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: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, our confession is that we couldn't earn it and we don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Bible says, despite those two true statements, that you give it to us anyway because you want us to have it, and we get it because of your mercy.
SPEAKER_01: It's most like the Bible to make uh the love of God about something in our experiencing the love of God about something that you're rich in, that's mercy.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, express the richness of your mercy by opening up the truth to us today and let the truth open us up.
SPEAKER_01: We ask this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seed.
SPEAKER_01: If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to John chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible as well on your row, I'm on page 893.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to the Gospel of John, verse by verse.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and today I want to talk to you about the most important question you will ever answer.
SPEAKER_01: The most important question you will ever answer, which by the way, it is not who you're voting for, how much money do you make?
SPEAKER_01: Will you marry me?
SPEAKER_01: Do you love me?
SPEAKER_01: And the most important question you and I and everyone in the history of civilization will ever answer is simply this.
SPEAKER_01: Is Jesus the Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Is Jesus who the Bible says he is?
SPEAKER_01: Is he the Messiah?
SPEAKER_01: Is he the Son of God, sent by God on a mission from God to redeem and restore the people of God?
SPEAKER_01: Because if so, it has radical implications for your life and for my life.
SPEAKER_01: But also, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta be willing to flip the coin and look at the other side.
SPEAKER_01: If not, if he isn't the son of God, like he professes to be, then you should scoff at Christ in Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: You should totally disregard all of this as meaningless.
SPEAKER_01: You should live your life however you want, because there's no connection between this life and the next.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven's a farce, hell isn't real, and forgiveness is unnecessary because there's no standard that you're violating if there's not a God in this world.
SPEAKER_01: And so, either way, there's deep implications on either side of this question.
SPEAKER_01: This question is so important, by the way, and so central to the purpose of John's gospel that we began.
SPEAKER_01: The very first sermon I preached was about the purpose of John.
SPEAKER_01: Comes from John chapter 20, verse 31, where John writes, and he's getting to the end.
SPEAKER_01: He's only got like one chapter left, and he says, These things have I written unto you, so 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: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: He said, These things are written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the fulfillment of every promise God has ever made.
SPEAKER_01: Also, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's a question of authority.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: Remember just 90 seconds ago, I said that there's implications on both sides of this.
SPEAKER_01: Here's one of the implications of you not believing that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: That means if Jesus is not God, then there's not a life available in him that you don't find anywhere else.
SPEAKER_01: And so what that means by extension is simply this all you can hope for, the best life you can hope for is whatever you can come up with on your own.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example of what that feels like.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever been up late at night, you can't sleep, and you're just flipping through channels and you realize there's nothing on TV worth watching?
SPEAKER_01: And you go to the refrigerator and you think, hey, I want to eat something, you open the refrigerator and you're like, eh, I'm already fat enough.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just close this.
SPEAKER_01: And you're kind of awake, but you're just like, what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: That's what it feels like to be alive and not be living life.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's just, hey, it's all up to me.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever I can come up with, this is as good as it is.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the implications on the positive.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus really is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that.
SPEAKER_01: And most importantly, the Bible teaches that there's a life that's available to everyone, that's in him, that's unlike anything you've ever lived before.
SPEAKER_01: So much so, the Bible uses two different words in the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's reason they're written in Greek.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek word for life, like we live it, is bios, just biological existence.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek word for the life that Jesus is talking about is Zoe.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a whole it's on a whole different level.
SPEAKER_01: It's why Jesus says in a couple chapters in John 10, 10, he'll say that I came so you could have life and have it more abundantly, or to the full, or in a different way than you've ever had it before.
SPEAKER_01: And so answering this question has implications beyond what we can fathom.
SPEAKER_01: So let's just kind of read the text this morning, John chapter 7, starting verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the people of Jerusalem, therefore, said, Is not this the man that they seek to kill?
SPEAKER_01: And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him.
SPEAKER_01: Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
SPEAKER_01: But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple, You know me, and you know where I come from, but I have not come on my own accord.
SPEAKER_01: He who sent me is true.
SPEAKER_01: In him you do not know.
SPEAKER_01: I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.
SPEAKER_01: So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: Yet many of the people believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: They said, When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.
SPEAKER_01: You will seek me and you will not find me.
SPEAKER_01: Where I am, where I am, you cannot come.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews said to one another, Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him?
SPEAKER_01: Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?
SPEAKER_01: What does he mean by saying, You will seek me and you will not find me?
