SPEAKER_02: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_02: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we just kind of confess and we agree with what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: That when you died, you died, our death in our place.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've been raised to walk in a newness of life.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us in the book of Ephesians that the same power that you used to raise Jesus from the dead was the exact same power you used to raise us from being spiritually dead, spiritually incapable of doing things that the Bible talks about.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we don't do those things in our own power today.
SPEAKER_00: All of us in this room that know Christ, that follow Jesus, we do that because the power of God was expressed in our life, was used to exert influence over us, to change our heart, not just to forgive our sins, but to empower us to live the life that the Bible talks about.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not cocky or arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: We don't think we're better than anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: We have just been uh uh had an experience with the merciful power of God, and that changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: It's why Paul says in Romans chapter 1, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it's the power of God to anyone who believes, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, we're not ashamed today.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody in this room that is outsend the powerful gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, anybody here that thinks, man, I've screwed up so bad.
SPEAKER_00: There's no way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just here to go through the motions.
SPEAKER_00: That's not true.
SPEAKER_00: We just silence that voice in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: We say, that's not the voice of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the voice of the accuser that wants to beat us down.
SPEAKER_00: We don't receive that today.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we receive the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth.
SPEAKER_00: You said you would, Jesus said you would do that.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, you said that the truth would be the thing that sets us free.
SPEAKER_00: Set us free today, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Wash off of us anything that's unnecessary.
SPEAKER_00: We pray and we listen now in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seed if you've got a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I invite you to take it.
SPEAKER_00: Open up to John chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.
SPEAKER_00: I'm on page 894.
SPEAKER_00: And a guy asked me recently, he said, Hey, do I have to look at the Bible when you're talking?
SPEAKER_00: Because I feel like you look at me and I don't reach for a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, No, you don't have to look at it.
SPEAKER_00: It comes up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: I said, We just put those there in case you'd like it.
SPEAKER_00: And if you like it, if you don't have a Bible and you like it a lot, take it home with you today as our gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get another one.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we are preaching through the book of John, and so we're up to John chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you today about following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: About following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about a lot of things uh in the church, and I think sometimes it's easy to forget to talk about the main thing, and that is following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, that's that's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, when you get into what the Bible, how the Bible describes it, and the language the Bible uses to say this is what it means to follow Jesus, it actually does become a really big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, there's a difference in following Jesus and believing in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Uh because we'll start reading in verse 12, we'll read down to verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: And verse, right at verse 12 or 13, he says, you know, all those who follow me, that's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: And it ends with some of these people there listening to him saying, We believe.
SPEAKER_00: And then next week we'll get into this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus starts unpacking it, and they're kind of like, uh, we well, we don't, we're not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: We believe, but we're not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: No, people that really believe, they follow.
SPEAKER_00: They follow.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, one lady out there.
SPEAKER_00: People that really believe, they follow.
SPEAKER_00: And when it gets hard, they keep following.
SPEAKER_00: Uh when it when it when it gets easy and it gets really good, they keep following.
SPEAKER_00: Because some of us, the worst thing we could do is be blessed because we will spit the bit and trust ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And and and and so you gotta you gotta distinguish between following Jesus and believing in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it like this: it's like a diet.
SPEAKER_00: Most people would say, I believe a diet is a good thing, but I don't follow one.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way it is with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, hey, a diet's a great thing.
SPEAKER_00: But with that kickoff today, when I watch that game today, I'm not gonna be thinking about a diet, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so why do I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because I want you to hear the way Jesus describes.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, Jesus is gonna say some things about himself, and Jesus is modeling in his relationship with God the Father what our relationship with God should look like, okay?
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 8, starting verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisees said to him, You are bearing witness about yourself, and your testimony is not true.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I have come from, where I am going, but you do not know where I am come from or where I am going.
SPEAKER_00: You judge according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: I judge no one.
SPEAKER_00: Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true.
SPEAKER_00: For it is not I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.
SPEAKER_00: I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.
SPEAKER_00: They said to him, therefore, Where is your father?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my father.
SPEAKER_00: If you knew me, you would know my father also.
SPEAKER_00: These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: So he said to them again, I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Where I am going, you cannot come.
SPEAKER_00: So the Jews said, Will he kill himself?
SPEAKER_00: Since he says, Where I am going, you cannot come.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, You are from below.
SPEAKER_00: I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world.
SPEAKER_00: I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.
SPEAKER_00: So they said to him, Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to them, Just what I've been telling you from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world that what I have heard from him.
SPEAKER_00: They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing of my own authority, but I speak just as the Father taught me, and he who sent me is with me.
