Jeff Miller

November 8, 2020

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Compassion.

Jeff Miller

November 8, 2020

Knowing Jesus

  
  Introduction:

  Knowing Jesus When You're Hurting (John 11:17-37)

He is Present and Powerful today. (John 11:17-27)
He Feels your hurt. (John 11:28-37)

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

00:48-00:49
John chapter 11.
00:50-00:55
We're going to be picking up in verse 17 here in just a couple of moments.
00:55-01:04
Have you noticed that some people do an absolutely terrible job comforting people?
01:04-01:05
Have you ever noticed that?
01:06-01:07
Terrible comforters.
01:08-01:17
Several years ago I was exercising on a weight machine and the cable broke on the way down.
01:17-01:21
And I smashed all of the fingers on both of my hands.
01:22-01:24
But this one here, I'm not going to stick it up by itself.
01:24-01:27
This one right here took it the worst.
01:28-01:34
And it got swollen and it turned this really weird like purpley blue green color.
01:35-01:38
And I was just like, it'll get better, it'll get better.
01:38-01:41
And it got worse and worse and worse and worse.
01:41-01:43
And Aaron's like, you need to get to the hospital.
01:43-01:45
I'm like, no, it'll be fine.
01:45-01:48
And I could feel my heart beating in that finger.
01:48-01:49
You know what I'm talking about?
01:51-02:19
Well, finally, I listened to Erin's advice and I went to the hospital, and the nurse said, "We're going to have to relieve the pressure on that." And I'm like, "Oh, how are we going to do that?" And she pulled out this white pen-looking thing that had this little black tip on it that suddenly turned blazing hot orange.
02:20-02:25
And she goes, we're going to have to puncture through your fingernail to relieve the pressure.
02:26-02:28
And I'm like, is it going to hurt?
02:29-02:30
No joke.
02:30-02:33
She grabbed my hand, tucked it under her arm.
02:34-02:34
She goes, yes.
02:35-02:36
Jabbed my finger.
02:37-02:37
Whoa!
02:38-02:39
Do you know how bad that thing hurt?
02:40-02:41
Oh my gosh.
02:43-02:46
And then she says, you're probably going to lose that fingernail.
02:47-02:47
Awesome.
02:48-02:52
I guess my insurance doesn't cover bedside manner, right?
02:54-02:56
But not a great job comforting.
02:57-02:59
It was obviously a very traumatic thing for me.
03:00-03:05
But there's no worse time to be a bad comforter than at a funeral.
03:06-03:12
And changing gears here, getting very serious, I attended a funeral many years ago.
03:13-03:16
It was a friend of a kid who went to our church.
03:16-03:23
A bunch of them were jumping off the bridge at Moraine, just having fun doing things that goofy teenage kids do, and the one kid drowned.
03:24-03:39
And I attended the funeral, again, because the friend of the deceased boy went to our church, and they brought some priest in that was completely unfamiliar with the family or the situation or anything.
03:40-04:11
And this priest was just standing up there just stammering and blathering forever about, "What are you talking about?" And at one point, he pointed the casket and he said, "I didn't know him, but I'm sure he was a wonderful young man." And I'm just sitting there going, "Stop talking! You have a room full of grieving people, and you have supposedly the greatest comforting message in the world, and you're just not giving it. Like, what's What's the matter with you?
04:12-04:13
You completely blew it.
04:14-04:16
Well today, we're going to be heading to a funeral.
04:17-04:22
We're going to learn two things that you absolutely have to know about Jesus Christ.
04:23-04:25
Especially, especially when you're hurting.
04:26-04:31
John chapter 11, we saw that Jesus had gotten word that his buddy Lazarus was ill.
04:32-04:37
The Bible says because Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters, he waited two days to go to them.
04:37-04:40
And Bethany, like why would he wait?
04:40-04:44
Well, Jesus said the illness was to display God's glory.
04:44-04:50
And this is all leading to His last, but His greatest, public miracle.
04:51-04:53
And that's raising Lazarus from the dead.
04:53-04:56
Oh, spoiler alert. That's next week's message.
04:56-05:04
But you know, there were two other resurrections recorded in Scripture that we know about, that Jesus performed.
05:05-05:08
One was Jairus' daughter, and the other one was the widow's son.
05:09-05:14
And you're like, "Well, what's so significant about Lazarus' resurrection?" And I think it's this.
05:15-05:23
The funerals, the resurrection, rather, for Jairus' daughter and the widow's son, those took place immediately after the person died.
05:23-05:37
So I suppose some silly skeptic could just try to explain it away, to say, "Well, maybe they weren't really dead, maybe they're unconscious, maybe they're in a coma, whatever." Which is wrong, but some silly skeptic could try to explain it away.
05:37-05:43
but this event, this resurrection takes place four days after Lazarus died.
05:44-05:45
So look at verse 17 with me.
05:46-05:53
It says, "Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
05:54-06:04
Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother." Stop there.
06:04-06:08
A funeral in those days lasted seven days.
06:08-06:13
So four days in was sort of right in the middle of the funeral.
06:13-06:32
In those days, the actual funeral would be seven days, but then they would have 30 days of mourning and comforting, and people would stick around and they would spend that time telling stories about the deceased, sharing some favorite memories, things like that.
06:32-06:42
You know, it's not like in our day, when somebody dies, it's like, "Run to the funeral home for an hour visitation," and we have the funeral, and then it's like all over.
06:43-06:50
We sort of rush through it, but in those days, they really took their time to remember and celebrate the person.
06:51-06:58
So in the middle of the funeral, here comes Jesus, revealing two things, again, you need to know when you're hurting.
06:58-07:00
So on your outline, jot these down.
07:01-07:02
Knowing Jesus when you're hurting.
07:03-07:07
Number one, He is present and powerful today.
07:08-07:12
He is present and powerful today.
07:13-07:19
Look at verse 20. It says, "So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him.
07:20-07:22
But Mary remained seated in the house.
07:23-07:28
Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, My brother would not have died.
07:29-07:32
The first time we meet Martha is back in Luke 10.
07:33-07:37
And in verse 40 of that chapter, she's telling Jesus what to do.
07:38-07:41
Remember that story? Mary's sitting, listening to Jesus.
07:41-07:43
Martha's rushing around, trying to serve.
07:43-07:49
And finally Martha's like, "Hey, hey, Jesus, tell Mary to be helping me in the kitchen.
07:49-07:54
Tell her to get off her rear end and help me." That's a paraphrase.
07:54-08:02
But here, she rushes to meet Jesus and she leads with another pretty bold statement.
08:03-08:11
Right out of the gate, she goes, "Jesus, if only you'd been here." Where have you been? If you'd been here, things would be different.
08:12-08:21
Notice that Martha had confidence that Jesus could heal the sick, but she didn't have confidence that Jesus could raise the dead.
08:22-08:27
If you were here when he was sick, you could have done something, but obviously now it's too late.
08:27-08:34
Look at verse 22, Martha continues, she says, "But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.
08:35-08:40
Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'" What was she expecting from Jesus?
08:40-08:50
I mean, obviously, she wasn't expecting resurrection because look at how she responded when Jesus said that Lazarus is going to resurrect.
08:50-08:54
He said it very plainly, "Your brother will rise again." Look at her response, verse 24.
08:54-08:55
Check this.
08:55-09:07
Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus says, "Lazarus will rise." And Martha's like, "Yeah, yeah, someday.
09:08-09:08
Someday.
09:08-09:10
I know Jesus.
09:10-09:10
Someday.
09:11-09:12
Someday in the distant future.
09:13-09:14
Someday.
09:15-09:21
Lazarus is going to resurrect in the last day." And that is an absolutely true statement.
09:22-09:25
It's good theology, but it's very weak faith.
09:26-09:28
Because look at how Jesus responds to that.
09:28-09:32
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.
09:32-09:37
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
09:37-09:40
And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
09:41-09:49
Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.
09:50-09:55
You notice how Jesus took Martha from a program to a person.
09:56-10:05
Lazarus will resurrect, and she goes, "Yes, according to my systematic theology framework, he is going to resurrect." And that's true.
10:05-10:18
He is going to resurrect in the last days, and Jesus goes, "Okay, but resurrection is not merely some thing on a list on a page in a systematic theology book.
10:18-10:24
Jesus said, "Do you know what resurrection is?" He said, "I am the resurrection.
10:25-10:28
I am the life." I love that.
10:28-10:39
Notice Jesus didn't merely say, "Oh, hey Martha, I'm curing the dead." He said, "I am the resurrection and the life." This is the fifth of seven "I am" statements in John.
10:40-10:41
We've seen this as we've gone through John.
10:41-10:43
Jesus has said, "I am the bread of life.
10:43-10:44
I'm the light of the world.
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I'm the good shepherd.
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I'm the door." Every single one of them is a claim to deity.
10:51-10:51
Understand that.
10:52-10:55
When Jesus says, "I am," he's saying that he's God.
10:56-12:06
Because clear back in Exodus chapter 3, when Moses, speaking to the Lord, said, "Who should I tell them sent me?" Like, "What is your name?" God told Moses that his name is "I am." Yahweh, Y-H-W-H, the Tetragrammaton, it's called. That is a fancy way of saying God has a name. God is like his title, but Yahweh, I AM, that is his name. And Jesus here, throughout John, is saying, "I am, I am." And here, Jesus says, "I am the resurrection." In other words, dead, brought back to life, that's what I do. And then he says, "I am the life. He is the source of life. Every other living being got life from someone." Raise your hand if you got life from someone here. Okay, that's all of us. We've all... that's one of those, is everybody still listening tests? Most of you passed. Every other living being got life from someone, but only God is the source of life.
12:07-12:11
God didn't get life from someone else.
12:11-12:14
God doesn't have parents that gave birth to him.
12:14-12:22
God is the originator of all life, and that is exactly what Jesus is claiming here about himself.
12:22-12:30
I am not only the one who raises the dead, I'm the one who gives life to everyone else.
12:30-14:04
But church, I've got to be honest with you, I think way too often church, we find ourselves exactly like Martha in this passage. Like Martha how? Look again at verse 23 where Jesus says, "Your brother will rise again." Look at Martha's response. "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." We are too guilty of this church. I happen someday, but not in who Jesus is today. Let's just be honest, in the church, we get our Bibles, and do you know what we do? We read our Bibles and we say, "God was so awesome in the past, wasn't he? All this creation stuff and like the Moses stuff and King David stuff, wasn't God awesome in the past? He was just, He was on fire. He was killing it in the past. God was so amazing in the past, and he certainly was. And then we read the book of Daniel, and we read the book of Revelation, and we say, "You know what? Someday God's gonna do some awesome things. God's got a wonderful future planned, and someday God's really gonna show the world how awesome He is, and God is going to be so awesome in the future and when we do that we're Martha. We can have good theology but theology isn't much good if you don't know Jesus. Huge difference, right? Jack, will you come up here for a second? I'm not gonna embarrass you, I promise. I just want...
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This is my friend Jack. Everybody give Jack a warm welcome.
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Jack, I'm just gonna write a little theology about you, okay? Where were you born?
14:14-14:47
You were born a butler? Yeah, I was too. Sorry about that. But you were born a butler. Okay, Jack, what do you like to eat for breakfast? What's like your favorite? Like, if you're like, "I could have anything in the world for breakfast," what would it be? You just drink coffee. No crime in that. You realize I just rolled out an I am statement and you got more amens with your coffee statement. Just a little indicator of the spiritual condition of our church. Okay, Jack, what would you say is like your best talent? Like, you're like, "This is something Not to brag, but this is something that I'm good at, the Lord's blessed me with.
14:47-14:47
Hawking?
14:48-14:52
I know a guy that he's like part owner of some company that does that.
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You can watch out for those people.
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I know he's here.
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Yeah, he's here.
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All right, what's your favorite movie?
14:59-15:00
Step Brothers.
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I hope you're watching that on TBS, young man.
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All right, thank you very much, Jack.
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See, now...
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Now, here's what we did here.
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We got a list of some factoids about Jack, because Jack's a really cool guy.
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And here we got our factoids.
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And you can take these, you can take these little factoids and you can carry them around and you can pull them out and read them and you can memorize them.
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Don't do that, that's weird.
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I'm just saying you could do that.
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You could take these around and you could think about them and you could read them and you could share them with other people.
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"Hey, you know what I learned in church today? Jack Moore drinks coffee for breakfast and that's pretty much it." Now here's what I'm getting at.
15:45-15:50
All of these things are absolutely true about Jack, because it came straight from Jack's mouth, right?
15:50-15:58
These things are all true about Jack, but knowing these factoids is way different than knowing Jack.
15:59-16:00
It's completely different.
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And so it is with Jesus Christ.
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For some people, we have our factoids that are true, that we carry around, but knowing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus.
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So here's the thing, Martha's.
16:16-16:20
Last day stuff, end of the world stuff, that is going to happen.
16:20-16:27
We went through the book of Revelation here recently, and I believe everything's going to happen the way God laid it out.
16:27-16:31
Last day stuff will happen, but do not.
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sell Jesus short, because He is the "I Am" today.
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When Moses wanted to know God's name, and God revealed Himself as the "I Am," and Jesus, again, revealing Himself as the "I Am," do you realize the significance of that?
16:51-17:01
He didn't say that He's the "I Was." Like, you know, back in the day, you should have seen me back when I was in high school, I was something special.
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You can call me the "I was." He's not the "I was." And He's not the "I will be." Like, you know, I'm dieting and exercising and I'm on a program, and someday you should look me up because someday I'm going to be spectacular.
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He's not the "I will be." He is the "I am." That's why Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Jesus Christ is the "I am" today.
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He's just as powerful, He's just as active, He's just as amazing, He's just as awesome as He ever was.
17:39-17:40
Do you believe that?
17:41-17:42
Well, do you pray that way?
17:42-17:47
Do you call out to Him, trusting that He hears and acts today?
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Do you pray that way?
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Do you experience His presence and power and everything He offers you today, right now?
17:55-18:04
Or have you just taken all of it and you just have this big box that says, "Someday later." And you just throw everything in the "someday later" box.
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Someday later, someday later, someday he's going to show himself glorious when he wants to show himself glorious to you today.
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You pray that way?
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Because the answer to that will show if you know about Jesus or if you know Jesus.
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So knowing Jesus when you're hurting.
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Martha's.
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Jesus reminds us that he is present and powerful today.
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And number two, knowing Jesus when you're hurting.
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Number two, write this down, "He feels your hurt." He feels your hurt.
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We're going to pick up in verse 28.
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It says, "When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, 'The teacher is here and is calling for you.' And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
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Now, Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in a place where Martha had met him.
18:55-19:06
and the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
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Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Is that sound familiar to anyone?
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"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Where do you think she heard that?
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I think they created, what's the term that they use today?
19:27-19:29
The echo chamber, you know what I'm talking about?
19:29-19:34
Where you just surround yourself with people saying the same thing because it makes you feel better.
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I think they had like this first century echo chamber because Martha and Mary said the exact same thing.
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I think they just sat around while Lazarus was sick, while Lazarus died, I think that was the thing they kept saying over and over and over.
19:49-19:50
You know, if Jesus was here, this wouldn't be happening.
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If Jesus was here, where's Jesus?
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If Jesus was here, Lazarus would be up.
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He'd be well.
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He'd be better.
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If Jesus was here, and like your sister, when Mary encounters Jesus, that's the first thing out of her mouth.
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Like, "You've been here." The same words.
20:06-20:08
But notice with Mary there was weeping.
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This didn't need to happen.
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But look at verse 33.
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"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His Spirit and greatly troubled." Stop there. When I first read that, I thought this was like a compassionate thing, right?
20:26-20:36
Like Jesus was like, "Oh, I feel so bad for you." And this might surprise you as it surprised me, but it's not compassion at all.
20:36-20:44
Every other time "deeply moved" is used in the New Testament, every other time that word is used in the New Testament, it's an angry term.
20:45-20:50
A better way of saying it is disturbed, but not in the sad way, in the angry way.
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It was a word that was used for a snorting horse.
20:54-21:00
It says he was deeply moved and troubled, and troubled intensifies the emotion of deeply moved.
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This is more than just being annoyed.
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This is like an angry anguish.
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Over what?
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It was over the pain of a fallen world.
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Jesus was taking this all in on a level that you and I can't understand.
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He was taking this all in.
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The curse of sin, death, pain, heartbreak, confusion, despair, unbelief, just the horrible destruction and hurt and pain that crushes the hearts of us all.
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He was there and he was feeling the weight of all of this.
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And you're like, "He's Jesus.
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Didn't he know this already?" He did.
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But that doesn't eliminate pain.
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I would suggest to you that sometimes knowing makes the pain worse.
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This past Wednesday, I dropped...
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My son Owen goes to the Watson Institute and at the Watson Institute there are varying degrees of students with whether it's physical or mental disorders, issues.
22:15-22:16
It's a wonderful school.
22:16-22:28
I dropped Owen off and I drove around the loop in the parking lot and I stopped at the crosswalk because I saw a teacher with a student holding his hand, walking him in.
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And the dad was behind on the sidewalk.
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And I saw this student reach back and he was wailing, he was crying, reaching back for his dad.
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And you're like, "Well, what's the big deal with that?" Well, the kid was like 12 or 13.
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I mean, it's one thing when you see a toddler do it, first time mom drops him off at daycare.
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This was a 12 or 13-year-old kid wailing, reaching back for his dad.
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And I got to be honest with you, I just completely broke down.
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I just started weeping.
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This whole exchange that I saw there in the parking lot probably lasted about 10 seconds.
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But it took my mind to what the rest of their week must be like.
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Because I get it.
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I get that.
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I know.
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And I feel that.
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So let me ask you, if such a little thing with my limited perspective broke my heart, what do you think a death of a friend and everything that was going with it at this time, what do you think that did to the heart of God?
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What level of knowledge does Jesus Christ have?
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I would suggest to you that His knowledge made Him feel it deeper than anyone could.
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And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept.
23:59-24:10
So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of a blind man also have kept this man from dying?" Jesus wept.
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That's a different term than this deeply moved and troubled.
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This is silent breakdown.
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This is tears.
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This is, they saw Jesus just completely, emotionally, started weeping, sharing the heartache.
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But again, so much deeper.
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Because just as deeper knowledge means worse pain, so does deeper love.
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And the deeper the love, the deeper the pain.
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I get this, in being a pastor, over the years I've had to do countless "community funerals" we call them.
24:45-25:03
It's when somebody dies and they don't have a church or a pastor, and they call up and they're like, "Hey, would you do a funeral?" "Yeah, I do." And yes, they're sad, but you have to understand, it's a lot different doing that funeral than when I'm doing the funeral of a family member or somebody that I've known for decades and have loved.
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It's at a much deeper level.
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And here you have Jesus' personal friends, Lazarus, Mary, Martha.
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You know, yeah, you're like, "Okay, but why was he weeping?
25:16-25:23
Didn't he know he was going to raise him?" Yeah, but knowing doesn't mean not feeling.
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Jesus was not a robot.
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I think sometimes we kind of put him in that category, like he knows, so he doesn't feel it.
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And this passage in your Bible forever stands as a testimony that God feels.
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Yes, he knows, but yes, he feels.
25:42-25:49
I've often felt at Watson when I drop off Owen, I just want to run up to the people and I want to grab them.
25:50-25:58
The kids, the parents, I just want to run up, I want to grab them and I want to get in their face and I want to say, "Do you know Jesus said he's going to make all things new?
25:59-26:05
So this is going to be ancient history someday and everybody's going to be whole and healthy.
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Everybody who trusts Christ, do you know how awesome that's going to be?" I know that, and I believe that's true, but it hurts when you see people experiencing pain.
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And that's where Jesus was here. He wept.
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And that's your big takeaway here, church.
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Jesus cares. He cares very deeply. He feels our hurt. It's personal to Him.
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For Jesus, it's not just intellectual acknowledgment. Jesus didn't walk into Bethany going, I'm aware that people seem to be sad. It's not just some intellectual acknowledgement.
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And it's not sharing a hopelessness. Jesus didn't walk into Bethany and they're like, "Hey, Lazarus died. You should have been here." He's like, "Oh man, what are we going to do?
26:55-27:39
All hope is gone." That wasn't Jesus either. And it wasn't forced compassion where Jesus thought, "You know, I am the Son of God. I guess I should probably feel something about this. He feels emotion. He deeply cares. And nothing means more to the hurting than having somebody there who cares, true or false. We get that. When somebody passes away, we send cards and we send flowers and we visit the funeral home and we attend the funeral and we take food to the family, and every single act of kindness means so much to the grieving family. Have you ever been there?
27:40-27:44
God's Word shows us that no one cares more than Jesus cares.
27:45-27:47
Maybe you're like the crowd at the end.
27:48-27:49
They see Jesus weeping.
27:50-27:56
Some are like, "Look how much He loved them. Look at Him crying. Look how much He loved them." Verse 37.
27:57-28:02
This is kind of funny because this comment here is like something you'd read on social media.
28:03-28:09
You know, like, "Jesus weeps," and then somebody has to run in there with their criticizing comments, right?
28:10-28:23
"Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?" Maybe you're like the crowd, and you say, "Well, you know, if Jesus cares so much, why doesn't He do something about it?" Get ready.
28:24-28:30
because we'll see what He did in this instance when we pick up here next week.
28:31-28:36
Yes, He loves. And yes, He's present and powerful today.
28:38-28:42
And this is why, in our worst hurt, we run to Jesus.
28:42-28:43
Let's pray.
28:44-28:48
Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word.
28:48-29:03
But Father, today we thank You specifically for this portion of Your Word, that if we've ever wrestled with the question, "Do you care? Do you care when I hurt?" we forever have a testimony of how you feel when your people hurt.
29:03-29:06
Father, we thank you for your compassion.
29:07-29:10
We thank you, God, that you feel what we feel.
29:10-29:26
And we thank you, God, that even though you know what you're going to do, and how you're going to make all things new, and how you're going to bring perfect justice, even though you know that, God, you still care and you still feel.
29:26-29:30
Father, we thank you for this glorious revelation of yourself.
29:31-29:34
And I just ask, Father, that it would help us run to you.
29:35-29:49
It would help us to trust you, God, that yes, you're going to do some awesome things as outlined in your Word, that's true, God, but let us run to you trusting that you're going to move today, that you are the "I am" today.
29:50-29:52
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 11:17-37

