Jeff Miller

February 28, 2021

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Call

Jeff Miller

February 28, 2021

Knowing Jesus

Introduction:

A Sales Pitch to Die (John 12:20-26):

Theological Reason: Because Jesus says it's the path to Glory . (John 12 12:24)
Practical Reason: You find life through your Death . (John 12 12:25)
Matthew 10:39 - Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Motivational Reason: God will Honor you. (John 12 12:26)

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

00:55-00:58
Open your Bibles with me please to John chapter 12.
01:02-01:03
You know something else we love?
01:04-01:09
Pets. Who has a pet? Raise your hand if you are a pet lover.
01:09-01:14
Okay, alright. Where are my dog people at? Raise your hand. Dog people.
01:15-01:18
I love this church. Alright, where are my cat people?
01:19-01:20
We'll pray for you.
01:23-01:26
Do you know what pets we had when we were growing up?
01:26-01:27
Do you know what pets we had?
01:30-01:33
The most boring pet of all, right there in hermit crabs.
01:33-01:34
You remember the hermit crabs?
01:35-01:37
How many people had a hermit crab growing up?
01:37-01:38
All right, all right.
01:38-01:39
OK, so you're going to get this.
01:39-01:45
For those of you that don't know, hermit crabs are these little tiny monsters that live in seashells.
01:46-01:49
And they don't really do anything.
01:53-02:03
But the worst part of having a hermit crab is when they die, you don't know they're dead until you go to pick up their shell and plop!
02:04-02:07
They just plop out, and I remember as a kid, oh it was so gross.
02:07-02:20
Well our younger brother, we have a younger brother, he's seven years younger than me, and he had a hermit crab and the hermit crab's name was Spooky, Because he was spooked because he never ever ever came out of his shell.
02:20-02:22
Spooky never came out of his shell.
02:24-02:33
Well, one day when I was tending to the crabs, as was my job, as i was tending to the crabs, I picked up Spooky and he came out of his shell.
02:34-02:34
PLOP!
02:37-02:41
Okay, so family meeting apart from little brother, family, what are we gonna do?
02:41-02:42
What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?
02:43-02:44
What are we gonna do? Spooky's dead.
02:45-02:46
So, So you know what we did?
02:47-02:49
We took Spooky's shell, remember, Darren?
02:49-02:51
We took Spooky's shell to the pet store.
02:52-02:57
And we were standing outside the aquariums trying to find another hermit crab that looked exactly like Spooky.
02:59-03:00
This one-- no, no, no.
03:00-03:01
That one's too big.
03:01-03:02
He's going to know.
03:02-03:02
He's going to know.
03:02-03:03
Not that-- this one.
03:04-03:04
No, no.
03:05-03:06
That one's too active.
03:06-03:06
He'll never buy that.
03:08-03:08
That one.
03:09-03:14
So we got Spooky Part 2.
03:16-03:17
Well, here's the problem.
03:17-03:21
Spooky Part 2 didn't live near as long as Spooky the 1st.
03:23-03:24
Spooky 2 died.
03:25-03:26
So guess what we did?
03:26-03:27
Family meeting, what do we do?
03:27-03:27
What do we do?
03:27-03:28
Back to the pet store.
03:29-03:30
Not this one, that one.
03:30-03:31
No, no, no, not that one.
03:31-03:32
Spooky 3.
03:32-03:33
Do you know how many times that happened?
03:34-03:35
Eight times.
03:39-03:42
And to this day, Darren, I don't think he ever found out, did he?
03:42-03:44
Did he ever find out that he had eight spookies?
03:47-03:51
He thought he just had one hermit crab that lived a really long time.
03:53-03:55
The Methuselah of Hermit Crabs.
03:56-03:56
But why?
03:58-04:05
Why did we go through all of the rigmarole of secretly replacing spooky? Why did we do that?
04:07-04:11
You know why? It was because we didn't want to talk about death.
04:14-04:15
Let's be honest.
04:16-04:19
None of us really like to talk about death, do we?
04:20-04:31
Right now it's like, "Oh, okay, this took a turn." We avoid the conversation.
04:33-04:39
We avoid the topic, but This is exactly where Jesus is taking us today.
04:41-04:42
So look at John 12.
04:42-04:45
We're going to pick up in verse 20.
04:46-04:52
It says, "Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.
04:54-05:12
So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida and Galilee, and asked him, 'Sir, we wish to see Jesus.'" These were Greeks who converted to Judaism, and they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida.
05:12-05:15
Why did they go to Philip for this request?
05:15-05:23
Well, Philip was a Greek name, and they were Greeks, so they're like, "We're Greeks, he's a Greek." And Bethsaida was an area that had a large Gentile population.
05:23-05:26
So they're like, "Okay, we can kind of connect with this guy.
05:26-05:33
He's a good bridge to help us to get to Jesus." Now, when they said, "We want to see Jesus," they meant more than "look at," right?
05:33-05:42
"Look with your eyes, not with your hands." They meant more than just, "Oh, there he is. I see him. Thank you." They wanted to talk to him.
05:42-05:43
They wanted to sort of interview him.
05:43-05:45
Like, "We want to get to know this guy.
05:47-05:50
And can you make that happen?" But look at verse 22.
05:51-05:52
It says, "Philip went and told Andrew.
05:53-06:05
Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus." So these Greeks are like, "We want to see Jesus." And Philip's like, "I'm going to have to put you on hold." Then he goes to Andrew.
06:05-06:08
He's like, "Hey, we've got some Greeks that want to see Jesus.
06:08-06:11
Has this happened before? What do we do about that?" Why did he go to Andrew?
06:12-06:17
Because Andrew's got this track record of bringing people to Jesus, right?
06:17-06:18
That was kind of Andrew's thing.
06:18-06:27
If you look back at 1.42, back in 6.8, Andrew was like the guy that was really good and introducing people to Jesus.
06:30-06:36
But Jesus' response to this is amazing.
06:37-06:38
Look at v. 23.
06:39-07:03
It says, "And Jesus answered them, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.'" Jesus said, "The hour has come." So many times in the Gospels, we see mention that His hour has not yet come.
07:03-07:04
We've seen it all through John.
07:04-07:09
John 2:4, John 7:30, John 8:20, over and over.
07:09-07:09
It wasn't His hour.
07:10-07:10
His hour had not yet come.
07:11-07:22
And now, for some reason, these Greeks coming to want to see Jesus He prompted Jesus to say, "The hour has come.
07:22-07:23
It's finally here.
07:24-07:36
The mission is reaching its climax because up to this point, Israel has been the focus of Jesus' ministry, and now Jesus is like, "Look, the Gentiles are coming to Me.
07:38-07:38
It's time.
07:46-07:48
It's time." Exactly.
07:51-07:53
Jesus explains what it's time for.
07:53-07:53
Look at verse 24.
07:54-08:03
Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.
08:05-08:12
But if it dies, it bears much fruit." Jesus said it's time.
08:14-08:15
It's time for me to die.
08:18-08:28
And again, not with our hermit crabs, and certainly not when it comes to our Lord.
08:30-08:32
We don't want to talk about that.
08:34-08:39
And we have this inherent idea that death is bad, and I get why we have that idea.
08:39-08:41
The Bible says death is the enemy.
08:42-08:46
The Bible says death has come into the world as a result of the fall.
08:46-08:53
But, Jesus explains here that death isn't just like a part of the plan.
08:53-08:59
He says that death is the very centerpiece of His plan.
09:01-09:06
So these Greeks wanted to see Jesus.
09:08-09:15
I want to ask you this morning, church, and those watching this stream, are you a Greek?
09:17-09:17
What did you call me?
09:19-09:20
A Greek.
09:21-09:22
Are you a Greek?
09:23-09:24
Do you want to see Jesus?
09:24-09:27
I mean, do you really want to see Jesus?
09:28-09:30
Do you want to see Him for what He's about?
09:31-09:40
Then you have to understand His death, and you need to die." Wait, what?
09:41-09:44
Right now, somebody tuned out of the sermon for a second.
09:46-09:49
And that last phrase kind of snapped you back in.
09:49-09:53
I'm sorry, did he just say I needed to die?
09:56-09:56
Yeah.
09:57-10:05
Not physically, yet, but you do need to die.
10:05-10:13
And even though it's not physical, it's something just as shocking and just as painful.
10:15-10:18
The Bible says you need to die to yourself.
10:20-10:22
And that is quite a sales pitch.
10:24-10:40
"Yeah, I came here for the fish tacos." But I'm going to give you three reasons from God's Word that you need to die to yourself.
10:43-10:46
So on your outline, if you're following along, taking notes, and I always encourage that.
10:49-10:51
Knowing His call, this is a sales pitch to die.
10:52-10:56
The first reason, number one, we're going to call this the theological reason.
10:56-11:00
This is the reason that Jesus gives to sort of set the table.
11:01-11:05
The theological reason is because Jesus says it's the path to glory.
11:05-11:08
Death is the path to glory according to Jesus.
11:08-11:13
Look at verse 24 again, because you have to get what Jesus is saying here to understand the rest of it.
11:14-11:22
Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you..." Now when Jesus says that phrase, he's like, "Pay attention, edge your seat, Listen up, don't tune out.
11:24-11:29
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.
11:32-11:34
But if it dies, it bears much fruits.
11:35-11:37
So who's the grain here?
11:37-11:38
Who do you think he's talking about?
11:38-11:39
Anybody? Any ideas?
11:40-11:41
Who do you think he's talking about?
11:44-11:45
Yes, himself! Exactly!
11:46-11:47
He's talking about himself.
11:48-11:55
He's saying that unless He goes to the cross, His whole visit to the earth is wasted.
11:57-12:02
That's why He says it remains alone.
12:02-12:07
If that grain of wheat doesn't die, He said it remains alone.
12:07-12:09
You're like, what does He mean "remains alone"?
12:09-12:13
If Jesus doesn't die, heaven is going to be empty.
12:14-12:20
Because there's no life for anyone if Jesus doesn't die.
12:22-12:25
If Jesus doesn't die, we wouldn't be talking about Him.
12:25-12:28
We wouldn't have been worshipping Him today.
12:28-12:33
We wouldn't be sharing the good news of Jesus, because we'd all be lost sinners.
12:36-12:37
You know that grain?
12:40-12:42
That grain goes through a lot.
12:42-12:49
It sprouts, and it grows, and it makes more grain, and it multiplies.
12:49-12:50
You get that picture in your head?
12:52-13:00
All of the things that happen with that grain only happen when it dies.
13:04-13:14
But Jesus, as He so often does, gives His people a truth about Himself It becomes a truth about us.
13:16-13:18
And here's the truth about Himself.
13:19-13:28
And then He says, "You too, the only way to true glory is to die." He says, "That's My path to glory, and that's yours.
13:29-13:34
I'm going to die, and you have to die too." We can explain what that means.
13:35-13:41
And that's our second reason, The second sales pitch to die here, you get the theological reason.
13:42-13:44
The second reason, we're just going to call this the practical reason.
13:46-13:49
You find life through your death.
13:51-13:52
Look at v. 25.
13:53-13:54
See, there's a shift here.
13:54-13:59
He's talking about himself as the grain to the earth, dying, bearing fruit.
13:59-14:03
And then look at where he takes this teaching.
14:04-14:11
Whoever loves his life loses it.
14:13-14:18
And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
14:19-14:20
Stop there.
14:21-14:35
Obviously, our death that he's talking about here, it's not like Jesus' death in the sense of sacrifice for sin, There is a principle that carries over.
14:35-14:38
Now you can't miss this or you're going to be lost for the next several minutes.
14:39-14:41
There's a principle that carries over.
14:41-14:43
We're going to call it the grain principle.
14:44-14:45
And here's the grain principle.
14:47-14:48
Death leads to life.
14:52-14:56
Another way of saying it, as Jesus put it another way, is this.
14:56-15:00
Loss leads to gain.
15:03-15:08
And this is one of the most repeated teachings of Jesus all through the New Testament.
15:08-15:16
Matthew 10:39, Jesus said, "Whoever finds his life will lose it.
15:17-15:24
And whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." That's what Jesus is saying here.
15:25-15:27
That's what Jesus is saying in this passage we're in now.
15:27-15:40
And that's what Jesus says in Matthew 16.25, Mark 8.35, Luke 9.24, Luke 14.26, just to name a few, that's what Jesus says over and over and over.
15:40-15:46
So much of what the Bible teaches, it's a paradox.
15:48-15:51
God's ways are higher than our ways, and most times they're opposite.
15:53-15:56
There are so many of these in the Bible.
15:58-16:00
For example, let's talk about a paradox.
16:01-16:05
Jesus said if you want to be first, you have to be what?
16:06-16:07
Last, right?
16:07-16:10
Jesus said if you want to be exalted, what do you have to do?
16:12-16:13
Humble yourself, right?
16:13-16:19
And Jesus said if you want to be great, you want to be great, you want to be great, Jesus said you have to be a what?
16:20-16:20
A servant.
16:22-16:24
It's all these paradoxes.
16:25-16:32
And here, Jesus said, if you love your life, you're gonna lose it forever.
16:33-16:36
And if you hate your life, you're gonna keep it forever.
16:37-16:38
And what does that mean?
16:39-16:41
Let's just kind of break it down for a second.
16:41-16:42
What does it mean to love your life?
16:43-16:48
It means I'm invested in my life on this earth.
16:52-16:56
My dreams, my goals, my ambitions, my hopes.
16:56-17:01
I am invested, all of my chips are put on my life here on this earth.
17:02-17:07
It's all about me maximizing who I am on this earth.
17:07-17:10
I'm going to get my best life now.
17:12-17:14
Sounds like a terrible title for a book.
17:17-17:20
But Jesus said, just move on from there please.
17:20-17:25
Jesus said, "If you love your life..." If that's you!
17:29-17:30
He says you're going to lose it.
17:32-17:33
It's going to end.
17:34-17:38
The curtain will close, the credits will roll, and you'll have nothing.
17:42-17:46
That sure doesn't go with some of the mottos that we love, right?
17:48-17:48
You do you.
17:50-17:51
You do you.
17:53-17:55
Hey, whatever makes you happy.
17:56-17:59
Or, it's my life.
18:01-18:05
I have a hard time hearing that phrase without thinking of the Bon Jovi song.
18:05-18:06
Anybody else?
18:06-18:12
♫ It's my life I don't know any other words except that, but I saw it on a commercial or something.
18:12-18:14
Anybody else go to the Bon Jovi with me?
18:14-18:15
Okay.
18:15-18:16
Okay.
18:16-18:31
I was, All right. But Jesus said if that's the way you go, no matter what you think you get, your life will be a fail.
18:34-18:45
But on the other hand, he says, "If you hate your life." Now, when Jesus was talking about hating your life, that is not self-abasement.
18:46-18:50
That's not what it means to hate your life, to walk around going, "I'm a terrible person.
18:52-18:53
I'm so ugly.
18:54-18:55
I'm so stupid.
18:56-18:58
I'm not good at the piano.
19:00-19:04
I'm a terrible person." That's not what it means to hate your life.
19:06-19:09
Hating your life also does not mean complaining about your life.
19:09-19:10
"I hate my life.
19:11-19:12
My life is miserable.
19:13-19:15
I hate my life.
19:15-19:17
I wish I was never born.
19:17-19:19
I wish I was somebody else.
19:20-19:22
That's not what it means to hate your life.
19:22-19:35
What it means is to take your will and your desires and your ambitions and your pride, and you're like, I don't give a rip about any of those things.
19:39-19:46
Because the only thing I care about will for my life.
19:47-19:50
Advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
19:50-19:51
That's what I care about.
19:52-19:58
Compared to that, all the stuff that matters to me, my little hopes and dreams, I hate that stuff.
20:00-20:04
Compared to the surpassing greatness of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
20:04-20:06
That's what it means to hate your life.
20:06-20:11
And Jesus says when you get there, you keep it for eternal life.
20:11-20:13
So I would just encourage you to do the math.
20:14-20:17
Do you want a temporary life? Or do you want eternal life?
20:18-20:26
Because you have to, using Jesus' analogy here about Himself setting this up, you have to see yourself as a grain.
20:29-20:35
And if you see yourself as a grain, it means if you're going to be what God wants you to be, you have to die to yourself.
20:38-20:40
Imagine if I had a grain up here.
20:42-20:44
and put the grain on the microphone.
20:45-20:56
And said, "Grain, would you like to say a few words to the church before we bury you in the ground?" Maybe the grain would say something like this.
20:56-20:57
"Bury me in the ground?
20:59-21:01
You want me to go into the ground and die?
21:01-21:03
I don't want to do that!
21:03-21:05
Look, it's my life!
21:05-21:09
It's my life!" Do you think there's a chance we can close with that?
21:16-21:19
But that grain's like, look, look, look, I wanna be myself.
21:22-21:29
As long as that grain has that attitude, that grain is never going to change, right?
21:31-21:32
It's never gonna change.
21:33-21:34
I don't wanna die, okay.
21:36-21:36
Then you'll never change.
21:39-21:45
Did you know they found grains in Pharaoh's tomb in Egypt?
21:46-21:49
3,000 years old. Did you know this? Mark, I bet you knew that.
21:50-21:51
They found grains in Pharaoh's tomb.
21:52-21:54
And they compared them with our grains today, and you know what they discovered?
21:56-21:58
They were exactly the same.
22:00-22:01
Exactly the same.
22:01-22:05
3,000 years old, modern day, exactly the same.
22:08-22:12
That grain did not change in 3,000 years.
22:13-22:18
And they took some of those grains from Pharaoh's tomb, those 3,000 year old grains, and they put them in the ground.
22:18-22:18
Do you know what happened?
22:20-22:25
They sprouted, and they grew, and they multiplied.
22:29-22:36
The moment it went into the ground, that grain became what it was meant to be.
22:38-22:41
And I've got to tell you, church, it's the same thing for you.
22:43-22:46
Because when that grain dies, it's over. It's the end.
22:47-22:49
And at the same time, it's the beginning.
22:51-22:53
That's how it is when you follow Jesus Christ.
22:54-23:00
When you consider yourself dead to yourself, That is when life begins.
23:02-23:07
That's why in the church, when somebody makes a commitment to come to Jesus Christ, we baptize them.
23:07-23:09
Do you know why we baptize?
23:09-23:10
It's a picture.
23:10-23:11
Underwater.
23:11-23:12
It's a tomb.
23:12-23:13
I am dead!
23:14-23:24
And when you come up out of the water, you say, "Now I am alive in Christ." But you're making that proclamation that I am dead.
23:25-23:27
My life means nothing to me.
23:27-23:30
The only thing that matters is the life of Jesus Christ.
23:33-23:36
And this is the call of Jesus.
23:39-23:39
Okay?
23:40-23:43
What's the connection between verse 24 and verse 25?
23:44-23:44
This.
23:44-23:45
The call of Jesus.
23:46-23:50
Like He did, will you die for the bigger picture?
23:53-23:54
Will you die to self?
23:55-23:58
You lay it all down for the bigger picture.
24:01-24:03
By the way, this is the high benchmark of faith.
24:04-24:05
You want to talk about faith?
24:08-24:09
Do you really believe in the promise of heaven?
24:11-24:18
All the stuff that we've talked about, we went through so many passages, we've gone through Revelation, so much teaching about heaven, do you really believe that?
24:23-24:25
Are you willing to forsake this life for that one?
24:28-24:35
Are you willing to die to your will so that you may live for God's will?
24:38-24:39
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
24:40-24:44
Then will you lay down your life for the bigger picture as He has?
24:47-25:04
And I've got to tell you, whether you're sitting here or watching this online, If you don't believe Jesus' words that the hard path leads to glory, if you don't believe that, then you can go.
25:06-25:08
And you can live the easy life.
25:09-25:11
You can go. I'm not going to judge you.
25:11-25:12
Nobody here is going to judge you.
25:12-25:15
You can get up and leave if this stuff isn't for you.
25:18-25:19
This is what we're going to be talking about.
25:21-25:22
Because this is what Jesus said.
25:23-25:28
So you can shut off your computer if you're streaming this, you can get up and leave.
25:30-25:31
We're not sugarcoating this, okay?
25:33-25:45
We're not promoting some vanilla church attendance thing, like, "Oh yeah, God's happy with that." Because Jesus doesn't offer any part-time positions.
25:47-25:50
Jesus doesn't have any second string quarterbacks on His team.
25:51-25:53
And you're like, "Oh, you know what?
25:53-25:55
I'm mighty convicted by this message, Pastor Jeff.
25:55-25:59
I'm going to give Jesus 99%." Not enough!
26:00-26:01
According to him.
26:04-26:06
Jesus doesn't accept anything less than 100%.
26:06-26:06
Do you know why?
26:07-26:08
Because death is 100%.
26:08-26:18
Oh, we use phrases all the time that make no sense whatsoever, like "He was half dead." That doesn't mean anything. Half dead?
26:20-26:30
Or the other side of it, "Oh, he was barely alive." Look, I'm not a doctor, but those aren't real things.
26:32-26:37
You're either 100% alive, or you're 100% dead.
26:40-26:51
And in Jesus Christ, you are either 100% dead to yourself alive in Christ, or you are 100% not committed to Jesus Christ.
26:53-26:54
That's what He calls you to.
26:57-27:04
And that's why at Harvest Bible Chapel we talk about a quality of disciples, not a quantity of disciples.
27:05-27:08
And I really don't care how many people are sitting here.
27:08-27:13
I really don't care how many people are watching this online.
27:14-27:21
I care that the people who are here and the people who are watching are 100% in.
27:22-27:24
And I don't care if that's four people.
27:24-27:31
I'll take four people here that are absolutely committed to following Jesus Christ, laying down their life.
27:31-27:32
I will follow Him to the end.
27:33-27:34
I'll take those four people.
27:35-27:36
Over 10,000 seat warmers.
27:40-27:43
Because church, the days are coming.
27:46-27:58
And I would say that the days are here when we're going to see who is 100% committed to Jesus Christ and who is not.
28:01-28:05
So, turn my back on this life.
28:07-28:12
Forsake my desires and dreams "Boy, Jeff, that sounds like foolishness.
28:12-28:17
Why in the world would I do something like that?" Well, that gets to our final reason.
28:17-28:18
Number three, write this down.
28:19-28:21
We're going to call this the motivational reason.
28:24-28:25
God will honor you.
28:27-28:28
Look at verse 26.
28:31-28:34
Jesus said, "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me.
28:35-28:38
and where I am, there will my servant be also.
28:40-28:46
If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." Why would I do that?
28:46-28:47
Why would I lay down my life?
28:48-28:49
Why would I do that?
28:50-28:52
I'll tell you why in one word.
28:52-28:53
You ready for this?
28:53-28:54
Write this word down.
28:54-28:54
I'll tell you why.
28:55-28:55
Heaven.
28:59-29:03
Because it's not about here and now, about then and there.
29:05-29:06
Not sold on that?
29:06-29:08
Let me give you a little illustration, okay?
29:10-29:12
Just imagine that you are offered a job in England.
29:14-29:15
And here's the details of the job.
29:15-29:18
They say, six months, we want you to move to England.
29:19-29:20
You're gonna work here.
29:20-29:24
And for that six months of work, we're going to pay you a million dollars.
29:25-29:26
Like, well, don't they pay in pounds?
29:27-29:28
I don't know what the conversion rate is.
29:29-29:29
It's an illustration.
29:33-29:35
They're like, "We'll pay you a million dollars.
29:36-29:37
You're going to live in England for six months.
29:40-29:44
Now you know when you move there, you're only going to be there for six months.
29:44-29:48
So would you take that million dollars and live luxuriously for six months?
29:48-29:54
Would you do that?" Meaning during your time in England, would you buy the best of everything?
29:55-29:57
You would furnish your apartment.
29:58-30:03
You would furnish your flat with expensive paintings and antique furniture.
30:03-30:04
Would you do that?
30:04-30:06
That would be idiotic!
30:08-30:20
The smart play would be to save as much as you can and put it in a bank account back home to use when you get back to the United States in the place where you're going to be spending the rest of your life.
30:20-30:21
That would be smart.
30:23-30:26
That's the same concept Jesus is laying out here.
30:27-30:29
Are you going to invest in your short time here?
30:30-30:32
Or invest in where you're going to spend eternity?
30:34-30:35
Which is the smart play.
30:38-30:43
And Jesus sums up a life laid down for Him in two phrases.
30:44-30:45
See in verse 26?
30:45-30:48
What does it mean to be a Christian?
30:48-30:50
Jesus sums it up in two phrases.
30:51-30:54
Serving Him and following Him.
30:55-30:55
You see that?
30:57-30:59
I serve Him, whatever He's called me to do.
30:59-31:04
If it means sacrificing my time, my money, well guess what?
31:04-31:09
It's not my time, it's not my money, because I died to that way of thinking.
31:10-31:12
It's His time and it's His money.
31:14-31:15
Because He's alive in me.
31:16-31:17
I'm dead, haven't you heard?
31:19-31:23
Serving Him, following Him, wherever He sends me, whatever it costs me.
31:23-31:29
I am following Jesus to the end the end, that's where He is.
31:33-31:49
And if you need motivation to lay your life down for the sake of the gospel, if you need motivation, there is nothing that I can say to you that is going to have a greater impact than the last five words in verse 26.
31:50-31:51
Look at them again.
31:52-31:54
There's nothing I can say to you that matches this.
31:58-32:13
Jesus said, "The Father will honor him." You're like, "What does that mean, Jeff?" I don't know. I have no idea.
32:16-32:26
Why would it be that the God who died for me to give me everything, would honor me.
32:30-32:31
I don't know.
32:33-32:35
But Christ wants that for me.
32:37-32:47
He promised me that, and He provided that, and He prescribed the way for me to receive it.
32:49-32:50
So I believe it.
32:54-32:56
Even if it's hard for me to conceptualize.
32:57-33:07
Jesus said the finish line is, "The Father will honor you." Die to yourself.
33:09-33:11
I'm going to ask the worship team to make their way forward.
33:11-33:13
Our elders are going to be serving communion here in a minute.
33:15-33:22
But as they do, you know, Jesus, when He talked about dying to yourself, hating your life, same concept.
33:25-33:45
Almost every time, Jesus illustrated this teaching with this phrase, "Carry your cross." Now in our day, we've made carrying your cross this sort of abstract metaphor, right?
33:46-33:56
Like, "My wife's a nag, that's my cross to bear." Or, "My husband's lazy, that's my cross to bear." Or, "I have dry skin, that's my cross to bear." Or whatever.
33:59-34:03
But you know, to the people that Jesus was talking to, it wasn't an abstract metaphor.
34:05-34:09
Because those people had seen people carrying their cross.
34:12-34:14
And they saw the cross for what it was.
34:14-34:15
It was a symbol of death.
34:15-34:20
It was this abrupt and violent end of life.
34:23-34:32
And the people that Jesus said, "Carry your cross," they had seen men carrying their cross through the streets, and they knew what that meant.
34:32-34:35
That man is dead.
34:39-34:40
That man said his goodbyes.
34:42-34:48
And he wasn't off to have his life redirected to become a better you.
34:51-34:53
That man was off to have his life ended.
34:55-35:07
That's why carrying your cross, dying to self, hating your life, Not only is that a one-time decision, but Jesus said that has to be a daily decision.
35:08-35:08
I died.
35:11-35:13
I died a self every day.
35:17-35:21
Jeff would have indulged in that sin, but Jeff is dead.
35:22-35:27
Jeff, he would have put that person in their place, but Jeff is dead.
35:28-35:30
Jeff would have lost his temper.
35:33-35:33
Jeff is dead.
35:34-35:37
Jeff would have insisted on his preferences.
35:39-35:41
Jeff doesn't do that because Jeff is dead.
35:42-35:44
Jeff had ambitions for his life.
35:47-35:48
But Jeff is dead.
35:51-35:53
Are you still looking to find your life?
35:56-36:00
So you know Jesus called, and you've lost your life.
36:02-36:05
Because this is the ultimate paradox of discipleship.
36:06-36:12
Following Jesus costs you nothing, but it costs you everything.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 12:20-26

