.
SPEAKER_00: But that isn't the assessment that Judges 21, verse 25 wants to make.
SPEAKER_00: Judges 21, 25, if it's at this time, it wants to make an assessment of God's church.
SPEAKER_00: This is about God's people, it's who it was written to.
SPEAKER_00: God's people.
SPEAKER_00: It wants to make an assessment of God's church, of Christian homes, of individual followers of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And for far too long, we've allowed ourselves to believe this lie.
SPEAKER_00: That we can have it all, live life according on our own terms, and still follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's the wide road that leads to destruction that we talked about last week.
SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus is a narrow road.
SPEAKER_00: A road where we deny ourselves, take up a cross, and follow him.
SPEAKER_00: And the only antidote for a lie is to hear the truth.
SPEAKER_00: To hear a truth spoken by a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why in week two of our series, we're going to get up close and personal with Jesus, and we're going to hear Jesus speak to us as a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen closely.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying Jesus is just a prophet as other religions teach.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying he is only a prophet, merely a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus is much more than a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Savior of the world.
SPEAKER_00: He is the only Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to follow Jesus Christ, if you want to read the Gospels and understand why Jesus does what he does, why he speaks as he speaks, you need to understand him at many points through the lens of an Old Testament prophet.
SPEAKER_00: That he is fulfilling that office in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He is the true and greater prophet, the one foretold to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: When God said, a greater prophet will come.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus, the only Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you hear the word prophet, maybe the first thing that comes to your mind, it maybe makes you a little uneasy because you think about late night Christian television.
SPEAKER_00: You think about someone selling their book, they got a video series, they're uh they've had all these fantastic visions of the end times, they're connecting all the dots, and they connect the dots differently every six to twelve months.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna tell you the future, or a prophet who just pronounces blessings over people that are financial, about prosperity and success in the world.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what a prophet did in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Most simply defined, in the Old Testament, a prophet is this Hebrew word Nabi, and a Nabi is simply someone who has words put into their mouth so that they can speak for someone else.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet is a mouthpiece, the prophet is a spokesperson who delivers a message given to them by someone else.
SPEAKER_00: They're the conduit, they're the instrument that shares the message.
SPEAKER_00: So you apply that definition to a true prophet of God.
SPEAKER_00: There are false prophets you read about in the Old Testament, but you apply that definition to a true prophet of God, someone like Moses or someone like Samuel or someone like Elijah or Isaiah and even Jesus, and it means this when that person speaks, the prophet speaks for God.
SPEAKER_00: His message, the words that come out of his mouth, come directly from the throne room of God.
SPEAKER_00: So you should listen.
SPEAKER_00: You should listen when the prophet speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a corollary to this, kind of something that builds off of this.
SPEAKER_00: If the prophet speaks for God, then what should we know about the words that come out of his mouth?
SPEAKER_00: How can we define them?
SPEAKER_00: How can we most simply describe them?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's this that the prophet speaks truth.
SPEAKER_00: Since the prophet speaks for God, then when the prophet speaks, the prophet speaks truth.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, Jesus, the true and greater prophet, is going to speak truth to us.
SPEAKER_00: It's a message from the very heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: That if we hear it, that if we embrace it, it will transform our opinions, our behaviors, and our attitudes.
SPEAKER_00: If we'll hear the truth, has the potential to give us a robust and a full biblical outlook and worldview on this world and our life in it.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what you should know about the truth that Jesus is going to speak.
SPEAKER_00: The truth he's going to speak this morning is both hard and hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: Hard and hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be difficult to swallow.
SPEAKER_00: You will want to spit it out.
SPEAKER_00: But it's also hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: It's a truth that reveals to us God's glorious plan that will come to pass.
SPEAKER_00: That God is sovereign over the world and He has a solution for the sin that plagues the world.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, we need both sides.
SPEAKER_00: We need the hard truth and the hopeful truth.
SPEAKER_00: So listen carefully to the words of Jesus this morning in John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: John tells this story in John 2, beginning in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus went to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: In the temple area, he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: He also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: He drove out the sheep and the cattle, scattered the money changers' coins over the floor and turned over their tables.
SPEAKER_00: Then, going over to the people who sold the dubs, he told them, Get these things out of here.
SPEAKER_00: Stop turning my father's house into a marketplace.
SPEAKER_00: That story out of the life of Jesus occurs at a very significant moment.
SPEAKER_00: Israel's annual celebration of the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: During that festival, the Jewish people celebrated God defeating Pharaoh in the army of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They praised God for the fact that by his mighty arm he had not only defeated their enemy, he had liberated them, freed them out of slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And it's for that reason, this Passover festival, that Jesus and his disciples travel to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They want to be a part of the celebration.
SPEAKER_00: And they go to the temple because it's within the temple that the sacrifices for the festival are offered.