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Martha believed God would do something big in the future, but not in the present (John 11:24). Have you ever been guilty of that? Why do we sometimes struggle to believe in Jesus’ power today?
Why did Jesus address Mary differently than Martha, even though they both led with the same statement (John 11:21, 32)?
John 11:33 says Jesus was “deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled”, an expression that indicated anger and anguish. Why was Jesus feeling these emotions here?
Why did Jesus weep (John 11:35) if He knew what He was going to do? What does this tell you about God?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

November 1, 2020

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Perspective.

Jeff Miller

November 1, 2020

Knowing Jesus

  
  Introduction:

  Knowing Jesus' Perspective (John 11:1-16)

Suffering is about seeing Jesus' Glory . (John 11:1-4)
Delaying is an act of Love . (John 11:5-15)
  
I will follow Jesus even when my faith is Weak . (John 11:16)

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

00:48-00:51
Open up your Bibles, please, to John 11.
00:54-00:55
John 11.
00:56-01:13
And while you're turning, you know, we've all had those moments in our lives where we have no other statement to make than, "That was random." You know what I'm talking about?
01:13-01:16
just random moments in our lives.
01:18-01:24
Probably number one for us, many, many years ago, Aaron and I went to see Rod Stewart in concert.
01:27-01:28
I don't know why you're laughing.
01:30-01:30
It was great.
01:31-01:33
Kicks the soccer balls into the crowd.
01:34-01:35
How many people have seen Rod Stewart in concert?
01:36-01:38
Okay. All right. Isn't it great?
01:38-01:40
Yeah, it is great. It is great.
01:41-01:42
He's fantastic.
01:42-01:46
But on the way back, brought us to the important part of the story here.
01:47-01:53
On the way back we stopped to get gas just up here at the A+ and Cranberry on 19 here, you know.
01:53-02:03
We had stopped to get gas and while we were pumping the gas, coming north on 19 was this pickup truck.
02:03-02:06
And it stopped right in front of the gas station, it's right on 19.
02:06-02:09
And this guy falls out of the back of the pickup.
02:09-02:13
And Aaron and I are watching this, the guy's laying on the street for a few seconds.
02:16-02:28
And then all of a sudden, he jumps up, and he runs behind Eaton Park into the night, into the forest.
02:30-02:30
Gone!
02:31-02:51
And Aaron and I just looked at each other, and we were like, "What was that all about?" We were like, "That was so random." "Why are you telling us this story?" Well, here's why I'm telling you this story.
02:54-02:58
Because sometimes, if we're going to be honest, we encourage honesty here.
02:59-03:01
Sometimes God seems random to us, doesn't He?
03:02-03:05
I'm not saying He is random, but let's be honest.
03:06-03:11
Doesn't it seem sometimes that God is random?
03:15-03:16
For example, let's talk about prayer.
03:17-03:18
Let's talk about healing.
03:19-03:23
We had an amazing prayer service last week, and I think of prayer services we've had in the past.
03:24-03:28
I have seen people in this church healed.
03:30-03:35
Supernaturally, no other explanation than the Lord showed up and brought healing.
03:35-03:35
I've seen that.
03:38-03:44
But some people that we have prayed for in this church have not been healed.
03:47-03:48
Why is that?
03:49-04:00
How can we pray so fervently for this guy and he's healed, and we pay just as fervently, maybe a little more, for this gal and she is not healed.
04:00-04:04
I mean, that seems kind of random, God, doesn't it?
04:07-04:11
Back in 2014, we had this betta fish.
04:11-04:12
We had this fish for years.
04:14-04:16
I think his name was Marvin the Betta Fish.
04:16-04:16
Was his name Marvin?
04:17-04:26
And he was like floating and his little betta fish gills They were all just spread out, and he was like floating on his side.
04:29-04:32
My son and I, Kate, we sat down at the table, didn't we?
04:32-04:33
We prayed for Marvin, and what happened?
04:35-04:36
He was healed, wasn't he?
04:38-04:38
He was healed!
04:39-04:41
And he lived for years after that!
04:41-04:43
He eventually died, but he lived for years!
04:46-04:52
And I've got to be honest, My prayer for that fish wasn't the most fervent prayer I've ever thrown up to heaven.
04:56-04:57
But he was healed.
04:57-04:59
And you know, I have been fervently praying for my children.
05:03-05:04
To not see some healing.
05:08-05:16
And I'm just like, God, if I can choose one, how about answer the prayer for my son, selfish.
05:19-05:21
But it just seems random sometimes, doesn't it?
05:22-05:25
And we're like, wait, wait, wait, didn't God promise to heal?
05:25-05:29
What about that whole ask, seek, and knock thing that Jesus said?
05:29-05:32
Everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds, everyone who knocks the door will be opened.
05:32-05:33
Remember that?
05:33-05:40
What about this whole pray expectantly thing that the Bible keeps going over and over and reminding us?
05:43-05:44
That's what we're going to talk about today.
05:45-05:48
We're going to talk about the hardest problem that Christians face when we are being honest.
05:49-05:51
This is the hardest problem for Christians.
05:53-06:03
What do I do when God does not do what I have been taught to expect Him to do?
06:06-06:07
Enter John 11.
06:10-06:15
We're going to be spending a few weeks on this is arguably Jesus' greatest miracle.
06:16-06:19
I mean, aside from His own resurrecting from the dead.
06:19-06:26
Aside from that one, this is the greatest miracle that Jesus performed.
06:26-06:28
And we're going to take our time and dig in.
06:29-06:34
But this is the miracle where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
06:34-06:36
Oh, I'm sorry.
06:36-06:40
Spoiler alert for those of you You might not be familiar with this story.
06:43-06:50
But this passage today will forever change the way you view prayer.
06:53-06:58
You will tune in with me and look at what the Word of God says.
06:58-07:02
This will forever change the way you view prayer.
07:05-07:12
You know, when I was a kid, I didn't understand much of what my parents did or said.
07:16-07:18
Until I became a parent.
07:19-07:26
Because as a kid, I only ever saw one perspective, right?
07:26-07:27
The kid's perspective.
07:27-07:30
That was the only perspective I ever saw.
07:32-08:04
I mean, now I know both sides, kid, I was only on one side of this thing and there was a lot I didn't understand why do my parents do what they did and why did they what did they say what they said and but as a prayer as a prayer we only ever have one perspective right we're like the kid but God like the parent he has a whole different perspective that we usually aren't mindful of.
08:06-08:13
That's why when we pray, oftentimes we say, "Why God? What are you doing?
08:13-08:19
What's going on up there? Hello!" We only see the one side.
08:21-08:31
But, and this is the beautiful thing here, this passage right here that we're looking at that you see God's perspective.
08:34-08:38
And once you see God's perspective, it changes the way you pray.
08:39-08:39
Alright?
08:41-08:43
So on your outline, let's talk about knowing Jesus' perspective.
08:45-08:50
Knowing Jesus' perspective, number one, jot this down, we're going to see it very clearly in the text.
08:51-08:52
Jesus' perspective.
08:52-08:58
You're like, "Jesus, we pray for things, but what's Your perspective?" Here's the first thing He would say.
08:59-09:06
He does say, he did say, he would continue to say, suffering is about seeing Jesus' glory.
09:09-09:11
Alright, let's look at verses 1 and 2 here together.
09:13-09:20
It says, "Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
09:22-09:48
It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair." He's like, "It was that Mary." "Whose brother Lazarus was ill." So here, John just sort of introduces the family, and he clarifies for us, thankfully, which Mary is in the story here.
09:49-09:53
You know, when you read your Bible, there's a whole bunch of Marys, right?
09:54-09:55
There's a whole bunch of Marys.
09:55-10:01
I feel like a mobster when I say that, "A bunch of Marys." a bunch of Marys in Jesus.
10:01-10:02
Even Jesus' mother, what was her name?
10:03-10:05
Mary, right? There are a whole lot of Marys.
10:06-10:09
It's actually a derivative of Miriam from the Old Testament, Moses' sister.
10:09-10:10
So it was a popular name.
10:11-10:14
It was like the "empty" word there, right?
10:14-10:15
Very popular name.
10:16-10:21
All the nice Jewish moms were naming their little girls Mary back around that time.
10:22-10:24
But he says, "Let me tell you which Mary this is.
10:24-10:28
This is the one who anointed Jesus." And that story comes in chapter 12.
10:30-10:31
Spoiler alert there.
10:31-10:34
But he's just clarifying for us who we're talking about.
10:34-10:57
Verse 3, it says, "So the sisters sent to Him (Jesus) saying, 'Lord, him who you love is ill.' But when Jesus heard it, He said, His illness does not lead to death.
10:59-11:00
It is for the glory of God.
11:03-11:15
"So that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Now, Mary and Martha loved Jesus, but you have to notice, they didn't appeal to Jesus based on their love.
11:15-11:16
Did you notice that?
11:16-11:18
It wasn't like, "Jesus, we love You so much.
11:18-11:22
Would You do us a favor?" They appealed to Jesus based on His love for Lazarus.
11:23-11:36
"Hey, you know, the one whom you love, Lazarus, he's ill." Interestingly, the word for love there is the word "phileo," which is the friendship love, like Philadelphia, city of brotherly love.
11:38-11:39
The point is this.
11:40-11:49
Lazarus wasn't some Joe random in the crowd that Jesus bumped into once upon a time, like, "Oh, I think I remember that guy." Lazarus was Jesus' buddy.
11:50-11:52
They had a friendship.
11:53-12:12
And that's why his sisters were like, essentially this message was, "Jesus, your good friend is so sick." He was ill, and likely, Lazarus was already dead by the time Jesus got this message.
12:15-12:18
Remember, in Jesus' day, there were no cell phones.
12:19-12:28
or, "Let me just text our Savior a message." Or, "Is Jesus on Facebook? Let's send him a Facebook message through Messenger." They didn't have that.
12:28-12:30
How did you get a message to somebody?
12:30-12:33
You had to send a guy to go there.
12:33-12:35
It would have taken a day or two.
12:35-12:38
And I'm not going to get into all the timeline stuff.
12:38-12:45
I'm just saying there's a very high percentage chance that Lazarus was already dead by the time Jesus got this message.
12:46-12:50
And if not, you're going to see, about to die very soon.
12:53-12:55
But notice the message they gave Jesus.
12:55-12:56
There were no instructions.
12:56-12:57
There were no demands.
13:00-13:04
But the fact that they sent the message means that they wanted Jesus to know.
13:06-13:14
And based on verses 21 and 32 that we'll look at down the road, it's obvious they were expecting Jesus to show up.
13:16-13:17
Okay? We can safely say that.
13:20-13:28
Sometimes people want to believe that sickness is never the will of God.
13:31-13:37
And when you look at this passage, we see that that's just not true.
13:40-13:43
Because for Lazarus, his sickness wasn't the result of sin.
13:44-13:49
Lazarus' sickness wasn't a result of a lack of faith.
13:49-13:52
Look at verse 4 again. Why was he sick?
13:54-14:11
Jesus said, "It is for the glory of God." Jesus very clearly said, "The purpose." Please hear this. So many people miss this.
14:12-14:17
Jesus said the purpose of Lazarus being sick was the glory of God.
14:19-14:24
And you're like, wait a second, Jeff, hold on a second.
14:25-14:27
You're telling me the glory of God.
14:28-14:30
You're telling me that's the goal of sickness, right?
14:31-14:35
You're telling me here this morning, the goal of sickness is the glory of God.
14:38-14:39
That's the goal of everything.
14:42-14:44
The glory of God is the goal of everything.
14:46-14:49
For example, the money that you spend, what's the purpose?
14:50-14:51
The glory of God.
14:51-14:54
Your marriage, what's the purpose of your marriage, married people?
14:55-14:56
It's about the glory of God.
14:56-14:57
What about how you parent?
14:58-14:59
Why do you parent the way you parent?
15:00-15:02
For the glory of God, right?
15:02-15:03
What's the purpose of the church?
15:04-15:05
The glory of God.
15:05-15:06
Do you see a theme?
15:08-15:09
That's the goal of everything.
15:11-15:18
The greatest thing that we can do on this earth without exception is to glorify God.
15:19-15:34
The greatest thing we will experience on this earth without exception is to see God's glory; to see His worthiness; to see His power; to see His beauty.
15:37-15:43
It's the goal of God, It's the greatest blessing that we can experience.
15:45-16:12
Like, "Okay, Jeff, I'm sold on the whole 'glory of God's important,' but in trials, in sickness and in death, you're telling me that these things are to be used for the glory of God?" And I would just ask you, what was the greatest way God glorified His name while He was on this earth.
16:13-16:14
What was the greatest way?
16:15-16:16
Shout it out if you think you know.
16:18-16:20
His death and resurrection, right?
16:21-16:28
It was through suffering that God manifested His glory in the greatest possible way.
16:28-16:34
And I want you to think about the death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.
16:36-16:41
That event demonstrated to us everything about God.
16:42-16:43
It showed us His power.
16:43-16:44
It showed us His sovereignty.
16:45-16:46
It showed us His grace.
16:47-16:48
And it showed us His love.
16:48-16:50
And I can go on and on and on.
16:50-16:55
But that event told us everything we need to know about the character of our God.
16:57-16:59
Like, well, what did it do for us?
17:02-17:02
It's given us everything.
17:06-17:06
in the life.
17:07-17:08
Fellowship in the church.
17:09-17:09
The promise of heaven.
17:10-17:11
The power of the Holy Spirit.
17:11-17:12
Adoption as children of God.
17:13-17:14
Being co-heirs of all things.
17:16-17:17
And I could go on.
17:20-17:37
So when we say suffering is about seeing Jesus' glory, I would even expand on that a bit to say this, glory in suffering - to manifest His presence on the earth.
17:40-17:48
So sickness and death - you can't look at sickness as some roadblock to seeing God's glory.
17:50-17:54
According to Jesus, it's a gateway.
17:57-18:01
And this little section alone, I could stop right here.
18:01-18:03
I'm not going to. Don't get excited.
18:05-18:06
I've got a whole extra hour I'm working with this week.
18:08-18:11
But this right here should change how we pray for the sick.
18:14-18:15
How do we typically pray for sick people?
18:17-18:19
"Please heal. Please heal. Please heal.
18:19-18:22
Please heal Grandma. Please heal Becky.
18:22-18:24
Please heal Karen. Please heal Sam.
18:25-18:28
Please heal. Please heal. Please heal. Please heal." And look, there's nothing wrong with that.
18:30-18:32
We should pray that.
18:33-18:34
Absolutely.
18:35-18:43
But I've got to tell you, that's kind of the elementary school way of praying for the sick.
18:46-18:47
Yes, pray that, but pray more.
18:51-18:52
Here's how I pray for the sick.
18:52-18:54
And I get the prayer requests every week.
18:54-18:59
And I'm telling you, when you submit, "Hey, so-and-so is sick," I'm going to tell you exactly how I pray for that person.
19:00-19:06
I say, "Lord, please heal this person in a way that brings maximum glory to You." That's how I pray.
19:06-19:22
God, if You're using this person to draw people to You, whether it's some doctor or nurse in the hospital, or some visiting family from out of town coming, or some neighbor that's watching the Lord at work in this situation, God, use that to bring people to You.
19:23-19:24
So yes, heal.
19:26-19:30
But I've got to tell you, when we're just stuck on Please heal, please heal, please heal.
19:30-19:31
We're so focused on us.
19:33-19:34
And who should we be focused on?
19:35-19:36
We should be focused on God!
19:37-19:50
So instead of God, it's about us and our healing and making us comfortable and feel good, we need to look at this sickness as an opportunity to say, "God, look, right here, you have the opportunity to showcase your glory." And that's what we're praying for, God.
19:50-20:00
Show up in a way that people have no other choice than to say, "That was God. That was God." There's no explanation other than God Almighty showed up here.
20:00-20:02
I want to know that God.
20:02-20:05
That is praying for God's glory and sickness.
20:05-20:13
