Don't Ignore Jesus

[0:00] John chapter 12, beginning at, by the way, if you have a pew Bible, that's on page 899, if you want to use the Bible in your pew. John 12.

[0:11] And Jesus cried out and said, Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me, sees him who sent me.

[0:24] I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him.

[0:39] For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

[0:53] For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak.

[1:05] And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of his word.

[1:19] That is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. Thank you, praise team. Beautiful, beautiful words.

[1:30] Singing once again. Thanks, Oliver, for that. I'm looking forward to reading your book, man. So get it done, Oliver. Get it done. Get the whip out. Get the whip out. Believe it or not, Most of the world wants to ignore the real Jesus.

[1:50] Oh, the little baby, meek and mild, and that Jesus who is, we like him. Or the Jesus who is the champion of the oppressed.

[2:01] Or the Jesus who is one of the many avatars and saviors. The Jesus who loves everybody and judges nobody. Are all the accepted types of Jesus.

[2:15] But they're not the real Jesus. At least not fully. These ideas of Jesus may have a little bit of truth, But a little bit of Jesus will do you no good.

[2:28] The world needs the full-bodied, glorious Jesus of the scriptures. The Jesus who blows your mind with his power and love.

[2:40] The Jesus who says hard things. The Jesus who comes to save the world because it is in darkness and death.

[2:51] This Jesus warns the world. And we have to be willing, brothers and sisters, to shout to the world. Plead with the world.

[3:03] Not shout in anger. Shout to be heard. Plead with the world. Don't ignore Jesus. Are you willing?

[3:17] These verses continue the narrative from verse 36. And continues the theme of Jesus as the light of the world. Back in verses 35 and 36.

[3:30] This passage, these areas, shows a strong connection between the Father and Jesus. So much so that to interact with Jesus is to interact with the Father.

[3:41] The Jewish leaders and the world wants God on their own terms. But only Jesus, the one sent by the Father, can bring them and us to him, the Father.

[3:59] So this section is a warning not to reject Jesus as he is. It's something the writer of Hebrews will say later on in Hebrews chapter 2.

[4:12] Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution.

[4:29] He's talking about the Old Testament. Now, new. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? What salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord himself.

[4:41] It was attested to us by those who heard while God, the apostles now, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

[4:55] If the Old Testament had power, the New Testament even more. Don't ignore it, he's saying. These words we're looking at are truly the last words of Jesus publicly.

[5:10] His public teaching before his death is coming to an end here. And once again, they are a warning, which means there is an urgency here. An urgency that we've got to fill in our own hearts.

[5:24] An urgency to believing in Jesus. So I got a few points here. I think three or so. First of all, to ignore Jesus is to reject God. Jesus cried out, verses 4 and 45.

[5:38] This section is like a summary of what the Lord had been telling the Jews, especially the religious leaders in his three-year ministry.

[5:50] It's like he's giving them one last chance. So he speaks with a loud, commanding voice. He shouts. He wants to make sure they hear him.

[6:05] He is passionate about what he's saying here. You see, the gospel, God's news of salvation through his appointed king and kingdom is not a request or an invitation.

[6:17] Sadly, today, most of our evangelism presents it that way to make it palatable to a modern people who don't like being told what to do.

[6:30] We say Jesus is inviting you. We say Jesus is inviting you to believe in him. We tell you to receive the invitation of salvation.

[6:40] Family, no, he is not. There's no invitation here. The gospel is not an invitation. In reality, it's a command.

[6:51] It is a command. It is a do or die. It's a declaration, a proclamation of divine reality and grace.

[7:06] Our Lord tells a story over in Luke 13 and he comments on two calamities that had taken place and all the people knew about it.

[7:18] One was murder by Harrod. He had killed a bunch of folk. Another was an accident where a bunch of folk had died. He says, do you think these people who this happened to were worse sinners than others because this happened to them?

[7:34] You know, bad luck, right? Karma. Were they worse people because they got a tower fell on them like a bridge collapsing?

[7:48] Were they worse sinners? Here's what he says in Luke 13, 3. He says, no, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

[8:05] Says that twice in that passage, by the way, Luke 13. You see, turning, what does he mean by repent? Turning from sin with a change of mind of life because of that change of heart to follow Christ is not a request nor an invitation.

[8:20] It is a demand lest you die. Yes, yes, yes. John Piper in his book, which I love, what Jesus demands from the world.

[8:31] Demand number two, he says, this is down on the screen, so listen. The gospel, the good news, is that rule of God, the kingdom, which has arrived in Jesus to save sinners before the kingdom arrives at a second coming to bring judgment.

