Transcript of Have you Rejected Jesus? | The Time Has Come | Week 5

well you do not want to miss our family night tonight so make plans to be back with us uh as we celebrate and we get to see the musical the kids have been working hard on all that all that all week uh my name is Derek i have the privilege of being the pastor here and whether you're joining us in this room or online we're thankful you're here heard just yesterday from somebody who'll be watching online today uh and so we continue to hear from those who can't be here for one reason or another and we are thankful that you're able to join us online heard this week by letter from someone uh who joins us every week online so we are thankful that you are with us regardless of how you came to be with us we're also so thankful for First Baptist Do and for them sending their impact student choir here uh now you guys blessed us big time uh I do want to know Andrew how old were you when your dad came here as pastor do you remember you were how old 15 15 okay so he was 15 when he came here the reason I wanted to ask that is because uh you see the investment and you see the multiplication that and so when we when we stand up here and say hey surrender's doing this or students are doing that and we say at the end of every service you know we always say thank you for your generosity you're investing in this and you're investing in that um this is a good example of that because you see multi multiple generations invested in and now Andrew and Lauren are investing in this next generation of students and one of these days I told him in the first service I'm praying that God's calling out pastors and worship leaders and uh just all kinds of people into vocational ministry out of this group because of their experiences here and these are really those kind of experiences that uh that shape them and give them opportunities to serve so thank y'all for coming and uh y'all are not finished yet right y'all are going to close out our service am I right about that the two of you are going to close out our service so that means you shouldn't leave during invitation anyway uh but you've got an extra reason to hang around this week uh don't leave andrew and Lauren are going to close out our services and you know what we've already had two woos out of dawn so it's been a good service already it's how we rate our services around here how many woos do we get out of dawn we might just get a third i mean you just never know what might happen so you might hang around for that i want to invite you to join us in John chapter 7 five weeks ago we were in John chapter 7 and this week we're back in John chapter 7 so we took a three-week break and I did a series on the Holy Spirit because of what John tells us there in John chapter 7 and then uh I was out of town uh for the Southern Baptist Convention pastor Ralph preached and then last week I preached on vacation Bible school themed verse Psalm 34 343 and so this week we are back in John chapter 7 we're going to finish up John chapter 7 a series called The Time Has Come and then next week we'll move into John chapter 8 with a series called The Light of the World as we continue to walk through the Gospel of John the time has come john chapter 6 and 7 have really brought us to a decision point a place where the popularity of Jesus has grown he's been healing people he feeds the 5000 at the beginning of John chapter 6 and it really stirs up all these thoughts in the hearts and minds of people but as John chapter 6 and chapter 7 uh come to us they they present to us a decision time and you know every relationship has that decision time that time where you have to decide is this thing going to move forward or not this week during vacation Bible school I had the opportunity to speak to some of our young ladies about the whole dating process and and one of the things that I told them was "Hey when you're dating young man and you realize this is not a young man that I would marry uh then that's the last date that's the last conversation that's the last text message why would you waste any more time when you realize this is not the young man that I'm going to marry and then you would just move on to uh the next stage?" There comes a time in every relationship when you must decide lindsay and I had the opportunity to meet a couple last summer on vacation and they were newly weds and we were uh at the same resort they were at they were telling us about their first date and the young lady said on the first date just a few minutes into the first date I said "Uh God has called me to be a missionary to Southeast Asia if you're not on board with that then we need to go ahead and end this date right now because we don't need to move forward anymore." Man what great clarity this is where God's calling me and this is not where God's calling you then there's no need uh somehow that guy got a call from God to go to Southeast Asia right there on that date and so they stayed together they got married and now they are preparing to move to Southeast Asia the Lord works in mysterious ways uh but this week in John chapter 7 we really comes to the point will the what will the crowd do and we're going to read in just a moment that a division rose arose about Jesus so the crowd begins to separate who's with him who's against him and that leads me to the message for today the message for today is this you must decide will you receive Jesus or reject Jesus that's the decision that the crowd comes to in John chapter 7 and it's the decision before us today beginning in verse 40 the Bible says "When they heard these words some of the people said "This really is the prophet." Others said "This is the Christ." But some said "Is the Christ come from Galilee has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David and comes from Bethlehem the village where David was?" So there was a division among the people over him some of them wanted to arrest him but no one laid hands on him the officers came then