SPEAKER_00: He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_00: As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
SPEAKER_00: Now it starts off with Jesus saying, way back up there in verse 12, hey, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_00: And it ends with people saying, Hey, many people that that that heard him, they believed in him.
SPEAKER_00: So it's incumbent upon us today to understand what does it mean to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: It means four things from the text.
SPEAKER_00: It means, first of all, that you don't walk in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You don't walk in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Here verse 12 again.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give you a little bit of the text, and then I want to give you the context in which it happens.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, when I say context, what it means, what's going on when Jesus stands up and says these words.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 12, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying and where is he saying it?
SPEAKER_00: He is standing at the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we started back in chapter 7, the the Feast of Tabernacles is going on, or what the Jews called Sukkot, where they built these little, little, little, not like, like little huts and they lived in them for a week to kind of remind themselves that even though we've made it into the promised land, we still depend on God for everything we have.
SPEAKER_00: Even though, like George and Weezy, we moved on up to a bigger house.
SPEAKER_00: God, it still depends on you.
SPEAKER_00: The mortgage payment comes from you, everything we have comes from you.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're not careful, you can live in Fort Bean County and you get that house you've always wanted, and you're rigging around in that vehicle you've always wanted, and you're kind of like, yeah, we have made it.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful because it's so easy just to kind of forget.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why they observed the Feast of Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles.
SPEAKER_00: They lived in a little hut that they would build outside of their house, just to say, hey God, we're in the promised land, but this all still depends on you.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't forgotten that.
SPEAKER_00: We were born on third base.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't hit a triple, amen?
SPEAKER_00: And so this is what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: It's a part of that feast of Sukkot is in the in at the temple, which is kind of like the this symbolized where God dwelled for the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: And it had this big open park called the court of the women.
SPEAKER_00: That's where everybody could come.
SPEAKER_00: And at there they had these four huge menorahs.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that they look like a modern-day candelabra.
SPEAKER_00: And on each four, on each menorah they had four prongs going up.
SPEAKER_00: They were 70 feet tall.
SPEAKER_00: It would be like having 70 feet, like a lampstand made out of telephone poles.
SPEAKER_00: 70 feet in the air.
SPEAKER_00: There were four of them.
SPEAKER_00: 16 blazing torches on the temple, which was built on the temple mount.
SPEAKER_00: So it's up on a uh up on a hill outside the city.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, there's this glowing fire, all firelight all around the city.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is just kind of like this basking.
SPEAKER_00: Now, devout men would take their old clothes, their shirts, and tear them up and take them into strips, wrap them around a stick and make a torch out of that.
SPEAKER_00: And they would dance all night and sing worship songs to God, basking in the light of these torches coming off of these 16 flaming oil-fueled torches that are going on at the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And they had this big thing going on.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus stands up and says, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, here's the significance of this statement.
SPEAKER_00: One thing I forgot to tell you these torches and this fire, it symbolized and represented the pillar of fire by which God led his people in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Back, remember when we preached the book of Exodus?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you remember.
SPEAKER_00: We took about six years, went to the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all, how much longer are we gonna be in the book of Exodus?
SPEAKER_00: Until we get all the way out of the promised land and into the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all were like, shut up, I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Preach on marriage or something.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on, put your big boy pants on, grow up a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we do that is to lay a biblical foundation so you can understand things like this.
SPEAKER_00: Because for those of you who weren't here when we went to the book of Exodus, God got these people out of exile.
SPEAKER_00: They were slaves.
SPEAKER_00: God said his affection on Israel and said, Hey, you're the littlest among the nations.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing about you that makes me want you, but I want you anyway.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way you propose to a woman, men.
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: Of course you wouldn't.
SPEAKER_00: None of you would say to your wife, you'd walk up to your wife at a party in college and kind of go, hey, you're not really much to look at.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, every woman in this room is better looking than you, but I want you anyway.
SPEAKER_00: She'd be like, move away, loser.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not making fun of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: God's just kind of saying, Hey, I didn't choose you based on anything inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, even that statement is God kind of winking, saying, Hey, it's the same way with you and me, Neil.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing about Neil that made God kind of look and go, hey, there's some potential there.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: So they built these, they like these torches to symbolize, hey God, we're still looking to you to guide us because when the children of Israel were, they was like, hey God, how are we going to know where you are?
SPEAKER_00: Because God said, follow me.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, How do we know where you're going?
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'll tell you what, during the day, I'll have a pillar of cloud.
SPEAKER_00: And at night a pillar of fire.
SPEAKER_00: How hard can that be?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you wish God would make it that obvious nowadays?