[8:47] So the demand is repent. So the demand is repent, the demand to repent is based on the gracious offer that is present to forgive. And on the gracious warning that someday those who receive, refuse the offer will perish in God's judgment.

[9:07] Gracious offer and gracious warning. The apostles actually preached this.

[9:18] They didn't preach invitation to Jesus. Paul in Athens on Mars Hill, Acts chapter 17, this should be on the screen, I think. He says, the times of ignorance God overlooked.

[9:30] But now, listen, he commands all people everywhere to repent. Why? Because he has fixed the day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

[9:45] And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus is not only a sign of salvation, it is a promise of judgment.

[10:00] Amen. And so, he is a command. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

[10:11] Run into the ark of safety while you have a chance. It's a command not made with arrogance, not made with anger, but it's a command that is pleading with people.

[10:26] Pleading and begging. Why would... God even says it to the prophet. Why will you die? Believe.

[10:36] Trust in Jesus. We've lost this. Because we're busy trying to invite people to believe in the Jesus meek and mild.

[10:49] A friend of mine used to say, he's not going to be with Jesus. God only owes people one thing. A chance. One chance to believe the gospel.

[11:04] Andy, you say that. I disagree with him wholeheartedly. God, the Lord of glory, owes no one anything. He does not owe humanity anything.

[11:15] I couldn't argue with Andy because he was so much older and he didn't listen to me anyway. Any chances that God gives us are by grace and mercy and love.

[11:27] And we will be wise, all of us, to take advantage of the moment. Believe. What does he mean to believe? To believe in Jesus is to have faith in Jesus.

[11:39] More than that, to trust Jesus. That's what believe means. Trust. Now, I have to admit, we're in trouble with that. Because trust in authorities is at an all-time low right now.

[11:53] It's worse than the 60s. I think we're even more rebellion against authority now in the 21st century. We say power corrupts.

[12:04] An absolute power corrupts absolutely. If that were true, then God is really the devil. Because he has all power. This distrust in human authority is not without merit.

[12:18] Okay, let's be honest. It's not without merit. Human authority has failed. Including even sometimes in the church. But this distrust is a barrier to faith as we preach Christ to this culture.

[12:32] We have to admit that. See, we're telling people, aren't we? They can trust someone that is not only an authority, but the ultimate authority. And has all power.

[12:43] That's what we're telling people. And if they're already authoritative phobic, that's got to be scary. But we can't change the gospel.

[12:57] Jesus expresses great authority in this passage. First he says, to believe in him is to believe in God the Father who sent him. He says this three times in this passage.

[13:08] The Father sent me. The Father sent me. The Father sent me. He has been given a mission by his Father. Again, we see the Holy Trinity, don't we, at work here? God the Father sent God the Son on a mission to reveal his kingdom by saving people.

[13:26] People that the Father would give to the Son, as I call a love gift. To save them, he would have to sacrifice himself for them.

[13:36] He would have to endure the pangs of hell for them. At the hands of the very beings he created.

[13:50] And see, the only way to connect with that Jesus, or with what that Jesus accomplished in his life and death, is to trust in his forgiving sacrifice.

[14:01] To trust. To trust is what you're doing right now as you sit on those pews. Not one of you walked in this room and examined the pew to see if it would hold you up.

[14:13] Not one of you. But you sat on it because you trusted that it would hold you up. To trust in Jesus is to believe that he will hold you up for all eternity.

[14:28] To believe that he will hold you up on that day of judgment when we all stand before God. To believe is to trust in Jesus that you are safe at home plate.

[14:41] All the way into eternity. Now this is distrust is not merely mental assent. It's not really saying mentally I believe.

[14:53] Or I believe in Jesus. It's more than that. And we have to be mindful in our evangelism. That too many times we are quick to pronounce salvation upon people when they pray a prayer asking Jesus into their hearts.

[15:09] By the way, you won't find that in scripture. Praying a prayer asking Jesus into your hearts. Not saying it's wrong. But just understand it's not in scripture. Many people in our country and especially our region believe they are Christians because they give mental assent to the goodness of Jesus and the good book.

[15:29] But the question is, is there truly a change in their hearts? What does Jesus mean by believe in me?

[15:40] In John, this means follow me. Orient your entire life towards me. Become, my wife was talking about this every day, talk.

[15:52] Become my disciple. A disciple serves his master. A disciple sought to not only memorize his master's teaching, but to imitate his master's life.