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain the connection between John 12:24 and 25. Why did Jesus go from “His death” to the “call to discipleship to hate your life in this world”? What's the connection?
Confession time: in what area do you need to “die to yourself / hate your life” (John 12:25)?
What does it mean that “the Father will honor you” (John 12:26)? What does that look like?

Breakout
Pray for one another to die to self – daily carrying your cross.

Jeff Miller

February 21, 2021

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Triumph

Jeff Miller

February 21, 2021

Knowing Jesus

Introduction:

Daniel 9

Luke 19:41-44 - And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

Two Reasons People Turn Against Jesus (John 12:12-19):

Jesus isn't Offering what you want. (Luke 19:42)
Jesus is offering what you Don't Want . (Luke 19:44)

The time of your visitation...

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

00:55-01:03
After going through the training center in Harvest in Chicago, they had me intern at Harvest Joliet, which was nearby.
01:04-01:06
And I interned there for a month, and I went to a small group there.
01:08-01:10
And I got to meet a lot of these people for the first time.
01:10-01:13
Again, my time with them was very short, but it's a small group.
01:13-01:18
I had known the pastor of the church, but I got to meet a lot of the other people that were there.
01:19-01:22
And there was a blonde lady that was sitting beside me.
01:22-01:24
I think her name was Cassie.
01:24-01:46
But we were going around as sort of an icebreaker for the small groups talking about vacation stuff and Cassie was like well we were going on a cruise and My husband who wasn't at the small group, but she says my husband was all concerned about the cruise My husband said are there going to be things for me to do there?
01:47-01:52
Am I going to be bored? Are there going to be black people there? And I was just like what?
01:54-01:59
and I look around the small group and nobody really batted an eye.
02:00-02:16
And I was like, "What kind of a small group is this?" I'm like, "Are there going to be any black people there?" And she just kept going on, but I was done listening because my brain is like, "Do I address this?" Because I'm kind of the new guy, right?
02:16-02:20
And there's a black couple sitting in the small group.
02:20-02:23
And what must they have thought about that comment?
02:23-02:26
Are there going to be any black people there?
02:26-02:28
So my mind's racing.
02:29-02:32
And I'm like, I've got to say something.
02:32-02:34
Right? I mean, who's with me?
02:34-02:35
You've got to say something.
02:35-02:38
So she got done with her story.
02:39-02:40
And I said, hang on a second.
02:40-02:43
I said, I'm sorry, I have to ask.
02:44-02:48
Why would your husband be concerned if there's any black people there?
02:49-02:58
and she immediately bent over and just belly laughed for like 20, 25 seconds, just like let it out.
02:59-03:01
And I'm like, I'm missing something here.
03:01-03:05
She goes, oh my gosh, you don't know, she goes, my husband's black.
03:05-03:09
She said he was asking are there going to be other black people there.
03:10-03:12
And eventually I got to meet her husband.
03:12-03:16
And we have laughed about this story many times over the years.
03:17-03:19
you talk about a misunderstanding.
03:20-03:22
I'm sitting there like, what is this, a Klan meeting?
03:23-03:27
And like, am I going to have to fight my way out of here?
03:27-03:31
It was a huge misunderstanding that I am so thankful got resolved.
03:32-03:40
And we're going to look at one of the most misunderstood passages in the Bible, one of the most misunderstood events of Jesus' ministry.
03:40-03:45
In fact, what we're looking at today is one of the most well-known events of Jesus' ministry.
03:46-03:48
All four Gospels cover this event.
03:49-03:56
But you're going to see the people in Jesus' day and people today still completely misunderstand what's happening here.
03:57-04:01
We're gonna talk about the event that's known as the triumphal entry.
04:01-04:02
Let's look at verse 12.
04:03-04:10
"The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast "heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
04:11-04:26
"So they took branches of palm trees "and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!" And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, "Fear not, daughter of Zion.
04:27-04:35
Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt." Stop there. Get the scene.
04:35-04:39
It says the crowd had taken palm branches.
04:39-04:43
And that was... they were actually used in Israel's feasts, if you study your Old Testament.
04:44-04:47
And it was a sign of joy and celebration.
04:47-04:48
It was a sign of salvation.
04:49-04:53
And to kind of put it in our context, imagine them waving the American flag.
04:54-04:58
That was kind of the patriotic Jewish nationalism thing that was happening here.
04:59-05:00
They were waving those palm trees.
05:01-05:07
They quoted Psalm 118 verses 25 and 26 about the Messiah.
05:08-05:11
And then John here quotes Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9.
05:12-05:17
And I used to read this passage and I used to think, they finally get it.
05:18-05:18
They finally get it.
05:19-05:25
I mean, look at what's happening here after all of the opposition that has taken place.
05:25-05:29
Like now they get to the point that they're like, oh, we get it now.
05:29-05:30
We see who he is.
05:31-05:33
Like, oh, this passage is so refreshing.
05:34-05:34
Right.
05:35-06:19
And if you've been going with us through this series, you realize John chapters 5-12, that's all you see. Opposition, opposition, opposition. Jesus shows up, Jesus says anything, does anything. Opposition, opposition, opposition. That's John 5-12. So now you get here and you're like, "Ah, they get it now. They get it!" And they didn't get it. You see, they thought that Jesus was going to be this conquering king that was going to overthrow Rome. And Israel was under Roman occupation. The Jews were living in their own land, but they weren't sovereignly in charge of their own land. The Romans were in charge.
06:19-06:39
So you had Israel underneath the Roman government, and they were thinking, as we would if we were under the oppression of a foreign government, we would think who's going to save us? Who's going to deliver us? And they thought, "Ah, here he is Jesus of Nazareth is going to deliver us from the Romans.
06:40-06:41
He is the conquering king.
06:44-06:45
In this passage, you'll see there's two crowds.
06:46-06:49
There are people who came to Jerusalem for the Passover.
06:49-06:51
They weren't Jerusalem citizens.
06:51-06:53
And we're going to see verse 17.
06:53-06:56
There were a crowd of people that were there when Lazarus was raised from the dead.
06:57-07:00
And these crowds were to come together for this celebration.
07:01-07:10
And the weird thing is, like, the actual citizens of Jerusalem, if you read Matthew chapter 21, the actual citizens of Jerusalem had no idea who Jesus was.
07:10-07:29
Because they asked the crowds, like, "Who is this? What's all this?" And they're like, "You don't know who this is. This is Jesus." And then you have verse 14, very popular, very popular passage, a very common thing we all understand, that Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey.
07:30-07:37
And I would just say quickly, don't miss that little miracle, because you don't just ride on an unbroken animal.
07:37-07:39
That's exactly what Jesus did.
07:39-07:43
Okay, so that's the scene, and then look at the response to the scene, look at verse 16.
07:44-07:55
It says, "His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him.
07:56-08:02
The crowd that had been with Him, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to bear witness.
08:03-08:09
The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that he heard he had done this sign.
08:10-08:13
So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing.
08:14-08:17
Look, the world has gone after him.
08:18-08:20
So the disciples, they didn't understand.
08:20-08:26
Now, if you can, for just a second, try to imagine yourself like in the disciples' sandals for a second.
08:27-08:33
Because you go back to chapter 6 and verse 15, do you remember the crowds wanted to force Jesus to be king?
08:33-08:34
Do you remember that?
08:34-08:35
And what did Jesus do?
08:36-08:37
The Bible says he withdrew.
08:37-08:39
He got out of there and he went by himself.
08:39-08:46
He said, "No." They're like, "We want you to be our king." And he's, "No." So you have to imagine the disciples, they're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
08:47-08:58
"Before people were like, 'We want you to be king,' "and you were like, 'Nay,' and you left, "and now you're doing this parade and the palm branches and the...
08:58-08:59
Why is this okay?
09:00-09:10
It would have been really baffling for them because for three years, for three years, Jesus would heal people and tell them, don't say anything to anyone.
09:11-09:15
Remember when Peter said, I believe that you are the Christ of Israel.
09:15-09:16
You're the Messiah.
09:16-09:17
Do you remember what Jesus said?
09:18-09:18
Don't tell anyone.
09:19-09:25
And then when Jesus was transfigured before the disciples, He sort of pulled the veil back and showed his glory.
09:25-09:26
Do you remember what he said?
09:27-09:28
Don't tell anyone.
09:29-09:38
But here, Jesus was officially declaring himself to be the Messiah, in no uncertain terms either.
09:39-09:42
Not like, oh yeah, by the way, that's me.
09:43-09:49
I mean, we're talking crowds and thousands of people and parade and what's going on here?
09:50-09:59
Well, one of the things that's going on here is Jesus was deliberately provoking the Pharisees to move up their plans to kill him.
09:59-10:07
You see, the Pharisees, they wanted rid of Jesus, but they didn't want to kill him during the Passover because that was a sacred day and there was gonna be all these crowds.
10:07-10:16
But now, thanks to his popularity from raising Lazarus from the dead, and they're seeing this triumphal entry and this declaration that he's the Messiah, they're like, "We can't wait any longer.
10:17-10:20
"We were gonna kill him down the road, But look, we can't wait.
10:21-10:22
This has to happen now.
10:22-10:24
We have to move things up.
10:24-10:29
You see, they're like, we absolutely cannot kill Jesus during the passive.
10:30-10:31
We can't do that.
10:31-10:33
But you know, God had a different plan.
10:33-10:39
God's plan was, my son is the lamb of God who's going to take away the sin of the world.
10:40-10:44
And it is my plan that the lamb is sacrificed on passive.
10:45-10:47
So man had plans and God had different plans.
10:47-10:48
and guess who won?
10:48-10:49
Any guesses?
10:51-10:55
And that's one of the reasons this triumphal entry happened.
10:55-11:05
We see right here in the passage, they're like, "We've got to do something, because this ain't working." And they moved up their plans so that they fulfilled God's plans.
11:06-11:08
I used to think this was like a spontaneous celebration.
11:09-11:19
I used to think that, that it was sort of like Jesus and His disciples were walking into town and somebody saw them They're like, "Hey, Jesus is coming!" And they kind of threw this whole thing together.
11:20-11:23
But I spent a lot of time studying this passage this past week.
11:24-11:30
And the further you go, the more you realize every single detail of this was orchestrated by Jesus Christ.
11:30-11:43
The crowds, Jesus choosing to come in on Passover week, and knowing that the Lazarus fans would be coming, the donkey, the upper room, Jesus had this all laid out.
11:43-11:45
But I'm going to tell you the most baffling thing about this passage.
11:46-11:50
The thing that blows your mind more than anything about this passage is the timing.
11:51-11:54
I'm going to go through this really quick because this could be a whole...
11:54-11:56
I could spend a long time on this.
11:56-11:57
But really quick.
11:57-12:00
If you go back to Daniel chapter 9, just write this down, don't go there now.
12:00-12:04
But Daniel chapter 9, Daniel was given a prophecy of Daniel's seventy weeks.
12:05-12:10
Those were weeks of years, right? One week equals seven years. So Daniel was given this prophecy of seventy weeks.
12:11-12:17
And in the prophecy, there would be 69 weeks, that's, math people, 483 years.
12:17-12:28
There's a period of 483 years that would start at the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, and that period would conclude when the Messiah presents himself to Israel.
12:29-12:49
Well, that decree was given in 445 BC, and you do the math, do the timeline, and study this out, you see from when the decree was given, 69 weeks later, weeks of years later, takes you to AD 30, the ninth day of the month of Nisan.
12:50-12:52
That's the exact day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem.
12:52-12:53
To the day.
12:54-12:57
God says, here's when my Messiah is going to be presented to his people.
12:58-12:59
It's incredible.
13:00-13:12
So, so Jesus meticulously planned and he perfectly executed this entry into Jerusalem in order to present himself as the Messiah.
13:13-13:18
And when you think about that for a second, I spent a lot of time thinking about that this week.
13:19-13:24
At first, and I'm saying this at first, hear me out, kind of like the, will there be any black people there?
13:24-13:25
I want you to hear me out.
13:26-13:33
When I first read that, I thought, that doesn't seem very humble, to throw a parade for yourself, you know what I mean?
13:34-13:35
We'll be honest.
13:36-13:46
I'm like, it just, it doesn't seem, it doesn't seem very Jesus-like, that I'm coming to Jerusalem and I'm orchestrating all these events, so there's this giant parade.
13:47-13:54
It just didn't seem very humble that Jesus would say, "I'm going to present myself as the king." I mean, is that really consistent with his character?
13:55-14:15
Then I realized, after further study, this was absolutely consistent with his character, and this absolutely had to happen the way it did happen, For this reason, don't miss this, Jesus not only wanted to present himself as the king, he wanted to demonstrate what kind of king he was.
14:16-14:17
Here's what I mean by that.
14:18-14:26
Most kings would ride into town on a white horse as a sign of power and majesty.
14:27-14:33
Jesus said, "No, I'm riding into town on a donkey." That was a sign of humility.
14:34-14:36
Jesus wasn't a conquering king who came to kill.
14:37-14:39
He was a peaceful king who came to die.
14:40-14:46
Jesus wasn't a king who came to defeat the Romans, but a king who came to sacrifice himself for sinners.
14:47-14:53
He wasn't a king that rode into town to display his power, but a king who rode into town to display his humility.
14:55-14:58
He didn't carry a scepter with him, but he would be beaten with a reed.
14:59-15:04
And he didn't wear a golden crown on his head, he would be crowned with a crown of thorns.
15:05-15:10
And he wasn't coming into town to be seated on a throne, but be nailed to a cross.
15:11-15:17
So Jesus was showing the world, yes, I am your king, but you have to see the kind of king that I am.
15:18-15:22
I'm the kind of king that lays down his life for you.
15:22-15:23
That's the kind of king I am.
15:24-15:30
And that's why Jesus orchestrated these events to put this on display.
15:31-15:36
So, while Jesus was riding into town, what was he doing?
15:36-15:41
I mean, John sort of gives us the overview of the events, but what about like Jesus himself?
15:41-15:42
What was he doing?
15:43-16:01
I think we imagine, and it's been depicted in Sunday school coloring sheets, and cartoons and things like that, that Jesus was sort of lapping up all the accolades, and he was cheering along with them, and there was lots of this and high fives.
16:02-16:08
Maybe Darren, he was doing his kingly wave, but we don't have to wonder exactly what he was doing.
16:08-16:16
And we don't often do this, but I want you to turn back to Luke chapter 19 because you have to see what Jesus was doing.
16:16-16:19
Luke chapter 19 verses 41 through 44.
16:20-16:23
You can turn back in your Bible or I think we're gonna have it on the screen here.
16:23-16:24
Yeah, we're gonna have it on the screen.
16:25-16:27
But this tells us exactly what Jesus was doing.
16:28-16:36
It says, "And when he drew near and saw the city," look at this, "he wept over it." Do you get this scene?
16:38-16:43
All these people are cheering on King Jesus, waving their palm branches and the cloaks and all of this.
16:45-16:46
Jesus is weeping.
16:47-16:47
Why?
16:47-16:48
Well, he tells us, well, look.
16:49-16:55
He says, "Saying, 'Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace.
16:56-16:57
But now they are hidden from your eyes.
16:58-17:07
For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you.
17:08-17:20
And they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation." Jesus wept over Jerusalem and his words tell us why.
17:22-17:29
It's because they completely misunderstood him, and they completely misunderstood why he came.
17:30-17:31
That's why he wept.
17:32-17:35
They thought, this guy can raise the dead.
17:36-17:37
This is our Superman.
17:38-17:39
He's going to swoop in here.
17:40-17:45
And I'll tell you what, a guy that can raise the dead, he has to have a lot of power up his sleeves.
17:45-17:48
He is going to drive out the Romans.
17:49-17:51
Give us our country back.
17:51-17:53
Make Israel great again.
17:54-18:13
Maybe not that, but these same people on this day who were saying, "Husanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, just the King of Israel." Those same people, a few days from this event, are going to be saying, "Crucify him, kill him.
18:13-18:16
We'd rather have Barabbas the terrorist, we'd rather have him than Jesus.
18:17-18:21
Kill him, get rid of him." You're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." That escalated.
18:21-18:28
How did we go from, "Hooray, King!" to, "Kill him, just kill him.
18:29-18:35
"We wanna watch him die." How do you get there in a couple days?
18:37-18:38
I'm gonna tell you how.
18:39-18:40
It all boils down to one reason, really.
18:42-18:42
Wrong expectations.
18:44-18:45
It's wrong expectations.
18:45-18:48
That's what Jesus was pointing out in his statement here in Luke.
18:49-19:02
Jesus was saying, "You think a military victory is going to bring you peace, and your cheering is motivated by this wrong expectation that I'm here to fix your short-sighted problems." And you know, it still happens.
19:02-19:16
People sort of admire Jesus, and they come to church because they think Jesus is going to give them some temporal thing that they want, and they're not mindful of the better things that He's actually offering.
19:17-19:33
And it has to hit you, church, it has to hit you that this misunderstanding, these wrong expectations, these cheers that would become murderous in a couple days, you have to see that this brought Jesus to tears.
19:34-19:36
Jesus said, "These cheers, it's shallow.
19:37-19:39
"You don't get it, you don't understand.
19:40-19:47
"You think I'm here for one thing, you don't get it." This is exactly why we are going verse by verse through the book of John.
19:49-19:58
That's why we're in this series called "Knowing Jesus," because we want to move from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus, because there's many people that are sitting in churches everywhere.
19:59-20:01
You just don't know what Jesus is about.
20:01-20:01
You don't know.
20:02-20:05
You don't know what Jesus is actually offering you.
20:05-20:08
You expect things from Jesus that he never offered.
20:09-20:12
And you're trying to cash checks that Jesus didn't write.
20:14-20:26
And just as this crowd fell away because Jesus didn't perform how they wanted, there are so many people today that walk away from church because Jesus didn't perform how they wanted.
20:27-20:30
So why do people misunderstand and turn against Jesus?
20:30-20:34
Well, there are two reasons that Jesus said that happens.
20:35-20:38
I'm gonna close with this on your outline, two reasons people turn against Jesus.
20:39-20:43
Number one is this, Jesus isn't offering what you want.
20:43-20:45
Jesus isn't offering what you want.
20:46-21:00
That passage in Luke, again, Jesus said, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace." And they were thinking, "If we get rid of Rome, we're going to have peace." And Jesus was like, "That's not it. That's not it.
21:01-21:04
You think this is going to make you happy, and it's not.
21:05-21:10
You just want something that I'm not offering you." Jesus was saying, "You don't know what makes for peace.
21:11-21:16
You're only looking for earthly things. You're only focused on the here and now type things.
21:16-21:27
In church, your faith is going to be shaken, or proven to be shallow, or proven to be non-existent, if you're following Jesus only for some immediate benefit.
21:28-21:29
Oh, it happens all the time.
21:30-21:34
I'll go to church if it will save my marriage. I'll go to church.
21:35-21:41
I'll go to, my finances are a wreck, I'm gonna go to church and see if that can help get my finances in order.
21:41-21:44
I'll go to church and my sick grandma will get better.
21:45-21:50
By the way, that's why the health and wealth gospel is so popular, because you're selling people something they already wanna buy.
21:51-21:52
Hey, you wanna be healthy, you wanna be wealthy?
21:52-21:53
Oh yeah, I want that, okay, great.
21:54-21:55
You know, God wants to give you that.
21:55-21:57
And people buy it.
21:57-22:00
And then they walk away going, well, that didn't work.
22:01-22:05
Maybe the whole thing's garbage, because I'm not healthy or wealthy.
22:07-22:11
Now, do these things sometimes happen? Marriage is healed, grandma gets better, finances...
22:11-22:12
Do these things sometimes happen?
22:13-22:14
Yes, absolutely.
22:14-22:17
And we have seen it over and over and over again in this church.
22:18-22:18
Absolutely.
22:19-22:22
Sometimes God chooses to work that way in His time, in His way.
22:23-22:25
He is God, I am not.
22:26-22:32
But I have to ask you, what if your marriage isn't suddenly the happily ever after you thought that Jesus would give you?
22:32-22:36
What if your children that you've been praying for, what if they don't follow the Lord?
22:37-22:39
Or worse yet, what if they turn against you?
22:40-22:41
What if you do get sick?
22:41-22:43
What if grandma never gets better?
22:44-22:46
What if you suffer financial loss?
22:47-22:54
You see, we're gonna be disappointed when we think Jesus is all about meeting my here and now wants and needs.
22:55-22:57
And that's exactly what Jesus pointed out here.
22:57-23:01
We think that temporal things make for peace.
23:02-23:11
Israel was like, "I'll have peace when Rome is defeated." And we say, "I'll have peace when I have the perfect home, the perfect marriage, I'll be happy with money.
23:12-23:25
If I didn't have this health issue, my life would be absolutely perfect." And we're just putting all of our chips on this one temporal thing, and oh, if this happens, and suddenly we're in this crowd.
23:26-23:30
That we'll praise the Lord one day and we are crucifying him the next day.
23:31-23:34
when we discover that Jesus isn't offering what we want.
23:35-23:37
Number two, this is the flip side.
23:38-23:40
Two reasons people turn against Jesus.
23:40-23:41
Jesus isn't offering what you want.
23:41-23:44
Number two, Jesus is offering what you don't want.
23:44-23:47
And that comes from the end of this passage we looked at in Luke.
23:48-23:58
Look at this phrase, Jesus said, "You did not know the time of your visitation." Like, what, the time of your visitation, what is that?
23:58-23:59
You can study that out.
24:00-24:04
That's a phrase that's used several times in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
24:05-24:09
The time of your visitation just simply means this, when the Lord shows up.
24:10-24:15
Now, the phrase is usually, when you see the context, it's usually connected with judgment.
24:16-24:23
And it sort of communicates this, you better be right with God, because He's coming to visit you someday.
24:24-24:30
And when He comes to visit you, Don't you want to make sure that things are square between the two of you?
24:31-24:35
That's kind of the message of day of visitation.
24:36-24:38
And that's exactly what Jesus means here.
24:38-24:47
As he was riding into Jerusalem, as he was giving the clearest pronouncement he's ever given to the crowds that he is the Messiah of Israel.
24:48-24:51
He was saying, hey, God showed up.
24:52-24:57
Today is the day the Lord Almighty visited you to save you and bring you back to himself.
24:58-25:00
Jesus said, and you totally missed that.
25:00-25:01
It went right over him.
25:01-25:06
Today was the day of your visitation, and you completely missed it.
25:07-25:10
Because I'm offering something you don't want.
25:10-25:19
You see, God showed up in the flesh to lay down his life so that he might resurrect from the dead, so that your salvation might be purchased.
25:20-25:35
And I'm here to tell you today, whatever it is that you're here for, those of you that are watching this stream or listening to this later, I don't know what you're looking for from Jesus, but I can tell you for sure what He is offering.
25:36-25:39
This is what Jesus is offering, forgiveness of sin.
25:40-25:45
Through His death on the cross on your behalf to take away your sin, He's offering you that.
25:46-25:48
His presence by the power of His Holy Spirit.
25:49-25:50
He is offering you that.
25:51-25:58
The promise of heaven that whenever your time is up on earth, and it will be up, by the way, sooner or later, you're leaving here.
25:58-25:59
We all are leaving here.
25:59-26:02
But you have the glorious promise of heaven.
26:03-26:04
He's offering you that.
26:04-26:20
And see, these things, forgiveness, his presence, the promise of heaven, eternal life, all of these things are offered for peace because these are things that cannot be taken away, not by Rome, not by the American government, not by your boss.
26:20-26:22
Nobody can take these things from you.
26:23-26:24
This is really what makes for peace.
26:25-26:28
The knowing no matter what happens to me, I belong to Jesus.
26:29-26:32
And no matter what the world does to me, my best days are ahead of me.
26:33-26:33
Write that down.
26:34-26:35
It doesn't matter.
26:36-26:43
My circumstances really are inconsequential because nothing will stop God's purposes for me in Jesus Christ.
26:44-26:47
And my future is glorious thanks to what he did on my behalf.
26:47-27:03
So you see the people in this crowd were saying, "Save us from Rome." And Jesus said, "I came to save you from hell." And their response was, "No thanks. Really, I was just asking about Rome." What are you expecting from Jesus today?
27:04-27:05
I want to challenge you, church.
27:06-27:10
Don't be so short-sighted that you're merely seeking some benefit for today.
27:11-27:15
Don't be so shallow that you merely seek some temporary fix.
27:16-27:31
And maybe you showed up to church or you clicked to watch this stream online because you need some trial to be solved and you discover that Jesus is offering you so much more than you realized.
27:32-27:34
Today may be the day of visitation for you.
27:35-27:38
That's why I want to encourage you to know His triumph.
27:38-27:45
You know, Jesus looked like a fail to the crowds in Jerusalem a few days after this event.
27:46-27:53
But to God and to those who would receive Jesus, this was just the beginning of the ultimate victory.
27:54-27:54
Let's pray.
27:56-27:59
Father in heaven, you are a mighty God.
27:59-28:02
We believe that you have the power to do anything.
28:02-28:10
But Father, we confess to you that so often in the church, we sort of put you on the hook for things that you didn't promise.
28:11-28:20
We're trying to claim things that you've never offered, when there are some very clear things in your word that you have offered.
28:21-28:23
Like the crowd here, we're just not interested in that.
28:24-28:27
I pray, Father, that you would give us biblical expectations.
28:28-28:32
We are motivated to come to Jesus, so he can put a band-aid on a boo-boo we have today.
28:33-28:45
But that we could come to Jesus and receive the King of the universe who laid down His life as a humble servant so that we could have the eternal things.
28:46-28:50
Father, we know that You give us everything on top of that in Your time and in Your way.
28:51-28:59
Father, let our faith be based on something that You did promise, not something that You didn't.
29:00-29:06
Father, I pray that we would be a people who seek the gift giver, and not just the gift.
29:07-29:10
That we will glorify your name, not just for one day.
29:11-29:19
That we will join those holding the palm branches in the book of Revelation, eternally celebrating the person of Jesus Christ.
29:21-29:23
It's in his name we pray. Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 12:12-19

