SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, when we say that fulfill all your purposes, what we're uh inherent in that statement is that every time you say something, uh, it is with purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And so today your word is gonna come to us with purpose.
SPEAKER_01: You say in Isaiah that my word never goes out and comes back void, but it accomplishes the purpose for which I sent it.
SPEAKER_01: You even compared it to nature.
SPEAKER_01: You said it's the snow and rain comes down and waters the earth, causing it to bring forth and to sprout.
SPEAKER_01: God, today you're gonna bring forth some things, and then you're gonna cause some things to sprout, to kind of break ground and become obvious.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we're okay with either one of those.
SPEAKER_01: Bring forth and sprout.
SPEAKER_01: But your word is like rain, it comes down.
SPEAKER_01: It behooves us on a rainy Sunday to kind of get our head around this.
SPEAKER_01: Your word comes down like rain and it waters the earth, and the growth is not immediate.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's three days later, a week later, two weeks later, a month later, because things are kind of happening under the surface.
SPEAKER_01: You're a God that does that.
SPEAKER_01: You don't always work in public.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you work in private.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're okay with that.
SPEAKER_01: But we just we understand that we open the Bible now and it's full of purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And we want those purposes to be realized in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We want that to get in our head and our heart and expressed in our hands this week.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, say something this morning with our name on it.
SPEAKER_01: That's our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We ask for it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have a Bible, don't sweat that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh if there's a Bible in your row, I'm on page 887 if you'd like to follow along.
SPEAKER_01: And if not, it'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can just kind of follow along that way.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, we're preaching through the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: We not even got out of the first chapter yet, but today we finished the first chapter.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have a sermon title today because I just it one didn't seem fitting.
SPEAKER_01: And the guys in the media team said, Hey, you have a title?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, No, I I don't have a title.
SPEAKER_01: But if I did have a title after the first sermon, this is what I would call it.
SPEAKER_01: And in the sixth round, dot dot dot.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, yeah, I would go with nothing instead.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go with that.
SPEAKER_01: And in the sixth round, here's why, because years ago, in the sixth round, I think it was like in the 2002 or 2003 NFL draft, in the sixth round, I mean, there's only like seven rounds, it's like we're getting to the bottom of the barrel, scraping the bottom.
SPEAKER_01: There was a NFL football team that had film on a guy, uh, a college player, and they said he's uh not very athletically billed.
SPEAKER_01: He's gangly, he's slow, he's got average skills, maybe a late round pick.
SPEAKER_01: That was the grade on him.
SPEAKER_01: And they had video of him standing there with nothing on but a pair of shorts, and he kind of looked like eh, about 180-pound, tall, about six foot two, six foot three, just a skinny, gangly white guy that was slow.
SPEAKER_01: And this team said, we'll take a chance on him because we've we see something in him.
SPEAKER_01: The team was the New England Patriots, and the player was Tom Brady.
SPEAKER_01: And in the sixth round, John chapter one, Jesus rounds out his team.
SPEAKER_01: He picks his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'll tell you this, and then we'll get into the text.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, John chapter one lays the foundation for the rest of the book of John.
SPEAKER_01: John is writing to Jewish people who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and he wants to convince them through persuasion, reason, logic, demonstration of the miraculous.
SPEAKER_01: He appeals to all the senses, and because the Bible does that.
SPEAKER_01: And he appeals to all the senses of these people to bring them to the point that they will say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: We think this is the truth.
SPEAKER_01: You should consider the claims of Christianity, not because your marriage is in crisis, or because your kid smokes pot or because you're bankrupt.
SPEAKER_01: You should consider the claims of Christianity because it's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's the greatest motivation for pondering what the Bible says and thinking about the ramifications for your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus is rounding out his team because the next 10 chapters, chapters 2 to 11, are known as the book of miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus does the most fascinating things in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And starting in John chapter 2, uh, all the way to John chapter 11, mind-blowing things that people are like, shut up! Jesus is just like smiling, like, I know, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is incredible.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, wonder why.
SPEAKER_01: And then the last that's the book of miracles.
SPEAKER_01: And then chapters 12 to chapter 21 are the book of glory.
