SPEAKER_01: All right, so a week ago we started this series, 30-minute theology.
SPEAKER_01: And basically what we're doing is we're looking at the major tenets, kind of the primary pillars of the Christian faith, specifically the first few weeks in what we are calling the Trinity, which is a word you may have heard in church, God being uh one in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna unpack that this week and next week, and then we're gonna move into some other uh areas of Christian theology within the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_01: Things like what is the church?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what is salvation?
SPEAKER_01: What is sin?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what are the end of times?
SPEAKER_01: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna cover all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And the disclaimer for this conversation, 30-minute theology, is very simple, and everyone needs to hear it because the goal of this series is not just to acquire or attain information, because we cannot provide a comprehensive explanation of Christian theology in a set of 30-minute installments on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's a lifetime of learning and living as we grow in our faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we've put resources out, sunrise.net, on the website.
SPEAKER_01: There are other resources that we'll be uh sending out, just links to stuff in case you want that, to dive in, to dig in further so that you can grow in your faith, because it's just simply not possible to provide a comprehensive explanation of Christian theology in a 30-minute segment.
SPEAKER_01: So the goal is that we would grow in our faith as we grow in our theology, because everyone has a theology.
SPEAKER_01: Theology meaning study of God, a belief about God.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone has a belief about God.
SPEAKER_01: So the goal of this series is that it helps us either start or strengthen our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna see that word faith pop up a lot in this series because theology and faith are often paired together.
SPEAKER_01: Theology is the study of God, but faith is the decision to take what you learn about God, believe it, submit to it, and apply it to your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's the relationship there between theology and faith.
SPEAKER_01: And it is especially important when we talk about who Jesus is, which we're doing here in part two of our 30-minute theology series, because many people believe that Jesus was real.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pretty common belief.
SPEAKER_01: You, unless you're staunchly opposed to Christianity in any way, shape, or form, there is irrefutable proof contextually, historically, that Jesus was indeed real.
SPEAKER_01: Many people believe Jesus was real, but not as many believe he is who he says he is.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you believe in Jesus, not just believe about Jesus or believe there was a Jesus, if you actually believe in Jesus, you have to respond to that.
SPEAKER_01: And that's usually the hang-up for people between theology and faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's this idea that if we truly believe who God is, if we truly believe who Jesus is, we are going to have to respond to that.
SPEAKER_01: And that response is going to require humility and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: If you choose to have faith in Jesus, it will change the way you learn from him the more you learn about him.
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of people know about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is actually the most famous person in history.
SPEAKER_01: He even has his own merch.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't know that, did you?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has his own merch.
SPEAKER_01: You can look it up.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who is profiting from this merch, but I will tell you, Jesus has some merch.
SPEAKER_01: You know those pillows you can get if you really love your dog and you want to have like a throw pillow on the couch of your dog because snuggling up with your dog is not good enough.
SPEAKER_01: You want a pillow that also looks like your dog, and then your dog ends up just laying on the pillow that looks like itself, and you don't even get to use the pillow.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody else know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: They make those of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning you can fall asleep watching your favorite Netflix show on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: As a pillow.
SPEAKER_01: That's a real thing.
SPEAKER_01: I saw a shirt this week that was, it's it was a red t-shirt, and it was a ketchup bottle, like the Heinz Ketchup logo, and it said, catch up with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, I would buy that shirt.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01: I have Jesus merch.
SPEAKER_01: I brought it.
SPEAKER_01: This is my Jesus merch.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody gave this to me.
SPEAKER_01: This is Squeezus Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This guy right here, you know what those stress balls are, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you were to if you were to grab a hold of this guy, you squeeze him, and then he comes right back to life.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you got it.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody gave this to me because it's like one of those stress balls, and they said, Pastor, we gave this to you because we know sometimes life is stressful and it's stressful being a pastor, and so we wanted you to know when it gets stressful, you can just squeeze on squeezes Jesus and be reminded that Jesus is with you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has merched right here from orientaltrading.com.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus is the most prolific, famous person in human history.
SPEAKER_01: But who is he?