SPEAKER_01: And where I am, you cannot come.
SPEAKER_01: So there's some confusion about what Jesus is talking about because we talked about it last week.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus reverse engineers his life around the cross.
SPEAKER_01: He comes for one mission, and that is to die on the cross in our place for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: And he starts there and he works back, and everything in his life is centered around, ordered around, and dated by that reality.
SPEAKER_01: So all through the gospels, he will say things like, My hour is not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: It just showed up in this passage right here.
SPEAKER_01: The people wanted to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: They were so mad at him, and Jesus walked right to the crowd and they didn't arrest him.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because his hour had not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, God wasn't done with him.
SPEAKER_01: He still had things that he had to do.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you have to understand to get to why there was so much hatred for Jesus and why people wanted to kill him, you have to understand what's happened in the first six chapters of John's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And so, if you'll allow me, let me just summarize the first six chapters of John, which is how we get to this point.
SPEAKER_01: Here you go.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: God puts on flesh, moves into the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: He's not an idea, a concept, or a moral construct.
SPEAKER_01: He sends his son in love to the world.
SPEAKER_01: And for the first time in the history of humanity, a deity comes down instead of waiting for humanity to measure up.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: For the first time in the history of humanity, a God comes down to his people instead of waiting for you and I to measure up.
SPEAKER_01: That's chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter two, Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding in Cana where he turns water into wine.
SPEAKER_01: But more than just making all the Baptists in the room mad, he's announcing that people will no longer need religious ceremonies to get clean in God's eye because that's why he's come.
SPEAKER_01: And so basically, Jesus says, Let's drink some good wine and celebrate me.
SPEAKER_01: There's a phrase that's never come out of your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you want to go to a party at least once before you die where someone walks in and says, Hey, let's drink some good wine and celebrate me?
SPEAKER_01: Now you're like, Jesus would never say that.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what he says in John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: It's why you should read the Bible or at least go to a church where they have the courage to tell you what's being said.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just words on a page.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is at a wedding, his mom comes to him and says, Hey, they're out of wine.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, and that's my problem, why?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, hey, do something.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus says, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And they look over and have these ceremonial clay pots, hold about six gallons of water.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, fill up, and by the way, ceremonial, that means that they filled them with water and they would wash themselves in certain ways and had these religious rituals that they thought made them clean before God.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, hey, I'm here now.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to count on ourselves crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus basically says to his disciples later, he says, You're clean because of the word I spoke to you.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't got to do all these ceremonies and religious rituals.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus basically says, fill those pots with water.
SPEAKER_01: He turns that water into wine.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, and by the way, the wine was so good, all his friends said, Hey, this is top shelf.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't a two-buck chuck.
SPEAKER_01: You get at Trader Joe's out here.
SPEAKER_01: On that box wine you got in the back of your refrigerator, like my father-in-law, who calls it Merlot.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you know it's Merlot, right?
SPEAKER_01: I got some Merlot in there if you want it.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, that was been in there since last Christmas, Max.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I could put that in my car battery.
SPEAKER_01: I think it would come back to life, all right?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: This was so good that people said, man, this is top shelf.
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all know what top shelf is?
SPEAKER_01: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I see your hands up.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, We're on a budget.
SPEAKER_01: Every once in a while, anniversary.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it was so good.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_01: He's basically saying, hey, I have done away with empty religious rituals.
SPEAKER_01: Let's drink some wine and celebrate me.
SPEAKER_01: Again, a phrase that will never come out of your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter three.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is why people are so mad because they are threatened by him.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter three, he has a conversation with a man named Nicodemus.
SPEAKER_01: He's very religious, and he tells him that, hey, in no uncertain terms, religion will not save you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has come so that what we do, he comes so that we can so be changed.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say like this.
SPEAKER_01: We can so be changed by God that it's like being born all over again.
SPEAKER_01: And Nicodemus is like, what?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, I know, I know.
SPEAKER_01: You can be religious and you can make a hundred on the Jesus pop quest.
SPEAKER_01: But unless I've changed you to where so drastically that it's like, man, I was born all over again.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody in this room ever wish you could just hit the restart button and start over again?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in John 3 to Nicodemus and everybody else in the world, you can.
SPEAKER_01: And people are like, oh chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: He meets a woman who smells like vodka and bad ideas.
SPEAKER_01: Her lifestyle requires that she sleeps in to recover.
SPEAKER_01: He reads her mail, then forgives her for everything she's ever done.