SPEAKER_01: He turns his face to the cross and he begins to demonstrate hey, I'm not just a circus carnival sideshow.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not the bearded lady or the fire-eating midget.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna do what only he could do for humanity.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna lay down my life.
SPEAKER_01: No one's gonna take it from me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't get killed by a bunch of Roman morons.
SPEAKER_01: I lay my life down for my sheep.
SPEAKER_01: The shepherd's been talking about his sheep, shepherd and sheep all along.
SPEAKER_01: And now the shepherd does what only a shepherd can do, and that's lay down his life for his sheep.
SPEAKER_01: And so before we get to the book of miracles and then later to the book of glory, we finish chapter one, the foundation of it all, with these words.
SPEAKER_01: And in the sixth round, John chapter one, verse 43, the next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: He found Philip and said to him, Follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Now Philip was from Betheda, the city of Andrew and Peter.
SPEAKER_01: And Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: Nathanael said to him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
SPEAKER_01: Philip said to him, Come and see.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, and he said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.
SPEAKER_01: Nathanael said to him, How do you know me?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus answered him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.
SPEAKER_01: Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi, you're you're the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: You're the king of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?
SPEAKER_01: You'll see greater things than these.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me say this: if you're visiting today, or if you're new to church, or you're like my friend Doyle from earlier, like, hey, I checked out on church a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's easy to read things in the Bible or come to church or hear things in the Bible and kind of go, I have no idea what that means.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just gonna smile.
SPEAKER_01: And while you think I'm making notes, I'm actually making a grocery list.
SPEAKER_01: So hurry and be done, preacher man.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what we like to do: we like to read the Bible, and then I'm gonna tell you and explain to you what is being said and make some points from that.
SPEAKER_01: This morning, I want to make five points.
SPEAKER_01: The first point I think the Bible makes is simply this there's texture among Jesus' followers.
SPEAKER_01: There's texture among Jesus' followers.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because in the chapter, I mean the little section right up above, he calls his first disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He calls Jesus, he calls uh these two guys.
SPEAKER_01: He calls Andrew, and Andrew goes and gets his brother uh Peter, Simon, and Jesus says, You're Simon, you will be called Cephas, which means Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Andrew, great guy, always bringing people to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, rock star.
SPEAKER_01: Peter kills it.
SPEAKER_01: Peter preaches one of the best sermons in the entire Bible at Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: And 3,000 people become Christians, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And when I say, hey, there's texture among Jesus' followers, here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because in verse 43, Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: He found Philip and said to him, Follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Bible says Philip was from Bethsaita, the city of Andrew and Peter.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it really says about him.
SPEAKER_01: I challenge you to find anything sensational or fascinating about Philip in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You will not.
SPEAKER_01: He's very ordinary, he's very down to earth.
SPEAKER_01: He's very plain.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because some of you read the Bible and you see yourself through the lens of Peter, and you should see yourself through the lens of Philip.
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody has to be a rock star.
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you look around, you think, well, I couldn't sing like that or talk like that or look like that or dress like that or understand like that.
SPEAKER_01: And God just kind of smiles.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you the context for this.
SPEAKER_01: The really sharp young men have already been snapped up and they've already attached themselves to rabbis because if you had religious acumen and intellect, the rabbis would fixate upon you and they would say, Hey, you're going to be a rabbi, so we want you to be schooled and you to be attached to a rabbi.
SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 1, it's like Jesus pulls up to Home Depot on a Saturday to pick up and he's talking to all the day laborers.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, You guys want to change the world?
SPEAKER_01: Get in the back of my truck.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_01: And they get in the back of the truck.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me so far?
SPEAKER_01: Now, because here's what we think.
SPEAKER_01: We think Jesus went to Harvard and Yale and Brown and Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_01: in Congress.
SPEAKER_01: He no, those cats can't get anything done.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wants to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: So he pulls up.
SPEAKER_01: These guys have been passed over.
SPEAKER_01: They're plain, they're ordinary.
SPEAKER_01: And even among the 12 initial disciples, there's texture.
SPEAKER_01: There's some that are way up here.
SPEAKER_01: There's some like Philip, they're like, Yeah, I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: This happened at our men's retreat.
