SPEAKER_00: Turn in your Bibles, turn on your Bibles to Matthew 13, 53.
SPEAKER_00: What we're going to do is we've been looking at the life of Jesus going through the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: The last three weeks we've been in parables, and now we're going to get two narratives, two scenes that are going to be presented to us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has finished his teaching about the kingdom of God through a series of parables.
SPEAKER_00: Now the parables are over, and we're going to these two scenes.
SPEAKER_00: The first is this scene in Jesus' hometown of Nazareth where he faces outright rejection.
SPEAKER_00: The second scene is this story of how John the Baptist died and how he was executed by Herod.
SPEAKER_00: The big idea is this human resistance to God's work often comes from familiarity, fear, or misplaced allegiance.
SPEAKER_00: Human resistance to God's work, my resistance.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, let's personalize it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: Personalize it for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Your own resistance, my own resistance to what God wants to do in my life can come from familiarity, fear, or a misplaced allegiance.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at this first one, this idea of familiarity.
SPEAKER_00: And you've heard this phrase before, familiarity breeds contempt.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard that saying, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're going to see here that happens with Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll walk through that, but let's let's pray first.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we we ask that you would teach us through your word.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts are open to you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to hear from, we want your spirit to teach us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I recognize, God, that not everyone here has become a follower of you yet.
SPEAKER_00: And so whether a person is seeking this morning or just interested in hearing more about your teachings, or God, if we're a follower of you, Lord, would you just meet us in this time?
SPEAKER_00: Teach us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for these two different scenes.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that you would bring home to us what is personal and what's needed in our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at this text together.
SPEAKER_00: It says that when Jesus had finished these parables, he left there.
SPEAKER_00: Now, remember, he's teaching around the Galilee, uh, in the area of Capernaum, and he leaves there.
SPEAKER_00: He went to his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: His hometown, remember, is Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: That's where he grew up.
SPEAKER_00: And he began to teach them where?
SPEAKER_00: Where is he teaching them?
SPEAKER_00: In the synagogue, right?
SPEAKER_00: So that would be a place, a Jewish gathering place on a Saturday morning on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: And he's teaching them so that they were astonished, and they said, now you'll notice the things that the people in the synagogue are saying are questions.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see a series of questions.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first one.
SPEAKER_00: Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?
SPEAKER_00: And the next question, isn't this the carpenter's son?
SPEAKER_00: The next question, isn't his mother called Mary and his brother James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
SPEAKER_00: And his sisters, aren't they all with us?
SPEAKER_00: So where does he get all these things?
SPEAKER_00: So these are the questions.
SPEAKER_00: And underlying these questions, which we'll see in the next section, is this sense of like, because of the answer to these questions, he can't be the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, don't we know his family, his brothers and sisters?
SPEAKER_00: Don't we know who his father was?
SPEAKER_00: And don't we know who his mother was?
SPEAKER_00: And we're just familiar with him.
SPEAKER_00: He's the carpenter's son.
SPEAKER_00: It's this, these questions that all relate to, aren't we familiar with him?
SPEAKER_00: And despite Jesus' wisdom and miracles, Jesus' identity as the carpenter's son, it hinders their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Familiarity blinds them to his true identity.
SPEAKER_00: And right away, just think about this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we overlook the presence of God's work because it appears ordinary or comes through familiar channels.
SPEAKER_00: The very people who should have had the easiest access to Jesus' message struggle to accept it.
SPEAKER_00: There are people around you who have, they may hear about your own transformation, your spiritual journey and meeting Jesus, and they may say to you, you know, I would give Jesus a shot if he poked his head out of the clouds and he said, Here I am.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they're missing the miracles all around them, the very things that seem ordinary that they take for granted that are familiar, and they're just kind of looking past those things and completely missing the work of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what was happening in Jesus' hometown.
SPEAKER_00: This happens in another place in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: If we go back to 1 Samuel, there's a character named David.
SPEAKER_00: And when David was young, he was the youngest in his family.
