Episode Transcript
[00:05:13] I am God. And because I am God, I have the authority to not only heal somebody on the Sabbath, but also I can tell them what he can and can't do on the Sabbath. Now, they were not happy to hear this. They call this blasphemy. And thus he has the right, because he calls himself God, to be killed. So that understanding there, everybody now, not the jewish leaders, are standing there. They're listening in, probably very angry, fuming, as they listen to this person named Jesus say that I am God, and I have the authority to do what I have, just what I have just done. And so, Jesus, our series here we see who is Jesus really? Part two. We'll read through the passage, and then we'll pray, and we'll get in now that we kind of understand where we are. So look in your bibles with me, chapter 530. I can do nothing. He's just concluded, saying, here's what I'm able to do. I'm able to judge. I'm able to give life. And then he says on, in verse 30, I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me. And I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I received is from man. But I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John.
[00:06:53] For the works that the father has given me to accomplish the very works that I am doing. Remember what he just did. He healed this person. He's going to do many more. Bear witness about me that the father has sent me. And the father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have heard, his form you have never his voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen. And you do not have his word abiding in you.
[00:07:18] Speaking to the religious leaders, not pleasant for them to hear. For you do not believe the one who he has sent. Verse 39. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you'll receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from God alone, from only God.
[00:07:55] Do not think that I will accuse you to the father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. Verse 47 concludes. And if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Let's pray together.
[00:08:17] Well, Jesus, we recognize this morning that you are God, the God of the universe, sovereign over all things, all powerful.
[00:08:30] You know us, our hearts. You created us and all the things in the world that we are able to experience.
[00:08:38] And not only are you sovereign over all things and our creator, you're also our redeemer and Lord.
[00:08:45] And so today, as we spend time in your word, being reminded of your identity of your deity, help us to know what parts of our life you'd like to surrender to you that we may not have already done. So help us to remember your grace and your mercy that you have for us in the area of our life that we're in today. In Jesus name. Amen.
[00:09:09] In this monologue, this is what I'm reading is on the screen. Jesus is making a claim of deity. I mentioned this a moment ago in verses 17 through 29, and then today he's defending this claim. This claim is not a side note to Christianity. Rather, it is vital to the foundation of what we believe and why we believe what we believe.
[00:09:32] It's important for us to understand, for us to understand that this doctrine, this teaching, is not some side note in any way, but it's something that we must hold onto and hold tightly to. Now, we asked the question. I encourage you to ask this question as we walk through this. Why is this important? Why is this important? And it's this. And it's on the screen as well. Because if Jesus were like us, we could do with his claims and commands what we want. But if Jesus is God, then we would be fools to ignore his claims and commands.
[00:10:06] Furthermore, though we may know his claims to be true, we must daily remind ourselves to believe they are true and relevant to our personal lives. When we wake up in the morning, recognizing that I am not God, there is a God, and he has given me clear guidance and instruction in my life. He has redeemed me. He has guided me. He has called me to himself. And this is important for me to know in a world also of relative truth, finding and holding to absolute truth is both unpopular at best and more commonly at worst ends up bringing about others calling you hateful and narrow minded. And here Jesus lays out absolute truth for us. Let's look at this together. In your outline you have some areas you can fill in. The first we can look in verse 30 is this. Jesus is authoritative because of his submission. He makes this point clear. He says in verse 30, look on with me. I can do nothing, not some things, but I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge. Just moments prior, Jesus has said to the religious leaders, I have the authority to judge. When the end of time comes, when you all die, resurrection will happen. I will bring that about and I have the authority to judge. The father has given that to me. And now they say, wait a minute, we recognize God can do that, the father can do that. But when Jesus makes that claim to say he can judge, what he's saying, again, as we know, I am God. And what he's here saying to us and to those listening on is not only does he have the authority to adjust because he is God, also all of his judgments are completely just.
[00:11:50] It's interesting this point, Jesus saying, not as he could have said, you know what, by the way, I'm God. And just to prove it to you, I'm going to point to that person, I'm going to smite them dead and they're going to fall down. Boom. And everyone goes, wow, look what he just did. That's not what he did. He could have done something spectacular. He could have fallen fire down from heaven just to prove the fact that he was God to all those onlookers. But he doesn't do that. What he does do is say, I have authority because I'm willing to come under submission to the father. It's like this. If a parent, let's say, just kind of imagine a home sitting over here. You have the downstairs, you have the upstairs, the kids are playing upstairs and mom or dad downstairs, let's say mom says to one of the kids who's downstairs with her, she says to him, hey, run upstairs and tell your brothers and sisters to clean up the room and come downstairs. It's dinnertime.
