Who Is Jesus?

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Well, amen if you have your Bibles this morning turn to the gospel of John chapter 1 John chapter 1 this morning and Gonna be sharing a message this morning.
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I had a message I was talking to your pastor and had a message the Lord kind of spoke to him about here I and I were talking and for some reason just about as fast we started talking the
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Lord said no This is where I want you to go. And then he said where are you gonna be preaching? I said, well the Lord just changed it and this is where we're gonna be and I understand he's been preaching through the gospel
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Of John so we're gonna go back and look at John chapter 1 and I want to ask ask and kind of try and answer the
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Question this morning. Who is this Jesus? I've been praying for you guys. We haven't actually haven't had a chance to meet
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Pastor David. We've Spoke on the phone several times and it's brother Ben. I believe who's in DC now and We've met him and talked to him a couple of times and we've been praying
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For you and your congregation for quite some time. We're going to continue to do that I want to pray always I feel a bit like Paul Paul said
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I have a heart for all the churches and So it's interesting that God has allowed me been preaching for over 40 years preaching and teaching but pastor for about 22
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But so about half my ministry has been traveling and preaching and I love it I love being in congregations of God and meeting different people and meeting my brothers and sisters in Christ and one of my greatest joys right now is every
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Summer we get to go to Honduras and and meet my meet our Spanish -speaking brothers and sisters in Christ.
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And so It's just a blessing to be able to bring the word hopefully been encouragement to us this morning So John chapter 1 verse 29 to 51 and normally
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I would have you stand for the reading of the word But this is quite a lengthy section and and I tend to when
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I'm reading comment as I'm reading and then we get into the message So I'll let you remain seated this morning
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But we're in John chapter 1 verse 29 and we're going to read down to the end of the chapter
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The Bible says the next day John sees Jesus coming unto him and says behold
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The Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world This is he of whom
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I said after me comes a man which is preferred before me who for he was before me and I knew him
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But that he should be made manifest to Israel therefore am I come baptizing with water and John bear record saying
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I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him
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And I knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me Upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him.
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The same is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost And I saw and bear record that this is the
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Son of God As we continue to read and think about this passage What we've already seen here is two different ways that John has addressed
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Jesus first He addresses him in verse 29 is the Lamb of God and here in verse 34 is the
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Son of God There are actually six titles that are used to address or five that are used to address
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Jesus in this chapter But there's one title by which Jesus addresses himself and that's the title that Jesus preferred for himself we'll talk about that more when we get there, but it's interesting that the first two ways that Jesus is recognized in the beginning of his ministry and the
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Launching of everything that he came to do is as the Lamb of God and the Son of God I would argue that these are probably two of the greatest
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Two of the most difficult titles that we have today two of the greatest stumbling blocks of the world today when it comes to answering the
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Question who is this Jesus? and so we have the Lamb of God and we have the Son of God and now in verse 35 again the next day after John Stood and two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked.
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He said behold the Lamb of God. So there it is again In verse 37, the two disciples heard him speak and they followed
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Jesus Then Jesus turned saw them following and said unto them. What do you seek? They said unto him rabbi, which is to say being interpreted master or teacher
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Where do you dwell so there's the third way that they've addressed Jesus He said unto them come and see well the three of the most beautiful words in Scripture come and see come and see
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I would add this morning that ought to mark the life of the Christian that ought to mark our lives as unbelievers
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We ought to live in such a way in such a way that we're inviting people into our lives Jesus invited people into our lives when
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I teach on evangelism and talk about evangelism one of the things I say is that we ought to live our lives in such a way that we get an
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Invitation to give an invitation. We ought to live so that people are welcome into our lives We we are supposed to be some of the most winsome and wonderful people in the world because of grace because of salvation
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When people come to us and see us they should see Jesus in us They should be drawn to God and not pushed away from him and we have to take great care
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How we live is the children of God in this world that when people see us and we say
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Come and see when they say why are you the way you are? Why do you live this? Why do you believe them we can say to them? We'll come and see and they they actually want to come and see and learn
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And so he said come and see and they came and saw we dwelt in a boat with him that day for it was about the Tenth hour and in verse 41 of the two which heard
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John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother He first finds his own brother Simon and said unto him.
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We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ So now we have another title
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We have Messiah and Christ the same title Messiah the Old Testament Christ the New Testament the same name the anointed one of God So they start with him as teacher and now they're recognizing that he's the
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Messiah. It's a big jump from rabbi to Messiah In verse 42, he brought him to Jesus and when
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Jesus beheld him He said you are Simon the son of Jonah and you shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation of stone
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The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find Philip and saying to him follow me Now Philip was a
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Bethesda Bethesda at the city of Andrew and Peter and Philip finds Nathanael and said unto him we have found him of whom
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Moses in the law And the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the son of not the son of Joseph.
