Jeff Miller

December 22, 2019

We're Expecting

We're Expecting! We Expect a King.

Jeff Miller

December 22, 2019

We're Expecting

Introduction:

What Kind of King Is This? (Luke 1:26-38)

As God, Jesus Rules over me. (Luke 1:32, 35)
As Man, Jesus Relates to me. (Luke 1:31)
Hebrews 2:17 - Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect...

Hebrews 4:14-16 - Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

As Savior, Jesus Rescued me. (Luke 1:31)
Matthew 1:21 - She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

01:04-01:08
Open up your Bibles with me please to Luke chapter 1.
01:10-01:11
Luke chapter 1, are you there?
01:14-01:19
When I was in high school, I worked at Walmart.
01:22-01:37
And my job, lest you think it was too glamorous, my job was fetching the carts and cleaning the bathrooms And basically hopping from department to department to do whatever anybody needed.
01:40-01:50
And being new, just getting to know some people, getting to know some personalities, the one day in particular I was just getting pinballed from department to department.
01:51-01:53
Every department needed help with something.
01:54-02:01
And in particular the manager of the lawn and garden department was just piling it on.
02:01-02:03
I need this and I need you to come back for this.
02:03-02:04
And why wasn't this done?
02:04-02:05
Piling it on.
02:06-02:08
And I said, well, look, I'm going to come back.
02:08-02:09
I'm going to help you.
02:09-02:11
But the girl from foods needs help, too.
02:11-02:13
And everybody needs-- you just have to wait.
02:13-02:17
So I went and was helping the girl that worked in foods.
02:17-02:21
And I was just having a bad day.
02:21-02:23
And I didn't know this girl either.
02:23-02:25
But she's like, so how's it going?
02:27-02:33
And I said, that lady from the law and garden department is on my last nerve.
02:35-02:44
I said, she has been on my case and she has been barking orders at me and I don't know what her problem is, but I am about to unload on her.
02:46-02:49
And the girl from food says, you mean my mom?
02:53-02:55
There's no backing out of that.
02:57-03:00
There just isn't.
03:01-03:03
You know, I learned two valuable lessons that day.
03:05-03:10
The first one is, make all your words sweet, because you might have to eat them.
03:13-03:15
The second lesson I learned is you need to know who you're dealing with.
03:16-03:17
Right?
03:18-03:23
And we're going to find out today, from our text, who exactly we're dealing with.
03:24-03:28
We're expecting. We expect a king.
03:29-03:31
Pick up where we left off last week.
03:32-03:53
Verse 26. It says, "In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary." It's up there the sixth month. The sixth month of what?
03:54-03:57
The sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.
03:59-04:00
Gabriel shows up again.
04:00-04:02
The same messenger that went to Zechariah.
04:02-04:05
We talked about that whole thing last week.
04:05-04:09
And it says that Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph.
04:09-04:12
Betrothed was an engagement.
04:13-04:16
But in those days, this engagement was legally binding.
04:16-04:22
It wasn't just like becoming boyfriend/girlfriend and breaking up.
04:22-04:29
It was legally binding, so in order to break the betrothal, you had to file for divorce.
04:30-04:31
1 Corinthians 28.
04:33-04:40
It says, "And he came to her and said, 'Greetings, O favored one!
04:40-04:49
The Lord is with you!' But she was greatly troubled at this saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
04:50-04:55
And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
04:56-05:02
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
05:04-05:05
He will be great.
05:06-05:09
And will be called the Son of the Most High.
05:09-05:14
And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.
05:15-05:18
He will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
05:19-05:30
And of His kingdom, there will be no end." So Gabriel shows up to this young, engaged, virgin woman and says, "God chose you.
05:32-05:42
You are going to concede." Now we know the story, but can we just try to imagine ourselves in Mary's position here?
05:45-05:53
and says, "You're going to conceive." And Mary knew exactly one way that such a thing happened to human beings.
05:56-06:04
But she understood that Gabriel didn't mean that the conception was going to happen after marriage.
06:04-06:09
You know, Gabriel wasn't like, "Hey, by the way, someday, five years into your marriage, you're going to have a baby." She knew.
06:10-06:11
He means now.
06:15-06:18
Look at verse 34. It makes it clear.
06:20-06:38
"And Mary said to the angel, 'How will this be, since I am a virgin?'" You know, I was reading that this week, and I thought to myself, wait a minute, why wasn't Mary disciplined the way Zechariah was disciplined, right?
06:39-06:40
Anybody else have that question?
06:40-06:45
Like, wait a second, Zechariah had questions and he was struck mute and deaf.
06:46-06:49
Mary asked a question, and she wasn't disciplined.
06:49-06:51
Like, what was the difference?
06:54-06:57
The difference was attitude.
06:59-07:00
Parents get that, right?
07:01-07:08
You know, there's a difference between your child asking you a question for information a child questioning you.
07:11-07:13
Now, Mary wasn't unbelieving.
07:14-07:16
We're going to see this here in a second.
07:16-07:18
She believed everything that the angel was saying.
07:19-07:20
She just didn't understand it.
07:20-07:25
She was just humbly asking how this could happen because keep in mind, this was unprecedented.
07:25-07:28
Nothing like this had ever happened in the history of mankind.
07:29-07:31
A virgin has a baby.
07:35-07:36
Here's how, look at verse 35.
07:37-07:44
"The angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
07:44-07:53
Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.'" Gabriel says, "Here's how this happens.
07:53-07:56
The Holy Spirit's going to make this happen.
07:57-08:15
And this child will be fully human as the Son of Mary, and the child will be fully God as conceived by the Holy Spirit." Verse 36, "And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son.
08:17-08:29
And this is the sixth month with her, who was called Baron." Mary didn't ask for a sign, but she was given one.
08:30-08:40
Once again, I would encourage us to try to put ourselves in Mary's position here, to try to recreate in our hearts to some extent the impact this would have had.
08:40-08:43
Could you imagine hearing this statement?
08:44-08:49
The angel shows up and he's like, "Oh yeah, by the way, you know your great-aunt Francine?
08:51-08:59
Eighty-six years old, never had any kids, you know her?" Like, "Yeah, I know her." Like, "Yeah, she's pregnant." What?
09:01-09:04
God's obviously up to something big here.
09:04-09:09
I mean, here, pregnant virgin and pregnant elderly woman.
09:10-09:12
God's obviously doing something.
09:12-09:23
And verse 37, Gabriel says, "For nothing will be impossible with God." He has the power to do all this.
09:25-09:28
Verse 38 is the proof of Mary's attitude I was talking about earlier.
09:29-09:32
Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.
09:34-09:39
Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
09:42-09:43
There's the proof of her attitude.
09:43-09:44
She wasn't unbelieving.
09:45-09:46
She was like, "Oh, okay.
09:49-09:52
God says even though I've never known a man, I'm going to have a child? Okay.
09:53-09:55
I'm just a servant. That's what God says.
09:55-09:56
That's what we're going with.
10:00-10:00
Let me ask you, church.
10:02-10:21
How many times do you think over the course of last week to today to Tuesday, how many times within that couple-week block do you think this passage will be preached in churches all over the world?
10:24-10:38
And so much is going to be said about the virgin birth and the character of Mary, and then maybe pulling in some other passage talking about shepherds and angels and magi, and all those things are true.
10:41-10:43
But all of those things are secondary issues, really.
10:45-10:57
Because so many Christmas messages that are preached are about how He's coming, I think what's more important is who has come.
10:59-11:10
And Gabriel highlights one aspect of Jesus very specifically, and I know you saw it, because he said it in at least three different phrases here.
11:10-11:16
It's like, okay, here's what's happening, but here's the thing I'm emphasizing, and I'm going to make sure you get this.
11:16-11:19
Look at verses 32-33 again.
11:20-11:22
And look at what he highlights here.
11:23-11:34
up at the end of verse 32, "And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
11:34-11:43
And of his kingdom there will be no end." You see what Gabriel was making sure Mary understood?
11:44-11:48
This child is going to be a what?
11:49-11:50
He's going to be a king, right?
11:51-11:52
He's going to be a king.
11:53-11:56
Not just a king, he's going to be the king.
11:57-12:02
He's not just going to be some temporary monarch in a faraway land.
12:05-12:09
See he's going to be the king.
12:12-12:17
And Mary would have known exactly what that meant, because she knew her Old Testament.
12:19-12:23
The King was promised to reign on David's throne forever.
12:23-12:24
2 Samuel 7.
12:25-12:30
The King was promised that He would have the government on His shoulders forever.
12:30-12:31
Isaiah 9.
12:34-12:42
And jumping to the New Testament, if you were with us in our study of Revelation last year, when Jesus returns, do you remember the name that He has?
12:43-12:45
He is the King of what?
12:45-12:46
The King of Kings!
12:47-12:58
If you line up every leader that's ever existed, every prime minister, every monarch, every president, you line them all up, they have a king.
12:59-13:01
And that king's name is Jesus.
13:02-13:03
The King of Kings.
13:06-13:09
And really, that's the part of the story that we don't love as much.
13:12-13:29
Because we're very content hearing the story of the young pregnant woman who persevered and she made the trip to Bethlehem and she had the baby and she put him in a manger and all that's true and all that's cozy and all that's comfortable and all that's heartwarming.
13:31-13:36
But if you think that that's the point of the story, then you missed it.
13:37-13:40
Because Gabriel made it abundantly clear.
13:43-13:50
"Mary, your pregnancy is going to result in the birth of the King." And that's where it gets uncomfortable for us.
13:52-13:57
Because if He's the King, that means He's in charge and I'm not.
13:59-14:04
If He's the King, that means He has the right to tell me how to live as a citizen of His Kingdom.
14:08-14:19
And that's why the sentimentality of Christmas gets people to church this week, but then keeps them from coming back to church until next Christmas, maybe.
14:22-14:26
Because, "Oh, I'll come and I'll tip my hat to baby Jesus and His brave mama.
14:28-14:40
I'm not going to bend my knee to King Jesus." And right now there's some people sitting here that are like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you need to back off a little bit, Pastor Jeff.
14:40-14:49
I don't know who you think you're talking to, okay, but I'm not opposed to Jesus being the King." And I'm here to tell you I'm sure he appreciates that.
14:50-14:52
But you're like, "I'm not opposed to that.
14:52-14:55
Okay, okay, okay, he's a king, okay, he's a king.
14:56-15:02
He's a king. I'm with Gabriel on this, he's a king." Good.
15:05-15:08
But the question is this, is He your King?
15:09-15:10
Is He your King?
15:11-15:13
And you're like, "Well, of course He's my King, Pastor Jeff!
15:15-15:21
I mean, Donald Trump's my President, but Jesus is my King!" Is He?
15:26-15:27
Is Jesus the King in your home?
15:30-15:36
Does Jesus in His Word power and guide the way you love your wife?
15:38-15:39
Or the way you love your husband?
15:42-15:43
Or if you have children?
15:44-15:49
Does Jesus in His Word power and guide the way you are raising your kids?
15:51-16:00
An outside observer walked in and saw how you conducted your home for the day, but they say, "Yeah, obviously Jesus is king here." Is He king of your home?
16:03-16:06
What about at work? Is Jesus king while you're at work?
16:07-16:09
Do you work as if Jesus is your boss?
16:12-16:17
Do you go to work with the understanding that really you represent Jesus Christ and His kingdom?
16:17-16:31
Or do you get caught up with the lifestyle and the work habits and the coarse joking that everyone else who doesn't know the Lord is doing, you just get caught up with that.
16:32-16:33
Is Jesus King at work?
16:35-16:36
Is He your King at work?
16:38-16:39
Is Jesus Christ King of your body?
16:41-16:47
Do you conduct your body in a way that honors the God who created it?
16:48-16:50
Is Jesus really your King?
16:51-16:54
I mean, really, like in actuality.
16:54-16:57
and when the rubber meets the road, like the way you live your life.
16:57-16:59
Do you live your life as if Jesus is your King?
17:00-17:03
Do you love and forgive people the way the King commands?
17:04-17:08
Do you serve the King in His church and in missions as He's called you to?
17:09-17:15
Do you see your money as belonging to the King to be used to advance His Kingdom?
17:17-17:23
You're like, "Well, not really." Then he's not your king! Okay? He's just not.
17:26-17:29
And you need to bow your knee to Him.
17:34-17:41
Gabriel says that we're expecting a king, the greatest king, the eternal king.
17:43-17:52
And if you're not on board with that, if it's just lip service, but it's not actual reigning over your life.
17:55-17:58
This morning, I just want you to see what kind of king this is.
17:59-18:05
Because I'm going to share three compelling reasons to bow down to this king.
18:07-18:15
Truth be told, I could probably list 20,000 reasons off the top of my head to bow down to this king.
18:16-18:18
But you don't got that kind of time.
18:19-18:20
Because Christmas is Tuesday, right?
18:21-18:24
So, I'm just going to give you three.
18:25-18:26
What kind of king is Jesus?
18:26-18:28
Jot these things down.
18:29-18:30
Number one is God.
18:30-18:47
"As God, Jesus rules over me." "As God, Jesus rules over me." You see twice in this passage, The Lord God, verse 32, verse 35, He's referred to as the Most High.
18:49-18:53
In the Old Testament, that is El, Elion, God Most High.
18:53-18:54
Do you know what that means?
18:54-18:55
Do you know what that means, God Most High?
18:55-18:56
Do you know what that means?
18:59-19:00
It means nobody's higher.
19:01-19:02
He is the Most High.
19:03-19:04
Like who has a higher rank than Him?
19:05-19:06
Who has a greater power than Him?
19:07-19:08
Who has more authority than Him?
19:08-19:11
Nobody, because He is Most High.
19:11-19:13
There's no one above Him.
19:14-19:18
You see, Jesus is called the Son of the Most High.
19:18-19:24
And to be the Son of God means He has the same essence of God.
19:25-19:35
In other words, Gabriel was saying to Mary, "This child being born to you is God." And some people say, "Well, Jesus wasn't really God.
19:35-19:41
He was the Son of God." And that is a complete misunderstanding of what that means.
19:41-19:50
Because we're going to see later on, spoiler alert, in our study of the Gospel of John, when Jesus said He was the Son of God, they knew exactly what He was saying.
19:51-19:59
To walk around and say, "I'm the Son of God," was your way of saying, "I am God in the flesh." And that's what Gabriel was telling Mary.
20:01-20:03
Verse 32, he says that Jesus will be great.
20:05-20:08
Like, wasn't that what was said to John the Baptist, mom?
20:09-20:10
Zechariah, actually?
20:11-20:12
That John the Baptist would be great?
20:12-20:14
Isn't that what Gabriel said to Zechariah?
20:16-20:16
No.
20:17-20:20
Actually, he said that John the Baptist would be great before the Lord.
20:21-20:24
Meaning, in the sight of the Lord.
20:25-20:29
Meaning, yes, God made John the Baptist great.
20:29-20:30
That's imputed righteousness.
20:31-20:32
God made John the Baptist great.
20:32-20:38
But Jesus would be great. See the difference?
20:39-20:41
The difference is Jesus would be great inherently.
20:43-20:44
Unqualified statement.
20:45-20:47
That Jesus wouldn't be made great.
20:47-20:50
Jesus wouldn't just be regarded as great.
20:50-20:54
Jesus isn't going to someday become great.
20:56-20:59
He says He will be great. Period.
21:00-21:01
And this speaks to His holiness.
21:02-21:04
Jesus Christ is in a class of His own.
21:05-21:07
No one is great like this coming King.
21:12-21:14
Again, look at verse 33 again.
21:15-21:28
"He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." So Jesus Christ reigns for how long?
21:29-21:31
Four-year term? Is that a four-year term?
21:32-21:34
Open for re-election in 2020?
21:36-21:37
Who's all voting for Jesus?
21:37-21:39
Who's all voting for Jesus at the next election?
21:40-21:41
Nobody is.
21:42-21:44
Do you know why? Because it's not up to a vote.
21:45-21:47
Because He is King forever.
21:51-21:52
So put it all together.
21:54-22:00
Gabriel's saying to Mary, "No one is higher, no one is holier, and He is King forever.
22:00-22:02
He is God. He is perfect.
22:02-22:03
And His reign is eternal.
22:04-22:07
There's no one greater, and there's no one more deserving.
22:07-22:11
God rules over everything!
22:12-22:17
Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, is King over everything!
22:20-22:21
Including me.
22:23-22:24
That's the kind of King we have.
22:26-22:27
bowed down to Him.
22:30-22:39
Number two, not only as God, Jesus rules over me, secondly as man, Jesus relates to me.
22:42-22:51
Now even though Jesus' conception was obviously supernatural, the rest of Mary's pregnancy would have been normal.
22:53-23:09
And somehow, Jesus' growth from baby to boy to man was what we would call normal human development, according to Luke 2.40.
23:11-23:19
Yes, Jesus Christ is fully God and totally man at the same time.
23:21-23:25
I'll be honest with you, there's a part of me that finds that even more awesome.
23:28-23:41
The fact that He didn't just have this man costume on, He literally became a human being like us.
23:41-23:43
Like, was He really like us?
23:43-23:45
I mean, was He really like us?
23:46-23:48
Well, here's a couple passages to look at.
23:48-23:49
Hebrews 2.
23:51-24:03
He says, "Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers," meaning human beings, "in every respect." So yeah, Jesus fully human in every way.
24:04-24:10
Then you jump to Hebrews 4, and it says, I'm not going to read all this, just to highlight the main part here.
24:10-24:16
"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." Let's hold fast our confession.
24:17-24:17
Look at this.
24:19-24:33
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
24:35-24:42
So as man, as God, Jesus rules over me, but as man, Jesus relates to me.
24:44-24:45
What difference does that make?
24:48-24:49
Here's all the difference.
24:51-24:52
Hear me, church.
24:52-25:01
When you share an experience with someone, when you share an experience with someone, you relate to that person in a special way.
25:03-25:03
You get it.
25:04-25:05
You've been there.
25:05-25:06
You understand.
25:10-25:13
Find two people that went to the same high school.
25:15-25:20
They talk about having the same teachers, the same classes. There's a camaraderie there.
25:21-25:24
There are two people that worked in the same place.
25:25-25:27
Anybody else have to clean the bathrooms at Walmart?
25:29-25:29
Just me?
25:33-25:36
Anybody else unknowingly badmouth somebody's mother at Walmart?
25:38-25:38
Just me?
25:41-25:45
Two people sharing an experience. There's a connection that happens.
25:46-25:50
Find two people that each recently lost someone close to them.
25:51-25:52
Yeah, I get that.
25:53-25:54
Yeah, it's been hard.
25:55-25:56
I know you understand.
25:57-25:58
You just lost someone too.
25:59-26:00
I get that.
26:01-26:03
Find two people that have the same kind of pet.
26:06-26:10
Super spiritual, I know, but do you know what Aaron and I and Patty Kitchen were doing before church?
26:10-26:11
Do you know what we were doing?
26:12-26:15
We were sharing dog stories and looking at pictures of dogs.
26:17-26:18
We have a connection there, right?
26:20-26:21
As I do with all dog people.
26:24-26:27
People that are caring for aging parents, you get the point.
26:29-26:31
People that share that common experience.
26:31-26:34
There's a special connection that's made there.
26:35-27:10
And I know for me personally, you go back about 20 years ago, and I'd be somewhere in public, and I'd I'd see a parent wrestling with an obviously autistic child, I would just kind of shrug and think, "Oh, that stinks." But I've got to tell you, now, now when I see that, I'm like, "Man, I get that." Over the last 14 years taking our kids to therapies, doctors, being in the waiting room and seeing these other parents, I see it in their face.
27:10-27:13
Like, beat down and worn out.
27:14-27:17
And I'm like, man, I so get that.
27:17-27:18
I so get that.
27:18-27:19
I understand.
27:21-27:22
I feel it.
27:23-27:28
You see, it's one thing to see it before I had to walk through some things.
27:28-27:34
It's one thing to see it and be like, "Well, that kind of stinks." But it's another thing to actually go through it.
27:36-27:41
And I'm like, "What's your point?" The point is Jesus has gone through it.
27:43-27:51
Jesus, according to God's Word, experienced everything that we experience except for sin.
27:54-28:02
So we can never accuse God of not knowing what it's like, of not understanding how hard life is.
28:04-28:05
Because He was here.
28:06-28:16
And He was here, not just as this floating, detached spirit, He was here in the flesh to experience all of this.
28:17-28:18
Now please hear me, church.
28:20-28:29
I am not saying, I am not saying that God was lacking knowledge in any way before the incarnation.
28:29-28:30
I am not saying that.
28:31-28:42
What I am saying is there is something profound in the truth that God not only knows, but has experienced what we all experience.
28:43-28:56
So when we pray church, it is not to some detached king who lives in some ivory tower somewhere far away who couldn't imagine what our situation must be like.
28:59-29:01
When we pray, it's like, "Yeah, yeah God, you get it.
29:02-29:04
I know you understand this, God.
29:04-29:08
I know you know the hurt of betrayal.
29:08-29:10
I know you know the hurt of abandonment.
29:10-29:13
I know, God, you know the hurt of broken relationships.
29:14-29:21
You've been here, you've seen it, you've experienced it." That's the kind of king we have.
29:23-29:24
We bow down to him.
29:27-29:46
And finally, "Not only as God, Jesus rules over me, and as man, Jesus relates to me." Number three, "As Savior, Jesus rescued me." You're like, "Where do you see that in the passage?" It's all over, right?
29:47-29:52
"You shall call His name Jesus." You know, we get some more information about that in Matthew's account.
29:52-29:56
The name Jesus is the name Joshua.
29:56-30:09
It's the same name, and it means "the Lord saves." And that's why, very specifically, this is the name that God attaches to Himself in the Incarnation.
30:09-30:21
Matthew 1.21 gives us some further clarification that says, "She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus." Why are we going to call Him that?
30:22-30:22
There it is.
30:23-30:33
"For He will save His people from their sins." This majestic, holy, awesome, transcendent God, why did He become a literal man?
30:34-30:37
It was so much more than just relating to us.
30:40-30:42
Jesus became a man in order to save us.
30:45-30:57
Once upon a time, A human man named Adam brought sin and death into the world and condemned us all.
30:59-31:07
And it would require a sinless human man to pay the death penalty so that we could be forgiven.
31:09-31:13
That's why sometimes in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as the second Adam.
31:16-31:28
In other words, though we rebelled against God, He came to save us from His own holy wrath.
31:29-31:34
And He rescued us by dying in our place.
31:37-31:38
That's the kind of king we have.
31:40-31:41
If you bowed to Him.
31:43-31:45
We have the opportunity now.
31:46-31:55
If our ushers would come forward, and if the worship team would make their way up, we're going to close our time here together by gathering around the Lord's table.
31:58-32:09
And as we gather around the table, I know a lot of times there are so many things that we think about regarding these emblems representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
32:12-32:17
Gabriel told us to expect a king, and that's exactly who came, and that's exactly who's coming again.
32:18-32:29
So as we take the Lord's Supper today, I just want to encourage all of us that we're going to take it together after everyone receives, I'll lead us in taking it together.
32:32-32:48
But as we think about not only the Lamb of God who laid down His life, I want you, as we take the Lord's Supper together, I want you to think, the King of the universe shed His blood for me.
32:50-32:58
The King of the universe became a man to lay down His body as a sacrifice for me.
32:58-32:59
The King did that.
33:01-33:07
So as the worship team plays and the elements are distributed, I'm going to ask you to hang on to them.
33:08-33:10
We'll receive the Lord's Supper together moments.

Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 1:26-38

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why was Zechariah disciplined for questioning God’s Word, but Mary wasn’t? Support your answer. (hint: see Luke 1:38)
How would you respond to someone who asks, “Why should I bow down to Jesus now?”
How does it encourage YOU knowing that Jesus has experienced everything human beings experience?

Breakout
Pray for revival in Pittsburgh! Pray that area churches would faithfully preach God’s Word, and the Spirit would open hearts to receive Jesus Christ.

Jeff Miller

December 15, 2019

We're Expecting

We're Expecting! We Expect God to Keep His Word.

Jeff Miller

December 15, 2019

We're Expecting

Introduction:

I Pray with Expectation (Luke 1:5-25):

Because God will keep His Word . (Luke 1:13-17)
Jeremiah 1:12 - ...I am watching over my word to perform it.
Because God will keep His Word, according to His Timing . (Luke 1:20)
Psalm 27:14 - Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
Because God will keep His Word, according to His Timing and unbelief only hurts Us . (Luke 1:20)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:01
Luke 1, are you there?
00:01-00:10
The next three messages are called, "We're expecting." We all come to Christmas time with expectations.
00:11-00:13
No one more than a kid.
00:13-00:17
And no kid more than me when I was a kid.
00:18-00:21
One year for Christmas, I remember, and Darren, you remember this well.
00:21-00:25
One year for Christmas, I wanted a pogo ball.
00:25-00:28
How many people, show of hands, know what a pogo ball is?
00:28-00:30
A lot more than I expected.
00:30-00:46
For those of you that are like, "What in the world is a pogo ball?" Follow-up question, "Why in the world did you want a pogo ball?" I want to take you back to the most glorious chapter of history since biblical times.
00:47-00:48
We call it the 80s.
00:49-00:51
Right, Jesse? Right? Okay, alright.
00:51-00:55
And turn your attention to the screen, and you're going to see exactly why I wanted this pogo ball.
00:56-00:57
I know what you're thinking.
00:58-01:00
How could I not have wanted that?
01:01-01:04
I mean, I saw that commercial and I was sold.
01:04-01:12
I'm like, "I want a pogo ball." And I don't remember what year it was, what Christmas it was, but do you know what I got?
01:12-01:16
You're like, "You got a pogo ball, didn't you?" No, I got a Saturn ball.
01:16-01:18
Do you know what a Saturn ball is?
01:19-01:21
It's the knockoff of the pogo ball.
01:22-01:27
And I gotta tell you, with this Saturn ball, was the most fun I've ever had for about 20 seconds.
01:29-01:30
Not even as long as the commercial.
01:30-01:40
It was almost as thrilling as regular jumping, only it was harder because you also had to squeeze the top of this ball between your feet.
01:41-01:50
And if that wasn't bad enough, for the 20 seconds I was in my basement trying to play with this thing, my brother was singing this song.
01:50-01:51
Do you remember the song that you sang?
01:51-01:52
You remember the song that you sang?
01:53-02:01
"Here we go on our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball..." And I'm like, "Alright, I'm done with this stupid thing." Do you remember that song? You don't remember that?
02:01-02:03
I'm going to call in a third witness. We have another brother.
02:04-02:05
I know he remembers that.
02:06-02:09
I know. You guys make fun of my Saturn ball.
02:09-02:12
Well, why are you telling us all this?
02:13-02:19
Here's the point. Much of life on Earth is extremely high expectation, right?
02:19-02:44
I had in mind when I got my Pogo/Saturn ball that I was going to play the keytar on stage or be serving food at a restaurant jumping on this thing and it was going to be awesome and the reality was much much much more disappointing than the expectation. And the series we're going through is called "We're We're expecting.
02:45-02:54
And while on the earth, earthly expectations and reality leads to a lot of disappointment, here's a reminder of the next three messages.
02:55-02:57
Jesus Christ never disappoints.
02:57-02:59
He never disappoints.
02:59-03:00
We're expecting.
03:01-03:04
The series is going to call us to live in expectation.
03:05-03:10
We want to believe that God is and will be actively at work.
03:11-03:15
Every day we look to God's goodness That's the way a child looks to Christmas.
03:17-03:22
The second reason we're calling it "We're Expecting" is all three of these sermons have something else in common.
03:22-03:24
They're about a pregnant woman.
03:26-03:30
They're like, "Oh, you mean when Mary was pregnant with Jesus?" Yes, but not today.
03:31-03:34
Today we're actually going back a little earlier than that.
03:34-03:41
Luke 1.5, we're going to be starting by talking about John the Baptist's mother and his story.
03:41-03:44
This is really how the Christmas story begins.
03:45-03:58
Luke 1.5 says, "In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
03:59-04:11
And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord, but they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
04:12-04:17
So Zacharias was a priest, and he was married to the daughter of a priest.
04:17-04:20
God-fearing, God-seeking people, and they had no children.
04:20-04:28
And in those days, it was wrongly believed that if you didn't have children, you were cursed by God.
04:28-04:29
He closed your womb.
04:29-04:31
You did something bad, and He judged you.
04:32-04:34
That's a common misconception.
04:35-05:11
Regardless, Elizabeth was barren, were old. So from their perspective it didn't look like they were going to hear the pitter-patter of little feet anytime soon. Look at verse 8. It says, "Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty according to the custom of the priesthood he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. The whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense." Stop right here, I'm going to give you a little history lesson to sort of explain what's going on.
05:11-05:19
Every priest served at the temple two times a year, for a week, and they weren't consecutive.
05:19-05:22
Okay, so two times a year we were going, serving a week.
05:23-05:27
And usually their job was to kill the sacrifices.
05:27-05:30
They were basically like butchers.
05:30-05:39
They would stand and they would slaughter the animals that were brought for sacrifice, but each time they would cast lots.
05:39-05:42
What was that? It was kind of like throwing dice.
05:42-05:50
It was a lottery system they had in place to see which of the priests were going to be allowed to burn incense.
05:52-05:56
And most of the priests, because there were so many of them, they never got chosen.
05:57-06:00
Most just didn't ever get the opportunity to do it.
06:00-06:07
But if you were one of the ones who did get chosen, you were only allowed to do it once in your lifetime.
06:08-06:08
That's it.
06:09-06:11
And you're like, "All right, Pastor Jeff, hang on a second.
06:11-06:12
I'm missing something.
06:13-06:16
What was the huge deal about burning the incense?
06:16-06:21
I mean, my wife does that, but I've never seen her get all giddy before she does it." Well, here's the big deal.
06:22-06:24
Do you know where the altar of incense was?
06:25-06:26
It was in the holy place.
06:27-06:40
So that meant, if you were a priest and you were chosen, you were able to go in to the holy place, and the altar of incense was actually right next to the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies.
06:40-06:55
So the priest was like, "Hey, physically on the earth, this is the closest I will ever get to God, and I have the opportunity to be right on the other side of the curtain from the place where God sits." So yeah, it was a huge deal.
06:56-07:08
So what they would do is they would take coals from the altar of the burnt offering, and they would take those coals into the holy place and put them in the altar of incense, and then they would actually put the incense on the burning coals.
07:09-07:19
And we've talked about this many times in the past, but the purpose of that incense, it was to represent the prayers of the people as a fragrant aroma going to the Lord.
07:20-07:25
And that's why verse 10 says people were outside praying while this was happening.
07:25-07:29
It was a picture of we are coming before God and raising up our prayers.
07:30-07:30
All right?
07:31-07:36
Verse 11, you have the scene, Zechariah, he's in the holy place, he's burning the incense.
07:36-07:45
Verse 11 says, "And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
07:46-07:50
And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
07:50-08:01
But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
08:02-08:16
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord, and he must not drink wine or strong drink, And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.
08:17-08:37
And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." So this angel shows up.
08:37-08:41
You have this scene, Zechariah, big deal, holy place, burning incense.
08:41-08:49
and an angel shows up and the angel says, "Hey, your prayer has been heard, and you are having a son.
08:50-08:53
And this son is going to be special." Like, every son is special, right?
08:53-09:12
He goes, "Yeah, but this is special in biblical proportions, because he's going to be great before the Lord, he's going to be full of the Holy Spirit from birth, he's going to bring revival in Israel as he prepares people for the Messiah." And that's John the Baptist, and we spent some time talking about him, didn't we?
09:13-09:16
To me, one of the most fascinating people to ever walk the planet.
09:17-09:19
This angel's like, "Hey, your prayer's been heard.
09:21-09:27
Your wife is going to give birth to a global game changer." What did he say to that?
09:28-09:29
Well, let's look at what he said. Verse 18.
09:30-09:34
"And Zechariah said to the angel, 'How shall I know this?
09:34-09:41
"For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." Like, that's the response we're going with here.
09:41-09:41
Okay.
09:42-09:44
He says, Zechariah's like, "Haven't you heard?
09:46-09:47
"We're old.
09:47-09:53
"I don't know if you got the memo, "but I gotta give credit for Zechariah here for one thing.
09:53-10:00
"Do you see what a gentleman he is?" He says, "I'm an old man, "but my wife is advanced in years." Isn't that nice?
10:01-10:02
Can we just stop and acknowledge?
10:03-10:07
But I just thought that was very gentlemanly of him to say it that way.
10:07-10:08
Apparently just me, okay.
10:10-10:14
But Zechariah is like, well, how am I gonna know this?
10:14-10:20
Because I'm old and my wife's advanced in years and the angel was like, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize your age.
10:20-10:22
I mean, you look very good for your age.
10:23-10:26
And apparently I'm going to need to go back to heaven to update our files.
10:27-10:32
Forget all the pregnancy talk, forget I was even here, I didn't know you were old.
10:33-10:34
Is that what your Bible says?
10:35-10:37
No, because that's not what the angel said.
10:37-10:39
Look at verses 19 through 23 with me.
10:40-10:41
Here's what the angel actually did say.
10:41-10:43
The angel answered him, "I am Gabriel.
10:44-10:46
I stand in the presence of God.
10:47-10:50
And I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.
10:51-11:01
And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.
11:02-11:06
And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple.
11:06-11:12
When he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple.
11:12-11:15
And he kept making signs to them and remained mute.
11:16-11:19
When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
11:19-11:27
Okay, so people outside are like wondering, "What's going on in there?" Typically, priests got the business done as fast as they could.
11:27-11:46
There was this fear that if I did something irreverent in the holy place, God was going to strike me dead, so let's take care of business and get out." And people were like, "He has been in there an awfully long time, and he couldn't speak when he came out." Typically, when the priest came out, they gave a little speech, a benediction.
11:46-11:51
It was typically the Deuteronomy 6.24 benediction.
11:51-12:00
But since he couldn't speak, they were like, "Something happened in there to him." Could you imagine how badly he wanted to tell people what happened?
12:01-12:04
I mean, if that was you, couldn't you... you couldn't wait to tell...
12:04-12:12
"You won't believe who I saw in there! And you won't believe what he told me!" And I'm sure he was busting it to seems to tell, but he couldn't.
12:13-12:17
Oh, and by the way, we're going to find out in verse 62, he was also deaf.
12:18-12:19
This was all God's discipline.
12:19-12:21
Like, "Hey, you don't want to hear the Word of God?
12:22-12:23
Then you're not going to speak the Word of God.
12:24-12:28
Oh, and you're not going to hear anybody else's words either, if you're not willing to listen to the Word of God.
12:28-12:31
This was an act of discipline on Zechariah.
12:31-12:35
"Well, does that mean he changed his mind about the promise?" Absolutely not. Look at verse 24.
12:36-12:52
It says, "After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 'Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when He looked on me to take away my reproach among people.'" There it is. You know, that's the first miracle of the New Testament.
12:53-12:59
Zechariah comes home, Elizabeth conceives, because God allowed her to become pregnant.
12:59-13:02
You're like, "Well, why did she stay hidden?" I kind of get that, right?
13:03-13:10
Because here's a woman advanced in years, going around telling people, "Hey, an angel told my husband I was going to get pregnant.
13:10-13:14
My husband came home, next thing you know, I'm pregnant." Isn't that the craziest thing you've ever heard?
13:14-13:26
They're like, "Yeah, you're crazy." So she kept herself hidden until about the five-month mark, when not gonna sound so crazy when there's evidence that you are pregnant.
13:26-13:28
Right? I think that's why she kept herself hidden.
13:28-13:32
But regardless, she knew. She knew what happened. God made this happen.
13:33-13:37
Isn't that a great story? I would say that is a great story.
13:37-13:39
I would say most of that is a great story.
13:40-13:47
Because I kind of wish verses 18 through 23, I kind of wish those verses didn't happen.
13:47-13:49
I kind of wish the story went like this.
13:50-13:52
The angel shows up and says, "Zechariah, God heard your prayer.
13:53-14:01
You're going to have a son. He's going to be awesome." Zechariah's like, "Great! High five!" Goes home, Elizabeth has John, but that's not how it happened.
14:02-14:04
He didn't believe Him, and God disciplined him for that.
14:05-14:08
And it's real easy to criticize Zechariah, isn't it?
14:08-14:16
"Shame on you! How could you not believe?" But the truth is, this hits closer to home than I think most of us would want to admit.
14:16-14:22
In verse 18, remember, the angel says, "You're going to have a son." And here's exactly what he's going to be like.
14:22-14:29
Verse 18, "Zechariah said, 'How shall I know this?'" Wasn't he praying for this?
14:30-14:40
According to verse 13, Zechariah had been praying for this, at least once upon a time, and I don't know what happened over the course of his prayer life.
14:41-14:43
But I know what's happened over the course of mine.
14:44-14:58
when I've prayed for the same thing over and over, and days turn into weeks, turn into months, and then suddenly, years later, I'm still saying the words.
14:58-15:03
I mean, I'm still down, and I'm still saying the words to God.
15:04-15:06
But you know, I'm just being honest.
15:06-15:14
I've really had to take a hard look at my life in times to ask myself, Am I praying with expectation?
