Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church, it's great to see everybody
here tonight.
If we can go ahead and find our seats we will get started.
Once everybody is found a seat let's go ahead and grab a hymnal and for our first song tonight
You're the blessed Savior.
Come unto me, 274, let's all sing that.
Okay, everybody, let's open up the service now
with a word of prayer.
Lord, thank you so much for this awesome church.
Thank you so much for the soul winning this afternoon,
and those that were one unto you.
We love you, Lord.
We just thank you for this church
and just being a part of such a great movement.
We just ask now that you bless this church.
Fill it with your spirit as we sing unto you
and hear your word, preach this afternoon, Lord.
We love you and it's in Jesus' name, we pray.
All right, for our next song,
let's go to song number 149.
Trusting Jesus song number one
Thank you for coming to St. Baptist Baptist Church.
If you didn't already get a bulletin, you need one.
Just lift your hand nice and high whenever ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin.
On the front, we have our Bible and repassage, Jude verse 21.
On the inside, we have service times and soul winning times.
New time, Brother Milstead.
In the Denton area, if you would like to go soul winning in that part of the city,
you can message Brother Phil's or you can ask one of us and we can help get you that information Saturdays at 10 a.m.
Denden's probably about an hour north of here a tad west, but it's mostly north
Church stats down below if you have any stats, you can put that into our group chat or ask one of ushers
Several ladies who are expecting please be in prayer for them
Our Mexico missions trip seems to be going really well
They've been posting a lot of pictures a lot of people down there from our church
So please be in prayer for them so far. They had already
Salvation's on day one and two and we look forward to hearing more about that
Tyler, Texas. We're having a sewing marathon September 27th
There's a so many seminar at the church October 4th, but the Marcel's gonna be leading that for us
Pastor Bruce Mejia is coming to preach for us October 19th. I skipped the mission strip
But that's on October 6th 11th of the Bahamas and we're really looking forward to that trip
Please pray for us. It looks like we're gonna have a pretty similar size group as we had two years ago
But just pray that everything will go smoothly for us for that
We also have our Texas Chili Cook Off October 31st.
If you'd like to participate, you can come try some chilies.
And then on the back, we have our prayer list.
Please be in prayer for our church family.
If you have any additional prayer requests, just email them and we'll put them in there.
And then we had our little handout here.
Our evangelists in the Philippines, evangelists Duncan or Bannock,
is really just doing a major work over there.
They've planted a church recently.
This is their second week of services.
been doing a lot of soul winning there.
He's been training up some new disciples,
really getting a lot of mileage out of his own family,
an extended family over there on his wife's side.
And so it's been great, not on his side.
We know, I'm just kidding.
No, he's getting a lot of mileage out of his wife's side
over there in the Philippines,
and they've been getting a lot of people saved.
And we get to have the other side with us, so that's great.
Um, but you can read about that.
Evangels of Bannock is doing great work.
Please be in prayer for him and his family.
And, uh, they're definitely some great Christians doing a big work over there.
Um, that's pretty much all I have as far as our announcements.
Psalm 148.
Psalm 148 in our special Psalm hymns and binders book.
Uh, if you can sing it out nice and loud, Psalm 148.
All right, that was Psalm 148 in your binders.
Psalm 148, let's all sing that out together.
Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around go ahead and open your bibles of John chapter one
That's a book of John chapter number one
John chapter 1 the Bible says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God
The same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made
in him was life and the life was the light of men and
The light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not
There was a man sent from God whose name was John
The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own and his own received him not but as many as received him to them gave he power to
Become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name
Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God and
The word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only
Begotten of the father full of grace and truth
John bear witness of him and cried saying this was he of whom I spake he that cometh after me is preferred before me
For he was before me and of his fullness have all we received and grace for grace
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ
No man had seen God at any time the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father. He had declared him
And this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who art thou?
And he confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ and they asked him
What then art thou Elias and he saith I am not art thou that prophet and he answered no
Then said they unto him who art thou that we may give an answer to them that sent us what sayest thou of thyself
He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet
Isaias and they which were sent were of the Pharisees and they asked him and said unto him
Why baptizes thou then if thou be not that Christ nor Elias neither that prophet
John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not.
He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latcheth, I am not worthy to unloose."
These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan where John was baptizing.
The next day John seeeth Jesus coming unto him and saith,
Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, after me comeeth a man which is preferred before me, for he
was before me.
And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel.
Therefore am I come baptizing with water."
And John Bear records saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it
abode upon him.
and I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water,
the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and
remaining on him,
the same as he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost,
and I saw in bare record that this is the Son of God."
Again the next day after John stood and two of his disciples.
And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?
They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted master, Where dwellest thou?
He saith unto them, Come and see.
They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him,
We have found the Messiahs, which is being interpreted the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus.
And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah.
Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone.
The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee
and findeth Philip and sayeth unto him, follow me.
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip findeth Nathanael and sayeth unto him,
we have found him of whom Moses in the law
and the prophets did right.
Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him,
can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Philip sayeth unto him, come and see.
Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile.
Nathaniel saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under
the fig tree, I saw thee.
Nathaniel answered and saith unto him, Rabbi thou art the Son of God, thou art the King
of Israel.
Jesus answered and said unto him because I said unto thee I saw thee under the fig tree believe
us thou thou shalt see greater things than these and he saith unto him verily verily I say unto you
hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for the Word of God.
I thank you for the Gospel of John.
Please bless Pastor Shelley as he preaches your word to us
and opens up what you've laid on his heart in Jesus' name.
Amen.
This evening I want to preach sermon on the Gospel of John
and it's continuing the thoughts that I had
from this morning sermon where I talked about
the synoptic Gospels.
And really synoptic is just a fancy word for a summary.