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What a what a bold statement We have found him who has satisfied all of the Old Testament We have found the one who satisfies everything the
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Old Testament teaches about the one that would come to us That's that's just these observations are amazing
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And we we we we read this hopefully understanding if we've been in church any length of time and we know the scriptures we know that all of these things that are happening these initial meetings with Jesus the the the recognition the excitement is going to also be followed by the remainder of this book and the other
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Gospels and all the New Testament teaches us about how these Men would struggle in their walk with Christ and I say that because beloved that's part of the
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Christian life As we finish when we get through this morning Hopefully we will see that struggle but be encouraged
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But the fact that yes that struggle is a part of this life and I would argue that if we're not struggling then That has caused a question whether or not we have truly met this
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Jesus See some people think it's the center that struggles. I would argue that it's the Christian that struggles the sinners do struggle
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Don't get me wrong Unbelievers will struggle if you're outside of Christ you will struggle but for very different reasons
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Things that bother you will be very different things than the things that bother us as the children of God And so we have these men who are following him and now they've recognized him as the
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Messiah in there And then Philip says we found him who all of Moses and the law writes and then in verse 46
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Nathanael said unto him can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And so Philip said now get this come and see does that sound familiar?
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See Philip is now using the words of Jesus And that's how we ought to live our Christian life if we're gonna have an influence and a witness in the world in this world
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The best way we can do it. It's not with our worlds. It's not it's not with our words. It's not with our power It's not in our flesh.
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It is in the words and the power of God And so Philip says come and see
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In verse 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.
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I Read in the commentaries where some preachers and commentators wanted to question whether or not Jesus was being somewhat sarcastic
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I don't know that sarcasm was a tool in Jesus toolbox I think Jesus is just making an honest observation because he knew
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Nathanael so much so that in verse 48 Nathanael said, how do you know me? Jesus answered and said unto him before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree.
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I saw you Nathanael answered and said unto him rabbi Thou art the
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Son of God Thou art the King of Israel. Well, Nathanael just jumped on board with three titles We've already seen rabbi and Son of God and he throws in their
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King of Israel He just I mean whatever happened here when Jesus spoke to Nathanael Nathanael saw enough to just to just buy into Jesus to just recognize
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Him and say you are the you are rabbi. You are the Son of God. You are the
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King of Israel They don't take that lightly whenever The Bible tells us that no man can call
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Jesus Lord except by the Spirit of God This disability for these men to be meeting him for the first time for Jesus to be interacting with them and for them to be recognizing him this way
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Everything that's happening unwritten and yet literally behind the scenes and we know from Scripture that everything that's happening in this passage is the
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Holy Spirit of God is moving in the hearts and lives of these men and Compelling them to see something that they would not see apart from the divine intervention and revelation of God Everything that is happening in the world today
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I mean we look at what doesn't matter two thousand years since this and for the past two thousand years and until Jesus returns
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This world will not see what it needs to see unless there is the divine intervention of God God opening the eyes of blinded men healing the hearts of sinners drawing men to himself
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What the world needs? Is for God Open our eyes and to show us who he is and most importantly who is this
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Jesus? And so verse 50 Jesus answered and said because I said I saw the end of the fig tree believe you you shall see greater things than these and The remainder of John gives us that in the rest of the
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Bible as well In verse 51 and he said unto them verily verily I say unto you hereafter
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You shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon The Son of Man and so there it is after the five ways that Jesus is addressed by the disciples
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He now at the very end of this chapter says I am the Son of Man And we know from Scripture that this is the title that Jesus preferred, but we'll get to that in a moment
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But for now, let's pray and then let's back up and look at these one by one and let the Spirit speak to us this morning
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Let's pray Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for who you are.
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I Thank you for how you have revealed yourself to us through your son
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Jesus Lord, I thank you that you have come into this world to make the father known to us
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To make a relationship possible that is not possible in our own power and our own work In our own words in our own ways.
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We we cannot know God apart from you I'm thankful that You allowed
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John elsewhere to write in Scripture that if we have the son we have the father And to know you is to know our
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God And as we look at this this morning, I pray that you would speak to me and through me to this precious congregation so that we might leave today being encouraged drawn closer to you and Strengthened by who you are and what it means for us
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To have the privilege and the blessing to be able to go out into this world and be a witness For Christ our
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Savior our Lord and our God Have your way in this message this morning in your name.
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We pray in the precious name of Jesus. Amen Amen, so let's look at these one by one
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This morning the first title that John uses is the title the Lamb of God and we see this in verse 29 and we see this
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In verse 36 behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world verse 36 behold the
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Lamb of God Behold the Lamb of God and by the way That word behold is a powerful word in Scripture if you've never encountered it before done a study on it before in the
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New Testament It's almost always exactly the same Greek word and it is a powerful
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Greek word That word behold literally means stop pay attention to everything that follows whenever you find that word
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Behold, you need to look at what led up to it And then you need to look at immediately what follows because it literally means to stop and put all of your life's
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Attention into what comes after this when Jesus says behold when the Word of God says behold
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When anyone in the New Testament says behold that is the divine inspiration of God causing them to use a word
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Where we know that our Father wants us to pay careful attention to what follows and when John says behold the
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Lamb of God We need to stop and consider what that means So each of these terms have a meaning this term the
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Lamb of God is a soteriological title. It's a big fancy word It literally means soteriology is just the study of salvation
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The Lamb of God is a salvation title the Lamb of God gives us the role of Jesus in our salvation
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Who is he? He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and what I'm gonna look at as we look at each
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One of these six titles this morning is we're gonna look at how we stumble and I would argue beloved that this is where the sinner stumbles the most the
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Lamb of God I've witnessed to so many people and shared the gospel so many times two years preached from the pulpit and and Seeing people sitting in the congress that I knew did not have a relationship with Jesus Inviting them to come to the
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Lamb of God Talking to them outside of the pulpit and the one thing that people seem to stumble over is is Decided that Jesus is the
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Lamb of God and let's just pause and concentrate on that word the Lamb of God Not a lamb of God the
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Lamb of God Jesus himself would say later on in the gospel of John I am the way the truth and the life not a way not a truth
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Not a life and that flies in the face of everything we hear in the world today Because everything in the world today says that if you want to believe in Jesus, that's great.