15:14-15:26
Or has years of discouragement put me in this place of, "I'm more saying my prayers than I am praying." Can we get back to praying with expectation?
15:26-15:27
Can we get back there?
15:27-15:30
Can we get back to the place where we know that God's going to keep His Word?
15:31-15:41
And if you're like me, if you've ever struggled in this area, I just want to give you today three things that Zechariah teaches us about praying with expectation.
15:41-15:43
So jot this down if you haven't outlined.
15:44-15:46
Again, if you're like me, if you're like, "You know what, Jeff?
15:46-15:53
There's things I've been praying about." Maybe some of you are like, "You know what? I just stopped praying about it because I just didn't think it was going to happen.
15:54-15:56
And I dressed it up.
15:56-16:07
I said, "Oh, maybe perhaps this is not God's preordained sovereign will for my life, so I'm just going to stop praying for that." And really, when I'm being honest, I just got discouraged.
16:08-16:10
Let's get back to praying with expectation.
16:11-16:14
Number one, I pray with expectation because God will keep His Word.
16:15-16:18
I pray with expectation because God will keep His Word.
16:18-16:26
Remember Zechariah in verse 18, he said, "How shall I know this?" This is actually kind of funny, I think. He probably didn't think so.
16:26-16:30
But I think this is kind of funny, that Zechariah is like, "How will I know?
16:31-16:35
How will I know this is true?" And Gabriel's like, "I don't know.
16:36-16:48
Maybe like if God did something huge like send an angel from heaven to tell you face to face in the temple, would that do it?
16:49-16:51
Like what kind of sign are you looking for, man?
16:53-16:57
Gabriel says, "Here's how sure I am that God's going to keep his word.
16:58-17:02
I'm not going to give you some vague prediction.
17:02-17:11
I'm going to tell you what the name of this baby is going to be, and I'm going to tell you exactly what he's going to be like.
17:12-17:23
Just ask yourself. I had to kind of go through this myself this week as I was wrestling through this, but ask yourself, "What if an angel showed up to you today?" Maybe not in the holy place, maybe in your kitchen or whatever.
17:25-17:28
What if an angel showed up and said, "Hey, you know that thing you've been praying for?
17:28-17:32
Do you know God's heard every prayer, and He's giving you that?
17:32-17:34
He's going to give you exactly what you want.
17:35-17:35
What would you say?
17:36-17:42
Would you be like Zechariah and sort of talk yourself out of why God can't answer your prayers?
17:42-17:44
Sort of reason it out.
17:44-18:02
"You know, I prayed for healing for my kid, but you know what, we've tried everything, we've been to every doctor, we've done every treatment, we've done every therapy, we've seen every therapist, I just..." "Yeah, I hear what you're saying and I wish I could buy in, but we've sort of been there, done that, I got the t-shirt, nothing to show for it.
18:03-18:14
And like Zechariah, I just have to ask myself, and you need to ask yourself, have we sort of talked ourselves out of the truth that God still hears and answers prayer?
18:15-18:17
Have we reasoned ourselves out of that?
18:18-18:19
Because church, I'm gonna tell you something.
18:19-18:22
There are some things that God cannot do.
18:23-18:23
Yeah, I said that right.
18:24-18:25
Write this down.
18:25-18:28
There are some things that God cannot do.
18:29-18:31
One of them is lie.
18:31-18:32
He cannot lie.
18:33-18:40
That's why I love Jeremiah 1.12, when the Lord says, I love this verse so much.
18:41-18:45
He says, "I am watching over my word to perform it." Do you know what that means?
18:46-18:52
That means it's like God has a copy of the Bible on his desk and he's looking through it.
18:52-18:56
And he's like, yeah, I said that, I'm gonna make sure that happens.
18:56-18:58
Yep, I said that, I'm gonna make sure that happens.
18:58-19:00
Oh yeah, I'm making sure.
19:00-19:01
Did I miss anything?
19:01-19:02
No, I didn't miss anything.
19:02-19:06
I'm doing every single thing that I said, I'm gonna do it.
19:07-19:14
And I'm rereading it and I'm watching over to make sure everything happens exactly how I said it's gonna happen.
19:14-19:16
Isn't that an encouragement for us today?
19:17-19:17
He's watching.
19:18-19:19
He's watching.
19:19-19:27
So Zacharias' doubts and my doubts and your doubts, let's acknowledge them for the foolish things they are.
19:27-19:30
If God says He's going to do something, He's going to make it happen.
19:31-19:33
He's watching to make sure that He keeps every promise.
19:34-19:38
We have to start there. God will keep His Word.
19:38-19:40
So I can pray with expectation.
19:40-19:46
Number two, I pray with expectation because God will keep His Word according to His timing.
19:47-19:48
According to His timing.
19:49-19:51
Look at the very last phrase in verse 20.
19:52-19:53
The last couple of phrases, I guess.
19:54-20:01
Gabriel says to Zechariah, "Because you did not believe my words," which were God's words, right?
20:01-20:02
He was just repeating them, right?
20:03-20:10
"Because you did not believe my words," look at this last phrase, "which will be fulfilled in their time." In their time, right?
20:12-20:19
Sometimes the only thing that's between you and answered prayer is just a little bit of time.
20:20-20:21
Like, so what do we do in the meantime?
20:22-20:23
We wait on the Lord.
20:24-20:25
You know what Tom Petty said about the waiting.
20:26-20:26
Do you know?
20:27-20:28
You know?
20:28-20:29
Somebody tell me, what did he say?
20:30-20:30
Yeah.
20:30-20:37
♪ Waiting is the hardest part ♪ I love that song because my sons sing that with me.
20:38-20:38
It's true.
20:39-20:40
It is the hardest part.
20:41-20:43
That's what Tom Petty said, but we're not here to talk about him.
20:44-20:44
We're here to talk about God.
20:44-20:45
Here's what God said.
20:45-20:46
God said, "Wait for the Lord.
20:47-20:50
"Be strong and let your heart take courage.
20:50-20:54
"Wait for the Lord." This is a whole other sermon series.
20:54-20:57
The Bible says so much about waiting for the Lord.
20:57-21:00
Why? Why does the Bible say so much about that?
21:00-21:04
Because God's going to keep His Word, and He's going to do it according to His time.
21:04-21:11
And in the meantime, we have to grow in the strength of our faith while we wait on Him to do what He said.
21:12-21:18
And you're like, "Well, I don't like waiting." Right. "I don't like waiting either." You know why?
21:19-21:20
I think because we're Americans.
21:21-21:23
And we're not used to waiting for anything.
21:24-21:29
I mean, I know not all of us here are from America, but by virtue of you being here, I'm calling you an American now.
21:30-21:36
And there are people that listen to these messages, other places in the world, maybe they can relate on some level.
21:37-21:39
I can only speak to America. We don't wait for anything.
21:40-21:45
We stand in front of the microwave and we say, "What's taking this stupid thing so long?" Right?
21:46-21:54
They put, "Here's how much we don't like waiting for anything." Do you see they put shampoo and conditioner in the same bottle?
21:55-22:04
It's like, I don't have time to go into the shower with all these bottles and all these shampoos and all these conditioners.
22:04-22:05
Like, what am I, a chemist?
22:05-22:07
Like I don't have this kind of time.
22:08-22:12
Wait for the shampoo to do its thing and then wait for the conditioner to do its thing.
22:13-22:17
Can you just put it all in one bottle and then do the same with peanut butter and jelly?
22:18-22:19
But we don't like to wait.
22:19-22:22
"Look, I'm just as guilty." I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, I'm just as guilty.
22:22-22:35
Somebody will send me a YouTube video, and they're like, "Hey, check out this video," or, "Hey, we're thinking about doing this worship song," and I'll click on the link, and they'll be like, "Your video will play in 15 seconds." I'm like, "Not for me, click.
22:36-22:41
"Guess I'll never know what was happening there." Not waiting for that, 15 seconds?
22:41-22:42
What am I, Rip Van Winkle?
22:42-22:45
Like, I'm not waiting for that, right?
22:46-23:00
Then the Bible says, "Wait on the Lord," And we're like, "What?" And it's something that we need to get back to, to say, "Look, look, God is not the God of everything, instant, when I want it, how I want it.
23:00-23:03
God has a plan." You're like, "Well, why?
23:03-23:04
Why wait?
23:04-23:06
If God's gonna do it, why doesn't he do it now?
23:06-23:11
Why wait? Why wait? Why wait?" Well, why wait for the cake to get done baking before you eat it?
23:12-23:16
I mean, your five-year-old is eventually going to drive a car.
23:16-23:18
Why wait to teach him when he's 16?
23:19-23:20
I think you see the point, don't you?
23:21-23:22
Sometimes waiting is just necessary.
23:23-23:24
Sometimes it's just necessary.
23:25-23:25
You've got to wait.
23:26-23:31
And God in His perfect wisdom, He has a reason for doing things when He does them.
23:32-23:34
You've been praying for healing? I know a lot of you have.
23:34-23:36
I get the Friendship Register prayer request.
23:36-23:37
We talked about that last week.
23:37-23:40
Some of you have been praying for healing for someone for a long time.
23:41-23:43
God will bring it about. He will, in His time.
23:44-23:46
Some of you have been praying for provision.
23:47-23:51
God is going to provide you everything that you need in His time and in His way.
23:52-23:58
And I know a lot of you have been praying for salvation for someone, for loved ones to receive Christ.
23:59-23:59
It's coming.
24:00-24:09
You need to believe that these answers are coming, and you need to believe that these answers are coming in God's time, and you need to trust God while you wait for it to happen.
24:10-24:16
So I pray with expectation, finally, number three, because God will keep His Word according to His timing.
24:17-24:20
And unbelief only hurts us.
24:21-24:22
Now, let's choose your own adventure.
24:22-24:25
I could say unbelief only hurts you, and you don't get to put anything in that blank.
24:26-24:29
But you can write "us." Unbelief only hurts us. Same point.
24:29-24:35
You can choose not to believe the Word of God, but God doesn't become any less God.
24:36-24:41
He's no less awesome. He's no less powerful. He's no less able to keep His Word.
24:41-24:43
The truth is unbelief only hurts us.
24:43-24:51
Now, Zacharias' consequences - I always say John - Zacharias' consequences, they were obvious to everyone.
24:51-24:52
He comes out and he can't speak.
24:52-24:55
I mean, that was an obvious hurting yourself kind of thing.
24:56-25:02
God might not strike you mute in death for not believing Him.
25:03-25:04
That would be really interesting if that happened, though.
25:05-25:08
It would affect a lot more of us than I think we would realize.
25:09-25:16
God might not strike you mute for disbelief, but even if He doesn't, there are consequences that we face when we don't believe.
25:17-25:17
Like what?
25:18-25:19
Like worry.
25:20-25:24
I know people that their lives are just consumed with worry.
25:25-25:27
You're hurting yourself by not believing God's Word.
25:29-25:49
Anxiety, discouragement, a discouragement that leads to despondency, a despondency that leads to what the Bible calls losing heart, and over time you choose disbelieving the Word of God as a lifestyle, that's going to lead to a form of godliness that denies its power.
25:50-26:06
It eventually leads to religion without relationship. I show up to church, I got my checkmark from God, but I'm not really expecting him to show up in power and do I'm going to do some transformational, God-sized thing in my life.
26:06-26:08
I'm just not really expecting that anymore.
26:08-26:10
Maybe I did once upon a time, not anymore.
26:12-26:17
But I still go to church, disbelieving the Word of God.
26:17-26:19
Unbelief. It only hurts us.
26:20-26:28
Zechariah would tell us, now that he has his voice back, he would say, "If God tells you something, look, just believe it.
26:28-26:29
I just believe it.
26:29-26:30
It's going to happen.
26:31-26:33
It's going to happen when God wants it to happen.
26:34-26:38
And if I choose not to believe it, I discover that that's a terrible idea.
26:39-26:51
And as we close, you might say, "Pastor Jeff, I hear everything you're saying, and I wish I was there." I'm just going to be honest with you, my faith is really small right now.
26:52-26:52
And that's awesome.
26:53-26:56
Because it's not about the size of your faith.
26:57-27:00
It's about the size of your God, whom you have faith in.
27:01-27:03
I can remind you of the story of the ice skater.
27:03-27:04
I think about this guy a lot.
27:05-27:06
You know the story of the ice skater.
27:06-27:08
This kid loved ice skating.
27:08-27:09
There was a little pond by his house.
27:11-27:16
And soon as the weather got cold and the pond froze, he grabbed his ice skates and he put them on.
27:16-27:21
So excited, he ran down and he jumped right on the pond, but it wasn't very thick.
27:22-27:23
And he fell right through.
27:23-27:49
And he crawled and scrambled and fought, got on shore, shore, got on the side of the pond, I don't think ponds have a shore, there are no seagulls, you know the point, he climbed to the side, should've rehearsed this again, he climbed to the side of the pond, cold, wet, scared, well a week later, another cold blast comes in, like really cold, and the pond freezes again.
27:50-27:57
Loved ice skating so much, he goes, "I am going ice skating," and he goes down to the pond, he puts his ice skates on, but this time, He's not jumping onto the ice like he did before.
27:57-28:03
Right, this time he's kind of like very slowly stepping on, very slowly.
28:04-28:11
And then after some time, he saw the ice was thick enough to skate upon and he did and had a jolly good time.
28:12-28:13
And here's the point of that story.
28:13-28:20
The first time he went down to the pond, he had a really strong faith, but the object of what he had his faith in was weak.
28:21-28:30
The second time, he had a really weak faith, But the thing that he had his faith in, the object of his faith, was very strong.
28:30-28:33
It's not about the size of your faith, it's about the size of your God.
28:34-28:39
Are you confident that God can do what He promised?
28:40-28:41
Because we can expect God to keep His Word.
28:42-28:43
Let's pray.
28:43-28:50
Father in heaven, we thank You that You are watching over Your Word to perform it.
28:50-28:51
God, I thank You for that.
28:52-29:00
And God, You know in my life, the times I've wondered, the times I've doubted, the truth be told, way worse than Zechariah.
29:02-29:07
And I'm sure, Father, that I have some brothers and sisters that are sitting right here that would say the same thing.
29:08-29:20
That, "Yeah, I've been praying for something for a long time and it hasn't happened, so I kind of quit, or I kind of lost any expectation that it might happen." And God, I pray today that we would take a hard look at Zechariah.
29:21-29:23
He gave up hope. He had his reasons.
29:24-29:25
The word just trumps them all.
29:26-29:35
I simply ask God for myself, for our church family here, that you would renew in us, praying with hopeful expectation.
29:36-29:42
Give us eyes of faith to see how you're answering these prayers in your time.
29:42-29:44
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 1:5-25

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why do you think Zechariah didn’t believe the angel? Have you ever “lost expectation” while praying for something for a long period of time?
Zechariah faced some consequences for not believing the word from God. What are some consequences WE face when we choose not to believe the Word of God?