And that is so much greater than "please heal Becky." Yes, God, heal Becky.
20:14-20:16
But do it in a way that glorifies Your name.
20:17-20:19
Suffering is about seeing Jesus' glory.
20:21-20:28
Number two, Just in case number one wasn't a hard enough pill to swallow.
20:30-20:32
But you see in the text, don't you?
20:32-20:33
Look at number two.
20:33-20:36
Delaying is an act of love.
20:40-20:42
Delaying is an act of love.
20:45-20:47
Let's look at verses 5 and 6.
20:48-20:59
It says, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
21:02-21:04
And I'm sure that was a relief for the disciples, right?
21:06-21:11
You know, it's a nice change of pace being somewhere where you don't have mobs constantly trying to kill Jesus.
21:14-21:43
And then after this, He, Jesus, said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." "Excuse me? What?" Verse 8, "The disciples said to Him, 'Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?'" What? Hang on a second, Jesus.
21:43-21:44
We just got out of there.
21:46-21:54
Because you had people literally - we talked about this - stones in the hand, I'm going to pelt you with them until you're dead.
21:54-21:56
We literally just left that scene.
21:56-21:58
And now you want to go back to those people?
22:02-22:05
They were baffled as they often were.
22:06-22:15
as we often are, because God's timing never seems to match our expectations.
22:19-22:22
But this shows us that Jesus didn't leave Judea out of fear.
22:22-22:23
He wasn't afraid.
22:24-22:25
Or He never would have gone back.
22:26-22:27
Look at His response.
22:28-22:29
Verses 9 and 10.
22:32-22:35
"Jesus answered her, 'They're not twelve hours in the day.
22:36-22:40
If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world.
22:41-22:44
But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.
22:46-22:54
Jesus said, "Aren't there 12 hours in a day?" And you're like, "Hang on a second, there's a lot more than 12 hours in a day." That's not what He's talking about.
22:54-23:00
He's talking about the 12 hours being the time allotted for activity.
23:00-23:05
You roughly have, every day, about 12 hours of daylight to work.
23:06-23:10
And the question is, that Jesus is driving home here, can you extend that?
23:12-23:13
Can you extend daylight time?
23:14-23:18
Like if you're out working in your yard, you'll be like, "Oh, you know, I need another hour.
23:19-23:23
I'm just going to go turn the dial and keep the sun up for another hour." Can you do that?
23:25-23:30
Or like me, you have days that you're like, "Bedtime can't come soon enough.
23:31-23:34
We're going to knock a couple hours off of the sunlight.
23:34-23:41
I'm going to turn the dial, and we're going to turn the lights off, and everybody's going to bed two hours early, because quite frankly, I'm done dealing with all y'all.
23:41-23:42
Can you do that?
23:43-23:45
As much as you'd like to, can you do that?
23:46-23:46
No.
23:49-23:51
That's what Jesus is saying here on God's agenda.
23:53-24:01
Time can't be shortened by your enemies, and time can't be lengthened by taking precautions.
24:01-24:05
Jesus was saying, "Look guys, I'm on a 12-hour shift, and nothing is going to change that.
24:06-24:07
No one's going to make me leave early.
24:08-24:12
No one's going to make me stay longer." Look at verse 11.
24:13-24:32
It says, "After saying these things, He said to them, 'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.' The disciples said to Him, 'Lord, if he has fallen asleep, He will recover.
24:33-24:39
Now Jesus had spoken of His death, but they thought that He meant taking rest and sleep.
24:40-24:41
Let's stop there for a second.
24:42-24:44
Jesus said, "Lazarus is asleep.
24:44-24:47
I'm going to wake him up." And it's just kind of funny to me.
24:47-24:56
The disciples were like, "You understand, Lord, that being asleep is not really a very serious health condition, right?
24:57-25:09
"How about we just mail him an alarm clock?" And Jesus told them plainly, verse 14, "Then Jesus told them plainly, 'Lazarus has died.
25:11-25:20
And for your sake, I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.
25:22-25:26
Let us go to him.'" Okay, so Jesus spells it out.
25:28-25:29
Lazarus has died.
25:29-25:32
And right now you're asking the same question that I asked.
25:33-25:33
Wait, wait, wait.
25:34-25:45
Verse 4, Jesus said this illness wasn't going to lead to death, and now Jesus said, "Lazarus has died." Now, it's the same message.
25:46-25:49
Jesus was saying this isn't going to lead to death ultimately.
25:49-25:50
That's why He called it sleep.
25:51-26:15
Jesus was saying, "I'm going to go wake him up from the dead." And he says, "Oh, and by the way, I'm glad I wasn't there for your sake, so that you may believe." So Jesus said this whole event that was taking place, the purpose was to strengthen Mary and Martha's faith, to strengthen the disciples' faith, and to strengthen our faith.
26:16-26:24
But I want you to look back at verses 5 and 6 with me, because these verses, they just don't go together.
26:25-26:26
Look at verses 5 and 6.
26:26-26:31
It says, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." Okay, you got that part?
26:32-26:35
Interestingly, the word "love" here is agape.
26:35-26:39
That's the self-sacrificing love, the "you before me" kind of love.
26:40-26:43
"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
26:45-27:02
So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, I would expect the next statement to be, "Jesus tied on his running shoes, and he got there right quick." But that's not what it says.
27:03-27:09
It says when he heard Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
27:11-27:18
By the way, verse 6 where it says "so," can also be translated "therefore." So try to wrap your brain around this with me if you can.
27:21-27:23
Jesus, your good buddy's sick.
27:25-27:37
And the Bible says Jesus was like, "Well, because I'm sick so much, I'm going to wait a couple of days." That's just not how it works, Jesus!
27:38-27:43
I mean, when we hear somebody's sick, When we think emergency, what do we typically think of, right?
27:44-27:46
Critical illnesses. There's lights. There's sirens.
27:47-27:49
It's rushing around. It's everybody in emergency mode.
27:50-27:52
Hurry up! We've got to get this person taken care of.
27:52-28:01
And Jesus' response is, "We're just going to hang out here for a couple of days." That's not how we do it!
28:04-28:05
That's how Jesus did it.
28:09-28:10
You know, their message to Jesus?
28:10-28:12
I was thinking about this a lot this week.
28:12-28:17
They sent this message to Jesus, and you know, that message to Jesus was almost like praying.
28:19-28:19
Right?
28:20-28:23
Because they sent the message, and they're kind of waiting to hear back.
28:23-28:24
So wasn't that message kind of like a prayer?
28:25-28:26
Sure it was.
28:28-28:30
And they didn't hear back right away.
28:32-28:35
And I have to wonder, did they question Jesus' knowledge?
28:37-28:38
I thought he knew all things.
28:40-28:42
He had to know how sick our brother is.
28:44-28:45
Did they question Jesus' power?
28:48-28:52
I thought he could do something about this.
28:54-28:55
Did they question Jesus' love?
28:57-29:03
Well Mary and Martha, they didn't know that Jesus was delaying.
29:04-29:05
They didn't know that.
29:06-29:10
And I wonder if they ask the same questions that we often ask while we wait.
29:10-29:11
Why isn't He here?
29:12-29:14
Does Jesus have something more important to do?
29:14-29:15
Doesn't He love us?
29:16-29:17
I mean, the Bible's clear.
29:17-29:18
Yes, He loved them.
29:22-29:23
But why wasn't He there?
29:26-29:31
Did you ever cry out to God to seemingly no response?
29:32-29:33
Anybody?
29:34-29:39
You may even cry out to God desperately, and it just seems to you like the answer was silence.
29:40-29:41
Has that ever happened to anybody?
29:42-29:48
That you're like, "God, I need Your help so bad!" And there's no answer.
29:52-29:56
And we're left to feel like prayer isn't working.
29:59-29:59
Prayer isn't working.
30:02-30:21
I'm going to tell you, we've had some, for the last three years in our family, we've had some physiological issues with our son that has resulted in adrenaline surges, which has resulted in violence.
30:24-30:25
It's horrific.
30:27-30:45
And the one day, this was, I want to say, A couple months ago, this particular episode, I was here at work, and I get a call, "You've got to get home now." And I remember jumping in the car and racing home, praying as I went.
30:48-30:56
But this wasn't a very warm and fuzzy prayer that I was offering to God.
30:57-31:06
It just wasn't like, "Oh dear Lord, bestow us upon us Thy bountiful blessing." It wasn't that kind of prayer.
31:08-31:08
You know what I prayed?
31:11-31:16
I said, "God, You see what's happening! I know You see this!
31:17-31:21
How can You see what's happening and not do something about it?
31:22-31:23
How could you do that?
31:26-31:32
And suddenly, I find myself right here with Mary and Martha.
31:32-31:34
Our brother's on his deathbed!
31:35-31:35
And where are you?
31:36-31:43
Jesus is like, "I'm just going to hang out here for a couple days." Because I love them.
31:45-31:50
Because I know that this is going to ultimately strengthen them.
31:53-31:56
Because so often we think that God's delay means God's denial.
31:59-32:04
But according to Jesus, delaying is a sign of love.
32:08-32:11
Because it's to make us stronger in our faith.
32:14-32:16
This is a hard sell, talking about delaying.
32:17-32:18
It's a hard sell, I know that.
32:19-32:20
Because we live in a day of instant.
32:21-32:46
We live in a day where we stand in front of the microwave and say, "What's taking this stupid thing so long?" We live in a day, people send me YouTube videos, like, "Hey, you gotta watch this song, "you gotta watch this testimony, "you gotta check this thing out, "you gotta watch this guy falling down the stairs," or whatever, and I'll click on it, and it'll say, "Video will play after this ad, five seconds." I'm like, "Not me." Guess I'm never going to know what happened to that guy.
32:48-32:49
Because we don't wait for nothing.
32:52-33:11
But suffering doesn't negate God's love and delaying doesn't negate God's love because according to Jesus' perspective that the Lord has given us in His Word, suffering is for God's glory and the delay is an act of love to strengthen our faith while we wait on Him.
33:12-33:14
How can that be?
33:16-33:19
Because our greatest need - here it is - our greatest need is not healing.
33:20-33:24
No matter how much you think that in the moment, your greatest need is not healing.
33:24-33:32
Your greatest need always, every time, is to know Jesus Christ and all His glory.
33:32-33:33
That's your need.
33:33-33:40
That's why this whole series that we're in is called "Knowing Jesus." That is what we are going after because there is nothing more important.
33:42-33:58
So if our greatest need is knowing Jesus and seeing Him in His glory, then the greatest act of love that anybody could ever bestow on another is helping people see the glory of Jesus Christ.
33:59-34:05
And sometimes that means Jesus will delay in His work in order to make that happen.
34:07-34:09
That's what your Bible says.
34:11-34:31
Right now somebody's sitting here or somebody's watching the stream here going, "That's awfully hard to believe." It is. It is hard to believe, especially when you're in the middle of it.
34:34-34:37
But right now, we're going to close here.
34:37-34:42
Right now, if this is you, that you're like, "Jeff, okay, I see what the Bible says.
34:42-35:01
I believe the Bible, but that's not really gelling with my experience at the moment, and I'm having a hard time subscribing to this." Well, if that's you, you're about to get the best advice from the most unlikely source.
35:02-35:03
You ready? I love this.
35:03-35:04
And this should be highlighted in your Bible.
35:04-35:06
Look at the last verse for today.
35:06-35:24
Verse 16, "So Thomas, called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, 'Let us also go, that we may die with him.'" So jot this down, last thing in your outline.
35:25-35:35
If you're struggling right now with all of this stuff that the Bible so clearly teaches and that I'm trying my best to communicate to you, He wrote this down.
35:36-35:44
"I follow Jesus even when my faith is weak." "I follow Jesus even when my faith is weak." You know, Thomas.
35:44-35:45
Oh, Thomas.
35:47-35:48
Thomas, you twin you.
35:50-35:53
I did a lot of reading this week about Thomas.
35:53-35:56
Some people called Thomas the courageous pessimist.
35:56-36:01
And some people described Thomas as having loyal unbelief.
36:04-36:07
Some people, frankly, would just call Thomas the Debbie Downer.
36:08-36:18
Like Jesus is like, "We're going to Judea!" And Thomas is like, "Wah, wah. We're going to die with Jesus." You know what I call Thomas?
36:20-36:21
Tremendous example.
36:22-36:23
Let me tell you why.
36:26-36:34
for Thomas, this is when hopelessness is admirable.
36:36-36:39
Like, whoa, okay, you lost me here.
36:39-36:41
How is Thomas such a great example?
36:41-36:42
I'm gonna tell you why.
36:42-36:45
Because so often we end up like Thomas.
36:45-36:46
We are completely hopeless.
36:48-36:51
And we hear the clear words of Jesus and we disregard them.
36:51-36:53
And we say, "I don't believe them right now.
36:53-36:59
"I don't see it." Jesus, quite frankly, I don't like what you're doing.
37:02-37:09
But Thomas is the example of where we need to land when our faith is struggling.
37:11-37:13
I'm not optimistic at the moment.
37:15-37:19
But I'm going with Jesus even if it kills me.
37:20-37:21
That's where Thomas was.
37:24-37:26
I love the fact that he roped in the other disciples.
37:26-37:43
It wasn't just like, "This is my thing." Do you notice he said to his disciples, "Let us go." He's like, "Hey guys, we might not be on board with Jesus right now, but that is not going to stop us from following Him." And you know what?
37:43-37:45
For a lot of people, it does stop them.
37:46-37:49
Because so many people at this point just bail.
37:49-37:50
"I'm done going to church.
37:51-37:52
I'm done going to small group.
37:52-37:53
I'm done reading my Bible.
37:54-37:58
I'm done praying. I'm done hoping. I'm done caring.
38:01-38:09
I just want to close by asking you, can you still follow Jesus even if you aren't hopeful at the moment?
38:12-38:16
Can you still follow Jesus even if you aren't fully on board with His plan?
38:20-38:26
Are you still willing to follow Jesus You don't see how He's going to use this thing for His glory.
38:27-38:30
You can't understand why in the world He is delaying.
38:31-38:32
Can you still follow Jesus?
38:34-38:35
I don't get it.
38:35-38:36
I don't like it.
38:39-38:40
But I'm going to follow Him.
38:41-38:43
No matter how discouraged I feel right now.
38:45-38:51
I think this would be a great time to pray that for us.
38:52-38:54
Bow with me please as the worship team comes forward.
38:56-39:09
Father in Heaven, Your Word, Father, has some things that are hard for our fallen, human, finite minds to wrap.
39:10-39:12
We just can't fathom some of these things, God.
39:13-39:15
And I'm not even talking about creation or the Trinity or anything like that.
39:15-39:23
But sometimes we get to a passage like this, It's hard to think that sickness is for Your glory or You delay because You love us.
39:23-39:29
That just doesn't feel right sometimes.
39:32-39:36
God, I pray for my brothers and sisters here, and I pray for myself.
39:38-39:50
Father, we would follow Thomas' example When things aren't looking great, we're still willing to follow Jesus Christ.
39:52-40:07
Because I know right now, that if we could bring Thomas to the stage, tell him to give testimony, he would tell us that it was well worth following Jesus Christ, even when it didn't make sense.
40:08-40:13
that He got to see a resurrected Savior.
40:17-40:20
Father, I ask that You strengthen our faith.
40:22-40:31
But I ask, Father, that You would give us a determination to follow You even when our faith is weak.
40:34-40:36
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 11:1-16

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain how illness can be for the glory of God (John 11:4). What does that mean? How does that look?
Read John 11:5-6 again. Why was “staying two days longer” actually an expression of Jesus' love?
Though Thomas seemed to display some unbelief (John 11:16), explain what was commendable about his statement / attitude. What does this teach you, when your faith isn't where it needs to be?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

October 25, 2020

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Security.