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That's for you That's your way, but this is my way But Jesus is telling us and John the
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Baptist is telling us that Jesus is not a way. He is the way He is not a lamb of God.
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He is the Lamb of God. He is the only sacrifice He is the only hope for sinful man and humanity stumbles at this the sinner stumbles at this why because we we are convinced that either we're not as bad as we think we are and therefore
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If I try hard enough I can save myself I can do something to earn the favor of God or I can give to God some other way
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But the Bible is clear beloved. There is no other way. I Can't remember if it was
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Spurgeon who said it or one of the great preachers of the past made the statement if there were Another way, why is this even a way?
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Let me say that again. If there is some way other than the cross. Why is the cross even a way?
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Why would Jesus go through everything? He went through the beating? The shedding of his blood the crucifixion the horror of that kind of a violent death
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If there was some other way if there were a way we could work for it a way we could earn it
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Why is this a way at all? Because beloved it is the only way that the sinless perfect son of God Should become the sacrifice for sinful man.
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He the Bible tells us in Romans he who knew no sin Became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God Jesus said if I be lifted up,
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I will draw all men unto myself I want to give you a theological
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Bible study tool that I came up with years ago. Somebody else may have come up with it But I haven't heard anybody else talk about this.
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So I claim ownership of it. It's what I call the law of the negative The law of the negative is this whenever you find a positive statement in the
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Bible with a positive result then you can gauge your walk with God by that positive result and a way that I would say it is this if there's a
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Positive statement with a positive result if you if you and I don't have the positive result It's because we're not carrying out the positive statement.
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So let me give it to you this way All right. Let me use one that we all know Jesus said follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
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He said this to the disciples So what does that mean? It means if we're not fishing of me if we're not fishers of men and we're not fishing for men
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What does that mean? That means that we're not following Jesus now, don't get me wrong beloved Let's I grew up under preaching where the preachers felt like his job and I kind of taught this and I had to the
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Holy Spirit Had to take it out of me where the preacher kind of felt like his job was to get up on Sunday morning and chew Out the church tells everything was wrong with a bunch of horrible people and we need to get our hearts, right?
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We need to stop that and then just and just this constant fear and and no joy in the relationship of God You're not witnessing for Jesus.
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You're not following Jesus. You're a coward. You're a failure your way and just all of these different things beloved I want you to understand that even the best of fishermen do not fish 24 hours a day seven days a week
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Mother there are times in our life when we may not be in the process of fishing for man
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The way we gauge that verse is this when we're given an opportunity To be a witness for Christ Do we take that opportunity?
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Because if we don't beloved then in that moment, we are not following Christ You see the only hope
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Jesus said and I love this in Romans Jesus said how shall they hear How shall they believe except they hear
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Paul writes not Jesus, but Paul writes and says how shall they believe except they hear?
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How shall they hear except someone tell them and how shall someone shout? How shall someone tell them except they be?
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sent and beloved you and I have been sent by God to tell the world who Jesus is so they can hear and Under the power and moving of the
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Holy Spirit receive and believe in Christ their Savior as well, so it's not a question I don't expect you and me to go out of here this morning
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Just go fish every every moment every day for the rest of our lives until Jesus comes back but I do expect us to fish and I definitely expect that we will follow
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Jesus and Here's what I guarantee you beloved flip that around follow me and I will make you fishers of men
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Don't focus on the fishers of men focus on following Jesus and the fishing will follow
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If that's the law of the negative and then I would add to that Jesus said if I'd be lifted up I will draw all men unto myself So the law of the negative says if he's not drawing all men unto himself, then then we're not lifting him up But let me be clear in that passage in John Jesus is not speaking about the quantity of the man, but the quality of the man
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Jesus said if I'd be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself now you and I know the best preachers in the world Preach Jesus, I'm gonna do my best as my
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I'm preaching him now. I've preached sermons I've had a congregation small congregations large congregations preach the word giving invitations invited people to come to Christ watch people walk out the door completely saying no to Jesus And so just the act of lifting up Jesus does not mean that someone oh, there's
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Jesus Let me go get saved you and I know from the world We live in that in fact There are times when we lift up Christ that men run farther from him that it pushes them away that because this world is at war with God and angry with God and and according to the psalmist that the heathen rage and the
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People imagine a vain thing We know that preaching Jesus today isn't popular because somebody's going to tell you you're telling me that your way is the only way how?