Breakout
Pray that we learn to wait on the Lord. And pray that He would restore in us a spirit of belief and expectation, trusting Him to keep His Word

Jeff Miller

December 8, 2019

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Sovereignty

Jeff Miller

December 8, 2019

Knowing Jesus

Introduction:

Knowing Jesus Through Desperation (John 4:43-54):

Desperation must Drive us to Jesus. (John 4:46-49)
Desperation must seek the Gift-giver , not just the gift. (John 4:50)
Desperation (Leading to Faith) discovers that Jesus always Overdelivers . (John 4:51-54)

G@W Mertiffs from Harvest Pittsburgh North on Vimeo.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

01:10-01:13
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to John chapter 4.
01:17-01:25
John chapter 4, we're going through the Gospel of John in a series called "Knowing Jesus." And that's what we're going after.
01:25-01:30
We want to go from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus.
01:31-01:33
And that theme is going to continue.
01:34-01:37
However, we will be taking a break from John after this week.
01:38-01:44
We're getting into Christmas, Q&A day, and we have a very special series in January that you will be hearing more about.
01:46-01:48
This is the last message in John for a while.
01:49-01:51
Let's talk about knowing Jesus.
01:53-01:59
You know, many years ago, my son Cade had a betta fish.
02:01-02:02
And his name was Marvin.
02:04-02:07
And as betta fish go, was a handsome betta fish.
02:09-02:13
And he was in this little bowl, and he sat on the mantle.
02:14-02:16
And Marvin was just such an important part of our family.
02:16-02:17
Who has fish here?
02:18-02:18
Fish people?
02:20-02:21
OK, so it's just me.
02:21-02:22
All right.
02:23-02:26
Just me and a couple really special people here.
02:29-02:30
Not important for the story.
02:30-02:31
But we had Marvin.
02:32-02:33
You know what a betta fish is, right?
02:33-02:43
One day, it was brought to my attention that Marvin was sort of floating on his side.
02:44-02:47
And you know how betta fish have all those frilly fins and tail things?
02:48-02:51
They were just sort of disheveled.
02:54-03:04
Now I'm no veterinarian, but I thought we were going to have a funeral slash flushing in the not-too-distant future.
03:06-03:18
And as always, trying to take a teaching opportunity, I sat down with Cade at the dining room table and I said, "We're going to pray for Mark." And we did.
03:19-03:20
We prayed for that fish.
03:22-03:26
You know, that fish made a full recovery.
03:29-03:33
and he lived for years after that.
03:33-03:38
He died since, but he lived for years after that.
03:40-03:50
And I'm just going to be honest with you, that whole series of events sort of left me, I guess, unsettled.
03:53-03:56
And you're like, why in the world would you be unsettled over that?
03:57-03:59
and it sounds pretty awesome.
04:01-04:03
I just sort of walked away from that.
04:03-04:04
I prayed for Marvin.
04:04-04:05
He made a full recovery.
04:06-04:13
And I just had to ask myself, am I like the Benny Hinn of fish?
04:15-04:18
I mean, am I like Aquaman's pastor?
04:20-04:22
I mean, don't get me wrong, we prayed.
04:25-04:31
One minute when I prayed for the fish, I really did mean it, but I'm just going to be honest with you, I wasn't desperate.
04:33-04:34
I wasn't desperate.
04:35-04:44
I wasn't on my face in tears crying out to the Lord that He would spare the life of this stupid fish.
04:45-04:47
No offense, Marvin.
04:49-04:50
I just wasn't desperate.
04:53-04:58
The truth is I've prayed much harder for other things.
04:58-05:03
I've prayed much longer for other things.
05:03-05:07
I've prayed much more desperately in my life for other things.
05:10-05:11
What about you?
05:14-05:18
You're like, "No, Pastor Jeff, I've never prayed for a fish." That's not what I'm talking about.
05:19-05:20
What about you?
05:20-05:23
Have you ever... have you just ever been desperate?
05:25-05:29
Can you point to a season in your life that you're like, "Man, I was so desperate right then.
05:31-05:35
I came to Jesus just so desperate." Have you been there?
05:35-05:37
Maybe it was because there was a bad accident.
05:39-05:41
Or maybe there was a health scare.
05:44-05:45
Maybe you had a death in your family.
05:49-05:50
Maybe you just suddenly lost your job.
05:54-05:56
Or maybe you discover that your marriage is on its deathbed.
05:59-06:00
Desperate.
06:01-06:09
In today's account that we'll be looking at in John, we're going to see a dad with a son on the brink of death.
06:10-06:18
And I can tell you, from my experience, there is no one more desperate than the parent of a sick child.
06:18-06:19
is not.
06:22-06:24
There's a lot in this account that resonates with me.
06:26-06:29
And I know there's a lot of people sitting in this room.
06:29-06:32
This account is going to resonate with you.
06:34-06:35
So let's just go after it, alright?
06:36-06:39
On your outline, knowing Jesus through desperation.
06:41-06:46
Knowing Jesus through desperation, number one, write this down first of all, Desperation must drive us to Jesus.
06:48-06:51
Desperation must drive us to Jesus.
06:54-07:10
Verse 43 says, "After the two days, he departed for Galilee, where Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown." Stop there for a second.
07:10-07:14
The two days were the two days he spent at Sychar ministering to the Samaritans.
07:14-07:15
We talked about that.
07:15-07:22
And Jesus testified a statement that I think we can all easily acknowledge is very true.
07:22-07:25
The prophet has no honor in his own hometown.
07:27-07:28
Familiarity breeds contempt.
07:29-07:31
Experts are from out of town.
07:32-07:35
That's why I love speaking other places.
07:36-07:38
Because when I'm speaking out of town, I'm the expert.
07:38-07:40
Just because I'm from out of town.
07:41-07:44
But that's one reason I hate bringing guest speakers into Harvest.
07:45-07:46
It happens every time.
07:46-07:56
You'll get some guy up here that says something, and somebody will come up and be like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, it changed my life when he said this." And it's something, I'm like, "Dude, I've been saying that for the last...
07:56-07:57
How old's this church?
07:57-08:02
I've been saying that for the last that many years!" "Oh, but because he said it.
08:03-08:09
You know, he's from Chicago." But we get that, right?
08:10-08:11
You know what I mean?
08:11-08:19
Like, you go back to your hometown, people don't quite look at you the way that they do in other places.
08:20-08:22
But why is this inserted here?
08:22-08:23
Well, it's just kind of pointing out the shift.
08:23-08:30
Jesus went from being loved by the hated Samaritans, and he's going to be hated by the beloved Jews.
08:31-08:47
Verse 45 says, "So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast." In other words, these people weren't like sold-out disciples of Jesus.
08:47-08:49
They were sort of like Nicodemus.
08:49-08:58
They kind of saw some things that he did, and they were sort of like fans of Jesus, but they weren't really like disciples yet at this point.
08:59-09:02
Look at verse 46 and 47.
09:02-09:08
It says, "So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine.
09:09-09:11
In the Capernaum, there was an official whose son was ill.
09:13-09:23
When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
09:24-09:30
Okay, so this was an official of the king, likely Herod Antipas, who was the son of Herod the Great.
09:34-09:43
But as I reference this man through the rest of this message, I'm going to call him "the dad." Because that's sort of how he is in this passage.
09:44-09:48
This is how he identifies, and this is how I kind of identify with him.
09:48-09:50
So I'm going to call him "the dad." Alright?
09:51-09:52
So what's going on here?
09:52-09:55
Well, Jesus had done a lot of miracles in Capernaum.
09:55-09:56
Like, a lot.
09:56-10:00
You're like, "I don't remember studying those in this series." We didn't in this series.
10:01-10:02
We read about those in the other Gospels.
10:03-10:06
John hasn't mentioned those ones in particular.
10:07-10:15
But Jesus performed a lot of miracles, and this dad, he knew that the miracle worker was in town.
10:17-10:19
And it says that his son was ill.
10:19-10:20
Ill with what?
10:20-10:22
Well, we're going to find out in verse 52.
10:22-10:25
It was something related to a fever.
10:29-10:32
Whatever it was, the Bible's clear.
10:32-10:34
It says that the son was at the point of death.
10:36-10:41
Let me ask you parents, if your child's at the point of death, what are you willing to do?
10:42-10:43
What are you willing to do?
10:44-10:47
You get wind that the miracle worker is nearby?
10:48-10:48
What are you doing?
10:49-10:50
I know what I'm doing.
10:50-10:52
I am tracking this guy down.
10:52-10:54
I am going after him.
10:54-10:55
That's what this dad did.
10:56-10:57
He came pleading.
11:01-11:09
"Come with me and heal my son." As usual, Jesus' response isn't what you expect.
11:09-11:10
Look at verse 48.
11:12-11:21
"So Jesus said to him, 'Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.'" Where did that come from?
11:23-11:26
Is this a mild rebuke?
11:28-11:33
Is Jesus sort of like, "Shame on you, that you need this." I don't think that's the case.
11:35-11:46
Is this just matter of fact, that Jesus is like, "Allow me to point out a fact here for everyone listening, that some people will not believe." I don't think it's that either.
11:47-11:48
What do you think it is?
11:48-11:49
I'll tell you what I think it is.
11:51-11:52
That is the statement of grace.
11:55-11:56
You know why Jesus did miracles?
11:56-11:57
Do you know why?
11:58-12:04
Jesus wasn't trying to draw and dazzle crowds with miracles like, "Hey, watch this, watch this.
12:04-12:10
There's a quarter behind your ear." And everybody's like, "Oh, this must be the Son of God." He wasn't trying to dazzle people.
12:11-12:13
That wasn't why Jesus did miracles.
12:16-12:20
Jesus did miracles for the benefit those who were struggling to believe.
12:21-12:34
Here you have a man walking around saying, "I'm God in the flesh." People are like, "Yeah, I'm not so sure about that." And Jesus actually says in John 10, I think like verses 36 and 37, He said, "That's why I do miracles.
12:34-12:41
If you don't believe what I'm saying, look at the miracles I'm doing." And that should bring you to understand who I am.
12:44-12:47
So I think Jesus was just reaching out in grace.
12:48-12:54
"You know what? Some people aren't going to believe unless they have some proof, and I'm willing to do that." Look at v. 49.
12:56-13:04
"The official said to him, 'Sir, come down before my child dies.'" I totally get this, right?
13:05-13:16
The dad comes to Jesus, and he's like, "Come with me! My child's sick!" And Jesus said, "You won't believe unless you see a miracle." And the dad just totally ignores Jesus' statement.
13:17-13:21
Yeah, I'm going to need you to come with me, please.
13:23-13:25
And I totally get that, because when you're desperate, right?
13:25-13:30
When you're desperate, it's just like, "Okay, whatever, yeah, sure.
13:30-13:38
I won't believe without a miracle. Gotcha. Okay." I've got so much more on my mind right now, and I get where the dad's coming from here.
13:43-13:46
Desperation has a way of bringing people to Jesus.
13:47-13:48
It just does.
13:49-13:53
I mean, sure, we tend to try everything else first.
13:55-14:25
But, when the money runs out, or the medicine doesn't work, or that person that you were counting on to come and help you fails you, when you get to the point of true desperation, that you have nowhere else to turn, no other resources, then you will come to Jesus and say, "Jesus, I need You." Desperation must drive you to Jesus.
14:28-14:31
And I looked at that this week and I wrote that down.
14:33-14:36
And I thought, "Well, there's just not much to preach about that.
14:36-14:41
It just will. It just will." That is a true thing about life.
14:42-14:45
You get desperate enough, you're going to go to Jesus.
14:46-14:50
And if you're not there now, you will be.
14:52-14:58
But, I have a word for the church in regards to this.
15:01-15:09
You know, every week, the prayer team gets the prayer request that you write down on the friendship register.
15:09-15:14
You know, you write your prayer request on the bottom, and Brooke compiles those and she emails them to me and to the prayer team.
15:14-15:26
I get an email like this and I'll either write them down or I'll print them out and I'll go through and I'll pray for these as our prayer team is doing at the same time.
15:30-15:37
There are so many requests for healing.
15:40-15:49
And there's times that I wish that that thing that happened with that fish happened with all of these people.
15:52-15:53
So many requests for healing.
15:55-16:05
And I want to ask you, whether you're on the prayer team or whether you know somebody else that's sick and needs healing, I want to ask you, how do you pray for these?
16:07-16:17
You're like, "I pray that God would heal them." Okay. Let me ask you this way then.
16:19-16:25
What are you expecting to happen when you pray for healing for these people?
16:28-16:33
How do you envision the answer?
16:35-16:39
Because I want to tell you how I pray for these requests.
16:41-16:54
I do pray for healing, but I pray that the Lord would bring about healing in a way that brings people to Jesus Christ.
16:56-17:26
I pray something like this, "God, allow this desperation to be what you're going to use to wake that person up and bring them to you." I pray something like, "Lord, please heal them and use this to make them think about life and death, to make them willing to listen to your gospel." I pray, "God, put someone in their path that's going to share your gospel and is going to love them in the Lord.
17:26-17:38
God, put that person in their path and allow this healing to get them to, or sickness or illness or whatever, to really get them thinking about you.
17:41-17:43
And church, I want to encourage you to pray that way.
17:44-17:45
I want you to think about something.
17:48-17:58
If the person that you're praying for, for healing, doesn't know Jesus Christ, why would we pray for just healing for them?
18:00-18:00
to delay hell?
18:04-18:06
Or rather, should we say, "Lord, use this.
18:07-18:08
You brought this into their life, Father.
18:09-18:12
In Your sovereignty, You've allowed this in their life.
18:12-18:17
God, please use this as the thing that's going to be like this dad.
18:17-18:25
Run to Jesus and say, 'I need You!'" Let this desperation bring them to Jesus.
18:27-18:30
Test number one, Desperation must drive us to Jesus and church.
18:32-18:33
Please continue to be faithful in prayer.
18:35-18:38
But I want you to think about how you're praying and what you're praying for.
18:39-18:40
Pray for healing.
18:43-18:48
And I would say healing that is both physical and spiritual.
18:50-18:52
Number two, jot this down.
18:52-18:59
The desperation must seek the gift giver, not just the gift.
19:01-19:06
Look at verse 50, because this verse is the whole turning point of this whole passage.
19:07-19:29
Okay, so you have this scene, the guy's like, "Jesus, come with me, my son's dying." And Jesus said, "Well, unless you see signs of wonders you're not going to believe." And he's like, "Okay, please come because my child's going to die, right?" Look at verse 50. "Jesus said to him, 'Go, your son will live.'" This is the sentence that changes everything right here.
19:30-19:44
"The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way." You see, he believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
19:46-19:51
You see, the dad could have, like so many people, just gotten angry with Jesus.
19:52-19:58
You mean to tell me, "I asked you twice if you would come to heal my kid, and you can't be bothered? You can't take the time to come with me?
19:59-19:59
Just you tell me to go?
20:03-20:10
Thanks. Thanks for nothing." I have a feeling the Lord gets that a lot.
20:12-20:15
"But you didn't do what I wanted you to do?
20:15-20:22
I put in my request and you didn't perform to my liking, Jesus?" Not this dad.
20:23-20:28
Because the very first statement there in that sentence, it says, "The man believed the Word." But Jesus spoke to him.
20:29-20:39
So this dad went from believing Jesus works, believing Jesus could do a miracle, to believing Jesus' words.
20:40-20:41
And he acted upon them.
20:42-20:46
And you need to have that underlined in your Bible, church, because this is what faith looks like.
20:46-20:47
We talk about faith all the time.
20:47-20:48
Have faith, have faith.
20:49-20:52
Faith is what God calls us to.
20:52-20:53
What is faith?
20:53-20:54
Well, it's not a feeling.
20:55-20:56
Some people think that's what faith is.
20:56-20:57
It's just a feeling.
20:59-21:01
Faith isn't positive thinking.
21:04-21:06
Faith is acting on the word of God.
21:06-21:07
That's what faith is.
21:09-21:11
It's acting on the word of God.
21:13-21:21
Faith is believing the Word of Christ, what He said, to the point that it moves me.
21:23-21:28
It's not, listen, faith is not just wanting the works of Christ.
21:28-21:29
That's not faith.
21:30-21:33
To say, "Jesus, what can you do for me?" That's not faith.
21:34-21:37
It's believing the Word, not just the works.
21:37-21:41
And you're like, "Well, what's the difference?" The difference is everything.
21:44-22:05
A couple years ago, we took my son Owen to a doctor, a new doctor for us, a doctor that was somewhat famous in autism circles because we were in a desperate situation.
22:08-22:18
And this doctor, this doctor was, I'm thinking of a politically correct way to say this.
22:20-22:21
How about we'll say this.
22:22-22:25
This doctor's bedside manner was unpolished.
22:27-22:28
You tracking with me?
22:29-22:30
Some of you are not.
22:30-22:32
Okay, here's the non-politically correct version.
22:33-22:35
He sort of came across as a cocky jerk.
22:37-22:52
And that really hit the breaking point when he began disparaging another doctor who had become a friend of ours through our autism journey.
22:53-23:00
This new doctor just, he started on this other doctor, just ripped him up one side, down the other.
23:00-23:03
Obnoxious and unprofessional.
23:06-23:06
It just was.
23:08-23:15
Like, we're paying you to sit in your office and listen to you badmouth somebody that we care about?
23:16-23:22
Which, by the way, he didn't have all the details of the story that he was bashing him for, but that's...
23:22-23:25
since when do we let truth get in the way of a good story, right?
23:27-23:36
So, we're sitting in this new doctor's office, and he's ripping this other doctor up, And then, I guess I'm not good with the poker face.
23:38-23:53
Because he stopped and he said, this doctor said to me, "I can tell that you don't really seem to like me for saying that." And I said to him, "I'm not here to be your friend.
23:55-24:01
I'm here to see if you can help myself." You see, here's the point.
24:01-24:04
people bring to Jesus.
24:06-24:08
The attitude that I had with the doctor.
24:10-24:12
Like, "Look, Jesus, just do your thing.
24:13-24:15
I'm not interested in you personally.
24:16-24:20
I'm not interested in Bible and church and born again.
24:21-24:23
I'm not interested in all that stuff, Jesus.
24:24-24:26
Can you just fix my problem?
24:28-24:30
I'm not here to be your friend, Jesus.
24:30-24:41
I'm just so desperate for Jesus to fix something, but I'm not really desperate for Jesus, for the life and the forgiveness and the transformation that He offers.
24:44-24:46
You see, when that's your attitude, that's not faith.
24:48-24:49
That's not believing unto eternal life.
24:50-24:52
That's treating Jesus like He's Santa Claus.
24:52-24:55
Here's my list, cash in for me, give me what I want.
24:56-24:57
Jesus isn't Santa Claus.
24:57-25:00
He's the Savior and He's the Lord.
25:03-25:06
But oh, so many times strangers will call me.
25:06-25:07
The phone will ring.
25:09-25:13
"Hi, Pastor, I got your number from the internet and I just Googled this.
25:14-25:19
I'm really desperate and I really need some help." And I will invite these people.
25:19-25:33
They'll come sit in my office and I'll share the gospel with them and then give them a handout and I will never see them again." And the question really becomes, what are you desperate for?
25:35-25:36
Are you desperate for the gift?
25:38-25:39
Or are you desperate for the gift-giver?
25:43-26:07
Are you, "Just give me what I want, Jesus, and I'll be on my way." Or are you desperate for Jesus that you come and say, "You know what, my need is actually way bigger than I thought it was." And in God's sovereignty, He's going to allow you to be so desperate that you run to Him.
26:11-26:16
But when you come like this dad, you have to be willing to do what He says.
26:18-26:23
Like, "Stop, stop right there." You're like, "Okay, okay, why should I do that?
26:24-26:28
I mean, why shouldn't I just come to Jesus for what I want?
26:30-26:39
Pastor Jeff, what would motivate me to believe in Jesus when all I really needed was a favor from Him?
26:40-26:47
What's my motivation?" I'm really glad you asked that question, because look at number three.
26:48-26:56
Desperation leading to faith discovers that Jesus always over-delivers.
26:59-27:01
Look at the rest of this passage.
27:03-27:13
And as he was going down, Jesus said, "Go, your son will live, man believe, on his way." Okay? Verse 51.
27:13-27:19
"As he was going down, his servants" - this dad's servants - He's recovering!
27:20-27:21
So he asked them the hour.
27:22-27:44
When it began to get better, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him." The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." And he himself believed in all his household.
27:45-27:50
This was now the second sign when He had come from Judea to Galilee.
27:52-27:52
Obvious here, right?
27:53-27:55
The dad sort of connected the dots on the timing.
27:55-27:56
Like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
27:57-28:00
When did you say my son got better?" And they're like, "It was like the seventh hour.
28:00-28:03
Boom, he's better." And the dad's like, "The seventh hour?
28:03-28:06
That was like when I was talking to Jesus.
28:06-28:10
That's when that happened." In verse 53, this is key.
28:10-28:11
You have to underline this in your Bible.
28:12-28:16
It says, "He himself believed." In the Greek, that's emphatic, right?
28:17-28:19
It's He Himself believed.
28:21-28:23
Meaning His faith went to another level.
28:25-28:26
The lights came on.
28:27-28:28
It all clicked.
28:30-28:33
That this dad was like, "I see now why He did what He did.
28:34-28:36
I see why Jesus didn't come with me.
28:36-28:38
He was showing me His sovereignty.
28:38-28:43
He was able to heal my son from a distance with just a word.
28:43-28:46
I see who He is now.
28:47-28:49
He's not just some medicine man.
28:51-28:52
He's got to be the Sovereign of the Universe.
28:56-28:57
That's how it is with faith.
28:57-29:04
You see, faith is not, "Hey, you see it, and then you'll believe it." Faith actually works the opposite way.
29:05-29:19
Faith says, "You believe it, and then you're going to see." You believe, you act upon the Word of Christ, and you will see Him working.
29:22-29:25
And your faith is going to go to another level.
29:25-29:26
And not just your faith.
29:27-29:36
You see in verse 53, "He took it to his household." That would have been, I don't know, who all lived with him - his wife, other kids, in-laws, servants, whatever.
29:37-29:42
The point is, everyone in his household came to believe in Jesus Christ.
29:45-29:56
I asked a question a couple of minutes ago, "What would motivate me to believe in Jesus when all I need is a favor from Him?
29:56-30:01
What in the world would motivate me?" Pastor Jeff, here it is. You ready?
30:03-30:06
because Jesus always over-delivers.
30:08-30:17
This dad came to Jesus desperate for a physical healing, and what this dad received by faith was way more than that!
30:18-30:23
His son was healed, and he and his whole household were saved.
30:27-30:32
I want to encourage you, for those of you that are going to heaven, Check this dad down when you get there.
30:35-30:39
And I want you to ask him...
30:39-30:41
This is the second dumbest question you're going to hear today.
30:42-30:44
The first was, is he worthy?
30:44-30:45
Yeah. Jesus is worthy.
30:49-30:49
Here's a dumb question.
30:50-30:57
Go to this dad in heaven and say, when you believed the Word of Jesus Christ, you know that day your son was sick?
30:57-30:58
He believed.
30:59-31:00
Was it worth it?
31:02-31:03
Was it worth it?
31:05-31:11
And this dad is going to say, "Jesus gave me so much more than I was asking for.
31:12-31:19
Jesus Christ way over-delivered." Yeah, it was worth it.
31:21-31:26
Now, this is one story of God's sovereignty.
31:27-31:36
This is a story of how God allowed someone to become so desperate that he came to Jesus to fix something.
31:38-31:43
And because he believed Jesus' Word, the man and his household were never the same.
31:45-31:46
It's a pretty amazing story, isn't it?
31:49-31:50
You want to hear another story like this?
31:52-31:53
Turn your attention to the screen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 4:43-54