SPEAKER_01: We know a lot about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But do we know who Jesus really is?
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna come out up front in our conversation today and just say who Jesus is from a Christian theology perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: And within those three words are said a lot.
SPEAKER_01: We have mentioned this.
SPEAKER_01: God is one in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about that, like I said, next week.
SPEAKER_01: But in those three words, Jesus is God are perhaps the most powerful set of words you will hear today, and the most transforming words any person could hear if one so chooses to believe that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: What do we take from those three words that are so powerful, so simple?
SPEAKER_01: It is hard to unpack everything that exists within the confines of those three words.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll do my best to share with you some that I came across that I think are brilliant.
SPEAKER_01: I think they beautifully paint this picture of Jesus as God by a man named Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Elmer Towns, a modern-day theologian, founder of seminaries, and uh multiple, multiple times best-selling author on theology.
SPEAKER_01: In his book, Theology for Today, Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Townes says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, is equal with the Father in nature.
SPEAKER_01: Yet the Father sent him to die for the sins of the world, so that Christ is submissive to the Father in duties.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ possessed all the divine attributes of the Father and was one with the Father, yet was separate in person.
SPEAKER_01: Christ effected redemption for men because in him was united both the human and divine natures.
SPEAKER_01: In humanity, Christ was totally human.
SPEAKER_01: In deity, Jesus was unalterably God.
SPEAKER_01: Yet in Christ Jesus was a single, undivided personality in whom these two natures are vitally and undividedly united.
SPEAKER_01: So that Jesus Christ is not God and man, but the God man.
SPEAKER_01: For all these reasons and more, Jesus Christ is God.
SPEAKER_01: That is who Christians we believe Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: But most who claim to believe Jesus was real don't necessarily submit to that reality to accept it and to believe through faith that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: Why, if Jesus is the most famous person in history?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not just a matter of opinion that Jesus is the most famous person.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just say that because we're inside of a church and we're Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Time magazine, who is not known for elevating Christianity, Time magazine listed Jesus as the number one most significant figure in history.
SPEAKER_01: So many people know about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Your life is affected by Jesus in ways you may not even know.
SPEAKER_01: People outside the walls of this church, their lives are affected by Jesus, whether you know it or not, even in the simple way that we tell time.
SPEAKER_01: It is the year 2026.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know why we say it like that?
SPEAKER_01: It is because maybe you've heard of it in school, some of our students in the room, you may have heard of BC and AD in the way that we tell time and measure historical record.
SPEAKER_01: BC means before Christ.
SPEAKER_01: A D, it's a Latin phrase.
SPEAKER_01: It's ano domini, which means the year of our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what that means for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: In what is called the Gregorian calendar that is globally used, Jesus' own birthday is what sets apart and helps us measure the very years in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So every person in the world is affected by the birthday of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He is the most influential, significant, prolific figure in all of human history.
SPEAKER_01: His impact on humanity is undeniable.
SPEAKER_01: It is inescapable.
SPEAKER_01: He was a real person who really existed.
SPEAKER_01: I'll show you where he was born right here.
SPEAKER_01: We have a map of the world.
SPEAKER_01: You can see it right here.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see Africa right there in the middle?
SPEAKER_01: Go up a little bit and to the right.
SPEAKER_01: That's where Jesus was born, right there.
SPEAKER_01: He lived there.
SPEAKER_01: The miracles that he performed, right there.
SPEAKER_01: You can take this map of the world and even understand not only does Jesus have an inescapable, undeniable impact, other world religions acknowledge that Jesus was real.
SPEAKER_01: You can look in Hinduism, they regard Jesus as a holy man and a wise teacher and actually number him among their gods.
SPEAKER_01: Even in Judaism, they call Jesus an itinerate teacher with many disciples and a man who performed miracles and drove out demons.
SPEAKER_01: They acknowledge that Jesus did miraculous things, but they reject the idea that Jesus is divine.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us may not know this, but even in Islam, they base some doctrine on his writings and respect Jesus as a prophet and a wise teacher who again worked miracles and healed many, but they reject that Jesus was God or Son of God or a member of any Trinity.
