SPEAKER_01: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, when we sing simple words like it's your endless love, it is a reminder that you're a God who loves us unconditionally.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that's hard for us to get our head around because we realize we do things that make us feel alienated and separated from your love.
SPEAKER_00: But the love of God never ends.
SPEAKER_00: We can get ourselves in a twist where we don't feel it, we don't experience it, and we don't think we deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: But the good news of the gospel today is that we never deserved it.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us in Proverbs that what a man desires is unfailing love.
SPEAKER_00: So we come to you to be loved in a way that nobody in this world can love us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're not going to obligate our spouse or our kids or our job to love us and make us feel what only the gospel can make us feel.
SPEAKER_00: So we come to you.
SPEAKER_00: We think about you today in ways that we don't think about anybody or anything else.
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason the Bible says we should love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_00: So Lord, engage all of our faculties today.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest today, we're going through the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_00: And today we're in the last section of John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: I will start reading in verse 43.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk to you.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said the other day, they said, Hey, how long are you going to talk about John?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I don't talk about John at all.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like 72 sermons on a man named John, because after a while, y'all are like, who's this John guy?
SPEAKER_00: Why do I keep talking about him?
SPEAKER_00: John was one of the disciples, walked with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote the Gospel of John under the influence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And every time you open the Bible, it makes you think about things in a way you wouldn't by nature think about them.
SPEAKER_00: For example, today I want to talk to you about analyzing the nature of your belief in God.
SPEAKER_00: Analyzing the nature of your belief in God.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll see what I mean when we get into the text.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just start reading.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: The good news is I only have two points in the sermon today.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up, every one of you.
SPEAKER_00: I heard the laughter over there.
SPEAKER_00: You meet me at recess by the bike rack.
SPEAKER_00: We'll settle this.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go second grade on yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to have two points.
SPEAKER_00: I just want, there's not a rule or preachers have to have three points every time.
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have seven, and sometimes you have two.
SPEAKER_00: And they're long.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, uh, John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 4, uh, verse 43.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's happened?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is just finished.
SPEAKER_00: He was hanging out with a group of people called the Samaritans.
SPEAKER_00: And they were kind of people that were sellouts, they intermarried, they didn't keep the rules.
SPEAKER_00: Jews hated Samaritans.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talks to the woman at the well.
SPEAKER_00: Remember her?
SPEAKER_00: She smells like vodka and bad choices.
SPEAKER_00: And she gets her life upended by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And her whole town comes to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He leaves that and he's getting ready to go back to his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Jesus says about his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 43.
SPEAKER_00: After the two days he departed from Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.
SPEAKER_00: So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast.
SPEAKER_00: What is he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about back in chapter 2 of John, where Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding, and the people are amped up.
SPEAKER_00: They're kind of like, hey, the miracle man's coming back.
SPEAKER_00: To give you a context, it would be like your cousin won the Powerball and calls you and says, I want to come over.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you about something.
SPEAKER_00: Where does your mind go?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh honey, we're cashing in today.
SPEAKER_00: My cousin's coming through for us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is coming back, and everybody is amped up.
SPEAKER_00: Every needy person, every broke person, every sick person within 50 miles is dragging their sick selves because Jesus is coming back.
SPEAKER_00: But their expectation is not met by Jesus' incarnation.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he doesn't always do what we want him to do.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the hard questions that Christianity asks us is, Do you still want to believe in a God who doesn't always do what you want him to do?
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep reading.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says this in verse 45.
SPEAKER_00: So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine.
SPEAKER_00: And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.
SPEAKER_00: When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judah to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.
SPEAKER_00: The official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Go, your son will live.
SPEAKER_00: And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went on his way.
SPEAKER_00: And he was as he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering.
SPEAKER_00: So he asked him the hour when he began to get better.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.
SPEAKER_00: The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son will live.
SPEAKER_00: And he himself believed in all of his household.
SPEAKER_00: This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a couple things I want to point out in the text before I get to my two little points this morning.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the Bible says he was an official.
SPEAKER_00: Why does it say that?
SPEAKER_00: It's like he's an official, and these people other people are non-officials.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He worked, and our parlance would be he worked in the government.
SPEAKER_00: He was an official in the court of Herod Antipas, who was the man that kind of is it, kind of the mayor would be our word for of that region.
SPEAKER_00: And so he was somebody, no, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: If he works for the for the for Herod Antipas, the mayor, so to speak, you would think he would get preferential treatment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this, but when Congress shut down, uh they still got a paycheck.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know that.
SPEAKER_00: When the government shuts down, they all get paid.
