SPEAKER_00: Turn your Bible to Matthew chapter eleven.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Matthew chapter number eleven.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew's Gospel, chapter number eleven.
SPEAKER_00: We'll begin reading.
SPEAKER_00: Beginning with verse number two.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter eleven.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number two.
SPEAKER_00: Let me preface the message by giving you just a brief overview of what is before us tonight.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist has been incarcerated, for scholars tell us, for about 12 months now.
SPEAKER_00: He was in prison for about 18 months, and then you know the story.
SPEAKER_00: He was beheaded.
SPEAKER_00: And uh one of his dungeons there out of Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Rome was very advanced in that day as far as septic systems.
SPEAKER_00: They already had underground septic systems throughout their cities, but in their prisons he forbidded.
SPEAKER_00: And if you study this out, read from the scholars and the historians, the entire time of his incarceration, he was in a damp, dark dungeon with human feces all over the floor.
SPEAKER_00: No light, no window.
SPEAKER_00: Every now and then they would open a window, and thus his some of his disciples, his followers, would come by.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to preach a message with that thought in mind entitled, When your feet are dangling in the dung of life, don't despair.
SPEAKER_00: When your feet are dangling in the dung of life, don't despair.
SPEAKER_00: Scholars tell us if he was seated in a fetal position, that his feet would literally be dangling in the dung.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin.
SPEAKER_00: If you're there, say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 11, verse number two.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John, I love this word, again.
SPEAKER_00: Go and show John again.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you thankful that he is a God of again?
SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful tonight that he is an alive God.
SPEAKER_00: And he's an awesome God.
SPEAKER_00: And he's an available God.
SPEAKER_00: And he's an accessible God.
SPEAKER_00: And he's an able God.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm also thankful that he is an again God.
SPEAKER_00: Go show John again those things which you do hear and see.
SPEAKER_00: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and I love this one.
SPEAKER_00: And the poor have the gospel preached to them.
SPEAKER_00: In verse number six is our text, Jesus said, And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
SPEAKER_00: One more time.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
SPEAKER_00: To be honest with you, years ago when I read this text, perhaps for one of the first times, and began to study it out, I couldn't help but think, what in the world could Jesus Christ, the perfect, immaculate Son of God, ever do that would be offensive to me?
SPEAKER_00: What would Jesus, my Redeemer, my best friend in life, could ever do that would offend me?
SPEAKER_00: The word offend is an interesting word in our text.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from the Greek word scandalios.
SPEAKER_00: Scandalios we get our word scandal from.
SPEAKER_00: We hear that word.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear about the scandal in that family or the scandal in his life or the scandal down at the church?
SPEAKER_00: Scandal, the word literally means a sad story of failure and disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: A sad story of failure and disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: The word in the text literally means to fall, to stumble, to sin, to turn away from God, or to take it out on God.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is simply saying to those two disciples to relay the message back to John while he was in prison, blessed is the man.
SPEAKER_00: Tell John, don't allow the devil to scandalize his life.
SPEAKER_00: Don't take it out on me, Jesus said, what others are doing to you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't stumble, don't fall, don't sin, don't blame me for your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: John, don't let this occasion in your life cause you to turn your heart away from me.
SPEAKER_00: That's why, in the midst of tough circumstances, if we're not careful, we will take out on God what others are putting us through.
SPEAKER_00: And so I mentioned this morning that messages that God's birth in my heart have been for me, and I pray that as he allows me to relay them to you, that this will help somebody tonight very quickly as we hasten through this service.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Oh, Brother Jim, you must be preaching tonight about some weak, anemic young believer.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm preaching about John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: A man sent from God, whose name was John, a man who fulfilled Bible prophecy by being the one voice in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: A man that was full of the Holy Ghost while he was still in his mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: A man who praised God before he was ever born, got a shout on, and yet I've met so many Baptists who claim to be born twice, and you can't even get a holy grunt out of them.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: He was a man of God, a man of power, a man of authority.
SPEAKER_00: I ask you this question: who did God choose to introduce to the world his son?
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Who was it that stood on the bake and with his hand reckoning, saying, That's him, behold, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_00: We know tonight that in various places we see the Holy Spirit working here, and God the Father working over here, and God the Son working here.
SPEAKER_00: But with John the Baptist down on the muddy river of Jordan, we see all three persons of the Godhead together.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, John the Baptist baptized Jesus to righteousness in the river Jordan.
SPEAKER_00: And while he was beholding and touching the very deity of God, from heaven came the embodiment of the Holy Spirit in form of a dove.
SPEAKER_00: And the clouds began to roll back, and from the banister of heaven was a thundering voice of God Himself, my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: All three, John witnessed.
SPEAKER_00: You can't get any closer to deity than touching its body, than seeing the embodiment of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and to hear the audible voice of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about John the Baptist tonight.
SPEAKER_00: You say, what about John the Baptist?
SPEAKER_00: That's the man that sits in the jail cell in our text on the verge of a faith failure, wondering if this is Jesus Christ, or does he need to be looking for another?
SPEAKER_00: Life's not supposed to end that way.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Brother Jim, what's his problem?