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Arrogant of you. Who do you think you are? Well, it's not who I think I am. It's who Jesus is And who he said he was
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You can play that dangerous game of thinking you can earn the favor of God if you want But I'm here to tell you according to the
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Word of God You and I cannot earn the favor of God. It's called grace for a reason
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That's our message beloved. So when he says I'd be lifted up. I will draw all men unto myself He literally means all kinds of men all manner of men men from everywhere
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What that means is that God is telling us Jesus is telling us here of his own words If I'd be lifted up,
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I will draw Americans Russians Germans Jews Gentiles I will draw all men young old red yellow black white rich poor
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I will draw all men, which is why one of my favorite passages of Scripture is is
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When Luke announces the birth of Jesus to the shepherds and he says behold I bring you good tidings of great joy for unto you is born this day in the city of David is
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Savior Christ the Lord And he shall be for all men And if you've ever seen the movie the
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Nativity, it's one of our favorite Christmas movies I think it's one of the best movies made to tell the story of the birth of Christ There's that scene where Jesus is born and they're in the manger and they conveniently have a
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Hole in the top of the cave where they're in this shaft of light shining down on Mary and Joseph and the baby
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Jesus and the shepherds have received the message and they walk up to the entrance of the cave And they stop
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They stop because they they don't feel worthy to go in they they see this they don't know what's happening and Mary looks at them and says she looks at Joseph.
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They look at each other and they look at the shepherds and they say Come in He is for everyone
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See there is no one That cannot be saved if they will repent of their sin and call
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Upon Christ and receive the grace of God that is offered through Jesus. He is for everyone
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If I be lifted up I will draw men and so that's the Lamb of God, that's the salvation title That's his role in salvation and this is where sinners stumble
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But the second title is the Son of God and that's a doctrinal title this speaks of his role in history
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And so we said that the Lamb of God is where the sinner stumbles I would argue the Son of God is where the preacher
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Stumbles or the teacher stumbles and there are too many preachers who have forgotten that that Jesus is in fact the
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Son of God this doctrinal Title encompassing the fact that he is not a man like any other man
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We'll get the Son of Man in a minute because that's the term Jesus uses But here John the Baptist says in verse 34 and in verse 49.
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He is the Son of God. I Had to look to make sure
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I was saying it right, but in verse 34 in verse 49. He is the Son of God This is his role in history. What do
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I mean by that the Son of God because Jesus Christ is God in the flesh He existed before eternity as God he exists right now as God he has always been and he always will be
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God Which means there there's no point in history No point in the in the in the in the time of creation since time began as we know it and until time ends as we
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Know it Jesus Christ has always been God. He has always been sovereign. He has always been the Lord He sees and knows everything this title the
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Son of God Reminds us that not only do we as preachers preach the Lamb of God for sinners and give an invitation
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But we preach for the for the church to remember that he is the Son of God He is our Savior, but he is
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God in the flesh. He knows everything that's going on in your life in mind There's nothing that escapes the eye of Christ He knows it and yet we share the gospel with people who want to try and hide things and even in church
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I'm gonna try and hide things Well, I don't let anybody know about this and maybe if I do it right even God won't know he knows
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Oh, but if you only knew what I was struggling with pastor Oh preacher if you only knew what I was struggling with Let me tell you beloved.
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It doesn't matter whether or not I know what you're struggling with your God Knows what you are struggling with your
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God knows what you need your God knows what you have done He knows what I've done. He knows everything about us and yet he died for us
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He offers his love to us and his grace to us and he offers redemption to us And then he gives us this wonderful gift called faith so that we can receive
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The very gift that he has provided for us. I absolutely love that in Ephesians for by grace Are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves?
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It is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast I'll never forget all the years of preaching that and then when
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I finally studied it and realized that what he was saying in that Passage that faith itself is a gift
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You are saved by grace through faith and that not of yourselves neither the grace nor the faith
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It is a gift from God the ability to believe and and so Spurgeon has said it great preachers have said it through the years that we're all born in sin and because we're born in sin
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We have this God -shaped hole in our heart that only God can fill And so this idea that as we search for everything we look for something in this world to satisfy us until we encounter
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Christ and God through his power and through his grace and through his mercy Gives us the ability to believe and and here's and here's what here's why
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I say that this morning beloved We'll move on quickly to the next one. This is why this is important Somebody says well, why is faith a gift?
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Because it's not the ability to believe we have faith in a lot of things I fly to Honduras every summer.
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I get on that airplane that I have faith I have faith in the plane have faith and if it's getting harder now when you read the news and you hear about playing
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Yeah, all right So now when I get on the plane, I used to say my faith is in the plane But I think the reality is when
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I fly now, nope my faith in God. Amen That plane staying up because the pilot wants it up there.
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No that plane stand up because God wants it up there God wants me to go to Honduras. I'll get to Honduras. He wants to bring you back
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He'll bring me back in the last two know the last three years. We've gone to Honduras. It was a chore getting back from Honduras But it's faith we both people believe in all kind we believe in everything there are people right now it's football season
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There are people who believe George is going to win a national championship We believe and then
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I believe I believe Belief is the problem. It's what we believe in and the ability to believe in God that act of faith is in fact itself a very
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Gift from God. So he is the Son of God That's his role in history and that never changes number three.
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He's rabbi. He's teacher verse 38. I love it rabbi What do you dwell verse 49 rabbi?