SPEAKER_00: Their insurance gets paid.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's like because you know, if you're in government, you kind of get access to things that common people like you and I don't get.
SPEAKER_00: And so this guy had access to all the best medicine.
SPEAKER_00: He could have had his son sent to the mail clinic of the day, and the Bible still says he was near death.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what you believe, you're gonna have some conversations with God when your kid gets sick and you think they're gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You make promises to God, you tell God, I'll be in church every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you do.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, God, I'll get baptized.
SPEAKER_00: You heal my kid and I'll get baptized.
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm 64, but I'll do it.
SPEAKER_00: Your kid gets better.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, God, I was kind of, you know, that was just me and you in the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: We ain't gonna tell anybody about that.
SPEAKER_00: And God's not harsh.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't hold it over your head.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, remember what you said?
SPEAKER_00: So this is what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: This guy, he hears Jesus is coming, and all of a sudden, I want to point to one other thing.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus points to the guy and says, Hey, unless you people believe, it's down there in about verse 48.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it starts off singular and it gets into the plural.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, that's singular.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.
SPEAKER_00: The you in that sentence is plural in the Greek, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Why do I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because God's not going to drag you in front of the class and make an example out of you.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to hold you up and say, hey, look at this guy.
SPEAKER_00: He needs signs and wonders or he won't believe.
SPEAKER_00: Let's all laugh at him.
SPEAKER_00: Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: I had a teacher when I was in the fifth grade that did not, or excuse me, fourth grade, that for whatever reason did not like me.
SPEAKER_00: I was mischievous and full of life, and for some reason, that's a problem.
SPEAKER_00: I was ADD before they had the diagnosis, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so she would say some of the harshest things to me.
SPEAKER_00: Like I would be late, and she would say, Everyone, look at Neil.
SPEAKER_00: He can't get here on time.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd be like, because my stepmother's hung over.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we can't get here on time.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that my fault?
SPEAKER_00: And I'd go to the office for things like that.
SPEAKER_00: So I did not like that woman because she sought every opportunity to single me out.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: God is not a God that looks to embarrass you.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to all these people.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to all these people, you guys need signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I gotta prove myself to you all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up here, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Give me a break.
SPEAKER_00: Then they're gonna give you a break.
SPEAKER_00: No, they're not.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why Jesus said, uh, hey, a prophet is without honor, even in his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's the other thing I want you to begin to seed your mind towards.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Jesus says, Hey, go, your son's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that this official believed Jesus' word and departed.
SPEAKER_00: And then he's on the way home and he sees some of his servants, and he they said, Hey, how's my son?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Hey, actually, the fever broke.
SPEAKER_00: He's better, he's gonna live.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, when did that happen?
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday about the seventh hour, the exact time Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: And then the Bible says this crazy thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's already said, he believed the word that Jesus spoke.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says here, he believed and his entire household.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing I want to lay on you and get you to begin to think about.
SPEAKER_00: You can believe all the words of Jesus and never believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can come to church every Sunday and go, mmm, ah, mm, oh good, ah, mm, ah, da da da, and walk out this door and never have a personal, life-altering, intimate, consequential relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This man could have walked away and said, I believe the word and died and gone to hell.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us can do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I say to you, I want to talk to you about analyzing the nature of your belief in God.
SPEAKER_00: Two points.
SPEAKER_00: The first one from the text is simply this.
SPEAKER_00: What do we take away from this?
SPEAKER_00: Talk publicly about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 47.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'll start in verse 46.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Uh, so he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made water into wine.
SPEAKER_00: He has a reputation here.
SPEAKER_00: And at Capernaum, there was an official whose son was ill.
SPEAKER_00: When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, how does he hear?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a buzz on the streets.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself this question today, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: How often in your daily dialogue does Jesus come up?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean just with other Christians.
SPEAKER_00: You see, by publicly, I mean out loud with believers and non-believers out in public.
SPEAKER_00: And the problem with American Christians is that we talk for reinforcement, not consequence.
SPEAKER_00: When we talk for reinforcement, we talk to other moms that believe like we do and have the same allergies that our kids have so we can get together and hang out and have play dates, and reinforcement is great.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be encouraged by other believers.
SPEAKER_00: But you also need to talk in the public square.
SPEAKER_00: When I say I mean out in public and just the warp and woof of your life for consequence with people that do not think like you, that have a different worldview, that think that Christianity is for the intellectual weak or whatever, because it's in that environment that Christianity stands out.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's one of my concerns Christians complain about, oh, we've been marginalized by the culture.
SPEAKER_00: The culture doesn't have the capacity to marginalize us.
SPEAKER_00: We've been marginalized because we don't know how to talk.
