Waters Church

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we're gonna end this series today with a message
for the sake of the one, Part four to take
us you knows, take out your bibles. John Chapter six
is where we're gonna go. If you don't have a Bible,
open up a smartphone, Bible, get there. We're gonna read
that in just a moment. But here's the title of
the message.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Who is the One? Who is the One?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
All this series we've been saying, who is your one?
And we asked you to write down that one on
these cards from a few weeks ago, seven days of prayer.
Hopefully you haven't stopped praying for that person, praying that
God will open their hearts bring.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Them to himself.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
And then we talked about funding the message.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
That was week two. Then last week many talked about the.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Intergenerational movement of Jesus. You never know who that one's
gonna reach beyond them. And I was thinking about this
whole series about looking forward to your one, who God
is going to reach with the gospel. But what about
the one? Can I ask you this question and I

(01:05):
want you to write it down as a question. It's
very familiar to many Christians from non Christians. And here's
the question why do Christians want to see more people
become Christians? And maybe you've heard that question, you're at
you or maybe somebody's you know, wondered why do Christians
always want to, you know, spread their values and beliefs

(01:27):
on other people. Why are they so so many, not all,
but some so adamant about getting other people to become
what's the big deal?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Just leave me be, You do your thing, I'll do
my thing. And some people are under the false.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Impression that we want more people to become Christians because
we want we want to, you know, shift the political
temperature of our country. It's all about politics with Christians. Unfortunately,
a lot of people have that mindset. Some people think
it's about just making people better people. If everybody's a Christian,
everybody be better.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
People think that it's all about control. We just want
to control your lives, tell you what not to do.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
We want you to not have so much fun, want
you to be a little bit more miserable and religious.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
That's what we're after.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
No, and here's the thing, it's not also this idea
that we're better than them, right, Christians are not always
better than non Christians. In fact, some of the most
jack people, jacked up people I know are Christians. Anybody
know jack dept Christian? If you don't know one, you
might be one. Okay, I'm just letting you know. And

(02:31):
here's the deal. Here, here's the deal. We aren't any
better than anybody else. All that's difference between us and
non Christians is we know that Jesus is worth it.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
We know that there's no one like Jesus.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
The great former atheist turned apologists for the faith.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
From the Last Entry. C. S.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Lewis said that I came to Christianity looking for a
program and I met a person. Christianity's not a program.
It's not a get yourself together program. It's not a
get religion program. Christianity is get to.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Know the one who made you, who formed you, who
loves you, who died for you, and who's coming back
again for you in the future. That's what Christianity is about.
So here's the answer.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Why do Christians want to see more people become Christians?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Write it down?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Because Jesus is the one I want to inspire you
to give today, not because you're gonna earn brownie points
in heaven, although you will. I want to inspire you
to give today because you know that Jesus is worth it.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Who you know him, you want other people to know.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
You never have to convince somebody once they've had a
good experience at a restaurant to tell other people about
that restaurant. Right, you never have to concid all right, now,
make sure you tell everybody that the steak was good.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
No, if the stake's good, they're gonna tell you. And
here's the thing about a good Christian. A good Christian
is not necessarily.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
A very moral person, a person who's religious, a person.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Who's got their lives together.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
A good Christian is someone who can't stop talking about
the one who saved them in spite of them.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's who we are. That's what Christians are. In John
chapter six, we're gonna get to the text. Open your bibles. There.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Weren't gonna read it in just a moment, but we're
gonna get to this moment where Jesus kind of winnows
the crowd that he's been preaching to. And the story
of John chapter six is a very long chapter.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Not gonna read the whole chapter. We're gonna read some highlights.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
But the chapter opens up with Jesus leading and speaking
to you about twenty thousand people. We know it's about
twenty thousand people because the beginning of John chapter six
is the Feeding of the.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Five thousand, and when it says the feeding of five.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Thousand, it really means that he fed five thousand men.
Because of the ancient world, you counted people by the
heads of households, men with the heads of households, so
it meant that there's five thousand households following Jesus and
getting fed that day. If it was five thousand men,
ad women and children, and you've probably got close to
twenty thousand people following Jesus.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Jesus had the first megachurch.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah yeah, John chapter six. But then you read John
chapter six and he starts teaching the people. He starts
leading them through the truth of.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Who he is.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
And it's this passage that really gets him where he says,
unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you
have no life in you.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
I am the Bread from Heaven. And the people start saying,
who does this guy think he is?