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
What was Jesus’ purpose for the “Triumphal Entry”?
Why did this crowd go from cheering “HOSANNA” here to shouting “CRUCIFY HIM” a few days later?
What wrong expectations do people have of Jesus today? Where do those wrong expectations come from?
Read Luke 19:41-44. Why did Jesus weep over Jerusalem? What does this say about how Jesus must feel today about those who don’t understand who He is or why He came?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

February 14, 2021

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Value

Jeff Miller

February 14, 2021

Knowing Jesus

  
  Introduction:

  Knowing His Value: When Your Actions Reveal Your Heart (John 12:1-11):

Three Marks That Jesus is Highly Valued By You. (John 12:1-3)
  You Serve Him. (John 12:2)
  
You desire His Presence . (John 12:2)
  
You Sacrifice for Him. (John 12:3)

  
    Three Marks Jesus is Not Valued By You. (John 12:4-11)
  You are quick to Criticize . (John 12:5)
  
You are fixed more on Getting than giving. (John 12:6)
  
You want to remove anything Associated with Jesus. (John 12:10-11)

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

00:55-01:03
We are getting back to our series, "Knowing Jesus." And that's what we're going after in this church.
01:04-01:09
Not knowing about Jesus, but knowing Jesus.
01:11-01:21
Because Jesus said, "Eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ." So, that's what we're going through the Gospel of John.
01:24-01:26
John chapter 12, are you there?
01:28-01:41
Many years ago, when we were interviewing to be part of the Harvest Bible Chapel Church Planting Fellowship, they flew us out, they flew Aaron and I out to Chicago.
01:42-01:46
And they put us up in a host home while we were out there for our interviews.
01:47-02:03
I remember Aaron and I, we went down to Pittsburgh International Airport, we got on a plane and we got the rental car and they said, "You're going to stay with this host family." I think the guy, he owned a bunch of magazines that were published things about certain cities.
02:04-02:06
Like each city had their own version of this guy's magazine.
02:06-02:08
He was a big shot.
02:09-02:13
We pulled up in this, it was a pretty sweet house, huge house.
02:13-02:16
We pull up, we're exhausted from traveling all day.
02:16-02:17
You know how that is, right?
02:17-02:19
I mean, it was just Chicago, but still, when you travel all day.
02:20-02:25
And we show up and we knock on the door and there was no answer.
02:26-02:27
There were no lights on.
02:28-02:28
So we knock.
02:30-02:31
There was no answer.
02:31-02:31
There were no lights on.
02:34-02:35
We didn't know what to do.
02:36-02:40
So we parked our little rental car in the parking lot of a movie theater.
02:41-02:42
And we just waited.
02:42-02:43
And we took a nap.
02:43-02:44
And we tried calling the people.
02:45-02:48
and there was no answer, and we just hung out.
02:50-02:57
And finally, much, much, much later, we tried calling again for the umpteenth time, and they answered the phone.
02:58-03:02
We're like, yeah, Jeff and Aaron Miller, we're supposed to be staying with you guys this week.
03:03-03:05
Oh, yeah, we forgot.
03:06-03:12
Yeah, yeah, Caitlin had a dance recital, and we went to that, and we completely forgot.
03:14-03:16
Awesome. All right, we're heading there now.
03:16-03:25
So we show up at their house and they let us in and they're like, "Oh, you're going to be staying in this room here." They show us to this room we're staying, and they just left us there.
03:25-03:28
After a while, Aaron's like, "I am so thirsty.
03:28-03:38
Can you get me something to drink?" I went downstairs where the husband and the wife were down there, and the kids, they had teenage kids, were just hanging out.
03:40-03:42
I said, "Hey, my wife's really thirsty.
03:42-03:45
can we get a glass of water?
03:45-03:47
And the wife was like, oh, sure.
03:47-03:50
And she opens up the cabinet and pulls out a glass.
03:50-03:51
And her husband goes, no!
03:52-03:58
And we were all just like, that was quite the overreaction, sir.
03:58-03:59
He goes, no!
04:00-04:01
Give her a plastic cup!
04:05-04:09
And the look on this man's wife's face was just like, what the heck's going on here?
04:10-04:11
She's like, OK.
04:11-04:28
And he goes, "If she drops the glass on the floor, it's going to make a mess." And I'm like, "You realize I brought my wife and not a toddler, right?" But we had our little plastic Donald Duck cup with the water.
04:30-04:35
And it was not as much fun as I'm making it sound.
04:36-04:41
But I'll tell you, the best part was the following morning, the best part was when we got to to watch them eat breakfast.
04:42-04:56
Yeah, we went downstairs and sat at the table while everybody was sort of getting their own food, and we're just sitting there trying to be gracious guests, and nobody offered us anything.
04:58-04:59
And I was so hungry.
05:01-05:07
And I dare not try to fill my tummy with a glass of water, but I was so hungry.
05:07-05:12
There was a jar of Nutella sitting there.
05:13-05:19
And I said, "Oh, Nutella!" I said, "I've always wanted to try that." Hint, hint.
05:20-05:25
"I've always wanted to try Nutella." And the guy said, "Oh, it's delicious." And just kept on going.
05:28-05:34
"I'd like to try some of your Nutella." Anyways, I could go on and on.
05:36-05:37
but I'm not going to.
05:41-05:48
But Erin and I left this house with a lot of questions, and to this day she's convinced that was part of the application process.
05:49-05:53
They're like, let's see how much they'll endure before they run out, and we're like, we're staying!
05:57-06:33
We left with a lot of questions, but there's one question that we didn't have, and that was, how did those people feel about us. Were we highly valued guests to them? Not so much. We were a little more than an annoyance it felt like. And that takes us to our passage today. We left off in chapter 11 when we were in John. Lazarus was raised from the dead and the Jewish council got together And they're like, "This is the last straw.
06:34-06:37
Jesus has to die. Get the Word out.
06:37-06:45
We can't have Him running around resurrecting dead people." So, Word's out. They're after Jesus now.
06:45-06:46
Like, final straw, this is it.
06:47-06:53
And when we get to chapter 12, we see that Jesus is heading back to Jerusalem.
06:53-06:54
Like, didn't you know?
06:56-06:56
He knew.
06:59-07:00
And he knew that his time was coming.
07:02-07:04
Which is why he headed towards Jerusalem.
07:08-07:11
But as we look at this passage today, we're going to see there are two kinds of people.
07:12-07:13
You hear that a lot, right?
07:13-07:14
There are two kinds of people in the world.
07:14-07:18
But when it comes to Jesus, that's always absolutely, certainly true.
07:19-07:21
But there are two kinds of people in the world.
07:22-07:30
There are those who believe in Jesus Christ and love Him, And there are those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, hate Him.
07:31-07:40
Whether that hatred is outwardly expressed or it's inwardly kept, they don't want anything to do with Jesus.
07:42-07:48
We're going to get even more specific today as we look at this passage, because you're going to see this so clear in God's Word.
07:49-07:51
There are really two kinds of people in the world.
07:52-07:54
There are people that recognize Jesus' worth.
07:55-07:58
And there are people that do not recognize Jesus' worth.
08:01-08:21
There are people that say, "Jesus is everything to me." And there are people that would say, "Jesus isn't even worth giving Him a glass of water with a glass." and they have such little esteem for Him.
08:25-08:26
Recognizing Jesus' worth.
08:28-08:34
And we're going to hit this hard because this is what determines whether or not somebody will receive Jesus Christ.
08:34-08:38
What is it? What is it that makes somebody receive Jesus?
08:38-08:39
It's this.
08:39-08:41
It's when they recognize His worth.
08:43-08:46
Jesus talked about this in two little parables.
08:46-08:47
Matthew 13.
08:47-08:53
He said the King of Heaven is like a guy He sold everything he had to buy the field to get the treasure.
08:54-08:57
He said that's the Kingdom of Heaven. That's Him.
08:58-08:58
He's worth everything.
08:59-09:06
He said the Kingdom of Heaven is like this guy that was selling pearls, and he saw the greatest pearl of all time, and he sold everything he had to buy that one pearl.
09:07-09:08
That's Him.
09:10-09:15
And Jesus, in those parables, and you're going to see it in His passage, it all boils down to this.
09:15-09:17
You recognize His value.
09:20-09:29
Because when you do, you'll give or do anything for Jesus Christ.
09:31-09:37
You might be sitting here right now going, never really thought about it that way.
09:37-09:38
Do I value Jesus?
09:38-09:41
Well, here's the thing, I can't answer that for you.
09:42-09:43
I can't see your heart.
09:46-09:48
I can only see your actions.
09:51-09:57
And it's really hard for you to evaluate your own heart because the Bible says that your heart is deceitful, above all things.
09:59-10:06
So what I want you to see very clearly in this text is what you really think of Jesus always shows up in your actions.
10:06-10:06
Right?
10:07-10:13
You're like, "Do I value Jesus?" always shows up in your actions if you do or not.
10:14-10:17
And it's just so clearly on display here.
10:17-10:27
So in your outline, if you're taking notes, "Knowing His value when your actions reveal your heart." Very simple outline today.
10:27-10:31
First of all, we're going to see three marks that Jesus is highly valued by you.
10:33-10:36
Then we're going to see three marks that Jesus has no value to you.
10:37-10:39
So let's get to the first one.
10:39-10:44
"Jesus is highly valued by you." Verses 1-3, let's take a look.
10:44-10:54
It says, "Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
10:55-10:57
So they gave a dinner for him there.
10:57-11:02
Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table.
11:04-11:14
Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair.
11:14-11:21
The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." Stop right there.
11:22-11:29
In just those couple of verses, we see three things, three marks that Jesus is valued by you.
11:29-11:34
You do these things, these are indicators that Jesus is highly valued by you.
11:36-11:41
"Hey, jot this down, you serve Him." Like how do I know Jesus means something to me?
11:41-11:42
You serve Him.
11:44-11:48
Like Martha, valuing Jesus makes you want to serve Him.
11:49-11:57
And you see serving Jesus in His church as a way of expressing your love for Him, as a way of demonstrating His worth to you.
11:58-12:15
Whether it's leading a small group or teaching and harvest kids, leading worship, putting out the signs, working security, greeting people at the door, Whatever God has called you to do, I'm doing this because of how much Jesus means to me.
12:16-12:17
That's my motivation.
12:19-12:20
It's not out of compulsion.
12:23-12:25
And it's not out of obligation.
12:29-12:35
It's an attitude like Martha that says Jesus is worth anything and everything and what I can do for him.
12:38-12:40
Knowing his worth makes you want to serve him.
12:40-12:41
That's just the way it is.
12:42-12:44
Some of you know my missionary friend Barnabas in Thailand.
12:45-12:55
When I was over there the one time, he took me to the border of Thailand and Burma, and he was showing me where the boundaries were.
12:59-13:30
As a matter of fact as anything, he said, "Yes, I found up there, drive your truck for several hours and then the roads are too bad to drive so you're gonna walk for a couple of days after that he goes I find a tribe up there that nobody had ever found before like they were kind of isolated and he said I found them up there and he said I took them I took them fish and I'm like hang on when he said that I was like like Long John Silvers right you took and I took them fish.
13:31-13:36
And then I was thinking, "Well, Barnabas, how did you keep the fish from going bad?
13:37-13:39
It took you days to walk there.
13:39-13:43
How did you keep the fish from going bad?" And he looked confused for a second.
13:44-13:50
He goes, "No, no, no, no. Live fish." Then he was going on with his story.
13:50-14:16
I'm like, "No, no, no, no, stop. Stop." "How did you take live fish?" He said, "Well, they..." Again, matter of fact, he said, "Well, they were putting a pond in their village, and they wanted fish, so I took them fish." I'm like, "Live fish?" He says, "Yes, I took them live fish." And it's just not registering to me.
14:16-14:22
I'm like, "How did you do that?" And he looked at me like, "Dude, how stupid...
14:22-14:52
Are you Americans?" He says, "I put them in bags with water." I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." I'm like, "All right, so you're telling me that you walked for several days carrying an aquarium." And he's like, "Well, they said they needed fish." And I walked away from that going, I am the lamest servant of Jesus ever.
14:55-14:58
Like, what would compel a man to do something like that?
14:59-15:02
Unless you're on some kind of a reality TV show or something.
15:02-15:03
But he wasn't.
15:03-15:05
What would compel somebody to do that?
15:06-15:13
He told me one time, the thing that motivates him, 1 Corinthians 9.23, "I do all things for the sake of the gospel." That's his thing.
15:14-15:18
In other words, Jesus is worth anything I do for Him.
15:19-15:20
That drives me.
15:23-15:29
And according to Jesus, by the way, greatness in the kingdom is serving.
15:31-15:34
We tend to evaluate greatness based on who gets served.
15:35-15:41
"That guy's got a lot of servants, a lot of butlers and maids and people working for him." That's how we evaluate greatness.
15:41-15:46
But Jesus evaluates greatness based on how you serve.
15:47-15:51
I'm going to say a lot more about that, but we're going to be hitting that pretty hard in chapter 13.
15:53-15:55
But that's a mark that Jesus is valued by you.
15:55-15:55
You serve Him.
15:56-16:09
Anything that I can do in the name of Jesus, for Jesus, because of Jesus, you don't have to ask me, even if it's carrying an aquarium through the mountain jungles of Thailand.
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Letter B, "You desire His presence." We saw what Martha was doing.
16:18-16:19
Did you see verse 2?
16:19-16:27
It says, "Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him at the table." And you can't just dismiss this as a passing statement.
16:30-16:34
It's pretty significant when you consider that Jesus is now a wanted man.
16:35-16:38
It would have been real easy for Lazarus to say, "Hey, I already died once.
16:41-16:42
I'm going to keep it safe.
16:43-16:44
Right? I'm going to keep it safe.
16:46-16:48
But Lazarus was more concerned with fellowship.
16:49-16:53
I know it's not safe to be near Jesus right now, but that's where I need to be.
16:54-16:55
And I'm going to be with Him.
16:56-16:57
Fellowship.
16:58-17:00
Lazarus just wanted to be in Jesus' presence.
17:00-17:03
And that's true of everyone who receives life from Jesus.
17:03-17:04
We just want to be with Him.
17:05-17:08
In His Word, in prayer, with His people.
17:08-17:12
There's no place I'd rather be in the presence of Jesus Christ.
17:14-17:19
Every minute I spend with Him is worth it because He is worth everything to me.
17:19-17:20
And that's another mark.
17:21-17:23
That Jesus has value to you.
17:24-17:26
Not a hard sell on Valentine's Day, right?
17:26-17:29
When you love and value someone, you want to spend time with them.
17:31-17:34
And I think that certainly applies more to Jesus Christ than anyone.
17:36-17:37
You desire His presence.
17:38-17:40
you sacrifice for Him.
17:42-17:43
You sacrifice for Him.
17:44-17:45
Let's talk about Mary for a second.
17:47-17:52
Again, this would be real easy to just sort of read through quickly and gloss over.
17:52-18:17
It says, "She took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and ointed Jesus' feet, wiped His feet with her hair, and it was potent, it filled the house with the perfume." "Mother Mark, that Jesus is highly valued by you as you sacrifice for Him." Mary was actively expressing her heart by anointing Jesus.
18:20-18:21
We're going to find out here in a second.
18:22-18:27
This ointment was worth a year's wage for a laborer.
18:28-18:30
How much does a laborer make in a year?
18:32-18:33
Forty, fifty thousand dollars?
18:33-18:34
Is that a conservative number?
18:35-18:36
Does that make sense?
18:36-18:38
Okay, I see some people shaking their head, yes.
18:39-18:41
Okay, just to give us sort of a frame of reference.
18:42-18:44
She had a $50,000 bottle of perfume.
18:46-18:53
And she says, "Here, Jesus, this is for you." And according to Matthew and Mark, it started at his head and went down to his feet.
18:54-19:01
And she's like, "This is for Jesus." She dropped a $50,000 bottle of perfume on Jesus.
19:04-19:12
This was the kind of stuff that was usually used for burial, but it had a prophetic significance.
19:12-19:16
We're going to see she was anointing Jesus' body for burial.
19:17-19:18
You'll see that here in a second.
19:19-19:35
Like what in the world would possess a woman to spend a $50,000 bottle of perfume on Jesus Christ.
19:36-19:41
Well, you know, in those days, foot washing was an act of hospitality.
19:43-19:46
But this obviously goes way further than hospitality, right?
19:47-20:12
This goes way further than "can I take your coat?" For Jesus' love, for His teaching, for raising her brother from the dead, she's like, "I'm worshiping, and I'm lavishly worshiping, and I am - and you've got to catch this - I'm sparing no expense." What's the price limit on your worship?