SPEAKER_00: I saw it Friday night.
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I were invited to this very great event, this uh this uh dinner for the Republican Party in Fort Bean County, and they said, Hey, would you say the invocation?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Sure, I'd be honored to.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, hey, I I I just pray and leave.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that hey, you can bring a guest, and I'll like, I'll bring my wife so I have somebody to talk to.
SPEAKER_00: So I got there and I'm thinking, I'll pray and sit over here in the back 40.
SPEAKER_00: We checked in and they said, You're at table number four.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Great, maybe that's over here by the door.
SPEAKER_00: So when I no, no, walked in, table 98's at the back of the room, table four is in the front row.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, awesome, awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't like being up there because everyone, and then the people are seated at my table on my left was Reed Ryan, the president of the Astros.
SPEAKER_00: I resisted the temptation to say, can you break a brother awesome tickets, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh so we're just chatting it up.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about his kids, his kids in cheerleading, all this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: My wife's on my right.
SPEAKER_00: Next to her is the attorney general, next to him is Ted Cruz, the senator, and there's these other people, then the ag commissioner, something's over there.
SPEAKER_00: Great guy, he's got a beautiful Stetson hat.
SPEAKER_00: And I just like to be in those environments and just be there, and I'm just hanging out like I can pray and leave.
SPEAKER_00: And my friend said, No, we'll feed you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll pray and stay then.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm enjoying my steak and my chicken, and it was great, had artichokes on it with a nice little cream sauce.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I get in those environments and I have to tell myself, don't say something stupid.
SPEAKER_00: Like I wanted to say out loud, I find Hillary Clinton to be a consequential global thinker.
SPEAKER_00: I had to push that down.
SPEAKER_00: My wife, who can speak publicly about Jesus in really interesting ways, turns to one of the people at our table and said, Hey, in this environment, how do you stay connected inwardly?
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Man, that's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I got great questions over here.
SPEAKER_00: Gonna hear my great questions?
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a whole conversation.
SPEAKER_00: And really, it was great because the tables were turned.
SPEAKER_00: My wife was talking and I was waiting on my wife.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, this is awesome because she's better at this sometimes than I am, especially in those environments.
SPEAKER_00: It was great.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, don't ever look at people like in politics and think they've all sold their soul to the death.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: They want to make our country uh great, they want to make our country better, they want to make our cities better.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the venue in which they've given their lives to do that.
SPEAKER_00: So don't vilify people you don't know.
SPEAKER_00: They have wives, they have kids, they have all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, when we talk about talking publicly about Jesus, it's not necessarily taking an assigned to an abortion clinic.
SPEAKER_00: Though if that's your thing, I don't have a problem with that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, it sometimes it's not uh uh as intimidating as we make it out to be.
SPEAKER_00: Uh when I say talk publicly because we're not verbal in the public square with our gospel propositions, my concern is that educators, we look to educators and politicians and pundits uh to fill the void and come up with these propositions which only lead to contentiousness and division.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's why, beloved, you cannot legislate what only the gospel can produce.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to stop looking to the president and saying, he's gonna make America great again, and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for our president.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you go make changes, but it's not his responsibility to do our part for us.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: And you cannot legislate what only the gospel can produce.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: A guy named Greg Steer, uh I was trying to read up a couple of weeks ago when I'm writing on this uh about just public dialogue.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy named Greg Steer said this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, What's exciting about this out loud with words, set of propositions, is that it can and should lead to real equality, racial unity, and radical generosity.
SPEAKER_00: This is exactly what unfolded in the early church.
SPEAKER_00: Here are those three things again: real equality, racial unity, and radical generosity.
SPEAKER_00: This is what unfolded in the early church.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the gospel does.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Take them one at a time.
SPEAKER_00: Real equality.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 3, verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: There's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's no male and female, for you're all one in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How would you like to get a job at a company?
SPEAKER_00: And they told you that on day one.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, we treat everyone the same.
SPEAKER_00: You're not better, you're not better.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna accuse you of white privilege, we're not gonna play on white guilt, or we're not gonna say, hey, this is wrong and this is right, and this person, this person, but we're not gonna elevate white males and say, hey, if you're a white conservative male, that makes you great.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's one in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Real equality.
SPEAKER_00: Second one, racial unity.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and it's broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
SPEAKER_00: Only, look at me, beloved, only the gospel kills the hostility that gets fomented and stirred up between races, killing the hostility.
SPEAKER_00: And he came and he preached peace to you who are far off, and peace to those who are near.
SPEAKER_00: For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: The third one, radical generosity.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_00: This is 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verses 1 to 5.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches in Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
SPEAKER_00: Hear those phrases again, because they do not go together in our mind.