to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them "Why did you not bring him?" The officers answered "No one ever spoke like this man." The Pharisees answered them "Have you also been deceived have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him but this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." Nicodemus who had gone to him before and who was one of them said to them "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" They replied "Are you from Galilee too search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee." Let's pray together lord thank you for your word would you speak to us now lord would you open our hearts give us that truth that you want us to hear and Lord give us the boldness and the courage to step out and follow you pray this in Jesus name amen so you must decide will you receive Jesus or reject Jesus so the crowd hears the teachings of Jesus and we might consider this the cumulative teachings of Jesus over John chapter 6 and 7 this teaching where Jesus says you wanted the bread and I am the bread of life and the water Moses gave you uh mana in the wilderness but it was really God who gave that to you and now I'm here and I'm the bread of life so all of this teaching that Jesus has been doing is really been forcing a wedge in the crowd and it comes to a head here at the end of John chapter 7 and we've seen all throughout John chapter 7 this separation and now a line is drawn in the sand there are those who are on this side of the line and there are those who are on that side of the line a division arose among the people it was a three-part division this really is the prophet that was one group deuteronomy 18 15-18 moses says "A prophet like me will arise from among the people." And so because of that over the years the Jewish people had waited not for a prophet but for the prophet the prophet who would come who would be like Moses who would give them a law who would establish a new covenant and that the prophets had indicated that yes a new covenant was coming and so they're looking for this new covenant and a new prophet along with it and some said this is the prophet this is the same question they asked of John the Baptist remember all the way back in John chapter one they said to John are you the prophet no I'm not the prophet others said "This is the Christ." Now for us we hear that and we think "Wait a second the prophet is the Christ." We know that but in the first century they didn't often didn't understand that those were the same person so they were looking for a prophet and they were looking for a Messiah so some said "This is the prophet." Others said "This is the Christ." Earlier in John chapter 7 they said "When the Christ comes will he do more works than this man?" I mean look at what he's done when the Messiah comes when the Savior comes will he possibly do more than this guy's done and so they start to think he's the Christ and so that's one group is he the prophet a second group is he the Christ but then there's the third group the third group says can't be either this guy is not the guy we're looking for there arose a division among them why because they they said "Is the Christ to come from Galilee?" This is where John reminds us that we know something the crowd doesn't know we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem the crowd doesn't know that so they're in some ways in speaking about their knowledge they are revealing their ignorance that's very important they speak the facts that they know but as they do that we reading along know that their facts are actually revealing their ignorance is not the Christ that come from Bethlehem he's supposed to be a descendant of David and he's supposed to be born in Bethlehem and here this guy is he's from Nazareth well we the readers we know he actually was born in Bethlehem flee fled to Egypt and when he came back settled in Nazareth so he was born in Bethlehem but then moved to Galilee for his preaching ministry and kind of adopted Capernaum there in Galilee as his hometown and so both are true he's from Galilee but he's also born in Bethlehem we know that the crowd doesn't know that and so because of that some in the crowd kind of write him off this can't be the Christ so this division widens the gap between those who believe in him and those who are skeptical of him all through John 6 and 7 we we see something happening we see the middle ground falling out from underneath the feet of the people who want to have a little bit of Jesus and then be a little skeptical and what Jesus does is Jesus is not concerned with the number of followers he has he's simply concerned with proclaiming who he is and so as he proclaims and clarifies who he is that middle ground kind of falls away and you have those who believe in him and have true saving faith in him and then you have those who are skeptical and even critical and ultimately will arrest and crucify him and that middle ground is falling away uh the reason that I think this is so important is because we really love the middle ground don't we not just in religion we like the middle ground in everything we like the middle ground in politics we like the middle ground in uh opinions about food and you know we don't want to offend anybody uh we like the middle ground except when it comes to SEC football that's the only place we don't like middle ground we are solidly in our camps other than that place but can I tell you something there's no middle ground there's no middle ground when it comes to Jesus you're either all in or you're all out so the middle ground is falling out from underneath the crowd as these divisions arise and so there's this group that says he can't be the Christ therefore let's leave him alone and let him have his own ministry and it'll fizzle out no therefore let's arrest him earlier in chapter 7:es 30 and 32 the the Pharisees working with the chief priests these are sort of political enemies but they're united in their hatred against Jesus they unite together and they say go arrest this man they come to