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For Mary, there was no hesitation and there was no regret.
20:19-20:31
I don't see Mary with that bottle of ointment thinking about anointing Jesus going, "Is he worth it?" I don't know.
20:33-20:35
We don't see the hesitation.
20:35-20:37
And we don't see the regret either.
20:37-20:47
We don't see Mary leaving supper going, "What is it that I've done?" Because love doesn't care about expense.
20:50-20:51
Love doesn't care about expense.
20:52-21:12
We're talking about our love for Jesus Christ, wives, so don't use this as some kind of Valentine's Day hammer to say, "Pastor Jeff said love doesn't care about expense, therefore..." But when it comes to worshiping Jesus, when it comes to valuing Jesus Christ, you will never regret sacrificing anything for Him.
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You will never regret that.
21:19-21:19
I'm trying to tell you.
21:22-21:37
It was hard when I was putting this outline together, I was trying to think of a different word for sacrifice, because when I talk about the way we show love to Jesus, I don't like using the word "sacrifice." Because He sacrificed for me.
21:37-21:40
And it almost feels like I'm comparing our sacrifices.
21:40-21:49
Like, "Jesus sacrificed for me." I'm like, "Well, I'm sacrificing for you, Jesus." "Really?" Everything I am, everything that I have, Everything that I ever will have comes from Jesus.
21:49-21:51
He gave everything to purchase my salvation.
21:52-21:53
We're going to compare sacrifices?
21:53-21:55
I just couldn't think of a better word.
21:57-22:07
But anything that people consider valuable that you give up for Jesus as Mary did this perfume, you will never regret that.
22:10-22:11
Weekly giving?
22:13-22:16
You will never regret weekly giving.
22:17-22:25
If you feel that God has called you to sell something that you own of value in order to support missions, do it.
22:27-22:40
And I promise you, if this is motivated by recognizing Jesus' worth and showing love for Him the way Mary showed love for Jesus, you will not regret that.
22:42-22:49
He's getting a bonus from work and saying, "I'm donating this for kingdom purposes." You will not regret that.
22:52-22:53
Because He's worth it.
22:54-22:55
He's worth it.
22:58-23:01
And really, all of this is worship in various forms, right?
23:01-23:03
There's no pep talk, there's no coercion.
23:04-23:07
They didn't need a guilt trip, they didn't need begged to do what they did.
23:09-23:22
For Martha, for Lazarus, for Mary, I said, "Hey, Jesus is worth all my service, all time spent with Him, anything I sacrifice to worship Him, Jesus is worth it." It was just joyful worship.
23:25-23:36
If any of those things resonate with you, like, "Yeah, I see these things in my life!" That's a great indicator that you value Jesus Christ.
23:39-23:43
On the other hand, First remark is that Jesus is not valued by you.
23:43-23:44
Again, it's right in the text.
23:45-23:46
Look at v. 4.
23:47-23:54
It says, "But Judas Iscariot..." See the shift there?
23:55-23:55
The first three verses.
23:56-23:58
It's like worship. Jesus is awesome.
23:58-23:59
I'm going to give everything.
23:59-24:00
I'm going to do everything.
24:01-24:04
It's like, "But Judas..." Wah, wah.
24:05-24:07
Like, we're taking a turn here.
24:08-24:31
It says, "But Judas Iscariot..." of the disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, "Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?" He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
24:32-24:57
Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial." "For the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have Me." When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of Him, but also to see Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead.
24:57-25:05
So the chief priest made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.
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Okay, so maybe you don't value Jesus.
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And here are three very clear signs.
25:17-25:25
If you can take an honest assessment of yourself, if this is you, maybe you don't value Jesus like you think you do.
25:28-25:30
Letter A, you're quick to criticize.
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to criticize. Here comes the bucket of water on the fire of worship. Mary, worshiping Jesus as lavishly as she could, and Judas is standing there going, "What a waste. What a waste." Just criticizing. You know, like David's wife in 2 Samuel 6.
25:59-26:07
Remember, David was dressed down, he was dancing, with all his might before the Lord as he worshiped, and David's wife scolded him.
26:09-26:10
She said, "You're supposed to be the king.
26:10-26:20
You don't act like that!" And I've got to tell you, David's wife, Michal, and Judas Iscariot, they're sitting in churches everywhere this morning.
26:22-26:29
The passionate worship is happening, instead of participating, they criticize.
26:33-26:34
Worship was too long.
26:36-26:37
The sermon wasn't that great.
26:39-26:40
The coffee was terrible.
26:41-26:47
I don't like that little system they have to check your kids in, and the kids thing, and you get your little sticker.
26:47-26:48
I don't like that.
26:51-26:57
When I hear those things, they sort of translate in my head.
26:58-27:05
Because what you're actually saying is, I'm not here to value Jesus, I'm here to offer my expert analysis.
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And I need to remind you that criticism is not a spiritual gift.
27:13-27:15
In fact, it's the opposite.
27:16-27:52
If you can come in God's presence with God's people and worship and get in the Word and pray scholarship, and your big takeaway is criticism? That says a lot about your heart. You're quick to criticize. Letter B, mark that Jesus is not valued by you. You are fixed more on getting than giving. You're fixed more on getting than giving. Did you see in the text that And John lets us in on this little secret.
27:54-27:58
None of us were really shocked when we read it, but John lets us in just to clarify.
27:59-28:04
He's like, "Judas didn't really care about poor people." Are you shocked?
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Does that shock you, boys and girls?
28:10-28:20
Judas was like, "This could have been given to the poor!" And John's like, "He didn't care about the poor at all." He cared about money.
28:21-28:25
And in Judas' mind, what he was seeing, think of it from Judas' perspective.
28:25-28:29
When he saw Mary anointing Jesus, do you know what he saw?
28:30-28:33
He saw just buckets of cash going down the toilet.
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That's what he saw.
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Oh, what a waste!
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Oh, oh, oh, the whole thing!
28:38-28:39
Oh, the whole thing!
28:39-28:41
Oh, this is horrible!
28:41-28:43
I can't believe somebody would do that!
28:43-28:44
Oh, come on!
28:46-28:46
What a waste!
28:50-28:52
John says he was a thief.
28:53-28:53
Judas was a thief.
28:54-28:56
I was thinking about that a lot this week.
28:58-29:05
I'm sure that Judas justified his thieving in his mind.
29:05-29:06
I'm sure that he did.
29:08-29:25
I don't think that Judas was off in a corner like Dr. Doom's snidely whiplash going, is going to be my plan to get rich." I think Judas was following Jesus, and I think eventually Judas got to the place, like all thieves, he justified it.
29:26-29:28
He goes, "You know, I left everything to follow Jesus.
29:28-29:30
I deserve something." Right?
29:31-29:34
"I could have been making buckoo bucks back home.
29:36-29:37
I deserve something.
29:39-29:44
I mean, they gave me the job of being the team accountant.
29:44-29:46
I mean, shouldn't I get paid for that?
29:46-29:48
Don't you think I deserve some compensation for being the accountant?
29:48-29:50
I mean, other accountants get paid.
29:50-29:51
Why shouldn't I get paid?
29:51-29:53
You know what, if they're not going to do it, I'll just pay myself.
29:53-29:55
I'm sure it was justified.
29:58-30:06
You're like, "Dude, how could he do that?" And I would say, "Oh, it still happens." It still happens.
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There's too many people looking at the church as a place to get, not a place to give.
30:15-30:16
And that's a problem.
30:20-30:25
I knew of a pastor way up north who would join the offering counter.
30:25-30:27
You know, the people who would take the offering and count it?
30:28-30:32
And if there was any cash whatsoever, the pastor would take it and put it in his pocket.
30:32-30:53
He said, "That's for me. Cash is for me." You can deposit the checks, and the cash is for me." You've heard stories of ministry leaders on the news, even very local, that use church funds for personal use, and they call it "misappropriating funds." Do you know what the Bible calls that?
30:54-30:55
Being a thief!
30:58-31:01
And you're like, well, shame on those people that would do something like that.
31:01-31:02
Shame on them.
31:03-31:05
I would say yes, but hang on a second.
31:06-31:14
you don't have to be pocketing cash or misusing the company credit card in order to have a Judas heart.
31:16-31:23
All you need is the attitude of looking to get from the church instead of giving to the church.
31:23-31:24
That's all you need.
31:25-31:26
You've got a Judas heart.
31:29-31:37
And you whine about, "Well, the church should be doing something for me." The church should be giving me what I want.
31:37-31:39
There needs to be more programs and things for me.
31:40-31:43
And why aren't things more to my preferences?
31:43-31:45
Why isn't everything in that church how I like it?
31:49-31:50
You're not here to worship.
31:52-31:53
You're here for yourself.
31:55-31:57
And I would say you're not being a Mary.
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You're being a Judas.
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Because recognizing Jesus' value moves you to give to Him, not take from Him or His church.
32:10-32:11
So what's your attitude?
32:12-32:13
You're fixed more on getting than giving?
32:15-32:16
Maybe you don't value Jesus like you thought you did.
32:18-32:23
Letter C, you want to remove anything associated with Jesus.
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I don't want to remove anything associated with Jesus.
32:32-32:37
I've got to tell you, as I was reading this passage, and since Dan spoke last week, I had two weeks.
32:38-32:40
If the sermon seems long, that's why.
32:41-32:43
Two weeks to work on this one.
32:45-32:49
I shouldn't have said that, because if it tangs, you're going to be like, dude, that was two weeks worth?
32:52-33:00
But I've got to tell you, I was thinking a lot about this, and watching the news and trying to stay tuned in to all the stuff happening in the news.
33:00-33:04
And I realized, you know what, there really is nothing new under the sun.
33:05-33:06
There is nothing new under the sun.
33:07-33:12
Even the latest trends that we see now happened in the Bible.
33:12-33:16
For example, one of the big things people talk about now is virtue signaling.
33:16-33:17
Did you see it in the passage?
33:17-33:18
That's what Judas was doing.
33:19-33:20
He was virtue signaling.
33:21-33:22
You know what virtue signaling is?
33:22-33:31
When you make these statements, trying to sound humble, but really your intention is to brag about how virtuous you are.
33:33-33:40
For example, virtue signaling is when you say something like this, "I wear my mask because I care about you.
33:40-33:51
I just love the people around me so much that that's why I wear a mask." And look, wear a mask, don't wear a mask, but that's obnoxious to announce it that way.
33:51-33:54
I'm such a compassionate person.
33:55-33:57
Do you see how big my heart is?
33:58-33:59
That's virtue signaling.
34:01-34:02
And that's what Judas did.
34:04-34:07
Judas pretended like he cared about the poor, and he sure didn't.
34:10-34:17
Another common thing in our day that we see in this passage is trending.
34:18-34:19
You know what trending is?
34:20-34:27
Something's really popular, like on the internet, social media, people are sharing, you know, whether it's a meme or a hashtag or whatever.
34:27-34:29
It's trending, it's very popular.
34:29-34:32
And we see in this passage, Lazarus was trending.
34:33-34:35
He was second only to Jesus.
34:35-34:37
Everyone wanted to see the dead guy who resurrected.
34:40-34:49
But I think one of the most obvious things we see in this passage that kind of struck me is cancel culture.
34:50-34:50
You see that?
34:52-34:56
The chief priests were doing cancel culture 2,000 years ago.
34:59-35:03
They couldn't deny Lazarus' resurrection.
35:05-35:10
I mean, they had to acknowledge that Lazarus resurrected because the dead man is walking around, so what did they do?
35:11-35:14
Well, they put a plan together to try to destroy the evidence.
35:15-35:17
You realize if Lazarus was alive today, you know what the plan would be.
35:18-35:19
You're going to cancel his Twitter account.
35:20-35:22
You're going to cancel his Facebook account.
35:22-35:23
Don't let him on Instagram.
35:24-35:25
That's what canceled culture does.
35:25-35:29
We don't like what you represent, so we silence you.
35:32-35:37
The first century canceled culture, because they couldn't just hit a switch and close down his Twitter.
35:38-35:41
The first century canceled culture was, yeah, we have to kill him.
35:45-35:48
That concept in and of itself is baffling.
35:49-35:50
What was Lazarus' big crime?
35:54-35:55
He resurrected from the dead.
35:56-35:56
That's what he did.
35:57-36:05
He resurrected from the dead and these chief priests, instead of them saying, "If Jesus can raise the dead, we better take a closer look at Jesus.
36:05-36:12
We better take a closer look at Lazarus because we're dealing with some very serious, crazy stuff here.
36:12-36:15
If dead people are walking around, they didn't do that.
36:15-36:16
They said, "You know what?
36:16-36:28
Because Jesus doesn't fit our narrative, we're going to have to not only get rid of Jesus, we're going to get rid of Lazarus too." So there's nothing new under the sun.
36:30-36:41
When you refuse to recognize Jesus' worth, you'll want to shut out anything that brings your attention to Jesus, anything that testifies to who Jesus is.
36:41-36:43
We've got to get rid of it. We can't have it around.
36:44-36:47
That's why you look for excuses to avoid church.
36:48-36:51
That's why a small group can't be an option for you.
36:52-36:54
That's why you can't tolerate any worship music.
36:55-37:00
You get in the car, your wife was in the car, she had the worship music on, "I've got to turn this.
37:00-37:13
I can't stand even being exposed to this." Why? Because these things are to you What Lazarus was to the chief priests, reminders of Jesus.
37:17-37:21
And you think, I'll just eliminate these reminders.
37:21-37:23
And out of sight, out of mind.
37:27-37:36
Well, if you don't want to deal with Jesus now, keep in mind that you do have an appointment to deal with Him someday.
37:39-37:52
At Harvest Bible Chapel, we spend some time talking about our four pillars through the month of January, but something else that's distinctive about our church is our mission is to make disciples.
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And we believe that a disciple of Jesus Christ does three things.
37:57-38:00
Worships Christ, walks with Christ, and works for Christ.
38:00-38:02
And did you see all three of them show up in this passage?
38:03-38:04
Worship Christ - that's Mary.
38:05-38:12
Walk with Christ - your fellowship with Jesus - Working for Christ? That's Martha.
38:14-38:15
So what does Jesus mean to you?
38:19-38:20
What does Jesus mean to you?
38:23-38:29
I mean, I could stand up here and tell you what the Bible says Jesus is worth.
38:30-38:31
I could tell you all that.
38:32-38:34
He's the only begotten Son of God.
38:36-38:38
Jesus is the heir of all things.
38:39-38:41
Jesus is the name above all names.
38:41-38:44
That's what the Bible says Jesus is worth.
38:45-38:47
But today I want to ask, what's He worth to you?
38:50-39:01
Because like Martha and Lazarus and Mary, like Judas and the chief priests, His value to you is going to show up in your condom.
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Let's pray.
39:04-39:22
Father in Heaven, I just simply ask that You would give us eyes to see the glory and the beauty of Jesus Christ so that we strive to value Him as we should.
39:22-39:28
And Father, I'm not sure that it's possible that we can value Jesus as He deserves.
39:28-39:39
I don't think we have the capacity to value someone like Jesus all His glory and sovereignty and splendor.
39:39-39:47
I don't think we have the capacity to sort of max out our value.
39:50-39:51
And maybe that's why heaven is eternal.
39:53-40:05
Because we'll have all of eternity to continue to know, understand, and worship Jesus as He deserves.
40:07-40:08
God, show us.
40:10-40:15
Show us, Father, the worth of Jesus Christ.
40:15-40:17
Show us that He is the treasure hidden in the field.
40:17-40:20
Show us that He is the pearl of great price, Father.
40:20-40:24
And let us esteem Him as that.
40:24-40:37
And Father, let our conduct reflect the conduct of people who recognize the worth of Jesus Christ.
40:39-40:44
In His glorious and incomparable name, Father, we pray these things to You.
40:45-40:45
Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 12:1-11