SPEAKER_01: Our men's retreat just wrapped up this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Some of our guys are driving back.
SPEAKER_01: So if a man is sitting close to you and he's doing this, he was at the retreat.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, at the men's retreat, uh, we require our men to spend an hour of solitude all by themselves.
SPEAKER_01: And it's great every year.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, like we don't tell them, it just says in the schedule devotional, 9 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: We had breakfast yesterday morning at 7:40 because Don Minton is of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: That's why.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, why are we eating at 7:40?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I figured we could beat everybody else and get our day going.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: This is why I'm not in charge of anything at the men's retreat, because if I was, we'd have brunch at 10:30.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have breakfast and then we have devotional at 9 o'clock, and the guys are all got their coughing and everything, and we said, hey, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: We want you to go somewhere and just spend some time alone.
SPEAKER_01: If you're really tired, go back, lay on your bed.
SPEAKER_01: You can go back to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: If you can only go back to sleep guilt-free.
SPEAKER_01: If you go back to sleep and think, I should be reading my Bible or praying, what am I doing?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a very good Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Go run laps.
SPEAKER_01: But if you can go lay on your bed and go, my wife and kids ain't here, do it.
SPEAKER_01: Keith Merrick was asleep in five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my favorite part.
SPEAKER_01: Why am I telling you this?
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's not just texture among Jesus' followers in the first century, there's texture sitting all around you.
SPEAKER_01: This happened during this, you know, solitudinal time.
SPEAKER_01: Some guys were like, oh man, it was great.
SPEAKER_01: I just had some great time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I walked out, walked around to the corner.
SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine was sitting there, had his wife on FaceTime, smoking a cigarette, talking to his wife, and I just kept going.
SPEAKER_01: I walked by the guy about 20 yards down the road.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Hey, is that guy burning a heater, talking on his phone?
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to be doing solitude.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Maybe that's his idea of solitude.
SPEAKER_01: Because for us men, it's hard to be alone with God.
SPEAKER_01: The only person it's harder to be alone with, it's ours.
SPEAKER_01: That's why men were calling home all day yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, baby, is anything broken?
SPEAKER_01: You need to come home?
SPEAKER_01: And the wives were saying the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: You stay there.
SPEAKER_01: Meet some people.
SPEAKER_01: Don't come home Saturday night.
SPEAKER_01: Don't, hey, I thought you might want me to be there.
SPEAKER_01: Help you get the kids ready to go to church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a big girl.
SPEAKER_01: I got this.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all pour me some more wine.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be off the phone in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's good here.
SPEAKER_01: We're just watching Netflix and hanging out, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We're good.
SPEAKER_01: Because men are always like, hey, because we gravitate to responsibility and we avoid intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: But I love that some guys, my friend my friends kind of like, yep, I'm just doing FaceTime right here.
SPEAKER_01: Some guys are off.
SPEAKER_01: But hey, there's there's texture, there's variety.
SPEAKER_01: Do not look around and see yourself through the lens of anybody else in this world.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what God's called you to do.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to just say, hey, among the 12, the initial disciples was Philip.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing extraordinary.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, he's very ordinary.
SPEAKER_01: And to him, Jesus says two words follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And you hear those two words and you fall off on one side of the donkey.
SPEAKER_01: Follow is responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Me is opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: Follow me.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just if you just think about it in terms of responsibility, you'll do the cost-benefit analysis.
SPEAKER_01: Follow.
SPEAKER_01: Well, do you have a dental plan?
SPEAKER_01: Do you what's this?
SPEAKER_01: What's the outcome?
SPEAKER_01: Blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: But they look and they're smiling, Jesus, going, me.
SPEAKER_01: Follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And ordinary Philip says, I'm in.
SPEAKER_01: I am down with this.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because there's texture among Jesus' followers.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, the relationship means responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Relationship means responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 45.
SPEAKER_01: Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a lot is just kind of said in there.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you read the Bible through the lens of your curiosity or your interest, not much will intrigue you.
SPEAKER_01: But if you just kind of let your eyes relax and ask the Holy Spirit, hey, what is being said right there?