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You are the Son of God the King of Israel rabbi and again Nathaniel with all three titles just jumping in there rabbi teacher
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This is a philosophical title. So we have the salvation soteriological title doctrinal title now we have the philosophical title
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This is his instructional role or educational role. This is his role in sanctification and edification
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We have his role in in in salvation his role in history This is his role as a teacher as an instructor his role in in leading us to grow
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This is where humanity as a whole stumbles we have this idea that we can learn something on our own that as we study the stars as we study the planet as we as We get a degree and as we grow in our education that we can learn anything without God But the
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Bible says in Colossians that in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him
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If you want to know anything the first thing you need to know is Christ The first thing we need to know is
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Jesus. I can go to I can go to college I have two master's degrees I minored in political science because I thought at one time
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I was gonna run for president that didn't happen. Hey, man I Thought I was gonna be a public official and God said no
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I haven't got there was two things I did in my life number one I thought I was gonna be a preacher a pitcher when I was younger
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I had a pretty good arm and I was gonna go down when the Braves were in Macon and try out for a ball and I was gonna get them to sign me to a contract work my way up and I was going to be
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Playing one day and made major leagues for the Atlanta Braves. That was my plan and God said, excuse me, son
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But I have not called you to be a pitcher. I've called you to be a preacher. I Said alright So later on I went to college and I and I studied and I studied political science that I'm gonna run for office
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And then again God said you can be influential in those things and I want you to be a part of those things But I have not called you to be a politician.
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I've called you to be a preacher And see here's the reality is for me I was called specifically to this
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But if you are that Politician if you are that professional baseball player if you are that labor that salesman that worker whatever we have in life
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Whatever knowledge we have whatever education we have in life. It does not matter if that education if that knowledge is not grounded in Christ So we see happening in the world today as men coming up with all kinds of solutions for our problems men offering all kinds of ideas this is what we need if we just if we just get everybody school if we could be smarter if we could learn more the
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Problem is you can learn all we could know everything, but if we don't know Jesus, then we don't know anything
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We don't know the most important thing that matters And so here he is rabbi teacher and that's where a lot of people start if you talk to the world today
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And that's why I say this is where humanity stumbles. They'll recognize Jesus is a good teacher But try and get him to recognize him as the
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Son of God Try and get him to recognize him as the Lamb of God Yes, he is a good teacher one of our favorite movies a movie called
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Time Changer, it's a great Christian movie It's it's it's a wonderful movie. We love it. And it's a great movie because in this movie
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There's the instance where this this professor in 1919 and he's writing a book where he basically says that you can teach morals without Jesus or he can say that it's if we're
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Teaching the morals of Christ, but we're not telling the world where the morals come from that. That's okay At least we're giving them the morals.
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We're giving them the education Well another fellow professor said you're wrong because the morals only matter the education only matters if the world knows that these morals come from Christ The most important thing isn't that they know the morals, but they know though that they know the moral giver let me say it a better way, it's not that they know the law, but the law giver and so it's a wonderful movie because Sort of you know, they developed a time machine he gets to go into the future and as he goes into the future
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He sees the results of a world that accepts morals without accepting Christ And it's a wonderful picture of where we're living today
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Because you have men and women who will say well I can do this and still be a Christian Hello, you better be careful what you put in before that I can do this and still be saved
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I can do this We argue about salvation and sanctification We argue about the security of the
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Saints and the perseverance of the Saints if we're not careful You'll find and I found this in my life as a pastor that a lot of people are asking what can when they ask the?
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Question what can I do to lose my salvation? Can I lose my salvation really the question? They're asking is what can
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I do and get away with and still make it into heaven? That's what a lot of people are asking today.
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It's a dangerous question It shouldn't be what can I do and get away with and still make it into heaven? It should be very simply what does
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God want me to do? How does he want me to live so that I honor and glorify him with my life and knowing that on that journey?
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I'm gonna make mistakes But it does not mean that God has forsaken me
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And so we need to ask that question very carefully. This is where humanity stumbled. He's a great teacher Number four.
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He's the Messiah. That's an ecumenical title This speaks of his role in religion and this is where Israel stumbled
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Do you look at the world today and you look at everything that's happening in the nation of Israel the biggest problem? They're having right now today in the world the number one thing that we should be praying for in Israel And it's notness we should be praying for the war that's taking place over there
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We should be praying for their struggle against Hamas and and all of that but the biggest thing we need to be praying for Israel is this that God would open their eyes and they would come to the
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Place where they realize that Christ is their Messiah. Please don't misunderstand this beloved in this passage this morning
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Look at verse 41 in verse 41 He finds his own brother Simon and Simon said we have found the
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Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ Now they just you just use the title there. It's no big deal.
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Maybe that that's just okay. He's the Messiah He's a great teachers sort of like rabbi But when you go down to verse 45 just to make sure that we don't miss this
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Philip goes into detail Philip finds Nathanael and says we have found him of whom
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Moses and the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph Here's what these early disciples knew and this is what
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I've encountered in theology today There are people who say that Israel didn't believe they didn't understand that the Messiah would be their
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Savior They didn't really know who the Messiah was. That's why when Jesus came they didn't recognize him But there's a problem with that because when
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Jesus came plenty of people recognized him as the Messiah and even today we understand that He is the
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Messiah. He is the one who fulfilled Isaiah 51 he is bruised for our iniquities.
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He is chastised for our iniquities and bruised for our sins We understand that he fulfilled the law of God as the suffering servant, but Israel struggled with that suffering part
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They struggled with the idea that that God could could die and be put in a grave and then they really struggled with the idea
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Three days later he could come out of the grave He is the
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Messiah and this is where Israel stumbled what are we praying for today in the world? We're praying again. This goes right back to what we said earlier in the message.
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Jesus is not a way He is not a truth. He is not a life. He is the way the truth in life.