SPEAKER_00: What if I told you the Bible says he does?
SPEAKER_00: Because they light these fires.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus stands up and listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying by saying that?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying to these very religious people, I'm God.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, So what?
SPEAKER_00: Unless you understand what Jesus is saying, you don't understand people's reaction to him.
SPEAKER_00: So because Jesus says these things, this is why the Pharisees say what they say in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisee said to him, You are bearing witness about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Your testimony is not true.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true.
SPEAKER_00: For I know where I come from and where I'm going.
SPEAKER_00: You do not know where I come from or where I'm going.
SPEAKER_00: You judge according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: I judge no one.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone.
SPEAKER_00: For I for it is not I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this part.
SPEAKER_00: In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.
SPEAKER_00: I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the law, and that's true, before you could accuse somebody of something, you had to have two eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_00: Can you think of anything going on in the news headlines today on Fox News or CNN that would be helpful if we had two eyewitnesses?
SPEAKER_00: We could just clear some things up right now.
SPEAKER_00: All this legalese back and forth, and he said and she said, and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, by the way, I'm a witness, and my father is a witness to the fact that I am not just a prophet, a good moral example, a good teacher.
SPEAKER_00: I am God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what the people went crazy about.
SPEAKER_00: Later here in this section we just read, Jesus uses this phrase two or three times.
SPEAKER_00: Ergo I mean I am.
SPEAKER_00: I am that I am.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: What does he say again?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, if you do away with the Old Testament, you have no historicity for the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: Way back in Exodus, when God told this guy, Moses, hey, I want you to go tell Pharaoh, let my people go.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses is like, hey man, that's the most powerful cattle on the planet.
SPEAKER_00: He'll kill me and then eat lunch and forget about me.
SPEAKER_00: Who do I tell him sent me?
SPEAKER_00: And God said, You tell him I am sent you.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Jesus says to these folks here in John chapter 8, see, the Bible's not 1142 one-off stories, it's one story told over thousands of years with one central theme and one main character and one purpose.
SPEAKER_00: It all fits together.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus comes not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: It means you don't walk in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Then by the way, you don't walk in, you don't not walk in darkness through effort or determination, but because of identity.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_00: Will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been with us since the beginning, we started preaching through the gospel of John.
SPEAKER_00: That should sound vaguely familiar.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just take you back to John chapter 1, verses 1 to 5.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_00: He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him.
SPEAKER_00: And without him, there's not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice the way the Bible separates those words because we jam things together for the sake of pace and expediency.
SPEAKER_00: And we say anything.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says slow down.
SPEAKER_00: This is like a verbal speed bump.
SPEAKER_00: Slow down, let your brain go over this and drink it in.
SPEAKER_00: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_00: Without him was not anything.
SPEAKER_00: No thing was made that was made.
SPEAKER_00: In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
SPEAKER_00: And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here the Bible's already in chapter one of John's Gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's already inviting us to think about this things in terms of light and darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Now John writes the Gospel of John, but he also writes what's called epistles, the shorter book that the end of the New Testament, 1, 2nd, and 3 John.
SPEAKER_00: They're right before the book of Jude and then Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: So if you ever want to find those, but in that epistle, he's explaining to people how to live out the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: And in 1 John chapter 1, verse 5 to 7, he says this this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
SPEAKER_00: If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
SPEAKER_00: But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his son cleanses us from all sin.
SPEAKER_00: Hear that last sentence again.
SPEAKER_00: But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to have fellowship with God, you have to walk in the light because God does not dwell in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says, what fellowship does light have with darkness?
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to begin to think about your Christian life and lit and following Jesus, not in terms of right and wrong, because that can be so subjective.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it in terms of light and dark.
SPEAKER_00: Light and dark.
SPEAKER_00: And as a Christian, you should be able to sense and feel when you're kind of getting close to darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody understand what I mean when I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Like, this doesn't feel my spirit feels a little bit vexed here.
SPEAKER_00: I feel a little bit grieved here.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I should be doing this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've ever been around anybody that is done with right and wrong, but they speak about it in terms of light and dark.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very convicting thing.
SPEAKER_00: For example, I was an eyewitness to a situation where a guy was trying to kind of convince a girl to go out with him, and he was smooth talking, and he had a low bear white voice, and blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And she was being gracious, and she was being nice, and she was saying, Hey, you know, I don't, that's not a priority for me right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of focused on other things.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy would back up, correct two degrees, and come again.
SPEAKER_00: And she was being gracious, and I noticed she began to run out of graciousness.