[00:12:39] The one child could run upstairs and say, hey, clean up your room, it's dinner time. And what do you think the other kids would say? You're not the boss.
[00:12:47] But most likely the child will run upstairs and say what? First mom says, now in doing that, what the oldest child is doing is recognizing the authority that mom has. And the kids listening upstairs who are playing with their toys happily recognize the authority or the instruction that was given. The words that were just given is not of the authority of this sister sibling here, but of mom instead. And Jesus is recognizing, I'm coming under this authority, if you will, of the father. In Philippians two, Pastor Les read earlier Jesus choosing to lower himself and become like man. Now, before we move on, there's something that's important for us to hold to in this as well, that we can learn from in this point, this place that we can sit, is this. Our judgments? Your judgments and my judgments, if they are in line with God's word, can be communicated with authority, not because you have authority in and of yourself, because you're willing to submit yourself to God's authority. And here's what that looks like. It's you not saying, well, I'm the boss and I'm smarter than you, whoever you're talking to. And so here's what I want, but rather, I'm gonna open God's word, and through the lens of God's word, I'm gonna give instruction or I'm gonna give guidance. It's like the kid who runs upstairs and says to his siblings, it's not, I want you to do this, but it's, mom wants you to do this. In other words, for us, for you and I today, we can say, this is what God says. This is what God says. For example, we can look through God's word. Here's some five things. I was just thinking through this, five examples of what we can say in our culture today, and say this with authority.
[00:14:28] Marriage was designed by God to be between a man and a woman. Now, you can say that in any context, out and about, and people would say, well, who are you to judge?
[00:14:41] But that's not what we're doing. What we're doing is, I'm coming under the authority of God's word, and I'm communicating what it says.
[00:14:51] Stopping the life of an unborn child is wrong because it was made in God's image is life. There is such thing as absolute truth. The Bible is truth. It is the word of God and should be considered with authority in all of our life. There is only one way to get to God, and it is through the person of Jesus Christ. Well, that's very narrow minded of you. Somebody might say, but again, is it you and I that are saying this?
[00:15:22] Or are we saying, I'm coming under the authority of God's? Word. There are strong stances that you and I are able to make, not because we're better than anybody else, but rather because we are submitting to the authority of God's word. So Jesus recognizes something here in the midst of this. What he just did, and we saw this a couple weeks ago, is by claiming to be God, what their first thought is. This is blasphemy. According to the law of God in the Old Testament, if someone were to commit blasphemy, they were to be killed. And so Jesus now has brought almost really criminal charges upon himself by stating the fact that he is God. And this is important for a couple reasons. Firstly, because of that, now all of them, everyone listening and is thinking this, wait a minute, he just brought upon criminal charges. What excuses does he have for us now, really? What authority or what ways is he going to authenticate these claims? And that's the next point in verse 31 and 32, Jesus, we see, recognizes that. You can write this in is Jesus is authenticated. Look what he says. If I alone bear witness about myself, he's shifting us to a courtroom setting is what's going on here.
[00:16:37] If I alone bear witness about myself, witness, keyword important there. My testimony is not true. In other words, if I were to come into court and say, hey, I have something to claim about myself, and I'm the only one who substantiates that. I get, you wouldn't want to believe me, but he says in verse 32, and most likely we're talking about the Holy Spirit here, but he doesn't lean into that, probably because of his audience. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears is true.
[00:17:05] This is a reasonable thing for him to say. If someone makes a big claim, it's important that you'd want other people to believe him.
[00:17:16] Now, here's if we're going to give some support for this, you want to do at least two things. One, if you want to give authority to a claim that you just made, you want to do at least two things. One, you probably want to call upon someone in higher authority than you, and two, you probably want to pick people to bring to the stand. Imagine a courtroom setting here. Maybe here's a chair. You're gonna call somebody to the stand. You wanna call people who are higher authority than you, and you wanna call people to the stand who these other people know, someone that there's some relationship with. These people care about this person that I'm bringing to the stand. And if I were able to do those two things, most likely you're gonna believe the case that I'm bringing before you. So Jesus says, I am God. But you don't have to just believe me. I'm about to bring to the stand. We're gonna see here five different witnesses that are going to affirm or corroborate or authenticate the claim that I am making right now.