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
If Jesus knew Judas was a thief (John 12:6, and see John 2:24-25), why did Jesus allow Judas to be the treasurer and steal from their funds?
Explain Jesus’ statement in John 12:8. What was He saying about worship? What was He saying about taking care of the poor?
Why did the chief priests want to kill Lazarus (John 12:10)? How is this like “cancel culture” in our day?
How would you show an unbeliever Jesus’ worth?

Breakout
Pray for one another to demonstrate how you value Jesus, as Martha, Lazarus, and Mary did.

Jeff Miller

February 7, 2021

Guest Speaker

Build Yourself a Babel

Jeff Miller

February 7, 2021

Guest Speaker

Introduction:

What is a Babel?

Build Yourself a Babel in 3 Easy Steps: (Genesis 11:1-9)

Put God's Word Aside . (Gen 11:4,9:1,9:11)
(Isaiah 30:1) - "Ah, stubborn children," declares the Lord , "who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;

Make it all about Me . (Gen 11:4)
Genesis 11:4 - Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."
Seek the approval of Other People (Gen 11:6).
Genesis 11:6 - "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do."

God's Response

DON'T Build Yourself a Babel in 3 Easy Steps:

Put God's Word First .
Proverbs 18:10 - The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

Proverbs 16:9 - The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
Make it all about Christ .
Romans 10:9 - "Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

Acts 4:12 - "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Seek the approval of God Alone .
Matthew 25:21 - "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master."