SPEAKER_00: And about five minutes into his persistence, I'm not a bad guy, you know, you're judging me, you hating me, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: She said very calmly, hey, listen, here's what I'm not trying to say, but I think spending time with you for me would be a step towards darkness, and I'm not willing to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And smooth talking brother ran out of words right there.
SPEAKER_00: It was like hee-haw, hee-haw, he ha, hee-ha.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, hey man, I'll play and you clog, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because she was just like, and I'm not doing that.
SPEAKER_00: I was stained by that.
SPEAKER_00: I was just like, say, what?
SPEAKER_00: She's right.
SPEAKER_00: She was saying what John says in 1 John, if we walk in the light as he and then the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
SPEAKER_00: See, she's so valued, look at this.
SPEAKER_00: She's so valued fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_00: See, she wasn't willing to lay down that to have fellowship with this man that was walking in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not saying right and wrong are bad.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying what's more intimate and personal is you you have the light of life inside of you, the Holy Spirit as a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And so you need to be thinking about your life, not in terms of right and wrong, and that that's true, right and wrong do exist, but light and dark.
SPEAKER_00: That requires more intimate discernment.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: First thing it means to follow Jesus is we don't walk in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, does that mean we're perfect?
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about what you sense and what you respond to.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing it means is this is that you believe all the truths about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You believe all the truths about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21 to verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: It's basically the Pharisees kind of saying to Jesus, hey, we don't believe what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: Here verse Hear it again in that context.
SPEAKER_00: Listen for how often Jesus says, I am He.
SPEAKER_00: I am He.
SPEAKER_00: Ergo I me.
SPEAKER_00: I am He.
SPEAKER_00: I am that I am.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: So he said to them again, I am going away, and you will seek me and you will die in your sin.
SPEAKER_00: How'd you like to have a conversation like that with somebody?
SPEAKER_00: That's a downer right there.
SPEAKER_00: Where am I?
SPEAKER_00: Where I am going, you cannot come.
SPEAKER_00: So the Jews said, Will he kill himself since he says, Where I am going, you cannot come?
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, You are from below.
SPEAKER_00: I am from above.
SPEAKER_00: You are of this world, I am not of this world.
SPEAKER_00: I told you that you would die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying something very central about himself.
SPEAKER_00: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.
SPEAKER_00: See, when you follow Jesus, it means that you believe all the truths about Jesus, not just the convenient ones.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: So they said to him, Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to them, Just what I've been telling you from the beginning, I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.
SPEAKER_00: They did not understand.
SPEAKER_00: He had been speaking to them about the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.
SPEAKER_00: Let me stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime the Bible says, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, he's talking about the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, When you have lifted, when you've nailed me to a cross and lifted me up for all the world to see.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is way before the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says in verse 28, it's right there in your Bible, you're smart people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows what is coming.
SPEAKER_00: He tells these people, hey, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you read on in the Gospels, you'll see when Jesus dies on the cross, there's a Roman centurion standing at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus finally dies, he looks up and says, Surely this was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, R-Ro.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus foretold that happening right here, way back in John chapter 8, verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: We'll keep reading.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I do nothing of my own uh he says, uh, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing of my own authority, but I speak just as the Father taught me.
SPEAKER_00: Twice, Jesus says, then you will know that I am he.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you believe that I am he.
SPEAKER_00: Draw your attention back to verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I mean to follow Jesus means you believe all the truths about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The problem with the Pharisees is they didn't believe that Jesus was he.
SPEAKER_00: They did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He represented God, he was a sinless Savior sent to die for the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And this whole section is all about that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's easy to point to the people in the Bible and say, Yeah, can you believe they didn't believe that?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, beloved, you're sitting around people right now in this room that don't believe some of the same thing, or they believe some of the same things about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can't follow Jesus and then kind of pick and choose the things you're willing to believe about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the top three things that are hardest for Americans to believe about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, that he was born of a virgin.
SPEAKER_00: We're just kind of like, I mean, there's no such thing as a virgin anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can't, much less.
SPEAKER_00: How does one get pregnant?
SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing people have a hard time believing.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, that he really was God, that he was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Jesus wasn't just a good.
SPEAKER_00: Man, a moral teacher, he was born of a virgin, that he was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the Bible prophesied a long time ago, a virgin shall conceive and give birth.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, and here's the most the third most popular one that he was sinless.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people that say there's no way he can be sinless.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, who can be sinless?
SPEAKER_00: Because you think America and the world's messed up now.
SPEAKER_00: You know, back in the biblical times, it was probably more immoral than it is nowadays.