SPEAKER_00: Hear these phrases, but a severe test of affliction, extreme poverty, abundance of joy, and a wealth of generosity.
SPEAKER_00: For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
SPEAKER_00: This is radical generosity.
SPEAKER_00: And before I became the pastor, I used to travel around and preach all over the country.
SPEAKER_00: And on occasion, uh I would have to go to Hawaii and teach the Bible for like a week.
SPEAKER_00: I know it was hard, but they would call and say, Can you give us a week of your calendar?
SPEAKER_00: And I would say, Let me pray, and I would cover the phone up and say, Lord, if you don't want me to go to Hawaii, make my wife's head explode right now.
SPEAKER_00: And it never exploded.
SPEAKER_00: So I would say, back into the phone, I will be there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the church in Hawaii, you're preaching, and it's just like here, it's not like, oh, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Hawaii's part of the United States.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know that or not.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so you're sitting there, this is radical generosity.
SPEAKER_00: The pastor got up and he said, Now we're gonna receive our offering.
SPEAKER_00: And their people jumped up and started giving a standing ovation.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, ooh, what just happened?
SPEAKER_00: And the guy said, relax.
SPEAKER_00: He said, We believe that the Lord loves a cheerful giver, and so whenever we come to give, our people are excited to give.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of crazy people you got up in here?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they had everything from poor people to a man that owned a mountain.
SPEAKER_00: I just kept staring at him like, Where do you buy a mountain?
SPEAKER_00: Because they were like, hey, that mountain right over there, he owns that.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, shut up.
SPEAKER_00: Like, no, he does.
SPEAKER_00: He has a compound on the top of it.
SPEAKER_00: Does he need a personal chaplain?
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm I'm available.
SPEAKER_00: Radical.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my point.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, don't miss the point.
SPEAKER_00: The point is that we cannot legislate and we cannot look at our legislators and expect them to do for us what the gospel's already done in us and needs to be manifested in the culture.
SPEAKER_00: So when we talk publicly, here's what we do about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We give we we force the culture to get a different set of terms to define Christians.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: They have to come up with something different besides homophobic, misogynistic, all this kind of stuff that you hear bantered about in the culture.
SPEAKER_00: And that happens because we begin to open our mouth and the gospel comes out.
SPEAKER_00: This man has heard enough about Jesus to know that he needs something, that he goes looking for it.
SPEAKER_00: You want to talk about Jesus in ways that remind and reorient people towards him, not just their needs, but with their very being.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: You can have all your needs met in this life and lay in bed and have this gnawing sense that something's missing.
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't wash off in the shower.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing from the text this morning is just think deeply about how you believe.
SPEAKER_00: Think deeply about how you believe.
SPEAKER_00: It's verse 48.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says this.
SPEAKER_00: This man heard that Jesus in verse 47 had come from Judea to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: He went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son.
SPEAKER_00: For he's at the point of death.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus said to him, Unless you guys see signs and wonders, you will not believe.
SPEAKER_00: The official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, Go.
SPEAKER_00: Your son will live.
SPEAKER_00: And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him.
SPEAKER_00: Hear that, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went on his way.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's awesome, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: There's two types of belief in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, there's what I call intellectual faith or intellectual belief.
SPEAKER_00: This is a mere acknowledgement of some factor event.
SPEAKER_00: He believed what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: He gives mental acknowledgement to that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, great, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a student, let me talk to you for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy when you're younger to believe, when you when you're in that building right there, children's building, to believe.
SPEAKER_00: You get in the warehouse, you get to be about 16 or 17, and culture begins to assault your belief.
SPEAKER_00: And you begin to think it's not hip or cool or mature to believe the gospel anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I would just say to you, you never outgrow the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You never do.
SPEAKER_00: And so this guy gives mental assent and he says, Hey, I yeah, I I I believe the words that Jesus has spoken.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible talks about this kind of belief in James chapter 2, about verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You believe that God is one.
SPEAKER_00: It's great orthodoxy.
SPEAKER_00: You believe that God is one, you do well.
SPEAKER_00: Even the demons in hell believe that and they shudder.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not enough just to believe this intellectual faith.
SPEAKER_00: When I say intellectual faith, what I mean is you believe that.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some phrases.
SPEAKER_00: It's believe that.
SPEAKER_00: Not believe in, it's I believe that.
SPEAKER_00: It starts on the outside and it never moves inward.
SPEAKER_00: Or said differently, it starts in your head and it never drops into your heart and gets expressed in your hands, in how you leave.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if it's always intellectual, then it's always uh the bar, the determining factor is what you're willing to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Like when people come to see me for counseling, one of the first things I ask them, the first time I meet with them is, hey, tell me your frame of reference spiritually, what's ultimate for you?