SPEAKER_01: Even Buddhists see Jesus as an enlightened man and a wise teacher.
SPEAKER_01: So notice that while these world religions, the world over, deny the deity of Jesus, they all acknowledge he was a real person.
SPEAKER_01: It is not something that is commonly disputed because there is historical and contextual evidence to support it.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, a man named Lee Strobel wrote a book called The Case for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you've heard of it, you know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't, you can Google that.
SPEAKER_01: I would encourage you to purchase that as a resource for your own growth and your relationship.
SPEAKER_01: There is irrefutable evidence that Jesus existed and not just that, was raised to life in what we call the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: You'll find that in that book, The Case for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You can read all about that.
SPEAKER_01: It is irrefutable, and it's in there throughout human history, even other world religions who do not exist to elevate the name of Jesus still acknowledge that he was real and performed many miracles.
SPEAKER_01: People believe Jesus was real.
SPEAKER_01: They acknowledge his impact on the world.
SPEAKER_01: So why can't people agree on who he is?
SPEAKER_01: If people the world over believe Jesus was real, how come it seems like people in all different areas and belief systems can't agree on who he is?
SPEAKER_01: And this is where you see that relationship between theology and faith come into play.
SPEAKER_01: This is where you see that pairing of theology and faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gap between thinking you know who Jesus is and actually knowing who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: That gap is called faith.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: While there is irrefutable proof that Jesus existed, he was real, lived on this earth in the first century in the Middle East, like we just saw, the proof is there.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was real.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't say it like that, do we?
SPEAKER_01: We don't say Jesus was real.
SPEAKER_01: Even as you start to hear that and think about that, you're like, no, I don't, we don't say, what do we say as Christians?
SPEAKER_01: We don't say Jesus was real.
SPEAKER_01: What do we say?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is real.
SPEAKER_01: Why do we say that?
SPEAKER_01: Why do we say it like that?
SPEAKER_01: Because our faith has led us to believe in Jesus is who he said he is.
SPEAKER_01: Theology, a study of God, is just that a study of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the more you learn about God, the more you start to trust that God is who he says he is, revealed through his word, and it is the same when you study the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so for us, we're going to take the same approach.
SPEAKER_01: There is a resource provided to the world that is God revealing himself to mankind.
SPEAKER_01: It is called the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It is this library of books, this collection of ancient writings written by about 40 different authors over the span of about 1,500 years.
SPEAKER_01: And in this library of books, we call it the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You may have heard it referred to as the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: God reveals Himself to mankind.
SPEAKER_01: It is in that word that we are introduced to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Jesus is called the Word in the Word.
SPEAKER_01: Theology, Theos, God, logos, study of, or Word, is actually listed in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: The very first part of this gospel account of Jesus, Jesus is called the Word.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning was the Word.
SPEAKER_01: So not only does God reveal Himself through us through His Word, but the person and work of Jesus, who Jesus is, is explicitly laid out for us.
SPEAKER_01: In this library of books inspired by God, we call the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The Word is revealed in the Word.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to go there and look at that because we have that word as a consequence pertaining to these gospel accounts specifically of firsthand eyewitness accounts of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Because there were people who interacted with Jesus face to face, up close and over time, did life with, served with, learned from.
SPEAKER_01: We have these eyewitness firsthand accounts.
SPEAKER_01: And not only do we have that, we have words that were recorded.
SPEAKER_01: They wrote down what Jesus did, and they wrote down what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: Because in this word, Jesus made this claim.
SPEAKER_01: And it is the most life-changing claim that has ever been made in the history of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus claimed he was God.
SPEAKER_01: But don't just take my word for it.
SPEAKER_01: Take his word for it.
SPEAKER_01: Because if someone shows up on the scene and starts saying they're God, people take notice.
SPEAKER_01: And they wrote it down.
SPEAKER_01: In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, I am the way.
SPEAKER_01: I am the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I am the life.
SPEAKER_01: I am the door.
SPEAKER_01: I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: I am the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what he's doing there?