SPEAKER_01: Her whole town begs Jesus to linger because she goes to town and says, Come meet a man who told me everything I've ever done.
SPEAKER_01: Could this be the Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Hear that?
SPEAKER_01: Already the language is in the water.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, could this be the long promised Messiah?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Could this possibly be him?
SPEAKER_01: Her whole town comes out and they beg Jesus to linger and love on them a little bit longer.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, hey, I'm cool.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like the grateful dad.
SPEAKER_01: I'm always in concert somewhere, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so he stays for two more days, and the whole town repents and comes to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 5, he heals a man on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: Big breaking of the rules.
SPEAKER_01: He does it to demonstrate that this isn't about just keeping rules, but about relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Not restoring people to law, but restoring people to God.
SPEAKER_01: Then he tells this guy, hey, stop jerking around, weasel boy, because if you don't knock it off and get squared up, I'll have to really lay the wood to you.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, it sounds like this in John chapter 5, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus found him and says, Hey, see, you're well again.
SPEAKER_01: Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, hear this.
SPEAKER_01: You can push grace to the discipline phase, and God will discipline you.
SPEAKER_01: Not because he hates you, but because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't watch people destroy themselves and just kind of go sit idly by.
SPEAKER_01: Alright?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 6, he feeds 5,000 men along with their families, tells them, hey, that knowing him is better than being fat and sassy with contentment and mooching off the religious government.
SPEAKER_01: And then because he doesn't want them relating to him out of their appetites, we're hungry, so then Jesus is relief.
SPEAKER_01: No, Jesus is the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so while these people are fat and sassy and go to bed and they want to make him king by force, they're like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: This guy could make our lives better.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus leaves in the middle of the night because he doesn't want to surface following.
SPEAKER_01: And now chapter 7 shows up.
SPEAKER_01: The ruling religious party can't stand him and they're looking for any way they can to get rid of him and kill him.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, if you want the modern-day equivalent, it's like the media and Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed everything Donald Trump's fault?
SPEAKER_01: Global warming, Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_01: I'm fat, Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_01: It's everyone's fault.
SPEAKER_01: Now, listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't check out some of you like, I hate Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I don't agree with everything the man says.
SPEAKER_01: I don't like the way he talks about women, but I do know this.
SPEAKER_01: All of the problems in America are not his fault.
SPEAKER_01: And you gotta stop copping out and pointing your finger.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a frame of reference, it's a snapshot.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the way the media and Democrats talk about Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way people, the ruling religious leaders, felt about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They loathed the mention of his name.
SPEAKER_01: They could not stand him.
SPEAKER_01: It was just like, oh! But ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_01: He's standing right there in the public.
SPEAKER_01: We just read.
SPEAKER_01: People in the in the city were like, hey, isn't this the guy they want to kill?
SPEAKER_01: Hard, how hard can it be to kill a guy that's preaching in public?
SPEAKER_01: But they didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because somewhere in the back of their brain, back there by their cerebellum, their brain was itchy.
SPEAKER_01: They were like, I think he he might honey get the kids.
SPEAKER_01: This might be he might really be God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why did I tell you all of that?
SPEAKER_01: Because we live in a culture.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a culture that wants to appreciate Jesus and not worship Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a culture that wants to say, hey, uh, I think Jesus was a good man.
SPEAKER_01: He was a moral teacher, and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: That means nothing for you.
SPEAKER_01: But the moment you say, I believe Jesus was the Son of God, ro-ro, C.
SPEAKER_01: S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis was a brilliant man.
SPEAKER_01: He was a professor at Cambridge University.
SPEAKER_01: He was once an agnostic.
SPEAKER_01: He understood this issue very clearly.
SPEAKER_01: He wrote these words.
SPEAKER_01: Hear them.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying here to present anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him, about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it's this I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the one thing we must not say.
SPEAKER_01: A man who is merely a man was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
SPEAKER_01: He would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell.
SPEAKER_01: You must make your choice.
SPEAKER_01: Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.
SPEAKER_01: You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.
SPEAKER_01: But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.
SPEAKER_01: He has not left that open to us.
SPEAKER_01: He did not intend to.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, Jesus didn't live the life that he lived and died the death that he died and did the things that he did, just for you to shrug and kind of go, Gandhi, Jesus, Muhammad, they're all up there together on the Mount Roshmore of American spirituality.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, they're not.
SPEAKER_01: So, what does it mean for me if Jesus is real, that he really is God?