[00:18:15] And so as you look through this, look with me. Deuteronomy chapter 19 speaks about this a little bit. And this is where Jesus is really leaning into right now. In verse 15 of deuteronomy 19, he says, a single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be established. If a malicious witness arise against to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties shall dispute and appear before the Lord before the priests and judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then he goes on. There should be consequences brought before him. So Jesus knows I'm bringing something significant to these people's ears, and now they're going to care what people I'm going to bring to the stand to show this, you go to the next slide. I just underlined some of the key words there bearing witness testimony. These are key words that show us that Jesus recognizes this is a courtroom kind of situation. So here's Jesus. He makes the claim, and he says, the first person that I'm going to bring to the stand is John the Baptist.
[00:19:28] That's the first area of witness. The first person of witness that he wants to say, look, even John the Baptist, who you all know, claimed this to be true of myself. You could write that in a. On your outline is John the Baptist, verses 33 through 35. Look what it says in your bibles you sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Again, we see that Jesus claims that there is such thing as truth. Not that the testimony. Another key word there, right? Courtroom setting. Not that the testimony that I received is from man. In other words, I don't need John. But you all liked John, and you listened to him.
[00:20:07] But I say these things so that you may be saved. Jesus could have said, I don't really care if you don't believe me. I'm going to walk away. It doesn't really matter. But if Jesus were to do that, what he's demonstrating at least in this case, from what we see here is, I don't care if you're saved or not. He wants people to believe he didn't show up and say, I'm God. If you don't believe me, I don't care. But rather he says, I want you to believe this because I love you and I care about you.
[00:20:37] Look what he says. Verse 35. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to, it doesn't say put up with him, but it says you were willing to rejoice with him.
[00:20:49] Even the beginning of John, chapter one, verses six through eight, we see the author, John, the author, John. Bringing up John the Baptist and talking about how he was someone preparing the way for Jesus to come.
[00:21:04] So we see here that Jesus, he's there. He's like, all right, John the Baptist, he's not someone in higher authority than me or even higher authority than you, but he's someone that you all know and you all liked. And he spoke to affirm the claim that I am making. We see here, John did do good work and the people really liked him and were going to be baptized. Even though John kept talking about and pointing people to Jesus, it's interesting that he can make Jesus points back to John the Baptist and they hopefully would have remembered as they're watching on. Oh, that's right. John did talk about how Jesus was the lamb of God, here to take away the sins of the world. Hopefully they would have remembered that it wasn't that long prior. So Jesus, then he says, all right, so there's John the Baptist. You all liked him. He talked about me. This is true. I am God. So let's bring something else to the stand here, something that you can't ignore, and that's miracles. Look, what he says in verse 36. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing. Bear witness again, courtroom setting, right. Understanding the legal sense of what's happening, bear witness about me, that what the Father has sent me. The point Jesus is making here is quite obviously quite obvious. The impossible things Jesus is doing, that is what he's done before, like water into wine or physical healings. We've only seen a couple miracles so far from Jesus in the book of John, but we see even other gospels. There's been lots of other miracles that have happened.
[00:22:44] Jesus says, if you look at those, you can see something supernatural is occurring here, and it's not by the work of Satan. By the way, just to clarify, this is of the work of God, even Nicodemus, in chapter two, verse, chapter three, verse two, he says, no one can do these signs unless they are from God. People recognize this person is doing significant things here. If we were to look ahead, Jesus, the miracles that Jesus could have been referencing as well, most notably, was his last one, the resurrection.
[00:23:16] But he doesn't bring that up here. In this case, we know that to be true. We see that John, he was a witness, he was important. And if someone were to disbelieve him, we could look again at his works. Here's what he's saying. Here's the proof that I'm God. I'm only doing what God can do.
[00:23:32] By themselves, miracles are powerful. But alongside other witnesses, Jesus identity is unmistakable.