SPEAKER_00: His dad sent him with supplies to furnish his brothers that were in the military fighting off the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: So you imagine back to the time of Judges, and you have these enemies of Israel that are attacking.
SPEAKER_00: One of them are the Philistines, and the Philistines have this champion of a soldier named Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: And Goliath would come out every day on the battle line and would just taunt Israel and just trash talk Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So David shows up at the battle and he hears Goliath's trash talking of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And David spoke to the men who were standing with him, and he says to the kind of the other soldiers that are there, remember, this is a guy that's younger.
SPEAKER_00: He's not yet qualified to be a soldier himself, he's just there with the supplies.
SPEAKER_00: He says, What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?
SPEAKER_00: Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So David has his own set of questions for these guys.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: David's kind of shock, he shows up at the battle and he's shocked that this is going on.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, well, you know, who's gonna who's gonna get the reward when this guy's defeated?
SPEAKER_00: And the troops told him about the offer, concluding, that is what will be done for the man who kills him.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the reward.
SPEAKER_00: And then look at this.
SPEAKER_00: David's oldest brother, Iliab, listened as he spoke to the men, and he became angry with David.
SPEAKER_00: Why did you come down here?
SPEAKER_00: He asked.
SPEAKER_00: Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness?
SPEAKER_00: I know your arrogance and your evil heart.
SPEAKER_00: You came down here to just watch the battle.
SPEAKER_00: You're just coming to get your kicks, to see us get our rear ends kicked by this guy, Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: This is entertaining to you.
SPEAKER_00: Now you know the rest of the story.
SPEAKER_00: You know you don't know the rest of the story is that David's gonna destroy, he's gonna take on Goliath single-handedly, and he's gonna kill Goliath with a um slingshot and a stone.
SPEAKER_00: Not even the typical spear or sword or the armor that a normal um soldier would have.
SPEAKER_00: David is becomes the champion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, his brothers can't see that.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, you're just the you're the youngest runt in our family.
SPEAKER_00: Like they're they they are so familiar with David that when David shows up, they're like, what good's gonna come from you?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you're the shepherd boy that we left back at home.
SPEAKER_00: They can't handle David.
SPEAKER_00: This whole idea is it is a it's a phenomenon that exists.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you've dealt with it in in different ways in your own life.
SPEAKER_00: And yet sometimes there is this overlooking of the presence of God's work.
SPEAKER_00: Here's David.
SPEAKER_00: David is God's anointed king.
SPEAKER_00: So he's not just called to destroy Goliath, but he's the future king of the nation.
SPEAKER_00: But Iliab is looking at David and is just like, nah, nah, it can't happen, right?
unknown: Yeah, God denied that.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't see that God's hand was on David.
SPEAKER_00: They saw David, the little shepherd boy.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't see, but when God looked at David, what did God see?
SPEAKER_00: The future king, the warrior that could defeat Goliath, the empowered.
SPEAKER_00: Like God is not limited.
SPEAKER_00: I guess the message here is that, you know, if your perception of yourself is that, look, you know, I am useless because of I'm the shepherd boy, or I'm like the youngest in my family, or I don't have the pedigree.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't graduate from high school, or people told me, you know, that I had this like learning disability, or I don't have much money, or I am ugly, or for me, you know what it was?
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, I was in ninth grade, I got teased for my voice.
SPEAKER_00: I would have people kind of walk up behind me, and they thought for some reason it was funny to go.
SPEAKER_00: It's funny now, but I took that to heart.
SPEAKER_00: I took that to heart because I had this funny voice.
SPEAKER_00: So when I was 35, I got asked to be the host of a national radio program, and I was like, Oh, I can't do that because I got a funny voice.
SPEAKER_00: Because you believe these things about yourself, right?
SPEAKER_00: It was, I think I hit pure puberty already.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know, but you believe those things, right?
SPEAKER_00: You believe those things, and it's this, it's this kind of like it with Jesus, it's familiarity.
SPEAKER_00: They believed a particular story.