SPEAKER_00: In prison, on death row.
SPEAKER_00: You understand this is before Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: You know your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: What's his problem?
SPEAKER_00: Well, where he is, he cannot see, he cannot touch, he cannot hear, he cannot feel the very presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: All that he can see and touch and hear and feel are the miseries of this life.
SPEAKER_00: He finds himself in a way of introduction in a dilemma on death row.
SPEAKER_00: And that dilemma quickly turns into disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever been disappointed?
SPEAKER_00: I heard a preacher not long ago tell me, he said, if you're ever disappointed, you're out of the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Because I become disappointed from time to time in life.
SPEAKER_00: So, matter of fact, if you live in the real world long enough, somebody's gonna get up in your stuff.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's gonna lick all the frosty off of your frosty flakes.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's gonna eat all the marshmallows out of your lucky charms.
SPEAKER_00: If you live in this world long enough, I don't care how how faithful and how godly you are, somebody's gonna do you like the little girl did Barney on Andy Griffin when she took your snow cone, bit the bottom out, sucked all the syrup from it, and handed him back the ice.
SPEAKER_00: Life is filled with disappointments.
SPEAKER_00: But that dilemma which led to disappointment in our text, we find has brought him to doubt.
SPEAKER_00: He is deserted, down, and discouraged, and the devil's doing everything he can to play mind games on John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just help somebody right here tonight?
SPEAKER_00: The devil is a master playing mind games.
SPEAKER_00: And your and my mind sometimes can be our greatest enemy.
SPEAKER_00: And John the Baptist, deserted with his feet dangling in the dung of this prison, finds himself allowing the devil to play mind games.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody without a show of hands ever been in that situation before?
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: The devil's a master player at mind games.
SPEAKER_00: His dilemma turns to disappointment because his ministry is not supposed to end this way.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the sunset of a ministry and he finds himself on death row.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to look tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the seriousness of our text.
SPEAKER_00: John is not in this prison cell doubting himself, nor is he doubting his family or friends.
SPEAKER_00: He's not even doubting his colleagues in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: But John the Baptist, sitting in this prison cell, is doubting Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But as Paul Harvey once would say, now the rest of the story.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Three things that I want to share with you tonight.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, why do most preachers' sermons only have three points?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed that?
SPEAKER_00: I suppose that's as high as most preachers can count.
SPEAKER_00: I'm from Arkansas, so I can say that.
SPEAKER_00: But I know that's two points more than any Baptist will ever remember.
SPEAKER_00: So it kind of washes out.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you what, you know Taylor Bruce.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Those of you that go to camp, before it probably know Taylor Bruce.
SPEAKER_00: He's Brother David Enger's associate youth pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I call him one of my preacher boys.
SPEAKER_00: He was saved when he was 10 years old under my preaching.
SPEAKER_00: And then when he was 16 under my preaching, God called him to preach.
SPEAKER_00: I was in that area not long ago, and Taylor called me and he said, Brother Jim, he's nervous and anxious.
SPEAKER_00: He was preaching the next night.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Brother Jim, how many points should a sermon have?
SPEAKER_00: And I told him, I said, at least one.
SPEAKER_00: How many sermons have you and I heard that didn't have any points?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm going to give you three things tonight, but a way of introducing these three points, and we'll be done, where'd our clock go?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was your phone.
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't need it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be done in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: But in way of introducing these three thoughts tonight, you notice in our text, Jesus called for two fellas to go and find Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist called for these two fellas to go and find Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And said, uh, when you locate him, I want you to ask him, is he really the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: Or do I need down here in prison to be looking for somebody else?
SPEAKER_00: I would have hated to be one of those two guys.
SPEAKER_00: You think about it.
SPEAKER_00: There's some men in the Bible that I certainly would not covet their responsibilities.
SPEAKER_00: And these are two of them.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all stand up right there in front of me.
SPEAKER_00: Can y'all imagine these two men walking up, Brother Lloyd and I walking up to walking up to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all behave.
SPEAKER_00: Walking up to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, Brother Lloyd, if it was Brother Lloyd and myself, here's what here's what I would have done.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: You remember John the Baptist?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in case you don't know it, he's down there in prison.
SPEAKER_00: And uh John the Baptist wants us to ask you something.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead, brother.
SPEAKER_00: You asked him.
unknown: Are you the pastor?
SPEAKER_00: No, I'll just pick it weed.
SPEAKER_00: But now I know your pastor, and I know Brother Lloyd.
SPEAKER_00: If it were both of us, we'd say, Brother Ron, you go ahead and tell him.
SPEAKER_00: Thank y'all.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to see the answers that Jesus gave.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, I want you to notice the evidence that Jesus gave.
SPEAKER_00: I've got it wrote down in my notes right here.
SPEAKER_00: Holler glory right here.
SPEAKER_00: So, holler glory right here.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Go and show John again what you have heard and seen.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him the evidence is still in.
SPEAKER_00: What's the evidence?
SPEAKER_00: Tell him in our text that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them.
SPEAKER_00: Go and tell him the evidence is still in.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, go and tell him what Jesus simply saying is this I'm still God, I'm still on the throne, I've got it under control, I haven't forgot him, I know where it is.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him that not only what you have heard, but what you have seen.