SPEAKER_01: The reason it was written down is because Jesus is drawing a line from New Testament recording that we have in the Gospel of John all the way back to the Old Testament, kind of what you would consider first half of your Bible, ancient Jewish writings, to this word, Jehovah.
SPEAKER_01: You may have heard it, Jehovah.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus drawing that line saying, I am, I am, would end up being used Yahweh, Jehovah.
SPEAKER_01: You see different names of God used in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them would not even be allowed to be spoken out loud.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus draws this line in the Gospel of John and claims equality to it in saying, I am the way.
SPEAKER_01: That's who Jesus says he is.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, Jesus again claimed to be what was an Old Testament word, Adonai.
SPEAKER_01: It means my Lord, supreme authority in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Adonai, Jesus in Matthew 22, claimed to be that Old Testament Adonai.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew 28, he goes on and identifies himself with God in this common baptism verbiage that we'll hear next week.
SPEAKER_01: I baptize you what?
SPEAKER_01: Say it with me.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says that in Matthew 28, claiming that equality right in there.
SPEAKER_01: Even in John's Gospel again, chapters 10 and 14, he claims to be one with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: He claims in John 5 to have a special relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: He calls him my Father.
SPEAKER_01: In Mark's Gospel, chapter 2, Jesus claimed to forgive sins.
SPEAKER_01: This was astonishing for people to hear because that power to forgive sins was exclusively assumed to belong to God.
SPEAKER_01: So why would Jesus have the audacity to claim in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2, to be able to forgive sins because Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: In both Matthew's Gospel and John's Gospel, Jesus claims the very attributes of God: omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, knowing all, able to do all, and be all in all, everywhere at all times.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus claimed these things, his very words throughout these first-hand eyewitness accounts that were passed down through oral tradition and history, recorded not more than a few decades after his death, burial, and resurrection, which at the time was an astonishingly quick pace to record history.
SPEAKER_01: We're used to a Twitter pace.
SPEAKER_01: Something happens, we're tweeting it in live action right there in the moment, kind of in real time.
SPEAKER_01: That's not how history was recorded back then.
SPEAKER_01: You'd go hundreds of years before somebody would finally pen an historical account of a particular person who lived.
SPEAKER_01: You're talking 30, 40, 50 years in some instances where these biographical accounts of Jesus were recorded, and that would be like tweeting it out in real time now.
SPEAKER_01: And these eyewitness accounts wrote down these things that Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: And in these accounts, Jesus claimed to be God.
SPEAKER_01: That's who Jesus says he is.
SPEAKER_01: Moreover, you have people who walked with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them who wrote these accounts, some of them who planted churches, some of them who were related to him.
SPEAKER_01: We'll look at that in just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Who also, in their writings in the New Testament of your Bible, wrote of who they believe Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Not only did he say who he was, but the people who followed him up close and over time were so convinced that he is who he says he is that they gave their lives to tell others that he is who he says he is.
SPEAKER_01: We just talked about it in the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: You can go there with me or you can follow along screen.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna meet a man here named Peter in Matthew 16, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta remember, you can't go out there and take H2O, turn it into Merlot, feed people with the long John Silver's kid's meal, heal people, spit in a guy's eye, have him see.
SPEAKER_01: You can't do all these things and not have people chatter, and they're chattering and they're wanting to know who is this Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, having spent time with his disciples, these early followers, he asks them in this moment, Who do people say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: And they answered him in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Some say you're John the Baptist, others say you're Elijah, this Old Testament prophet, others say you're Jeremiah, another prophet, or that you're you're one of the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, But who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: You who have been with me, you who have sat down, ate meals with me, served with me, served others with me, listened to my teachings, seen me when known.
SPEAKER_01: No one else has seen me.
SPEAKER_01: When I go off alone to pray, and then I come back, and no one else is around.
SPEAKER_01: It's just you and me.
SPEAKER_01: You've seen me.
SPEAKER_01: So who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: And Simon Peter, a man who had faith, not always, and not always the strongest either.
SPEAKER_01: He hopped out of a boat, walked on the water with Jesus, not without a struggle first.