arrest him and earlier they can't quite get to him to arrest him but now they get to him but they don't arrest him because they say no one has ever spoken like this man now we might think of these as kind of the muscle of the religious leaders these are just kind of thoughtless men who do what they're told to do but that's not who these men are these are servants of the temple it means they're Levites it means that they've been raised in a family that is dedicated to serving the temple so we shouldn't think of these as kind of mindless muscle who just go and do whatever the the leaders tell them to do no these are people who have some theological training some theological background and that's why you see the conversation unfold as it does because they go to arrest Jesus they say "No man ever spoke the way that this man speaks." They come back and the rulers say "So you've been deceived too." Notice the rulers don't say "Hey do what you're told this is what we pay you for." No the leaders say "You've been deceived too." See that's very insulting that's insulting to these men who've had theological training you've gotten caught up in bad theology don't you know that none of us none of the rulers none of the Pharisees none of us have believed in him now what's interesting is that's not totally true again the ignorance of the Pharisees is on full display the ignorance of the chief priest on full display in their own statements none of us have believed in him well we know what the readers don't know that Nicodemus is starting to have real faith he and Joseph of Arya at the end of the gospel of John it will be said of them that they were disciples of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews so they were believing and Nicodemus speaks up here nicodemus says hold on just a moment we we don't put a man we don't condemn a man without first hearing him out that's what our own law says we're violating our own law if you will and and so they but they say in this moment notice none of us believe in him why would you because we're we're the Pharisees we're the chief priests you're just the lowlevel Levites and you're following along with this crowd this crowd doesn't know the law they are accursed who is it my dear friends who doesn't understand the law who is it who's twisted the interpretation of the Old Testament to reject the very Messiah that the Old Testament predicted would come it's the Pharisees and the chief priests so they criticize the guards the guards will not arrest him because of the way he speaks then Nicodemus speaks up and they criticize him as well seems to be their only weapon oh you're one of them they know good and well Nicodemus is not from Galilee they know him well but you need to know Galilee and Jerusalem were kind of at political odds kind of like Alabama and Auburn yes I'm prying that's why I set you up a little earlier on that or LSU we'll include LSU you know I can't leave them out mississippi State Old Miss am I missing anybody just yell it out and we'll What's that georgia oh yeah georgia my father-in-law is here georgia okay all right so you know how this works right we We We're very familiar with this oh you sound like a bammer now I would never say that you sound like a barer oh man you just you've compromised right well this is the political tension that is here between Galilee and Jerusalem oh in Jerusalem that's where the big city people are that's where the educated people are that's where the fancy people are that's where the people who really know their stuff are galilee that's kind of the backwoods people um that's uh that's that's just that old farm college anyway we'll move along but so that's that's the place where nobody knows anything we're the place where the educated fancy people who clearly would know God's word nicodemus are you from Galilee too do you see the slight do you see the insult you're like one of these backwoods people from up there search and see search the scriptures see that no prophet arises from Galilee now there's an issue here because we have the prophets Jonah and Nahm that do come from Galilee and maybe others and so maybe it is another way that John is pointing out to us that they were in fact ignorant of the scriptures they didn't know the Bible as well as they thought they did or perhaps they're saying the prophet won't come from Galilee that's certainly an maybe infitting with what they say about his birthplace being in Bethlehem but either way it shows again their ignorance we know something they don't know it's in their statements of intelligence that their ignorance once full light is shed on the subject is revealed so we have this division those who are rejecting Jesus as savior and lord and those are who receiving Jesus as savior and lord that same division is here with us today 2,000 years later it is the choice that is laid before us will you receive Jesus or will you reject Jesus will you receive him as savior and lord or will you reject him as savior and lord there's something that's arisen here in modern history contemporary times it's never really existed in the history of the church before but now it's part of our culture it's this idea well I I have him as savior but I don't have him as lord i'm still working on that i've received him as savior but I don't like the lord part can I just tell you here friends you can't have it that way you can't have him as savior and not have him as lord because you don't get to determine whether or not he is savior and lord he is savior and lord you either have him or you don't have him it's just like that it's like getting married to somebody and saying "I receive your bank accounts but I do not receive your credit card debt." Now you don't have that option right when you get married it is all there that's a good warning another We're not talking about dating this morning but just write that down uh folks when when you start to move towards marriage you need to know what's in the bank account but you also need to know what's in the credit card