Jeff Miller

October 25, 2020

Knowing Jesus

Introduction:

  
  Why Do People Doubt the Security of Their Salvation? (John 10:22-42)

Sin
Satan
Shallow

  
  Three Reasons a Truly Saved Person Can Be Secure in Their Salvation:

Your salvation is Purchased by God. (John 10:22-28a)
  
Your salvation is Protected by God. (John 10:28b-30)
  
Your salvation is Promised by God. (John 10:31-42)

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

00:42-00:45
Turn in your Bibles with me to John chapter 10.
00:45-00:53
While you're turning there, I would like to remind you that November 15th, we are having our next baptism service.
00:53-00:58
And if you have not taken that step of faith, that is your next opportunity to do that.
00:58-00:59
What is baptism?
01:00-01:05
Baptism is the visible, God-chosen, and God-commanded response to my faith.
01:05-01:10
At Harvest Bible Chapel, we don't believe that baptism is the thing that saves you.
01:10-01:13
It is the public profession of your faith in Jesus Christ.
01:14-01:17
It's the sign that God chose.
01:17-01:49
God says, "When you receive my Son, you are to make that public profession of faith." for cowards. It's for people who truly, sincerely come to Jesus Christ, receive His salvation. It's your announcement before God and before man that you're following Jesus Christ. And if you need to take that step, want to talk with me, pray with me more about that, come see me. But that is November the 15th, our next baptism service. All right? John chapter 10. Bow your heads and pray with me, please.
01:49-01:52
Our Father in Heaven, right now we are going to Your Word.
01:53-02:00
And we all have these ideas of how we think things are, or we think how things should be, or whatever.
02:00-02:04
And we come to Your Word, and You tell us how things are.
02:04-02:07
And You tell us how things should be.
02:07-02:09
And You tell us how things will be.
02:09-02:17
So Father, I just simply pray that we would be granted the faith, just believe what Your Word says.
02:17-02:26
And when your Word says something that might anger us, or your Word says something that might contradict something that we believe, Father, show us that we're wrong.
02:27-02:30
That we might believe You rather than believe us.
02:31-02:37
So, Father, let Your Word reign supreme in our heart, and let it draw us to truly know You.
02:38-04:09
We pray in Jesus' name, all of God's people said, "Amen." Many, many years ago, Darren and I were at Cedar Point with a friend of ours, and I think it was Darren's idea, like, "Hey, let's ride the ripcord." I know it wasn't our buddy's idea because we had to talk him into it. Darren actually had to threaten him. Because it was one of those things, you know, you have general admission, you ride all the rides, but the ripcord, can we get that picture up of the ripcord? That's this thing. And you have to pay extra for that. But here's the thing, like if it's one person, you had to pay like, I don't know, like $80, but two people, you had to pay like $50 each and three people was like $30 each or whatever. So the more people you get, the less it costs. So I think I think my brother kind of threatened our friend, like, you're riding this because you're going to save me some money. So anyways, we, um, we signed up to ride this thing. And 189 foot tethered freefall and you reach speeds of between 60 and 80 miles per hour. Well when we got up to get our harnesses and things on we actually knew one of the people that worked the ride. So everybody's joking around you know Darren's jokey and I can be jokey we're just all joking around and it's you know Then one of the workers was like, "Ah, look, his harness is frayed.
04:09-04:14
Oh, the harness is frayed. It's so funny." And everybody's just kind of joking and having a good time.
04:14-04:23
"Oh, I'm going to put you up there with a frayed harness. Oh, you're so funny." And then they went to take us to the point right before they pull you up.
04:23-04:24
We were right at that point.
04:25-04:43
And the one worker was like, "Hey, his harness is frayed." And everybody's like, "Oh, it's funny the first five times you said it." And she was like, "No, stop. I'm serious. His harness is frayed." And they looked, and sure enough, the harness they put on me was frayed.
04:44-04:49
And they're like, "We'll get you a new one." All of a sudden, it wasn't so funny anymore.
04:50-04:53
So they got me a new harness, and I couldn't back out now because we already paid.
04:55-05:00
And they put the new harness on me, and we're strapped in, and they're pulling us up.
05:00-05:02
That's by the way, that's not actually like a picture of us.
05:02-05:03
I don't have to tell you that.
05:03-05:07
But we look like that, OK, in that configuration.
05:07-05:08
But they pulled us up.
05:09-05:13
And the whole way up while they were pulling us, I only had one thought in my head.
05:14-05:14
Am I secure?
05:15-05:16
Am I secure?
05:16-05:17
Am I secure?
05:17-05:18
Am I secure?
05:18-05:19
Am I secure?
05:20-05:26
To tell you the truth, to this day, I don't know if all of that made the ride better or worse.
05:27-05:29
You're like, well, Jeff, why did you tell us this story?
05:30-05:35
Because many Christians live that way when they think of their salvation.
05:36-05:41
Am I secure? Am I secure? Am I secure? Am I secure? Am I secure?
05:42-05:46
Can I lose my salvation? Did I lose my salvation? What if I really messed up?
05:46-05:48
Is it possible? Maybe I...
05:48-05:51
Or we think of the salvation of a loved one.
05:51-06:07
Like, well, yeah, he made a profession of faith years ago, but he stopped going to church, and he's kind of living like a pagan, but he made this profession, and I'm just not sure was he saved, did he lose his salvation.
06:08-06:12
So today we're going to talk about knowing his security.
06:12-06:15
So why do people doubt the security of their salvation?
06:16-06:17
Just jot this down if you're taking notes.
06:18-06:22
Really three main reasons, I think, why people doubt the security of their salvation.
06:23-06:24
The first one is sin.
06:25-06:26
The first one is sin.
06:26-06:35
Second Peter chapter one talks about this, that if you are living in sin, if you are not living as God called you to live, you will live in doubt.
06:35-06:39
That's just a that's just a reality.
06:40-06:42
You're not living as God called you.
06:42-06:44
You will live in doubt if you're a believer.
06:45-06:47
So sin, let her be Satan.
06:48-06:49
Why do people doubt the security of their salvation?
06:49-07:05
Satan, you know Revelation chapter 12, says that Satan is a deceiver and he's an accuser and Satan wants nothing more than for a true follower of Christ to constantly be doubting their salvation. Why? Because it makes you ineffective.
07:06-07:23
Instead of being on offense for the kingdom, you're just constantly, "Am I secure? Am I secure? Am I secure?" Satan wants you living in this doubt. So sin and and thirdly, for the sake of alliteration, just write down the word "shallow." Shallow.
07:23-07:28
Meaning, maybe you just don't know what the Bible teaches.
07:28-07:31
Maybe your understanding of the Bible is shallow.
07:33-07:37
Maybe you were never taught what the Bible says about the security of salvation.
07:37-07:40
Or, maybe you were taught wrong.
07:41-07:43
Or, bless you, wrongly.
07:43-07:45
Maybe you were not taught properly.
07:46-07:47
Maybe you were taught incorrectly.
07:47-07:48
What's the right way to say that?
07:49-07:51
Maybe it's a shallow understanding.
07:51-07:53
But we're not going to spend our time talking about why people doubt.
07:54-07:58
Here's three reasons a truly saved person can be secure in their salvation.
07:58-08:09
And we're talking about truly saved, "I believe in Jesus Christ, born again." Three reasons a truly saved person can be secure in their salvation.
08:09-08:12
Number one, because your salvation is purchased by God.
08:13-08:15
I want you to look at verse 22.
08:16-08:23
"Your salvation is purchased by God." It says, "At that time, the feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem.
08:24-08:28
It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.
08:29-08:33
So the Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, 'How long will You keep us in suspense?
08:33-08:40
If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.' Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe.
08:41-09:25
The works that I do in My Father's name about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish." Stop there. It says that this took place during the Feast of Dedication. You're like, "Well, what is that?" Ultra quick history lesson. Let's go back to 165 BC. The temple, the Jewish temple, was defiled by the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabee family revolted against the Syrian overlords and drove them out and it was a time of rededication and reclamation of the temple.
09:26-09:31
And that is the holiday that is still celebrated today called, anybody know?
09:32-09:35
Hanukkah, that's right. That was the feast of dedication.
09:36-09:39
So during this feast, Jesus came to the temple.
09:39-09:44
Like, why did he go? This was his final declaration of his deity, publicly.
09:45-09:48
His final public declaration that he is God.
09:49-09:50
You're going to see that throughout the passage.
09:50-09:54
So here in this passage, the Jews, they sort of cornered Jesus.
09:54-10:07
They encircled him, like, "Hey, tell us! Are you the Christ?" The question was obviously trapped, because if you've read any of John to this point, you know that their minds were already made up.
10:08-10:14
But you see, they were looking for a superhero messiah like the Maccabees.
10:14-10:15
That's who they were looking for.
10:16-10:22
And I don't think it's a coincidence that this question took place during this feast.
10:22-10:26
Like, "Hey, are you like Judas Maccabeus? Are you like him?
10:26-10:39
Tell us, are you the Christ? Are you the one that's going to deliver us?" They were wanting Jesus to say, "I am the Christ." So that they could say, "Well, then you're not very good at it." Because really, who have you saved?
10:40-10:42
Like, well, why didn't they just believe Jesus?
10:43-10:43
I mean, why?
10:44-10:46
Why didn't they just believe in who he was?
10:47-10:52
Because like a lot of people today, they selected scriptures that they wanted to believe and they ignored the rest.
10:52-10:54
But Jesus gives the underlying reason.
10:54-10:55
You know why they didn't believe?
10:55-10:56
He says, you're not one of my sheep.
10:56-10:57
You're just not.
10:58-10:59
We talked all about that last week.
11:00-11:04
Jesus said, I saved my sheep and my sheep know who I am.
11:04-11:05
And they follow me.
11:05-11:08
You're obviously not one of them.
11:08-11:12
What I want you to notice here particularly is this truth.
11:12-11:15
Your salvation was purchased by God in Jesus Christ.
11:15-11:22
And He makes security clear in two very small, but very crystal clear statements.
11:22-11:24
Look back at verse 28 again.
11:24-11:31
Two phrases. He says, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish." He gives them eternal life.
11:31-11:33
Let's talk about that for a second.
11:33-11:37
Underlined in your Bible, the word "gives." He gives eternal life.
11:37-11:39
Salvation is a gift.
11:40-11:40
It's a gift.
11:41-11:43
You can't work to get it.
11:44-11:46
And hear me, church, you don't work to keep it.
11:47-11:48
Why do people struggle with that so much?
11:48-11:49
Do you know why?
11:49-11:54
It's because that's all we've ever learned, is when you perform, people are happy with you, right?
11:55-11:58
As a kid, you're like, "If I do the right thing, "Mom and Dad are happy with me." And then you get a job.
11:59-12:04
"And if I do the right thing, my boss is happy with me." And then, you know, when you get married, if I do the right thing, my wife is happy with me.
12:05-12:08
And we are constantly teaching ourselves that.
12:08-12:13
And then we take that to the Lord to say, well, as long as I do good, God is happy with me.
12:14-12:18
But my salvation is not based on me, because I'm going to fail.
12:19-12:25
My salvation is based on Jesus Christ, who died, and rose for me.
12:25-12:27
It's not based on your performance.
12:28-12:30
It's based on Jesus and His performance.
12:30-12:38
And if you make your salvation based on your performance, you are never, ever going to feel secure in your salvation.
12:39-12:44
You're going to feel saved one moment, and the next moment, I'm the worst pagan in the world.
12:44-12:47
And then you're going to feel saved, and then you're like, I'm the devil.
12:47-12:51
And then you're going to feel-- and you're basing it on your performance.
12:52-12:53
He purchased it.
12:53-12:54
It is a gift.
12:55-13:00
And there is not-- you know there's not one verse in the Bible about him taking his gift back.
13:00-13:02
You know that? Not one verse.
13:03-13:04
We're going to talk more about that in a second.
13:04-13:06
I just want to ask you how Christmas works at your house.
13:07-13:08
Parents, is that how you operate?
13:09-13:11
You're like, son, I got this for you.
13:11-13:12
Merry Christmas.
13:12-13:15
And your son takes the gift and your son's like, oh, thanks.
13:15-13:18
And then you say, now behave yourself.
13:18-13:19
I'm taking it back to the store.
13:20-13:21
You do that at your house.
13:22-13:25
Who does that at your your Christmas stinks if you do that at your house?
13:26-13:27
OK, I'm not coming.
13:28-13:31
and I don't want your lousy gifts." You don't do that. Why?
13:31-13:33
Because you're not a maniac.
13:34-13:35
You're trying to be a good parent.
13:36-13:38
Who is described as the perfect father?
13:39-13:40
Who? God is.
13:41-13:46
You think God gives a gift to his children that he says, "Now behave, or I'm going to re-poet"?
13:46-13:48
We're going to talk more about that in a second.
13:48-13:50
But just for now, I want you to see this phrase.
13:50-13:52
He gives them eternal life.
13:52-13:55
So the question is, well, how does someone get eternal life?
13:55-13:59
It says, Jesus said right here, He gives it. He gives it.
14:00-14:04
And for people like me who are a little slow on the uptake, look at the next phrase.
14:04-14:09
It says, "Jesus said, 'And they will never perish.'" Stated in the negative.
14:10-14:15
For those of us still unsure what Jesus meant, when will a believer perish?
14:16-14:17
When? Never!
14:18-14:28
You're like, "Well, okay, Pastor Jeff, but what if a believer sins?" Well, does your Bible have a little asterisk by the word never and there a footnote at the bottom.
14:29-14:36
You know, most manuscripts say unless a believer sins, you know, the word never doesn't really apply here. Does your Bible say that?
14:37-14:43
No, it doesn't. And you're like, well Jeff, what did... I'm interested in the Greek words.
14:43-14:47
I'm a bit of a Bible scholar, Jeff. I'm interested in the Greek words.
14:47-14:52
What did Jesus mean by the word never? You know, I spent some time on this this week.
14:52-14:53
Do you know what never means?
14:54-14:54
Never!
14:55-14:57
Never, ever, ever, ever!
14:57-14:58
That's what that means.
14:59-15:03
Which of your sins did Jesus die for?
15:03-15:04
All of them!
15:04-15:07
Which of your sins did Jesus Christ take away?
15:07-15:08
All of them!
15:08-15:19
But there are some believers, some Christians, that believe that if you commit a sin, and then you die before confessing that sin, you go to hell.
15:20-15:21
I know some people that believe that.
15:21-15:24
You want to talk about a security killer? That will kill your security.
15:25-15:26
There are people that believe that.
15:26-15:29
Okay, I'm a sincere believer. I believe in Jesus. I'm born again.
15:29-15:32
And then I have a fight with my wife. I say horrible things. I sin.
15:33-15:36
And I leave the house, and I'm in an auto accident, and I die.
15:36-15:41
I'm going to hell because there was a sin that I committed that I didn't confess.
15:41-15:42
Therefore, it's not forgiven.
15:43-15:47
And I just got to tell you, that is completely an unbiblical line of thinking.
15:48-15:55
Like, "Well, how do you know?" Well, when Jesus Christ died, how many of your sins were in the future?
15:56-15:57
All of them, right?
15:58-16:02
So if you think to yourself, "Well, okay, I'm a believer, but what if I mess up tomorrow?
16:02-16:07
What about all my future sins?" All of your sins were in the future when Jesus died.
16:08-16:21
And look, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I think I can grasp what Jesus meant when He said, "They will never perish." "Okay, well what about the person who walks away?
