05/12/26

John 1:6-11

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Verse number six. I'm gonna pray and we're gonna jump right into verse number six right quick. Let's pray. Dear God, I love you, and I thank you, God, for this day. I thank you for these men that have showed up here tonight, dear God, to not only get physically fed, but God, I pray you you you feed us from that manna from above. God, I just pray, Lord God, right now that as I always do, I decrease and you increase. And Lord, I pray that your word will preach tonight. God, I pray you help us to put everything else away. The week that started, things that's been good, things that's been bad, and things that's been everything in between, God. I pray right now we can focus on you. And Lord, I pray that we're careful to give you the honor, praise, and glory, because you're deserving of everything, Lord God. And we thank you for this word. God, I thank you for this free country we get to live in to come serve you freely. Thank you for the men and women that fight for our freedom. God, thank you for your son Jesus that died on the cross for our sins. Thank you, Lord. I love you. In Jesus' name. Amen. We were talking last night, last week about um how it was talking about Jesus was the word and the word was with God. And then we jumped in verse number five and said, the light shineth in the darkness, and the dark was comprehended at not. And now we're gonna jump in. It kind of just shift gears in verse number six, and it says, There was a man sent from God whose name was John. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. And I'm gonna dig much deeper into John in just a moment, but but I want you to see what God said in that word right there. He said, there was a man sent of God. And what the Lord pressed upon my heart today and and yesterday and the days before as I was studying this text is listen. If you've been saved, you've been sent. If you've been saved, you've been sent. And many times I think we we we see that as just because we're saved, we're safe. But being saved is not called to be safe. Being saved is called to be sent, and sent to tell the world that Jesus Christ has come into my life, He's saved me, He's changed me forevermore, and because of what He's done, I'm going out into this world and I'm gonna tell others about Him. That's what He's trying to teach us and tell us right here. And we need to understand what He's trying to show us that, man, we have been sent. But the only way to be sent is to be available. We've got to be available. We've got to be available for God to do something with us. We've got to be available and have our life on this kind of factor that's saying, you know what, God, here I am, send me. But many times, I'll be honest, I've been there, and if I ask you to raise your hand right now, I'll just I will ask you to raise your hand right now. If you've ever been in the spot where you said it's better to be safe sitting in a pew than to be sent and do your job, has anybody ever been there? We have. Because when it's safe, it's comfortable. When it's safe, it's comfortable. I I mean, just think about it. When you when when you when you bought your house and and you started, you wanted to go get your you want to get your furniture, you didn't go in there and try to find the stiffest um recliner you could. You wanted to get something that was comfortable because when you get done at the end of the day, you want to get comfortable. You want to kick back in that easy boy or that lazy boy or whatever it is, you want to kick out and you you just want to chill out. You want it to be comfortable. Comfortable feels good. That's just what it does. But God did never call us to be comfortable. He called us to go and tell people about Christ. He called us to have that heart, that heart that He has for us. He wants us to have that heart for other people because people are gonna die and go to the devil's hell. And the thing is, I don't want their blood on my hands. And my prayer is that you don't want that blood on your hands either. That you want to tell all that you can. You're gonna face people in life, and you've already faced people in your life that you had a chance to impact them and you chose not to. And man, I hate to know that when I get to heaven, man, that that I would have to see the people that, man, the their blood's on my hands because I didn't do my job. And that's what God is trying to push us on and try to encourage us to listen, do your job. How many times have you has your boss man come up to you and said, Man, I just want you to do your job and do it right? How many people have had people that they work harder to get out of work than they would if they just do their job? Anyone ever seen that? Anybody been accused of that? Don't tell us if you have. All right. So there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Man, he was ordained. He was sent. He, hey, he was way even before he understood he was. See, if you go back to Luke, if you go back to Luke 133, it says, And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? This angel's talking to the talking to Mary and says, Listen, you you're gonna you're gonna bear this child. And she said, How can this be? I haven't known a man. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, who called her barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word, and the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in those days and went to the hill country and hastened to the city of Judea, and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Lizbeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. This man was ordained before he ever knew it. This man was on a mission before he ever knew it, man. He was still in the womb and he was already getting jacked up because he knew he was fixing to go be something about Jesus. Do you understand, man? Every single one of us has been ordained to do something. And you'll hear me say it, and I'm like a broken record. But sitting in a pew and sucking up the air conditioner at a church and doing nothing is not what you and I are called to do, man. We're called to go tell the people about Jesus Christ. And he encouraged us about these things because listen, if we're never encouraged, we'll never do something great. If nobody ever pushes you to be anything, you'll never be anything. But the reason why you are who you are today is because put your parents and different people in your life, they pushed you along the way. They've encouraged you. And because of that, you are who you are today. It ain't time to lay idle now. It's time to press toward the mark. Because listen, we ain't getting no younger. If you'll look at yourself in the mirror, you a lot ugly than you used to be. You got a lot more wrinkles than you used to be. Okay? I'm just being