SPEAKER_01: It means three things this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it means that God has had a plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: It means that God has had a plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: There was this expectation of when the Messiah, when this promised deliverer, that God had promised, when this Messiah comes, he's going to be a certain way.
SPEAKER_01: And three of them are referred to right here in John chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: I'll point to them briefly.
SPEAKER_01: The first one's in verse 26, and they believe that the Messiah was somebody that no one will know where he's from.
SPEAKER_01: No one will know from where he's from.
SPEAKER_01: It's so mysterious that no one can know for sure.
SPEAKER_01: He'll just kind of show up, poof.
SPEAKER_01: And yet the Bible does the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament, it's full of these what's called prophecies, which are promises that God makes about the coming of the Messiah, and Jesus fulfills every one of them.
SPEAKER_01: All the way from the manner in which he would be born.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like this in Isaiah chapter 7, and a virgin shall conceive and give birth.
SPEAKER_01: Now ask yourself a question.
SPEAKER_01: If you were making something up, would you start there?
SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
SPEAKER_01: You're smart people.
SPEAKER_01: You're like your kid coming in and go, hey dad, I'm a virgin, but I'm kind of with child.
SPEAKER_01: Your name ain't Mary girl.
SPEAKER_01: No, you wouldn't start that.
SPEAKER_01: It is intellectually preposterous.
SPEAKER_01: But yet that's a promise the Bible made.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a promise God fulfills in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's full of these prophecies, and Jesus fulfills every one of them.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God is not afraid of going on the record to demonstrate two things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the truthfulness of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: It is provable, it is verifiable, the truthfulness of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, the existence of a plan.
SPEAKER_01: The existence of a plan, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: That means that God is not a deist.
SPEAKER_01: A deist is someone that believed that God created, they'll say, oh, God created the world, but he just kind of spun it like a basketball on his finger, and then he just went and sent it out there into orbit, and he sits idly by and watches it come unhinged.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the Bible's view of God.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we say they all had this belief that no one will know where he's from, they were kind of like, well, we know where this guy is from.
SPEAKER_01: He can't be the Messiah, right?
SPEAKER_01: Here's a second thing they believed about the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: They believed the Messiah would perform miraculous signs.
SPEAKER_01: It's verse 30 and 31.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, hey, look at verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: So they're seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: Again, there's this sense that not only does Jesus believe that he's on a mission from God, but people believe there's something different, supernatural, God ordained about his life, that they're like, hey, his hour is not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, many of the people believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: They said, When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?
SPEAKER_01: Remember a few minutes ago when I just summarized the first six chapters?
SPEAKER_01: They were like, man, this guy's done so much stuff.
SPEAKER_01: If he's not the guy, I mean, who's gonna do more miracles than this?
SPEAKER_01: By the way, when you think about this, you gotta ask yourself, you're seven chapters in, and already he has so upset the religious establishment that they took out a hit on him.
SPEAKER_01: They took out a contract, they're gonna kill Jesus because they can't stand that.
SPEAKER_01: Now ask yourself, what does Jesus so believe about his mission that he's willing to endure death to see it fulfilled?
SPEAKER_01: What does he believe about his mission?
SPEAKER_01: That he's willing to endure death to see it fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the third thing they believed about the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: This language was in the water of the day.
SPEAKER_01: They believed he will come from Bethlehem and be of the lineage of David.
SPEAKER_01: It's verse 42.
SPEAKER_01: It's later on.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get into that next week.
SPEAKER_01: Now he hear it again.
SPEAKER_01: They believed he'll be from Bethlehem and he'll be of the lineage of David.
SPEAKER_01: Remember back in Luke 2?
SPEAKER_01: That's the promise that God made in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: He fulfills it.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 2, verse 10 and 11.
SPEAKER_01: The angel appears to announce the Savior's birth, and he says, To these shepherds, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
SPEAKER_01: For unto you were born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: This past week was a crazy week.
SPEAKER_01: It was a fun week for me.
SPEAKER_01: I got to do things I love.
SPEAKER_01: I call it pastoral care.
SPEAKER_01: Some people call it counseling.
SPEAKER_01: Had seven teen counseling appointments.
SPEAKER_01: One more time.
SPEAKER_01: Seven teen counseling appointments.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a complaint.
SPEAKER_01: I had a front row seat to seeing people's life changed.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the appointments was a lady I see who doesn't go to this church or any church.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I just somebody told me about you.
SPEAKER_01: And the first time she came, I said, Why are you here?