SPEAKER_01: One of the things you'll notice, verse 45, again, it says, excuse me, Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, they just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things already in John chapter 1, we see people get found by God.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing they do is they find somebody close to them and they bring them to Jesus and they say, Hey, we have found the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Andrew did it with his brother Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Now Philip, ordinary, plain Jane, simple, down to earth, nothing extraordinary, no big personality, no big gifts.
SPEAKER_01: He finds Nathaniel and says, I have found, we have found the one who Moses, hear these words again.
SPEAKER_01: Who Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the Bible says Moses in the law, he's talking about the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like, hey man, remember in history, religious history class, we're talking about this Messiah, this promised one that is to come, Moses wrote about, and the prophets is the is the rest of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Philip's saying to him, hey, hey, this, what is history is now very personal and it's very present.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to not miss out on this.
SPEAKER_01: And because see, here's what's happened in the 21st century.
SPEAKER_01: When I say relationship means responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: In the first century, the reason the church and Christians were so consequential is because responsibility was personal.
SPEAKER_01: It was personal.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in the 21st century, responsibility has become corporate.
SPEAKER_01: That's why most people that come to church think, well, Pastor, that's your job.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to meet people, and you've got a big personality and a big mouth.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great combination.
SPEAKER_01: Go to it.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, we got to reclaim what they had in the first century, this sense of personal responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: People say all the time, someone came to me not long ago, lady, and said, Hey, I want you to pray.
SPEAKER_01: My sister-in-law's coming to town, and you know we don't have a good relationship, and she's not, she's not a Christian, and she's very intellectual, and she makes fun of my faith, and I just can't stand her.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Here's why you should get on eBay this afternoon and start looking for a new pastor.
SPEAKER_01: I said to her, I'm not gonna pray for that.
SPEAKER_01: And she, because she bowed her head.
SPEAKER_01: She came to my office, we chatted, she gave me an assignment, she bowed her head.
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead, pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I just looked at her.
SPEAKER_01: I just let it kind of hang in the air, awkward silence.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing this.
SPEAKER_01: And she looked up and I'm like, She goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna pray?
SPEAKER_01: Nope, I'm sure not.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: For five years you've been coming in here asking me to pray for you and your sister-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: See, what she's done is she's outsourced her responsibility and made it the church and the pastors.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to pray for me and my sister.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just pushing it back on her and saying, hey, responsibility biblically and by nature is personal.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna pray for you and your sister-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: Man up, ladybug, put your big girl pants on and have a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't say amen.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Well, do the elders know you say these kind of things?
SPEAKER_01: And I turned around and picked up the phone on my credentials and said, You want to call one?
SPEAKER_01: And we can tell them.
SPEAKER_01: We'll put them on speaker.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing your religious bidding for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing the heavy lifting in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because you'll think way too much of me and not enough of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Well, so you're you're just gonna sit there and do nothing, just like you've been doing for five years.
SPEAKER_01: We'll let the roles reverse.
SPEAKER_01: Yes?
SPEAKER_01: She made that noise.
SPEAKER_01: And then she said, You and some things I cannot repeat in church.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You want to pray?
SPEAKER_01: Or you want to go?
SPEAKER_01: Because this is not my responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Your sister-in-law is not my responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says relationship means responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: We want to outsource it and make it corporate, and the Bible says it's personal.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Christianity spread in the New Testament like wildfire.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this simple question today.
SPEAKER_01: Who am I in relationship with that I'm not being responsible towards?
SPEAKER_01: Third thing the Bible tells us today is that we all have a Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: We all have a Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, verse 45, we Philip found Nathaniel said to him, We found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, Nathaniel said to him, Can any good thing, verse 46, can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
SPEAKER_01: Because he was like, We've heard him, we found him who Moses and the law and the prophets wrote about.
SPEAKER_01: And Nathaniel's like, Really?
SPEAKER_01: All right, yes, his name is Jesus, and he's from Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: Say, what?
SPEAKER_01: Well, now, if I let me bring this down to where we live.
SPEAKER_01: If I said to you, hey, how many of y'all have ever heard of a town called Tyler, Texas?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you're like, oh yeah, I got that.