SPEAKER_00: Who or what do you submit to?
SPEAKER_00: And a while back I'm having a conversation with a man and I said, Tell me about you spiritually, what do you believe?
SPEAKER_00: Because unapologetically, I come at this from the perspective of the gospel, Christianity, not because I'm a pastor, because I'm a Christian and I think the Bible is the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And he smiled and said, What do you mean when you say that?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, If the Bible says That's the last and final authority for me.
SPEAKER_00: I have to submit to that, or else I live in error, or what the Bible calls sin.
SPEAKER_00: They go, Well, we might have a problem with that, and I like this already.
SPEAKER_00: Not because I want to have an argument.
SPEAKER_00: I love honest people.
SPEAKER_00: I love because if you're willing to tell the truth about yourself, there's nothing you can't work through.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, So tell me.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, I mean, I believe in God.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Good, good, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, I know Jesus died on the cross, and but I just don't believe some of that other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Like what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, like, you know, I don't know creation.
SPEAKER_00: I think the earth is 65 billion years old and fossil records.
SPEAKER_00: I said, paging Charles Darwin, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I said, you know that Darwin fabricated some of his research with tree moths?
SPEAKER_00: And he looked at me and he goes, How do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I know I'm a preacher and we're all stupid and couldn't get real jobs.
SPEAKER_00: But I was a manager at Taco Bell once.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, keep going, what else do you not believe?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that guy lived in the belly of a well three dollars.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe that either.
SPEAKER_00: And he'd listen off all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And he got to the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, and I don't believe, I don't believe that virgins have babies.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, ooh, can we drill down on that one?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, by the way, I'm not here to fight you or to compete with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just here to kind of hold up a mirror and say you have some contradictory beliefs already, two minutes in.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: He leaned up and goes, All right, talk to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, You said you believe in God, you believe Jesus died on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That's right, I do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm shh, I'm not attacking you.
SPEAKER_00: You said you believe that.
SPEAKER_00: And then you said that you do not believe in the virgin birth.
SPEAKER_00: So what, Presbyterian word, what efficacy does Jesus dying on the cross have for you if he's not born of a virgin?
SPEAKER_00: Because if he's not born of a virgin, and he's just born like all of us, he was born with a sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: So him, he cannot be sacrificed on the cross as a perfect atoning sacrifice for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of those beliefs makes the other one not necessary at all.
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't believe in the virgin birth, you cannot, you don't have to believe in Jesus dying on the cross for your sins because you're still in your sins with no hope of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Well, hang on a second, you're talking fast.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I got it on stun.
SPEAKER_00: I have some more coffee on some coffee?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, poured him some coffee.
SPEAKER_00: Let me think about that.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, hey, this isn't a contest.
SPEAKER_00: But this is, and I said, I think this is all in your head.
SPEAKER_00: That's intellectual.
SPEAKER_00: He's the guy in the story, he's the guy that hears Jesus and goes, I believe those words.
SPEAKER_00: Your son's gonna live.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: How hard would that be to believe?
SPEAKER_00: Who wouldn't want to hear that?
SPEAKER_00: My son's gonna live.
SPEAKER_00: That's like God telling you today, you're gonna win Powerball.
SPEAKER_00: We're dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: Stand for the benediction.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's intellectual belief for intellectual faith.
SPEAKER_00: The second kind that's in the Bible is personal faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 51 picks up the story.
SPEAKER_00: And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering.
SPEAKER_00: So they asked them the hour.
SPEAKER_00: So he asked them the hour when he began to get better.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.
SPEAKER_00: The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son will live.
SPEAKER_00: And he himself believed.
SPEAKER_00: And all his household.
SPEAKER_00: This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's kind of winking at us when it says, This is now the second sign.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I'm doing something here.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: The miracle is not the sign.
SPEAKER_00: The miracle points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The miracle doesn't point to more miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear what I'm saying there?
SPEAKER_00: Don't get caught up in just chasing the miraculous, the miracle, the sign, Jesus says, Hey.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying to people in his hometown, hey, you guys don't believe unless you see signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: You think it's all about signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: This guy, when he hears all of a sudden earlier, he believes the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now he believes.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's called salvific.
SPEAKER_00: This leads to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't believe that.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: He believes in.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean, personal faith?
SPEAKER_00: This is a theological definition, and then I'll give it to you the way I would say it.
SPEAKER_00: The theological definition is this is used in the New Testament of the conviction and trust to which a person is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of the soul.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that sound great?