1 Peter 2:5 - "You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

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

00:00-00:03
So those that know me well know that I suffer from a condition.
00:04-00:07
It's not life threatening or anything, but it is serious nonetheless.
00:07-00:11
The problem that I have is that at my core I'm an engineer.
00:11-00:19
So what that means, there's a lot of problems associated with that, but what that means for the purpose of today's discussion is that I like to take things apart and put things back together.
00:20-00:24
And the real problem with that is that I really don't like to follow the direction.
00:24-00:46
And this started from a young age of, you know, building puzzles or playing with Legos or tearing my water heater apart. The problem is I have just enough intuition as how something is supposed to go that I actually fool myself into thinking that I don't need to look at the directions. I don't know if anybody else suffers from that, just being male. But it's definitely a part of being an engineer.
00:46-00:54
And I'll give you an example of this. Over this past summer of quarantine, my parents graciously bought my children a full-size trampoline.
00:54-00:59
You know, one of those big ones with the nets so that they're safe and they don't die like the one that I had that didn't have a net.
01:03-01:07
But you know, this is something that some parents dread, right?
01:07-01:09
They don't want to put together stuff.
01:09-01:11
Christmas is like a nightmare because you have to put together everything.
01:11-01:13
Well, for me, that's my happy place.
01:13-01:15
At least it starts as a happy place.
01:15-01:18
In this particular story, that's not where it quite ends.
01:18-01:23
So I was working and I came home from work and I figured I could get this thing knocked out.
01:24-01:27
So you got lots of extra daylight and I obviously was doing this outside.
01:28-01:32
And I opened the box and I made quick work of the frame, the circle with the legs and everything like that.
01:33-01:42
And I knew enough about this particular trampoline that you had to put the net on before you put the springs through it because the springs kind of went through the net.
01:42-01:44
So I did that without any trouble.
01:45-01:46
And then I started to put the springs on.
01:46-01:50
And the springs are kind of like the most mindless, tedious part of it because I think there's like 72 springs.
01:51-01:56
And I knew enough from past experience to say that you can't just put them on in consecutive order because then the last ones will be impossible.
01:57-02:02
So you have to put them on and I put them on at alternating points and went around until I filled in all the springs.
02:02-02:05
And then there's a pad that covers the springs and you have to tie all the little ties.
02:07-02:14
And at this point, there was still lots of daylight left and I was pretty much in the home stretch so I figured let's just knock this thing out.
02:14-02:15
Kids will be able to use it tomorrow.
02:15-02:16
It will be great.
02:17-02:18
The problem is this is where my trouble started.
02:19-02:27
Because at this point I realized that I needed, in order to attach the net to the poles, which was the last step that I needed to do, I had to reverse the net.
02:28-02:30
I had installed the net inside out like an idiot.
02:31-02:40
So unfortunately to reverse that, I had to undo everything that I had done, back down, and I took all 72 springs off and untied all of the things.
02:40-02:46
And they gave you a tool to do it, so it wasn't, that wasn't, it was just excruciatingly frustrating, not so hard.
02:47-02:50
And then at this point, I'm in the dark.
02:52-02:56
I'm using my phone as a flashlight and my lovely wife tells me dinner is ready.
02:57-02:57
So now it's on.
02:58-03:03
Now do I give up and kids don't get to use this tomorrow or do I finish this thing tonight?
03:04-03:06
Obviously I finish it tonight.
03:07-03:08
I've learned my lesson.
03:08-03:10
I clearly have to defeat this trampoline.
03:12-03:21
So I went to work putting the springs back on, 72, alternating pattern, tied the spring pad on and get to back where I was before.
03:22-03:25
Then I reassessed my prior condition.
03:26-03:29
See, it wasn't the net that was on inside out, it was actually the poles I had put on backwards.
03:30-03:37
So, of course, I had to flip that net again and now I will tell you I am a trained professional at installing and removing those springs.
03:38-03:41
So if anybody needs any help, I'm probably not the guy.
03:41-03:49
But I will tell you that before I went to bed that night, but not before most of my children did, I had finished that trampoline.
03:50-03:51
So why do I tell you this?
03:52-03:54
Well, it has to do with what we're talking about today.
03:55-03:58
When you want to build something, you want to build it right the first time, right?
03:58-04:01
You don't want to spend a lot of time wasting time.
04:01-04:05
And anybody that's done any DIY stuff knows, just follow the directions.
04:07-04:08
So that's what we're going to talk about today.
04:08-04:12
This brings us to our passage in Genesis chapter 11.
04:12-04:16
And before we read this, let me just say, Genesis is history.
04:17-04:19
It's not a bunch of fables or myths.
04:20-04:26
It is an accurate historical account of real events that actually happened since the beginning of time.
04:27-04:34
Now, proving this to you is not the objective of today's sermon, but I can assure you that if you do the research yourself, you'll find out that Genesis matches reality.
04:35-04:42
Now, even more than Genesis being history, Genesis is actually setting the stage for all of the work that God is gonna do.
04:43-04:48
In fact, all of history is about God undoing what happened in the first few chapters of Genesis.
04:49-04:52
So our story here in Babel really happened.
04:53-04:59
It's sandwiched between two genealogies that list individual names and specified years of span times.
05:00-05:01
Genesis is history.
05:02-05:08
And the lessons that we should learn from this just as relevant to us today as they were when these events actually happened.
05:09-05:12
So our story is the first major event after the flood.
05:13-05:19
The flood was God's global reset of all life in response to the out-of-control sin that was on the earth.
05:20-05:25
God spared Noah, his family, and the animals to begin life again.
05:26-05:30
God had given Noah and his family the entire charge of the whole planet.
05:30-05:31
They had it all.
05:31-05:32
It was all theirs.
05:33-05:37
our story is the first big response from man to what God had done for them.
05:38-05:43
So with that, let me start reading Genesis chapter 11 in verse one.
05:43-05:47
It says, "Now the whole earth had one language "and the same words.
05:48-05:53
"And as people migrated from the east, "they found a plain in the land of Shinar "and they settled there.
05:54-05:59
"They said to one another, "'Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.' "And they had bricks for stone and bitumen for mortar.
06:00-06:35
"They said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city tower with its tops in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth and the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built and the Lord said behold there are one people they have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do and nothing that they propose to do will be impossible now for them come let us go down there and confuse their language and so they may not understand one another speech so the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city.
06:35-06:43
Therefore, its name was called Babel because the Lord confused the language of all the earth and from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
06:44-06:51
So I've titled this sermon, "Building Yourself a Babel," but you can probably guess that I'm not actually talking about building a city or a tower.
06:52-06:53
So what is a Babel?
06:53-07:00
Well, for the purpose of today's discussion, I am defining a Babel as any attempt to do something awesome without God.
07:01-07:02
Let me say that again.
07:02-07:37
are building yourself a babble when you attempt to do something awesome and leave God out. You might say that's a pretty broad category and it is. Let me give you three relevant examples. The way of modern science, the typical school in the American education system, and the general approach to anything on the internet. Science, schools, and the internet. These are awesome things but done for the most part without considering God. And those examples are huge things but a But a babel is any important decision that we choose to make without consulting God in the process.
07:37-07:41
And just like in our story here, a babel often starts with technology, right?
07:42-07:45
In chapter, in verse three, they invent the bricks and the mortar.
07:45-07:49
See bricks and mortar, technology in and of itself is neutral.
07:49-07:52
It's neither good nor evil of its own.
07:53-07:56
The problems start with how that technology is applied.
07:57-08:01
And that how is often directly related to how much we consider God in the process.
08:02-08:05
So for today, we want to build a babble by the book.
08:06-08:12
So let's do something contrary to my engineer nature and follow the directions that are laid out in this passage.
08:12-08:20
So I got a DIY for you that you'll never find on wikihow.com, but it's build yourself a babble in three easy steps.
08:21-08:23
Step one, put God's word aside.
08:24-08:26
Now, before you stone me as a heretic, just stick with me.
08:27-08:30
Put God's word aside is the first step in building yourself a babble.
08:31-08:36
So you might say, "Dan, I'm not seeing how they put God's word aside in this passage.
08:36-08:39
God doesn't even show up until about halfway through the tower.
08:40-08:44
And when he does show up, it's almost kind of random how he responds and maybe even a little vindictive.
08:45-08:50
So what's going on?" Well, I'm glad that you asked that because there's a number of things that could be going on here.
08:50-09:42
And I'll start with the most definite and give you some other interesting things to about. Most certainly in verse 4 they say, "Let us build a city and a tower," and then at the end they say, "lest we be dispersed over the face of all the earth." So they clearly do not want to be dispersed over the earth. They clearly do not want to fill the earth, but this is exactly what God commanded them to do right after the flood. Look at Genesis 9 verse 1, "And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." Now we don't know exactly when the tower was built because the Bible doesn't, doesn't tell us that, but we can be pretty sure that it was built before Abraham's story, which takes place chapter 12. Now, Abraham based on the genealogy shows up about 350 years after the flood.
09:42-09:47
So the flood, so the tower of Babel takes place sometime between the flood and that 350 years.
09:48-09:56
But the crazy thing to think about is, if you follow the genealogies, Noah is most certainly alive during this event and his sons.
09:56-10:01
If you look at the genealogies, Noah doesn't die until Abraham is an adult.
10:02-10:03
It's like blows your mind.
10:04-10:06
But that's 11 generations of separation.
10:06-10:08
That is a long time.
10:08-10:18
So even if we're like half dozen generations into Noah's line, everybody on the earth knew what God had commanded them in Genesis chapter nine.
10:18-10:21
So everybody knew that God was telling them, fill the earth.
10:21-10:25
And this is exactly what they don't wanna do.
10:25-10:29
Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.
10:29-10:31
This is how sinful nature works.
10:31-10:35
This is what we inherited from Adam and Eve in the garden at the fall.
10:35-10:41
As a result, we have a disposition inside of us to do exactly the opposite of what God says.
10:41-10:44
And not just God, really any authority, right?
10:44-10:49
We see a sign that says, "Don't walk on the grass," and suddenly all I can think of is being on that grass.
10:50-10:53
That's what's going on here, willful disobedience.
10:54-11:02
So the most certain way that they set God's word aside is that God had commanded them to fill the earth, and they built a city and a tower to refuse to do that.
11:02-11:09
But there's some other interesting things, and again, these are less certain, they're not quite as in the text, but there's a Jewish tradition associated with this story.
11:10-11:15
It's not God's word, so it could be wrong, but I think it's still interesting and relevant for the subject.
11:16-11:24
The first century historian Flavius Josephus wrote "An Antiquity of the Jews." It's basically a commentary on the Old Testament.
11:25-11:30
And in there, he provides an interesting reason, a motivation for why they built the tower.
11:30-11:44
They said, the people at Babel said, "If God should have the mind to drown the world again, they would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach." They wanted to build an un-floodable tower.
11:45-11:45
Wow.
11:46-11:51
If this is true, it sure flies in the face of what God promised them right after the flood.
11:51-12:15
Later on in Genesis 9, verse 11, it says, "I establish my covenant with you "that never again shall all flesh be cut off "by the waters of a flood." And just in case you didn't get that, "And never again shall there be a flood "to destroy the earth." So God said, I'm never gonna flood the earth again, and the people decide to build a tower in case God decides to flood the earth again.
12:15-12:20
If that really was their motivation, what arrogant, foolish disobedience.
12:21-12:24
Foolish because they clearly have no idea who they're dealing with.
12:24-12:27
Like some tower's gonna stop God from accomplishing his purposes.
12:28-12:29
But we're gonna see that later.
12:30-12:32
And then there's even further speculation, right?
12:32-12:40
Are they building a stairway to heaven to try to ascend back to God and to be like God or undo what God had cursed them in the fall?
12:41-12:42
I don't know.
12:42-12:43
There's some people that think that.
12:43-12:49
There's other people that think that this is a tower like other ancient towers where they were worshiping the stars or idols.
12:49-12:50
I don't know, none of that's there.
12:51-13:00
What I can tell you for certain is that the city and the tower was a direct act of disobedience of what God had commanded them to fill the earth, at the very least.
13:01-13:04
And God's heart breaks when this happens.
13:04-13:06
Look at this verse in Isaiah 30, verse one.
13:07-13:22
It says, "Stubborn children, declares the Lord, "who carry out a plan but not mine, "who make an alliance but not of my spirit, "that they may add sin to sin." You know, it's so simple to set God's Word aside.
13:23-13:27
The Bible says that we have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.
13:28-13:32
The world means the man-made systems that are set up against God, right?
13:32-13:36
The world is doing everything in its power to silence God's Word.
13:36-13:43
We see this in our government, in our schools, in our media, and sadly even in the church, but thankfully not this one.
13:44-13:49
The flesh means our broken physical self that has real needs and desires.
13:50-13:55
The flesh is also regularly pulling us away from God's word because, frankly, we like our own word better.
13:56-13:57
And the devil?
13:57-14:00
The devil and his minions don't even need to show up here, right?
14:00-14:06
Because the world and the flesh are doing such a good job that the devil most of the of time doesn't even need to show up to try to tempt us.
14:07-14:12
So if you wanna build yourself a Babel, you have to first set aside God's word.
14:13-14:14
That brings us to step two.
14:15-14:18
Step two is make it all about me.
14:19-14:23
There is another motivation that's listed here in the text as to why they were building the tower.
14:24-14:26
Look at the language again in verse four.
14:27-14:34
It says, "Come, let us build ourselves a city "in the tower with its top to the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves.
14:36-14:36
Pretty self-absorbed, right?
14:37-14:40
Unfortunately, this second step might be the easiest of all.
14:40-14:45
And when we make it all about me, it makes it really easy to do the other steps, like setting God's word aside.
14:46-14:50
Occasionally I hear this dumb commercial on the radio about how 2020 is the year of you.
14:51-14:51
Isn't that every year?
14:52-14:54
When has there ever been a year that's not about me?
14:55-14:55
Right?
14:56-14:57
And we hear this all the time, right?
14:57-14:58
You're worth it.
14:58-14:59
You deserve it.
15:00-15:00
You're a victim.
15:01-15:03
Just do you or just be you.
15:04-15:07
And that lines up pretty well with the way our thoughts are most of the time.
15:07-15:08
You know what, I do deserve it.
15:09-15:10
What about me?
15:10-15:11
Where's mine?
15:11-15:13
I can't believe that they did that to me.
15:14-15:15
What a bunch of me monsters.
15:16-15:25
Whether we are self-righteous or self-pitying, most of the time we are primarily concerned with one person more than anyone else on the planet, self.
15:26-15:31
And the world feeds this mindset by telling us that the problem is actually we just have a lack of self-esteem.
15:31-15:33
We just need more me time.
15:33-15:37
But the Bible actually says that God opposes the proud and shows favor to the humble.
15:37-15:42
And I think this is one of the reasons that God teaches us some things as parents, right?
15:43-15:44
Anybody have any selfish kids?
15:45-15:46
I sure do.
15:46-15:50
Man, kids are selfish, and they just come right out of the womb that way, right?
15:50-15:52
Nobody has to teach them to be selfish.
15:53-15:56