SPEAKER_01: Tyler's population of about 106 to 108,000 people, roughly.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the nestled in the in the pine woods of East Texas, and blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And Luke 323 goes all the way around it.
SPEAKER_01: That's Tyler.
SPEAKER_01: A little suburb of Tyler called White House.
SPEAKER_01: White House is about 8,600 people, great school district.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody wants to live there.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have ever heard of White House?
SPEAKER_01: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, got some hands up.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you go further out into Egypt, there's a little town that has 1,022 people in it.
SPEAKER_01: And the town is called ARP.
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all have ever heard of ARP?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, there's like seven hands up.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Jesus is from ARP.
SPEAKER_01: He's not from Tyler.
SPEAKER_01: He's not from Sugarland.
SPEAKER_01: He's from Pleque.
SPEAKER_01: You know where Pleak is?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: It's out there where they film deliverance.
SPEAKER_01: It's just in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they were crestfallen because here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody looks down on something.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You have contempt.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone of you in this room, you have contempt for something or somebody.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean when I say, hey, we all have a Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: He was doing good because, see, Jesus didn't come from prestigious places, and why should he?
SPEAKER_01: If you got your Bible, let me show you why it makes sense that God would bring his son out of a little community called Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: If you're in John, turn to the left to the Old Testament, to Isaiah chapter 53.
SPEAKER_01: Or if you don't have a Bible, you don't want to turn, maybe it'll come up on the screen here.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 53, verses 1, 2, and 3.
SPEAKER_01: This is Isaiah is a prophecy about what the Messiah, what the Son of God is going to be like, look like, and how we're going to respond to him.
SPEAKER_01: This is what he says, Isaiah 53, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Who has believed what he has heard from us?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, this is going to be hard to wrap your head around.
SPEAKER_01: Who has believed what he has heard from us?
SPEAKER_01: And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
SPEAKER_01: For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear that phrase again.
SPEAKER_01: Like a root out of dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, that's like you, your buddy saying, Hey, you should ask my cousin out.
SPEAKER_01: She's a good girl, and she makes somebody a good wife, and you say, What is she like?
SPEAKER_01: And he says, She's like a root out of dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: Never mind.
SPEAKER_01: I think I just stay home and self-medicate with some day drinking.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want any part of that.
SPEAKER_01: What is he saying when he says, like a root out of dry ground?
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is when he says like a root, it's invisible.
SPEAKER_01: You can't see it.
SPEAKER_01: You can't see what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, out of dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: It's invisible and it's impossible.
SPEAKER_01: It's invisible because it's subterranean.
SPEAKER_01: What God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, Jesus didn't just pop on the scene in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: He's always existed.
SPEAKER_01: And he leaves heaven and comes to earth to fulfill the plan of his father.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Hey, he's like a root out of dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: He's this invisible reality that comes out of an impossible circumstance.
SPEAKER_01: Like a root out of dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
SPEAKER_01: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
SPEAKER_01: And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised.
SPEAKER_01: And we esteemed him not.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, he comes from Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody with those credentials?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's nothing you could attribute it to.
SPEAKER_01: They couldn't look at Jesus and say, oh, he had this prestigious upbringing.
SPEAKER_01: He was the valedictorian.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he got GT tracked early on in the third grade.
SPEAKER_01: He was doing fifth grade math.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and he got high school, he was killing.
SPEAKER_01: He took AP everything.
SPEAKER_01: He had AP chemistry, AP biology, AP lunch.
SPEAKER_01: He had AP everything.
SPEAKER_01: He graduated with 50 hours of dull credit and got a free ride to rice.
SPEAKER_01: He's brilliant.
SPEAKER_01: No, he was like a root out of dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, please.
SPEAKER_01: Dear God, never let anybody say that about me.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, He comes from Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: We all have Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's not a place, sometimes it's a person.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, Christianity is like Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: You look down your nose at it because it's intellectually insufficient.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't measure up.
SPEAKER_01: And I would just say to you, in love, you've placed yourself in a position of judgment over something you can't really understand.
SPEAKER_01: And how can you judge something that you can't really understand?