Speaker 1 (05:23):
And one by one they start getting turned off by
the message of Jesus being the one and they dissipate
and the crowd leaves, and the story ends with Jesus
standing alone. John chapter six opens with twenty thousand people
following him. John chapter six ends with twelve disciples sticking

(05:45):
with him. Jesus grew his church from twenty thousand down
to twelve, and that immediately black listened him from the
church growth seminars of his day.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
That immediately black.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Listened him from how to run a successful business keynote
speaking slots in the.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Conferences of his day. In fact, what happened was the
church went on down to a few twelve disciples, and
he turns to them and says, are you gonna leave? Osa?
They say, where can we go?

Speaker 1 (06:13):
You are the Holy One of God and have the
eternal words of life. In other words, they knew that
Jesus was the one stand with me for the reading
of God's word. As we read from John chapter six.
Now I want to give you some context, Jesus fed
the crowd twenty thousand people fed with five those two fishes.
Jesus goes across the lake with his disciples. Actually he
walks in the water and then they meet up on

(06:35):
the other side. In verse twenty five, it says this
when they found him. The crowd found Jesus on the
other side of the sea.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
They said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here?

Speaker 1 (06:47):
And Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, you
are not seeking me because you saw the signs, but
because you ate your fill of the loaves.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
In other words, you got your tummies fed. You want
him fed again?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Then verse twenty seven, do not work for the who
the perishes, but for the food.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
That endorsed to eternal life, which the.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Son of Man will give to you. For on him God,
the Father said his seal. They said to him, what
shall we do to do the works of God? Jesus
answer to them, this is the work of God that
you believe in him whom he has sinned. So they
said to him, what sign are you gonna do? We
want to see miracles, We want to see you perform.
What will you do to make us believe? Our fathers
ain't man in the wilderness, I says, is rich, And

(07:25):
he gave them bread from heaven.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Jesus said to him, truly true.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
That I said, He was not Moses who gave you bread,
but my Father, who gives you the true bread from heaven.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
And then they say to them.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Then he says to them in verse twenty sorry first
thirty five, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes
to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall
never thirst. Verse forty one.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
The Jews grumbled about him because he said, I came
down from heaven. I'm the bread of I'm the bread
that came down from heaven. They said, is this not Jesus,
the son of Joseph, father and mother? We know?

Speaker 1 (07:56):
How does he now say I've come down from heaven?
And Jesus said, you, then, do not grumble among yourselves.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
No one can come to me unless the Father who
sent me draws him, and I will raise him up
on the last day. It is written in the prophets,
they will all be taught by God.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes
to me Skip done Verse fifty two. The Jews then
disputed among themselves, saying, how can this man give us
his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, truly, truly,
I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of
the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have
no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and
drinks on my blood. Drinks my blood has eternal life,

(08:34):
and I will raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is
true drink. So whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks
my blood, abuis in me and I in him verse sixty.
When the disciples heard this, they said, this is a
hard saying.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Who can listen to it?

Speaker 1 (08:53):
But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling
about this, said do.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
You take offense at this? What if you were to
see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before.
It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is
of no help at all. The words that I've spoken.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
To you are spirit and life Verse sixty six, probably
the saddest verse in all the gospels. After this, many,
somebody say many, many of his disciples turned back and
no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve,

(09:30):
do you want to go away as well? And Simon
Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have
the words of eternal life, and we have believed and
come to know that you are the Holy One of God.
Jesus answered him and said, did I not choose you
the twelve?