[16:06] Follow behind him, even as he walked the dusty streets of Jerusalem and Judea, teaching them. This is what Jesus is calling us to. To believe in me, he says, is to follow me.

[16:20] We can see this even some of this back up in verse 26 in our chapter. The first part of verse 26 says this. If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

[16:33] And where I am, there will my servant be also. Must. That's not optional. Must. Must.

[16:45] Follow me. Truly believing in Jesus is following Jesus. That demonstrates. It demonstrates the reality of your faith.

[16:58] Following doesn't save you. Faith saves you. The following reveals that the faith is real. Okay, so let's stay there.

[17:09] Okay, let's go to James. Jesus' half-brother. James chapter 2. He said, you believe that God is one. That there's one God. He says, you do well. But then he says this.

[17:21] Even the demons believe in shudder. You see, it's not enough to believe that God exists. Even the demons, Satan and his demons, will believe that.

[17:32] But then he goes on. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. Living faith, real faith, becomes active faith.

[17:47] Our world in the Bible Belt is full of people who give mental assent to God's existence, which sometimes they mistakenly call faith.

[18:01] But we must call people to believe by becoming his disciple. And that faith that they have, any faith that we have in Jesus, remember, is a gift from God.

[18:15] Ephesians 2.8 reminds us, it's a gift from God. You didn't earn it or deserve it. You didn't make it up yourself. No, faith is a gift of grace to people like us who were dead in our sins.

[18:30] Unable to believe because dead people don't believe. Dead people don't follow. Dead people don't do anything but be dead. It's about spiritual death, okay?

[18:43] That's where God finds all of us. That's how we're born, spiritually dead. And God gives the gift of life through his spirit. Go back to John 3 and read that for yourself. And so we, the gift of the spirit opens our eyes and we see Jesus and we believe.

[19:01] We come a running out of the house on fire. All of his soul because the father sent the son to be his representative, to reveal him to the world.

[19:13] That's why Jesus says to believe in him is also to believe and see the father. William Barclay, one of the old commentators, he says, In Jesus, God meets human beings and human beings meet God.

[19:32] In Jesus, we see what God is like. We see his character, his power, his ways. This cannot be said of any other religious leader or religion. You will not find the character of God revealed in any other place other than in Jesus of Nazareth.

[19:51] Now that should comfort us. It should comfort us immensely that Jesus reveals God. Because look at how Jesus treats people. Read the Gospels.

[20:02] Read John. Read all the Gospels. All four of them. Look at how Jesus treats people. Is Jesus compassionate? Is Jesus just?

[20:13] Is Jesus loving? Does Jesus touch and welcome the outsider? Does he welcome people that no one else will even touch?

[20:27] The answer is yes. That's what God is like, he's saying. God the Son reveals God the Father. Father, he's that welcome.

[20:39] So never stop looking long and hard at Jesus. Never stop looking. Never stop staring at him.

[20:52] Because in him you see God in human flesh. You see, our Lord just, he also in this passage, just before this passage, gave a warning.

[21:04] Verses 42 and 43. He says this. John is commentating, excuse me. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him. That's Jesus. But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.

[21:20] For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. Oh boy.

[21:32] They claimed to believe in him, he says, but out of fear of the authorities, they would not publicly confess or own their faith in him. William Barclay again. Secret discipleship is a contradiction in terms.

[21:46] For either the secrecy kills the discipleship, or the discipleship kills the secrecy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, Barclay, I love you, man.

[21:57] He's right. Secrecy kills discipleship. When you're afraid to speak, when you're afraid to own him. Because evangelicals have a bad reputation in this country.

[22:10] And if you get lumped with those folk, oh boy. Or if they find out that you believe in Jesus and the Bible, they'll start questioning you about sexuality.

[22:23] What do you believe about that? What do you believe? I mean, we get scared. We want to keep our mouths shut. Jesus who? I go to church on occasion, you know.

[22:37] Verse 43 tells us the reason for their lack of true faith. They love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

[22:48] We are all glory hounds to some extent. We all want to be honored, appreciated, and praised. And to be honest with you, nothing wrong with that in general.

[23:01] But when our thirst for glory calls us to be quiet about who Jesus is and who he is to us, then we've actually rejected him for the glory and the acceptance that comes from people.

[23:21] How can we evangelize if we love the glory that comes, the glory and the comfort that comes from people more than the glory and honor and comfort that comes from God?

[23:34] Everybody wants to have 15 minutes of fame. Glory. But God offers us glory and honor and acceptance and praise that he will give us now into eternity.