debt okay those two those all come together as pretty as she is as handsome as he is as charming as he is those all come together you just need to be aware of that you can't say "Well I want this part but not that part." No when you're united to someone it all comes with it it's the same the same is true in our relationship with Christ when we are united with Christ we have him as all that he is which is savior and lord and so the choice before you is not to receive part of him and kind of maybe down the road receive another part of him no it's all of Jesus are none of Jesus will you have him as savior and lord will you reject him or will you receive him for who he is well what might keep you from doing this what might keep you on the rejection side and keep you away from receiving him as savior and lord i want to share with you four things that might do just that first you don't know what you don't know about Jesus i'm really burdened over this i'm burdened over this because of what I see it's a pattern it's a pattern where people reject Jesus because of some fact or they reject scripture because of some fact it turns out that fact is no fact at all this is a growing problem in biblical illiteracy i've watched it my entire life as biblical illiteracy has grown and grown and grown and now it's kind of invaded our culture completely and people just don't know what the Bible actually says they don't know what the Bible actually teaches about Jesus and so it it causes them to easily drift away because of something that is said here or there they hear something or they see something it sounds good it comes from an influencer therefore it must be true and they reject Jesus do you know how many people are walking away from the faith because they're watching something on social media we have in our day we have terrible Tik Tok theology i don't know if you're aware of this if you're not into Tik Tok and I'm not either you see the videos and you go "My goodness this is just untrue what this person is saying is just on its face not true." But the likes the comments the shares as they attack the gospel Jesus scripture we have false prophets of Facebook i get them quite often in my inbox where somebody sends me something and says "Hey have you heard about this?" And you read it and you say "This is I don't even know where to start untangling the the ignorance the the the false teaching that is in this." So we terrible tick- tock theology false prophets of Facebook and the ignorance of Instagram couldn't come up with anything for Snapchat if you come up with something text it to me later i'll appreciate it but it's out there and then hey there there are all the other social media platforms that most of us in this room don't know about they're popping up every single day people are getting on those social media platforms they're influencers and our young people our old people people of all ages are being influenced by what's said on these platforms and so much of it is just patently false and here's the thing even the people who are who are teaching it they probably believe it they just don't recognize how false it is and so I see people who've rejected Christianity because they don't know what they don't know they've got this version of what scripture teaches and they've rejected it all together i also see a lot of just straight up lies out there i see people attack scripture i've seen just in my lifetime people attack scripture and the legitimacy of scripture over things that have been shown to be uh in the end not true so people will come to scripture and they'll say "Hey these facts are the facts and that contradicts scripture therefore it can't be." the Pharisees the rulers of the temple they said "Well we know this about Jesus uh he was not from born in Bethlehem therefore he can't be the Messiah." What's wrong they got their facts wrong and and listen that caused them to miss Jesus and I'm telling you there are people who are walking away from the Christian faith right now as we speak because they hear some fact and they say "I I I just I've got to get away from Jesus or I've got to get away from Christianity or what I was raised in is not true because clearly this fact contradicts what I was raised in." I want to encourage you if you're if you're a teenager if you're in your 20s I've tried to catalog this throughout my lifetime because the first time I encountered this was not on social media the first time I encountered this was in a college classroom when one of my professors who hated Christianity he made it his life's goal just to collect all these facts that contradicted the Bible and I'm going to share with you some facts that he shared with me in class that now I graduated uh college in 2005 and from 2005 to 2025 that's 20 years so within 20 years all of these things that this PhD professor standing in my classroom in the years between 2000 and say 2005 would teach he would teach these things and he would use these facts all of them have been overturned just in the last 20 years so he would say this he would say 'You know there's actually no writing at the time that the Bible says the earliest books of the Bible were written writing at that level with that level of complication didn't even exist at that time i didn't know this but even at the time his facts were dated his facts were outdated at the time we certainly know writing existed much longer than 3,500 years ago when the Bible says the earliest books of the Bible were written then there's David's palace i remember hearing well David was such a great king according to the Bible and he had this big wonderful palace but look we can go over to Jerusalem right now we go to the city right now there's no palace where is his palace his palace is not there and then about five years ago guess what they found in Jerusalem right where the Bible says it was supposed to be David's palace hey Hezekiah supposedly had this tunnel that he used to get water into the city and listen I'm just telling you there's there's no tunnel