SPEAKER_01: Tell me what makes you want to seek out a stranger, much less not a stranger, but a preacher, and ask for help.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, I drink myself to sleep every night with red wine.
SPEAKER_01: If that doesn't work, I take sleeping pills.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, you are in a great place, ma'am.
SPEAKER_01: Because the rest of you dignified Baptists come in and go, I don't know what my problem is.
SPEAKER_01: My wife thinks I should be here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I have a problem.
SPEAKER_01: She was like, I will drink a whole bottle of red wine.
SPEAKER_01: If that doesn't work, I'll start on a second one, and then I start popping sleeping pills like they're tic-tac.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, a real life sinner.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, and I said to her, I said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: One of the first things I want you to understand is that God says to you, you don't have to live at the mercy of your fear.
SPEAKER_01: And she says, Well, I don't have fear, I have anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Anxiety is your experience of your deep embedded soul fears.
SPEAKER_01: She told me this week, and I've been sitting for a while, she told me this week, she said, You are the smartest man I know.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a question for you.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I didn't believe that.
SPEAKER_01: But is it does anybody ever say something to you that you know is not true?
SPEAKER_01: And you're there at the fork of the road, you can clear it up or you can just kind of go, Well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01: I try.
SPEAKER_01: I was just sitting there, and the Holy Spirit is like, You gonna let her believe that, moron?
SPEAKER_01: You and I both know you're dumb as a mud fence, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, actually, your recovery and your sobriety and your progress is not about me, it's about God.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I referenced Luke chapter 2, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Remember when I said to you that one of the promises that God made, one of the incarnational promises God made, incarnational, so you have to use these big words and counsels to people know I got degrees.
SPEAKER_01: I said, God hung flesh on it.
SPEAKER_01: God manifested, He was real.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like trying to catch butterflies, you know, with your hand.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, fear not.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why I bring you.
SPEAKER_01: Good news of great joy that will be for all people.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I said to her, I said, God so does not want you to live at the mercy of your anxiety, which is your soul fear response to fear, the things that bring fear in you.
SPEAKER_01: It's your response to sin that you've done and sin that's been done to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you have dis-ase in your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You have dis-ease in your emotions.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you're uncertain, which is why you drink.
SPEAKER_01: Drinking's not your issue.
SPEAKER_01: You've not dealt with your core problem.
SPEAKER_01: This woman has worked hard.
SPEAKER_01: She told me that this week, she said, Yeah, every once in a while I have a glass of wine, but I don't even think about it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, That's because you realize you don't have to fear.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God sent a Savior who happens to be Christ the Lord, the Messiah, the fulfillment of every promise God ever made.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Peace is the byproduct of experiencing everything God created you to have.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Peace is the byproduct of experiencing what God created you to experience.
SPEAKER_01: I don't mean physical stuff, I mean spiritual truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so I sat there and watched a woman who is a totally different human being.
SPEAKER_01: And it's all because, see, we have to, why are you telling us this?
SPEAKER_01: We have to track back our behavior to our Christology, to what is our Christology and what's true about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And what's true about him is that you don't have to live a prisoner to your fears because under you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: That means that God crashed into humanity at a specific time, at a specific place for the fulfillment of a specific promise.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we mean when we say, hey, now remember all this was under number one, that God's had a plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, I don't know why it's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_01: Are you currently facing something that feels unmanageable to you?
SPEAKER_01: Beyond your capacity to do anything about it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what stirs up anxiety in us.
SPEAKER_01: And if you are, maybe you should ask this question of God.
SPEAKER_01: God, do you have a plan for this?
SPEAKER_01: You're not at the mercy of men.
SPEAKER_01: You realize that, right?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the fear of man is a snare.
SPEAKER_01: I asked this lady in our second session, I read from the Bible, because I'm not very smart.
SPEAKER_01: I said, the Bible says the fear of man is a snare.
SPEAKER_01: Who is it that when you get around them, they have power over you to make you fear?
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, Oh my, that list is long.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Go ahead, I've got a pen.
SPEAKER_01: Because I want her to understand you're not at the mercy of this.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the way God created you to live.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, if God had a plan which was set in place before the very foundation of the world, you don't think he has a plan for whatever you and I are facing today?
SPEAKER_01: So the first thing, the fact that Jesus is really God, that says to us, God's had a plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, it says to us there's a solution to your sin problem.
SPEAKER_01: There's a solution to your sin problem.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Sin is a problem for three reasons.