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Jesus is not a Messiah He is the Messiah. This is so important because when John would write again in his epistles
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He would say beware if any man comes to you and says I am the Christ Because there's only one
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Jesus. There's only one Messiah. There's only one Son of God and it's this Jesus. Who is this Jesus?
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Who is this Jesus? We're meeting in John chapter 1. He is the Lamb of God. He is the
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Son of God He is the rabbi and teacher and by that I mean he is the rabbi of rabbis the teacher of teachers
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He is the one from whom all knowledge comes and number four. He is the Messiah. He is the promised one of God You say well,
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I'm waiting for God to give me a better promise. There isn't one I'm waiting for it. You're waiting for the wrong thing. There's nothing left that you and I need to wait for beloved
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Jesus is the Messiah He is everything that God said he would deliver to us and more
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Because we don't even fully understand all of who Christ is and came to be Number five.
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He is the king of Israel Verse 49 met Nathanael again. I love this rabbi
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Son of God King of Israel I mean, I kind of wish he just said let me God son of God rabbi King Nathaniel so overwhelmed by the fact that Jesus saw him sitting under a fig tree something happened here something
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This is more than just when Nathanael told you Philip told you I was sitting under the fig tree Jesus looks at him and the words that he used the way he addressed
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Nathanael in such a way that when he told Nathanael before Philip I saw you sitting under the fig tree at some point in this conversation
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Something had to happen either Nathanael says, okay Philip got back before me and told Jesus I was sitting under the fig tree and In which case he would have said that well
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Philip told you I was sitting under the fig tree No, what happened is somehow Nathanael realized when he can pray he's walking up skeptical and he walks up and says, yeah
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You know, my brother said but you know in it and he's saying Nathanael. How are you? Wait a minute How do you know my name? How do you know me?
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Well, I saw you sitting under the fig tree and that was all Nathaniel needed So there's that moment that crucial moment in your life and mine beloved when
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God speaks to us and says before this I saw you What are we hiding from this morning?
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I Share this now just because the spirits kind of bringing me to share it. I've shared my testimony one time in my life.
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I Did it when I was teaching over at Praise Academy and Wednesday in Chapel? I spoke and I should not only share part of my time
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I've never shared my testimony for a lot of different reasons and I'll give it to you Very simply is this is because when
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I look back at my life as a child There are things that I was spared from that other people were not spared from and I have a hard time sharing my testimony
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I have a hard time sharing my testimony knowing that when I say God delivered for me this I know there's somebody sitting out there
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Going to you, but why didn't he deliver me from that? And so I just don't share my testimony and I don't like some of the testimonies people get up and they want to brag about how bad they were before they came to Christ because then people sit in the church and go on not that bad guy.
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God doesn't need to save me It's not a competition for how big a sinner we were before we met
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Jesus beloved I'm gonna tell you how big a sinner we were we were before we met Jesus We were big enough sinners that we would have died and spent eternity separated from God for the rest of eternity
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Unless we found faith in Christ And it does not matter and if we want to catch the weight of this you want to catch the significance of this
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Jesus said Jesus said it's not that you murder a man if you hate a man you're as guilty of murder That's not you've committed adultery.
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If you if you have lust in your heart, you're guilty. Jesus said look, it's not even the action It's just knowing that it's in you
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There's something in us when God sees it and he knows it and so here here Nathaniel says You're all of these things and Jesus recognized him
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But one of the things here and this is the the fifth term He says you are the you are the king of Israel. That is a political term that speaks of Jesus role in government
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This is where the government stumbles So we've already seen the center stumbles the preacher stumbles humanity stumbles
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Israel stumbles. This is where the government stumbles guys I don't know if you've heard but You know, we're coming up on a there's this thing
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I think in November I think we've got some kind of election coming up in our country I'm not sure some big deal somebody's supposed to be running for something like that Everybody's watching this ads and all this stuff and everything
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Yeah, we're fixing to elect a president And there's a lot of people who will tell you if we get this we're in trouble if we get this we're in trouble
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I I'm kind of arguing to the point that it doesn't matter who we get. We're in trouble. We're in trouble. Here's what
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I know No president no president is the hope of America the hope of America is
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Christ The hope of Israel is Christ and you need to realize at the time that Nathanael looked at Jesus and said you are the king
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Of Israel they had one of the most wicked Kings They had a whole line of wicked Kings that were in the history of Israel But you're dealing with multiple
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Herod's Herod and Herod's son Herod It's three different Herod's in the life of Christ and you read about these hair and they were all guilty of horrible things one who?
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Had every child manchild under two years murdered all these different one who's going to eventually put John the
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Baptist to death And so you have this government you have this the chosen people of God the nation of Israel and they have a king and yet Their king is living and acting their kings are living and acting and in fact for some 400 years under Roman oppression
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You have a Roman government who? Is living and acting like there's no God like they're the king of kings and they're the
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Lord of Lords But the Bible says Jesus is the king of kings and Jesus is the
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Lord And I love this verse in Scripture. The Bible says the heart of the king is in the hand of God You can elect the best possible candidate in the world to lead in any capacity and the next day
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They could turn into the most wicked person that happened read the Old Testament good godly King and by the time his
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Term and office was over He had become one of the most wicked man and you can have one of the most wicked man become king
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And it happened by the time he died by the time his term came to an end He was walking with God and leading the people to walk with God Doesn't matter who our next president is what matters is whether or not the
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Church of Jesus Christ Recognizes that Jesus is the king of kings and Lord of Lords and we'll get on our knees and pray for whoever
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Takes that oath of office come January Whoever takes that oath of office
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Jesus Jesus is the king of kings where government stumble so go back to Psalm chapter 2 Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine anything the kings of the earth set themselves?