[23:51] You want 15 minutes of acceptance? Maybe even a few years of acceptance because we keep quiet and we're afraid to speak up. Maybe you'll get a decade of acceptance.

[24:02] That's nothing compared to the glory that God has hauled out to us in Christ. That glory will go on forever and into eternity. God will point to us and say, these are my people.

[24:15] These are my peeps. The Father will say, they believed in my son. And the angels will go, oh. And wonder at us.

[24:30] Remember the second half of verse 26, just to make sure you understand what I'm saying. Jesus said, if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

[24:46] God will honor you and me? That blows my mind. Will you follow him?

[24:58] Will you confess and believe in him? Will you seek the glory that he gives those who believe and see God in Jesus, in him? This is what our world so desperately needs to see in us.

[25:14] a true faith in Jesus. It also is our warning to the world that to reject Jesus is to reject God.

[25:31] But even so, seeing Jesus, I don't answer that. I'm preaching here.

[25:41] to ignore Jesus is to remain in darkness. That's verse 26. I'm going to move quickly here. I've come into the world as lights, he says, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

[25:53] Wow. To reject Jesus, he says, is to stay in the dark. You ever drive down a road at night that has no street lights?

[26:04] I've done that many times, many times. Out in a stick somewhere, you know, you're driving and man, you put those high beans on fast because you can't see a turn in the road.

[26:17] You know what happens when you can't see a turn? You're going off. And some of these roads, they'll have these big ditches on the side of the, just like this runoff.

[26:28] I don't know what that's supposed to be. They got this big, long ditch that runs right by their mailbox. And if you go too far to the right, you end up in there with the mailbox.

[26:40] You've got to have your high beams on. You've got to be able to see where you're going. And Jesus is saying, the world is that dark. It's that dark place. But he has come.

[26:51] This is the third time in the Gospel of John he says this. Three times he tells us that he's the light of the world. You better, we think we better get it. My friend Rick Phillips says, darkness is the opposite of light.

[27:05] If light stands for the knowledge of God, darkness represents the spiritual ignorance in which the world is perishing. If light stands for warmth and goodness, then the darkened world is that which is enslaved in sin and evil.

[27:21] If the light leads us to good paths, darkness is the realm of the lost and blind. If light brings life, then darkness is the realm of death.

[27:33] Darkness not only differs from light, but is opposed to it. To remain in darkness is to fight against Jesus.

[27:46] But he's come that he might bring light. That he might bring hope. That he might set people free. The light of the world is still shining and he wants to reveal himself through us.

[27:59] Whom, in Matthew 5, he now says, we are the light of the world. Why? Because the light is in us. And that light's not meant to be hidden. It's meant to be uncovered and revealed.

[28:13] That light is meant to be shouted to the world. It's meant to be blazing. All the light in this room should be a bonfire rising up that the city of Chattanooga can't ignore.

[28:25] Because all of this light in this place. So to reject Jesus is to choose the darkness.

[28:38] And darkness is death. It's a warning. Lastly, to ignore Jesus is to be judged by his word. This is the biggest portion of this whole passage. This is a warm-up passage because we're going to talk about Judas.

[28:52] Judas is the ultimate human who refused to keep the Lord's word and rejected him. He's going to talk a lot about Judas coming up in chapter 13. So it's striking that most of this paragraph is about neglecting the Lord's word.

[29:09] First of all, to reject the Lord's word is to head for judgment. To keep the Lord's word is to live by them. To obey them.

[29:22] So our Savior is not merely interested in people mentally knowing his word. You've got to know it mentally. You have to. But he wants more than that.

[29:34] He's not looking for eggheads but big hearts. Hearts full of his word. Enlightened so that his word becomes our means for judging all things. His word becomes our means for following.

[29:47] We can't get enough of his word because it reveals him. It reveals God. It reveals his ways. It reveals all of his benefits for us. It reveals the gospel.

[29:57] We can't get enough of the word of God. I think. I think. The Lord says in his first coming he did not come to judge the world but to save it.

[30:11] So the preaching of his word is that moment to save. If you're listening to me now and you've never come to grips with who Jesus is this is your moment.

[30:26] I beg you and plead with you to believe in Jesus to trust in him. He is life. He is life. He truly is life now and forever life. He's a quality of life now.

[30:37] And when you close your eyes which you someday must do he is that life that you want to see on the other side. For God did not send this John 3 17 for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.

[30:58] Yet. Yet. Listen. Yet the coming of Jesus will lead to judgment. It will lead to judgment.