SPEAKER_01: It separates you from God, it causes emotional, deep emotional turmoil in you, and thirdly, it makes you incapable of going to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Now you think that's kind of harsh, don't you think?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, that's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Why does it make you incapable?
SPEAKER_01: Because if God doesn't count our sins against us, then he has to invalidate the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again, you're smart people.
SPEAKER_01: If God does not count our sins against us, in other words, if our sins don't separate us from God, if God cannot count, hold that against us, he has to count that against us, otherwise, he has to invalidate the life, death, burial, and resurrection of his own son.
SPEAKER_01: You can't have it either way.
SPEAKER_01: It's very binary.
SPEAKER_01: It's either this or that, this or that, this or that.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Old school?
SPEAKER_01: Hip?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Never mind.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, too many white people.
SPEAKER_01: There's a solution to your sin problem.
SPEAKER_01: There's a solution to the sin problem.
SPEAKER_01: And people are the reason I say that is because most people, if you ask them, they don't have a sin problem.
SPEAKER_01: They like to sin.
SPEAKER_01: They've got three or four favorite sins.
SPEAKER_01: No problem.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible says it's a problem because it separates you from God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the way we think about our sin informs how we respond to our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: I'll demonstrate.
SPEAKER_01: The way we think about our sin informs how we respond to our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to that great theologian Marilyn Monroe, who said this.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I'm good, but I'm not an angel.
SPEAKER_01: I do sin, but I'm not the devil.
SPEAKER_01: I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.
SPEAKER_01: That's a very honest and valid statement.
SPEAKER_01: But being a small girl in a big world and then trying to find someone to love is where we get ourselves jammed up and involved in sin many of the times.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it like this in Isaiah chapter 59.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible takes it pretty seriously.
SPEAKER_01: Not to be harsh, but to tell the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 59, verses 1 to 3.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot hear.
SPEAKER_01: But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not hear.
SPEAKER_01: For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say sin's a problem, when the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, that he really is the Messiah, that the people in John 7 are going, Could this be the guy?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible screams, He is the guy, and that's great news because God's provided solution to our sin problem.
SPEAKER_01: There's a historian named Philip Schaff.
SPEAKER_01: He said it like this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, How, in the name of logic, common sense, and experience, could an imposture that is a deceitful, selfish, depraved man, how could he have invented and consistently maintained from the beginning to end the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality?
SPEAKER_01: How could he have conceived and successfully carried out a plan of unparalleled beneficence, moral magnitude, and sublimity, and sacrificed his own life for it in the face of the strongest prejudices of his people and age?
SPEAKER_01: I read all that big long quote just to draw your attention to that last part.
SPEAKER_01: It's the next to the last line and the beginning of the last line, and sacrificed his own life for it.
SPEAKER_01: What does Jesus believe about his life and message that he was willing to die for it?
SPEAKER_01: If you had a TV and you turned it on this weekend, you saw that a baggage handler in CTAC Airport stole the plane and took it on a joy ride.
SPEAKER_01: He did barrel rolls loop to loop.
SPEAKER_01: He's up there flying, they're trying to talk him down.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we've had enough fun.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to land this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Hear what the guy said?
SPEAKER_01: It was sad.
SPEAKER_01: The guy said, I don't know how to land this thing.
SPEAKER_01: I never planned to land it.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, I did this to commit suicide.
SPEAKER_01: There's no plan.
SPEAKER_01: And that man died.
SPEAKER_01: He crashed 30 miles off a little island from the Seattle Tacoma Airport.
SPEAKER_01: His death has no real purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Yet the Bible says that the death of Jesus has extreme purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, I would say the utmost importance and purpose of anyone who's ever died.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he dies as the solution to our sin problem.
SPEAKER_01: The third and final thing that the Bible tells us that, hey, why does it matter if Jesus is God?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_01: It means this it places a high priority on his words.
SPEAKER_01: Places a high priority on his words.
SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
SPEAKER_01: If he's the solution to your deepest problem, wouldn't you tune in to everything that he said?
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask it again.
SPEAKER_01: If he was a solution to your deepest problem, would you not tune in to everything that he said?
SPEAKER_01: Or think about it this way.
SPEAKER_01: If your wife wrote you a love letter this week, or your husband wrote you a love letter this week, and I wrote you a love letter this week, which one would you keep?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if I wrote you a love letter, you'd be like, this cat needs help, man.