16:21-16:22
You know, you mentioned that guy earlier.
16:23-16:32
You know, the guy was in church, he seemed to be following the Lord, and he walked away from the church, and he doesn't seem to be seeking the Lord at all.
16:32-16:33
What about that guy?
16:34-16:37
What about that guy?" Well, one of two things is going on here.
16:37-16:40
One is, he was never truly saved in the first place.
16:41-16:41
Right?
16:42-17:00
You know, there are a lot of people that come to church, not because they're saved, not because they want to worship, but because they like the people, it's a friendly environment, they wanna learn some things about the Bible, maybe they have a desire to know God, but not a desire to repent from their sin, maybe that person was never really saved.
17:01-17:04
Or what about the person that walks away?
17:04-17:07
The other option is they're coming back.
17:07-17:14
Like you don't know what God's gonna do with that guy's life next year, five years, 10 years from now, you don't know.
17:14-17:15
God isn't done with them.
17:16-17:18
If they're truly saved, God is not done with them.
17:19-17:21
You're like, "Well, how do you know?" How do you know?
17:22-17:23
The answer is you don't know.
17:24-17:25
I don't know anybody's heart.
17:25-17:26
Only God knows the heart.
17:27-17:30
All I know is what Jesus says.
17:30-17:35
He gives eternal life, and those who get it will never perish.
17:36-17:37
So your salvation is purchased by God.
17:38-17:42
Secondly, your salvation is protected by God.
17:42-17:44
Your salvation is protected by God.
17:45-17:46
Get back to verse 28.
17:47-17:50
Jesus said, "And no one will snatch them out of my hand.
17:51-17:58
My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
17:58-18:02
I and the Father are one." Stop there.
18:02-18:05
I just, I don't know, I kind of laugh sometimes when I read.
18:06-18:12
Jesus says, "I and the Father are one." And these people are like, "Tell us plainly, who are you?
18:12-18:13
Tell us plainly, are you the Christ?
18:13-18:16
Tell us plainly." Like how much more plain can he get?
18:16-18:20
Right here he's like, "Me and the Father are the same.
18:20-18:24
We are one." It doesn't get any more clear than that.
18:24-18:31
Jesus is God and that is a truth that has been taught and demonstrated over and over and over in John.
18:31-18:44
But the way that Jesus says it here describes the security that we have in our salvation because he says being in his hand is the same thing as being in the Father's hand.
18:44-18:44
Did you catch that?
18:45-18:51
That's a claim of deity, and it's a claim of security at the same time.
18:52-18:59
So if you're like, "Well, tell me, Jeff, can a believer lose their salvation?" And I'm here to tell you today there is one way.
18:59-19:02
There is one way a believer can lose their salvation.
19:02-19:03
Only one.
19:04-19:05
And you're going to want to write this down.
19:05-19:06
Okay?
19:06-19:11
There's one way that a believer can lose their salvation.
19:11-19:15
Someone stronger than God would have to rip you out of His hand.
19:16-19:17
That's the way.
19:17-19:28
It would sort of be like, I have this little pen knife, a little Swiss Army knife, it was given to me by a missionary friend of mine many years ago and it's kind of valuable to me.
19:29-19:30
Very handy. It's got little scissors and stuff.
19:31-19:36
It's got tweezers and a nail file and I don't know what else. It's very handy.
19:37-19:40
But if I said to you, "You know what, you can have this.
19:40-19:42
You just gotta come and take it from me.
19:43-19:46
A lot of you probably could do that, right?
19:46-19:49
Storm the stage, knock me down, rip this from my hand.
19:50-19:51
A lot of you could probably do that.
19:52-20:00
But, but, what if standing up on this stage was, I don't know, let's say Hulk Hogan.
20:01-20:02
Do you know who Hulk Hogan is?
20:03-20:05
The greatest professional wrestler of all time.
20:05-20:06
You know who he is?
20:07-20:17
from Venice Beach, California, weighing in at 303 pounds, 6'7", 2 inches from heaven, the immortal, the incredible, Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
20:17-20:18
Do you know what I'm talking about?
20:18-20:19
Was that too much?
20:19-20:28
If Hulk Hogan was standing on this stage, and I put this in his hand, and I said, hey, if you want that, you can come and rip it out of the Hulkster's hand.
20:28-20:34
I guarantee you, there's not a person here, or anywhere, that's gonna come and take this from him.
20:34-21:00
Now, to understand Jesus' point, He says, not a silly pen knife, He says, "Your salvation is in My hand." And then Jesus says, "In other words, your salvation is in the hand of God Almighty, and if somebody is going to take your salvation, they're going to have to come to God and rip it out of His hand." Who's strong enough to do that?
21:00-21:03
Three reasons a truly saved person can be secure in their salvation.
21:04-21:07
Finally for today, your salvation is promised by God.
21:07-21:09
It's been purchased by God.
21:09-21:11
It's being protected by God.
21:12-21:14
And it's been promised by God.
21:16-21:20
All right, verse 31 says, "The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
21:21-21:25
Jesus answered them, "I've shown you many good works from the Father.
21:26-21:27
"For which of them are you going to stone me?
21:28-21:35
"The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy.
21:36-21:50
Because you being a man, make yourself God." Stop there. They picked up stones and you're like, "Well, where'd they get the stones from?" Well, they were in the temple, and the temple was always under construction, just constantly.
21:50-21:53
It was like, frame of reference here, it was like Route 28.
21:54-22:01
It was always under construction. So there were stones laying around, and when Jesus said, "I am the Father of one," they're like, "That's it.
22:01-22:10
Grab a rock and Jesus says, "Okay, so for which of my good works are you going to kill me?" What did I do that was so horrible?
22:10-22:13
Was it when I healed the blind person?
22:13-22:15
Or maybe it was healing the lame person.
22:16-22:20
Or maybe it was when I fed 5,000 people with the little boy's lunch.
22:20-22:22
I mean, these things aren't exactly criminal activities.
22:23-22:34
And they said, "No, no, no. It's for blasphemy." Because they knew exactly what Jesus was claiming, being equal with God and under Old Testament law, blasphemy deserves death.
22:34-22:47
But you gotta see, Jesus' response to this is so unanticipated and absolutely staggering what he says. Look at how Jesus responds to this, okay?
22:48-23:09
Verse 34, "Jesus answered them, 'Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods?' If He called them gods to whom the Word of God came, and Scripture cannot be broken, do you say of Him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, "You are blaspheming because I said I'm the Son of God"?
23:10-23:13
Stop there. What was Jesus saying here?
23:13-23:16
Well, Jesus was quoting Psalm 82.6.
23:17-23:29
Psalm 82.6 says, "I said," this is God speaking, I said, "You're God's sons of the Most High, all of you." Now, who's the Lord speaking to here?
23:30-23:31
He's speaking to the judges of Israel.
23:32-23:35
Now, when I say judges, I don't mean like Samson and Gideon and Shamgar and them.
23:36-23:39
These were like the Supreme Court judges of Israel.
23:39-23:43
And it was their job to act as agents of God.
23:43-23:46
Their judgment was to be God's judgment.
23:46-23:48
They were to speak for God.
23:49-23:58
You're like, "So what was Jesus' rebuttal here?" the basic generic understanding that a lot of scholars believe is Jesus' argument is this.
23:58-24:09
If the Scriptures call men who serve the Lord, "gods," they must be in some sense, so it's not a blasphemous term for a person representing the Lord.
24:10-24:17
And while that's true, Jesus' words go way beyond that.
24:17-24:24
Because verse 36, Jesus gives the further revelation and explanation that he was two things.
24:24-24:28
He said he was consecrated by God and sent into the world.
24:29-24:30
There again is another claim of deity.
24:30-24:35
I was in heaven with the Father and he sent me here.
24:36-24:39
So the deeper meaning of Jesus' rebuttal is this.
24:40-24:47
If men doing God's work are called gods, how can you charge the one who was with God and comes from God?
24:48-24:49
You want another run at that one?
24:49-24:50
OK.
24:51-24:59
The deeper meaning of Jesus' rebuttal is this.
25:00-25:16
Jesus was saying, "If men doing God's work are called gods, how can you charge the one who was with God and comes from God?" It's an argument from much, much lesser to much, much greater.
25:16-25:22
But verse 37, Jesus said, "If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe Me.
25:22-25:34
But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father." Oh, by the way, there it is.
25:35-25:39
Our sermon series is called "Knowing Jesus," right? There it is.
25:39-25:42
Jesus said He wants you to know and understand what?
25:43-25:45
The Father is in Him and He is in the Father.
25:45-25:50
Verse 39 says, "Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
25:51-25:56
He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first.
25:57-25:59
There he remained. And many came to him.
26:00-26:09
And they said, 'John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.' And many believed in him there." Like, all right, you were talking about security here.
26:09-26:11
What do we learn about security from this?
26:13-26:22
There's a statement that Jesus made here that is one of the most game-changing statements ever made by any person who's ever walked on this earth.
26:22-26:24
And there is no exaggeration there, because you're going to see that here.
26:25-26:26
Look at verse 35 again.
26:28-26:39
Jesus almost says this statement parenthetically, but the significance of this statement cannot be overstated.
26:39-26:46
Look at verse 35, "Jesus said, Scripture cannot be broken." What does that mean?
26:46-26:51
Well, the Greek word for broken literally means dismissed or eliminated.
26:52-26:53
Here's the picture.
26:53-26:57
Like, Scripture can't be dismissed or eliminated. What does he mean by that?
26:58-26:59
The picture is, imagine a chain.
27:00-27:05
If you eliminate one link on that chain, you no longer have the same chain, do you?
27:06-27:10
Every link is important for that chain, right?
27:10-27:17
And Jesus saw the entirety of the Scriptures, which in His day we would call the Old Testament, Jesus saw the entirety of the Old Testament as a chain.
27:18-27:20
Like everything matters.
27:21-27:29
Every word, every phrase, every tense, every single word matters.
27:30-27:30
Everything.
27:31-27:42
Even this maybe seemingly obscure reference in Psalm 82.6, calling these judges "God." It's just this one reference in the Old Testament.
27:42-27:44
Jesus goes, "It matters." That's a link on the chain.
27:45-27:48
Scripture cannot be broken.
27:48-27:51
Every single word is important.
27:52-27:55
Jesus' whole argument was based on one word.
27:55-27:57
By the way, have you ever struggled to believe the Old Testament?
27:58-28:00
Have you ever struggled believing the Old Testament?
28:00-28:09
You're like Jonah, swallowed by a fish, and we just spent a few weeks on Samson, and that was a pretty wild story, and all the stuff with Moses.
28:10-28:13
Do you know Jesus believed in the Old Testament as being literally true?
28:13-28:16
So I can't speak for you, but I'm going to speak for myself here.
28:16-28:20
I believe that the Bible is literally and straightforwardly true.
28:21-28:23
Why? Because Jesus did.
28:24-28:35
And for the person that comes along and challenges that, and says, "Well, I don't believe the Bible's true," In my head and sometimes out of my mouth, admittedly, this phrase comes to mind, "Oh, you know better than Jesus then.
28:35-28:36
Oh, how do you tell?
28:37-28:43
Because the Almighty Savior of the universe said it's true, but you came along. What are your credentials again?
28:43-28:48
You came along and you say, 'No, it's not true?'" Look, I'm going with Jesus on this one.
28:48-28:53
And I've got to tell you, church, I used to think that a person's view of Scripture was important.
28:54-28:57
And I've come to realize that important doesn't even begin to cover it.
28:57-29:01
because your view of Scripture sets the whole course of your entire life.
29:01-29:05
For example, God's Word says you are adopted.
29:05-29:07
Do you believe that? John 1.12.
29:08-29:10
So let me ask you, can you unadopt yourself?
29:11-29:16
God's Word says you are a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5.17.
29:17-29:20
So let me ask you, can you uncreate God's work? Can you do that?
29:20-29:24
God's Word says He finishes when He begins.
29:25-29:29
talking specifically about salvation, Philippians 1.6.
29:29-29:34
Do you think you can show up where God is at work and put Him to a stop?
29:34-29:37
Say, "No, we're not doing that anymore." Do you think you can do that?
29:38-29:47
God's Word says that you are sealed by His Spirit, the guarantee of our inheritance, according to Ephesians 1, verses 13 and 14.
29:48-29:52
Do you think you can come along and break the seal that God has put on a believer?
29:52-29:52
Can you do that?
29:53-30:00
It is a pretty audacious, no, not audacious, obnoxious.
30:01-30:02
That's the word we're going with today.
30:02-30:03
Obnoxious.
30:04-30:10
It is an obnoxious thing to think that you have the power to undo something that God has declared done.
30:11-30:12
You're obnoxious and you're a fool.
30:13-30:14
And that's not my opinion.
30:14-30:15
That's God's.
30:15-30:16
He has promised.
30:17-30:18
I have believed.
30:19-30:20
I am transformed.
30:20-30:21
I am forever secure.
30:22-30:26
So if you're one of his, if you're one of his, your salvation is secure.
30:27-30:27
Jesus bought it.
30:28-30:30
He's holding it and he promises it.
30:31-30:35
And really at the end of the day, this is what, this is what, this is what it looks like.
30:36-30:37
This is what it looks like.
30:37-30:39
I have a Walmart gift card right here.
30:40-30:42
The only downside is you have to go to Walmart to use it.
30:42-30:47
But if you recognize that you would like to have this, it's for $25 by the way.
30:47-30:54
But if you recognize that you would like to have it and you come and ask me for it, I'll give it to you. No catch. Anybody interested?
30:54-30:59
Anybody interested? Carrie. Warm it up, Carrie. Apparently Carrie's the only one that shops at Walmart here.
30:59-31:01
If you ask me for this, I'll give it to you.
31:02-31:02
Can I have that?
31:03-31:10
You absolutely can. You're sure welcome. You see, for Carrie, it's a gift. Did she earn that? No.
31:11-31:14
Somebody else paid for that, and it was simply given to her.
31:15-31:20
And all she did, you see, all she did was say, I realize that's something I need.
31:21-31:23
And she came and asked for it, and she received it.
31:23-31:25
And so it is with eternal life.
31:25-31:27
There's just one big difference.
31:28-31:30
Hypothetically, she could lose that card.
31:31-31:34
But your salvation - you can never lose that.
31:34-32:06
Because Jesus said, "I got that right here." Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word, God, because we can come up with all kinds of crazy and goofy ideas about who You are and what you're like, and what you require, and God, I really believe as human beings it's all going to go back to some sort of works type salvation that we want to believe, but your Word says salvation is a gift that you purchase and that you hold and that you promise.
32:06-32:09
So God, we come today claiming that promise.
32:09-32:20
And if there's anybody here, whether they're sitting here watching this stream, I just ask God that they would come to You that they would come to you and say, "I need what you have.
32:20-32:24
Can I please, Father, can I please receive this gift of salvation?
32:25-32:29
I believe that Jesus is the Christ. I believe that He's God.
32:29-32:33
I believe that He died for me. I believe that He rose from the dead for me.
32:33-32:40
I believe that I have the promise of heaven only through Him." Father, bring that person to that place.
32:40-32:46
Father, we thank You for the security, because I know, God, if it was up to me, I'd lose it a thousand times an hour.
32:47-32:50
but it will never be lost because you're holding on to it.
32:50-32:51
Thank you, Father.
32:51-32:53
I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 10:22-42