SPEAKER_01: That's a you you're you're you're you're cutting your nose off to spite your face.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what what what what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: You should consider the claims of Christianity uh because it's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And you should ask yourself, what am I afraid of and what do I protect myself from by looking down on that?
SPEAKER_01: Or rolling my eyes when I think about it.
SPEAKER_01: The fourth thing the Bible tells us this morning is that God's knowledge exceeds uh your understanding.
SPEAKER_01: He he gets to verse 48 and or 47, Jesus sees Nathaniel coming toward him and he says to him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.
SPEAKER_01: Nathanael said to him, How do you know me?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's one of those phrases that is pregnant with meaning.
SPEAKER_01: Let me unpack some of it for you.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus says, Before before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, in in Jewish, in the Jewish mindset in that day, the fig tree was a place of contemplation.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you saw a person sitting under a fig tree, you knew that they had something on their mind.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like when you see people, you go to the doctor's office and you walk in and everybody's in the waiting room.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you're like me, I try to try to figure out why everyone's here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking allergies, check, got nothing, X, and just kind of look around the room.
SPEAKER_01: But when you saw somebody sitting on the fig tree, that that just meant, hey, I got a lot of my mind.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking through some stuff, I got some stuff going on, and there you go.
SPEAKER_01: And what Jesus, when Jesus says, I saw you, before Philip called you, I saw you standing on the fig tree.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has said two things to him that he said to you and I today, you need to get your head around.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Not only do I know you, but I see you.
SPEAKER_01: Not only do I know you, but I see you.
SPEAKER_01: And I see you so intimately, I know I know you were sitting under the fig tree, and I know what was on your mind.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus kind of winking at him, kind of saying, Hey, you believe me just because of that?
SPEAKER_01: That's all it took?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm capable of so much more.
SPEAKER_01: Hence the next 10 chapters is referred to as the book of miracles, the book of the mind-blowing reality of Jesus having landed on the earth and bringing the kingdom with him.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean when I say God's knowledge exceeds your understanding.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, this should not evoke fear in you.
SPEAKER_01: Do not sit there and think, oh my gosh, God sees me and knows me, knows what I'm thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, let me think.
SPEAKER_01: Good thoughts, good thoughts, good thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: What it should evoke in you is authenticity.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you should stop right now managing people's impression of you.
SPEAKER_01: You should stop with, hey, good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: Good, good, good, good, playing what I call verbal badminton.
SPEAKER_01: Good, how are you?
SPEAKER_01: How are the kids?
SPEAKER_01: Good.
SPEAKER_01: How's the marriage?
SPEAKER_01: Good.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus doesn't play badminton, he plays dodgeball.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just like, you better run.
SPEAKER_01: Not because he wants to get you and hit you.
SPEAKER_01: It's here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus already sees you and knows you and knows what you contemplate, what weighs heavy on you, what vexes you, what overwhelms you, what makes you drink one too many glasses of wine, or take sleeping pills when you don't need them.
SPEAKER_01: You just like the warm, ambient glow they give you as you're not off to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: If he knows all of that, why would you be phony around him?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, why would you?
SPEAKER_01: The greatest thing that could happen in this room this morning is that some of you just stop managing everyone's impression of you.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest thing that could happen to your students is them sit down with you tonight at the supper table and say, hey, you know, when Pastor Neil was talking this morning about that Jesus sees me and knows me, uh, there's some things that you guys should see and know about me, so let me just tell you a little bit about me.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't that be liberating?
SPEAKER_01: Last thing the Bible tells us is that confirmation comes.
SPEAKER_01: Confirmation comes.
SPEAKER_01: It's that last part when Jesus says, Hey, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?
SPEAKER_01: You'll see greater things than these.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 51, he said to him, Truly, truly I say to you, you'll see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I told you earlier that John's gospel is written to persuade unbelieving Jews that Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He starts off, and the purpose of John's gospel is in chapter 20, verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: These things have I written unto you that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a bunch of empty religious rituals and religious rhetoric and memorize this and confess that.
SPEAKER_01: It is life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just bias, natural life.
SPEAKER_01: It is zoe.
SPEAKER_01: It is a supernatural dimension to the way you do life.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean you're better than anybody else, but you you've been changed.