Speaker 2 (09:51):
And yet one of you is a devil? He spoke
of Judas, the son of Simon Iscarry, for he, one
of twelve, was going to betray him.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
This is the reading of God's words. Let's pray together. Father,
we asked that these next few moments are governed by
the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
I pray that all.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Of our hearts will be open to what you want
to say, that you will deposit the good seed of
your word in our spirits, that your word will take
root below and bear fruit above. And Father, I pray
that every single one of us here or watching by
video will see Jesus, him and him only and his

(10:34):
money name. We pray everybody said, Amen, God, bless you
have a set. Two things are happening in John chapter six.
Jesus is performing miracles, preaching the truth, losing people.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
But he's also taking.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
The people through a guided tour of the Old Testament stories.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
This is kind of cool.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
See, you got to understand that the New Testament is
interpreting the Old Testament. There's this false belief that there's
two Testaments, that the New Testament has nothing to do
with the Old Testament, and so Christians just kind of
throw out the Old Testament and we just.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Go by the New Testament. No, the New Testament interprets
the Old Testament. You got me.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
The New Testament interprets the Old Testament. So Jesus does
two things in this chapter early on.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
First thing he does is he feeds them miraculously with bread. Now,
these are Jews, and they would have known about a
story like this in their past, right.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
They came out of Egypt. They wandered through the wilderness.
They get hungry, just like normal people do. And guess
what happens. God says through Moses in the morning, you're
gonna wake up. There's gonna be bread ready for you.
God cooks them heavenly bread for forty years in the wilders.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
They get up, there's plenty of bread.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Nobody had to cook, nobody had to put it together,
nobody had to need or or mold it or b
bake it. It was just there on the ground for them,
and God miraculously fed them bread from heaven. Now in
John chapters Jesus is doing the exact same thing, feeding
miraculously from heaven. Then after that story, the scripture says
that they were gonna make him king by force because

(12:09):
they were so impressed by the bread. That's what happens
when you feed twenty thousand people, they start.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
To like you. So Jesus says, no, no, this is not
what I come for.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
And he sends his disciples across the sea, and he
goes up onto a mountain to pray.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
And the disciples go across.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
The sea, and the sea is stormy, and the winds
are howling, and they're fighting for their lives, and they're
rowing like crazy trying.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
To get through the sea.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
And what do they see But Jesus starts coming to them,
not swimming but walking on the water, and he says
a word to them. In our English Bibles that's mistranslated.
He says, this, take heart, I Am. That phrase would
have reminded them of something that God heard. Moses heard
God say back in Exodus.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Right, What did Moses ay? What should I tell them?
Is your name? Tell them? I am? Is my name?

Speaker 1 (12:58):
Jesus says the disciples, I am, and he leaves them
through the stormy waters and safely to the other side.
Now the Jews would have known about a story like
that too, because when they come out.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Of Egypt, they face the Red Sea, Pharaoh's.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Armies on their back. They're going against the sea. Oh
the army. They think they're dead. And Moses sticks out
his staff over the sea, and the water divide, and
God leads them through the.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Waters safely to the other side.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Jesus has brought his disciples through a guided tour, like.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
One of those three D rollercoasters, where they're bringing you
right through the adventure itself and giving you a first
hand experience of what it was like to go through it.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
And Jesus is pointing to his disciples saying, I'm the
one who made the bread, and I'm the one who
calms the seas.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I'm the one you need. As the people start to
listen to him, they start to realize the claims that
he's making. This is not just some prophet, This is not.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Just some teacher. This is a man claiming to be God.
As Jesus says in John five thirty nine, just the
previous chapter John five thirty nine, he says, look, you
search the scriptures.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Because you think they give you eternal life. But those
scriptures do what everybody say. It point to me the
Bible is about Jesus.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Ladies and gentlemen, let me help you understands. The Bible
is not a religious manual on how to get your
life together. The life is not a road map for living.
Life is not a blueprint for life. The Bible is
the story of how God sent his son Jesus into
a world lost in sin, to bring us out and
make us his children once again, to restore what Adam lost,

(14:39):
and to bring us safely into His kingdom in peace
and enjoy.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
That's what the Bible's about.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
And at the end of this chapter, when Jesus makes
these claims, the Jews are just not having it. And
jesus congregation goes from twenty thousand down to twelve.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
And so here's the deal. Only twelve people stayed with them.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
And I wonder today, if understand that Jesus is the
one in your life. I got five points to test
you on this for you for yourself, because you know
when Jesus is the one five points. I got five points.
I know you've got three points. I'm throwing two in
for free today.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
So whatever you were gonna give at the end of
this message, double it. Amen. Point number one. Jesus is
the one write it down.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
When I realized that temporary satisfactions are only temporary. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
temporary satisfactions. And this world is all about temporary satisfactions.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Ladies and gentlemen. Every commercial message that you get, every
commercial is the same thing. You're not what you should be.
You don't have what you should have, and if you
buy our product, you'll get there. Want to lose weight,
there's a pill for that. Wanna be happy, there's a
pill for that too. Want to avoid COVID, there's two
shots and two boosters for that. We got what you