Our youngest, Amaya, she turns three in April.
15:57-16:03
And I can't tell you how many times She just screams and cries over the dumbest things that she wants.
16:04-16:09
She literally lost her mind the other day because I threw away a Band-Aid that would no longer stick to her.
16:09-16:12
I look at God and go, are you seeing this?
16:12-16:16
And his gentle reminder was, try talking to me when you have 8 billion of them.
16:17-16:19
Touché, God, touché.
16:20-16:24
You know what, each of us are really good at making things all about me.
16:25-16:26
It just comes so naturally.
16:26-16:34
And our children are a not so gentle reminder of the me monsters that live inside of us and that we try to hide as we get older.
16:34-16:38
But even as we get older, we still love to make it all about me.
16:38-16:44
So you're doing a great job of building a babble if you make it ultra focused on yourself.
16:45-16:46
Let's look at the third step.
16:46-16:51
Step three, seek the approval of other people.
16:52-16:57
In this story, the entire world is united after the same goal.
16:58-16:59
Look at verse six again.
17:00-17:07
Behold, they are one people and they all have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do.
17:08-17:15
You know, in some ways, it's hard to fathom the entire world working together because of so much fighting and things that we've experienced in our own life.
17:16-17:23
But on the other hand, we can see pretty clearly in our day when unity, supposed unity, is used as a weapon to crush resistance.
17:24-17:27
Look, unity is a good thing, but it's not the best thing.
17:28-17:30
Unity is not the most important thing.
17:31-17:32
Truth is more important than unity.
17:33-17:42
Let me illustrate this by showing you the difference between accuracy and precision. So on the left, that's precision.
17:43-17:46
Precision is how close the shots are to each other.
17:46-17:47
Precision is a good thing.
17:48-17:50
We want to have precision when we're shooting at something.
17:51-17:58
However, accuracy is more important because it doesn't matter how close your shots are if you're hitting the wrong target or off the target altogether.
17:59-18:02
Accuracy is how close the shots are to the center of the target.
18:03-18:07
So unity is how close we are to each other, which is a good thing.
18:08-18:09
But truth is how close we are to reality.
18:10-18:12
Unity by itself is not enough.
18:13-18:18
In fact, being unified apart from truth is potentially the most dangerous situation the world can face.
18:20-18:26
Because when everybody is marching in the same direction, there is going to be nobody to tell you that you're headed towards sudden destruction.
18:27-18:32
Without a target, we have no chance of knowing if we're shooting in the right direction or aimed correctly.
18:33-18:39
Now, this isn't to say that we should only hang out with people who align with the truth.
18:40-18:43
In fact, that's supposed to be what the word tolerance means.
18:43-18:48
Your tolerance has been hijacked to mean accept all differences as equally true.
18:48-18:49
Tolerance doesn't mean that.
18:50-18:53
In reality, you only tolerate things you disagree with.
18:54-18:56
If you agree with somebody, you don't tolerate it.
18:56-18:57
You agree.
18:58-19:01
If you think something is true, you're not tolerating it by definition.
19:02-19:08
You only tolerate things you disagree with and live peaceably and not fight people that have a different view than you.
19:09-19:16
So you might say, though, that, you know, do we really choose the approval of other people over truth?
19:16-19:18
Does that really happen?
19:18-19:25
In our world of fake news, virtue signaling, and social media, do I really have to convince you that we seek the approval of other people?
19:25-19:28
Is that not in our face every single day?
19:28-19:40
Unfortunately, this idea of seeking the approval of other people is another idea that creeps into the church, another idea where, you know what, if we preach the truth too much, that might offend some people.
19:41-19:47
But thankfully at Harvest, we preach God's word without apology, as we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
19:47-19:50
But this is not a popular opinion in our world today.
19:51-19:53
But popularity isn't all it's cracked up to be.
19:54-19:58
Picture this in your mind, the entire world laser focused on a unified goal.
19:59-20:02
People shouting in agreement, almost chanting.
20:02-20:06
And the excitement is growing as the mob mentality picks up.
20:06-20:11
And the more unified they are, the more fervent that the world is towards this one goal.
20:11-20:12
What does that sound like?
20:12-20:14
Almost sounds like a religion.
20:14-20:17
So I said that building a Bible starts with religion.
20:18-20:24
I'm sorry, starts with technology, but it always turns into man-made religion, if left unchecked.
20:24-20:32
Throughout the Bible, Babylon, which originates here in our story in Genesis chapter 11, Babylon represents false religion.
20:33-20:37
It starts here in this worship of self, and let's make a name for ourselves.
20:38-20:38
That happens here.
20:39-20:46
But eventually Babylon comes back as the pagan empire who sends Judah into exile, as we read about in the book of Daniel and other places.
20:47-21:02
And finally, in Revelation, after Babylon is built back better, as the false religions last stand against God, there will come a time, not long from now, when the entire world will again be unified against God.
21:03-21:08
And I can promise you that God's response will not be the same as it is here in Genesis chapter 11.
21:09-21:14
To just give you an idea of how close we are approaching that, let me share with you a little bit of a scary example.
21:15-21:22
If you bring up that picture, Mike, today the European Parliament of the European Union has its official seat in Strasbourg, France.
21:23-21:29
They do most of their business in Brussels, but they do have a building here and it has a really interesting tower.
21:29-21:30
On the right is that tower.
21:31-21:40
The 1992 poster, which is on the left-hand side, looks almost identical to a really popular medieval painting of the Tower of Babel.
21:41-21:51
And the message that's on the bottom, the tagline is "Many tongues, one voice." This is a claim to overcome the confusion that God started here in Genesis chapter 11.
21:52-22:14
Now, we don't know what the real Tower of Babel looked like, but the EU's Parliament Building is deliberately an unfinished tower structure. Pretty conspicuous. So I'll leave that as food for thought. So if you want to build a babble, you need to seek the approval of other people. That's it.
22:15-22:26
It's three easy steps. So simple to follow. Let's start. Well, maybe before we start building, let's look at what God's response is to the babble of our story.
22:27-22:33
So if we look at God's response, the first thing that you should notice is is actually something sad about mankind.
22:34-22:37
Because you see, the whole world is working together on this awesome tower.
22:37-22:40
It's this great achievement, a tower that reaches to the heavens.
22:41-22:42
And then there's God.
22:42-22:44
Look what it says in verse five.
22:45-22:53
It says, "And the Lord came down to see the city "and the tower which the children of man have built." And it says it later in verse seven.
22:54-22:56
God has to come down to see this amazing tower.
22:57-23:09
Like, this is so casually written in there, but so intentionally to remind us that no matter how great of an achievement that man tries to do, God still has to condescend to be a part of it.
23:10-23:12
He can't even see it from where he is.
23:13-23:18
This is there to remind us that we cannot escape God's hugeness.
23:18-23:20
God is so much bigger than us.
23:21-23:22
And you know what?
23:22-23:25
In many ways, the people of Babel did make a name for themselves.
23:25-23:27
It just wasn't the name that they were hoping for, right?
23:28-23:37
'Cause now the people of Babel are forever enshrined in this story as people in infamy who will be always remembered as those guys that couldn't finish that tower.
23:38-23:41
So the first part of God's response is to notice kind of the sadness of man.
23:42-23:46
But there's also a sadness of God that I think you can hear in this passage.
23:47-23:49
Can you hear the disappointment of what he says in verse six?
23:50-23:51
"Behold, they are one people.
23:52-24:00
"They have all one language, "and this is only the beginning of what they will do, "and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
24:01-24:03
God has given us everything.
24:04-24:08
And he literally gave the people of Babel, the entire earth, and they refused it.
24:09-24:18
And like a parent of spoiled children, it must pain God to see us spending so much time and energy to fight against the things that he has done for us.
24:19-24:25
But even in God's sadness, I hope you see that God's response is not random or vindictive.
24:26-24:27
His response is an act of mercy.
24:28-24:32
Mercy is when God doesn't give us something that we do deserve.
24:32-24:39
So this is an act of mercy first because God doesn't instantaneously annihilate them for their disobedience against the king of the universe.
24:40-24:40
That's mercy.
24:41-24:51
But more than that, it's mercy because this is less about punishing disobedient subjects and more about keeping out of control children from harming themselves.
24:52-25:00
When your small child runs out into the street, you discipline them to to teach them about the danger that they're going to face if they go in the street.
25:00-25:03
We put barriers across the steps.
25:03-25:06
Is that to keep our kids from having fun?
25:06-25:08
Is that because we're trying to control them?
25:08-25:12
No, it's because we care about them and we don't want them to hurt themselves.
25:12-25:14
See, it's the same thing here.
25:15-25:17
God adds a barrier to self-destruction.
25:18-25:23
He adds a barrier to unified rebellion that they were so adamant about doing.
25:24-25:31
He confuses all the languages of the earth to buy time against our bent to do things against his will.
25:32-25:33
And frankly, it's been a pretty effective move.
25:34-25:38
Even to this day, languages keep the world from total unity.
25:39-25:46
Although with current technology, software named Bemble, and other things like that, we have almost nearly overcome that.
25:47-25:49
But you need to see this as God's act of mercy here.
25:49-25:51
He's not vindictively punishing them.
25:51-25:54
He's trying to keep them from harming themselves.
25:54-25:57
And it's even benefiting us to this day.
25:58-26:04
But the last thing that you need to see about God's response is that in the end, God himself accomplishes what he commanded them to do.
26:05-26:06
Look at verses eight and nine again.
26:07-26:13
It says, "So the Lord dispersed them from there "over the face of all the earth, "and they left off building the city.
26:13-26:19
"Therefore, its name was called Babel, "because there the Lord confused "the language of all the earth.
26:20-26:24
And from there, the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
26:25-26:25
God got the job done.
26:26-26:27
This is always the case.
26:28-26:33
When we choose to do things our own way instead of God, we are never thwarting God's plan.
26:34-26:35
We are never stopping it in any way.
26:37-26:38
His will is still going to happen.
26:39-26:42
But when we build babbles, we do get two results for ourselves.
26:43-26:45
One, everything is harder like it was here.
26:46-26:48
There's confusion and now they can't work together.
26:49-26:53
But the second thing we get when we build ourselves a babel is we miss out on the blessing.
26:54-27:00
Had they obeyed what God said to fill the earth, God would have been happy to reward them for their obedience.
27:00-27:06
But instead, God accomplishes what he commanded them to do and they miss out on the opportunity to receive any blessing.
27:07-27:11
And in fact, they now have everything harder than they could have.
27:12-27:14
So, what do we do?
27:14-27:19
I think God's response should make us pause and do some self-reflection.
27:19-27:23
Building babbles is way too easy, way too easy.
27:23-27:25
And think of how often we do this in our lives.
27:26-27:36
From getting good grades in schools, to the way that we advance in our careers, from the relationships that we form, to the causes that we are adamantly passionate about.
27:37-27:41
If God is left out of these things, are we hitting the right target?
27:41-27:43
Are we just trying to make a name for ourselves?
27:44-27:46
Are we setting ourselves up for total destruction?
27:47-27:49
Look, leaving God out is way too easy.
27:50-27:59
And even scarier is how easy it is to leave God out, even when you're doing ministry in the church, even when you're preparing a sermon on the very subject.
28:01-28:03
Obviously, we don't wanna build any babbles.
28:03-28:05
So you don't really wanna do any of these steps.
28:06-28:11
So if you take your outline, and at the beginning, in front of the word, build yourself a babble, put don't.
28:12-28:15
Don't build yourself a babble in three easy steps.
28:15-28:16
We're gonna revise this.
28:17-28:21
Now that we've looked at God's direction, we don't actually wanna follow what we first wrote down.
28:21-28:27
So step one, put God's word, cross out a side and write first.
28:27-28:29
We need to put God's word first.
28:30-28:35
Step two, make it all about cross out me and write Christ.
28:37-28:43
And the last step, seek the approval of, cross out other people and write God alone.
28:43-28:46
Look, God has put it in our hearts to do amazing things.
28:47-28:51
because we bear his image, and all he does is amazing things.
28:52-28:55
And when we do awesome things, we are like our heavenly father.
28:56-29:01
But when we do anything that neglects or subverts his authority, we show ourselves to be traitors.
29:02-29:04
And as traitors, we deserve death.
29:05-29:07
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death.
29:08-29:09
And that's what we deserve.
29:09-29:15
While seeking to make a name for ourselves, the only thing we bring is infamy, confusion, and condemnation.
29:16-29:20
and without God's help, our life is nothing but an unfinished tower.
29:21-29:27
But, but, when we put God's word first, look at what it says here in Proverbs 18, 10.
29:27-29:29
The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
29:30-29:32
The righteous man runs into it and is safe.
29:33-29:41
And then in Proverbs 16, nine, it says, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
29:41-29:46
When we put God's word first, we can see that our plans will be established.
29:46-29:50
When we put God's word first, we will see that they will not end in destruction.
29:52-30:05
And second, when we make it all about Christ, we see in Romans 10, nine, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
30:05-30:16
And then in Acts four, it says, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which men must be saved.
30:16-30:19
The only name that we can make for ourselves is the name of Christ.
30:20-30:23
That is the name that we should seek to apply to ourselves.
30:23-30:27
When we can make it all about Christ, we can be that finished tower.
30:27-30:31
We can be that amazing thing that God wants us to do.
30:32-30:39
And last, when we seek the approval of God alone, we can hear that amazing verse that happens in Matthew chapter 25.
30:39-30:42
God will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant.
30:42-30:44
You have been faithful over a little.
30:44-30:46
I will set you over much.
30:46-30:48
Enter into the joy of your master.
30:49-30:55
And when we seek the approval of God alone, we recognize we're not just building our own tower to make a name for ourselves.
30:55-31:00
God is building us into something greater than our own little tower that God has to come down and see.
31:00-31:02
Look at what it says in 1 Peter 2.
31:03-31:15
You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
31:16-31:28
When we put the approval of God as the main thing that we're seeking after, we get to be a part of the amazing work that God is doing, which is gonna last forever and not be some unfinished tower.
31:28-31:34
So my challenge to you is to do awesome things, but don't do them apart from God.
31:35-31:36
Don't build yourself a babble.
31:37-31:42
You need to involve God in the planning and execution of everything that you do.
31:43-31:43
Let's pray.
31:44-31:46
Father God, I thank you for your word.
31:47-31:53
God, I thank you for the way that you are patient with your people, even when we are disobedient to you, God.
31:54-32:05
I pray now that as we think about what your word has said to us and think about our lives and evaluate where we're rebuilding ourselves, Babels, God, I pray that you would convict us.
32:06-32:10
God, that you would bring to mind the areas that we are leaving you out of.
32:11-32:20
God, that you would teach us that we need to put your word first, that we need to make it all about Christ and that we need to seek the approval of you alone.
32:21-32:23
God, I thank you that you're patient.
32:24-32:30
I thank you that you've given us your word preserved for all of time for us to learn from and to benefit from, God.
32:30-32:38
And I thank you for the group of believers that are here that we can encourage each other and tear down the babbles in our own life, Lord.
32:38-32:45
God, I pray that we would be a people unified, but a people unified for your truth above all else, Lord.
32:46-32:52
And I thank you that you are with us in all of this, God, that you are empowering these efforts to serve you.
32:53-32:58
And so I pray, God, that we would do nothing apart from you, but do everything for your glory.
32:58-33:00
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Genesis 11:1-9