SPEAKER_00: I know y'all are like, they didn't have the internet and smartphones.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but they had temples, huge edifices, these big buildings that were dedicated to these shrines to immorality.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say it like that, because there's little ears in the room.
SPEAKER_00: And see, it's easy to look back and kind of go, it was so much easier to be a Christian back then.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00: When they buried you in the ground and cut you in half if you profess Christ?
SPEAKER_00: All your parents do is kind of go, we don't want to talk about religion and politics.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do I mean when I say you have to believe all the truths about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why we don't believe Jesus was born of a virgin.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why we don't believe that Jesus was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why we don't believe that Jesus was sinless.
SPEAKER_00: We look to the wrong lens.
SPEAKER_00: Remember this: when you get in a discussion with somebody about spiritual things, do not try to win an argument.
SPEAKER_00: Just change the lens through which they look through.
SPEAKER_00: You ever been to the eye doctor?
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean when I say change the lens?
SPEAKER_00: You ever go to the eye doctor?
SPEAKER_00: They set you down, they swing that thing around.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like the navigation device for a land speeder from Star Wars, and they start flipping the things.
SPEAKER_00: One or two.
SPEAKER_00: Which is better?
SPEAKER_00: One or two?
SPEAKER_00: One or two.
SPEAKER_00: My eye doctor goes 14 lenses down the road, and I'm like, the third one and the seventh two.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Neil, I've got a lot of patience today.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how some patience I mean, not that kind of patience.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I got people patience.
SPEAKER_00: I get it, Doc.
SPEAKER_00: You want to turn the handle and make some money, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Go start over again.
SPEAKER_00: One or two.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's hard to focus.
SPEAKER_00: It ain't much difference.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: All you've got to do is just change the lens just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Like, for example, if you're in the room right now and you believe any of those kinds of those three things, and look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think God's mad at you.
SPEAKER_00: But I think you've created a problem for yourself that you're not aware of.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, what exactly do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Here's some of the lenses that we look at we look at Jesus through.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just put them up here on the screen and then I'll demonstrate what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some of the lenses that we look.
SPEAKER_00: We look through the lens of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, if I can't be sinless, how can anybody else be?
SPEAKER_00: Well, when you're the Son of God, you're capable of things that humans aren't.
SPEAKER_00: Can we just agree to that?
SPEAKER_00: Here's another lens, our intellect.
SPEAKER_00: I hear this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, for a rational thinking being, that doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: I know.
SPEAKER_00: A guy said to me one time at a golf course, and I quote, you know the thing that just gets all over me about Christianity is these people, they live sinful lives their entire lives, and at the very end, they ask for forgiveness and they think they're getting in.
SPEAKER_00: I said, they are.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, what?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is always by nature offensive.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing more offensive than those people get accepting Christ at the end of their life is me getting forgiveness for my sins.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing that I find crazy and hard to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Because I flipped the lens and all of a sudden he was like, I can't see.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another lens we looked through, our experiences.
SPEAKER_00: Well, my grandma died of cancer, and how can God be loving if God let my grandma die of cancer?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not mocking the fact that your grandma died of cancer.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, don't be so polyanned to think we live in a perfect world.
SPEAKER_00: The world is tainted by sin.
SPEAKER_00: And an expression of that is cancer.
SPEAKER_00: And death as a whole.
SPEAKER_00: You know this?
SPEAKER_00: You were not created to die.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most unnatural thing you do.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Bible says when a person dies, they're the most alive cat in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Second Corinthians chapter 5, check me on this later.
SPEAKER_00: It says when when a person dies, it says that what is mortal is swallowed up by life.
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy talk.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you believe what the Bible says is that, hey, you were never created to die.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most unnatural thing a Christian does.
SPEAKER_00: You die because of sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Bible says the wages of sin is death, not the way God set it up.
SPEAKER_00: Not the way God intended it.
SPEAKER_00: We screwed it up.
SPEAKER_00: So don't look at God through the lens of your experience, it'll always be blurry.
SPEAKER_00: Like looking through that black glass in someone's bathroom.
SPEAKER_00: You can see that there's something going on in there, but you can't make out what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, did God make you to live with no clarity?
SPEAKER_00: Or he's the God of a pill a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
SPEAKER_00: Does he intend more clarity for you as it relates to understanding who he is and how he is in this world?
SPEAKER_00: Here's another lens we look through our preferences.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another lens, the last one is our culture.
SPEAKER_00: We look through the lens of our culture because we look around and we kind of say, I don't want to stand alone.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of awkward and uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Who am I to stand up and talk about a biblical view of morality when my friends are boasting about their sexual exploits at the lunch table in the cafeteria when we're in high school?