SPEAKER_00: I got to thinking about that.
SPEAKER_00: These disciples, how did they see?
SPEAKER_00: They'd been with John.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had to show them what he had been doing.
SPEAKER_00: He probably walked over to this blind man, touched him, and he received his sight.
SPEAKER_00: He walked over to this lame person, touched her, and she leaped for joy.
SPEAKER_00: Walked over to this leper and cleansed him, and he was healed.
SPEAKER_00: Preached the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Go back and tell John what you have heard and what you have seen.
SPEAKER_00: The evidence is in.
SPEAKER_00: But not only do we see the evidence in, I'm gonna move quick right through here.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see, number two, the endorsement that Jesus gave.
SPEAKER_00: These disciples, they had seen the Lord heal, raise the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did it all for John.
SPEAKER_00: Go back and tell him what you have heard and what you have seen.
SPEAKER_00: And they're starting to walk away back to John to the dungeon, and they were still in earshot of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is no longer addressing those two disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, Jesus is addressing the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, by the way, that fellow they're asking about, there has never been a man born of woman.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, that includes every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how much biology you know, but if if you're here tonight, your mama had something to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: You he's telling the crowd, by the way, that man that they are asking about, there has never been a man born of woman greater than John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: What an endorsement.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see this tonight because some of you are right here where John is, probably.
SPEAKER_00: You're doubting God.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's alright to doubt.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's all right to ask why.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not so much to question God, because God does things that we don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what's best for us.
SPEAKER_00: But notice Jesus didn't say that about John down on the muddy Jordan River when he was being baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't say that about John when he was winning hundreds, literally thousands to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't say that about John when he was coming through the wilderness, preaching, bellowing like an ox.
SPEAKER_00: Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't have that to say about John then.
SPEAKER_00: But now John is in the lowest deserted moment.
SPEAKER_00: Of its life, and Jesus says, He's the greatest.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I feel like preaching weather right now.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He's the greatest.
SPEAKER_00: Go back and tell John.
SPEAKER_00: John may have given up on me, but I have not given up on him.
SPEAKER_00: John may have doubts about me, but I don't have any doubts about John down there in that prison.
SPEAKER_00: You see, his mind is acting up.
SPEAKER_00: His heart's fluttering.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, I know what's down deep in his soul.
SPEAKER_00: He may be wondering about me, but I'm not wondering about him.
SPEAKER_00: He's the greatest that's ever been born.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to let somebody know tonight.
SPEAKER_00: When your feet are dangling in the dung of life, don't despair.
SPEAKER_00: God hadn't forgot you.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't given up on you.
SPEAKER_00: He's for you and not against you.
SPEAKER_00: The evidence is in.
SPEAKER_00: The endorsement was given.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him he may be walking out on me, but I will never walk out on him.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: But let me conclude this.
SPEAKER_00: The evidence is in.
SPEAKER_00: The endorsement was given, but number three, the exhortation that Jesus gave.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him also that he can still be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: In prison?
SPEAKER_00: On death row?
SPEAKER_00: Still be blessed?
SPEAKER_00: Being limited?
SPEAKER_00: And still be blessed?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone hearing me tonight?
SPEAKER_00: You feel inadequate?
SPEAKER_00: Still be blessed?
SPEAKER_00: You've had those moments when you wanted to run out on God?
SPEAKER_00: Still be blessed?
SPEAKER_00: The times when you have doubted God, still be blessed?
SPEAKER_00: The book of Matthew begins with the beatitudes, the principles for God's blessings on our life.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I call the forgotten beatitude.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the man.
SPEAKER_00: Whosoever shall not be offended in me.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him, John, if you want to be blessed, right where you are, don't let the devil scandalize your life.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let him use this occasion to turn you against me.
SPEAKER_00: John, don't stumble.
SPEAKER_00: John, don't turn back now.
SPEAKER_00: You come too far to quit.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking across this congregation this evening.
SPEAKER_00: All of us have come too far.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you will resolve.
SPEAKER_00: That you'll resolve tonight that you're not going to quit.
SPEAKER_00: That you're not going to walk out on God.
SPEAKER_00: That you're going to stay here without your faith fizzling before you cross the finish line.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him, don't take out on me what others are putting him through.
SPEAKER_00: Don't blame God for your hardships.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that would be the easy thing to cop out for us and my family to question God why those things happen in our life as they have.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned my son-in-law with a stroke, my daughter, but I didn't mention the three sons that they have and what they've gone through the last year and a half.
SPEAKER_00: And I say tonight, life will find you dangling in the dung of it.
SPEAKER_00: But don't despair.
SPEAKER_00: Don't stumble.
SPEAKER_00: Don't take it out on me.
SPEAKER_00: How many will join me tonight and resolve that we're in this for the long haul?
SPEAKER_00: I may stumble a little bit on the way, but I pray I'll never fall off the wagon.
SPEAKER_00: Hold me accountable, and I will hold you accountable.
SPEAKER_00: When your feet are dangling in the dung of life, don't despair.
SPEAKER_00: May God bless you.