SPEAKER_00: You're the carpenter's son, so your future's probably you're gonna be a carpenter, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're not gonna be a carpenter, but you're probably gonna do something like everybody else in Nazareth does.
SPEAKER_00: We know your brothers, we know your sisters, we know who your mom is.
SPEAKER_00: You know, how could you be the one who's dropping all this wisdom and doing these miraculous things?
SPEAKER_00: They just were generally skeptical, yes.
unknown: And now here you are speaking to Allah.
SPEAKER_00: Here I am, like, isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's the and that's letting God do his work, not not believing the kind of the condescension or the kind of the teasing.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you were teased when you were in in school, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it's easy.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I was talking about this this week with my wife about our kids.
SPEAKER_00: Like there are things that are like teasing, you're teased, and you end up believing that story about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And here's a part of following Jesus is that, and when we pray, remember when I prayed at the just a couple minutes ago, I say, God, we're ready to listen to you, right?
SPEAKER_00: And there's a part, there is a part of following Jesus where you say, I'm willing to let go of the stories I've believed about myself, that are shaped up and formed by a life of experience, right?
SPEAKER_00: You are called, you and I are called to walk by faith in Jesus and follow him in whatever he calls us to.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is the champion of that.
SPEAKER_00: He's our champion, so we're called to be with Jesus the Messiah, and we're called to learn from Jesus, to be walking kind of shaped into his image, is what it says in 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: It says that in Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: We're shaped into his image, and so the experience that Jesus has in this story could be your experience.
SPEAKER_00: You could have people who are like, nah, nothing good could come from you.
SPEAKER_00: You can't even, you shouldn't even call yourself a Christian, because I know your story.
SPEAKER_00: I know what you have done, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And yet, if we follow Jesus, we let God determine our calling.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know it says in Ephesians that God has prepared for you the good works that you're supposed to walk in before the foundation of the earth?
SPEAKER_00: God already has a plan for your life.
SPEAKER_00: And that plan is a part of his redemptive work.
SPEAKER_00: So when you look at this city, when you look at your neighborhood, when you look at your family, God has this good plan, not just to rescue you from that junk that you've known and seen and been a part of, but to rescue you and graft you into this good story that God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be willing to believe and trust what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_00: So back to Matthew 13, 53.
SPEAKER_00: Despite Jesus' wisdom and miracles, Jesus' identity as the carpenter's son, it hinders their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Familiarity blinded them from Jesus' true identity.
SPEAKER_00: They missed it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to this next section.
SPEAKER_00: It says this they were offended.
SPEAKER_00: This is back with the residents of Nazareth in this synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: They were offended by Jesus, and Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, a prophet is has honor, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's not lacking honor.
SPEAKER_00: That's an honorable thing to be a prophet, except there's one exception, his hometown and in his household.
SPEAKER_00: It's just this thing.
SPEAKER_00: It is a rule where it's like the people around you kind of know you, and those people just don't have the ability to see you in a new light.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you, as you're kind of being transformed, there's this, there's a new dynamic in understanding the relationships around you.
SPEAKER_00: You some of you, you need to stay right there in those relationships because you're called to be a witness and share what Jesus has done in your life to those old friends.
SPEAKER_00: But then some relationships, you need to just turn your back on and move forward because those people, they just can't accept what God's done in you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Yep, yeah, I think that's a really good question.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll give you a couple of things.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at Jesus, you see that Jesus understood what he was called to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things you want to ask, and what you want the Holy Spirit to show you, is what does it mean for you to be fruitful, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we know when we look at the humans that God made in the garden at the very beginning of God's story, they were called to be fruitful, to multiply, to subdue, and to rule.
SPEAKER_00: And so every human that's been born is is intended to be fruitful, multiply, subdue, and rule.
SPEAKER_00: But since Genesis 3, all humans are fallen from the plan of God and are broken.
SPEAKER_00: There is a dysfunction.
SPEAKER_00: So there's an internal rebellion against God, and they live and operate in a world of other humans in rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_00: So every once in a while they they're functional, and whether they're a follower of God or not, they do what is right and good and they're fruitful, but not on a consistent basis, and not in a way where that fruit lasts.