[31:10] He says at the last day people will be judged by what they did with his word. He says I'm not going to judge you but my word will. At the last day people God will say basically I'm paraphrasing what did you do with the word of Jesus?

[31:27] When we close our eyes and stand before our creator and believe me the creator you stand before will not be an amoeba. It will not be a little single cell organism. It will not be aliens.

[31:39] The creator we stand before will be the living God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And God will say what did you do with my son's word? He will not say well you're perfect at it because if you're perfect you wouldn't need it you wouldn't need it the son to come to save you.

[31:58] But he will say what did you do with it? What did you do? Some will be surprised on that last day and some will not.

[32:12] In our country most people still say they are Christians but they say they are Christians if they're not Buddhist or Muslim. So they must be Christians. By process of elimination.

[32:24] I'm not joking. This is the polls. This is what people believe. I'm a Christian because I live in America. I'm not a Buddhist. I'm not a Mormon. I'm not this. I'm a Christian. Maybe they have good thoughts about Jesus.

[32:40] Occasional church attendance. Make a few donations here and there. But Jesus says what are you doing with my word? Here's a classic passage and I'm going to end by looking at this passage with you and then give a few thoughts.

[32:54] Matthew 7 21 to 27 is classic. Jesus speaking. Sermon on the Mount. Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will do with my word.

[33:09] On that day many will say Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name and then I will declare to them I never knew you.

[33:21] Depart from me you workers of lawlessness. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

[33:31] The rain fell the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell the floods came the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.

[33:56] When he finished these sayings the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. This is one of the most scary passages in the Bible.

[34:12] I believe that it makes me tremble. But this passage was not given to sheep. This passage is not for those of you who are true followers of Christ.

[34:23] He's not trying to shake up the true faith. This passage is for those who believe who think they are but are not keeping the word of the Lord. You know who you are. We know who we are.

[34:36] People know if they're living by the word or they're not. They know. We know. And Jesus that's a warning to such people. Who may be active in the church like Tom Skinner who was very active in the church leading the youth but he wasn't living the word of the Lord.

[35:01] It's real. It's like Dr. Seuss says all is not right in Whoville. Jesus says I don't know you.

[35:15] You see they mean a profession of faith. Lord, Lord. Lord, Lord. That's a profession of faith. It's a double profession. Lord, you're really Lord. And the Lord says I don't know you.

[35:29] Profession of faith doesn't save you. Faith does. Faith that will be blossomed into life. Faith does.

[35:41] All we can listen to is your profession but then we get to know you and watch your life. You watch mine. I watch. We love each other. We just do it. You know, we just naturally do it. Are we walking with Jesus?

[35:53] You can tell. Usually. Some of us are very good at hiding. Don't hide. Don't stop hiding.

[36:05] Fall on your face before Jesus and repent. Please call upon him to have mercy on you if you plan the game. Because you will stand before him and say Lord, Lord and he'll say to you I don't know you. Matter of fact, I never knew you.

[36:18] You don't want to hear those words. Again, these words are aimed at those not at the flock, not at the true sheep but these words are aimed at those who are playing the game.

[36:31] Well, let me end just with a few thoughts. To see Jesus, to believe in Jesus is to believe in God, right?

[36:47] To see Jesus is to see God. To obey Jesus is to obey God's word. To reject Jesus' word is to reject God's word and incur his judgment.

[37:00] That's just reality, saints. And my friends, that's just the truth. I got nothing else for you on that one. Can't change it. But let me ask another question.

[37:11] How do Christians, true Christians, ignore Jesus? one, we take his word as a suggestion rather than direction.

[37:31] That's how we, as true Christians, sometimes we ignore, let's be honest, sometimes we ignore the Lord ourselves. His word are not suggestions. He doesn't give suggestions.

[37:43] He gives direction because he knows where to go. He knows what's best for you and for me. Second thing, we don't look to his word at all when making important decisions or only get to it after all else rather than going to it first.

[38:04] How many times as a Christian, you have an important decision to make and yet you don't even go to the word of God. You start asking your friends and neighbors. You start looking up at the latest, latest information on wherever and you don't even go to the word.

[38:21] We do it, saints. We do it. Three, we see that, this goes to number two, we see the experts of the world as being more knowledgeable than Christ's word about what is right today.

[38:37] You see, we think today is so different from yesterday. today. We forget that people are the same. Yes, we got better technology, we got, we know more information about the world and how things work, we know more about the human body, we know all that great stuff, but listen, people are still people.