SPEAKER_00: So they've traveled all this way.
SPEAKER_00: They walk into the city, they pass through the city gate, they go up to the Temple Mount, they enter the temple courts, and Jesus cannot believe what he sees with his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: There are people in there selling sacrifices and others who are making change, exchanging money.
SPEAKER_00: And they've decided we can do whatever we want to do with this sacred space.
SPEAKER_00: We can profit off this sacred space.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Jesus even understands in this moment, he just sees that pattern of behavior that began in the time of the judges repeating itself once again.
SPEAKER_00: The people are doing whatever they feel like doing.
SPEAKER_00: And they're believing that I can have it my way and still follow God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows they've believed a lie.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, I gotta be a prophet in this moment because the prophet speaks truth.
SPEAKER_00: And in this moment, Jesus speaks a hard truth.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks a truth that the people don't want to swallow.
SPEAKER_00: The first way that Jesus speaks truth is through the actions that he performs.
SPEAKER_00: He makes a makeshift whip, then he drives out the animals.
SPEAKER_00: And then he, with a swipe of the arm, scatters the coins that are on the table, flips the tables over.
SPEAKER_00: And then those actions transition into words, and he and he shouts at the men who are selling the doves.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Stop turning my father's house into a market.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you can't just do whatever you want to God's house, to a place devoted to his praise and his presence.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, what you're expecting is this is that you can turn it into a place of profit, and God's just going to bless you anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus walked into the Jerusalem temple, and he spoke to the people who were gathered in it.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke a hard truth about how they had transformed and corrupted something that was good, a good gift given to them by God.
SPEAKER_00: And today, Jesus as a prophet speaks that same truth, but but he speaks that truth not to people who are gathered in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus speaks the truth to people who are the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus speaks this word of truth, not to those of us who go to a temple in Jerusalem, but when we walk the streets in El Dored, we are the temple of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Jerusalem temple is obsolete.
SPEAKER_00: The Jerusalem temple has fulfilled its purpose in God's plan because of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The presence of God no longer dwells in that temple.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, the presence of God dwells in the lives of people.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God.
SPEAKER_00: You, listen this last injunction, this last statement by Paul, you do not belong to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Paul says, you can't just do whatever you please.
SPEAKER_00: You can't simply live life on your own terms.
SPEAKER_00: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke that hard truth in a temple, and now he speaks that hard truth that's hard to swallow to those of us who are a temple, a temple of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have accepted him and put your faith in him as your Lord and Savior, then the Holy Spirit dwells in you.
SPEAKER_00: Dwells in you.
SPEAKER_00: And as Jesus then speaks this hard truth this morning, I think we would be foolish to think that there is not a makeshift whip that's being formed.
SPEAKER_00: Where Jesus wants to drive out and discard those parts of our life that do not honor Him.
SPEAKER_00: I think we'd be foolish to not believe that Jesus doesn't want to scatter the coins and flip over the tables to try and get our attention, to say you can't go on this way, you can't have it your way, you can't live according to your feelings and think that you can follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Stop thinking you can follow me.
SPEAKER_00: If all you want is to be happy, and your happiness is above anything else, stop thinking you can follow me if the greatest achievement in your life is the American dream.
SPEAKER_00: Stop thinking you can follow me.
SPEAKER_00: If you just think I'm here to make you happy and give you fulfillment and pleasure in life and to make your wildest dreams come true.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said those sorts of things to the people who were in the temple, and now he says it to us who are a temple.
SPEAKER_00: Because the prophet speaks truth.
SPEAKER_00: And truth that is hard is a truth that is hard to swallow.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, he speaks that hard truth, and when we hear it, it's a call to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Plain and simple.
SPEAKER_00: And to turn away from those attitudes, habits, behaviors, and opinions that don't honor Jesus Christ, to turn away from them, to confess them, repent of them, and to turn to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's only, listen, it's an act of Christ's mercy towards us and kindness towards us that he gets the whip out.
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
SPEAKER_00: It's an act of his grace, of his love towards us, to show how much he cares for us that he's willing to scatter the coins and to flip over the tables in your life and in your home.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, if you have this truth in your mouth this morning and you're just trying to swallow it, it's too hard to swallow and you feel really uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Holy Spirit bringing the truth of the prophet to bear on our life.
SPEAKER_00: To bring God's word into our soul.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen, when you follow Jesus Christ each and every day, when you get up close and personal to him, you begin to hear him speak hard truths like this quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus, he's got a lot of work to do in each of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And I promise he can do the work.
SPEAKER_00: If we just receive that hard truth, we swallow it as hard as it is to swallow, and we repent of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: But when we get close to Jesus, we not only hear a hard truth, we also hear a hopeful truth.