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What a what a horrifyingly powerful statement the kings of the earth It literally means they plant their feet in concrete.
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I will not be moved. I am King, I am the president.
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I am the governor. I'm in charge They set themselves and then they take counsel together all the kings setting themselves in concrete and saying let's cast out this
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God Let's let's cast down. Jesus. Let's get rid of God We don't need God and listen to what's being said in the governments around the world listen to what's being said in our own country in the halls of Congress in the
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House of Representatives as you hear men and women saying things on record that America would be better without God Not even close
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We'd be so much worse than we already are and the reason we are where we are right now is because over the past 50 years of my life we have slowly and maybe not so slowly been pushing
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God out of everything He is the king of Israel.
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This is where the government stumble Beloved we need to remember who our Jesus is. He is the
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Lamb of God. He's the Son of God. He's a rabbi teacher He's the Messiah. He's the king of Israel. And then here's the last thing this morning Appreciate your patience with me as I bring the word to you this morning.
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I absolutely love this The last title in verse 51 is the Son of Man He said it in Nathanael Because I saw you under the fig tree you believe you'll see greater things than these
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I love verse 51 and he said in them verily verily truly truly. That's like that word behold Verily verily truly truly, you know
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If you've studied this before you'll know that anytime you see a word repeated in the Hebrew or in the Greek are in the
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Greek That it carries great significance. It's a point of truth. It's something we should consider So and and most of the time it's
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Jesus who says it verily verily truly truly So not only when he says behold, should we pay attention? But when he says verily verily truly truly, he's making a statement about a truth something that's going to happen
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So we need to note it and he says here I say unto you hereafter You shall see heaven open to the angels of God ascending and descending upon the
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Son of Man This is the term that's primarily used of Jesus whenever he spoke of himself He referred to himself as the
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Son of Man Somebody said Jesus never said he was the Son of God. That's true You'll never find a statement where he said I am the
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Son of God you will find he said I am and that was enough Because when he said
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I am the Jews took up stones to stone him Why because the Bible says he made himself out to be God they knew that word
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They knew that term they knew they knew the story of Moses tell them I am that I am that has has sent you not
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I was not I will be I am that I am and there's that Double statement again. I am I am meaning
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I have always been I always will be I am who I there's Nobody up and in Revelation. We're told I'm the Alpha and the
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Omega. I'm the beginning in the end I'm the first and the last there's no one before me. There'll be nobody after me and so this is who we're talking about here and yet Jesus says
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I am the Son of Man, this is an anthropological title This speaks of his role in humanity and this beloved is where both the
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Christian and the sinner stumbles Jesus said the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
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Jesus said the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost See the Son of Man speaks of his role as a human being
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Says the Son of God He's God, but he's the Son of Man. He's man
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Great preachers the past have said it this way He's 100 % God and he's 100 % man
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Once you add it together you get 200 % now you get 100 % So that's not good math.
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I said nobody that's good theology. Amen He's as much God as God because he is
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God and he's as much man as man because he is man with one exception He was sinless because of the virgin birth and This is one of the things that that Islam denies
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And this is where when you're when you're sharing the gospel with a Muslim and you're trying to make way with him You need to just start from that point say just I start from this point.
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So listen, I understand You don't believe he was born of a virgin. You don't believe and no we don't believe it. It's not possible I said well the problem with that is that's the only reason that he was able to remain sent sinless and be the sacrifice for Our sins if you take that away, then nothing that follows matters because if he's a sinner like you and me
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No, I can't die for your sins. You can't die for man. And when we die, we're dying for our own sins We can't take anybody else's with who can't cover our own let alone let alone somebody else's
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That's why the Bible says he who knew no sin Became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God and Christ, but God commends his love towards us
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And that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us he is the
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Son of Man and Three things about this and then I'll close We learn from Jesus.
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We learn from his worship. We learn from his witness and we learn from his walk. What about his worship? What about his worship?
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He said I came to do the will of my father Everything Jesus did pointed to God everything about his life pointed to his heavenly father
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He never worked against the father in one moment and even there are points in Scripture We have to save these for another time
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Where the Son of God where the Son of Man would say that he doesn't know the will of the father
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I don't know what the father has planned here. Don't get stuck on that. He's still the Son of God He still knows everything but he's speaking to us in his human form this this doesn't matter here
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What matters here is that the father is going to do something and the only way you're going to know that the father is due Something isn't by knowing me as the
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Son of God But by knowing me as the Son of Man the one who is able to die for your sins Don't miss that And so his worship pointed to God his witness
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He said I am my father of one if you know me, you've known the father You've seen me you've seen the father and again when he said things like this the
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Jews took up stones to stone him You're arguing in the Muslim when you're when you're when you shouldn't be arguing
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But when you're debating or discussing with a Muslim or a follower of Islam and they're talking about how Jesus never claimed to be God and I was watching one online the other day and a guy was debating a
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Muslim and it was old video on tik -tok and it Popped up and and then he said Jesus never claimed to be
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God and he went on about how he's a good person This is what he said. He said he was a rabbi. He was a teacher. Remember? This is where the world stumbles
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He's not the Son of God. He's not the Son of Man. He's a good teacher. You can follow him Just like you can follow
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Muhammad. No Because Muhammad is dead and his tomb right now has a body in it
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But you go to the tomb of Jesus and it's empty. Hallelujah Why because Jesus is the
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Son of God and he is the Son of Man and his witness is that if you have me you have The father and then not only that but in his walk
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Jesus lived the life that every human being is supposed to live apart from the fact that we Can't do the miracles of God But what's fascinating is that in the book of Acts under the power of the
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Holy Spirit the disciples also did miracles. Amen So what I mean by all of this what
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I mean by his worship is witness in his walk It is Jesus who teaches us How to live righteous and holy in this broken wicked simple world if I want to live a life that honors and pleases
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God I Need to be following Jesus If I'm following Jesus, I'm going to be fishing for men
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If I'm following for Jesus, I'm going to be lifting him up If I'm lifting him up men are going to come to Christ not every man, but enough men.