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't it sound like you can't understand what that means?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, neither can I.
SPEAKER_00: It's this it's believe in.
SPEAKER_00: It starts on the inside and it moves outward.
SPEAKER_00: It's not in your head, it's in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: It engages your head.
SPEAKER_00: You have to think as a believer.
SPEAKER_00: One of our problems is that we've allowed the culture to define what Christianity is.
SPEAKER_00: And this magnifies like never before our need to capture from the Bible to allow God's word and God's word alone to define what Christianity is and how a person who follows Christ, who doesn't believe Jesus' words, I mean, who does believe in Jesus' word, what this person looks like and how they live.
SPEAKER_00: I get in conversations with people right here in our city, and they'll say, Oh, you're probably blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And you probably think blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And I just let them go.
SPEAKER_00: They'll just spool out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, if you ever go deep sea fishing and you're with a guide, if you hook a big fish, the guide will say, spool him out, spool him out.
SPEAKER_00: And what he's saying is, let the fish take line until he tires himself out, and then you turn that crank and he goes click, and then you can start reeling him in.
SPEAKER_00: Because he doesn't have the energy.
SPEAKER_00: He does, his muscles are fatigued.
SPEAKER_00: He can't fight you as hard anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And now you can turn him back to the boat.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when I'm talking to people and they come at me with, oh, you're a Christian, or if I'm a pastor, oh, you probably think blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
SPEAKER_00: I just let spool them out.
SPEAKER_00: I hear the Holy Spirit saying, just spool them out.
SPEAKER_00: And I just say them, and they get to the dun, I go, You done?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and you're probably racist too.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, if I wouldn't manage a cloth, I'd punch you in the left eye right now.
SPEAKER_00: And they go, You would hit me.
SPEAKER_00: I would like to, but I won't because I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But if I wasn't a Christian, no, I wouldn't hit you.
SPEAKER_00: Relax, man.
SPEAKER_00: And we just talk, and they're kind of like, Oh, you're like a person too?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Yes, I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I'm good and you're bad.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I'm better and you're worser.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that's not really a word.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I just made it a word.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up.
SPEAKER_00: My turn to talk now.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually that person looks at me and says, now I gotta admit, I've not had conversations like this.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: They have an idea what a Christian is, but they don't have an experience with a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Well, somebody just says, Hey man, I care about you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you these things because I hate you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you these things because I love you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why talking publicly, we we we we force the public to get a new definition for Christian.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta come back to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible describes, it defines, and it also describes.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read you a passage where the Bible just kind of describes this is what a Christian is like, and then we'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You still with me?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are like, okay, a lot of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: This is from Philippians chapter 3, verses 8 to 11.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says this.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, this guy named Paul is writing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Indeed, by the way, this guy hated Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He was a very zealous, religious man.
SPEAKER_00: He was a Pharisee, and he went around persecuting and killing Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He was there when they stoned a guy named Stephen to death in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: He did not care.
SPEAKER_00: God reveals himself to Paul, radically changes his life.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Saul back then.
SPEAKER_00: He was so changed, he started going by a different name.
SPEAKER_00: He started going by Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He writes these words.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing words of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For his sake I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
SPEAKER_00: Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness from God that depends on faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let me stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: There's two sentences I want to reread because I don't want you to miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Let me back up a couple sentences.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I can't keep the rules.
SPEAKER_00: A righteousness of my own that comes from the law.
SPEAKER_00: I can't read the Bible and then do everything it says.
SPEAKER_00: So when people say to me, hey, I could never live like the Bible talks about, I don't go, yes, you can.
SPEAKER_00: You're a winner.
SPEAKER_00: There's a champion in you.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, I agree with him.
SPEAKER_00: You can't.
SPEAKER_00: You are so depraved by nature.
SPEAKER_00: This is an offense to you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Bible even says, if you don't know God, this is foolishness.
SPEAKER_00: And one guy looked at me and goes, I agree with that.
SPEAKER_00: I said, yes.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: I used to be the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Now I pastor a church here in our city.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, shut up.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't going there, are you?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I can't make you a pastor, but just know that.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot read the Bible and think for a nanosecond.
SPEAKER_00: I got that.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's a righteousness that comes from you, a righteousness of your own that comes from the law.
SPEAKER_00: But hear this.
SPEAKER_00: But that which comes through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then he describes this.
SPEAKER_00: This is the sentence that's got somebody else's name on it this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness from God that depends on faith.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness that comes from God is always going to depend, go always going to depend on faith.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you're always going to have questions.
SPEAKER_00: You're always going to have doubts.