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message? Does it change how you pray for healing for those who are sick / injured?
The dad (official) obviously believed in Jesus (on some level) in order to come to Him in the first place (John 4:47). Then John 4:53 says he himself believed. What’s the difference?
Tell of a time you definitely saw a miracle. How did you know it was a miracle? How did it affect you?

BREAKOUT
Pray for those who need healing, that they would be desperate not just for the gift, but for the Gift-Giver!

Jeff Miller

December 1, 2019

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Mission

Jeff Miller

December 1, 2019

Knowing Jesus

Introduction:

When I See the Mission Like Jesus (John 4:27-42):

Make it the Priority . (John 4:31-34)
I see it as a Team effort. (John 4:35-38)
1 Corinthians 3:6-8 - I (Paul) planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

I invest in those who are Responding . (John 4:39-42)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

01:10-01:13
Open up your Bibles with me please to John chapter 4.
01:13-01:15
We're going to be picking up in verse 27.
01:16-01:25
And if you do not have a Bible, there are Bibles in the seat backs in front of you and you can keep that and consider it a gift from your friends at harvest.
01:26-01:30
While you're turning there, I'm going to ask if you would please to pray for me.
01:31-01:33
And I'll take a moment and pray for you.
01:34-01:34
Let's pray.
01:35-01:37
Father, we believe that you wrote this book.
01:38-01:43
And therefore, you deserve all the attention that we can possibly give.
01:44-01:48
Open our hearts and our minds, Father, to receive Your Word.
01:49-01:52
I just ask, Father, You speak through me. Get me out of the way.
01:52-01:56
Just broadcast the message through my voice today, Father.
01:57-01:58
We ask You in Jesus' name.
01:59-02:12
And all of God's people said, "Amen." Our series this year is called "Knowing Jesus." You can tell a lot about a person by what they're passionate about.
02:13-02:22
Whether it's sports, or painting, or dogs, or guitars, or exercise, or hunting, or politics.
02:23-02:27
I find it really easy to talk to people I don't know.
02:28-02:34
Because within the first minute of conversation, you can find out what they're passionate about, and you just talk about that.
02:34-02:36
And I was thinking about that this week.
02:36-02:59
Could you imagine if Jesus physically here on the earth with us today, which is going to happen someday, maybe today later, but imagine if Jesus were here today, and we took Him to lunch after church, and we said, "Jesus, why don't you share with us a little bit about what you are passionate about?" What do you think Jesus would want to talk about?
03:00-03:06
We're going to see in this passage exactly what Jesus is passionate about and what He would talk about.
03:06-03:08
Look at v. 27 with me.
03:08-03:09
John 4. Are you there?
03:10-03:13
It says, "Just then, His disciples came back.
03:13-03:16
They marveled that He was talking with a woman.
03:16-03:23
But no one said, 'What do you seek?' or 'Why are you talking with her?'" Let's stop there for a second.
03:24-03:28
There's a huge miracle that takes place in this verse.
03:29-03:30
Seriously. Did you see it?
03:31-03:33
The huge miracle took place in this verse.
03:34-03:38
You're like, "You mean that Jesus talked to a woman?" No, it wasn't that.
03:39-03:45
You're like, "Because the disciples had questions and they were able to keep their mouths shut and not ask Him?" I don't mean that either.
03:46-03:49
The huge miracle - look at the first two words.
03:50-03:57
"Just then." And I know in English we can read through that very quickly, and that's why it's such a benefit to slow down and really study.
03:58-04:01
In the Greek, this is emphasized.
04:02-04:15
It's like if you were reading it the way it was written, you would get to this place and you would say, "Just then, his disciples came back." And that's the miracle here, is the timing of all of this.
04:16-04:17
Like, well, what do you mean?
04:18-04:20
Why don't you think about the timing of this whole event?
04:20-04:28
And the previous passage we covered last week, Jesus speaking with the woman at the well, You can get online and listen to that again.
04:28-04:41
But that's where the story picks up, where Jesus witnesses to this woman about who he is, and she runs off to tell the villagers, you're going to see here in a second.
04:41-04:42
He reveals to her that he's the Messiah.
04:43-04:48
But the huge miracle here is the timing of all of this.
04:48-04:53
Do you notice Jesus arrives at the well, just when the woman is there.
04:54-05:01
The disciples had gone to get food, which is incredible because that way Jesus could speak with her alone.
05:01-05:05
I mean, the woman might not have opened up if there were a bunch of dudes standing around, right?
05:06-05:16
And then your Bible says, "Just then!" At this point in the conversation, when Jesus revealed to this woman that He is the Christ, just then the disciples came back.
05:17-05:18
And that's huge.
05:19-05:23
Because if they came back any earlier, they would have interrupted the conversation, right?
05:24-05:32
"Hey, what are you guys talking about?" And if they came back any later, they wouldn't have known that Jesus had the conversation with the woman at all.
05:33-05:37
And somebody might look at this and think that is a crazy coincidence, isn't it?
05:38-05:39
You know what coincidence is?
05:39-05:40
I heard somebody say it one time.
05:40-05:42
Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.
05:43-05:45
This isn't coincidence. This is providence.
05:46-05:48
Have you ever had a story like that in your life?
05:48-05:59
That the timing was just so insane that you're like, "God had to have orchestrated this!" I want to tell you about a time that happened in my life, just real quick.
05:59-06:00
This isn't even really part of the sermon.
06:00-06:01
This is just bonus.
06:01-06:02
We're not going to charge you any extra for that.
06:05-06:09
But years ago, I went to do a funeral for the father of a friend of mine.
06:10-06:11
It was out in Columbus, Ohio.
06:12-06:24
And I didn't want to drive all the way out there with my tie on, so I'm like, "Well, I'll just take my tie." And I'll, with the GPS, when I find a place near the funeral home, I'll just stop and get out and use the bathroom, put my tie on and then I'll go to the funeral home.
06:25-06:27
Okay, so the first place I stopped was this gas station.
06:28-06:34
I'm like, okay, I'll just see if they have a restroom here and I'm gonna gross gas station bathrooms I know.
06:34-06:38
But I pulled in and there were bars on the window of the gas station.
06:38-06:40
And I said, maybe we'll keep looking for a place.
06:41-06:46
So I saw this little diner and I pulled into this diner and I'm like, well, surely they have a restroom I can use.
06:47-06:51
And I went in and I put my tie on and you know that little voice in your head?
06:52-06:57
A lot of times for me, it's the Holy Spirit speaking and his still small voice.
06:58-07:01
Sometimes it's my conscience, I think.
07:01-07:04
Sometimes my conscience sounds exactly like my wife.
07:04-07:12
And that's why in this case, you're gonna understand here in a second, I'm not sure if this was the Holy Spirit or my wife in my head, maybe a combination of both.
07:13-07:18
But what I heard in my head was, you can't just stop in here and use the bathroom and not buy something to eat, right?
07:18-07:19
I'm like, well, I'm not hungry.
07:20-07:22
And I think that was Erin, because Erin was like, you just can't do that.
07:23-07:24
I'm like, well, I didn't really use the bathroom.
07:24-07:25
I just used the mirror.
07:25-07:26
And like, what's the rate for that?
07:27-07:29
Like, so I'm like, all right, you know what?
07:30-07:33
I know I'm gonna tell Erin this story later and she's gonna say, did you buy something there?
07:34-07:35
Because you can't just, and I'm like, all right, all right.
07:35-07:37
So I said, all right, I'm not really hungry.
07:37-07:38
So I bought a meal to go.
07:39-07:40
I'll just buy something to go.
07:40-07:43
They put it in one of those styrofoam clamshell container things.
07:43-07:46
And I walk out to my car, you know, all in my suit.
07:46-07:51
And there's this large man standing in front of my car, just weeping.
07:52-07:54
I'm like, "Oh, I don't have time for this.
07:54-08:01
I'm on my way to a funeral." And I walked up to the man, I'm like, "Can I help you?" And then all of a sudden, I couldn't believe what I saw.
08:02-08:07
This man was a very good friend of mine from 20 years ago when I used to live near Columbus.
08:08-08:12
I stayed in contact with him through social media and email and things like that, even on phone.
08:12-08:17
I was like, "What are you doing?" He lived on the other side of town.
08:18-08:20
And this is a really long story, but I'm making it really short, believe me.
08:22-08:28
He got stranded, it was winter time, and he was walking home and his shoes literally fell apart.
08:29-08:33
And being diabetic, he had some toes amputated and his feet were all bandaged.
08:33-08:36
He's walking home barefoot in the snow, just weeping.
08:36-08:37
He was in such horrible pain.
08:39-08:41
And I said, "Get in, I'll take you home.
08:41-08:54
"You don't have to, yes, I do have to get in, "I'm gonna take you home." So he got in the car. I said, "Are you hungry?" He goes, "I am so hungry." I'm like, "I got a hot meal right here!" Boom! Took him home.
08:54-08:59
We had this most amazing spiritual conversation about the Lord, about heaven, about life.
09:00-09:01
And I took him home.
09:02-09:04
And like I said, that's the extremely short version of the story.
09:04-09:09
But I stepped back from that. I'm like, "Is that coincidence?" Could that have possibly been coincidence?
09:09-09:11
Think of everything that had to happen timing-wise.
09:12-09:29
We're in downtown Columbus, Ohio, and he just happened to be walking, and he arrived at that spot while I was in this diner, which wasn't even my first choice to stop, and he was hungry, and I had a hot meal.
09:30-09:38
And somebody would say, "Wow, Jeff, that is a crazy coincidence." And I'd say, "You're insane!" That was God at work.
09:38-09:40
And that's the miracle that happens here.
09:40-09:41
The first miracle.
09:42-09:43
The timing of all of this.
09:43-09:45
Like I said, that's not even the sermon.
09:45-09:46
That's just bonus content.
09:47-09:48
Let's look at verse 28.
09:48-09:50
My point is God does that in your life.
09:50-09:52
If you have eyes to see it, you'll see it.
09:53-09:56
God orchestrates timing in crazy ways, and that's what happened here.
09:57-10:01
So, they come back and they see he was talking to a woman, nobody asked, verse 28.
10:01-10:11
"So the woman left her water jar and went away into town, and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did, can this be the Christ?
10:11-10:14
They went out of the town and were coming to him.
10:15-10:16
Stop right there for a second.
10:17-10:17
She left her jar.
10:18-10:20
Isn't that just funny?
10:21-10:22
She went to the well for water.
10:23-10:26
She meets Jesus and she completely forgets why she was there.
10:27-10:28
I totally get that.
10:28-10:31
And she rushes to tell others.
10:32-10:33
Interesting how she put it, right?
10:34-10:42
She says, "Come see a man who told me all I ever did." The things Jesus said to her weren't very complimentary/flattering, right?
10:43-10:49
He said, "You've had five husbands, and the guy you're with now isn't even your husband." And she's like, "He knows me. He knows me!
10:49-10:54
He knows who I am!" And that was the thing that impacted her.
10:55-10:58
But notice how her shame became her testimony.
10:59-11:00
That's how it is with Christ.
11:01-11:02
No matter what you've done.
11:03-11:06
No matter what you've done, you can be forgiven of your sin.
11:06-11:10
Holy, fully cleansed and forgiven of your sin.
11:10-11:12
That your past doesn't have to be shameful.
11:13-11:14
You can say, "Yeah, that's who I was.
11:15-11:16
That's not who I am anymore.
11:17-11:19
By God's grace, He transforms me.
11:19-11:20
That's not who I am anymore.
11:21-11:23
That's who I was." She wasn't ashamed of that.
11:23-11:24
She wasn't ashamed.
11:25-11:28
She says, "He knows what I did." Her shame became her testimony.
11:28-11:36
"Come and see." Then verse 30 says, "So they went to see, and they came," oh, spoiler alert, they come to believe in Him.
11:37-11:39
And what we're going to see next in this passage is huge.
11:40-11:46
Because this is where Jesus talks about the thing that He is most passionate about.
11:47-11:49
Remember we said you know somebody by what they're passionate about?
11:49-11:50
Well, here we go.
11:51-11:55
The thing that Jesus Christ is more passionate about than anything is the mission.
11:56-11:59
Seeing lost people found.
12:00-12:01
Seeing sinners forgiven.
12:03-12:10
Seeing souls that are heading to hell, rescued, and put on a new path, heading to heaven.
12:11-12:12
That fires Jesus up.
12:13-12:15
And it's His passion for the mission of the gospel.
12:16-12:17
Whatever you want to call it.
12:17-12:22
Whether you want to call it evangelism, whether you want to call it missions, whether you want to call it witnessing, whatever you want to call it.
12:22-12:23
All of the above.
12:25-12:29
But you have to see in this passage that Jesus' passion is so obvious.
12:30-12:34
And we said at the very beginning, if you want to know someone, when you have to know what they're passionate about.
12:35-12:37
And this year we're talking about knowing Jesus.
12:38-12:41
If you want to know Jesus, you need to know what Jesus is passionate about, right?
12:42-12:45
And you need to see the mission the way Jesus sees the mission.
12:46-12:48
So jot some things down on your outline, if you would, please.
12:49-12:52
When I see the mission like Jesus, this all comes right from the text here.
12:53-12:59
Number one, when I see the mission like Jesus, I make it the priority.
13:00-13:03
Luke verses 31 down through 34.
13:04-13:06
Okay, so you have the scene, woman runs to the village.
13:06-13:07
Hey, you gotta come and see this guy.
13:08-13:09
Could he be the Christ?
13:09-13:11
And then they're coming to see him.
13:11-13:13
Meanwhile, back at the well, verse 31.
13:13-13:19
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." Remember, he just hiked like 20 miles.
13:20-13:21
Like, man, you've gotta be hungry.
13:22-13:41
"Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, Has anyone brought Him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work." Stop there for a second.
13:43-13:48
Notice how once again Jesus uses the context of the situation as a teaching opportunity, right?
13:48-13:52
With the woman, it was about water, right?
13:52-14:00
They were at the well and He said, "I can give you living water." with his disciples, we go from water to food.
14:00-14:22
They're like, "Dude, you're gonna eat something." And he said, "I have food." "Where?" "My food is to do God's will, to accomplish His work." So if you were to sit down with Jesus, like we said, take Jesus to lunch, if you were to sit down with Jesus and say, "Jesus, how do you feel about missions?
14:22-14:26
How do you feel about the mission of the church?
14:27-14:29
Do you see right here? Here's exactly what Jesus would say.
14:30-14:34
Jesus would say, "It's my food. It's what I'm hungry for.
14:34-14:41
It satisfies me like nothing else does, more than anything in the world." Do you know what I want to see?
14:41-14:44
I want to see people transformed. That's what I want to see.
14:45-14:47
I want to see people forgiven of their sin.
14:48-14:50
I want to see people knew.
14:52-14:59
Jesus said, "This is way more important to me than physical food." And I've got to tell you, that's a concept that's lost on a lot of us.
15:00-15:06
Because we tend to put everything else over the mission.
15:07-15:11
And God, God gets any leftover time that we have.
15:11-15:12
Maybe He does.
15:13-15:19
But as far as making the mission the priority, It's a sad state of affairs in the American church, to be honest with you.
15:19-15:20
Everything else is a priority.
15:21-15:23
And you're like, "Oh no, no, no, Pastor Jeff, not me.
15:24-15:26
Pastor Jeff, I love missions.
15:26-15:27
Missions is my...
15:27-15:29
Mission... I'm... I'm... You know what?
15:29-15:30
I'm right there with Jesus.
15:30-15:31
Mission... Missions is my food, man.
15:31-15:32
Missions is my...
15:32-15:35
Missions is my impossible Whopper, man.
15:36-15:40
That's how much I love missions." Well, let's be objective here.
15:41-15:42
You say you love missions.
15:43-15:47
When was the last time you invited someone to church or shared the gospel with them?
15:47-15:48
When was that?
15:49-15:56
How much time have you spent in the past week praying for a pastor or a missionary or a church?
15:56-15:56
How much time?
15:58-16:02
How much money do you give to the church or to missions?
16:03-16:05
Jesus said where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