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Amen And I want to say this again as I'm getting ready to close beloved. Don't be overburdened man
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I'm so glad the day God freed me from this I'm still heavy -hearted when
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I share the gospel with someone and they say no we should be We know what they're facing.
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We know what they're saying. No, too But I no longer carry What if I'd said this what if I'd done this what if I'd given them a more compelling argument
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I did my part and Unless the Holy Spirit moves in their hearts and they exercise faith.
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There's nothing I could do except tell them I like all we can do is share beloved share with as many people as God will give you the opportunity to and if you
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Haven't shared with anybody lately pray God Give me somebody give me somebody to share with You don't have to fish 24 hours a day seven days a week.
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Amen. Yeah, y 'all remember when I said that earlier I'm saying again. I'll make sure we get it. Amen. I'll make sure that we're encouraged this morning
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Who is this Jesus? Well for us as a Christian number one, we must know that he is the Lamb of God He is our
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Savior number two. He is the Son of God. He is our God The songs that have been written.
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Oh, we sang the last song and I forgot that I love that. Oh, I Can't in the words.
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They're just jumbling around but I love this song. It's just that he should bear my sins for me
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That he should that my God There's a song as Christmas song comes out.
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What other God stepped down from the throne? What other God? Came into this world for the express purpose of dying for his creation
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He is the Lamb of God. He is the Son of God. He is our rabbi He is our teacher if you want to know what you need to know if we want to know what we need to know to Live in this world.
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We need to follow him. He is our Messiah. He is everything the scriptures have promised and more He is the king of Israel.
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He is our hope Not the Republican Party the Democratic Party Independent Party not a governor not a mayor not a not a president.
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Oh, he he is our hope Amen Hallelujah, and He is the
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Son of Man He teaches us what it means to be a human being Prior to the fall of God prior or prior to the fall of man
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He teaches us what it means to be a human being prior to the fall of man Adam and Eve had everything in the
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Garden of Eden and we know the scripture teaches the day the Bible says heaven and earth will pass away And I love this.
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I've heard a preacher say this. I'm trying to close bear with me beloved Heard a preacher say this we got these we heard preachers say three years
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We're gonna leave this world and we're gonna spend the rest of eternity in heaven No, the Bible says there's a new heaven and a new earth
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And I heard a preacher a couple years ago at Ligonier conference and he talked about that and he talked about the fact that That that God is going to make everything the way it was supposed to be and and and it's one of the things
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I love About being a missionary I get that I've been to Venezuela beautiful country I've been to Moldova Russia formerly part of Russia beautiful country and you have to be careful in Moldova because there are
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Moldovans who say We're Moldovans and there are Moldovans who say we're Russians and they're kind of divided about it They don't know country.
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Some of them want to go back to being a part of Russia Some of them like being their own country beautiful country beautiful people couldn't speak a lick of the language didn't know
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Russian Don't know Spanish. I've been to Moldova. Don't know the language can't I can I can be polite in Spanish?
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Gracias de nada. Buenos dias. I can be polite in Spanish. Amen But I have seen mountains and waterfalls and rivers and valleys and cities and cultures
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That reflect the beauty and glory of God I Can't even imagine
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What it's going to be like for the new heaven a new earth And when all of humanity is living the way that God meant for us to be living before the fall
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And it's all because Jesus the son of man came to show us what it meant to be the perfect human being
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Now will we be that in this world? Nope There's a good chance. Some of us won't make it six seconds out of the parking lot this morning before that flesh shows up But there's grace and there's a struggle
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It's covered by a God Who loves us and a
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Savior who has secured us and who has redeemed us and our hope? Our hope is in Jesus.
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I would answer the question this morning. Who is this Jesus? He is our hope
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He is our joy He is our strength He is our comforter and I could go on and on and on He is whoever and I say this without apology and emphatically
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He is whoever you need him to be in your life right now
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Amen Let's pray Father I thank you for your word
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And I thank you for teaching us about who you are about who Christ is Lord Jesus, I thank you for all of these things
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We looked at this morning for the wisdom for the ability just to be able to share to this precious congregation.
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I pray that Something or a few things have taken root in our hearts
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We've received what we needed this morning to be able to go out of here and live for you and in this world and be
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The people you've called us to be And I pray father that We would rest in your grace strive to honor your glory and I pray
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Lord Jesus that As we struggle as men and women That as we struggle in this world
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We'd remember The price you paid for us and the hope that we have through Christ and Christ alone