(15:55):
need to be happy. We got what you need to
be satisfied. And here's the thing.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Sometimes God lets us have what we think we need
to be happy, and then we get it, and then.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
We realize we need.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Something else to be happy. I mean, it's the trajectory
of life. Some of you are in high school and
you're thinking, as soon as I get out of high school,
I'll be happy, And you get to college, you're like,
as soon as I get out of this college, i'd
be happy. And you're thinking, like, as soon as I
get married, I'd be happy, and all the married.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
People need to be like yeah, that's why all the
people that come.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
To me at the altar to get married, I'm always
like telling them, all right, listen, you're gonna hate each
other one day. But they don't listen. So I tell
it to the crowd. Everybody pay attention.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Because in five weeks these people gonna come back to
me for marital counseling because they think that life is
gonna be great from now on. Isna.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Whatever we think is gonna make us happy only usually gives.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Us temporary happiness. Can I get a witness from anybody
in this south? Oh, as soon as we have kids,
we're gonna be happy. Yeah, the stage where it's like,
as soon as we get these kids out of the house,
we're gonna be happy. But when you get the kids
out of the house, it's just you and that person.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Again, that's why you had kids in the first place,
because you were bored with each other initially.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Merry Christmas, everybody. Are you encouraged by this message? Temporary
satisfactions are only.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
And Jesus is the one when you realize it. I
don't know how long it's gonna take. Some of you
were subborn. It's gonna take it to your eighty Some
of you are young.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
You already realized that.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Rejoice and be glad that God did not have to
have eighty years of you getting frustrated with false idols
and whatever we think, whatever we imagine this is gonna
make my life satisfactory, it doesn't last. And the disciple
the Jews that day in that wilderness, had to realize that.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Look what it says in verse twenty five.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Again, they hunted him down on the other side of
the water, and they found.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Him on that because why because they fed them the
day before and they show up.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
They're all like nonchalant, They're like, oh, Rabbi, when did
you get here. Jesus knows their thoughts. He's not a dummy.
He knows exactly what they're thinking. Verse twenty six, he
says to them, truly truly. And by the way, whenever
Jesus says truly truly, it means he's going to open
a can of truth on you. He says, you're not
seeking me. You want your tummies fed again. Then he

(18:24):
says in verse twenty seven, don't work for food that perishes. Listen,
anything that you think is going to make you happy
in this life, I got nothing wrong with that. There's
not necessarily anything wrong with those things. It's just that
they perish. Eventually, the job that you long for gets old,

(18:45):
come on somebody. Eventually, the person that you married gets old.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Come on somebody, and so do you. So don't be
all judgmental. You know what I'm saying that there's something
wrong with it.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
It's just that we experienced that there's something.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Still missing no matter what we add to our lives.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
I got a book that I keep on my shelf
for two different reasons. This book inspired me many years ago,
is called Delivering Happiness by Tony Shea. Tony she started
a company in nineteen ninety eight called link Exchange during
the dot com boom. His company took off and Microsoft

(19:29):
bought them out for one hundred and eighty seven million dollars.
He was twenty three years old. He took one hundred
and eighty seven million. He started investing in little companies
because he was a go getter, an entrepreneur, and he
fell in love with one particular.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Little shoe company.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
The shoe company was called Zappos, and he decided that
he was going to make an all in bet on
this online shoe company, and it came to a point
where the company was out of money. They weren't making money.
They knew they had to buy all this product. They
they had to make a substantial investment. And he reached
out to all of his venture capitalist friends and he

(20:04):
raised zero dollars. Nobody wanted to invest. And so he
writes in the book, in page one hundred and three,
he says, I knew it was going to have to
be me going all in for shoes, and so I
did it. He took his one hundred and eighty seven
million dollars from Microsoft and he dumped it into this
failing little shoe company and it took off. Years later,