SPEAKER_01: He believed he could, but then he started to doubt and he had, he started to drown, he started to sink, and Jesus helped him up.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Peter, again, theology, faith, and what that collision looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Peter knew about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He spent time with him.
SPEAKER_01: He watched him.
SPEAKER_01: He walked with him on dry land, but it took faith to walk with him on the water.
SPEAKER_01: And here, Peter, who is such a presentation of theology and faith and how they work together, says this in verse 16 of Matthew 16.
SPEAKER_01: Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is a Greek word, Christos.
SPEAKER_01: It means the Messiah, the promised one who would rescue and redeem.
SPEAKER_01: You can go further in the New Testament of your Bible in Colossians 1.
SPEAKER_01: You read words from a man named Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is considered the father of early church planting.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, Paul had an encounter with the risen Jesus on his way to persecute and prosecute people who believed in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul, en route to do that, has an encounter with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus changes his life, calls him to something greater, this gospel mission, taking the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is Lord and Savior to as many people who would hear it.
SPEAKER_01: So then Paul goes off, spends some time with some of these early followers who had firsthand eyewitness experience with Jesus, learns from them, devotes his entire life to taking the gospel to the world so much that he would lay his life down.
SPEAKER_01: And along the way, as he would plant these churches and coach these church leaders and pastors, he would write letters to them and give them these instructions for Christ-honoring living.
SPEAKER_01: And in some of these letters, he had to make sure that they understood who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you believe in Jesus, it's going to demand a response from you.
SPEAKER_01: So what that response looks like is directly related to what your belief is.
SPEAKER_01: That your theology of Jesus is going to impact your faith in Jesus, but your faith in Jesus will also affect your theology of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They work together.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul, knowing that, writing to these early church members, to these early Christians, as we call them, made sure to explain to them who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: And in Colossians chapter 1, you can follow along on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: I believe Paul pensed some of the most profound and illustrative words to describe who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: In Colossians 1, starting in verse 15, this is what he says Christ, Christos, is the visible image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_01: He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.
SPEAKER_01: Let God's word teach you this morning, church.
SPEAKER_01: For through him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.
SPEAKER_01: He made the things we can see and the things we can't see.
SPEAKER_01: Such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
SPEAKER_01: Everything was created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_01: He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.
SPEAKER_01: He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: So he is first in everything.
SPEAKER_01: For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And through him, God reconciled everything to himself.
SPEAKER_01: He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes Scripture preaches on its own.
SPEAKER_01: And you have it there in Colossians 1.
SPEAKER_01: Even the very brother of Jesus, in case you forget, Jesus did have a family.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just Mary, Joseph, then Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: After they had Jesus, we just experienced that Christmas story not a month ago.
SPEAKER_01: They had other kids the old-fashioned way, and Jesus had brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: And even they struggled to believe he was God.
SPEAKER_01: They saw the things he did, they heard the things he said, but they had a hard time.
SPEAKER_01: And it's easy to kind of know that and think, well, how could they be that up close and personal with Jesus and not believe until maybe after his resurrection that he is God?
SPEAKER_01: Well, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand if you have a brother or sister.
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand if you have a sibling.
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: Most people in the room have a sibling.
SPEAKER_01: Now think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine what you would do if your sibling came to you and said, Hey, I got I so I got some news.
SPEAKER_01: I'm God.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You get it now.
SPEAKER_01: My own brother, his name is Justin, he lives in New Jersey.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're watching, I love you, bro.
SPEAKER_01: I apologize for this in advance.
SPEAKER_01: My own brother, we are very close now.
SPEAKER_01: I feel like I should say that.
SPEAKER_01: We're very close now.
SPEAKER_01: Love him, love him, love his wife, Rachel, Emma Joy.
SPEAKER_01: Love all y'all, love all y'all, but I'm gonna still tell this story.
SPEAKER_01: Justin once called me the most annoying person he had ever met on planet Earth.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you love each other when you're someone's brother.
SPEAKER_01: Justin used to play this video game when we were in middle school.
SPEAKER_01: It was a college football game on his PlayStation.
SPEAKER_01: You guys know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: College football, PlayStation game?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't allowed to play because I wasn't any good, and he was impatient.