SPEAKER_00: I know, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're looking through the long lens, you're not a bad person, you're not a coward, you're not standing, you're just looking through the wrong lens.
SPEAKER_00: So why is that a big deal that you believe all the truths about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself this question: How flawed can Jesus be in your mind and still be God's sinless sacrifice for your sins?
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask it again.
SPEAKER_00: How flawed can Jesus be in your mind and then still be God's sinless sacrifice for your sins?
SPEAKER_00: Because if Jesus isn't real, you got a lot of problems.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, one of them, like if Jesus isn't the Son of God, on what basis do you believe that God has any concern for humanity?
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in the most popular verse in the world, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes in him shouldn't perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is not the Son of God, then how do you know God has love for the world?
SPEAKER_00: What do you point to to say, see, God's not giving up on the world?
SPEAKER_00: There can be hope, and that's not a foolish, unfounded hope.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you're leaving yourself, if you're not careful, here's my concern.
SPEAKER_00: We live in such an age of doubt and cynicism, and it starts in middle school.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of sexy to be.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just don't believe that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just, you know, and it's how you garner attention.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a progressive.
SPEAKER_00: Really, it's regressive.
SPEAKER_00: You're going all the way back to the Garden of Eden and you're believing the lie, the first lie that the devil told Adam and Eve, and it was this.
SPEAKER_00: You can be like God, knowing uh uh good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: You can be like God knowing good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: You can be like God knowing right and wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You can decide for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to listen to God.
SPEAKER_00: And so while we talk about, you know, progressive socialism, it's just regressive.
SPEAKER_00: You're going back and you're believing the original lie that got this all thing kicked off in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, if you're not careful, here's my fear that many of us are leaving ourselves with no means of forgiveness because you don't believe things about Jesus that the Bible says, or you believe things that are not true about him.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is not born of a virgin, he didn't live a sinless life, if he wasn't the Son of God, then how can he be sacrificed on the cross in your place for your sins?
SPEAKER_00: Because the law of God demands a sinless sacrifice, a lamb without spot or blemish.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you're not careful, your fear of standing up to the culture leaves you with no recourse for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: I had a conversation a while back with an engineer, very intelligent man, and I won't summarize the whole conversation, but it just ended.
SPEAKER_00: I just said, hey, in the culture you're talking about, because he looks through all these lenses.
SPEAKER_00: That's his worldview.
SPEAKER_00: He's an intellectual, brilliant man, does not believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I just said, in a culture where you disbelieve the theological, you have to resort to and rely on the therapeutic.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I said, You've got to heavily medicate the anxiety that's born to a Christless culture because there's no cure for what ails the soul of humanity, so you have to settle for making them comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, What are you saying?
SPEAKER_00: I said, But when you when we deal with the theological, that means what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: You you obligate yourself to you relegate yourself to look to and depend on, trust in the therapeutic.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because then you've got to, you basically have to treat what ails the soul of humanity, because there is no God, there is no solution to sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so you've got to just medicate the anxiety that stirs up in somebody.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy said, Well, my son's 10.
SPEAKER_00: I think he said his son's 10, and my son is on anti-anxiety medication.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, I'm not mocking it, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: And look at me.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in this room and your doctor prescribes medication, take your medication.
SPEAKER_00: It's not unspiritual.
SPEAKER_00: And I he said, So you're saying that my son is, I said, I'm not saying about your son.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, have you seen how pervasive it's gotten?
SPEAKER_00: Younger and younger and younger and younger we medicate.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of saying, see, we've neglected the theological and we've embraced the therapeutic.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's no solution.
SPEAKER_00: So what we do is we just try to just medicate the anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe the anxiety is there because we don't believe some things about ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't pull out religious literature.
SPEAKER_00: I just try to change the lens.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of saying one, I just said, What about two?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Man, this is, I gotta think about that.
SPEAKER_00: See, what does it mean to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: It means we believe all the truths about him.
SPEAKER_00: And again, let me say this: look at me.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not careful, you can so dismantle Jesus in your mind based on something you cannot, you I just can't accept that.
SPEAKER_00: That you don't have a God that can die on the cross for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: So there's no hope of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: There's no, hey, God cares about the world.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing means to follow Jesus is you live with a sense of God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: It's towards the end, verse 29, down there, and Jesus says, He who sent me is with me.
SPEAKER_00: He has not left me alone.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I told you earlier that the way Jesus relates to God is it's an example of how we're created to relate to God.
SPEAKER_00: He who sent me is with me.