SPEAKER_01: And so therefore, you can no longer go back to who you used to be and how you used to be.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we mean when we say it's supernatural.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus comes along here and he says this.
SPEAKER_01: He introduces this phrase for the first time in John's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Truly, truly.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got the King James, it says, verile, verile.
SPEAKER_01: Words no one ever says anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And it's like Jesus kind of going, hey, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: He really gets focused and he gets serious here.
SPEAKER_01: Not that he hadn't been serious up to this point, but he's like, hey, you believe just because I I know you and I saw you, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: You you you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: Now, he was referring to something that is very familiar with Jewish people because remember that's who he's writing to.
SPEAKER_01: So back in the Old Testament, there was a guy named Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: Jacob was a deceiver, Jacob was a sneak, Jacob was a liar.
SPEAKER_01: Jacob would do whatever he had to do to get what he wanted.
SPEAKER_01: And God set his affection on Jacob because God just doesn't use perfect people, he uses broken people.
SPEAKER_01: He calls people from all different walks of life and background.
SPEAKER_01: And he and Jacob, this guy, has a dream.
SPEAKER_01: And in the dream, he gets a rock for a pillow.
SPEAKER_01: And if you say, Where can I get a rock for a pillow?
SPEAKER_01: They've got some at Pineywoods.
SPEAKER_01: We have a men's retreat there every year.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: And he puts his head on a pillow and he goes to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: And he has a dream.
SPEAKER_01: And he sees in the dream he sees this ladder going up to heaven, and angels are descending and they're coming down and they're going up, ascending and descending on this ladder.
SPEAKER_01: And for the Jewish people, it's like Jacob, he's going to be our forefather.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to be Jacob's name is changed to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So he's very central to the life and the historicity of the Jewish faith.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to these people that John's writing to, he says, Hey, by the way, you'll see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, God's going to confirm who I am.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to go around defending myself.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to go around going, I really am the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: You guys ought to believe, or you're going to get it.
SPEAKER_01: No, he says, I'm going to do things only with only the authority of God could accomplish.
SPEAKER_01: So much so, Jesus is on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the last things that is said about him is as soon as he dies, there's a Roman soldier standing at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And he looks up and he says, Surely this was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Confirmation comes.
SPEAKER_01: What you have to ask yourself this morning, and we're done.
SPEAKER_01: You have to ask yourself this morning this simple question, what are you still waiting for?
SPEAKER_01: What does God have to do to confirm to you intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, that this is the truth?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus said, Hey, don't just settle for the fact that I know you and I see you and I know what's on your mind.
SPEAKER_01: I know what you're thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let that freak you out.
SPEAKER_01: Let that call you into authenticity.
SPEAKER_01: But from now on, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to see heaven opened, and I'm going to be the medium through which the kingdom of heaven comes to earth.
SPEAKER_01: And the people are like, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
SPEAKER_01: And next Sunday, we'll start in this chapter two.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus does something so controversial that people just go berserk.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, you cannot be saying what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, that's exactly what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: We know it is a miracle of turning the water into wine.
SPEAKER_01: Or as the Baptists are famous for saying, it's why Jesus prefers grape juice over wine.
SPEAKER_01: It's got nothing to do with any of that.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus says here, hey, by the way, you think this is a big difference, you're going to see heaven open.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to be the medium through which the heart of God finds expression in this world.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be confirmed as the Son of God, God.
SPEAKER_01: So you have to accept that by faith, but you're going to see it demonstrated.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when Jesus pulls up to the Home Depot and says, follow me, they're like, I'm in.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself today, what are you still waiting for?
SPEAKER_01: What do you need?
SPEAKER_01: What are you asking God to do to confirm what the Bible says is the truth?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, and we like to uh teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so just take a moment and ask yourself, hey, what did what what really stood out to me?
SPEAKER_01: What had Neon on it?
SPEAKER_01: What was kind of like, oh man, yes.
SPEAKER_01: How does it how does it affect you that the Bible's very clear that, hey, Jesus knows what you're saying, what you're thinking?
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist says, hey, before a word is on my tongue, God, you know it.