(20:24):
he sold that company to Amazon dot Com for six
billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
That story inspired me back in.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
The day because I thought, here was a guy going
all in for shoes.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
And I said to the church.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Back then, I said to the staff, I said, guys, I.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Want to be part of a church that goes all
in for soles. Anybody with me. I mean, if that
guy will sell out for shoes, the church has got
to sell out for soles. Now.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
The rest of the story this past COVID pandemic. He
was alone an apartment in New York City, six billion
dollar man, utterly depressed, alone and isolated, and he oweded
on drugs and he died. I keep this book on
my shelf now for two reasons to inspire me that

(21:16):
I do need to go all in for.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Souls as a church, that's what we're all about.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
But secondly, that there's only one person who can deliver.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Happiness, and his name is Jesus. His name is Jesus.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Now, the Jews wanted more bread, but they should have
known through their own story that no, no, no, more
bread won't satisfy because the story of the israelized when
they came out of Egypt and they started eating daily bread.
They even got sick of the daily bread numbers. Chapter
eleven tells us this.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
It says the people of Israel also began to what complain,
And when they said, oh for some meat, we want
some t bone? And we remember the fish that we
used to eat for free in Egypt. What man, don't
we always look at the past through rose colored glasses.
Oh it wasn't that bad. I know they whipped us,

(22:12):
I know they starved us, but on occasion they gave
us free fish.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
I mean, this is how we do it though, as
Christians do, and watch out new Christians, because this is
what the devil will come and tell you that your
old life was actually better than this new life. And
if you're not careful, you'll wander back into the old life,
only to be vomited back out into Jesus.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Somebody I said, all we see is this mana. All
we see is this mana see. Whatever we think satisfies
us eventually gets.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Old to us. We're made for the one who made us.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Here's an old song from the seventies about a man
who was stuck in what he thought was a loveless
relationship and he was sick of it, going through the routine,
the ritual, it just got stale. So he was reading
the paper one night with his girlfriend laying sleep right
next to him, and he comes across an article in
the Personal ass Does anybody know what it said?

Speaker 2 (23:06):
If you like Pina.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Clauda getting caught in the rain, if you're not into yoga.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
If you got have a brain, if you like making.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Love at midnight dudees of the cape, Yeah yeah, yeah,
I'm the one. I'm the one that you look for.
Right to me and escape.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
So he goes and he answers the ad, and the
ad comes back to him, and then they decide to
meet up at O'Malley's, an old bar down the street,
and when he gets there the final the final verse
is hilarious, and it says this, So.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
I waited with high hopes. As she walked in the place.
I knew her smile. In an instant, I knew the
curve of her face. It was my old, lovely lady.
And she said, oh, it's you.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Then we laughed for a moment, and I said, I
never knew that you like peanut coladas and getting caught
in the ring. There is a story about a man
who thought that if he left the one he was with,
he finds something better, only to find the one that
he was with.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
And so many times in our lives we think, if
we just leave God and find something better, if we
just run from the maker, if we just go after
this world and.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
All it has to offer, we'll finally realize that the
only one that truly makes us happy is the one
who made us in the first place. Jesus said in
John chapter six thirty five, I am the bread.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
If you come and eat, you'll never be hungry. Again.
If you come and drink, you'll never be thirsty again.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Number two, Jesus is the one when I realized that
earthly power corrupts.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Earthly power corrupts.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
We have a saying power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Absolutely. Now every four.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Years our country flips out because we are wondering and
fearful of who's going to have the power. And if
there's the one thing that the COVID nineteen pandemic has
taught me, it is this that governments love power, and when.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
They get it, they don't like to give it up.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
And this world is all built on that who is running,
whose lives, who's in charge?