SPEAKER_00: A few more verses out of John chapter 2, verse 18 says this.
SPEAKER_00: All right, Jesus replied, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: They exclaimed, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you can rebuild it in three days.
SPEAKER_00: But when Jesus said this temple, he meant his own body.
SPEAKER_00: After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the scriptures and what Jesus had said.
SPEAKER_00: The religious leaders are incensed at what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_00: You have no right.
SPEAKER_00: Who gave you the authority?
SPEAKER_00: Give us a sign so we don't arrest you on the spot.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this, okay, I'll give you a sign.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the temple will be raised, and then it will be raised.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The temple will be raised, it will be destroyed, and then the temple in three days will be raised, it will be back to life again.
SPEAKER_00: And they are totally confused because King Herod had been involved in this grand renovation, rebuilding project at the temple for over four decades.
SPEAKER_00: That is literally impossible, they tell Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about his own body.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus just says, My body will be raised, it will be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: It will be destroyed through by the piercing of thorns that they that crown they put on my head.
SPEAKER_00: It will be destroyed by the lashes of the whips of the centurions.
SPEAKER_00: It will be destroyed when they drive spikes into my ankles and into my wrist.
SPEAKER_00: It will be destroyed when they when they pierce my side with that spear.
SPEAKER_00: My body will be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: He was buried.
SPEAKER_00: His broken body was laid in a tomb.
SPEAKER_00: But his body did not lie there like a heap of rubble.
SPEAKER_00: For three days after Jesus died, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was raised.
SPEAKER_00: He was resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the prophet, he speaks truth.
SPEAKER_00: Not just hard truth, but hopeful, hope-filled truth.
SPEAKER_00: And this hopeful, this hope-filled truth is founded upon the death and resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And remember when I said we need both parts, we need the hard truth and the hope-filled truth.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the reason you can swallow the hard truth and repent is because of the hope-filled truth of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because without the hope-filled truth, repentance wouldn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Without the hope-filled truth, I forever, you forever would be lost in your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Without the hope-filled truth, forever we would be separated from God.
SPEAKER_00: The hope-filled truth that we need to hear is founded upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we need them both.
SPEAKER_00: We need the hard truth and the hope-filled truth.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, listen, without the hope-filled truth, if we just have the hard truth, we wallow in our sins.
SPEAKER_00: We are consumed by shame and guilt, and all we want to think is, I'll never be good enough.
SPEAKER_00: We're just consumed with all the wrong that we've done.
SPEAKER_00: So we can't just have a hard truth.
SPEAKER_00: We need a truth that'll raise us up, that'll set us free.
SPEAKER_00: We need that hope-filled truth to come alongside of it.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we don't want to hear the hard truth, and we just want to think about the hope-filled truth and think I've got a free ticket to heaven with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I can live my life however I want to live it on this planet, and God doesn't care.
SPEAKER_00: We need to hear the hope-filled truth, and we need to repent and follow Jesus Christ because if that's our attitude about a relationship with Jesus, listen, I don't know if we have a relationship with Jesus in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: We need both the hard truth that calls us to repent and the hope-filled truth that points us, points us to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone have selective hearing?
SPEAKER_00: No one's willing to admit it.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of the parents have selective hearing.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you have selective hearing.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of the kids in the room, you have selective hearing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know what selective hearing is, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: Where you tune things out that you don't want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: You only hear what's pleasing and what makes you happy, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes when it comes to the voice of Jesus Christ, out of a passage like this, we can sometimes have selective hearing.
SPEAKER_00: We tune out one of those truths.
SPEAKER_00: We tune out the hard truth or we tune out the hope-filled truth.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, don't tune either one of them out.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to follow Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to his voice as a prophet speaking hard truth and hope-filled truth into your life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand together and pray.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that hard truth this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That call to repent from thinking you can live life on your own terms and still follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see signs of that in your own life?
SPEAKER_00: Where you see that a sign of that attitude, that outlook, would you just confess that to God?
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, I'm I'm naming this sin before you, and I'm I'm repenting of it and turning towards Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that hope-filled truth.
SPEAKER_00: The truth that points you to the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: As a prophet, he has spoken truth to us.
SPEAKER_00: That prophetic truth that is hard to swallow at times.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us, God, of all the ways and all the moments in life when we live according to our feelings.
SPEAKER_00: When we try to live life on our own terms.
SPEAKER_00: And let his Holy Spirit, God us, his truth direct us, his words guide us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for the hope we have.
SPEAKER_00: God, we we would be lost without Jesus, without his cross and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: We we truly couldn't do anything to save ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: So we we just need to be reminded of that hope-filled truth every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, remind us of the cross and resurrection of Jesus that bought our salvation, that sets us free from sin, that raises us to live a new life.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us of that truth that we can then share it with other people, God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we love you, and in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.