SPEAKER_00: They're not connected.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing you have to do is you have to be reconciled back to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus did, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we talk about being a follower of Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then you get and you get baptized, right?
SPEAKER_00: So now, once you do that, now you're in a relationship with God, right?
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that happens when you enter into that relationship is that the Holy Spirit is given to you.
SPEAKER_00: So the Spirit of God is in you.
SPEAKER_00: Your body is a temple, meaning it's a house.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things that the Holy Spirit begins to show you and to speak to you about is this is what it looks like to be fruitful for you to do, to do good, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so he gives you his word.
SPEAKER_00: So we look through the Bible, the Bible teaches us, here's the guardrails, these are the commands, right?
SPEAKER_00: Of ethics.
SPEAKER_00: But that's only 20% of your life, right?
SPEAKER_00: You only need to know what's good and bad, you know, a fraction of the time.
SPEAKER_00: Really, what we need to do life is wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so we go to the Bible, we meditate on the Bible, we're thinking and wrestling with scripture because it gives us wisdom principles on how to do life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's chiefly found in Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: So I know this is a long answer, but I'm trying to break it down in steps.
SPEAKER_00: So the Holy Spirit needs to show you what it means to be fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: And then at that point, and one of the things he's going to show you is the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So once you're a follower of Jesus, the Holy Spirit fills you, and now you have two voices in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You have your old nature, which is called the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the that's what the Bible calls it, your old person yelling at you, hey, rebel against God, fulfill your desires, put yourself first.
SPEAKER_00: You also have the Spirit as a dominating voice in you saying, Hey, this is what it means to be fruitful in the world, to beyond mission, to be a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the love of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: So the spirit is speaking in you, but then you also have this other part of you that doesn't go away until you die.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So you have these two things.
SPEAKER_00: In Galatians chapter 5, it says that the flesh is at war against the work of God's Spirit in our life.
SPEAKER_00: The flesh looks like this, and the spirit looks like this.
SPEAKER_00: So the spirit is at work, though, that we want to just keep saying yes to God's Spirit at work in us.
SPEAKER_00: So, how do you make a decision about relationships, right?
SPEAKER_00: Think that for you and I, you go Bible, Holy Spirit, and then from there you're making your own personal decision.
SPEAKER_00: You're praying and saying, God, show me, teach me.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: And we and and I think the wisdom comes from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We look at Jesus, Jesus was so on mission that there were cities where he's doing miracles and he's preaching, and the people in that city are like, hey, stay here, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And what does Jesus say?
SPEAKER_00: Nope, I gotta move to the next city.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus was so on mission that nobody was getting him off mission.
SPEAKER_00: Now, his mission is like the most radically loving mission ever, but it doesn't mean that he's always making people happy.
SPEAKER_00: When he left that town, I'm sure those people were bummed, right?
SPEAKER_00: There was another guy that was demon-possessed that he healed.
SPEAKER_00: And um and the guy's like, I want to go with you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is like, Nope, you need to stay here, and you need to tell the town there all that Jesus has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: You need to bear witness in me.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to follow me right now, right?
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to go with me.
SPEAKER_00: So but then he's got other people where he's like, hey, follow me, come and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: When it came to the rich young ruler, what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Go sell all your stuff and give to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: So there is this personal work of the Holy Spirit taking the Bible, applying it in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Showing us this is what it means for you to be fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: We know that it's guaranteed he wants you to be fruitful, to walk in the good works that he's prepared from the foundation of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: But you have to personally determine what does that mean.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So, and then there's gonna be times, there's gonna be times where it doesn't feel good, where it's just like, man, I had to create that boundary and that person's upset with me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like conflict.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like one of these people that avoids conflict.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes I gotta, for the sake of what God's called me to do, I gotta put down the line and be like very direct and say, nope, not happening, right?
SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, it's not pretty it's not always pretty, right?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a little bit of a mess.
SPEAKER_00: But I think you look at Jesus' life like we're doing, we get some really good wisdom principles and some comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep going.