SPEAKER_01: And he didn't want me to play with him because he's like, you stink at this, and it's not fun for me to play.
SPEAKER_01: And I used to ask all the time, can I play, man?
SPEAKER_01: Can I play?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I think that was his favorite word growing up.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: And he would get, man, he would get into this.
SPEAKER_01: He would schedule, it's a college team.
SPEAKER_01: So he would schedule his uh, you know, the games he would play strategically to where he would set his team up to play the University of Hawaii, and then the next week be off, so quote, my team can have a vacation in Hawaii.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, you mean the fake like 16-bit video game characters that don't exist in real life, so they can have a vacation in Hawaii?
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, This is why I don't play with you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't take it seriously, man.
SPEAKER_01: You're not any good.
SPEAKER_01: So one day I convinced him that I had learned how to play the game.
SPEAKER_01: I lied.
SPEAKER_01: I'm admitting that for everyone and the internet.
SPEAKER_01: I convinced him.
SPEAKER_01: I told him I went to Blockbuster Video, and this is back in the day, Blockbuster Video, for all those who were not born in the 1900s, you couldn't just get videos online.
SPEAKER_01: You had to go to a place, this was wild, it was crazy.
SPEAKER_01: You'd have to bump people and just kind of push them out of the way to see if your video was in.
SPEAKER_01: It was crazy.
SPEAKER_01: But they used to do these things, you could rent video games, and in the video game case would be this pamphlet that would tell you how to play the video game.
SPEAKER_01: Now you just YouTube it.
SPEAKER_01: But back in the day, you had to do this.
SPEAKER_01: So you'd spend 45 minutes in Blockbuster thinking about renting a game and opening it up to see, well, how do I play it before I spend the$3 to rent it?
SPEAKER_01: And I convinced him I went to Blockbuster and learned how to play the game and that I was going to whoop him.
SPEAKER_01: And so after I played up to his ego a little bit and his pride got in the way, he allowed me to play with him for one game.
SPEAKER_01: We got to the fourth quarter, there's probably about 45 seconds left in the game.
SPEAKER_01: It's 82 to nothing.
SPEAKER_01: He is destroying me.
SPEAKER_01: I have not scored a point.
SPEAKER_01: But I kept telling him, just wait.
SPEAKER_01: Just wait.
SPEAKER_01: I found a secret thing in the back of the pamphlet.
SPEAKER_01: It's a secret play.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna come back and whoop you.
SPEAKER_01: And I could see on his face, he did not believe me.
SPEAKER_01: But there was one percent of him in the back of his mind that was like, but did he though?
SPEAKER_01: And I could tell, so I had him on the edge of his seat.
SPEAKER_01: And the countdown, oh, it was just clocking down, clocking down, clocking down.
SPEAKER_01: 20 seconds, 10 seconds, 5 seconds, 4 seconds, 3.
SPEAKER_01: I had the ball.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You ready?
SPEAKER_01: Three, two, I hopped up off the floor, ran over, and smashed the power button on the PlayStation, turned the game off.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Eat it, bro.
SPEAKER_01: Special play.
SPEAKER_01: Game technically didn't end, you technically didn't win.
SPEAKER_01: Zero, zero.
SPEAKER_01: We're the same.
SPEAKER_01: He never let me play with him again.
SPEAKER_01: And now you maybe understand why he once called me the most annoying person he had ever met on planet Earth.
SPEAKER_01: James is the brother of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He spent his whole life for 30 plus years.
SPEAKER_01: He knew who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_01: He saw him when no one else saw him.
SPEAKER_01: And even James, after proof of his resurrection, would not only become a Jesus follower, Paul would name James as a pillar of the early church.
SPEAKER_01: He was an influential figure.
SPEAKER_01: How did he get there?
SPEAKER_01: How did he get from knowing about Jesus to believing in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: He chose to put his faith in the risen Jesus so much that James too would give his life for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And in James chapter 1, introduced himself.
SPEAKER_01: Not as Jesus' brother, which I'm sure would have come with a little bit of clout and confusion, but James, not wanting to parlay that relationship for himself, James took his theology and his faith, and when those two collided, he introduced himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: How on earth does the brother of Jesus claim this posture?