[38:57] People are still loving themselves, people are still selfish, people are still arrogant, people are still happy, people are still, you know, people are the same.

[39:07] people are still afraid. We want the same things, you want what they wanted. It's okay. Don't think the Bible is out of date.

[39:19] If the Bible is God's word, if it's the word of Christ, it's more, it's more up to date than you are. Because it sees deeper than you can see because it's God's word.

[39:34] And this one came to me later. How do we ignore Jesus? We rely on our feelings rather than his word.

[39:50] We all think we're the, we all think we're Jedi. Feel the force. Feelings are the, feelings are everything today. God gave us feelings, but feelings should never be the barometer of truth.

[40:08] Now, here's the problem. We've, our feelings have been right so often that we forget they're falling too. I felt something was wrong and you were right, something was wrong.

[40:20] But here's about feelings. Trust but verify. Bring your feelings to the word. I feel so alone. Well, people might not be there, but if you belong to Jesus, you're never alone.

[40:35] You may be lonely, but you're never alone. I feel so hopeless. Well, yeah, you feel, but hold it. Let's go back to the word. my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

[40:50] See, I go back, I find hope in Christ. I look at the resurrection of Jesus. I see him dying for my sins. I see him rising from the dead. Listen, and then he looks at me and says, my resurrection is your resurrection.

[41:02] Hallelujah. I got hope. Let me tell you, last, I'm going to out feelings, okay? I'm going to out the, now feelings gets mad when I out it.

[41:13] So, Mike, I have to get the car warmed up because feelings might get mad. I'm going to out feelings. Feelings can lie to you, right? Here's, let me tell you about feelings.

[41:25] Let me tell you how feelings work too often. If you have three, you have a, you have a choice. You have three possible choices, right? You're feeling, and we say, I have peace about my decision.

[41:35] I have peace about it. So, we're looking for that feeling of peace, right? Let me tell you about that feeling. It will go with the choice you really want.

[41:47] You will always have good feelings about the choice you want. You've got three things there, and you choose that one. I got peace. That's because that's what you wanted all along. Doesn't mean it's right.

[42:00] Your feelings will always make you feel good about what you want. Right? But Jesus says hard things. And he may say, pick up your cross and follow me.

[42:12] He may say, deny yourself. He may say, love your neighbor. That neighbor who gets on your last nerve.

[42:25] That's the nerve. You see, there are two nerves at the end. You have a last nerve and a reserve nerve. That neighbor gets on the reserve nerve.

[42:37] And yet Jesus says, love your neighbor. And that means a demonstration. That means action, not just in your, in my heart, I love you. No, it means you do something to show you love them.

[42:48] Jesus says hard things. And you won't have peace about it at first. Mike, get the car. But you will have peace.

[43:02] It will come. But first you might have fear. But here's the disciple of Jesus. I want to follow you no matter what. Hallelujah. The disciple just goes to his knees.

[43:14] Lord, Lord, I know you're calling me to do it, but I don't want to do it. I'm scared to do it, Lord. The disciple goes to the word. He goes to his word. He says, Lord, speak to me. Speak. Show me something.

[43:25] He goes back to the gospels. He goes back to the epistles and says, Lord, what do you say? And the Lord will comfort you, Jill, because you trust him.

[43:40] He will comfort you. Even in the hard times. When your heart is breaking, the Lord will comfort you. Don't trust your feelings.

[43:54] Trust the word. Trust the word of Jesus, which means you're trusting Jesus. Well, amen. Time over.

[44:07] Father, we thank you. Thank you that you didn't leave us with a video. You didn't leave us with little notes and scraps here and there, but you left us with an encyclopedia of your word.

[44:23] 66 books. We call them books, Father, but 66 books. You left us that we might know your will. We might know you and follow your son. Help us to be experts at knowing and living and loving Jesus and his word.

[44:39] Oh God, deliver us from the world that thinks it knows more than you do. Deliver us from ourselves that relies so much on our feelings.

[44:50] That we sometimes neglect your word. Help us. Help us. And thank you. Thank you that Jesus loves us.

[45:01] Even though we mess up. Even though sometimes as Christians we ignore him. Yet we're not, we're still saved. We still belong. The disciples ignored you at times. And yet they were still your disciples.

[45:16] Thank you that we're saved by grace. Help us not to ignore you. And Father, if there's anyone who's in this church who's been ignoring you, or pretending to know you, and ignoring you, please Lord, open their heart now to believe.

[45:36] Even as you did Tom Skinner, open their hearts now to believe and to trust in Jesus for real and to follow him. Amen.