SPEAKER_00: We've got just a few more minutes before we're gonna um run out of time.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Here is um what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: They were offended by him.
SPEAKER_00: You see that?
SPEAKER_00: They're offended by him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus offended people.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Was that wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Did he sin?
SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: He was just doing his mission.
SPEAKER_00: He's on mission, he's following God, he's obeying God in what the God the Father has called him to do.
SPEAKER_00: They're offended.
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be people who get offended.
SPEAKER_00: Wait till we get to the next story about John, right?
SPEAKER_00: He it was an offense.
SPEAKER_00: He ended up with his head cut off, right?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, as you follow Jesus, it's an offense.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says, a prophet is not without honor.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, a prophet lives an honorable role, but there is this exception to the rule.
SPEAKER_00: His hometown and his household rejects him.
SPEAKER_00: But look at this.
SPEAKER_00: He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: The city, the town of Nazareth missed out on just this abundance of miracles because of their attitude of unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how Mark talks about this.
SPEAKER_00: Mark tells the same story, right?
SPEAKER_00: And Mark says he was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and he healed them.
SPEAKER_00: So here's this city that misses out on Jesus' ministry because of the condition of their faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to spend a little bit of time on this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is limited, not because he is powerless, he doesn't lack power in Nazareth, but it is the lack of faith.
SPEAKER_00: The offense they take is rooted in their unbelief, which prevents them from experiencing the fullness of Jesus' power.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a theme throughout the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: So we had the story of the centurion in Matthew chapter 8, verse 5 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: There the centurion expresses his faith to Jesus, and Jesus says to the centurion, Your daughter's gonna be healed, let it be done according to your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I'm gonna do this powerful work, but your faith is involved in that.
SPEAKER_00: Then you get the story of the woman who was hemorrhaging.
SPEAKER_00: She had the issue of blood in Matthew chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: She grabs the hem of Jesus' garment, Jesus talks with her, and uh she responds, and Jesus says, it's because of your faith that you are healed.
SPEAKER_00: You have the healing of the demon-possessed boy in Matthew 17.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't gotten there yet, but it's Jesus sends the disciples out, and somebody can't get healed.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples are like, why can't we heal this man's son who's demon-possessed and has these epileptic surgery uh seizures?
SPEAKER_00: Why can't we do this?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, it's because of the lack of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't come out without fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus has this teaching in Mark 11 about a withered fig tree, and he says, like, look, if you have faith like the size of a mustard seed, mountains are going to move.
SPEAKER_00: And so this question arises like, what does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to have faith?
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you that passage out of Mark and Jesus' teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Early in the morning, as they're passing by, they saw the fig tree that was withered from its roots.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier in the story, Jesus had cursed this fig tree because it wasn't fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: And then Peter remembered and said, Look, look, Rabbi, teacher, the fig tree that you cursed, it's withered.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus replied, Have faith in God.
SPEAKER_00: Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is encouraging his disciples to have an attitude of faith.
SPEAKER_00: There is, um, I want to spend a moment just kind of warning you about some of the teachings that exist about faith that you may see on TV from Christian preachers on TV.
SPEAKER_00: It's called the Word of Faith movement, and one of the pieces of the Word of Faith movement is you need to name it and you need to claim it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's based off of some of these teachings of Jesus about faith, but it's taking what Jesus teaches about faith and twisting it just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: The word of faith teaches, the word of faith teaches, it says that words have spiritual power.
SPEAKER_00: If believers speak faith-filled words, they can create or manifest blessings, healings, wealth, or success.
SPEAKER_00: The proponents of this teaching would be somebody like Creflow Dahler or Benny Hinn or Kenneth Copeland.
SPEAKER_00: They're some of the most popular teachers of the Word of Faith teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to give you, I'm going to explain to you why this is not the teaching of the Bible about faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is important, but how these guys are teaching it is not accurate.