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
How would you respond to this statement?: “My sister was saved, but she isn’t anymore. She walked away from the church years ago.”
Read John 10:27-29 again. Why do you think Jesus took this opportunity to emphasize the security of salvation? Why here?
Explain Jesus’ response to their “charge” of blasphemy (John 10:34-36). What was His point in mentioning Psalm 82:6?
Why is it important for a believer to be fully confident in the security of their salvation?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

October 18, 2020

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Voice

Jeff Miller

October 18, 2020

Knowing Jesus

Introduction:

  
  How Do I Hear the Voice of Jesus? (John 10:1-21)

You have to Want to listen.
You have to spend Time listening.
You have to reduce other Noise. 
  How Do I Hear the Voice of Jesus?
How Do I Know It's Jesus Speaking to Me?
How do I know I'm one of His sheep?

  
  Knowing His Voice – 3 Evidences the Voice You Hear is Jesus:

His voice leads to Abundant life. (John 10:7-10)
  
His voice is Personal . (John 10:11-15)
  
His voice brings Unity . (John 10:16-21)

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

00:42-00:44
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to John 10.
00:45-00:51
And we are starting "Knowing Jesus," part 2.
00:52-00:54
We're going to continue our series in the Gospel of John.
00:55-01:02
And if you have one of those handy binders to keep your notes all collected, we have new covers that just slip in the front.
01:03-01:06
If you don't have one of those, I think there's some available in the back.
01:06-01:10
Brooke is modeling one right now, all Vanna White style or whatever.
01:11-01:14
So make sure you get a binder, get one of these inserts.
01:16-01:19
It helps me certainly taking notes.
01:21-01:23
That's our way of trying to help you in the same way.
01:23-01:24
All right?
01:24-01:32
So I heard somebody say something recently that just -- I'll be honest with you, it just kind of made me sad.
01:33-01:43
And they said one of the hard things about becoming an adult because nobody asks you what your favorite dinosaur is.
01:45-01:47
And that's true, right?
01:49-02:02
And somebody else had said, in the same vein, they said one of the hard things about being an adult was I got new shoes, and nobody asked me if I could run fast in them.
02:04-02:06
And that made me sad.
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And I thought of you as I so often do.
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And thought, I'm gonna give you an opportunity right now.
02:16-02:28
All right, so on the top of your outline, I want you to write down, if you could be any animal besides a human, what kind of animal would you be?
02:28-02:30
Write it down, write it down.
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Come on, don't look at me like that, write it down.
02:37-02:42
If you could be any kind of animal other than a human, what kind of animal would you be?
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All right, your answer's locked in.
02:48-02:51
All right, Sean Zenko, what kind of animal would you be?
02:53-02:56
A lion, well, solid choice, right?
02:56-02:58
King of the jungle, solid.
02:59-03:01
Stacey Gianetti, how about you?
03:03-03:03
A bird.
03:05-03:06
The wind, yes.
03:08-03:09
Feel the wind in your feathers?
03:12-03:12
Solid choice.
03:13-03:14
Solid choice.
03:15-03:16
Evan, what did you write down?
03:17-03:18
A wolf.
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There you go.
03:22-03:30
All right, I'm going to give you all a chance now because I don't want anybody leaving like, "He didn't ask me." All right, so on the count of three, everybody shout out your answer.
03:30-03:30
You ready?
03:31-03:32
One, two, three.
03:32-03:33
[Audience] Chicken.
03:34-03:36
Does somebody say a chicken?
03:39-03:43
All right, back to adulting.
03:45-04:00
That's all fun, but the sad reality for us that we learned from Matt Cole's voice in the video, according to God, what kind of animal are you?
04:02-04:03
You're a sheep.
04:04-04:14
You and I are sheep, and that doesn't sound anywhere near as fun as being a lion, or a bird, or a wolf, right?
04:15-04:19
We were at Iron's Mills Farm yesterday, and we got to see some sheep.
04:20-04:21
They are not glamorous animals.
04:23-04:30
Sheep are completely defenseless, and sheep are dumb.
04:32-04:34
Sheep are probably the dumbest animal.
04:34-04:34
Do you know how I know that?
04:35-04:38
What do you call the guy who's paid to babysit the horses?
04:39-04:40
What do you call that guy?
04:40-04:47
"We don't have a guy that just babysits horses." Or what do you call the guy that his job is to babysit cats?
04:47-04:53
"Well, we don't really have a guy that babysits cats." And what do you call the guy that you pay to babysit sheep?
04:54-04:54
What do you call that guy?
04:55-04:55
"Shepherd!
04:55-05:44
Do you see my point?" dumb and they're defenseless and they need constant guidance and supervision and that is exactly why, church, God says you are a sheep. I am a sheep. And in John chapter 10 this passage that we're looking at today flows straight out of chapter 9, Jesus on the Sabbath healed a man that was born blind and the Pharisees were livid. Why would you do something like that on the Sabbath? So they confronted Jesus about this and in chapter 10 everyone is still there.
05:45-06:00
Jesus, the blind man, the Pharisees, the disciples, the crowd, everybody's still So in this passage, Jesus launches into this extended metaphor about sheep and shepherds and related characters.
06:02-06:03
Why would He do that?
06:04-06:12
Why, as a result of this whole anger over the healing thing, why would He launch into a teaching on shepherding?
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And here's why. This is important for us to understand.
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The Pharisees thought that they were the shepherds of Israel.
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They thought it was their job to keep the sheep of Israel in line.
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But we saw in chapter 9, the reality is the Pharisees didn't care about the sheep at all.
06:37-06:40
All they cared about was enforcing their man-made rules.
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But when it came to the actual care, the actual nurturing, the actual loving of the sheep, it just wasn't in them.
06:52-07:04
So before we look at these verses, since we probably don't have any first century shepherds sitting here this morning, I want to explain something to you quickly so you get the picture.
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In Jesus' day, every village would have a sheepfold.
07:10-07:11
Okay?
07:12-07:17
Just imagine outside of the village this giant garage for sheep.
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And every night when the shepherds would come back into the village, they would take their little flock and put it into the sheepfold.
07:26-08:08
But many shepherds would do that, so you would have this sheepfold that was full of all kinds of sheep from all different flocks, right? And this sheepfold was actually guarded at night by a gatekeeper. He was a guy they hired to cover third shift. So the shepherds would bring all their sheep in and they would go home and the gatekeeper would shut and guard the door. And obviously while the sheep were all in this sheepfold together, they would mingle with one another, right? The sheep weren't like, "Well, I'm not part of that flock, so stay away." They would actually They'd mingle, you know, single, ready to mingle sheep, and they would kind of spread out through the sheepfold.
08:10-08:21
And in the morning, the shepherd would go back to the sheepfold, and the gatekeeper would let him in the door, and he would call his sheep out.
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And they knew his voice, like, "Okay, it's my guy, we're out of here." And the shepherd would call his, and his sheep would follow him back out to pasture.
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That's just how it was, okay?
08:33-08:44
And everyone that Jesus was speaking to knew that, and I thought it would be a good review for us, because you have to understand that picture to understand what Jesus is saying here.
08:45-08:45
All right.
08:47-08:50
Everybody up to speed on first century shepherding?
08:50-08:51
Because I can start over.
08:53-08:55
Okay, if you could be an animal, what kind of animal would you be?
08:56-08:57
All right, verse 1.
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Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
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He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
09:16-09:25
To him the gatekeeper opens." The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out.
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When He has brought out all His own, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.
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The stranger they will not follow.
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They will flee from Him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
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This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them.
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Let's kind of break it down.
09:54-10:02
2, Jesus said, "The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." What did he mean by the door?
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Well, a door just refers to a normal, proper entrance into a place, right?
10:11-10:16
You probably came into this room through a door, I hope.
10:19-10:22
Jesus is just simply talking about himself here.
10:22-10:31
He entered the door of the world the way he was expected to, meaning according to the Old Testament.
10:31-10:38
What Jesus is saying is he came to the world in the predicted way, the way the Old Testament said the Messiah would enter the world.
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You know, entering through Bethlehem, through a virgin, through all the prophecies that say how the Messiah would enter the world.
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Jesus said, "I showed up the way the Messiah was supposed to show up.
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I came right through the door, so to speak.
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And in verse three, Jesus talks about the gatekeeper.
10:58-11:02
The gatekeeper opened the door for the shepherd to enter.
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And who was the gatekeeper?
11:05-11:06
Who was the gatekeeper?
11:07-11:08
John the Baptist, right?
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John the Baptist was the one who prepared the way for the shepherd to come to the sheep.
11:15-11:21
So in other words, to paraphrase everything Jesus said here, I'm just going to give it to you in one sentence so you understand what he's saying.
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Jesus is saying, "I came as prophesied, John the Baptist prepared the way, and I came to call out and save my sheep, my people." He was making this big general statement about himself and his mission.
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And they didn't get it.
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Look at verse four again.
11:50-12:03
It says, "The sheep," the end of verse four says, "The sheep follow him," look at this, "for they know his voice." That's what we're gonna talk about today.
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Jesus said that his sheep know his voice.
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That, that is a game-changing claim.
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I want you to think about that.
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Because this year, as last year, what are we going after?
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We're going after knowing Jesus, not knowing about Jesus, not knowing some facts about Jesus in case we're on Jeopardy and Jesus is a category.
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That's not what we're going after.
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We're going after knowing Jesus.
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That's what we want, right?
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Jesus makes this claim, He says that His sheep, His people, they know His voice and they follow Him because they can hear Him talking to them.
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Do you believe that?
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The people who know Jesus know His voice.
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And right away there are some people that are going to try to dance around this very clear concept and try to reinterpret it.
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Let's understand it in a different way.
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When Jesus very straightforwardly said, "My sheep know my voice." And listen church, this is way more than just like ink on rice paper.
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Okay? And this isn't some poetic concept.
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Like, "I carry you in my heart of hearts." This is way more than that.
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What Jesus is talking about here is something supernatural.
13:52-14:01
Something that can't fully be explained with just human words.
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But according to Jesus, if you're one of His, you're recognized when He talks to you.
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So let's go after that.
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On your outline, "How do I hear the voice of Jesus?" because for some of us, maybe we've struggled with wondering, how do I know it's Jesus talking to me and not my own imagination?
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Have you ever wondered that?
14:28-14:30
Like, what was that voice from?
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Was that just me talking to myself in my head?
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Or was that the voice of God speaking to me?
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Which is it? And how do I know?
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Explain that one to us, Jeff.
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"Do you believe that God talks to you?" "Yes, I absolutely do." "Has God ever talked to you, Jeff?" "Yes, He has. He has." And you're like, "Okay, well, explain it to me." And I can't.
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Because it's not audible.
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It's not the way that I'm talking to you right now.
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When the Lord has spoken to me, it has not been like the clouds parted God's like, "Paging Jeff Miller, paging Jeff Miller." "Oh, I'm listening, Lord." It's not like that.
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The only way I can describe it is, it is Spirit communicating to Spirit.
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It's His Holy Spirit communicating with my Spirit in a way that he's conveying a message.
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Like, well, how do I hear the voice of Jesus?
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Just wanna give you three things.
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I want you to jot these down.
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Because if you're not doing like, if you're not going like after all of these things, you're just, you're not hearing.
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Letter A, you have to want to listen, okay?
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You have to want to listen.
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There is a big difference between hearing and listening.
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Big difference between hearing and listening.
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Husbands here, married men.
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Let me ask you a question.
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Has your wife ever informed you that she told you something, and you just completely don't recall hearing that?
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Husbands, raise your hand.
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Some of you look scared to death.
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We are in church.
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They can't hurt you here.
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It might be a long ride home, but they can't hurt you here, husbands.
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Have you ever just... your wife's like, "I told you that!" And you're like, "I so don't remember that." Get on up high, husbands, come on.
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It's happened to us all.
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I'm just seeing which of you are brave enough to admit it.
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Is there...
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But is there a chance, men, is there a chance that your wife meant to tell you and thought she did but actually didn't?
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Is there a chance?
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Did you hear Ryan Stroop said "Amen"? Where's your wife?
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She's working!
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Boy, do we got something to hold over you for the rest of your life.
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Do you think?
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I don't think that's possible.
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But men, for sure, our wives have told us things that we just don't recall hearing them at all.
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Now, the sound of their voice entered our ears.
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Maybe went in one ear and out the other because there was nothing in the middle to stop the sound.
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I mean, I've been guilty of that. I have.
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That Aaron has made sounds in my direction, but I was not tuned in to listen.
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And I've been guilty of that.
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But you see, with Aaron, I want to hear what she has to say.
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I truly do.
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I want to hear what she has to say.
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And that's why I try, when she speaks to me, I really try to listen.
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I try to understand what it is she's communicating to me.
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Why? Because I love her.
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I love her more than anything else on this planet. I do.
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And it's that love that motivates a person to want to hear, to want to listen, and that is absolutely true when it comes to the Lord.
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When you love the Lord, you are motivated by that love to want to hear what He has to say.
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So it has to start there.
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How do I hear the voice of Jesus?
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Well, my first question is, "Well, do you want to?" Do you want to? You have to want to listen.
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Letter B, how do I hear the voice of Jesus?
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You have to spend time listening.
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You have to spend time listening.
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Time, what do you mean time?
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Well, first of all, obviously prayer.
19:22-19:26
Prayer time, I would ask you how much of your prayer time is just listening?
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How much of your prayer time is listening?
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Listening to God, listening for God, listening for His Spirit to move and communicate with your spirit.
19:36-19:39
How much of your prayer time is being silent before God?
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Or is your prayer time like, "God, I've got this laundry list of prayer requests here, so I'm just going to rattle them off to You and I'll catch You later." You have to spend time listening.
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The other way you spend time listening is through God's Word.