there guess what hezekiah's tunnel has been found you can go today and you can walk through it oh there was another tunnel that David supposedly used to take the the city from the Jebusites and and listen we just know we know for a fact that that's mythology why because there's no tunnel there guess what they found David's tunnel that he used to take the city of Jerusalem from the Jebusites all this has happened within the last 20 years the early church never believed that Jesus was God that was an invention of Christian theology in the third century it they never believed that in the first century listen there is almost universally irrefutable evidence that the early church within months we have the evidence that almost within months they were already of Jesus crucifixion resurrection and ascension they were calling Jesus God in the early church that's all happened in the last 20 years my favorite involves David and Goliath david and Goliath i remember my professor saying "See you're believing a lie you're believing a myth the Bible says that David fought a man named Goliath somewhere around a th000 AD of a th000 BC but here's what you need to know you condescending down speaking down to us saying here's what you need to know the name Goliath was not even in use in the Middle East especially in Palestine and in in the area of Falista where the Philistine cities were that name wasn't even in use until the 4th century BC almost 500 years after your Bible says that David killed a man named Goliath this is my favorite one because I heard Paul Harvey break the news i was driving down the road 2005 some archaeologists in Israel were digging they happened to be digging in the city of Gath the ancient city of Gath where the Bible says Goliath was from and they found a piece of pottery with Goliath's name inscribed on it in the city of Gath dated to 950 BC now even as you read the stories about this the archaeologists will say "This doesn't prove that there was a man named Goliath that David killed." I'm like "Y'all it gets pretty close doesn't it?" I mean come on what do you got to have to You got to have a you got to have a TikTok video of it uh to to believe that this happened the Bible says it archaeology and scientists who would go against God's word say "Well it couldn't have happened because of this and that." Wait around just 20 years of development from the time that I graduated college until 2025 all and I could name more all of these archaeological or scientific facts have been overturned just in those 20 years you don't know what you don't know about Jesus you hear some fact or you hear some false prophet or some false teacher spew something out on a platform and you say "Well hey I got to get away from Jesus." Maybe that's why you've rejected Jesus maybe you've rejected Jesus because you don't like what you do know about Jesus maybe there's some ignorance as there was with the Pharisees and the chief priests and even the crowd who said "Well he's supposed to be born in Bethlehem and this guy's from Nazareth so therefore or this guy's from Galilee therefore he can't be the Messiah." We know that there's a fact they didn't have but maybe it's what you do know that's really what drove the Pharisees and the chief priests it wasn't what they didn't know it's that they didn't like him he didn't line up with their idea of a Messiah what he taught was not something they wanted to hear just go back to John chapter 6 at the beginning they're all for him he's giving out bread i mean who's up for this guy he's giving out bread and fish and yeah this guy they want to make him king just look at John chapter 6 they want to make him king if this guy can bring can produce bread out of nothing then certainly he get the Romans out of here but some reason this guy doesn't care anything about getting the Romans out of there this guy wants to talk about my sin this guy wants to call himself the bread of life this guy wants to call himself the living water this this guy doesn't line up with what I need him to do and be sometimes it's not what you don't know about Jesus or the questions that can't be answered sometimes it's what you do know about Jesus that causes you to reject him you know there's something about Jesus that's going to rub you the wrong way you know I I like everything Jesus has ever said to me and you're not listening because sometimes the Lord is going to rub you the wrong way you know about cats don't you yes evil and we know i'll make no comment on their eternal destination because that's a sermon for another time i actually talked about this in the first service and somebody from our First Baptist Dover team said that exact thing happened to me i mean you can pet a cat for you know just loving on them for 20 minutes you're just petting that cat and they're just purring purring and man they'll just turn on you like that won't they bite you especially if you decide that you'll turn your hand and go this way ever happened to you got that phrase that rubbed me the wrong way and the cat responds oh yeah I see I see that hand right there yes that has happened to you we have a witness over here and one back there hands all over the room hey there's there's going to be a time where you're reading along in scripture man I like what this Jesus guy is saying man yesterday I got like I got like some fish and hush puppies meal i mean it was fantastic you should have been there it was awesome and then all of a sudden he's going to turn to you and he's going to say "Unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood you have no part in me." What are you talking about hey go back to that other stuff i like that other stuff jesus is going to say to you as you read his word and his Holy Spirit speaks to you Jesus is going to say "It's me or him it's me or her if you want this relationship with me then you need to stay here he's going to say to some of you hey you know you need to make this relationship right you need to you need to marry that person and you need to make this