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
What babels have you built before? Are you building any now?
What is one thing that you learned from this passage? And how will this change you?
Applying the revised 3 steps, what practical and specific steps can you take to ensure that you don't build a babel?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

January 31, 2021

This is Who We Are

This is Who We Are: Pillar 4

Jeff Miller

January 31, 2021

This is Who We Are

  
  Introduction:

  The Two Motivations to Share the Good News of Jesus That Are Embraced by Every True Witness (2 Cor 5:14-21):

I'm controlled by Love . (2 Cor 5:14-15)
I'm defined by Identity . (2 Cor 5:18-21)

  
    Trustee  (2 Cor 5:18-19)
  
Ambassador (2 Cor 5:20a)
Spokesperson  (2 Cor 5:20bc)

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

00:42-00:46
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to 2 Corinthians 5.
00:46-00:47
We're in this series.
00:48-00:49
This is who we are.
00:50-00:56
And if you're new around here, we've been spending some time talking about this is our identity as a church.
00:58-00:59
So if you're new, it's a great introduction.
01:00-01:15
And if you've been with us for a long time, again, it's just so important that we get back to this, that we don't forget who we are and what we're about, so we don't drift and start doing some crazy, unbiblical, non-Christ-centered things.
01:17-01:18
This is why we do these series.
01:21-01:28
2 Corinthians 5, while you're turning there, several years ago, we had a knock at our door.
01:28-01:43
I was sitting at the dining room table, and Aaron went and answered the door, and there was a guy at our door who said, "Hey, I just got done sealing a driveway up the street, and I got some extra material, I'll seal your driveway for $220.
01:44-01:45
Anybody ever have somebody show up at your house like that?
01:46-01:48
Show up and, "That guy's been to your house too? A lot of you.
01:51-01:57
Okay." Well, Erin goes, "You know what? My husband actually just did our driveway," which I did.
01:58-02:04
She goes, "My husband just did our driveway like a month ago, so it's like a 10-year sealant.
02:04-02:07
I don't think we need to do it again, but thank you.
02:09-02:11
And he goes, well, I have the extra material.
02:11-02:12
It won't take me that long.
02:12-02:13
It's only $220.
02:15-02:17
And my wife's like, we don't really need it, thank you.
02:19-02:23
And he said, is the man of the house home?
02:25-02:32
And I said, I'm right here, and I'm going to go get some popcorn, because I want to watch how the rest of this conversation goes.
02:36-02:38
I'm going to fast forward through the next few minutes.
02:41-02:48
He limped back to his truck and he came back next year.
02:48-02:49
Same guy, same story.
02:49-02:54
I was in the neighborhood and I have the extra material and I can do it real quick.
02:54-03:06
And my wife's like, "Still no." You're like, "Why are you telling us this story?" in heaven, I'm going to be that guy.
03:08-03:10
I'm going to be that guy in heaven.
03:11-03:35
Because I'm going to go around and say, "Hey, can I tell you how awesome Jesus is, and how He died to take away your sin and rose from the dead to give eternal life?" And everybody in heaven is going to be like, "We know." "No, no, no, if you receive Him, you have the gift of heaven!" they're going to be like, "Dude, we're here." Like, you don't understand.
03:37-03:41
Jesus Christ loves you so much that He was willing to lay His life down.
03:42-03:48
And they're going to say, "Goat boy, are you new here?" Because we know the message of the Gospel.
03:49-03:52
And I'm going to be like driveway guy walking around with my bucket of sealant.
03:53-03:56
"Anybody want to hear the Gospel?" We know! We got it!
03:59-04:00
No.
04:02-04:03
I'm going to be out of a job in heaven.
04:05-04:06
And that's okay.
04:07-04:08
Do you know what that means?
04:10-04:21
That means while I'm on the earth, I have to take every opportunity that I have to do the one thing that I will not be doing in heaven.
04:24-04:26
Not just me. You too.
04:28-04:38
Every opportunity the Lord gives you to do the one thing you will not do in heaven, and that is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
04:41-04:42
This is who we are.
04:43-04:45
We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
04:46-04:48
We lift high the name of Jesus through worship.
04:48-04:50
We believe firmly in the power of prayer.
04:51-04:52
And this is our fourth pillar.
04:54-04:56
We share the good news of Jesus with boldness.
04:57-04:59
So, how do we share?
05:00-05:01
How do we share?
05:03-05:10
I have a stack of books in my office that I was looking at this past week, and every book is about how.
05:11-05:12
How. How do we share? How do you share the Gospel?
05:13-05:13
How do you share the Gospel with someone?
05:13-05:14
How do you share the Gospel with someone?
05:16-05:22
And, you know, biblically there's really only one word used to describe how we are to share.
05:23-05:29
And that is the word "boldness." Boldness doesn't mean obnoxious, okay?
05:30-05:37
Boldness doesn't mean showing up at your neighbor's house saying, "Hey, pagan, you're going to hell!" That's not boldness.
05:37-05:39
That's obnoxious.
05:40-05:41
That's jerky.
05:43-05:45
Boldness doesn't mean condescending.
05:46-05:48
Boldness doesn't mean self-righteous.
05:49-05:50
Boldness simply means this.
05:51-05:58
When God gives me opportunity to share the message of His Son, I'm going to open my mouth and share it.
05:58-06:00
That's all boldness means.
06:03-06:04
But boldness is how.
06:05-06:09
And you know with this series, I'm not going to focus on how, I want to focus on why.
06:11-06:15
I want to talk about why do we share the message of Jesus with boldness.
06:17-06:18
Why? Why evangelism?
06:18-06:20
Why witnessing? Why? Why?
06:20-06:40
And some of you coming in here, maybe you heard Dr. Andrew give the announcements and you're like, "Oh, a message on evangelism! Oh!" Pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip, and Jeff's going to get up and tell us what horrible Christians we are because we don't share with our neighbor, and you're not getting any of that today.
06:45-06:51
Because when it comes to evangelism, the message, we got that. Easy, right?
06:51-06:52
We got the message.
06:53-06:54
It's all written down.
06:54-06:56
You have a copy on your lap right now.
06:56-06:57
We've got the message.
06:58-07:02
And the method, that's easy too.
07:03-07:03
Boldness, right?
07:04-07:10
When God gives you opportunity, you're just going to open your mouth and say about what Jesus Christ has done for you.
07:10-07:11
That's easy.
07:14-07:15
Today I want to talk about the motivation.
07:18-07:20
Because I can give you all the information.
07:21-07:29
I've taught so many classes on evangelism and how to and different ways to, and I can give you that.
07:32-07:35
But something that I cannot give you is the motivation.
07:35-07:38
I can give you the message and I can give you the method, but I cannot give you the motivation.
07:39-07:39
I can't do that.
07:40-07:42
The motivation has to come from God.
07:43-07:45
Only His Spirit can do that.
07:47-07:50
So in your outline today, if you're taking those, I'm going to look at two things.
07:52-07:56
The two motivations to share the good news of Jesus that are embraced by every true witness.
07:58-08:03
I had some time allotted to shorten that heading, but I got a phone call and I never got back.
08:05-08:06
So that's what we're going with today.
08:07-08:13
The two motivations, biblically, to share the good news of Jesus, and these are embraced by every true witness.
08:15-08:16
2 Corinthians 5.
08:17-08:18
Jot this down first of all.
08:19-08:20
I'm controlled by love.
08:22-08:23
Look at v. 14.
08:25-08:30
It says, "For the love of Christ controls us." Stop right there.
08:33-08:44
"For the love of Christ controls us." And you have to see that Paul isn't saying, "I'm controlled by my love for Jesus." And I think that's what we want the passage to say.
08:44-08:51
Like, "I love Jesus so much and I just can't help sharing with people." That's not what it says.
08:52-09:14
He's like, "We are controlled by His love for us." And I just have to tell you, if you don't know the power that love has to motivate you to the point of actually controlling you, I would just say you haven't met the right person.
09:18-09:20
And you certainly haven't met Jesus.
09:22-09:26
Because nothing moves a person like love.
09:27-09:30
If you're married, you can look at your husband or your wife right now.
09:33-09:39
Go ahead, and then say, "Nothing moves me like your love for me." Go ahead.
09:40-09:41
Early Valentine's Day present.
09:44-09:46
I am so glad the people at home can't see this.
09:48-09:48
That was terrible.
09:50-09:51
That was unconvincing.
09:52-09:55
We're starting a sermon series next week on marriage.
09:57-10:01
Not really, but I'm really rethinking that now.
10:04-10:07
Nothing motivates like love.
10:10-10:13
Nothing motivates like Jesus' love for me.
10:16-10:20
You see, it's like telling a child to get excited about Christmas.
10:21-10:24
Or it's like telling a bride-to-be to be thinking about her wedding.
10:25-10:30
Or like telling the mom of a special needs kid to be protective of her child.
10:31-10:32
I don't need to do any of those things.
10:35-10:43
And that's exactly what it's like trying to convince someone who knows Jesus' love to share Jesus' love with other people.
10:43-10:45
They're like, "You don't got to tell me to share Jesus with people.
10:46-10:51
Because He is so awesome, and everything He's done, I can't help it.
10:52-10:58
I love telling people about what God has done.
11:01-11:03
So how does His love control us?
11:03-11:05
Well, get back to verse 14. He tells us.
11:08-11:31
He says, "Because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all that those who live no longer live for themselves, but for Him, who for their sake died and was raised." How does Jesus' love control us?
11:31-11:35
He tells us being alive in Christ means being dead to myself.
11:36-11:43
My life belongs to Jesus, and because it belongs to Jesus, I can't live for myself, because His love controls me.
11:45-12:19
My God loves me, and through the death of Jesus on the cross, taken away all of my sin, all of my guilt, all of my shame, and that love moves me to do everything that He's called me to do. I don't feel obligated to be standing up here and telling you this. And you talk to anybody who's serving in our ministry teams or our elders, nobody's obligated here. Nobody's taking a guilt trip to teach a class or lead a ministry. It's like, I'm doing this because of the the way Jesus loves me.
12:21-12:24
It's a privilege to do what He's called me to do.
12:26-12:30
So no, I'm not going to spend time today telling you how to evangelize.
12:33-12:34
And you're like, "Well, are you ever?" Yeah.
12:36-12:47
We're in a three-year series in the Gospel of John right now called "Knowing Jesus." If you know Him, you'll love Him.
12:48-12:52
But more importantly, you'll know that He loves you.
12:53-12:58
That's why we're doing this series in the Gospel of John we're getting back to in two weeks.
12:59-13:00
That's why we're doing it.
13:01-13:07
Because everything in the Christian life is about knowing Him.
13:07-13:09
It's about a relationship with the living God.
13:10-13:14
And when we talk about sharing the good news of Jesus with Buldus, That's how it happens.
13:15-13:17
It comes as you know Him.
13:20-13:21
That controls you.
13:23-13:28
The number one thing a witness for Christ needs is knowing Jesus' love.
13:29-13:33
And by the way, speaking of love, there's a secondary motivation from love.
13:35-13:36
And it's a love for people.
13:37-13:39
It really flows from the first.
13:40-13:40
Look at verse 16.
13:44-13:49
He says, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
13:50-14:05
Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer." Paul says, "I stopped seeing people as external, just looking at the outside." He said, "We used to look at Christ that way.
14:05-14:21
We looked at Jesus and we just saw He's this Jewish guy, and he's a blasphemer, and I don't really like him or regard him." Paul says, "That's how we used to think of Jesus, but now we see Him for who He is.
14:22-14:29
Our eyes have been opened." He says, "And now I see people differently.
14:32-14:35
I see people as spiritual beings.
14:37-14:46
And I probably don't have to sell you on the fact that we have drifted so far from that in our day, seeing people as spiritual beings.
14:46-14:48
How do we see people in our day?
14:50-14:52
More than ever, it's external, right?
14:54-15:01
Oh, if we find out your political persuasion, you're either an idiot Republican or you're an evil Democrat, That's how we see people.
15:03-15:09
Or you're like, "I'm independent." Okay, then you're a weirdo independent.
15:12-15:14
That's how we see people.
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Or we look at people according to purely like sexual preference.
15:19-15:27
He is a homosexual, she is a lesbian, they are transgender, and we just, we want to slap these external labels on people.
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or we look at people according to the money they have, or the money they don't have.
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You're part of the 1%, you're part of the 99%, or whatever.
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Can we just acknowledge that all of these things are external things that sometimes we don't get deeper to say, "This is an eternal soul.
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This person is going to spend eternity somewhere, either in the presence of the God who loves, We're apart from the God who loves forever in hell.
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We need to see people not as external, but as eternal.
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Eternal souls.
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And I have the message that God uses to transform them.
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Look at verse 17.
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"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
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The old has passed away.
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Behold, the new has come." New creation.
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Jesus Christ didn't come into the world to turn bad people into good people.
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Jesus came to turn dead people into alive people.
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Christ's love controls us, and as a result, His love for people is now our love for people.
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And that's compelling.
16:57-17:01
So two motivations to share the good news of Jesus embraced by every true witness.
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First of all, I'm controlled by love.
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Second thing, jot this down.
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I'm defined by identity.
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I'm defined by identity.
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Now, evangelism is commanded.
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Yes, absolutely, 100%, great commission, but when it comes down to actually witnessing, to just simply say, "We're commanded to do it," that's true, but just simply saying that much doesn't really capture the bigger motivation behind sharing Christ.
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I want you to see in this passage that your motivation has to be tied to your identity.
17:57-17:58
Think about it this way.
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You need to move from "I have to witness" to "I am a witness." See the difference between the two?
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"I have to witness.
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That's what God has told me to do." There's truth in that.
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The deeper truth is, I am a witness.
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Because that's what God has called me.
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And you're like, "Well, I hear what you're saying, Jeff, but you know, witnessing is not really my thing." And I would say, first of all, don't say it like that.
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And second of all, if you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, Witnessing is your thing.
18:49-18:51
The issue is you're either a good witness or you're a bad witness, really.
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But you're a witness if you're one of Christ's, right?
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Because it's your identity.
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It's not your chore.
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It's your identity.
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And you're like, "Man, can you back that up?" Well, let's look down at verse 18, shall we?
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Because Paul describes this identity with three pictures.
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The first, we're looking at verses 18 and 19.
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The first picture is a picture of a trustee.
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He says, "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
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So first of all, according to God, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're a trustee.
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Did you see that?
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He uses that with a couple phrases here.
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The first one, he says, "The ministry of reconciliation was given to us," and then he says, "it was entrusted to us." Think about that.
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In this church, we entrust money to Andrew and Sean.
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They lead our finance team.
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So when you give, we're giving to God.
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Yes, right, Alex? We're giving to God.
20:17-20:18
Right? Okay, thank you.
20:20-20:25
We're giving to God, but there's a sense in the church that we're entrusting the money to Andrew and Sean.
20:25-20:26
Right?
20:29-20:38
And you're like, "If I'm giving money to God through these guys' hands, they better be reliable.
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They better be honest.
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We better be able to trust these guys if I'm giving the money that I worked for to them.
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We better trust these guys.
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But you know, if we do something even more audacious than that, we entrust our children to Mandy.
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(laughter)
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That statement I just made has nothing to do with Mandy's character as much as it has to do with how much more precious our children are to us than our money.
21:13-21:13
Amen?
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That would have been a much easier sell when it wasn't Family Sunday.
21:19-21:20
Right?
21:20-21:23
When we're thinking of our kids back there instead of right here.
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But we entrust our children to Mandy.
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You know, this is life.
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We love these people more than anything, and we do everything for them, and we come here on a Sunday, and we're like, "Mandy, here, I'm trusting you with the most precious thing that I have." Okay, so, God has given to us something that He is trusting us with.
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God says, "I have this ministry of reconciliation.
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I can change people eternally through this message." And God says, "Here, I'm giving this to you." Now just as seriously as we would take Andrew and Sean with the money, just as seriously as we would take Mandy watching the kids, how seriously do you think God takes it when He says, "Here, I'm trusting this with you"?
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He's pretty serious about that.
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You think God's pretty serious when He says, "Hey, people are lost, and people are self-destructing, and people are heading to hell.
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So here, I'm giving this to you.
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I'm trusting you.
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You make sure they get this." You're a trustee.
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It's in your lap.
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Can God trust you with it?
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So not only are you a trustee, you're also an ambassador.
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Look at verse 20 again.
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It says, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God, making His appeal through us." Let's stop there.
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An ambassador.
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What's an ambassador?
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It's somebody that's in another country, they're representing the king from their country.
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Right?
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And they're not in this other country for personal gain, they're not trying to establish their own agenda, and they're certainly not there to change the culture of the other country.
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They are there simply to represent the king in another culture.
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If you're a born again believer, you too are in another culture, and you too are representing the king from your culture.
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You're like, "What's the other culture?" This!
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Earth!
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This is the other culture and you are a citizen of heaven representing the King of heaven.
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That is a very serious responsibility.
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You're representing heaven to people.
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You're representing Jesus Christ to people.
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So we're trustees, we're ambassadors.
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Letter C, you're also a spokesperson.
24:25-24:39
Back to verse 20, he says, "God making His appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." First of all, it says God is making His appeal.
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You know what that means? Appeal?
24:42-24:43
That's an urgent request.
24:45-24:48
God's like, "Hey, I need to tell you something, It's really important!
24:49-24:50
He's making his appeal.
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God is making His appeal to the world through you.
24:59-25:02
But it's even deeper than that.
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Because He says, "We implore you on behalf of Christ." Now that word "implore" this is going to sound strange.
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That word "implore" means to desperately beg.
25:21-25:25
In other words, if Jesus Christ was here right now, what would He be doing?
25:25-25:30
He would be desperately begging the world to receive His gift.
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Because it says, "We're imploring you on behalf of Christ." Like Jesus isn't physically here, but He's spiritually here in His people.
25:40-25:42
because I represent Jesus, I've got to tell you something.
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He is begging you to get off of the path that you're on and to trust Him.
25:50-25:54
And I just have to ask you, church, do you see the heart of God behind these commands?
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Do you see the heart of God that we are to represent?
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Some people sort of view God in heaven as distant and unemotional, and He sort of put the plan out, God's just kind of in heaven with His arms folded, and He's like, "Turn or burn, I don't care." That's how some people view God.
26:17-26:22
That God's up in heaven looking down, and He's saying, "Look, get right, or get left.
26:25-26:30
Whatever." But there's a real passion and emotion behind this.
26:30-26:36
Because of the love that God has, Not just for His people, but for the lost.
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Because of what is at stake.
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What's at stake is something that we prefer not to think about.
26:49-27:12
So often people talk to me about unsafe co-workers, for example, and they're like, "Man, Jeff, I work with this guy, and man, Jeff, he is so lost, and this guy needs Jesus so bad, work with this guy, he needs Jesus so bad." And my response is, "If only God had a spokesperson working with that guy.
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If only God had somebody, somebody that knew the message of Jesus, that could be in proximity of this guy, and maybe spoke the same language this guy spoke, and could maybe tell him, 'That's you, home slice.
27:32-27:36
In case you didn't pick it up, you're the spokesperson.
27:39-27:50
So these aspects of identity, being a trustee, being an ambassador, being a spokesperson, that means getting the message right, obviously.
27:52-27:53
You're going to get the message right.
27:53-27:54
What's the message?
27:55-28:00
Well, five times in these verses, five times, same word comes up, reconcile.
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The Gospel is not often presented that way, but that's how the Bible presents it.
28:08-28:10
That there's a hostility between God and man.
28:10-28:18
We are enemies with God by nature, because God is holy and perfect and just, and we are sinful and rebellious and self-centered.
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And we are enemies of God, and God wants to reconcile.
28:26-28:34
God says, "Look, you have sinned against Me, I have made provisions so that you can have your sin taken away.
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Every nasty thought you've had, every rotten attitude, every harsh word, every time you've avoided doing what you know you should have done, all of that's sin.
28:50-28:51
Everyone knows.
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Everyone knows deep down that we are flawed people.
28:56-28:57
Everyone knows that.
28:57-29:00
When you're sharing Christ with people, you already have that advantage.
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We know deep down that we are miserably rotten people.
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And people deep down wonder, "Well, what happens someday when I die?
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Where do I go?
29:10-29:12
What happens when I stand before God?
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What happens when I have to answer for all of the wrong things that I've done?" See, that's where the good news comes in.
29:19-29:28
This is where I get to represent God and say, "Hey, there's a way God will never hold your sin against you.
29:31-29:33
Like, well, how can that be?
29:33-29:37
You know, I've really messed up a lot of things in my life.
29:37-29:39
I've really made a lot of bad choices.
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I've really hurt some people.
29:41-29:46
And I don't understand how you could say God will not hold my sin against me.
29:48-29:50
How can that possibly be?
29:50-29:51
Well, look at verse 21.
29:53-29:55
in my mind, the most profound verse in the whole Bible.
29:57-30:03
He says, "For our sake, He made Him..." That's God the Father made Jesus, okay?
30:03-30:28
"For our sake, He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." In other words, for the one who will believe, When Jesus Christ was on the cross, God treated Him as if He lived your life.
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And as a result of Jesus' sacrifice, now God treats you as if you lived Jesus' life.
30:45-31:03
That in a profound way that I will never be able I can fully wrap my brain around when Jesus was on the cross, He took your sin on Himself, and in exchange, He gives you His righteousness.
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That in Christ, God sees you as sinless and perfect and holy, not because of your conduct, but because of what His Son accomplished on the cross.
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I'm not going to tell you.
31:19-31:21
That's life-changing stuff right there.
31:24-31:32
So every true believer says, "You know, I don't really need commanded to share that message.
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But I'll tell you what, I am going to share that message.
31:38-31:47
Because the love of Christ controls me, and honestly, that's just who God called me to be." Come on, let's pray.
31:48-31:57
Father in heaven, your gospel is beyond human explanation.
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Sometimes those of us who have known it for a while can take it for granted.
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What a staggering thought that the God of the universe would pay the penalty that we owe.
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It's just staggering.
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that You would love us that much.
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That Your Son would take our sin on Himself and He would give us His righteousness.
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It's absolutely staggering, Father.
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And even if we can't fully wrap our brains around it, we believe it.
32:55-32:57
And we certainly thank You for it.
32:59-33:07
Specifically today, Father, we thank You that You have given us the ministry of reconciliation.
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In Your wisdom, Father, there are literally trillions of other ways You could have used to communicate Your Gospel that You have chosen to entrust the message to us.
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And I just pray for my brothers and sisters here, especially as the days are evil, especially as people want to hear it less and less.
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At the same time, Father, You are preparing people for it.
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You are already at work in the hearts of people that You are entrusting us to come along and share the message of Your Son.
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Father, I pray that as we draw near to Jesus Christ, we allow His love to control us.
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Father, I pray that we look at ourselves the way that You do.
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We find our identity being ambassadors of heaven.
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Father, it's all for Your glory and honor.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain how the love of Christ controls us (2 Cor 5:14-15). How does that motivate you to share the Good News of Jesus with others?
What is the difference between “I am commanded to witness” vs “I am a witness”? How does understanding your identity make you an effective witness for sharing the Good News of Jesus?
What would you say to someone who says, “Honestly - I don't really share Christ with others. It's just not my gift.”

Breakout
Pray for boldness – when opportunity comes to share Jesus with someone, you take that opportunity.

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Call

Introduction:

A Sales Pitch to Die (John 12:20-26):

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Triumph

Introduction:

Two Reasons People Turn Against Jesus (John 12:12-19):

Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Value

Introduction:

Knowing His Value: When Your Actions Reveal Your Heart (John 12:1-11):

Build Yourself a Babel

Introduction:

What is a Babel?

Build Yourself a Babel in 3 Easy Steps: (Genesis 11:1-9)

God's Response

DON'T Build Yourself a Babel in 3 Easy Steps:

This is Who We Are: Pillar 4

Introduction:

The Two Motivations to Share the Good News of Jesus That Are Embraced by Every True Witness (2 Cor 5:14-21):

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

A Sales Pitch to Die (John 12:20-26):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Two Reasons People Turn Against Jesus (John 12:12-19):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Knowing His Value: When Your Actions Reveal Your Heart (John 12:1-11):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

What is a Babel?

Build Yourself a Babel in 3 Easy Steps: (Genesis 11:1-9)

God's Response

DON'T Build Yourself a Babel in 3 Easy Steps:

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

The Two Motivations to Share the Good News of Jesus That Are Embraced by Every True Witness (2 Cor 5:14-21):

Audio Transcript