honest. You might think you, you might think you look pretty and everything. And some of you you're a little bit younger in here. You think you're good. It's coming. Don't you worry. It's coming. Verse number seven. Then came a witness. Then came the same, the same, talking about John the Baptist. The same came for a witness. That word witness is to testify. He came to testify. And the only way to testify is you get to see it. Man, he get he got to see who Jesus was. And he came to testify. Listen, he is it. He is the one that y'all have been looking for, that you've all heard about all through the through the Old Testament, all the prophecies, all these things that's been going on, all these things you've heard. Hey, he's coming. He's right behind me, man. He's coming. I'm coming to tell you, he is worth it. He is the one. You've heard all these other things about this person's it, or this person's it. He's saying, This is it right here. He's it. He's that one you heard about that you're gonna hear about later in this in this book of John and John 14, 6. I reference this scripture all the time. For he is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way. He is the truth, and he is the life. You'll never experience life like you ought to till you understand he's the way. But the thing that we do many times is we think that we've got the way figured out and we ask him to get into our life. When the problem is we need to get in his way so he can be our life. And that's what he's trying to teach us. But it says right here in verse number seven, the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. That all men through him might believe. Verse number eight. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. John was to tell the mighty one by his mouth, his actions, and not act as if he was him. I'm gonna read that again. John was to tell of the mighty one by his mouth and his actions, not act as if he was him. See, he came before him. And you've got to understand, John's older than Jesus. John's older than Jesus. How hard is it as at working somewhere and you've got a younger man telling you what to do? That ego gets in the way. That pride gets in the way a little bit, don't it? It just does. I'm being honest, sometimes it does. You don't want a younger man telling you what to do because you just don't, because you're American, okay? That's just what you do. But he says right here, he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. See, he was humble. It's kind of like understanding that God gave you a blessed gift. Let's just say that God has given you a gift to just you just think about what God has blessed you to do. Uh I was blessed, I love baseball. My boys like basketball. You might have been an awesome wrestler. You you might be a great electrician or a great, you just plug it in right there. Maybe you're a great witness for Christ. I don't know whatever it is. But John was such a good witness, man. He could speak to people. Man, he could grasp their attention and draw them in when nobody else could draw a crowd. He he was blessed with that ability to do those things. But yet, in that in that time when he was able to draw them in and he was able to win people to Jesus, and he could have got such a big ego and said, Man, look at my church. Look how great we are. Look how many people we've got in this church tonight. He could look at all those things and get so built up and so puffed up about those things. But look what he did. He said, I'm not the light. I was just sitting to bear witness of the light. He's so humble when he could be so proud. He understood it wasn't about him. He understood it was about something way greater than he was. And that's the thing where we've got as men, let's just be honest, we get kind of puffed up. We gotta kind of get built up in our pride thinking, man, I killed it, didn't I? Anybody anybody ever ever like that, or is it just me? Anybody ever get prideful? I'll be honest, last I study hard to do what I do here. I try to put all the time and effort as I can into this because this is just the way I am. And I know it's wrong with me, but I expect to hit a home run every time. I mean, when when you when you walk up to the plate, when you was playing Lil League baseball, you didn't walk up to the plate and wanting to strike out, did you? And and if you were standing on the mound, you wanted to strike every one of them out. You wanted them you wanted to sit them down and send them to the high. I mean, that's just what you wanted to do. And God humbled me. God humbled me last week. I'm just gonna show you my heart for a second. I I left here discouraged and distraught last last Tuesday. I was like, and it was just sin within myself. I was like, man, that was terrible. I said, God, I just and you know when when when when you get get it up inside yourself, you you know how it is. And I I just got I got to beat myself up, and the Lord said, you know what? It ain't about you, dude. And man, he spoke to me so much in that this week. But you know what it he humbled me, and we all need that humble sometimes. And not that I do this ever for me, but God just got a hold of me this week about that. Said, you just do my work and don't worry about anything else. And that's what we've got to do. We've got to do the work that God called us to do. And listen, the results is up to him. Whatever he does with what you do, you just need to do the work. And that's what John is teaching us right here is man, just do the work. You just plow the dirt, you just plant the seed, you just put water in the garden. I'll give the increase. I'll do what I need to do. You just be available and be willing to be the disciple I've called you to be. That's all I want you to do. Just do your job. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But how many of us do that? How many of us say yes, sir? We say yes, sir, but there's always a three-letter word behind it. But let me tell you this, Lord. Anybody got any butts going on? I'm just being honest, that's where we go. He said, I'm not the light, but I was sent to bear witness. And he was humble enough to say, you know what, Jesus? I'm gonna get behind you and I'm gonna bear witness. I'm gonna watch you. I'm gonna watch your way you do it. I'm gonna watch the way you go and you win that person that's unwinnable. I'm gonna go and watch. And some of you right here need to understand that and see what God's saying in verse number eight. Because some of you need to understand when he says right there that he was sent to bear witness of a light, some of you need to slow down a little bit and let somebody bear witness the way you way you're doing your job. Some of you need to slow down a little bit and understand that there's somebody sitting beside you tonight or sitting beside you at church that, man, they're