relationship right and you're going to go "Whoa whoa I don't I don't like that no I like to keep it where it is." He's going to say to you "That job you're in is leading you down a road of sin and you know it and you need to leave that job." And you're going to go "Hey I've been in that job for a long time i'm invested in that career." He's going to say to some of you I'm calling you out to ministry and you're going to go "Oh not not ministry anything but ministry." You're going to say "I don't like that." Some of you he's going to say "Hey you put the phone down hey you need to get rid of that habit you get rid of that friendship." And Jesus listen I need you to stay out of that sometimes it's not what you don't know it's what you do know about Jesus that causes you to reject him number three you might not receive Jesus as savior and lord because you don't want to be like those who have received Jesus you see the condescension the put downs all throughout this passage oh you're one of them what does the crowd know they actually call them a cursed they don't know the law they're under They're accursed are you from Galilee too we're the ones here the Pharisees the chief priests we We know don't be like them you know I've never thought of this because I've been in ministry since I was a teenager but others have shared with me that it is very difficult to be a Christian in the workplace a Christian among in certain c social circumstances i've felt a little bit of that pressure but not much i'm I'm spared from a lot of it because of what I do for a living but I recognize sometimes you go you know what i just don't want to be identified as one of those kind and so you kind of want to be like especially in our culture Mobile it's still a cool thing to go to church right it's still okay people may not be really excited about it but they're not going to be against you for it and so it's one thing to go to church but then to cross that line where you're like really serious about Jesus and you really follow Jesus and there's things that you don't involve yourself in because you follow Jesus there's things you say no to because you follow Jesus you actually dare to give your income to the church are you some kind of fool or something you just throw money on the fire you know what else you could do with that money instead of giving it to the Lord through the local church i mean you know you know what it is because you live in this world and so you say "Well I don't I don't really want to be like them i because I've noticed something about Christians christians don't seem to be very cool." We're not can I tell you something you're not cool either i don't know if you've noticed that a really hard look in the mirror none of us are cool all right no you're not cool i'm not cool we're not cool but sometimes you say "I just don't want to be like those people i want to be accepted by this group these people who seem to have it all together who seem to be smart who seem to be successful and wealthy and I don't want to be identified with those Galileans." It leads really in concert to to the last point you don't want to offend those who reject Jesus as the middle ground falls away there are those who receive Jesus and there are those who reject Jesus and as our culture continues to turn against Jesus that false middle ground that has been there will continue to disappear from underneath your feet and I'm telling you today's the day which side are you going to be on i want to wait and see how this thing works out you don't get that opportunity the choices before you today i don't want to offend those who've rejected Jesus and listen we as followers of Christ we never want to be unnecessarily offensive we don't have to leave this place and go out there and say "How can I offend somebody today in the name of Jesus?" You don't need to do that i promise you if you will stand firm on the truth of scripture and on the gospel of Jesus Christ the offense will come you don't need to go looking for a fight you don't need to go looking for an offense but at the same time you don't need to run away from it you don't need to be afraid of those who are are the ones that society and culture have labeled as successful maybe they have money maybe they have position maybe they have power and you say "Well because of that I don't want to offend them." And to identify too closely with Jesus would be to offend them that's Nicodemus isn't it nicodemus in this moment says "Hold on i I need to speak up i need to say our our law doesn't judge a man without first giving him a hearing and they say are you two a Galilean and then as far as we know silence from Nicodemus what Nicodemus needs to do in that moment is what Peter has done earlier he needs to stand firmly and he needs to say I believe that this man is the Christ the son of the living God i believe that's what's happening in Nicodemus's heart i believe that's why what comes out of his mouth is we need to we need to back off this guy we need to give him a hearing let's let's look I don't want to offend you too much but look our own law says he's trying to be logical he's trying to be reasonable and sometimes we can fall into that trap can't we we can fall into that trap of kind of trying to reason with the culture and saying "Hey just you know I'm not trying to be offensive here." And listen I'm just telling you whether it's at school or at work or wherever it is just stand firm and say Jesus Christ is the son of the living God and he's the only answer and he's the only savior it's easy for you to say "Pastor that won't get you fired." I had somebody come to me between service and I was so thankful for it and he said "Listen I just have to say everything I can say about Jesus when the opportunity arises and if I lose my job God will give me another one." Listen in some countries it men and women go to prison and go to death for saying that and we say "I might not get the promotion if I speak too much about Jesus." Listen the truth is we will go this fall and we