SPEAKER_00: He has not left me alone.
SPEAKER_00: You know that God's never gonna leave you alone if you're a child of God?
SPEAKER_00: He's never gonna leave you alone.
SPEAKER_00: Now you've got to ask yourself, does the thought of that bring you comfort or guilt?
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel smothered by the thought of a God who's everywhere at all times, or does it bring you a sense of joy?
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist, a guy in the Bible that was just, that blew his mind that God, I mean, you read all through the Bible, like in Psalm chapter 8, David is outside and he's looking up at the stars and he writes these words that are recorded in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Oh Lord, when I consider the heavens and the work of your hands, what is man that you're mindful of him?
SPEAKER_00: And he just goes on, he's humbled by that.
SPEAKER_00: That God did all this and yet you're mindful of me?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: President John F.
SPEAKER_00: Kennedy used to keep a little plaque on his desk that said this, that said, Oh Lord, your ocean is so vast and my boat is so small.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked him one time, they said, Why do you keep that there?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, just as a reminder.
SPEAKER_00: Just as a reminder.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the president, and my boat is so small in this vast ocean that belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's a reminder.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist also said this in Psalm 139, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Where shall I go from your spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Where shall I flee from your presence?
SPEAKER_00: If I ascend to heaven, you're there.
SPEAKER_00: If I make my bed in Sheol, you're there.
SPEAKER_00: If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
SPEAKER_00: If I say, Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light about me be night.
SPEAKER_00: Now hear that again.
SPEAKER_00: Stop and hear that.
SPEAKER_00: Arrest your attention.
SPEAKER_00: Surely the darkness shall cover me.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody in this room that's ever turned out the lights, hoping that no one sees what's fixing to happen, right?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are like, don't blink, honey.
SPEAKER_00: This is a trick.
SPEAKER_00: Don't blink.
SPEAKER_00: I sword.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going on that.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: God is so merciful.
SPEAKER_00: God is saying, we don't have to act like I don't know what happens in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: You can even go fishing in the dark with a nitty-gritty dirt band, God knows.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: I see those hands over there.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of you keep listening to KSPJ.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, he says, if I say, Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you.
SPEAKER_00: The night is bright as day, for darkness is as light to you.
SPEAKER_00: If, as the Bible says, the night is as bright as day.
SPEAKER_00: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_00: The night is as bright as day to God.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is you should get used to the idea of God not only being everywhere, but knowing everything.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the last thing it means to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It means that what you do, you do what is pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: You do what is pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: He's not left me alone, he says, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_00: I always do the things that are pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to hear.
SPEAKER_00: The first step is just get your heads around this today, is to realize that we don't worship a God who's a tyrant, who's incapable of being pleased, who's just obligated you and I to fear.
SPEAKER_00: That's not God.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is replete with passages that speak about God being pleased with his people.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want you to just think today, do you ever think of we see we think in terms of, does God love me?
SPEAKER_00: Which is great.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's good.
SPEAKER_00: But what's even more intimate is, is God pleased with me?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you look at the baptism of Jesus in Matthew, it's recorded in Matthew chapter 3, God speaks and says, This is my son whom I love, with whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus hadn't done anything yet of public record, and God says, I want you to know that I'm pleased with him.
SPEAKER_00: How do you communicate to your children that you're pleased with them?
SPEAKER_00: My kids are so lazy, wink wink.
SPEAKER_00: You ask them, Hey, what do you got to do for your dad to be pleased with you?
SPEAKER_00: They'll go, nothing, just be myself.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, my kids knock stuff over, spill milk, and go, oh, no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Accidents happen.
SPEAKER_00: Their mother and I taught them that.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I grew up fearing my dad.
SPEAKER_00: I had the stepmom, when you spilled your milk, she would slap you, just get a towel.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, stop slapping me so I can get a towel.
SPEAKER_00: That's how this works.
SPEAKER_00: And then you'd have to come back to the table and sit there and you wouldn't get more milk.
SPEAKER_00: Because you plan to spill your milk, so you didn't get more milk.
SPEAKER_00: And if my brother's trying to give me milk to drink, don't give him his milk.
SPEAKER_00: He's being punished.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna chew my food and swallow it without milk.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't tell you how many times I thought really bad thoughts about that lady.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I tell you that.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible comes along and says, hey, I'm a God that longs to be pleased with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a God that I I'm not some tyrant, I'm not some half-drunk stepmom, chain smoker who slaps you because you had an accident and spilled your meal.
SPEAKER_00: Set there and eat your food with no milk.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is great.