SPEAKER_00: Name it and claim it is a slogan within the Word of Faith movement or their circles, and it emphasizes this idea of naming or declaring a specific desire, like financial provision, healing, or success, and then you claim it by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Um you claim it by faith, expecting God that God will deliver it.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is that it encourages believers to boldly declare what they want in Jesus' name based on a conviction that God wants them to have it, have it, and it often extends to material wealth, physical health, and personal success.
SPEAKER_00: It teaches that if a believer's faith is strong enough and their words are positive enough, God is obliged to grant what is claimed.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the concerns, okay?
SPEAKER_00: First of all, it is a misrepresentation of faith.
SPEAKER_00: It often distorts the biblical concept of faith, making it more of a technique to get what you want, rather than a relationship of trust in God's will.
SPEAKER_00: So it's like you gotta declare, God, I want that Lambo, I want that Lambo, I want that Lambo.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, give me that Lambo, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And it's like if you just have enough faith, you're gonna get it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's taking away this aspect of relational trust and this idea that God is the one who has the plan, right?
SPEAKER_00: You didn't become a Christian just to rub a lamp, right, and have a genie or a like a hand of a heavenly vending machine.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's not why we became Christians.
SPEAKER_00: The second concern with the Word of Faith movement is this focus on material blessing.
SPEAKER_00: It tends to overemphasize earthly blessings, sometimes neglecting the broader biblical teaching on suffering, humility, and a surrender to God's will.
SPEAKER_00: It oftentimes short circuits, it's like God just make me rich, make me rich, make me rich.
SPEAKER_00: I claim it in Jesus' name, make me rich.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't take into account the wisdom of Scripture, which teaches that if you work, you will make money.
SPEAKER_00: If you um have good friendships and you hang out with the right people, your life will be happier than hanging out with the bad.
SPEAKER_00: It takes away the just the wisdom, embedded wisdom principles of scripture around material blessings and the idea of stewardship, and that God entrusts material blessings to us so that we can be a blessing to others.
SPEAKER_00: It just is this kind of like, and so the word of faith, it really flourishes and kind of takes hold in the midst of poverty, where people are struggling, and it's just like, man, maybe this guy, Kenneth Copeland, like look, he's got a jet and he's got a runway and he's got this massive property, and maybe I just need to name it and claim it and claim it in Jesus' name and think positive thoughts, and I'll get it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not what the Bible teaches.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how we become rich.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how we become happy or lived a blessed life.
SPEAKER_00: What we're invited to is into the kingdom of God, and it's not opposed to your material blessings.
SPEAKER_00: But material blessings are not the end.
SPEAKER_00: It's a part of the wisdom of God and following God.
SPEAKER_00: And if he blesses you with material blessings, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: But it has a purpose, it serves a purpose in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the second concern.
SPEAKER_00: The third concern is the manipulation of God, it risks treating God as a means to fulfill personal desires rather than as the sovereign Lord who acts according to his wisdom and his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the genie in the bottle type teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not how we treat God, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's not how we want to treat God.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to interact with him as if he's a genie in the bottle.
SPEAKER_00: He loves us, he wants good for us.
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you five principles about faith.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, five principles about faith in five minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Principle number one faith creates an environment, an open space or context where God can work.
SPEAKER_00: So think of an arena.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: When you place your faith in God, you're creating the atmosphere where God can work.
SPEAKER_00: So in Nazareth, they didn't have faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it says that that limited Jesus from what he could do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still just as powerful as any other day, but it wasn't mixed with faith, and they missed out.
SPEAKER_00: So faith creates an environment where God can work.
SPEAKER_00: Principle number two faith is always proportional to the degree of God's revelation.
SPEAKER_00: What should I believe?
SPEAKER_00: When I want to place my faith in Jesus, what should I believe?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you believe as much as He's shown you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the idea: Biblical faith responds to what God has already revealed, whether through scripture, personal conviction by the Holy Spirit, or clear expressions of his will.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about wishful thinking, but about responding to God's promises, commands, and character.
SPEAKER_00: You are the responder, not the initiator, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to God and saying, God, I believe you for Lambeau, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're listening to God's direction, his will, the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, and you're saying, God, I trust you for that.