Speaker 2 (25:16):
And this is what the.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Jews wanted from Jesus, because look what it says there
in verse twenty eight. They said to him, what must
we be doing to do the works of God? And
what they're saying is we want the power you got.
What do we need to have your power to do
the works of God? Was Jesus' answer, This is the
work of God.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
Believe in me. Believe in me.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
In other words, surrender your rights. Surrender will you think
will make you happy? Surrender control of your life? Do
you know what a Christian is.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
A Christian is somebody who has given up control to Jesus.
Lay down the power that you want, and you will
find power in me. Verse forty.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
He says, this is the will of my Father, that
everyone who looks on the sun and believes in him, him,
I will raise up on the last day. Now, the
Jews should have been very aware too that power corrupts.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
That was in their history as well.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
There was a man named David who gave them power
over their enemies.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
David won everybody they ever fought. He freed them from
the Philistines and the Hittites and the jibbies Ies. He
beat everybody around them.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
And Israel rose to prominence in about the eighth century BC,
and they became the most powerful nation on the earth.
And Solomon became the most prominent king in.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
All the earth in eighth century BC.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
And it was from that moment forward that the nation
of Israel became just as corrupt as the nations that
God had handed over to them. Because the power that
you think you need in this life will corrupt you
as well. It's amazing to watch the most humble people
when they're given a little bit of position.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
They become Nazis over night. Anybody run into a mask
Nazi lately? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Isn't it amazing? These little short people? Why are they
always short? They're the shortest people.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Put your mask on, just a little.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Bit of power, a little bit of power, they turn
into insane people. It's amazing to see. We're not made
to have power. We're made for surrender. And here's the
thing about the Christian message. The Christian message is the
moment you surrender is the moment you got the power.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
You give your life over to the Son of God.
He will raise your life from the dead. And when
you have the hope of the resurrection in you, my friend,
that's when all the world's powers fall off of you.
What can the world do to someone who believes that
this life is not the end. They tried to do
all kinds of things to the apostle.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Paul, but he was firmly convinced that there was a
resurrection coming. So they locked him up in prison and
they said, well, take away your rights.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
He said, that's not I'll just witness to the prison
guards until they're annoyed. Then they're like, we're gonna cut
your head off and He's like, that's all right. To
die is gain.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
To depart from this running to be with Christ is
far better. Let's go, let's do it.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
What can you do to somebody who believes that the
next life is the real life?

Speaker 1 (28:16):
That's how the world loses this hold on you, my friend.
That's how you stop worrying about COVID nineteen. That's how
you get your courage back. That's how you get your
faith back. That's how you stop walking in the fears
of this age and start walking in the faith that
is in Jesus Christ, because you know there's a resurrection coming.
Jesus is the one number three when I realized that

(28:39):
it's only God's grace that saves. It's only God's grace
that saves. And again in John chapter six, Jesus is
winnowing the crowd, winnowing the crowd by the.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Way good preaching always winnows the crowd from the believers
from the real believers, the faiths from the real ones.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
So verse forty one, Jesus can pick up on this
and they start grumbling. They're like, hey, who are you
to say you come down from every and we know
your mom, we know your dad, Joseph, we know who
you are. How can you say that you came down
from heaven? And I love how Jesus just goes full
sovereignty of God on them right here.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Look at what it says in verse forty three.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Jesus answered them, don't grumble among yourselves. Verse forty four
what no one can come to me unless the Father
who sent me draws.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Him full sovereignty of God.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Jesus wasn't worried about the results because he knew that
God would bring the ones that he wanted to bring
to himself. I'll raise him up on the last day.
Some of you need to underline that sentence. No one
can come to me unless the Father first draws you
know what you know that verse gives me great comfort
in my life. It should give you great comfort, Christian.