[00:23:41] At this time, Jesus doesn't speak to the great details of this, but the greatest miracle that Jesus performs is predicting his death and his resurrection. And even when people saw this great miracle showing his identity, they still continued to reject him. So we have John the Baptist. He's brought to the stand, and then he says, and the miracles, you all can't ignore that you all just saw one. Like, just moments ago, there was this guy, for 38 years, he wasn't able to walk, he wasn't able to do anything, and then I was able to heal him. So can't really ignore that. It's very obvious. But let's take miracles off the stand right now, and let's bring someone else to the stand. The one who we're going to bring to the stand now is God the father.
[00:24:24] Now, I hope you all don't ignore this individual that I am bringing to the stand, because you all say that you worship him and that you love him. Look with me in verse 37 and 38, and the father who sent me has himself borne witness about me, most notably during the baptism of Jesus. Remember what happens. Heavens are open. This is my son. Pay attention to him. Listen to him. Look what he says on, in verse 37. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen. Wait, we know that they haven't seen God, but his voice you've never heard. Wait a minute. But didn't they hear something from heaven? Well, some thought. Is that thunder? Like, what's going on here? Here's what he says. He clarifies this in the beginning of verse 38, and you do not have his word abiding in you. It's like you may have heard things before, but you've never taken in the word of God in your heart. One that you say that you believe in for. Look what he says for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
[00:25:27] Wow, that's pretty clear.
[00:25:30] Very pointed to them. Instead of elaborating, even on God's agreement with Jesus's identity and role, Jesus speaks words of judgment here. Do you see that? He tells them that God bears witness about Jesus, but they don't even know about this because they don't know God. Isn't that. I mean, that's very pointed to all of these people who are like, our job, our life is dedicated to teaching people about God. And here you are, Jesus, saying you don't know anything about God. I brought him to the stand and he would speak. He actually clearly speaks to my identity. But you wouldn't know because you've missed it. He told those who were tasked with teaching others about God that they knew nothing about God, that they don't even know his voice, they don't know what he looks like. They don't even have his words inside of them.
[00:26:16] You do not have his word abiding in you. I think one other aspect that would have even been a deeper sting to them, another pointed area of judgment is they would have known the Old Testament. The book of psalms 119, verse eleven, says this. And I think perhaps they would have deeply desired this to be true of their life. I have hidden your word in my heart. And so for those listening on. Go. Wait a minute. We have studied and studied and searched the scripture. We want it inside of us. And here this man is telling us we don't even know the scriptures. It's pointed judgment there. Look at the next point. So we've had John the Baptist on the stand. We've had miracles on the stand. We've even had God on the stand. He recognizes you've missed all of this because you don't know God. You're blind to the work of the miracles, and you clearly weren't paying attention to what John the Baptist was saying. But now let's lean in even more so to something that's very, very clear, that you can touch and feel the scriptures. The scriptures also authenticate Jesus. So if somehow you missed the voice of John the Baptist, you missed the miracles, and you missed even what God was saying. Well, clearly, because you don't know God the father. Well, you know the scriptures, right? I hope so. Let's bring the scriptures to the stand. Remember what I talked about earlier, like, two reasons, two people you'd want to bring to the stand to authenticate you. One, people in high authority or something that is close in relationship to everybody else here. Now we're going to bring something that does both of those high authority and something that they are very familiar with. The scriptures. You search the scriptures. The word search there implies scrutiny. Tracking down messages of the scriptures. The tragedy, the tragedy was that these people, for all their painstaking exploration of the sacred writings, had never found the clue which would lead them to the king.
[00:28:13] Not all of them, but many of them. In theory. The religious leaders of Jesus day loved and valued the scriptures. They studied them, they memorized them, they taught about them, thinking that eternal life was found here on the pages.
[00:28:29] They read them with great reverence to the letter, but they didn't let the letters penetrate their heart.
[00:28:36] They didn't let the letters penetrate their lives. In other words, maybe you could write this down somewhere. In other words, they knew the word of God, but they did not know the God of the word.
[00:28:48] And it was sad, sad.
[00:28:51] They read it not to search for God, but to find arguments to support their own positions.
[00:28:58] They didn't love God in the way that he had called them to love.
[00:29:03] And so even as Jesus brings the word and puts it on the stand and says, look, even that affirms my identity, you've missed that. There's a warning for us here as well.