trying to watch what you're doing, but you've got to slow down enough to teach them. And I said it so many times. We're so eager to win them, but we don't want to send them. We don't want to tend them. We don't want to do the job that we've called to do after that. It's easy to, it's easy to just go tell somebody they need Jesus. But listen, the hard work is when you got to put that plow to the dirt, man, and you've got to show them how you did it. You've got to show them how that plant got to growing. You've got to show them what you did and how you've got to that point in life of a Christian that, man, you're you're seasoned now. We've got to do that for the next generation. Because I don't know if y'all notice it, but if you look at your churches, there's a lot of churches today, man. They're dying and drying up, man. They're just a bunch of old people, and there's nobody there to take take on the flame. There's nobody there to keep the church going because let's just be honest. A lot of us have just dropped the ball. And that's what he's saying is we've got to be that encouragement to bring up this new generation and let them know that listen, Jesus Christ is it. He is the mighty to save. It's not this world and what AI is saying and all these things saying. Listen, this book is it. This book has stood the test of time. This book is what it's all about. Everything we need is right here if we'll just dig in. We don't need a new age of anything. We just need Jesus to show back up in our lives and ask him to come into our churches and do a work, Lord, like he used to. Who was it in the Old Testament, man? He just walked up in, I think it's 1 Chronicles 30, maybe it's 29 or 30. Hezekiah went in there, man. He just cleaned the church out. Maybe we need to dig back up into some Chronicles and see what he did right there. Man, there was all these, these, there was all these people before him, man. They was doing all this different stuff that wasn't right. But he just went up in there, man. He said, you know what? We've got to get some of this stuff out of our lives. We've got to get some of this stuff out of our church. And if we're going to be what God called us to be, man, there's some times that we just got to clean some stuff up. And that's what he's saying to us tonight. I didn't mean to be that long on that point, but we were there. I know y'all laughing about them verses. I told you how many it's gonna be and when we're gonna get done. I know how many, how many I tell y'all? I wrote that thing down. 879 verses, and we're at verse number. We're at verse number nine. Praise the Lord. Verse number nine said, that was the John said, that was the true light. Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Could you imagine if you're if you come into this world and you've never seen light, all you've seen was darkness? But he said, A man, he was the light. He was the light, he was that one that he's offered everybody that opportunity. He didn't he didn't say right there that he was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh to the world. He didn't say every man's saved just because they come in the world. That's not what that verse is saying right there. What that verse is saying, he's giving you the opportunity. Every man's had that opportunity to see that light. What you do with that light's a different story. What I do with that light is a different story than what what what I'm saying right here. And he says in verse number 10, he was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. They didn't know him. So the ones that was created to be the image in the image of God, that was created to be in the image of God, don't even know God? That's what it's saying right here. I wrote this down. Because the original prop product had been altered and changed so much that they didn't even recognize the original when it was there. Come on now. The original product had been altered. We'd changed some things. We'd let some things into our churches and in our lives that ought not be. And because of that, you remember when Paul had those scales over his eyes? Because of that, those scales were pulled over our eyes and they didn't even see Jesus, man. He was standing right in front of them. He was right there and he didn't see them. It's kind of like, it's kind of like Peter when he was out there fishing, when he ought to be waiting on the Lord. Peter was out there fishing and Jesus was on the shore, and he asked him, he said, What'd he say? Children, have you any have you any meat? The very thing that was right before him that they'd been searching for, he was right there before them, but they couldn't even see him because of their own sin. And that's the way we are sometimes, y'all. We don't mean to. There's not a man sitting in this room right now that wished that he could never serve God again. I hope they wouldn't. You didn't mean to turn your back on God. You you didn't mean to go down the wrong road. But you did because you made bad choices. We all have. And I'm not trying to beat anybody up tonight. But listen, we've all made bad choices. But he's always there. But the world knew him not. And then it says in verse number 11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. It didn't say, look right here. And he came to his own and his own received him not. It didn't say his own didn't know him. It said his own didn't receive him. They knew who he was. His own knew who he was. What it's telling right there is the Jews, the Jews didn't want to receive him because they knew that the Jews knew if they received him, man, things are going to have to change. They knew if they received Jesus Christ for who he really was, there was some things going to have to get cleaned up in their life. And the very reason that many times that that we don't receive Jesus the way we want to, the many times many the reason why many of us don't get that in touch with God like we ought to is because we don't want to give up some things. Lord, you you can you can have you can have everything, but live it leave this little bit of dust in my corner. I'm fine with this, Lord. You're okay with with him sweeping most of your house, but don't Lord, don't sweep up in The corner where nobody can see, you know, the things that that that nobody sees that I do and the things that I say and the way that I act. Lord, leave that leave that dust in the corner. No, he said, if you I want all of you. I don't want 90% of you. I don't want 75% of you. He said, I want all of you. He said, Let me sweep up in that corner and get that mess out of your life so you can be what I've called you to be. I've called you to be, I've called you to be a royal priesthood. I've called you to be a child of the king. That's what I've called you to be. And I want you to be just as clean as me, is what he's saying.