will say the most offensive things to another person over a college football game we will not stay quiet about anything regarding those games we'll talk about politics we'll talk about money we'll talk about everything under the sun we will talk about all these things but we will shut up when it comes to Jesus i'm telling you we got to open our mouths and speak and we can't be worried about who we offend we don't want to be unnecessarily offensive but we also do not want to stay quiet about Jesus boy listen we are called to speak up and listen the enemy the enemy loves that you think that I don't want to offend him because then the gospel of Jesus Christ is not spoken of and the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that will save our neighbors and our friends and our family and our culture we must speak the truth of the gospel and the truth of God's word and y'all look there are some deep theological mysteries that are hard to solve but it is not hard to see in scripture that God created man in his image as male and female it is not hard to see in scripture that marriage is a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman it's not hard to see in scripture that every single person has sinned and that your problem is not what's out there your problem is what's in here it's not hard to see in scripture that the wages of sin is death and that if you continue to go down the path of death of of sin you will find yourself eternally separated from God forever it is not hard to see that in scripture you may not be able to explain the trinity to your neighbor and you might not be ready to dive into a discussion about Calvinism but you can tell people the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is a uh the gift of God is is salvation eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord you know that you know that God loved so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life you know what that means that those who don't believe in him will perish and they will not have eternal life you know those things and so we know them and we can speak them and it is the only message of hope we have for our culture and our culture wants everything about Jesus except for the real Jesus so you speak up and you say "Hey listen here's the deal you're a sinner who needs the grace of God." And God has done everything that it takes to get the salvation that you need and the forgiveness that you need to you but you got to admit that you're a sinner or you're going nowhere that's that's like step one if you can't get there then you can't get to the grace and forgiveness of God and we have to speak and listen those things are offensive they are offensive and our culture doesn't like them but we must speak about them i wonder for you what's keeping you from receiving Jesus as Savior and Lord maybe somewhere along the way you saw a social media post and it made you question the authority of God's word or maybe you like me you had a college professor who worked overtime to undermine undermine the authority of God's word or maybe you look around at some of us Christians and say "Oh I understand right?" I know you said "Hey I just don't want to be like that." Or maybe you've looked at the world and said "I I can kind of have it both ways have a little bit of Jesus but but not so much that I really kind of offend the culture listen if one of those things is keeping you from receiving Jesus what what would you say if you could go back to John chapter 7 and you could be in that meeting nicodemus is there you know what's coming you know the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is coming you know that these that think they're so powerful have all the control you know that that they're fading into history and that the greatest most expansive kingdom the world has ever seen is about to begin and that the greatest name in history is Jesus Christ what would you say nicodemus don't be ashamed nicodemus don't don't worry about offending these people hey they're calling you a Galilean be thankful to be called a Galilean 2,000 years from now people are going to pay a lot of money to fly over the other side of the world and walk around Galilee because of what this man's doing and take that name with pride nicodemus it all turns out okay if you stick with Jesus if you receive Jesus hey the same is true for you the pressures you're facing may be different they are no doubt but the promise is this it all turns out for your good if you receive Jesus those of you who don't know the Lord I want to encourage you turn from your sin recognize you're a sinner recognize you have no hope of eternal life without Jesus and recognize that he has extended to you an opportunity to be saved and be part of the family of God that he died in your place on the cross and that your sins can be forgiven and you can be part of God's family those of you who do know the Lord fight the drift fight that drift where you go "Oh I just want to back away a little bit." Remember Peter made that grand confession didn't he you are the Christ the son of the living God and then there came that time where he said "I do not know the man fight the drift stand firm what you believe reaffirm your commitment today and Jesus is your savior and lord." Let's pray together lord we thank you for those who are here today who know you and Lord I ask that you would just give us strength lord the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak there's so many times when we're tempted just to pull away and with the pressures of the world and unanswered questions where they can pull us away or give us strength to stand firm even when those pressures come especially when those pressures come and Lord for those who don't know you today would you help them see the truth of the gospel would you take Lord just these feeble words that sometimes can seem so inadequate lord would you use them somehow to convict someone today that they need to be saved and Lord would you bring them to salvation pray this in Jesus name