19:56-19:57
It's through God's Word.
19:58-20:09
God's voice, His Spirit, as He speaks to your spirit, listen, this is so important, He is always in agreement with His Word.
20:10-20:13
Okay? God absolutely will not contradict Himself.
20:13-20:26
So something you think, "Maybe God said, maybe it wasn't God, was it me, was it my imagination?" Anything that God communicates to you is always going to be in accordance with His Word every time.
20:26-20:33
He's not going to tell you something different than what His Word says.
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And that's why in the church, one of the most cringeworthy things that people say is, "The Lord told me to tell you something." Has anybody ever said that to you?
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I see some of you cringing now.
20:50-20:53
"The Lord told me to tell you something." Oh, I've had people tell me that.
20:54-21:18
Like for example, many years ago I had a woman say, "The Lord told me that you were supposed to meet with me at my house alone." I said, "Oh, did He tell you that?" I said, "You know what's interesting is the Lord did not tell my wife that." No, I did not go to her house.
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I probably didn't have to tell you that.
21:22-21:24
I've heard it all, so I could give you a list.
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"The Lord told me to divorce my husband." "The Lord told me it's okay for me to smoke." "The Lord told me..." That's how cults start, by the way.
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Is when you have somebody saying, "Hey, the Lord told me this stuff." And yeah, it's not necessarily stuff that's in here or agrees with this, but "The Lord told me this stuff." That's how cults start, right?
21:48-21:54
You look at Islam, you look at the Jehovah's Witnesses, you look at the Mormons, every one of those cults started that way.
21:54-21:55
God told me some stuff.
21:57-22:02
To know God's voice, you have to know God's Word.
22:03-22:09
Because God is not going to speak to you apart from what He has already revealed in His Word.
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And when I say "know the Word," I don't mean, "Oh, I read it occasionally, I memorized a few verses when I was a kid." I mean knowing the Word.
22:18-22:22
knowing the Word and knowing the heart of the God who wrote this Word.
22:23-22:28
Because church, listen, this is the primary way that God speaks.
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Right here. This is the primary way that God speaks.
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He speaks to you through His Word, with His Spirit, to your spirit, as you go after wanting to listen to Him.
22:48-22:50
And He will speak to you.
22:51-23:02
His Spirit will speak to yours, and the more you listen to His voice in His Word, the easier His voice will be to recognize, because anything He says is going to agree with what He's already said.
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Okay, but you've got to spend time listening.
23:07-23:09
Letter C, how do I hear the voice of Jesus?
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you have to reduce other noise.
23:13-23:14
You have to reduce other noise.
23:15-23:24
Like, "Okay, Jeff, so you said that Jesus speaks Spirit to Spirit somehow, and I'm just going to tell you, Jeff, I haven't heard Him.
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I haven't heard Jesus speak to my spirit, Jeff.
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What do you say to that?" Well, I would say two things to that.
23:31-23:33
Either one, you're not one of His sheep.
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Or two, maybe you just persistently drown Him out.
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Because your spirit is listening to so much other noise.
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What other noise do you mean?
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I'm going to give you three other noises that I mean, and they're alliterated for those of you that love that.
23:56-23:58
What other noise? One is sin.
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Sin. If you are living in sin, unrepentant sin, If you're living in sin right now and you know God's told you to repent, but you're just not right now, you're not going to hear His voice because you don't want to hear what He has to say.
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Because you know what He wants to address in your life.
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Like, "Hey, you've got to repent from this. This is wrong." So if you are living in sin right now, You're not hearing the voice of God because you don't want to.
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So there's sin.
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What other noise can drown out God's voice?
24:41-24:50
Sin, number two, secular, meaning listening to the world's doctrine, the world's selfish philosophies, the "me first" way of living.
24:52-25:56
You listen, you're more concerned with what they say on your talk shows, podcast than you are what God has said in his word. If that's you, then you're drowning out the voice of God. And it's no wonder you can't hear him. And finally sin, secular, and self. Self. Do you know how you drown out the voice of God? Just keep the constant selfish self-talk happening all the time. You know I'm talking about in your head that constant complaining, "I'm so sick of this, and I'm so tired of her and he gets on my nerves and I'm so mad about this and my life stings and that you're constantly doing that you're drowning out hearing the voice of God maybe it's complaining maybe it's anger maybe it's envy whatever this selfish self-talk you're just tuned into your voice instead of being tuned into his voice so how do I hear the voice of Jesus we have to want to listen and you have to spend time listening, and you have to reduce other noise.
25:59-26:00
So how do I hear the voice of Jesus?
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Here's the bottom line.
26:03-26:05
How do I hear the voice of Jesus?
26:07-26:08
You just do.
26:12-26:18
If, if you are one of His, you just do.
26:20-26:26
"Well, how do I know that it's Jesus speaking to me?" You just do.
26:28-26:33
If you are one of His, according to Him, you just do.
26:35-26:37
Like, "All right, well, that leads me to another question, Jeff.
26:37-26:39
How do I know that I'm one of His?
26:39-26:42
How do I know that I'm one of His sheep?" And that's easy.
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That's the easiest question of all, because Jesus said His sheep follow Him.
26:49-26:51
You're one of His if you follow Him.
26:54-26:58
I'm not sure if you cleared this up for me, or if you made it more complicated.
26:59-27:04
Well, good news! Jesus elaborates on this whole concept, so will we.
27:05-27:16
Alright, so, on your outline, "Knowing His Voice," here's three evidences from Jesus that the voice you hear is Jesus.
27:19-27:20
We're going to go through these quickly.
27:21-27:23
Number one, write this down.
27:25-27:26
His voice leads to abundant life.
27:28-27:31
His voice leads to abundant life.
27:32-27:34
Look at verses 7-10.
27:34-27:39
So Jesus again said to them, they didn't get it, okay?
27:39-27:51
He gives this whole analogy, they're like, "We don't know what he's talking about." So Jesus says, "I'm going to take another run at this." So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
27:52-27:57
All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
27:59-28:00
I am the door.
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If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
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The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
28:15-28:53
came that they may have life and have it abundantly." Stop there. Jesus shifts gears a little bit in the analogy, but He's still talking about shepherding. You see, shepherds would take their sheep out into the fields and in the morning the sheep would graze, and in the early afternoon, while the shepherds had their sheep in the fields, they would make these temporary corrals out in the wilderness. And would actually lay across the doorway of that temporary corral.
28:55-29:02
That's why Jesus said, verse 7, He said, "I am the door." Like, they totally understood what He was saying.
29:02-29:08
The shepherd would lay down over the doorway of the temporary corral while the sheep were resting.
29:11-29:14
The shepherd was laying across the doorway.
29:15-29:16
Essentially, the shepherd was the door.
29:17-29:18
What's the point?
29:21-29:23
The shepherd did that to protect the sheep.
29:25-29:34
He was saying, "If you wanted the sheep, you're going to have to crawl over me to get them." There is a thief that wants to destroy you.
29:36-29:36
Satan.
29:38-29:39
The devil.
29:41-29:42
He wants to destroy.
29:45-29:48
But when you follow Jesus Christ, the devil can't have you.
29:49-29:51
The devil can't ever destroy you.
29:51-29:51
Why?
29:52-29:54
Because he would have to go through Jesus Christ to do that.
29:56-30:06
And that's this picture Jesus is giving here to say, "Hey, when you're one of my sheep, and you're under my protection, anybody that's going to touch you, "Hey, you're going to have to go through me.
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You want it done? Bring it." And not only does Jesus our Shepherd give us safety from the enemy, He gives us abundant life.
30:22-30:27
Boy, this is a whole other sermon series, but I just want to ask you one question regarding this this morning.
30:29-31:00
Right now, as you look at your life, this chapter of your life, where you are, what you're doing, you're with whatever, whatever, whatever. Would you describe your life as being abundant right now? Abundant life is not about money. It's not about position. It's not about how many Twitter followers you have. Abundant life is living in the joy of everything that that only God provides.
31:01-31:02
That's abundant life.
31:04-31:07
Living in the joy of everything that only God provides.
31:07-31:08
Things like freedom.
31:12-31:12
Forgiveness.
31:15-31:15
Peace.
31:17-31:20
A fellowship with Him and with other believers.
31:21-31:23
Things that only God provides.
31:23-31:31
And you know it's the voice of the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, when these are the things that He's leading you to.
31:33-31:34
His voice leads to abundant life.
31:34-31:38
Number two, His voice is personal.
31:40-31:41
His voice is personal.
31:42-31:43
I'm going to explain what that means here in a second.
31:43-31:44
Look at verse 11.
31:45-31:52
"I am the Good Shepherd." "The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
31:55-32:06
who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
32:07-32:10
He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
32:13-32:21
I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me.
32:22-32:30
"The Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep." It's up there.
32:32-32:40
"Free evidence is the voice you hear is Jesus, because His voice is personal." He makes a contrast here, comparing the shepherd himself to the hireling.
32:41-32:42
Who is the hireling?
32:42-32:47
He's just some punk kid in high school needing to earn a few bucks on the side.
32:48-32:52
So yeah, alright, you give me a few bucks, I'll help you with the shepherding business.
32:52-32:53
That's the hireling.
32:53-32:55
He doesn't own the sheep.
32:55-32:58
He's just in it for the money.
32:59-33:03
Therefore, as Jesus pointed out, when danger comes, you know what that kid says?
33:03-33:04
"Oh, that's not my problem.
33:04-33:08
They ain't paying me enough to take on wolves, okay?
33:09-33:22
Not my problem." The hireling shows that he loves his life more than the sheep, But the shepherd loves the sheep more than his life.
33:24-33:26
The love of Jesus Christ knows no limit.
33:27-33:28
Would he be willing to die?
33:28-33:30
We're going to talk about that more in a second.
33:33-33:39
But even more awesome is the fact that his love isn't just some general, generic love.
33:39-33:42
Like, okay, I guess I love the lot of you.
33:43-33:50
I love the group of you!" That's something you see with Jesus Christ, is His love is always personal.
33:50-33:51
And it's always relational.
33:53-33:53
Every single time.
33:53-33:54
Like, what do you mean?
33:54-33:55
Well, study your Bibles.
33:56-34:02
Do you realize every single encounter with Jesus is personal and individual?
34:03-34:04
Do you notice that?
34:05-34:10
Whether it's Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, Zacchaeus, Matthew, etc., etc., etc., etc.
34:13-34:19
That's what Jesus was talking about way back in verse 3, when He says the shepherd calls the sheep by name.
34:20-34:23
You realize these first century shepherds, they named their sheep.
34:23-34:26
They had names just like we name our dogs, we name our cats.
34:26-34:28
You even name your fish, don't you?
34:29-34:30
We name our pets.
34:30-34:32
And the shepherds, they were no different.
34:32-34:35
All their little sheep had names, so they just call them out, and here they came.
34:36-34:54
And Jesus said, "Hey, that's how I am with my sheep." He goes, "I know you personally." "I'm sorry, what was your name?" "Oh, Darla, okay, which church were you with?" "Harvest Bible Chapel." "Okay, we take those people. I'm going to look you up there and see." Like, that's not it at all.
34:56-34:57
He knows you personally.
35:01-35:02
And He's calling you by name.
35:04-35:04
Can you hear Him?
35:08-35:15
There's a huge difference between an announcement and an invitation.
35:18-35:18
Right?
35:18-35:25
Like if I stood up here today and I said, hey, any of you want to come to my house for lunch afterwards, just come on over.
35:26-35:27
That's an announcement.
35:30-35:35
But if I came and I said, Matt, Matt, I want you to come to my house for lunch today.
35:36-35:36
All right.
35:37-35:38
Parents at a place.
35:40-35:40
Do you see the difference?
35:41-35:42
Didn't that feel different?
35:43-35:48
To call you by name and say, "I want you to come to my house." That's different than if you don't want to come.
35:48-35:51
And some people think that's sort of how Jesus does it with salvation.
35:51-35:53
You want to get saved, you just come on.
35:54-35:55
That's not how He does it at all.
35:55-35:56
Jesus comes individually.
35:57-35:58
He says, "Hey, you, I know you.
35:59-36:06
Ben, I'm calling you to come to myself." His voice is always personal.
36:09-36:10
You're like, "Well, what if I'm not one of his sheep?
36:12-36:19
How do I know if I am?" Look, I'm not going to get into some Calvinism debate with you on that.
36:19-36:20
All I know is this.
36:21-36:33
Verse 9, Jesus said, "If anyone enters by Me..." See that word "anyone"? Underline the word "anyone." Are you in anyone?
36:37-36:44
If you would classify yourself as being under the heading "anyone," then this is for you.
36:45-36:50
If you will receive Him, He's personally inviting you.
36:51-36:54
So His voice leads to abundant life, His voice is personal.
36:54-36:56
And finally, His voice brings unity.
36:59-37:00
His voice brings unity.
37:00-37:01
Look at verse 16.
37:03-37:06
Jesus said, "And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.
37:07-37:10
I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice.
37:10-37:13
So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
37:15-37:21
For this reason, the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it up again.
37:21-37:25
No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down in My own accord.
37:26-37:31
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
37:33-37:40
This charge I have received from my Father." Jesus' voice goes out to all the sheep.
37:41-37:44
Specifically here, He's speaking about us Gentiles.
37:47-37:52
Jesus' voice goes out to all the sheep all over the world, all over time.
37:53-37:59
The goal was to have just one flock all together, where there's one shepherd.
38:02-38:10
You know, this stream, this recording of this church service, you know, it goes global.
38:13-38:18
And these messages are listened to all over the earth.
38:19-38:26
I get emails from people from everywhere, all over the United States, Uganda, Ghana, Japan.
38:27-38:45
Emails, "Hey, you don't know me, but I live here and I listen to your messages every week." And how awesome is it going to be that someday we're all gonna be under one roof worshiping Jesus Christ together.
38:48-38:52
There's not going to be the Republican and the Democrat sections.
38:54-38:55
We're not gonna get to heaven.
38:56-39:00
He says, okay, the black people sit here, the white people sit here, the Asians sit here.
39:04-39:06
There's just gonna be one flock.
39:07-39:08
Like, hey, where am I supposed to be?
39:08-39:10
Sheep here, sheep here.
39:13-39:14
United under one shepherd.
39:17-39:29
See, that's the heart of Jesus, and that's the goal of the shepherd, is to bring all of the sheepfold together, so I can tell you for sure, if you're wondering, am I hearing the voice of Jesus?
39:30-39:37
He's not going to lead you, or call you to do anything that's going to bring division or hostility to His church.
39:39-39:43
Because in the church, there's no room for elitism.
39:45-39:46
That means I'm better than you.
39:47-39:50
In His church, there's no room for favoritism.
39:50-39:52
That means you're better than Him.
39:54-39:59
And in His church, there's no room for racism, which means you aren't as good as anyone.
40:02-40:09
The voice of Jesus Christ leads to unity with His people under the authority of His work.
40:12-40:20
This unity we're talking about, It's really only for Jesus' sheep, by the way, because not every sheep is following the shepherd.
40:21-40:24
Let's look at verses 19-21 as we close.
40:24-40:28
He says, "There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.
40:30-40:38
Many of them said, 'He is a demon and is insane.'" Boy, that's a double whammy, isn't it?
40:39-40:42
I mean, I feel bad for somebody that just had one of those conditions.
40:43-40:52
They're like, "He's not only spiritually possessed, he's crazy." Look at this question.
40:52-41:00
They said, "Why listen to him?" Others said, "These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon.
41:00-41:07
Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" I just want to close with looking at that last question.
41:08-41:10
As our worship team makes their way forward.
41:12-41:12
Last question.
41:14-41:15
Why listen to Him?
41:17-41:18
Why listen to Him?
41:21-41:26
You notice Jesus made a comment several times throughout this passage.
41:29-41:35
When He talked about dying, did you notice Jesus didn't say that He'll be killed?
41:35-41:36
Did you notice that?
41:37-41:46
You notice five times in this passage, Five times Jesus said He will lay down His life.
41:48-42:02
Five times He says, "I will lay down My life." Some knock on your head might be listening to this saying, "So what? I can lay down My life." Verse 18, Jesus said, "But He also had the authority to take it up again." Can you do that?
42:06-42:19
A man who would make such a claim that he can lay down his life and take his life up - a man who would make a claim like that is either completely insane or completely God.
42:21-42:25
And Jesus revealed which one of those He is when He rose from the dead.
42:27-42:28
So why listen to Him?
42:31-42:33
Because He's like no one else.
42:35-42:36
Do I listen to Him?
42:37-42:39
Because He does for us what no one else can do.
42:41-42:46
As the Shepherd, He saves, He provides, He guides, He gives us abundant life.
42:49-42:56
Right now, the Shepherd is still calling His sheep to Himself.
42:58-43:04
And if you can hear Him calling you, You have not yet received Him.
43:05-43:07
Today's the day, sheep!
43:09-43:09
Come to your shepherd.
43:12-43:13
I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please.
43:16-43:22
Whether you're sitting here in person, or you're watching online, or you're watching the recording of this later, whatever.
43:25-43:29
If you can hear the voice of the shepherd, that's the best possible news you'll ever have.
43:30-43:31
I know that He's calling you.
43:34-43:35
Because His sheep hear His voice.
43:38-43:47
And sheep know that the absolute best, safest, and most abundant place they can be is sticking close to that shepherd.
43:50-43:55
Father in heaven, as we bow ourselves before You, we thank You for Your Word.
43:59-44:15
I know, Father, there are going to be some people that might be ready to quickly explain this away, to dismiss it, to try to redefine it, but the reality is Jesus very plainly said that His sheep hear His voice.
44:17-44:26
Father, I'm praying right now for the sheep that hearing the voice of the shepherd would cause us to move, cause us to respond.
44:29-44:39
I pray that You would give us a hunger that all we want to do is put ourselves in a position where we hear Your voice.
44:41-44:54
There is nothing more important to us, there is nothing sweeter to us, there is nothing more reassuring to us than recognizing the voice of our Shepherd.
44:57-44:57
Thank you.
45:00-45:10
Thank you God for not being detached and separate, but for being so personal and loving to us.
45:11-45:12
Thank you.
45:14-45:16
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 10:1-21