unknown 22:28

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

The Jews just didn't want to receive him. They just wasn't buying what he was selling. Because they was gonna have to sell some things out of their life. Where you at? Where you at? If Jesus Christ was standing here right now, what would you have to sell? To make you okay with him? What would you have to sell? Are you okay with him walking in your house right now? I'm talking about the house of your life. Are you okay with him walking in inside your your testimony right now? That's what this ain't on the paper. This is what God said. Are you okay with it? Because I'll be willing to bet if you ain't okay with it, I promise you he ain't. Man, God called us to be a child of the king. Do you understand what he went through for you and I so we could have what we have? Man, God got me to thinking this week. I was walking yesterday morning, and man, he just got all over me. And I got to thinking about, and he he pointed me, he pointed me straight to Matthew 6, 33. And he, man, I just I just I just teared up right there in the middle of the woods, and I just sit down and started praying. He said, Seek ye first the kingdom. He said, Macker, are you seeking to get people in the kingdom? Is that the first thing on your mind or the and the last thing you go to bed with? Are you seeking to see the next one that you can tell about Jesus Christ? Or are you just seeking the next place you can find a place to buy it, make a dollar? He said, because this is worth way more than that dollar. Because that person's before you. Listen, your job is your platform. Your job is your platform to tell people about Jesus Christ, and that's the way you need to look at it. Don't look at it as a place to make money. Hey, that's just a byproduct. Look at your job as saying, listen, where's the next one that I can tell? I get to thinking about Rand, and Rand got saved in this past year, and man, he has so many people that gets to come in his story, and now he gets to be a testimony to those people. That's just his platform that he gets to use now to win people to Jesus Christ, to let them know that listen, yeah, I went out and had fun. We've all gone out and had fun, but man, I get to wake up in the morning with a peace, a peace that passes all understanding. I ain't got to wake up with that no more. I wake up knowing that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. And I'm living for him, and one day I'm going to see him in glory. And that's something to get excited about. Verse number 12 said, He came unto his own, and his own received him not. The Jews didn't want to receive him because they knew they'd have to clean some stuff up. I'm about done here. Galatians 3. Galatians 3, 26 through 29 says this. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, but you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. See? He said in verse number 12, but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. He said, Listen, the Gentiles are welcome too. That's you, that's us. He said, Listen, they're all welcome. He said, it's not just the Jews, it's the Gentiles too. We're all welcome. There's anyone, you can't look at that person that lives down the road from you and say, man, they don't live as high as me. They don't live as good as me. They might talk different as me. What he's saying right there is, man, they're welcome into the family too. Don't look down on somebody because of what they are or how they are or their statue or their stature. He said, Don't look at those things. You need to look at the inside of them and loan that I created them all. Everyone. So what he's saying is they've just got to trust him and believe by faith. So I'm gonna leave you right here tonight with this. I don't know why we stopping here. We've been in about 30 minutes, but faith. I want you to demonstrate your faith. Well, I was talking a while ago about the dust in your corner. I think what God is saying to us is you need to empty your pockets. I'm not talking financial right here. I'm talking about the things in your pockets. Some of you's got keys, some of you've got a knife, some of you've got a screwdriver, some of you've got pliers, some of you've got all kinds of things, some uh whatever. I think what he's saying is putting a faith in and saying, you know