16:06-16:09
You can tell a lot about your heart by where you spend your money, according to Jesus.
16:10-16:13
You're like, "Well, hang on there a second.
16:14-16:15
Just wait a second there.
16:15-16:18
I don't have a lot of money.
16:18-16:19
You know what?
16:19-16:22
I don't have a lot of time." Yes, you do.
16:22-16:23
Write this down.
16:23-16:28
This is a whole nother sermon, maybe someday future, but this is a truth about life.
16:28-16:32
People have time for what they want to have time for, true or false.
16:33-16:42
And the follow-up sermon to that, just in case there's somebody else that decides they're still going to come to this church, the follow-up sermon to that is, People have money for what they want to have money for.
16:43-16:43
True or false?
16:44-16:44
It's true.
16:45-16:46
It's absolutely true.
16:47-16:51
And now maybe you're like, "Oh man, maybe I don't love missions "as much as I thought I did.
16:51-16:55
"So what should I do about that?" First of all, you need to pray.
16:56-16:57
Look, I can't change your heart.
16:58-17:05
I can't get up here and give a persuasive enough speech that you're going to walk out of here today going, "Oh, oh, thanks Jeff.
17:05-17:08
"Now I care about missions like Jesus." I can't do that.
17:09-17:11
Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
17:11-17:18
And that's why you need to get on your face and you need to cry out and say, God, make me passionate about the things that you're passionate about.
17:18-17:19
Be honest with God.
17:20-17:22
Do you know when you pray, do you know God already knows your heart?
17:22-17:26
So you're not like hiding anything by not mentioning it.
17:26-17:29
Get honest with God and say, God, I'm not passionate about missions.
17:29-17:30
I'm just not.
17:31-17:31
I don't care.
17:32-17:34
I haven't been spending any time.
17:34-17:36
I haven't been spending any money.
17:36-17:40
I haven't been involved in any, God, you know. God, you know.
17:41-17:42
And God, I need you to change me.
17:43-17:44
It has to start there.
17:44-17:45
I can't do that.
17:46-17:49
God's Holy Spirit will do that if you're willing to be honest.
17:49-17:56
So pray. And secondly, after you pray, I would encourage you this, jot this down, start somewhere.
17:57-17:59
We have a missions meeting this Tuesday at 7.
18:00-18:01
Show up. We'd love to have you.
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Come in to hear all the exciting things that are happening with missions in our church worldwide.
18:07-18:15
Sign up for Harvest Kids or for Arrow, or for a ministry that happens to be involved in a mission at this church.
18:16-18:24
Call a Servo or the Ronald McDonald House or some local outreach and say, "Do you have a volunteer opportunity?" Even once a month.
18:25-18:30
"Can I volunteer just once a month?" Start there. But start somewhere.
18:31-18:34
If you're willing to do that, your heart will change.
18:34-18:37
Do you know why Jesus was so fired up for missions?
18:38-18:39
Because He saw God at work.
18:40-18:42
And I'll tell you what, there's nothing in the world like that.
18:43-18:51
When we have baptism services here, and we hear people give testimony of how Jesus Christ changed their life, there is nothing more exciting than that.
18:52-18:59
I was heading to hell, I was destroying my life, and I met Jesus Christ, and everything is new.
19:00-19:01
That's why we're here, people.
19:02-19:04
There is nothing more exciting than that.
19:05-19:16
And when you first-hand see God at work, you see God's hand move, you're going to be like Jesus and say, "You know what? This, this, this is my food.
19:16-19:21
This is more important to me than eating." You've got to make it the priority.
19:22-19:23
That was Jesus.
19:24-19:31
Like, "Man, you missed lunch." He goes, "Oh, I had lunch." Number two, when I see the mission like Jesus, I see it as a team effort.
19:32-19:33
I see it as a team effort.
19:34-19:35
Look at verse 35.
19:37-19:43
Jesus continues, He said, "Do you not say there are yet four months, and then comes the harvest?
19:44-19:57
Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest." Stop there. Jesus said, "You think the harvest is four months away." Again, He's using the context to teach a spiritual lesson.
19:57-20:07
He says, "You think the harvest is four months away." He goes, "Look, lift your heads, look." He says, "The fields are white." Now, what did they see when Jesus told them to look?
20:07-20:11
I mean, Jesus very clearly wanted them to direct their gaze somewhere, right?
20:12-20:16
He says, "Lift up your eyes and see." Well, what did they see?
20:16-20:18
I'll tell you exactly what they saw.
20:19-20:21
Look at verse 30, back up.
20:21-20:22
The woman goes and tells the villagers.
20:24-20:28
Verse 30 says, "They went out of the town and were coming to him." You know what they saw?
20:28-20:29
You know what the disciples saw?
20:30-20:35
They saw these villagers coming up the hill in their white robes.
20:35-20:38
Jesus said, "Oh, you think the harvest is like four months away?
20:38-20:47
Look, look, the fields are white now as the people are walking up the hill." Jesus said, "The harvest is now, you're about to see it." Verse 36, Jesus continues.
20:47-21:07
He said, "Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together." "For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap for that which you did not labor.
21:07-21:20
Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." Jesus is saying, "You're about to receive the blessing that comes to those who are part of the harvest, part of the mission." Jesus pointed out to them, "Hey, you weren't the ones who sowed.
21:20-21:22
You weren't the ones who labored.
21:23-21:26
But you're coming in to the process later.
21:26-21:31
You're kind of like a Johnny come lately, but Johnny come lately still gets to share the blessing.
21:32-21:35
See in verse 37, look at verse 37. This is the key to the whole thing right here.
21:37-21:45
Jesus said, "For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.'" One sows. Okay, so in this story, who was it that did the sowing?
21:46-21:48
It was the woman, right? It was the woman. She went down.
21:49-21:52
"Hey, you're gonna come see this guy. Could this be the Christ?
21:52-21:56
He told me everything I ever did. You're gonna come and see him." So she was the one who sowed.
21:56-21:59
Jesus said to the disciples, "You're coming to reap.
22:01-22:28
You're going to see people's eternal destinies change in about two minutes, guys." To use another analogy, Jesus was saying to the disciples, "That woman set the ball on the tee for you, and now you're going to watch it get hit into the Allegheny River." Or to use another analogy, Jesus said, She set the table for you, and now you're going to sit down and get to enjoy the meal.
22:29-22:32
Or to use another analogy... do you need more analogies?
22:32-22:34
You got it? Are we good?
22:35-22:36
I got a million of them.
22:37-22:40
Move on? Okay, we'll move on.
22:40-22:40
All right.
22:41-22:43
Verse 37 is the principle you need to understand.
22:44-22:47
Here it is. Evangelism is a team effort.
22:47-22:52
Evangelism is a team effort. He says, "One sows and another reaps." That's what Jesus is saying.
22:53-22:55
She did her part. We're about to do our part.
22:56-22:58
You need to see yourself as a link on the chain.
22:59-23:00
That's so important, guys.
23:00-23:02
I think some people are afraid to witness.
23:03-23:10
"What if they ask me a question I don't know?" "What if they want to be baptized at my house?" And you get all these questions.
23:11-23:14
Look, you're just part of the team. Right?
23:14-23:15
You're part of the team.
23:16-23:22
The quarterback of the football team doesn't go out and say, "I hope I win the game today." What does he say?
23:22-23:24
We win, right?
23:24-23:29
The whole offensive unit, the defense, the special teams, it takes all of us together.
23:30-23:31
Same principle here.
23:32-23:33
Everybody does their part.
23:34-23:36
Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 3.
23:36-23:37
Can we get those verses up?
23:38-23:50
1 Corinthians 3, Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
23:51-23:58
He's like, "All glory to God. I do my part. Apollos, yeah, he did his part." God is the one who does the real work here, right?
23:58-24:04
Then he says, "He who plants and he who waters are one." Meaning one team, right?
24:05-24:08
And each will receive his wages according to his labor.
24:10-24:11
Like, what does that look like today?
24:12-24:13
It looks something like this.
24:14-24:25
Maybe someone here blesses someone that they work with, share the gospel, maybe somebody you go to school with, ministering, reaching out, sharing, you invite that person to church.
24:26-24:29
They come to church and they're greeted and loved here by the hospitality team.
24:30-24:32
They hear the message of the cross by whoever's up here speaking.
24:33-24:39
Then they're invited to small group where they really begin to understand the gospel from the small group leader.
24:39-24:47
And the person believes Jesus Christ, and at the next baptism service, they're baptized right here.
24:47-24:52
And in that little scenario, I would ask you, "Who was responsible for that person coming to Christ?
24:53-24:54
Who did he use?
24:55-24:57
Oh, the Holy Spirit, yes. It was the Holy Spirit.
24:58-25:01
But who did the Holy Spirit use?" The answer is all of the above, right?
25:02-25:09
Every single one of those components is absolutely necessary as the Spirit is at work.
25:10-25:18
So whether you're the inviter, or the hospitality person, or the preacher, or the small group leader, or the baptizer, you were just part of the team.
25:18-25:22
You were just one link to bring them to Christ.
25:22-25:23
You have to see it as a team effort.
25:24-25:25
You know, I think we read Acts 8.
25:26-25:27
Remember Acts 8, Philip and Ethiopian eunuch?
25:27-25:28
Remember that story?
25:29-25:36
Ethiopian eunuch is reading the Scriptures and Philip shows up, "Hey, what you reading?" And then he teaches, then he preaches, then he baptizes, and then he's gone.
25:36-25:39
And people think that that's sort of how evangelism works.
25:39-25:42
That's rare. That rarely happens.
25:43-25:44
It's like one-stop shopping.
25:45-25:48
Dead and sins on the way to heaven in one visit.
25:49-25:49
That's rare.
25:50-25:52
Jesus points out how it typically happens.
25:52-25:52
Team effort.
25:53-25:57
Somebody sows, somebody waters, somebody reaps.
25:57-25:57
All glory to God.
25:58-25:59
It's team effort.
25:59-26:02
And finally today, number three, jot this down.
26:03-26:09
When I see the mission like Jesus, I invest in those who are responding.
26:10-26:11
I invest in those who are responding.
26:12-26:12
Look at verse 39.
26:13-26:19
says many Samaritans from the town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony.
26:20-26:30
What testimony? It says right here, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days.
26:31-26:33
And many more believed because of His word.
26:34-26:39
They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, we've heard for ourselves.
26:40-26:44
And we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.
26:45-26:52
This is astronomical, because this little scene that happened right here, do you realize this never happened in a Jewish town?
26:53-26:56
Right? Keep in mind, we talked about the Samaritans last week.
26:56-27:01
Jesus stayed two days with them, teaching and preaching and sharing the gospel with them.
27:02-27:03
That never happened in a Jewish town.
27:04-27:10
In fact, by way of comparison, You can read about this in Luke 4, not now, later.
27:11-27:15
But in Luke 4, Jesus goes back to his hometown, Nazareth.
27:16-27:19
He preaches one sermon in Nazareth.
27:20-27:20
Do you remember the results?
27:21-27:23
They tried to throw him off a cliff.
27:25-27:25
His Jewish hometown.
27:26-27:30
Here he goes to these hated half-breed Samaritans.
27:31-27:32
It's like mass revival.
27:33-27:35
But here's a key to evangelism right here.
27:36-27:38
It took me a long time to learn.
27:39-27:40
And I'm still learning.
27:41-27:43
I'm still growing by God's grace.
27:43-27:46
This is something that took me a very long time to learn, and it's this.
27:47-27:50
You need to invest your time in people who are responding.
27:50-27:52
Look again at verses 40 and 41.
27:53-27:58
"So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them.
27:58-28:07
And he stayed there two days." Look at verse 41, "And many more believed because of his word." You need to invest your time in the people who are responding.
28:08-28:14
I'm not saying that we don't share the Gospel with anyone and everyone.
28:14-28:15
We absolutely do.
28:15-28:25
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be persistent in praying and reaching out to that lost family member, that lost co-worker, that lost neighbor, that lost whatever.
28:25-28:26
I'm not saying that at all.
28:27-28:28
Here's what I am saying.
28:29-28:40
I'm saying, over the last 20-some years, I've wasted a lot of time trying to drag people along who weren't interested in Jesus or His mission.
28:40-28:41
I've wasted a lot of time.
28:43-28:44
And my wife Erin, she's seen it.
28:45-28:53
Because she's told me at different points along the way, she says, "Jeff, you're wasting too much time trying to get Him on board.
28:54-28:57
You're spending so much time with Him, Jeff, He's not interested.
28:58-29:00
You shouldn't have to drag Him.
29:01-29:02
You shouldn't have to beg Him.
29:03-29:07
You're wasting too much time." And I was like, "No, no, no, Eric. He's going to get it.
29:07-29:13
He's going to get it. He's going to come along. You're going to see." And she was right.
29:14-29:17
Jesus spent two whole days in this village teaching. Why?
29:18-29:20
One simple reason. They were responding.
29:21-29:30
Jesus spent His whole ministry pouring into twelve people and not the thousands in the general population.
29:30-29:32
Why did He spend so much time with those twelve people?
29:33-29:34
Because they were responding.
29:35-29:39
If you were with us when we went through the book of Acts years ago, we saw how that paid off.
29:40-29:56
I just want to encourage those of you in ministry here, I'm speaking to you specifically, whatever aspect of ministry you're in, whether you're an elder, ministry team leader, small group leader, worship leader, whatever aspect of ministry you're in, I just want to encourage you to not be dumb like me.
29:57-30:02
In your ministry, you need to look to see who is responding, and invest in them.
30:03-30:06
Disciple them, equip them, spend more time with them.
30:07-30:09
Invest in people who are responding.
30:09-30:12
So church, we have our mission to make disciples.
30:13-30:15
It always cracks me up when I meet somebody new.
30:16-30:21
They're like, "What's the mission of your church?" People ask me that. "What's the mission of your church?" Like, "What, do you think I made it up?
30:22-30:30
Jesus gave us a mission!" "Duh! I don't say that." But seriously, didn't Jesus make it clear what we're supposed to do?
30:30-30:31
Like, what do you want to do?
30:32-30:33
I don't know. How about what Jesus said to do?
30:34-30:36
Make disciples. He laid it all out for us.
30:36-30:39
And it matters more than anything.
30:40-30:41
To Jesus, it is the priority.
30:43-30:48
And we just need to see ourselves as part of the team, investing in the people who are responding.
30:48-30:49
So, hey, you want to know Jesus?
30:50-30:54
Then you need to know what He is most passionate about.
30:54-30:57
That's the mission of seeing people come to salvation.
30:58-31:02
Father in heaven, we thank You for the mission that You gave us.
31:03-31:09
Father, I pray for a revival in enthusiasm.
31:10-31:14
That You would reinvigorate our passion for missions, Father.
31:14-31:23
I thank You. I see so many people in this church involved in so many different missions, whether it's to Thailand or Haiti or Costa Rica or the Dominican.
31:23-31:25
We've just been everywhere.
31:26-31:29
Father, it would be real easy to sit back and pat ourselves on the back for that.
31:29-31:33
But we're asking that You would just give us even more passion for missions.
31:34-31:36
"Bring more people on board, Father," we ask.
31:37-31:55
"But Father, this mission that You've given us isn't some cold, emotionally disconnected project to work on." I thank You for this passage where we get a little insight into the heart of Your Son, who saw the mission as being more important than eating, as being more important than anything.
31:55-32:00
Father, I pray that You would, by the power of Your Spirit, I pray that You would give that to us.
32:01-32:05
Let us see Your mission as being more important even than eating.
32:06-32:09
Help us to see ourselves as part of a team.
32:11-32:15
Give us wisdom and discernment, like Jesus, to invest in the people who are responding.
32:16-32:23
All glory and credit and praise and honor goes to you, Father.
32:24-32:26
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 4:27-42