SPEAKER_01: Before I have a thought, you already know it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if I take the wings of the morning and I go to the heights of the mountain, you're there.
SPEAKER_01: If I go to the depths of the sea, you're there.
SPEAKER_01: Where shall I go from your presence?
SPEAKER_01: And he's not lamenting that.
SPEAKER_01: He's enjoying that.
SPEAKER_01: That wherever he is, God is mindful of him.
SPEAKER_01: So he's never on his own.
SPEAKER_01: It's never just him left to figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: To tell you that you and I were created by God to live in that kind of an intimate connection with God.
SPEAKER_01: That he is everywhere and always available and knows the most intimate details of your life and stands ready to do something about it.
SPEAKER_01: How do you respond to this God today?
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we're grateful today that you're a God that does tell the truth.
SPEAKER_01: You speak what is true.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you've said some things today that had our name on them.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us are on our way to just becoming religious posers where we waste our life managing everyone's impression and opinion of us.
SPEAKER_01: Only to find out that their opinion doesn't matter as much as we thought.
SPEAKER_01: Cause us to think today, to wonder today, God, what about your opinion?
SPEAKER_01: What about the God that knows and sees everything?
SPEAKER_01: Should not his opinion matter more to me than it does?
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we don't say that today is shame.
SPEAKER_01: We say that today is invitation.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, brood over and apply.
SPEAKER_01: Your word is like the rain.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it brings forth, and sometimes which is it's underground, it's silent, it's hidden.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it sprouts, it's obvious, and it's above the ground.
SPEAKER_01: We take comfort in the fact that you work in both realms in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And so for those realities, we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, when you came in, you're given a worship folder, uh, has information about different things in our church.
SPEAKER_01: It also has on the far right side a little tear-off portion to ask for your personal information.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we just you matter to God, so you matter to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you've had a chance to fill that out, if you take a chance before you leave, tear it off and drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors on your way out.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's also where we receive our offering.
SPEAKER_01: If today's the day you worship God through through obedience or through generosity, that's where you would do that as well.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I want to make you aware of two things.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, uh our women's ministry has a brunch coming up on November the 4th.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's 10 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be a brunch, and they have a uh a reenactment of a Corey Ten Boom.
SPEAKER_01: Uh a lady impersonates Corey Ten Boom and kind of tells her story.
SPEAKER_01: It's right here in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_01: It's 10 o'clock on November the 4th.
SPEAKER_01: I just point to that because the ladies are registering for that in the lobby.
SPEAKER_01: If you like information, you have questions about it, just see somebody there.
SPEAKER_01: They have an iPad that can get you signed up, answer any questions you have.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, our stage is covered with boxes.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I could tell you a lot about it, but instead, I have a video that, a brief video that explains it.
SPEAKER_01: So if you would just direct your attention to the screens.
SPEAKER_01: The main thing we want you to know is that this is not about giving toys to poor children.
SPEAKER_01: This, what goes in this box, is the vehicle for them to hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you'd like to participate in that, uh, it's Operation uh uh Christmas Child.
SPEAKER_01: You'll just come pick up a box.
SPEAKER_01: If you get a box that's already formed, there's some that are not formed down there, you'll need to get some literature that explains it.
SPEAKER_01: But if you pick up one that's already formed, the literature is already inside.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll fill it with toys that are specific to a boy or a girl, and you'll bring them back.
SPEAKER_01: We're collecting them the week of November the 8th.
SPEAKER_01: The last day we we can collect them is Wednesday, November the 8th, because we have to get them to the distribution center and then they'll get distributed in time for the holidays.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's just a practical way that we kind of help get the gospel uh to people that are impoverished, boys and girls that are impoverished all over the world.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to be a part of that, as soon as you're dismissed, come grab a box.
SPEAKER_01: Again, if you get one that's formed, you don't need instructions, but if you get one of the ones that's the that's not put together, grab a little pamphlet that explains uh the the directions for what goes inside, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: You ordinary, beautiful, textured, simple people are the kind of people that God loves and God uses.
SPEAKER_01: Don't excuse yourself because God came to involve you in changing the world.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and live in this reality with intentionality, clarity, and gusto.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, dismiss.