what, God? I don't need any of the stuff that I think I need. It's kind of like it's kind of like taking this cup and saying this cup's got this, I'm not gonna put it in there because my sweet tea's in there, we ain't gonna do that. But let's just say all this stuff's in here. And I take it all out. There's nothing in this cup. And I say, Jesus, I don't need anything that I've got anymore. Here's my cup, it's empty. I'm putting, I'm putting all the stuff that I think I need. I'm putting it all away, Lord. And you take your empty cut and you put it under the spout of Jesus Christ and say, All right, God, give me what I need. Give me what I need, Lord. Not what I want. But God, will you give me what I need? Just fill it up, Lord, with what you would have me to have. I don't know why God spent us this way tonight. I didn't even. That's just the way it goes sometimes. I think somebody's Lord's speaking to somebody tonight saying, listen, you need to by faith take the stuff out your pockets, get the stuff out your cup, and say, I trust you, Lord. I trust you, Lord. Man, that's tough. That's tough when you you say, God, I'm gonna trust you. I don't know how this thing's gonna play out. I I don't know, I don't know what you're fixing to put in my cup, God. It's kind of like any of y'all remember when you used to do the suicide? You didn't know what it was gonna taste like. You put like, you put like fanna orange, coke, Hawaiian punch. That was Hawaiian punch back the day for you kids that didn't know that. But like root beer, Sprite, all this stuff, and we called it a suicide. And you didn't have a clue what it was gonna taste like. It was just gonna taste like something because you were a kid that was all sugar, so it really didn't matter. That's what God's saying to somebody tonight. He's saying to you, this God, I don't care what comes out, as long as it glorifies your name, put it in my cup. Put it in my cup, God. That's what he's saying to somebody tonight. You need to get the stuff out of your pockets. So my prayers tonight, when you go home, if you're like me, when you get ready to get in the shower, you you reach down in your pockets and you take all your stuff out. And I pray you think about it tonight. God says, you know what? I want you to get some stuff out of your pockets so I can put some stuff in your cup. Just like that that song Michael caught Michael Combs sang that I love so much, and I can't think of the words of it right now. But he said, I'm drinking from my saucer because my cup runneth over. I'm drinking from my saucer because my cup runneth over. And that's where I want to be. And that's my prayer that where you would want to be tonight. I said, drinking from your saucer because your cup runneth over. Anyone got anything else tonight?

SPEAKER_00 31:45

You think drinking that brought me my bed? Y'all not go nowhere, you're not saying nothing. You don't need to do anything that you wouldn't do with Jesus sitting right beside you.

unknown 32:04

Amen. That's what it brought me.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

That's right. Anybody got anything else? Ten four. If not, let's close in a word of prayer. Dear God, I love you. Lord, I thank you for your word tonight. God, your words just spoke so strong to me tonight, Lord God, of nothing else, Lord. Well God, as we leave this place, I pray that, dear God, that we're desiring to get filled up with you and not the world. Lord God, that we're desiring to see you and not see the things that we've always desired. God, I pray that you're on the frontlets of our eyes, Lord. Well God, I just pray that you're our steady, God. That you're our steady. That the many thoughts that we have through the day, God, if we if we just add them all up, they're more about you than anything else, God. Lord, draw us into that spot. That you are the number one thing we think about every single day. Man, God, I love you so much. God, thank you for these men that are here tonight, Lord Jesus. I just pray that you bless them because they put their night aside to worship you and to praise you, and to fellowship with brothers around here. God, thank you. Thank you for what you've done in this ministry, God. Thank you for each and every man tonight, God, and boy. I love you, Lord. And it's in your name we pray. We praise you, Lord. Amen.