What was your big “take-away” from the passage / message?
Tell of a time you saw God’s timing in an amazing and obvious way (John 4:27).
How fired up are you about Jesus’ mission, on a scale of 1-10. Be honest!
What would fire you up more?
Christmas is coming! Who are you inviting to our upcoming Christmas series?

BREAKOUT
Pray for one another, and the rest of HBC, to share Jesus’ passion for the work of God.

Jeff Miller

November 24, 2019

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Gift

Jeff Miller

November 24, 2019

Knowing Jesus

Introduction:

4 Things You Need to Know about the Gift of God (John 4:1-26):

God's gift is for All people - even people whom You may not want to have it. (John 4:4, 9)
God's gift brings true Satisfaction . (John 4:13-18)

  
    God's gift leads to true Worship . (John 4:20-24)
  
God's gift is a Gift . (John 4:10)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

01:11-01:16
All right, open your Bibles to John chapter 4.
01:19-01:21
Doesn't the Christmas tree look fantastic?
01:22-01:24
But thinking about Christmas, we think about gifts.
01:26-01:33
And I don't know about you, but over the years, I've gotten a couple of weird gifts.
01:33-01:37
Has anybody here, show of hands, ever gotten a really weird gift?
01:38-01:45
that you're just like, that was very sweet, but I'm not quite sure what prompted this gift.
01:45-01:51
I've gotten a couple of those, and again, I'm not criticizing the gift giver whatsoever.
01:51-01:58
I'm just saying that I didn't quite understand perhaps the thought process that went behind in selecting that gift for me.
01:59-02:17
And probably one of the strangest gifts, I, when I say I, I mean we, Aaron and I, When we got married, we got a wedding gift that was a basket, and it had a few things in it, but included in this basket was a pair of Isotoner gloves.
02:19-02:20
How many people remember Isotoner gloves?
02:21-02:21
Show of hands.
02:21-02:22
OK, a lot of you.
02:23-02:25
All right, we're going to see less hands here in a second.
02:25-02:27
There was a price tag still on the gloves.
02:27-02:30
The gloves were purchased originally at Troutman's.
02:30-02:32
How many people remember Troutman's show of hands?
02:33-02:34
OK, all you old people.
02:36-02:37
Troutmints.
02:38-02:43
And I thought, well, that's sweet, I guess, by my wife and I for our wedding.
02:43-02:45
We got a pair of gloves.
02:45-02:46
I guess she gets one and I get one.
02:49-02:51
Got like a Michael Jackson thing happening, I suppose.
02:55-03:13
The gloves cracked me up, because they were actually like-- in the packaging, it wasn't just like on a hook or anything. It was actually in this really detailed box. It had all these instructions for gloves. And it gave you a list of ways that you can use the gloves.
03:14-03:27
You remember this, Aaron? There were a list of ways you could use a glove. One is you could wear them when driving. And I'm like, okay, I've seen people wear gloves when they're driving, I guess. But a couple of the other examples kind of cracked me up. It said fishing.
03:28-04:11
You can wear isotoners when fishing. Now, for those of you guys who don't know what isotoners or they're kind of like a leatherette on the outside and they were like fuzzy like a lamb on the inside and I'm like who's wearing these gloves when they're fishing but the weirdest thing it says that you could wear them while you're sleeping and I thought that was really weird how many people show of hands put gloves on to go to bed okay that's what I thought I mean that's never happened that's not never happened in our home anyways I'm like honey I'm I'm really tired, I'm going to bed. Have you seen my acetoners?" It was a sweet, sweet gift, but it was just a little confusing to me.
04:12-04:14
And that's our passage today.
04:15-04:22
Jesus talks about a gift, and it results in some confusion.
04:24-04:25
And we're going to go through this.
04:27-04:54
John 4. You there? Verse 1. It says, "Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee." What in the world is going on here? Long story short, Jesus was avoiding a confrontation.
04:56-04:59
The Pharisees hated John. Jesus was becoming more popular than John.
05:00-05:04
So Jesus was avoiding a premature confrontation with them.
05:04-05:09
So he went to Galilee, where he ministered over a year.
05:10-05:20
Verse 4, it says, "And he had to pass through Samaria." So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
05:21-05:29
Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well, it was about the sixth hour.
05:30-05:34
Interestingly, verse 4 says he had to pass through Samaria.
05:35-05:48
On one hand, you can say, "No, no, no, no, he didn't have to pass through Samaria logistically." Because most Jews in this day would not travel through Samaria.
05:48-05:49
We're going to talk about that in a second.
05:50-05:56
But there are actually two different ways to go around Samaria to get where He was going.
05:57-05:59
So logistically, He didn't have to.
06:00-06:07
When your Bible says He had to, what it means is He had to because He had a divine appointment.
06:08-06:14
Jesus is like, "I have something that has to happen here, so I have to go this way." That'll be so clear here in a couple of moments.
06:15-06:19
But notice it says in verse 6 that He was wearied.
06:20-06:21
He was wearied.
06:24-06:27
This was a 20-mile hike that Jesus was on.
06:27-06:30
And I don't mean 20 laps around the mall.
06:30-06:35
This was a 20-mile hike that Jesus completed.
06:35-06:41
And we've already talked about this, and we're going to continue to talk about it.
06:41-06:43
Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
06:45-06:50
And Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
06:51-06:56
He subjected himself to all of the things that humans are subjected to.
06:56-06:59
The Bible says Jesus got hungry, Jesus got thirsty.
07:00-07:02
Here, Jesus got tired.
07:03-07:08
Which is kind of a mind-blowing thing, but the words are very specific here.
07:08-07:17
He was exhausted as I would be, not even hiking 20 miles, even thinking about hiking 20 miles would exhaust me.
07:17-07:19
Jesus did that. He was exhausted.
07:19-07:24
Verse 7, it says, "A woman from Samaria came to draw water.
07:24-07:31
Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.' For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
07:32-07:42
The Samaritan woman said to Him, 'How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?
07:43-07:53
For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.'" The fact that Jesus even spoke to this woman is staggering.
07:54-07:56
And you see, she even acknowledged that.
07:57-07:59
Like, what was so staggering here?
07:59-08:08
But this woman, she checked the boxes of every type of person that a good Jewish rabbi absolutely would not talk to.
08:09-08:13
First of all, she was a woman.
08:15-08:25
And culturally, it was not the norm for a man, especially a rabbi, to speak to a woman in public like this.
08:25-08:27
That just did not happen culturally.
08:28-08:31
Okay, so that's one reason she was shocked.
08:32-08:37
Another thing we're going to find out here in a second, she was an immoral woman.
08:38-08:45
The Bible is very clear, it says that this was about the sixth hour, and the hours start counting from 6 a.m.
08:45-08:46
So this was noon.
08:46-08:53
You're like, "Well, what's the point?" The point is most people did not go to the well to get their water in the heat of the day.
08:54-08:58
They would go early in the morning, or late at night when it was cooler.
08:58-09:01
That's when most of the ladies from the village would go.
09:02-09:06
This woman went at noon to avoid the ladies of the village.
09:07-09:12
Again, we're going to see here as we read more about her story, she had a bad reputation.
09:13-09:18
and I think this woman was here isolated, alone at this well in the heat of the day.
09:19-09:20
She just wanted to avoid people.
09:20-09:21
I don't want to be around people.
09:22-09:23
I know what people think of me.
09:23-09:25
I know what people say about me.
09:25-09:28
And I don't want to be anywhere around that.
09:28-09:30
I'll just go to the well when I don't have to deal with people.
09:31-09:31
Right?
09:34-09:44
But the third reason, it's astonishing that Jesus spoke with her There's a reason that she very specifically brought up.
09:44-09:45
She was a Samaritan.
09:47-09:57
And you're like, "Well, what's the problem there?" "What about the good Samaritans? I thought Samaritans were good people." Well, here's what a Samaritan was.
09:59-10:00
A little history lesson for you.
10:00-10:18
When Assyria, when the nation of Assyria captured the northern kingdom of Israel, we're talking about 722 B.C., Many of the remaining Jews that stayed in Israel intermarried with the pagan Gentiles that were now occupying Israel.
10:19-10:26
So what resulted was you had this group of people that were half Jewish, and they were half pagan Gentile.
10:29-10:36
And full -blooded Jews had a racial and national bigotry towards Samaritans.
10:37-10:38
The text indicates this very clearly.
10:41-10:48
Notice the woman says, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" Here's a question.
10:48-10:51
How did she know that he was a Jew?
10:52-10:53
How did she know that?
10:55-10:59
The best guess is how he was dressed.
11:01-11:01
But we don't know.
11:02-11:02
But she knew.
11:04-11:04
But we don't know.
11:04-11:05
Look at verse 10.
11:06-11:07
He knew he was Jewish.
11:08-11:25
Verse 10, "Jesus said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying, 'Do you give me a drink?' You would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.'" Kind of neat, isn't it?
11:25-11:26
Jesus turns the tables.
11:27-11:31
When a conversation started, He was thirsty, and asked her for a drink.
11:31-11:32
Now, He says, "Oh, you're thirsty.
11:32-11:42
You should be asking Me for a drink." In verse 11, the woman said to Him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.
11:43-11:44
Where do you get that living water?
11:46-11:48
Are you greater than our father Jacob?
11:48-11:57
He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." I think she was sort of mocking Jesus here.
11:59-12:01
Like, "Oh, you're offering living water, huh?
12:01-12:02
Okay. Okay.
12:04-12:05
How are you getting this living water, by the way?
12:06-12:10
By the way, our father Jacob, I'm sure as a Jew, you've heard of Jacob.
12:10-12:13
He's sort of a legend among your people, right?
12:13-12:14
He dug the well.
12:14-12:17
And are you telling me right now that you're greater than him?
12:17-12:20
I mean, he dug this water well, but you have this living water well.
12:20-12:21
You're greater than Jacob?
12:21-12:22
Is that what's going on here?
12:23-12:24
I think she was kind of mocking him.
12:27-12:35
Look at verse 13, "Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.
12:38-12:43
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
12:45-13:07
The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." So Jesus drives this spiritual point home.
13:10-13:12
He's like, "I'm talking about something spiritual.
13:12-13:16
I'm talking about water for your soul." And obviously at this point, she still doesn't get it.
13:17-13:19
She's like, "Oh, okay, you're telling me I'll never have to be thirsty again?
13:20-13:22
Alright, okay, offer accepted.
13:22-13:25
Can I have some of this magic water that you're offering me?
13:25-13:28
This living water?" Okay, great.
13:31-13:35
She doesn't get it. Look at verse 16.
13:37-13:46
"Jesus said to her, 'Go, call your husband and come here.'" What?
13:47-13:48
Doesn't that seem kind of random?
13:49-14:01
Having this conversation about water and Jacob, He's like, "Hey, go get your husband." "What?" Look at verse 17.
14:02-14:09
"The woman answered him, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are right in saying I have no husband.
14:12-14:19
You've had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.
14:20-14:24
you've said is true. Wait, what just happened?
14:26-14:27
What just happened here?
14:27-14:32
We're talking about water and wells and Jacob and living water and we're...
14:32-14:55
And the woman's like, "Okay, now all of a sudden we're talking about my man situation?" But the lights are starting to come on for this lady now. Because look at verse 19, "The woman said to him, 'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.'" Like, okay, you're not some wacky guy by the well." She goes, "No, there's something about you.
14:58-14:59
You're a prophet.
15:01-15:01
You're legit.
15:03-15:17
Like, how would you know all this?" Well, then in verse 20, she does, quite honestly, what any of us would have done, when the conversation gets a little too uncomfortable.
15:19-15:20
She changes the subject.
15:21-15:21
Look at verse 20.
15:22-15:33
She said, "Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Again, it starts to get a little uncomfortable.
15:33-15:46
So she goes, "Let's talk about worship." She's like, "You seem like a pretty legit spiritual man, And so, Samaritan worship versus Jewish worship.
15:46-15:50
Worship on Mount Gerizim, worship in Jerusalem.
15:52-15:53
What do you think about that?
15:54-16:08
Verse 21, "Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.'" This is another shocking reply.
16:09-16:13
Jesus answered to her question, not really a question, more of a statement about worship.
16:14-16:22
Jesus said, "Yeah, none of the above." Samaritan worship at this time was sort of like Judaism, but it was off track in a lot of ways.
16:22-16:25
But Jesus said, "The day's coming.
16:25-16:33
Worship's really not going to happen specifically in either place." Verse 22, Jesus continues.
16:33-16:35
He says, "You worship what you do not know.
16:37-16:38
We worship what we know.
16:39-16:43
For salvation is from the Jews.
16:43-16:49
But the hour is coming, and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
16:50-16:54
For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.
16:55-16:56
God is spirit.
16:57-17:02
And those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
17:04-17:07
Jesus is telling this woman, Everything is changing about worship.
17:08-17:11
It's all about how, not about where.
17:11-17:16
And two times, I'm sure you saw it, verse 23 and 24, Jesus talked about Spirit and truth.
17:17-17:18
Spirit and truth.
17:18-17:33
It's worshiping God from your whole heart, and at the same time, according to who He actually is as He's revealed Himself from the Bible.
17:34-17:41
That's why He said to her, "You worship what you do not know." He said, "As Jews, we have the Scriptures, we have an understanding of who God is.
17:41-17:50
You are trying to worship, but you don't really know God." It has to be Spirit and truth. We're going to circle back to that in a minute.
17:53-17:55
Look at verse 25 of the woman's reply.
17:55-18:05
"The woman said to Him, 'I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ.' When He comes, He will tell us all things.
18:08-18:22
Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." Interestingly, in the original Greek, there's no "He" in this verse.
18:23-18:33
Jesus literally said, "I who speak to you am." Jesus is calling Himself the "I Am." That comes up over and over and over and over.
18:33-18:35
John, you're going to see it over and over again.
18:36-18:37
That comes from Exodus 3.
18:38-18:39
Moses was sent by God.
18:39-18:41
Moses is like, "Well, they're not going to believe me.
18:42-18:49
What's your name? Who should I tell to send me?" And God said, "His name is I Am Who I Am." That's God's name.
18:50-18:55
And that's the name that Jesus uses for Himself throughout the Gospel of John here again.
18:56-19:10
"I who speak to you, Am." Now, so far in John, if you've been following us in this series, we've heard testimony of who Jesus is from John the Apostle.
19:13-19:14
That's how the gospel started.
19:14-19:17
We've heard testimony a couple of times from John the Baptist.
19:17-19:20
We saw testimony of who Jesus is from the very first disciples.
19:21-19:27
But do you realize this woman is the first person in John's gospel to hear it from Jesus himself.
19:28-19:32
She's the first person to hear it out of his own mouth.
19:33-19:57
And in this unveiling of himself, he tells this woman, and it's preserved in God's Word for us, verse 10, where he says, "If you knew the gift of God..." He's telling her church, and he's telling us, You have to know the gift of God. You have to know it.
19:59-20:06
Again, the gift was a little confusing to her, maybe more so than a pair of isotoners.
20:06-20:07
She was confused.
20:11-20:13
But understand that the gift of God is Jesus.
20:16-20:20
And this year we're going for knowing Jesus.
20:21-20:24
So if you want to know Jesus, you have to know about the gift of God.
20:24-20:25
Right?
20:25-20:27
You have to know about the gift of God.
20:28-20:32
So in your outline, here's four things you need to know about the gift of God.
20:34-20:37
Four things you need to know about the gift of God, it all comes from the text.
20:39-20:46
I wanted to sort of go through that conversation to get the context, but now we're going to circle back a little bit.
20:47-20:50
Here's the first thing you need to know about the gift of God.
20:50-20:52
God's gift is for all people.
20:54-21:00
Like, "Oh yeah, I knew that. Hang on." Even people you may not want to have.
21:03-21:09
"Oh, I don't want to hear that." Listen, church.
21:09-21:22
The fact that Jesus Christ reached out to a Samaritan woman This is something that some people may not want to hear.
21:23-21:26
There are some people sitting here that aren't going to want to hear what I'm about to say.
21:27-21:30
There are people who are going to listen to this online later that are not going to want to hear this.
21:31-21:32
This is in the Bible.
21:33-21:36
At Harvest Bible Chapel, we believe in letting the Word of God speak.
21:39-21:43
God's gift is for all people, even people you may not want to have it.
21:43-21:51
As we touched upon earlier, That was a deep-rooted racial and national hatred that Jews have for Samaritans.
21:51-21:53
Look back at verse 9 again.
21:53-21:54
Quickly with me, please.
21:54-21:56
Do you see the parenthetical statement?
21:56-22:03
It says, "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." That sounds very proper the way that's worded.
22:03-22:04
Do you know how that's worded in the original Greek?
22:05-22:06
It's this.
22:07-22:12
"They use not anything together." That's literally how it is.
22:12-22:14
"Use not anything together." Do you know what that means?
22:15-22:20
A Jew would say something like this, "I would not ride in a chariot with a Samaritan.
22:20-22:23
I would not sit at a table with a Samaritan.
22:24-22:26
I would not ride in an elevator with a Samaritan.
22:29-22:34
I wouldn't eat at a restaurant where we might use the same plates.
22:34-22:35
I wouldn't do it.
22:35-22:37
I would not touch something a Samaritan touched.
22:37-22:41
I wouldn't do it." That's how Jews felt about Samaritans.
22:41-22:42
Hated them.
22:43-22:44
Hated them!
22:47-22:50
Hatred has become the norm in our culture.
22:52-22:53
True or false?
22:55-22:56
Think about racial hatred.
22:59-23:00
Think about political hatred.
23:02-23:09
Think about hatred towards people of different sexual orientations or confusions.
23:11-23:12
about religious hatred.
23:15-23:18
And you're like, "Oh no, not me, Pastor Jeff.
23:18-23:22
I love everyone." Do you?
23:25-23:47
Let me just ask you, when you watch the news and you see LGBTQ protests or allowances for boys who identify as girls to be able to change in girls' locker rooms in a place in Illinois this past week, you've never felt any disdain?
23:49-23:54
You've never seen that and just had this, like, hatred in your belly?
23:54-23:55
That's never happened to you?
23:57-24:02
Or you see on the news people protesting to murder babies.
24:02-24:05
You've never felt just a little bit of hatred towards those people?
24:06-24:06
Never.
24:09-24:32
or you're following all this circus on the news, and whatever political party you're a part of, you look at the opposite political party, and you've never felt any loathing, whether it's for the president or for Pelosi or for whoever you don't like, you've never felt any hatred.
24:35-24:49
You remember years ago, videos surfacing of radical Muslims lining up handcuffed Christians on their knees, shooting them in the back of the head.
24:51-24:53
Or putting them in cages and drowning them.
24:53-24:54
Do you remember that?
24:57-25:00
And then you see Muslims in our culture.
25:01-25:02
That's what you think of.
25:03-25:06
You've never felt hatred towards those people.
25:09-25:24
If you're honest, and you've felt anything towards any of the above that I mentioned, and you get a sense as to what was going on here with Jesus reaching out to a Samaritan.
25:28-25:37
And these people that we might be tempted to hate, I'm like, "Dude, I'm not even tempted. I do hate you." Listen, they're lost.
25:39-25:41
They're dead in their sin.
25:42-25:45
And they're heading to hell without Jesus Christ.
25:46-25:49
And they aren't people that prevent us from going into the mission field.
25:49-25:50
They are the mission field.
25:53-25:56
So let me ask you, how likely are you to be like Jesus?
25:56-25:58
How likely are you to be like Jesus?
25:59-26:06
I think I try to be like Jesus." Well, what if at your workplace, somebody was hired that was a homosexual?
26:08-26:09
Would you look for ways to bless that person?
26:10-26:11
Love that person?
26:11-26:12
Share the gospel with that person?
26:13-26:14
Invite the person to church?
26:14-26:14
Would you do that?
26:16-26:19
Or would you do everything possible to avoid that person?
26:23-26:25
Are you like all the other Jews in Jesus' day?
26:25-26:26
Or are you like Jesus?
26:29-26:33
What if you found out in your workplace that they hired a guy that is a Muslim?
26:36-26:38
And he works right down the hall from you.
26:40-26:41
Would you reach out? Would you love him?
26:42-26:43
Would you share the Gospel with him?
26:43-26:44
Would you invite him to church?
26:47-26:49
You're like, "Listen, Pastor Jeff, they don't deserve it.
26:51-27:01
None of us deserve it." Do you know how many people in heaven right now that deserve it.
27:01-27:02
You know how many?
27:03-27:03
One.
27:05-27:06
His name is Jesus Christ.
27:07-27:11
As for the rest of us, we need grace.
27:14-27:31
So, I think, because I'm in the category of the grace-needing people, like all y'all, I'm very thankful that God's gift is for all people, even for people that you may not want to have it.
27:33-27:35
Secondly, I'll draw this down.
27:35-27:39
God's gift brings true satisfaction.