SPEAKER_01: I go to his church and everything, he's all up in my business talking about he loves me and wants to look into my eyes for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, mm-mm, we're going somewhere else next week.
SPEAKER_01: No, because you love and value, you love that person, you value their words.
SPEAKER_01: It places extreme priority and importance on the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that if you were to go enroll at Harvard, they're starting the fall semester here shortly.
SPEAKER_01: If you enrolled in Harvard, you took a philosophy or an ethics class, they would tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: They would say, one of the greatest ethical teachings in the history of civilization is the Sermon on the Mount from Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And they would tell you Jesus was just a good moral man, that he'll never admit to his deity, they'll never say that he was God, that he was Lord, that his death was on the cross in our place for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: They see Jesus as a cool, hip, progressive, socialist teacher.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how they'll spin it at Harvard.
SPEAKER_01: But what they say is true about the Sermon on the Mount, it's recorded in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you all of that?
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: We're just about done.
SPEAKER_01: You still awake?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount with these words.
SPEAKER_01: This great ethical teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Really, it's biblical truth.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking to these people.
SPEAKER_01: He gets to the end of Matthew chapter 7, starting in verse 24, he says this.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
SPEAKER_01: And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: It's very subtle.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gets to the end, and I love his use of the word.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Everyone then.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone then.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very consequential word then.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, as a result of everyone then who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, he says, This is what that person's like.
SPEAKER_01: But the person who hears these words of mine appreciates it, pulls out their smartphone and takes a picture and goes, Oh, I'm gonna post that on my Instagram later on this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you can appreciate Jesus and never, ever, ever know him.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Everyone who hears these words of mine does not put them into practice.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a guy who built his house on the sand and the storm comes and beats against the house.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible says this we don't have a frame of reference for this.
SPEAKER_01: And great was the fall thereof.
SPEAKER_01: When I say and great was the fall thereof, you're like, okay, the house fell down.
SPEAKER_01: We got the point.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Greek word.
SPEAKER_01: That word great is the Greek word megas.
SPEAKER_01: Megas.
SPEAKER_01: It's where we get our slang English word, mega.
SPEAKER_01: Mega.
SPEAKER_01: You put mega in front of anything, it just got bigger.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a context.
SPEAKER_01: I have a fresh context for, and great was the fall thereof.
SPEAKER_01: Our bathroom vanity, we had a leak on one side, and it got just saturated, so we had to tear it out.
SPEAKER_01: So I watched uh Chip and Joanna Gaines a lot, so I thought I can do this.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh, in case you don't know, because I was just like hammer smashing this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you that comes later.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing you've got to do, men, is you've got to take off those two little screws with a little clear, look like clamshells, holding your mirror on.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is not like a mirror.
SPEAKER_01: This thing is 42 inches tall and 72 inches wide.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like a wrapper.
SPEAKER_01: I got a big crib, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And and so I'm like, I grew up on a farm.
SPEAKER_01: I figure this out, okay?
SPEAKER_01: How hard can it be?
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm by myself.
SPEAKER_01: I unscrew the first one and I go over and I start unscrewing the next one, and I went to set the the screwdriver down because I'm thinking this thing's like super glued to the wall.
SPEAKER_01: It's not.
SPEAKER_01: You don't put adhesive on the back of a mirror because it'll bleed through and mess up the reflection part.
SPEAKER_01: That thing, which is thick plate glass, comes tipping down on me.
SPEAKER_01: And so, because I'm like a cat, pew, I caught that bad boy, pushed it back up, and then I was like, I'm home by myself.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, uh, uh, see what it was, well, and I'm and and it's sitting on top of the backsplash because the backsplash is about that tall, and then the counter is right here.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, I'm just gonna ease this thing off.
SPEAKER_01: It is very heavy, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just gonna ease it off and set it down behind the faucets and set this.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm on this end down here, and I'm kind of trying to, and that thing, I mean, it I don't know what the habit was, it just kind of slipped off and it fell about that far, and it went tink and shattered.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, when glass breaks, don't recoil, don't move your hands and feet.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you get cut.
SPEAKER_01: Just stand there, it'll bounce off of you.
SPEAKER_01: So I I I slid the thing and it went tink, and I just closed my eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, just shards of glass were going over because it hit the counter, something hit the sink, something hit the floor, just exploded like mirror dust everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: I'll have shiny boogers for the next week.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm standing there.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the reasons I like manual labor is because I think about my sermon.