[00:29:18] Someone can search the Bible and know it well, you and I, and yet be far from God.
[00:29:25] We can study the words about what God loves and what God does. Yet we can also participate in what God hates.
[00:29:35] We can go to church, we can sing songs of praise and even tell others about what's in the Bible. Yet our hearts can be far from God, unable to hear him and unwilling to change for him.
[00:29:49] We are not at times so unlike some of these jewish leaders who can know what it says, but Miss God's heart in it. I just encourage you, as you read through the scriptures, look for God's heart.
[00:30:09] Look for God's heart as he writes this letter, the word of God to us. Watch out that you don't become an expert in the Bible, but Miss God's heart for his people.
[00:30:22] Lastly, if all of those so far haven't been enough, we bring one last person to the stand, one of the founding fathers, if you will, of the nation of Israel. He then says, all right, let's bring. And if we jump forwards a little bit to the tail end of the passage, I realize that as you're looking in your bibles, we'll come back to that middle portion. If you jump to the end, we see the last person that he brings to the stand is mister founding father himself, Moses.
[00:30:50] And he says, all right, let's bring him in. Let's talk. Let's see what he has to say. Look what it says. Do not think that I will accuse you of the father. I mean, he's already. Jesus is saying, I know the father, but I'm not going to be the one to accuse you. The one you love, the one that you follow, the one that you talk all about. He's going to be the one who's going to say, yep, they missed Jesus. I even talked about him. Look what it says. There is one who will accuse you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. Notice he doesn't say on God.
[00:31:22] That's where their hope is not found, but rather on Moses, whom you've set your hope.
[00:31:28] We can easy, easily shift our hope and our focus to other things that are very physically tangible rather than on God. Even we can make these kinds of mistakes. Verse 46. For if big important word there, even though it's only two letters, if you believed Moses, which they all thought they did, they all thought they held tightly to the words of Moses. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. Verse 47. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Wow.
[00:32:01] Wow. As Jesus says that Moses won't stand with the Jews, but he will stand with Jesus against the Jews. He's saying at least two things. He's saying that they should already vouch for Jesus if they believe in. If they really believe Moses and Jesus isn't trying to create a new religion. This is not something that the Jews, as they are following God and thinking that they're following Moses and all of that, Jesus comes along and says, I'm God. They might be thinking, we have to defend our religion. We have to defend these people from this new person trying to start a religion. It's like, it's not a new religion. This is actually what you have been reading about and preparing for for years. And I'm finally here.
[00:32:45] And I'm finally here. Bible study won't get you to heaven. Jesus will.
[00:32:51] Sadly, there are more christians who spend more time going through the Bible and studying the Bible and so little time letting the Bible go through them and study them. We have to let the word of God study us as we read it and say, what is this teaching me about me? Not just what information can I consume from this text in front of me? They got the meaning of the words of Moses and the words that he wrote down, but they didn't get the message of Moses. So as we review those points, we see all of these people that have been brought to the stand. You can go to the next slide. All of these people that have been brought to the stand, you can see in your outline there, Jesus lays out, here's the support for my claim. Remember at the beginning I said this Jesus, if he were a man just like us, we could do with his commands and his claims what we wish. But if he's God, we would be fools to ignore what he has, what he's calling us to do, his claims and his commands. Jesus then clarifies in verses 41 through 44, it's the next point on your outline and the last one there, he clarifies that he's not doing any of this for his own gain.
[00:33:57] He's only seeking God's glory. He's not doing this so that people will look to him and say, wow, just, this is awesome. We like you. You're better than all of us. He says, my job, my goal in all of this is to point you to the father. I want you lost people to have a way to know the father. My father, I want you to be saved. Look what he says. Verse 41. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my father's name and you don't receive him.
[00:34:35] If another comes in his own name, you'll receive him. He's making a point. If somebody else comes and you like what he has to say, you'll receive him. But if you don't like him, then you'll say, nope, we don't like you. You're not from God. Look what he says in verse 44. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from God? The goal here is God alone is the one who we draw our glory from our attention. From verse 41, and maybe some other phrases, here's what he's saying. Verse 41, I don't care what other people think. My job is to serve someone higher than you. If you don't like what I've had to say, then so be it.