SPEAKER_01: Does the brother of Jesus believe these claims that Jesus Christ is Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Does Peter, who walked with him?
SPEAKER_01: Does Paul, who had an encounter but was on the other side, as you would call it, for a while, persecuting?
SPEAKER_01: How on earth do all of these people take Jesus at his word and give everything based on this belief that Jesus is God?
SPEAKER_01: If you notice something, all of them had both theology and faith.
SPEAKER_01: And they chose to know about Jesus personally.
SPEAKER_01: Faith and theology work together.
SPEAKER_01: Because faith is what takes you from belief about to belief in.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is what takes you from Jesus was real to Jesus that is real.
SPEAKER_01: It's what takes you from Jesus was good to Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: And your faith will grow your theology.
SPEAKER_01: Because the more you desire to know God, the more you desire to know Jesus better, you're going to look to Jesus and you're going to learn from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to learn more about your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: So your faith is going to grow, the more your theology grows.
SPEAKER_01: And consequentially, your theology will grow when your faith grows.
SPEAKER_01: Because the more you look to God and learn about God, the more you learn to trust in God.
SPEAKER_01: The more you see Jesus as who he really is, the more that starts to take shape in your life.
SPEAKER_01: This is where you see that theology is not just for information's sake, it's for application, and ultimately it's for transformation.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's the deciding factor for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: This is the deciding factor for everyone, is that collision between theology and faith.
SPEAKER_01: If you see Jesus for who he is, according to these firsthand eyewitness accounts we have that God has given us to reveal himself through his word, if you see Jesus for who he is, according to that, and you choose to put faith in who Jesus is, you will see Jesus differently.
SPEAKER_01: You won't see him as a wise man or a unique prophet or even a brilliant teacher.
SPEAKER_01: You see him as Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You don't take the teachings of Jesus as suggestions for a satisfying life.
SPEAKER_01: You see the teachings of Jesus as commands and the ultimate authority in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's who Jesus is Son of God, Savior, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: My prayer for all of us is that as we learn more who Jesus is, that it would strengthen our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And as our faith grows, it would propel us to dig further into our theology, our study of God, which is why I want to encourage you to be back next week.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the Holy Spirit, and depending on your background, you might have a confusing or maybe even uninformed view of who the Holy Spirit is.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to treat the Holy Spirit like that weird uncle at Thanksgiving who you either talk too much to because it's fun, or you don't ever talk about because it's weird.
SPEAKER_01: But there's more application involved in understanding who God is, one Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to put a bow on that part of our series next week.
SPEAKER_01: I would encourage you to be here.
SPEAKER_01: And I also want to encourage you to bring people with you as we learn about who God is in this Christian theology series that we're calling 30-minute theology.
SPEAKER_01: But the goal for everyone, as we wrap up in prayer in just a moment, the goal is this that as you grow in what you know about God, you grow in your faith, in trusting God in all seasons and all situations.
SPEAKER_01: The more we claim who Jesus is, the more we trust in Jesus as Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the goal for every one of us, whether you are starting or strengthening your faith.
SPEAKER_01: So dig in, dig into those resources, dig into your word, grow in your faith, be here to fellowship, dig into prayer, grow in your faith as you grow in your theology of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you again for another day, for another time, for us setting it aside.
SPEAKER_01: We praise you for it.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that what we learned here doesn't get left here, but that we take it with us.
SPEAKER_01: And it helps us grow not only in our knowledge of you, but in our faith in you.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you again.
SPEAKER_01: It's in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us today at Sunrise Church.
SPEAKER_00: We hope this message encouraged you and blessed you.
SPEAKER_00: If one of the ways that you choose to worship with us here at Sunrise is by giving online, there's a link right here that you can follow and it'll take you to that payment portal.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that you donate helps not only go towards reaching people in the greater San Diego area, but also all around the world through our ministry.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to get further connected, whether in person or online, you can email this email right here, and either myself or some one of our team members will be there to answer it and help you get connected in any way that you need.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next week.