SPEAKER_00: You're responding in faith to what God's showing.
SPEAKER_00: You're the responder, not initiator.
SPEAKER_00: Principle number three, true faith always aligns with God's character and his kingdom purposes.
SPEAKER_00: True faith always aligns with God's character and his kingdom purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what that means: faith is not merely about what we want, it's about God's redemptive plan.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus speaks of mountain-moving faith, he is talking about a faith that cooperates with God's mission on earth, faith that seeks his kingdom first.
SPEAKER_00: So you can look at Matthew chapter 6, 33.
SPEAKER_00: You could look at Matthew 7, the Lord's Prayer, or Matthew 6, earlier on with the Lord's Prayer, your kingdom come.
SPEAKER_00: Principle number four, faith is about deepening trust in God, not using him as a means to an end.
SPEAKER_00: It's about deepening trust in God, not using him as a means to an end.
SPEAKER_00: At its core, faith is relational, an expression of trust in God's goodness, sovereignty, and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's about walking closely with him, even when the outcomes aren't what we expected or desire.
SPEAKER_00: And principle number five, faith holds both confidence and surrender, acknowledging that God's ways are higher than ours.
SPEAKER_00: While faith can be confident in God's revealed promises, it also submits to his mysterious ways when he doesn't act as expected.
SPEAKER_00: Think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when he says, Not my will, but yours be done.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is praying.
SPEAKER_00: And yet then he prays, but not my will, your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: It is those are the four or five principles of faith that I want you to hold on to.
SPEAKER_00: What was happening in Jesus' hometown is they were just missing the work of God in their midst because they were familiar.
SPEAKER_00: It was too common.
SPEAKER_00: It was like that's the carpenter's son.
SPEAKER_00: Like, and listen, listen, the living God is in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: Like the living God, the Spirit of God is in you.
SPEAKER_00: He's a He's around you.
SPEAKER_00: There are angels around you.
SPEAKER_00: God's in the midst of Baltimore.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that God is working right now in Baltimore City?
SPEAKER_00: Like there's crazy things that God's doing right here in our neighborhood.
SPEAKER_00: And He is not asking your permission.
SPEAKER_00: And it's okay if you don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't get in the way of Him.
SPEAKER_00: He's just doing it.
SPEAKER_00: All that you have this morning is this invite.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, come and see.
SPEAKER_00: Come and be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: Come and be about what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: But in your personal life, it is possible, it makes you wonder, right?
SPEAKER_00: Are you missing out on the power of God?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not creating that arena of faith where you're just trusting.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, God, I trust in you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Ask that question.
SPEAKER_00: Am I really, am I, am I rising to the occasion with my faith?
SPEAKER_00: On one hand, you don't want to name it and claim it and like be coming up with crazy stuff, but man, we want to be responding to God and all that he is and all that he's capable and all that he's shown us.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be saying, yes, God, you can do it.
SPEAKER_00: The perpetual optimist, the one who's believing that our life is a part of this plan where God's at work.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're not gonna be, we don't have time to get into the story of John.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So next week.
SPEAKER_00: Next week, next week, we're gonna have to look at the story of John.
SPEAKER_00: You can read ahead.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying you can you can read ahead through the first 12 verses of Mark Matthew 15.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 15.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's stand, let's stand and pray.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are awesome.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna sing in this song in a minute, but let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, for your goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: We want to respond to you in faith, God.
SPEAKER_00: We want to trust in you fully.
SPEAKER_00: Like we want when what you're showing us, we want to believe it in faith.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be getting out in front of you, but God, we want to be those that are just like believing that you can do it anything you want.
SPEAKER_00: And man, God, we don't want to miss out on your work like the people in Nazareth because we're familiar.
SPEAKER_00: Or it seems too common, or it's like, oh yeah, yeah, that's the carpenter's son.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you give us just a fresh optimism and belief and trust that God, you are at work and that you want to work and you can work in us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we believe in you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.