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna make me love you.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, Psalm 147, God says this his delight is in the strength, his delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: He is pleased with those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: It's 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: This is the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a more direct teaching on sexual morality in the entire Bible than in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 1 to 8.
SPEAKER_00: And he begins it by saying, Hey, I'm saying these things to you because this is the way I feel about you, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, then, brothers, we ask and we urge you in the Lord Jesus, just as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine your boss meeting you at the door tomorrow and kind of going, hey, by the way, I just want you to know I'm so pleased with your work.
SPEAKER_00: We are better because you work here.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, there are gonna be a little something, something in your paycheck this next time, this next week, to let you know that I'm pleased with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking to you about a God that says, I put all in here over and over.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 5, verse 10, and find out what pleases the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's just in your presence, Lord, is fullness of joy and at your right hand the pleasures forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: So you think about your life in terms of, hey, just ask, hey, is this pleasing?
SPEAKER_00: Is this pleasing?
SPEAKER_00: God is it?
SPEAKER_00: Are you pleased by this?
SPEAKER_00: Not a very masculine word, man.
SPEAKER_00: But we need to be leading our wives and our children into this.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, let's ask the Lord if this is pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_00: This is good for us, but is this pleasing to you?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible uses really intimate language to describe this intimate relationship.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest today, uh, just one of the things we like to do is teach the Bible and then give you some questions to think about.
SPEAKER_00: They'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Lindsay will come and she'll just play, she may sing a little something over you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the questions we want you to think about during this time of reflection.
SPEAKER_00: Let me list them all for you.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, is there any part of your life where you're walking in darkness?
SPEAKER_00: Number two, what do you find hard to believe about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: You should ask your kids.
SPEAKER_00: You want to catechize your kids?
SPEAKER_00: You want to teach them good gospel truth?
SPEAKER_00: Ask them questions like that.
SPEAKER_00: What do you find hard to believe about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Number three, does the thought of God being everywhere bring you comfort or concern?
SPEAKER_00: Number four, how often do you think, is this pleasing to God?
SPEAKER_00: Let me voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Jesus, we just want to uh we want to just think about what the things you say.
SPEAKER_00: Because we believe that you are the Son of God and that you came into this world, you lived a sinless life.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, you're born of a virgin, you lived a sinless life.
SPEAKER_00: And the greatest thing about you is not that you died on the cross in our place for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest thing about you is that you're God and you're accessible, and you want to you say, Hey, you can live a life that pleases me.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to live in fear of getting slapped ever again.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I want to be pleased with you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear my voice saying, I'm so proud of you.
SPEAKER_00: You've worked so hard, you you walk in the light, you sense darkness, and you stir away from that.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, just kind of brood over us while we think about these questions.
SPEAKER_00: We think about you through the lens of these questions.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we recognize today that you stand as God over everything that we know, bigger, and yet you invite us.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Come on, we're not done.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, I got more to show you, I got more to teach you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about this the way I think about it.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to feel about this the way I feel about it.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, that's what it means for us to be more like you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we trust you today, and we yield to that process.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for anyone here today that's never begun a relationship with you, that today you would put in them a desire to know you in relationship, not just in religion.
SPEAKER_00: Religion is not enough, it's not what you came for, you came for relationship, and for that we're thankful.
SPEAKER_00: So we say thank you today in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: All God's people said amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: There's just a couple things we want to make you aware of that are going on here at our church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so let's take a moment and remember these things together.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our men's retreat registration is open online and in our lobby.
SPEAKER_01: The cost is$50, and it kicks off October 19th at 7 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: in the warehouse.
SPEAKER_01: Fort Bend is one of the most diverse counties in the country.
SPEAKER_01: God has brought the nations to our front door.
SPEAKER_01: ESL is a ministry where we are able to provide teachers to teach English as a second language for people from all over the world.
SPEAKER_01: ESL continues to be a valuable doorway for us to take the gospel to the nations by building relationships with those who don't go to church.
SPEAKER_01: If you're interested in serving, talk to one of our pastors at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_01: For more information, check out our website at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Uh what I'm fixing to say is not an apology, but it is an acknowledgement.
SPEAKER_00: Uh our service today went a little longer than normal because we think it's a sin to hurry little kids and the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're visiting today for the first time, you're like, eh, it's not that bad.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you can do it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but we just I don't like to cheapen little kids.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a sin.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get to heaven and God punch me in the neck for being a jerk.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why we don't hurry.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: Your God is the one who says, Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and you'll find rest for your souls.
SPEAKER_00: Translation He is committed to helping you follow Him.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now and accept that invitation in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.