SPEAKER_00: You're always going to have some curiosity.
SPEAKER_00: I had the man make an appointment.
SPEAKER_00: He had a tragedy in his family.
SPEAKER_00: And we can know what.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: We can know what.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot always know why.
SPEAKER_00: And he makes an appointment.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, I come to see you because I'm sick of churchy answers from Christians that don't know anything and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And he is hot.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he is boiling over.
SPEAKER_00: There are monosyllabic, hyphenated, profanity words coming out of his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't say, hey, brother, you shouldn't talk like that.
SPEAKER_00: I said, hey man, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: This you can't get your head around this.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: And I want God to explain to me why.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, I ain't preaching at you, but the Bible says in Deuteronomy, the hidden things belong to the Lord, and the things that are revealed, they belong to us.
SPEAKER_00: There's things that, what's that mean?
SPEAKER_00: That means in this life there's things that we're never gonna know why.
SPEAKER_00: And some things we're just never going to know.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because the righteousness that comes from God requires and depends on faith.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can see it and know it, you don't need faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's intellect.
SPEAKER_00: You would boast about it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm just telling you, I said, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Great question.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why wouldn't God reveal to me the hidden things?
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking for that.
SPEAKER_00: Because if God revealed to you what only God can know, God would have to share with you his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And God does not share his glory with another.
SPEAKER_00: He took a deep breath.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, I don't know if I buy that.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: We can drink coffee and stare at each other, but that's where it's going to end up.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the gospel takes us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I'm saying this to some of you in this room the righteousness that comes from God is always going to depend on faith.
SPEAKER_00: Which means for me, for me, there are things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to stand in the hospital room having prayed for this person and watch their family unplug them from life support.
SPEAKER_00: And walk out and just kind of go, I know you could have done something about that and you didn't, and I don't know why.
SPEAKER_00: I wish you would have.
SPEAKER_00: That would have been great.
SPEAKER_00: And then I got to ask myself, do I still have faith in that God?
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to answer all your questions in this life.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the other part he doesn't have to.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not being glib.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not poking you in the eye.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to love you as your pastor and say, hey, let's get back to this.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness, if you don't get this, you're going to try to establish a righteousness of your own.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't depend on the law.
SPEAKER_00: It's worse than that.
SPEAKER_00: It depends on your intellect because you're so smart.
SPEAKER_00: I got to supersede the way God set the world up.
SPEAKER_00: Good luck.
SPEAKER_00: That will burn you to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness from God that depends on faith.
SPEAKER_00: That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Last week I was on a plane to San Diego and I was reading this book.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little book called This Changes Everything: How the Gospel Transforms the Ten Years.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lady sitting over next to me because we're on Southwest and I got the aisle because I boarded early.
SPEAKER_00: And I oh the way you get the middle seat, no one says that you raise the armrest and you start mouth breathing.
SPEAKER_00: No one wants to sit by that.
SPEAKER_00: And so the lady's by the window and she goes, Hey, you think that's gonna work?
SPEAKER_00: It always works.
SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
SPEAKER_00: And I laid a Bible out there too.
SPEAKER_00: That's a double whammy.
SPEAKER_00: That is like people repellent.
SPEAKER_00: Plane takes off.
SPEAKER_00: I looked at there's two empty seats, one right by us and one way back in the back.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Not my first rodeo.
SPEAKER_00: We take off, I got my book, start reading, dean, the little thing goes off.
SPEAKER_00: I get up, go to the bathroom, come back.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, What's that book about?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, it's about just the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Just about how the gospel pervades everything I do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, Who's it by?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, It's by a girl named Jaquel Crow.
SPEAKER_00: She was 18 years old when she wrote the book.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, You're reading a book by an 18-year-old girl.
SPEAKER_00: She's older now, but she was 18 when she wrote, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Because we never outgrow the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, Don't, didn't you have to go to school to do this?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I have degrees, multiple.
SPEAKER_00: And this is so thought-provoking for me.
SPEAKER_00: In the book, the reason I hold it up is because in the book, she talks about this passage we just read.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Hey, there's six things that are true about a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Not a definition, but a description.
SPEAKER_00: She says, Here they are.
SPEAKER_00: First, they treasure Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They devalues a Christian devalues everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean you hate everything else.
SPEAKER_00: That means that you put Christ above cheerleading and popularity and food and sex and money and stuff, and because all that stuff tries to get up here and go, hey, us now.
SPEAKER_00: No, he devalues everything.
SPEAKER_00: You don't hate it.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: If you have it, don't hate it.
SPEAKER_00: That's miserable.
SPEAKER_00: But you devalue everything else, puts faith in Christ alone, knows him, suffers for him, and becomes like him.