(29:50):
It should give you great comfort to.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Know that the only reason why you are now a
Christian is because God.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Worked the narrative of your story to the point where
you surrender to Jesus. You're here today not because you
made the decision. You're here today because the Father reached
out to you and drew you to his son, Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
And why should that bring.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
You great comfort because God never starts something he doesn't
plan on finishing. Whatever God began in you, he will
complete in you until.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
The day of Christ Jesus. That's gonna get you through
those bad days. That's gonna get you through some hard weeks.
That's gonna get you through the cancer. That's gonna get
you through the divorce.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
To know that nothing in all creation can separate you
from the love of God.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
That is in Christ Jesus. This is why Christians can't boast.
You ever meet a boasting Christian. That's right. I became
a Christian. They're not a Christian.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Christians can't boast about anything they did. They can only
boast about what Christ did. That's what Paul the Apostle
says in One Corinthians fifteen. He says, I'm the least
of the apostles. I'm unworthy to be called apostle. Well,
I'm not even worthy of this mission. Paul says, by
the way, I'm not worthy to be called your pastor.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
I'm not your pastor because I was a good person.
I'm your pastor because God called me to this. It's
the gift of God in my life. That's all that
It is, and who you are, ladies and gentlemen, is
who you are by God's grace. That's what he says.
In the next verse, verse ten, he says, by the
grace of.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
God, I am what I am something. You need to
tell that to yourself on a regular basis. In fact,
let's all do that right now in the count of three.
Say those words one two three. But by the grace
of God.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
What. Oh you gotta say it like you mean it?

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Come on, one two three?

Speaker 2 (31:45):
No, that was worse.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Okay, let's start with but one two three.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Just turn to your neighbor and say, it's God's grace.
Just turn to your neighbor. This is God's grace.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
That's all it is. Just turn to your wife and say,
he's still working on me. Don't worry about it.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
I'll get around to put in a toilet seat down someday.
He's still working on me.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
But see, Christians know that it is God's grace and
only God's grace that made them Christians.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
That's why we can never look down on the world.
We never look at them and say, oh, they're terrible people.
What terrible people? No, no, no, pray for them. That's why
in this Message series. We said, you pray for your friend,
you pray for your neighbor, you pray for your family
and come to Christ.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
But you're not praying for them to make the decision.
You're praying for God and Heaven to open their hearts.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
To receive Jesus.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Number four. Jesus is the one whe is word comes
alive to you. You know the difference between a Christian
and I'm a Christian.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
Here's the difference. A Christian, here's the word of God.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
And they say, yes, it doesn't mean that they always
do it, No, they'll fail a regular basis, but when
they hear it, they're like.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yes, I need that.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
I know it because sometimes I'll say things that just
hits you right here between the eyes and you're like, ah,
but you're right. But a non Christian, here's the word
of God, and they say, I'll pick that, and I'll
choose that, but I'll leave the rest out. And I
want to say something to the non Christians that are
listening to me right now.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
You're not an original. You know that, right, You're not original.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
I will actually bet that the passage is the scripture
that you have a problem with, are not.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
Because you thought of it.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
But because your culture thought of it, your environment taught
you that. And that's why when you take the Bible
and you show it to Muslims in the Middle East
and you show them passes like a man should have
only a one wife and a man should you know
a wife should submit to her husband.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
And the Muslim says, well, all right, I'll get on
the board with that.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
But then you turn to Jesus and you say, okay,
Jesus is the only way to the Father. Oh, by
the way, he also said you should love your enemies.
A Muslim says, no, no, I'm not taking that. Take
the same Bible over to Americans. You just say, okay,
Jesus said that you should love your enemies and forgive
those who insult you and persecute you. And in an
American will say, you know what, that's actually good. It's
a very noblack day.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
But Jesus also said that marriage between a man and
a woman and that any sex outside of marriage is
actually in godly as fornication.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
And an American says, oh, no, no, no, I don't agree
with that.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
They're not doing it because they're original, they're doing it
because they're products of their environment. You understand that when
you know Jesus, when the Spirit of God is alive
in you, that when you hear God's word, it comes
alive to you. And though you might not do all
of it, you know all of it is true and
you need to submit to it.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
That's what Jesus says. In John chapter six, he says,
no one can come to me unless the Father draws him,
and I will raise them up out of the last day.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
And then he says, it has written the prophets. They
will all be what taught by God. When you go
to the Word, you're being taught by the Father. And
then he says, everyone who has heard and learned from
the Father.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Comes to me hurt and learn what the scriptures. So
the scriptures Jesus will say.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
In John six sixty three, he says, the spirit gives life.
The flesh counts for nothing. And the words that I
have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
You know you're a Christian when it comes alive to you.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
You know you know you're a Christian when God God's
word cannot insult you out of the church.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
So the people are listening to Jesus speak, and they've
had enough.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
In the end of John chapter six, again very very
very sad passage verse sixty six. At this many of
his disciples turned back and no longer walk from them.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
They're like, all right, that's it, We're out of here.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
People getting offended to the true word of God is
nothing new. It has been going on for two thousand years,
and and and and this beautiful moment happens.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
But we've got to get to point number five here.
Jesus is the one number one, number five. When I
stop following the crowd and I stay.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
With him, not to the beautiful moment, twenty thousand people
started following Jesus. John chapter six, Verse one, twelve people
are left. Jesus turns to the twelve says, you want
to go away as well? And Peter, Oh, I love Peter,
mister open mouthed insert foot. But sometimes sometimes Peter just