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
The Bible says we are sheep. In what ways are we like sheep? (Bonus points for citing the appropriate Bible verses!)
Tell of a time you knew you heard the voice of the Shepherd. What did He say? How did He speak? How did you know it was Jesus (and not just your own imagination)?
How would you respond to a friend, whom you believe is born again, who says, “I don't think Jesus has ever spoken to me.”
Why did Jesus emphasize (5x!) that He was “laying down His life”? Why do you think that was the focal point of His Shepherd metaphor here?

Breakout
Pray for one another to truly listen, and hear, the voice of Jesus. Then pray for the faith to follow Him.

Jeff Miller

October 11, 2020

Do Whats Right

When You've Failed.

Jeff Miller

October 11, 2020

Do Whats Right

  
  Introduction:

      We Have 3 Options When We Fail: (Judges 16:23-31):
    
Live in Defeat .
  
Live in Denial .
  
Live in Discipline .

The Process of Restoration:

God brings Discipline (Not punishment).
Discipline brings Heart-change.
Heart-change brings deeper Commitment.
Psalm 119:67 - Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.
Deeper Commitment brings new Opportunities.

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

00:56-00:58
Judges chapter 16, are you there?
01:00-01:12
We've been talking the last few weeks about Samson, Israel's most famous judge, who was, as we saw last week, driven by lust.
01:12-01:22
Well, the Philistines had paid Delilah big bucks if she could get him to tell her so she could tell them the source of his strength.
01:23-01:29
And after playing around with Delilah, He just told her, right?
01:29-01:31
And his head was shaved.
01:31-01:32
He was captured.
01:33-01:34
They gouged his eyes out.
01:35-01:44
He was shackled and he was forced to do slave labor work, grinding at the mill in prison.
01:44-01:47
He was broken and defeated.
01:47-01:58
But verse 22 says, "But the hair of his head "began to grow again after it had been shaved." foreshadowing there for what is to come.
01:58-01:59
Let's pick up there verse 23.
02:00-02:11
It says, "Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to dag on their god and to rejoice.
02:12-02:20
And they said, 'Our god has given Samson, our enemy, into our hand.' And when the people saw him, they praised their god.
02:20-02:39
For they said, "Our God has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us." And when their hearts were merry, they said, "Call Samson, that he may entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them.
02:40-02:42
They made him stand between the pillars.
02:43-02:50
Stop there. You see, the Philistines didn't kill Samson right away because they wanted to torment him.
02:50-02:58
They had this service to, I guess you could call it a worship service, to honor their idol, Dagon.
02:59-03:05
Now, how many people knew that when you say Dagon, you're taking another God's name in vain?
03:05-03:06
How many of you knew that?
03:06-03:06
There it is.
03:07-03:09
Okay, so yeah, Dagon.
03:09-03:14
That was the name of the Philistines' God, Dagon.
03:15-03:22
And their worship center was this covered building that had these pillars on stone bases.
03:23-03:27
And the dignitaries, or the important people, would sit undercover.
03:28-03:31
And the general population would actually sit on top of the roof.
03:31-03:33
And you're going to see that here in just a second.
03:33-03:35
But Samson was brought out.
03:36-03:40
And if you could just imagine for a second how sweet this would have been to the Philistines.
03:41-03:49
Because for years and years and years, This guy was a pain in the neck.
03:49-03:50
He was a thorn in the side.
03:51-03:53
And they couldn't do anything to stop him.
03:53-03:55
And now they got him.
03:55-03:56
He's blind.
03:57-03:57
He's broken.
03:58-03:58
He's defeated.
03:59-04:00
Look at this guy now.
04:00-04:01
He's pathetic.
04:02-04:03
Look at verse 26.
04:04-04:05
OK, so you get the scene.
04:05-04:07
Samson's brought out there for this worship service.
04:07-04:08
Oh, it's a big celebration.
04:09-04:13
Samson, verse 26, Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand.
04:14-04:21
"Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them." Now the house was full of men and women.
04:21-04:31
All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof, there were about 3,000 men and women who looked on while Samson entertained.
04:32-05:08
So Samson says, "Take me to the pillar," and they figure, "Okay, he's harmless, and he's blind, so he probably just needs to balance." And verse 28 says, "Then Samson called to the Lord and said, 'O Lord God, please remember me, and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.' And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.
05:08-05:19
And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the Lord and upon all the people who were in it.
05:19-05:25
So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.
05:25-05:34
And his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshter.
05:34-05:43
in the tomb of Manoah his father, he had judged Israel 20 years." So Samson makes this prayer. We're going to talk about the prayer here in a minute.
05:44-05:47
But you see immediate spectacular results.
05:47-05:54
Samson prays, he pushes the pillars over, and now thousands of Philistines.
05:55-05:58
There were 3,000 just on the roof plus those underneath.
05:59-06:03
So they lie dead and Samson lies dead with them.
06:03-06:05
Look at verse 30 again, though, the end of verse 30.
06:06-06:16
This is kind of a sad commentary where it says, "So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life." Look at it, it's like a sad commentary.
06:16-06:31
It's almost like, you know, if Samson spent his life focused on his mission as much as he was focused on chasing women, think of what he could have done for Israel, but his death was not a defeat because he died as a hero.
06:32-06:33
And this is how his story ends.
06:34-06:44
Samson totally blew it, totally failed with the whole Delilah affair, but he was restored and used by God in the end.
06:45-06:49
And I would say this story is a great encouragement for the rest of us failures.
06:50-06:55
Because failure is a reality for every Christian.
06:56-07:03
Every single one of us, in some way, to some degree, we are going to fail.
07:04-07:04
Okay?
07:05-07:06
And we've all been there.
07:07-07:12
You fail and you say, "Is God done with me now?" I mean, I blew it.
07:12-07:15
I knew what I should have done and I did the opposite.
07:15-07:16
Is God done with me?
07:17-07:22
And we think, you know, God might never want to use me again because He sees what a loser I am.
07:22-07:23
But I want you to hear me.
07:24-07:35
A successful Christian is not one who never fails, but one who learns how to accept God's remedy for failure.
07:35-07:41
The issue is not if we fail. The issue is how we respond.
07:42-07:42
Okay?
07:42-07:46
That was a really good spot for an amen. I'm going to give you another chance.
07:47-07:51
The issue is not if we will fail, but how we will respond.
07:52-07:56
Okay, so we have three options. We have three options when we fail.
07:57-07:58
Jot these down. They're on your outline.
07:59-08:01
When you fail, you have three options here, okay?
08:01-08:04
Number one, we can live in defeat. We can live in defeat.
08:05-08:08
And some people, even some Christians, choose to live this way.
08:08-08:12
We just wallow in remorse and self-pity.
08:12-08:15
We're accusing. We spend the rest of our life accusing.
08:16-08:19
"Well, yeah, I failed, but it was her fault.
08:19-08:30
And if my parents hadn't this, and if my boss hadn't that, and if my wife wasn't such a-- that I wouldn't have-- and we just spend the rest of our life-- that's living in defeat.
08:30-08:34
Or making excuses is another way we can live in defeat.
08:34-08:40
To say, well, you don't understand my situation, and this is why I couldn't really help it.
08:41-08:44
And some people just choose to live in defeat.
08:45-08:48
Or B, live in denial.
08:49-08:51
unaware, oblivious.
08:51-08:54
Like, dude, you are making a shipwreck of your faith.
08:54-08:55
They have no idea.
08:56-08:59
But even worse than that is when we downplay wrongdoing.
08:59-09:00
It's not that bad.
09:00-09:01
It's not that bad.
09:01-09:02
Everybody does it.
09:02-09:03
Everybody does it.
09:03-09:04
OK, so I messed up.
09:05-09:06
But you know, everybody does it.
09:06-09:07
Everybody says this.
09:07-09:08
Everybody does this.
09:08-09:09
This happens in every workplace.
09:09-09:13
Every home's like-- we just-- we downplay it.
09:14-09:18
Like, yeah, it was wrong, but I mean, not that bad.
09:19-09:19
We downplay it.
09:21-09:26
We can't learn from that which we will not or cannot admit.
09:27-09:29
And church, it's really bad to be weak because of sin.
09:30-09:33
It's tragic to not even know that you're sinning.
09:34-09:35
You can live in defeat.
09:36-09:37
I wouldn't recommend that.
09:37-09:37
We can live in denial.
09:38-09:39
I really wouldn't recommend that.
09:39-09:41
Or letter C, we can live in discipleship.
09:42-09:50
When you truly follow Jesus Christ, I mean, if you are a true born again, I have received the gift of eternal life that Jesus Christ has given.
09:50-09:55
If that is you, then this is what Jesus Christ wants for you.
09:55-09:59
First of all, in living in discipleship, He wants you to embrace forgiveness.
10:00-10:13
He has already forgiven you. Realize when you receive Jesus Christ, He forgave all your sins. The ones you've committed in the past, and the ones you haven't even thought of yet. They're all forgiven in Jesus Christ.
10:13-10:15
It's covered under His blood.
10:16-10:18
And you need to embrace that forgiveness.
10:19-10:26
Our biggest mistake, Christians, it's not when we sin, it's when we don't run to the cross for the forgiveness that Jesus has already given.
10:27-10:27
That's our mistake.
10:28-10:30
To live in discipleship, you have to embrace forgiveness.
10:31-10:33
You have to learn from what we did wrong.
10:33-10:34
We're going to talk a little bit more about that.
10:35-10:41
But it does you no good if you completely blow it, and you embrace forgiveness, and you just keep completely blowing it.
10:41-10:43
But you have to learn what we did wrong.
10:44-10:50
Something else you have to do when you live in discipleship is make restitution to other people where it's needed.
10:51-10:59
If you wronged somebody, if you took from someone, whatever, you might have to make restitution to another person.
10:59-11:01
That's part of the process.
11:02-11:08
And when you've done those things, when you embrace forgiveness, when you learn what you did wrong, when you make restitution, do you know what you do next?
11:09-11:09
You know? You know?
11:09-11:10
You know?
11:11-11:12
You move on!
11:13-11:13
Okay?
11:14-11:14
You move on.
11:15-11:18
In humility, under God's grace.
11:18-11:21
It doesn't matter how far you've fallen because you're never beyond forgiveness.
11:22-11:24
Because God's grace is greater than your sin.
11:24-11:25
Do you believe that?
11:26-11:27
Do you believe that His grace outweighs your sin?
11:28-11:31
I had a discussion with someone last week as we were talking about this series.
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They said, "Samson really doesn't show much fruit of being a believer." and say, "Was Samson really restored? Was Samson really a believer in God?" And the answer is 100% yes. Absolutely for sure he is.
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Because as I've told you before, Hebrews 11, you know the chapter of the Hall of Fame of Faith?
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Samson is mentioned in the same sentence as David. Hebrews 11.32.
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And honestly, you could rename Hebrews 11. You don't need to call it the Hall of Fame of Faith.
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if you could call it, the Hall of Fame of Restored Failures.
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Because you can go through that list, like here's how this person blew it, here's how this person blew it, here's how this person blew it.
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It's not about what you've done.
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It's about what Jesus Christ has done for you.
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So forgiveness is instant.
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When you receive Jesus Christ, you are forgiven and you remain in a state of being forgiven under the blood of the new covenant.
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Forgiveness is instant, okay?
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But restoration is gradual.
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Forgiveness is instant, but restoration is gradual.
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You're like, "Well, why is that?" Because as we discussed before, failure is not the product of a moment, okay?
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Failure doesn't just happen in one event.
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Failure is a chain of events.
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A wrong choice here, a bad decision here, an inappropriate thing here, A sinful thing, these little choices we make eventually lead to the failure.
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And since failure is not the product of a moment, restoration cannot be the product of a moment.
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Forgiveness is instant, restoration is gradual.
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Because you have to unlearn some old habits and you have to learn some new habits, and that takes time.
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And that's what God is after.
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It might be a newsflash for a lot of Christians, but God doesn't just want to forgive you.
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He does, and He's provided everything so you can be forgiven, but you know God doesn't want to stop there.
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God's not like, "Here's your ticket to heaven. Everybody get your ticket to heaven." That's not God's endgame. He doesn't just want to forgive you, He wants to change you.
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And even when you fail, God wants to use you again. And that's a process.
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So on your outline, let's talk about the process of restoration.
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This is a chain, okay?
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Each point is linked to the next point.
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Alright?
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So this is the process, we see it in the passage here.
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When you blow it, when you fail, forgiveness is instant.
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Restoration is gradual.
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Let's talk about the process of restoration.
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Number one, God brings discipline, not punishment.
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God brings discipline, not punishment.
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Samson here was brought as low as a man could get.
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Truly, can you think of anything else that would add to his misery at this point?
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He was imprisoned by the enemy, shackled, doing slave work, eyes gouged out, brought out to the worship service of their pagan god, and they're like, "Entertain us, do a little dance for us," or whatever.
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To understand that even that was part of God's grace.
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You're like, "That was God's grace?" Yeah, because Sometimes God strips away everything that will keep us from trusting Him.
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God may allow you to lose your job, and therefore your income. He may allow that.
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God may allow you to lose that relationship.
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You know that relationship that you held on to so tightly that was becoming idolatry?
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That's getting in the way of your walk with Him. He might allow you to lose that.
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He might allow you to lose your health.
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Anything in the way of God's discipline, He knows, "Hey, this is keeping her from following me, so I'm going to get rid of it." God whispers to us in love, but if we're not going to listen to that, He's going to shout in discipline.
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I need to remind you, because I hear this so often as a pastor, I hear Christians say, "Well, I just think God's punishing me.
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I really feel like God's punishing me." God is not punishing you.
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God does not punish ever a believer in Jesus Christ. Never.
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Not now, not tomorrow if you blow it, not any time.
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From the moment that believer received Christ, through all of eternity, God will never punish a believer.
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God disciplines a believer.
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And there is a huge difference.
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Because... huge.
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Because punishment is to satisfy justice.
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That's what punishment is.
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And when Jesus Christ was on the cross, God was punishing Jesus for my sin.
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And He was punishing Jesus for your sin.
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To understand, if you're a believer in Christ, God's not going to punish Jesus for your sin, and then turn around and punish you for your sin.
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Jesus Christ fully took the punishment on Himself.
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Fully bore God's wrath for sin.
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God will not punish you, ever.
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But discipline, discipline is to produce maturity.
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The purpose of discipline is to make us useful, right?
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I'm thinking of the difference this way.
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Prisons punish criminals.
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Parents discipline children.
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The parents, when your children do wrong, you are to discipline your child so they feel the consequences of the wrong choices and learn to make better ones.
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As parents, you're not out to destroy your child with punishment.
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You're like, "Hey, I'm trying to grow a fully functional adult, and that means I'm going to have to teach you some things along the way." That's discipline. It's about maturity.
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And if you're in Jesus Christ, you're a child of God.
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You have a heavenly Father who's going to discipline you.
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Not to destroy you, but to build you up.
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Okay, so number one, God brings discipline.
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Number two, discipline brings heart change.
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Discipline brings heart change.
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And understand that even though you are forgiven in Christ, and even though God has you on this process of restoration, understand that sometimes the consequences of your sin are not erased.
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Some people think that's what restoration is, that God just sort of takes His etch-a-sketch, and He just flips it upside down and...
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"Oh look, everything's back to the way it was before." But it's not always like that.
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Sometimes we have to live with the consequences of our own sinful choices.
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You saw it in Samson, right?
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He got new hair, he didn't get new eyes.
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When we repent, church, it doesn't mean that God obliterates the consequences.
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You know that unplanned pregnancy that happened because of the affair?
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God's not going to just make all of that go away.
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The divorce that results because of the series of sinful choices, you're divorced.
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The health issues that came about through sinful lifestyle choices, you may be carrying those health issues for the rest of your life.
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The job that you lost because of sinful choices, even though you're forgiven, it doesn't mean God's going to say, "I'm going to magically give you your job back." That might be forever gone.
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You're like, "Well, wait a second.
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You're talking about heart change.
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How do we know that Samson had heart change?
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I don't see a lot of fruit of the Spirit in this guy's life.
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How do we know Samson had a heart change?
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I want you to look at his prayer in verse 28.
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He said, this was his prayer, "Oh Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, oh God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes." There's something if you look really, really, really close, you'll see Samson actually used different names for God in that one sentence.
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That one verse, he used three names for God.
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You see that?
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He says, "Oh Lord God." That's two names.
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"Lord" is Adonai.
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You're my superior.
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You're my boss.
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You're the one that I bow to.
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You're my king.
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That's "Lord." He says, "Lord God." That's God.
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That is Yahweh.
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That's God's name.
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I am who I am.
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And then later in the verse, he says, "Oh God." It's Elohim. That's more of a description of God than a name per se, but it's the way we would say the Almighty, the Powerful One. You're like, "Well, what's your point in that?" Here's my point. Someone who had very little regard for God through his life, from what we see in the text, now seems to know Him pretty well. The same one who so often seems so distant from God's calling for his life now seems so dialed in.
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And that's how you know that you're truly on the path to restoration, is when there's heart change.
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Not change for show.
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I'm going to change some behaviors so my wife stops nagging me.
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That's not heart change.
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It's not about pleasing people.
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Like I made my friends really mad with my sinful decisions.
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I'm going to make these changes so they're not mad at me anymore.
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That's not heart change.
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Or to get out of trouble.
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Yeah, my job is on the line.
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So I'm going to make these changes.
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And hopefully, when I meet with my superiors at work, they're going to see this change of heart.
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They're going to make sure that-- that's not heart change.
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Heart change is when you get to the point that Samson was here, that he was like, God, I'm all yours.
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God, all yours!
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This is for you!
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All yours.
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That's heart change.
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Number three, heart change brings deeper commitment.
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Heart change brings deeper commitment.
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Samson said an awfully bold prayer in the middle of a mob, and he could have just been resolved to disgrace and remorse.
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I blew it. It's over.
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I'm blind. I'm weak.
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Honestly, I don't think Samson ever had a clearer understanding of his calling than he did when he made this prayer in verse 28.
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We've been looking at the life of Samson these past several weeks.
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You realize this here, this is the only time that Samson ever prayed before using his strength.
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So now he has this strength that's disciplined by faith.
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We have to notice that it took failure to get him to that point.
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Psalm 119, longest chapter in your Bible.
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It's all about the Word of God.
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I want you to look at verse 67.
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It says, "Before I was afflicted, I went astray.
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But now I keep your word." See that?
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He said, "I was gone my own sinful way, and God, you brought affliction into my life, and because of this process of discipline that you walked me through, you see the resolve here?" He goes, "Now, now I keep your word.
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Now I get it, God.
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I understand like I never have before what it means to follow you.
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I get it now.
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I totally get it now.
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Heart change brings deeper commitment.
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I learned my lesson.
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That was wrong.
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I know what I need to do.
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I'm doing it.
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Whatever God calls me to do, whoever I need to apologize to, whatever restitution needs made, whatever, I'm doing it today.
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Heart change brings deeper commitment.
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Gotta know the difference.
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When you sin, when you fail, repentance, true repentance goes all the way.
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I want to remind you how far repentance goes.
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When you do something wrong and you're sorry mentally, that's called regret.
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Okay?
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You do something wrong and you think to yourself, "Huh, that was not a good choice.
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I understand that.
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Not a good choice.
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Yep, I'm rethinking that.
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Shouldn't have done that." That's called regret when you're sorry mentally.
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When you're sorry mentally and emotionally, that's called remorse.
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It's like, "Oh, I shouldn't have done that, and I feel horrible about that." And some people think that's all the further it needs to go.
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"Well, he feels bad about it." Biblically, that's not all the way, because repentance is when you're sorry mentally and emotionally and volitionally, meaning you make choices to actively do something different as a result of what you think and what you feel. Oh, that was wrong. Oh, I feel horrible about that. Therefore, I'm doing something different now. That's what repentance is all about. If you truly have heart change, you're going to have that deeper commitment.
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And finally, number four, deeper commitment brings new opportunities. Samson was a great blind and he was never able to do what he did before but God used Samson's blindness to do what Samson never could have done before like what do you mean well if Samson had his sight you realize they never would have let him near those pillars you know that right never in a million years so you could say in a sense that God used the result of Samson's failure.
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Like oh, he's blind, he's harmless.
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Let him balance himself.
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He had to be blind in order for that to happen as it did.
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And you're like, oh, well, then I can just fail, and God's going to keep on using me.
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I've got to tell you, if you've made it to this point in Samson's story, and that's your takeaway, is hey, failure's no big whoop.
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If that's your big takeaway, you're I'm going to have to go back and read this again.
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Restoration doesn't necessarily mean that we're restored to our original usefulness because Samson was.
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But the scars of sin can become instruments of God.
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God can use your scar.
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We've seen it over and over, haven't we?
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The former addict ministers to those who are struggling with substance abuse.
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The prodigal son or daughter who repents, becomes a counselor for other wayward kids, the guy that's saved in prison, later does prison ministry.
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You know what I'm talking about.
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God uses our scars to do things that we never would have or could have done before.
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God might put you on a whole new path to help others who have failed like you or to keep others from failing.
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Church, it's a process.
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It's not really an easy process.
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It's not really a fun process when God disciplines you to restore you, but sin properly dealt with as a giant step forward in our growth to Christlikeness.
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That's the good news for us today.
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God restores even the worst of us failures.
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God restores and it's grace, isn't it?
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It's grace when we realize that we're sinners and we come to the cross for forgiveness.
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And it's grace just as much when we completely blow it to find that in Jesus Christ, we're already forgiven, and God as a loving Father wants to walk us through the process of discipline and restoration.

Small Group Discussion
Read Judges 16:23-31

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain the difference between regret, remorse, and repentance. Why does God call you to repentance instead of just calling you to regret or remorse?
Why do you think some Christians choose to wallow in shame instead of move on in God’s path to restoration?
If we are forgiven in Christ, why is restoration often a long and hard process? Why doesn’t God just “wipe the slate clean”?
Explain punishment vs discipline:
- Why is the believer in Christ not “punished”?
- What is the endgame of discipline?

Breakout
Pray for one another - to handle failure God’s way.

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Compassion.

Introduction:

Knowing Jesus When You're Hurting (John 11:17-37)

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Perspective.

Introduction:

Knowing Jesus' Perspective (John 11:1-16)

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Security.

Introduction:

Why Do People Doubt the Security of Their Salvation? (John 10:22-42)

Three Reasons a Truly Saved Person Can Be Secure in Their Salvation:

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Voice

Introduction:

How Do I Hear the Voice of Jesus? (John 10:1-21)

Knowing His Voice – 3 Evidences the Voice You Hear is Jesus:

When You've Failed.

Introduction:

We Have 3 Options When We Fail: (Judges 16:23-31):

The Process of Restoration:

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

Knowing Jesus When You're Hurting (John 11:17-37)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Knowing Jesus' Perspective (John 11:1-16)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Why Do People Doubt the Security of Their Salvation? (John 10:22-42)

Three Reasons a Truly Saved Person Can Be Secure in Their Salvation:

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

How Do I Hear the Voice of Jesus? (John 10:1-21)

Knowing His Voice – 3 Evidences the Voice You Hear is Jesus:

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

We Have 3 Options When We Fail: (Judges 16:23-31):

The Process of Restoration:

Audio Transcript