27:42-27:44
God's gift brings true satisfaction.
27:47-27:49
Why did Jesus tell her to call her husband?
27:52-27:54
You know, at first that seems kind of random, doesn't it?
27:55-27:57
There's actually a couple of things going on here.
27:59-28:02
You look at the history of prophets through the Old Testament.
28:03-28:03
What do prophets do?
28:04-28:06
They show up and they identify people's sin.
28:07-28:10
That's one thing that Jesus was doing here, but there's something else.
28:12-28:19
Jesus was pointing out to this woman what she was looking for in order to obtain satisfaction.
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That's what he was doing.
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It's just so common even in our day.
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It's common in our day.
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Women think, some women, some women think, if I just give a man what he wants, he's going to give me what I want.
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And I'll make myself available to him, to be my Prince Charming.
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This woman was on strike five and swinging the bat at number six about the minute.
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And look, I'm not criticizing the woman, overly criticizing, trying to be harsh, because there were, at this point at least, five loser men that didn't do the right thing either, right?
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But for some women, that's what they think is going to satisfy.
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I'm going to get this Prince Charming.
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He's going to come in on his white horse, and he's going to make everything great!
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And she's like, again, six guys in.
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And men, look, we're the same, guys.
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My life is going to be perfect, I'm just going to find the right woman.
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I'm going to find the right woman, my life is going to be perfect.
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Men and women hop from person to person, married, divorced, living with this one, moving out, living with that one.
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This one is the one that's going to do it!
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That's what she was looking to for satisfaction.
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What about you?
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What do you look for you think is going to satisfy your soul.
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For some of you it is the opposite sex.
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For others it could be drugs.
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It could be food.
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It could be your position at work.
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It could be your income.
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Any of these earthly, physical things that we think are going to satisfy us spiritually.
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Do you know what Jesus said about that?
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He said it in verse 13.
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He says, "You're going to be thirsty again." All these things, they might temporarily stop a craving, or they might stroke your ego for a minute, or they might give you this one second of contentment.
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But you will be thirsty again, because they will not satisfy your soul.
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That's what Jesus was pointing out to her.
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He said, "I have living water.
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What have you been trying to satisfy yourself with?
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There's only one thing.
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There's only one thing that's going to satisfy you, and that is the gift of God.
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That's why Jesus said there, "If you knew the gift of God..." Water in the Bible is the picture of life and satisfaction.
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That's why Jesus later - we're going to get to this down the road, Jesus calls the thirsty.
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Like, if you're thirsty, come to Me.
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Come for life.
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Come for satisfaction.
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Jesus is living water.
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The only one that can quench the thirst.
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Earthly things can't do that.
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Thirdly, God's gift leads to true worship.
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God's gift leads to true worship.
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And I can't underscore the importance of this point because worship is the most important thing in the world.
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It's the reason you're created.
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Everyone worships something.
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God's gift leads to true worship.
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I want you to look again at verses 23 and 24.
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Jesus said, "But the hour is coming and is now here." "When the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
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For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him." Verse 24, he takes another run at it to make sure that we're clear.
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Jesus says, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Notice that Jesus talked about, in verse 23, true worshipers.
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Do you see that? True worshipers.
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If there are true worshipers, that implies that there are false worshipers. Right?
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Boy, this doesn't fly today, does it?
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"Hey, hey, the way you worship is wrong." How can you say that?
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How can you say the way that I worship is wrong?
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God said it. God said it.
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God says that he's seeking true worshipers, not people that worship how they want.
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Like, "I worship God the way I want to." That's not what God's looking for.
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He's looking for true worshipers.
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The person that's like, worshiping God in an emotionally detached way.
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Like, "I make sure my worship is in line with the Word of God, and I sort of keep my heart out of it." That's wrong too.
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Jesus points out twice here.
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with spirit and truth.
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And church, there is something in us as human beings, where we want religion and worship to be about external things, right?
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That's where the woman went when she changed the subject.
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"Let's talk about worship here or there.
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What do you think?" It was all about external things.
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And we can't point the finger at her Because we have that same tendency.
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We want religion, we want worship to be about externals.
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We wear the saint medal, or it's the way that we dress for church, or having stained glass, or I cross myself when I drive past a church, or we call this room the sanctuary.
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This room is not the sanctuary.
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This room is no holier than the parking lot.
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This woman was so hung up on where worship, where worship, where worship.
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And Jesus took her to how?
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Spirit and truth is a hard thing.
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Jesus said it's not about a place.
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Worship is about loving, honoring, and serving God from a sincere heart according to His That's worship. Spirit and truth.
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We've taught so much on worship in this church.
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Just a quick reminder, I know some of you have heard this before, and you know what I'm going to say.
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But some people are all spirit and no truth.
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Some people are all spirit and no truth.
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They look at worship as purely an emotional experience.
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It's about lasers and fog and interpretive dance and screaming and barking.
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Yes, barking, that's what some people do for worship.
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"My dog is a worshiper." That's what some people do.
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And it's just purely this emotional thing.
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But some people are all truth and no spirit.
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That they think worship is...
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"A mighty fortress is our God." Yes, that is true and correct.
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And I can tell you the book, chapter, and verse That's where that comes from.
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And there's no spirit!
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What did Jesus say?
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It's spirit and truth.
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True worship is 100% both.
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My whole heart is according to God's truth.
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God's gift leads us to that.
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And finally, number four.
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Jot this down.
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Things you need to know about God's gift.
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Or God's gift is a gift.
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God's gift is a gift.
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You're like, "Wait, what are we paying you for?" I know.
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It took me like a day and a half to come up with that.
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God's gift is a gift.
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I think Pastor Jeff needs to sit back.
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Now, do you know why I included this?
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I think this is the easiest thing for us to overlook, to be honest with you.
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I think we can go through this passage and we can try to reach the depths of all these glorious truths, and I think we can miss probably what is to me the most profound and awesome and beautiful and glorious truth in this whole passage, and that's this.
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God's gift is a gift.
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That's what makes the gospel of Jesus Christ, as presented in the Bible, different than every other religion in the world.
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Every single other religion in the world - and I've studied all of the major ones extensively - every other religion says, "Here's what you have to do to get right with God." Where the Bible, the Gospel, says, "Here's what God has done to get you right with Him." That's what makes the Bible different.
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Jesus Christ died.
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the penalty for your sin.
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He rose from the dead to give you the very thing He talked about in verse 14.
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Eternal life.
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Salvation is a gift from God to anyone who is willing to receive it.
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Christmas is coming up.
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Kate, how many days until Christmas?
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32. I knew He would know that.
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He didn't practice that, I just knew he would know.
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And if you ask our children's director, Mandy Moult, I bet you she can tell you how many hours until Christmas.
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But it's Christmas coming up, and let's say you go out and you want to buy me a gift.
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And you're like, "I can't wait until Christmas.
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I'm going to come to Pastor Jeff's house early.
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And I'm going to give him this gift that I bought him." There's four ways I can respond to that.
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Come to my house, you knock on my door, and you're like, "Merry Christmas, Pastor Jeff!
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"I got you a gift!" And I slam the door in your face, and I say, "I don't want your stupid gift." I would not do that.
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I'm just saying that's an option, right?
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Hypothetically speaking, that's something I could possibly do.
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I wouldn't, but that's a possibility.
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There's another option.
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You knock on my door, I open it up, and you say, "Merry Christmas, Pastor Jeff, "I got you a gift." And I'm like, "That is so kind of you." And I pull out my wallet.
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I'm like, "How much was it?
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"I'm gonna pay you for it.
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"How would you feel?" "Not great." Right?
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"I bought you a gift." Or, you come to my house, you knock on the door, I open it up, and you're like, "Here, Christmas pastor Jeff, I got you a gift." And I take the gift and I'm like, "This is so cool." And I set it right there on the porch.
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I'm like, "I think I like it." And then you come back to my house next year, and it's still sitting there.
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Now it's got dust and leaves, and it's been weathered.
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You can tell it just hasn't been touched in a year.
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I just set it down, I never really did anything with it, I just kind of set it aside.
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Or, you knock on my door, you say, "Merry Christmas, Pastor Jeff," and I take the gift, and I say, "Thank you so much." And I receive it.
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And you understand that those are four ways that you can respond to God's gift.
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Those are your options.
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"I'm going to show you today Jesus Christ has a gift for you." You could take option one, and say, "You know what, Jesus, I don't want your stupid gift." I wouldn't recommend that, but that's one option that you do have.
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That's one option I've seen people take.
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"I don't want your stupid gift." Another option, some people, they think they have to pay for it.
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Remember I said I pull out my wallet, how much do I owe you?
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Some people try to do that with the gospel.
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"Oh, this is great!
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If I'm going to receive the gift of Jesus, that means I have to have perfect church attendance, and I have to be a better person, and I'm going to work in the soup kitchen, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do all these things to earn this." You can't earn it. You can't earn it.
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He said it's a gift.
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And just like you would be insulted if I tried to pay for your gift, I think it's insulting to the Lord and we try to pay for hits.
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But you know what I think a lot of people do in churches?
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I think a lot of people take option three, and they take the gift of God, and they set it by the door.
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I think a lot of people come to church, and they're like, "Oh, this is great!
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Yes, Jesus! Yes, eternal life!
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Yes, transformation! Yes, new way of living!" And I think they just sort of set Him aside.
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They're not opposed to Him, And they're not really ready to receive Him either.
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They like the idea of having the gift.
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They've never taken the step to actually receive it.
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Do you know what option Jesus wants you to take?
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He's made it so clear.
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He wants you to receive.
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He wants you to believe in His name.
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If you knew the gift of God, Jesus said, if you knew the gift of God, I would add, then you would gratefully receive it.
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Father in heaven, this time of year we think a lot about gifts.
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Some of us are thinking about trying to get that perfect gift for somebody right now.
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But God, we thank You that with the Gospel, You have given the perfect gift.
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Father, I think so many of us find ourselves just like that woman.
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We're sort of exposed to the Messiah.
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a little bit of confusion regarding.
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We know about Jesus, but we don't know Jesus.
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I pray, Father, for the person here who needs that faith, that You would grant them repentance.
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Your Spirit would draw them to You.
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And they would truly come to understand.
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to know the gift of God and to receive Him.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 4:1-26

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Reread John 4:23-24. Explain what it means to worship in “spirit and truth”. Do you tend to be more spirit or truth in worship? How can you adjust to be more “balanced”?
What are some things YOU have looked to for satisfaction before you came to Christ? How have you found Christ to be the living water that keeps you from being thirsty (John 4:14)?

BREAKOUT
Pray for one another!

We're Expecting! We Expect a King.

Introduction:

What Kind of King Is This? (Luke 1:26-38)

We're Expecting! We Expect God to Keep His Word.

Introduction:

I Pray with Expectation (Luke 1:5-25):

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Sovereignty

Introduction:

Knowing Jesus Through Desperation (John 4:43-54):

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Mission

Introduction:

When I See the Mission Like Jesus (John 4:27-42):

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Gift

Introduction:

4 Things You Need to Know about the Gift of God (John 4:1-26):

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

What Kind of King Is This? (Luke 1:26-38)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

I Pray with Expectation (Luke 1:5-25):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Knowing Jesus Through Desperation (John 4:43-54):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

When I See the Mission Like Jesus (John 4:27-42):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

4 Things You Need to Know about the Gift of God (John 4:1-26):

Audio Transcript