SPEAKER_00: So here's my thought.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just, it's right down the plane.
SPEAKER_00: People ask me, what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: I I just try to, I just looked at that list and I just said, you know, God, which one of those I most need to work on?
SPEAKER_00: In a nanosecond, he said, that one.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to look at that list.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the application of the sermon today.
SPEAKER_00: This week, I want you to pick one of those.
SPEAKER_00: You just think, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I need to grow in that area.
SPEAKER_00: Just pick one and make that your focus this week.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, hey, these are the things.
SPEAKER_00: These are the things.
SPEAKER_00: This is a description.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing: that's not the language that the culture uses to describe us.
SPEAKER_00: They call us all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: So, men, I want you to have a conversation with your wife and with your kids and just say, hey, today Church Pastor Neil talked about these six things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that are better yet, get the book and read it with your kids.
SPEAKER_00: And hey, these are six things that kind of describe us as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pick one of these that you want to work on, and we can talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: And say, Because here's what we do we come along and we talk about our faith in terms of some prayer that I prayed 12 years ago and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And ask yourself this do I find myself reflexively doing these things right here in the daily warp and woof of my life?
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what happens this official lived in this kind of intellectual, I believe in the words of Jesus, and then he sees the power of God, and he and his entire Ocas, his household, believed.
SPEAKER_00: That's salvific.
SPEAKER_00: That's, hey, I don't want just have intellectual faith.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know this God.
SPEAKER_00: And they did.
SPEAKER_00: And this is so important that John writes and says, This is a sign to you.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself what you take away thinking about this morning as a result of looking at this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_00: We like to teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe just to look at those six things and say, Where am I on there?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this morning you realize, hey, I just have intellectual faith.
SPEAKER_00: I've agreed with things that I've never really experienced my whole life.
SPEAKER_00: We would love to help you explore what it means to have a personal relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: The great thing about Jesus is not like the other world religions.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't set down a list of rules and say, keep these rules and I'll evaluate you in the end.
SPEAKER_00: No, he came.
SPEAKER_00: And he walked among us.
SPEAKER_00: And then God, when Jesus goes back to heaven, God says, Hey, I want to be so present in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to have such a warm, intimate, personal relationship with and posture towards me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to leave my spirit here on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And my spirit, the Holy Spirit, is going to lead you into all truth.
SPEAKER_00: That's how much he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: You are not on your own today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, that's our simple, beautiful confession today.
SPEAKER_00: We devalue everything else.
SPEAKER_00: We don't hate our stuff, we don't hate our life.
SPEAKER_00: Part of Christianity is learning to enjoy provision and success and a great job and a great living and a bountiful retirement and not feel guilty.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, we gotta submit all that to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta value you above all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Because everything in our life wants to exalt itself above the knowledge of God and say, What about me?
SPEAKER_00: What about me?
SPEAKER_00: And we just say no.
SPEAKER_00: We subject everybody and everything in our life to God and the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, just lead us into these realities.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, and I pray for the people in this room that have doubts and questions.
SPEAKER_00: They're not losing their mind, they're not losing their faith.
SPEAKER_00: They're some of the most faithful people in this room because they're thinking about it, like, ooh.
SPEAKER_00: It's a Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Just even in this moment, just remind them hey, I'm not put off by this.
SPEAKER_00: You're the God that took doubting Thomas's hand and said, Hey, touch my side.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not mad at you, dude.
SPEAKER_00: I just am real.
SPEAKER_00: I am who I told you I was.
SPEAKER_00: Father, our righteousness depends on faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let us live with the mystery when necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Let us enjoy the obvious when necessary.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest, let me say thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say about let me say the obvious for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you didn't have seven points today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, hopefully, you had a chance to reach up in that row and pull a guest card.
SPEAKER_00: If you fill that out on your way out, if you drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors, uh, uh, we're not gonna just show up at your house.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we just want you to know that we care about you and we want to know you when you want us to know you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about anything you heard today, myself and some of our elders will be available down front.
SPEAKER_00: Uh let me just make one announcement.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that today uh registration has opened up for the women's retreat, which is in April.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's people and there's a check-in spot out there in the lobby.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it is a great opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoy the warm, intimate worship that Lindsay facilitates, she will be leading worship at our women's retreat.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it takes place a couple hours from here, so you're not that far away.
SPEAKER_00: You can see them for more information.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to say registration is open, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: When your God tells you to speak publicly about him, what he's really saying is, I trust my name in your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: I trust you to represent me.
SPEAKER_00: Now depart now and do what you've been entrusted to do.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you, dismiss you.