[00:35:11] Verse 42, I don't know about you, but you don't have God's love inside of you. Though you think you know God, that should grab your heart.
[00:35:26] That should grab your heart.
[00:35:29] Lastly, verse 44, something important for us to get here. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another? This draws our attention. Hopefully yours just grabs your attention.
[00:35:42] There was, Charles Spurgeon was speaking on just this verse. He had a sermon, I think it was just on this, on this verse here, speaking about why men will not believe in Christ, speaking about how it's so easy for us to look to gain glory from other people rather than solely and firstly thinking through God's desire for us to know and submit to him.
[00:36:06] Now, Jesus, he's talking to the right. He's presented this case and he's talking to these religious leaders and he's saying, you all care more about what other people think than what God thinks. Here's some of the things that Charles Spurgeon said. Just listen. I think these are just so fascinating and so applicable to us.
[00:36:23] When a man gets to feel that he ought to be honored, he is in extreme danger.
[00:36:30] Something else. Always receiving this undeserved honor. They, the religious leaders at the time, deceived themselves into believing that they deserved this kind of honor.
[00:36:43] One last, once more. The praise of men generally turns the receivers into great cowards because they listening in, saying, everyone's just praising us. We are great. We are great. Now, when they're faced with the authority of Jesus, showing them these witnesses, they say, I don't know what to do with this. We're going to see next week the response that they have to this. Jesus systematically and decisively lays out for them his identity and his authority to do what he did. There is no greater witness that someone could bring to the stand, and this is true today when someone says, I don't believe in him because I don't really think he's God or I don't think he has authority. What greater witness could you bring to the stand than what Jesus has just done? I'm gonna ask three closing questions that I encourage you to write down and think through. Considering the content, the passage that we just read, what part of God's word or God's instructions am I acting like or optional?
[00:37:46] What part of God's word am I acting like? It's an optional piece of my life. What's an option? Scripture's clear about it. In other words, even for them, they could look at it and say, I don't like that part. I don't like that part. But for me, I want to make sure that I look at God's word not as optional, but as authoritative. If Jesus truly is God, he is authoritative in all of my life.
[00:38:11] Secondly, what can I do to increase the influence of the authority of God's word in my life so very connected to that first question, what part of my life am I not submitting to God's authority? Also, how can I change that? My practical life? When I think through my day, the things I watch on tv, the books that I read, the music that I listen to, the words that I say, the way that I dress, all of those things. Are there areas that I am not submitting to God's word and the ways that I interact with my family or with my spouse or with my kids, my coworkers? Are there areas that I'm not submitting to the authority of God's word? And what can I do to change that? I submit to you that spending time in God's word as he continues to reveal those things to you, you will be powerful.
[00:38:57] Lastly, if pleasing God, not others, were my only aim, what part of my life would change?
[00:39:06] I'll read that again. If pleasing God, not others, were my only aim, what part of my life would change? And that can be hard for many of us, like myself, who struggle to want to please people first.
[00:39:20] For those people pleasers here today, that can be hard. But thinking through, if I only, my first aim is to please him and not people, how might my life look different?
[00:39:34] Jesus desires people to be saved. And if you don't have a relationship with him, choose today to say, I'm going to recognize the authority that Jesus is able to bring to the table, to bring to the courtroom and say he is the savior of the world and he has the power to save people from their sins. And even for those here today who know Jesus, have trusted him. I would just encourage you today, look through God's word and ask him, God, help me submit to the authority that you are God in every part of my life, not just the selective parts of my life that are convenient for me. Let's pray together.
[00:40:07] Jesus, we come before you today as a people who are able to do this with confidence, not because of what we have done, but because of what you have done.
[00:40:25] You say that we're able to approach the throne, the throne of the Father, with confidence to draw near because of your blood.
[00:40:34] And so this morning, we come to the Father under the blood of you, Jesus.
[00:40:39] And I ask that you would shape and transform and work in our hearts and lives in such a way that you would be honored, that you would be glorified, that we as a church would submit to your authority as God over every part of our life. The hidden things, the secret things, whatever those might be, Lord, that we would invite you into those places that we would not just be people who know the word, but people who are transformed by the word.
[00:41:10] And as we interact with our family and our friends, that we would be listening daily to your spirit you've put inside of us that would be sensitive to your voice. In Jesus name, amen.