SPEAKER_01: I'm holding this half-shattered mirror, and I'm like, and great was the fall thereof.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody get this thing back together.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't believe me, the other half's in the back of my truck like right now.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, uh, wow.
SPEAKER_01: Uh how am I gonna explain this to my wife?
SPEAKER_01: Mr.
SPEAKER_01: I got it.
SPEAKER_01: So I took a picture and sent her a little text and said, we need to raise the budget for this project.
SPEAKER_01: Last night, my wife came limping out of our bathroom into the living room at about 10 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What's wrong?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I got a piece of glass in my foot.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Where'd that come from?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: We're done.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this question.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't put priority on the words of Jesus because he's the Son of God, you're gonna get off later in life and you're gonna be wondering, where'd that come from?
SPEAKER_01: Why do I feel so anxious?
SPEAKER_01: Why do I always feel overwhelmed?
SPEAKER_01: Why am I always angry?
SPEAKER_01: Where did this person I see in the mirror, where'd this person come from?
SPEAKER_01: It came from the simple fact.
SPEAKER_01: Not that you didn't read the Bible enough or none of that, you didn't believe that Jesus really was God.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you did, you'd place a higher priority on his words.
SPEAKER_01: You'd do something about your sin problem, and you'd realize whatever you face, hey God, you got a plan for this?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not, I'm not, I ain't gotta come up with a solution on my own.
SPEAKER_01: I'm living in the shade of the plan of God as it relates to everything.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus really is God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to our church, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: So we'd like to ask you to do is just take the next minute or two and think about what you've heard.
SPEAKER_01: And just ask yourself, hey, what is it that I want to think about tomorrow driving to work?
SPEAKER_01: What kind of made my brain set up and go, oh, hello?
SPEAKER_01: Because the most important question you and I will ever answer is, is Jesus really God?
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we celebrate today that you're the seeker.
SPEAKER_01: You're the one that leaves the 90 and 9 and comes looking for the one.
SPEAKER_01: You're the one that left the sanctity and the security of heaven and came to the insecurity of earth.
SPEAKER_01: You left the perfection of heaven for the imperfection of earth to find sinners like me and turn us into sons and daughters of God.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, I pray for any unfound people in this room today that they'd be found.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's start with the simple, consequential belief that Jesus really is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that has beautiful ramifications for my life.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for this truth in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, let me say thanks for being part of our service.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, you had a chance to fill out your guest card on your way out.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll drop it in this wooden boxes by the door, it's all we ask of you today.
SPEAKER_01: For the rest of us that call this your church, if today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, that's where you take care of that as well.
SPEAKER_01: Let me remind you of two things before we're dismissed.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, our women's fall gathering is coming up.
SPEAKER_01: It is on August the 26th from 5:30 to 8:30, right here in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_01: These chairs will be struck, there'll be round table set up.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, ladies, that we can only get a fixed number of people in here, and so once we're at that number, we're at registration will be cut off.
SPEAKER_01: And so it will be a delicious catered meal with dessert right here.
SPEAKER_01: And then Elizabeth Woodson, who is a provocative, God-besodted, God-centered woman that you will not want to miss.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you just kind of get around her and you'll be like, whoa, yes, yes, to whatever you're about, lady.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what she's about is God and God alone.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll pick up on that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, anyway, we're registering today in the lobby.
SPEAKER_01: Right, you walk out, there'll be somebody out there.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's$10.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we'd love for you to not miss an opportunity to not only experience a great meal and a consequential life, but meet other women from the church that you're a part of, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Last announcement I have is that our new devotionals are in.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, they're available at all the exits.
SPEAKER_01: Our ushers will have some in their hands.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, you say, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: What is that?
SPEAKER_01: It's basically a little book that has like a Bible verse or two at the top, and a little half-page reading for every day, starting in September.
SPEAKER_01: It goes September, October, November.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great way to start your day, great way to end your day.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great thing to have on your desk at work.
SPEAKER_01: When you got five minutes, you can just pick it up.
SPEAKER_01: It takes about three minutes to read each one.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a long time.
SPEAKER_01: But what you'll see is it'll just kind of aim your head and your heart in the right direction.
SPEAKER_01: These are free today.
SPEAKER_01: They're our gift to you, so please grab one, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that anyone who comes after God must believe that he is.
SPEAKER_01: And because he is, you can be.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that he is, they must believe that he is, and he's the rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
SPEAKER_01: God is not his heart.
SPEAKER_01: Go hard after him in doing your part.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.