(36:27):
nailed it. This is one of those times. What does
he say, Lord to what? Notice that he doesn't say
where are we going to go? And notice that he
doesn't say to what shall we go? I came to
Christianity looking for a program, and I met a person.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
No, he says to whom shall we go? There's no
one else. Lord, you have the words of eternal life.
There's something about what you say that makes this makes
sense in here and some of you right here, sitting
right now, you're you're saying that right now, something's hitting
you right here. Something's happening right here. The word of

(37:03):
God is getting into your heart and as a sign
of God is coming to get you.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Coming to bring you into his family. Because I love
what Peter says. We have believed and we have come
to know process. I came to know that you are
the Holy One of God. When Jesus is the one,
nothing on this earth can satisfy. Power in this life
doesn't satisfy. You know you're saved by grace. When the

(37:33):
world walks away, you hang on because you know He's
worth it.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
The old story goes of a old man and his son.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
They used to love traveling the world together, collecting pieces
of art, rare pieces of art, Monai's Rembrandts van Goes.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
The collection was impressive. Eventually, the war broke out, the
Sun had to go away to war.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
In a battle, in a terrible skirmish, he ended up
having to give his life for his country, and in
the process he saved a few friends along the way.
News came back to the father that his son was dead,
and he grieved horribly. A couple of years later, there's
a knock on the door. Father opened the door to
the man. He said, you don't know me, but I

(38:20):
know your son. He gave his life from me, and
we were good friends overseas in that war, and I
got to know him, and he told me about your
love for art, and I want to give you a
gift in honor of your son. I'm not a great
painter by any stretch of the imagine, but I painted.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
A portrait of your son.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
And he turned the portrait and showed him to the
old man, and the old man was overcome with emotion
as he saw how wonderfully this young man had captured
his son's personality in that portrait.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Years went by.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
That portrait was a precious heirloom of that man, hanging
over the mantle of his fireplace.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
And then the old man died, and a word got.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Out there was going to be an all wonderful auction
of all this man's works, all the priceless pieces of
art going on auction that day, all the rich in
five of this people came to that auction waiting to
buy the Rembrandts and the Moonai's, and the man goes
that they were ready for it.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
And the man hit the gavel.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
On the table and the first piece of art that
was presented was the portrait of the old man's son,
and he said, here's our first piece of art. Who
will give me ten dollars? Nobody said anything, and the
auctioneer kept going, ten dollars, do I hear?

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Ten dollars for the portrait of the old man's son.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Eventually the crowd got hornery. They said, we don't want
this piece. Give us the masterpieces. That's what we came for.
Let's get the auction started. The auctioneer said ten dollars,
just ten dollars, money would take it. And an old
man walked in from the back. It was the old
servant of the householder. He said, I'll give you ten
dollars for the portrait of the Sun. The auctioneer said
once twice, sold for ten dollars to the old man

(39:56):
on the back. At that the man the gabbled down
on the pope at one more time and said, my friends,
the auction has concluded.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
They said, what are you talking about.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Let's get on with the real paintings and the real masterpieces.
He said, it was stipulated in the old man's will
that whoever gets the sun gets it all.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Ladies and gentlemen, When you got the sun, you got
it all, you got it all. So sermon in the sentence,
ladies and gentlemen, is this.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Jesus is the one who satisfies your soul, who empowers
your life, and whose word you follow, no matter what
others sayor doing. When we give right now, we're not giving.
It's because we want to see people save.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
We do, we desperately do. But down deep in our
hearts

Speaker 1 (40:50):
He's a belief that no one satisfies and nothing matches
up to eternal life in Jesus Christ