And I think we see a little bit of a distinction here.
or a little bit of difference in the Gospel of John is it doesn't necessarily spend as
much effort or energy going through the facts of the Gospel, but is rather kind of giving
us the essence, the kind of what's going on behind the scenes, the theme of the Bible.
And really, you know, what I would define as like the purpose of the Gospel, the purpose
of Jesus Christ and the purpose of his life.
There was definitely some distinctions people see in some of the Gospels and
In the Book of Ezekiel, it brings up how there's these certain creatures who have these different faces.
And we kind of talked about that a little bit this morning again.
And I feel like those faces kind of represent some of the distinctions and nuances we see in the Gospels themselves.
We've talked about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and these particular animals that are seen,
these animals plus the man that are seen as faces on the cherry-bim or the special creatures in the Book of Ezekiel.
And John, I believe, is kind of representative of the Eagle.
And again...
Notice a couple differences here, and I've said some of this this morning, but the lion, the ox, and the man are all earth-dwelling creatures whereas the eagle is separate and distinct in the sense that it also dwells in heaven, and it's got the divine element.
We look at some of these distinctions, the lion being kind of the king, and the birthright of Jesus Christ being the king of the Jews, the ox using his power to do a lot of work and how Jesus was really an ox and labored much and did a lot of the works.
We see the humanity of Jesus Christ kind of being emphasized and drawn out in the Gospel
of Luke a little bit more, and really the humility of being a man.
Of course, Christ coming down and becoming a man like us, or partaking in the same flesh
and blood as a humbling experience for him, the Bible really emphasizes the humility
of Christ to become a man like us and to go through the human experience, and we get
to see his own humanity play out in the Gospel of Luke.
We saw a lot of that this morning.
It seems like it's more emphasizing the divinity of Jesus Christ and really the last word that I kind of feel like
That I see as being distinct or a little bit more nuanced in the gospel. John is the purpose
The purpose of Christ so we talked about and identified, you know, some of these Gospels
Really looking at the identity of who Christ is. He's the king of the Jews is the son of God
He's God manifest in the flesh, the works that he did, the preaching of the Gospel and
the healing of people and the casting out of demons, really emphasized in the Gospel
of Mark.
The humanity of Christ, the fact that he was really a baby and that he had these different
family dynamics and relationships.
He was 12 years old.
He had to submit it to his parents.
A lot of things that are kind of unique to the Gospel of Luke specifically.
But we also just see a lot of the different human experiences that someone goes through,
people trying to persecute him and lie about him and the pressures and all the
different things that kind of seem to be nuanced in there. Of course there's
overlap in all the Gospels but then in the Gospel of John I feel like we really
see this the purpose of Jesus Christ's life really being brought out in the text
a lot and I kind of want to show you some of the things that I find in the
Gospel of John highlighting that particular point.
We notice in verse one of this iconic chapter, this great chapter of the Bible says in the beginning was the word and the word is with God and the word was God.
We realize that Jesus Christ is God.
Again, this is where we're getting that divine emphasis in the Gospel of John, just starts out just telling us he's God.
Whereas the other books aren't just right on the surface telling us that Jesus is divine, that he is God.
We find that out later in the text.
Verse three it also says all things are made by him and without him was not anything made that was made
So he's the Creator so Jesus Christ is the word. He's God
He's the Creator verse four and him was life and the life was the light of men
So starting to get into that purpose of Jesus Christ that his purpose is to be the light and the light of men
Specifically verse seven the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him
believe, verse 9, that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
So Jesus Christ is the light, he's the only light that's given unto men,
and notice that he lights specifically every man that cometh into the world.
I think that that's a really emphasis on a couple points here, but we talk about every man that
What does this light coming on every man mean?
Well, number one, it means that every man has the opportunity to salvation.
Every man has the opportunity to salvation.
I do not believe in Calvinism that teaches some were damned and some were chosen before the world, before anything based on nothing.
Now, obviously God knew in times past, he understood those who would choose to believe in him, and so they are predestined in that sense.
But every man had that opportunity in his life to choose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.
And that Jesus Christ is that light that is lighted upon every man and they have the opportunity to salvation
But also the light of every man, I believe shows the exclusivity of salvation that it is the only light
that every man has to be saved.
The only light to be saved is Jesus Christ,
and every man has been given that opportunity.
So every man's opportunity to be saved is through Jesus Christ,
and it's exclusive to Jesus Christ.
That is the only light.
That is the purpose of Jesus Christ.
Because without Jesus Christ, there's no light in the world.
Without God, there's no hope in the world, as what the Bible says.
And the purpose of Jesus Christ is to light every
Man, verse number 11 says this,
he came unto his own and his own received him not,
but as many as received him to them,
gave him power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name.
So we notice another aspect of Jesus Christ's purpose
is that some will receive him and some will not.
Not everybody will receive that light.
Not everybody will get saved.
Specifically, it even says not his own.
Now, this tells us something, that the Jews are not sons.
Because if they were sons, well, then they would have received him, but he came unto
his own, and his own received him not, verse 12, but as many as received him, to them gave
you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name.
So the Gospel of John is making it clear that this book is not written to the Jews, it's
written to everyone.
Notice by every man it's written to everyone.
God is appealing to every single person, he's appealing to the whole world
and he loves the whole world and it said in verse 9
it says every man that cometh into the world
he was in the world and the world is made by him.
and the world knew him not.
Again, the Gospel of John is going to the whole world.
It's not just emphasizing only the Jews
or only to one group of people,
but this is truly a Gospel emphasizing
his impact for the whole world
and that his own, by and large, did not receive him.
The Jews did not receive him,
but many people will receive him
and they will become the sons of God.
Verse 13 emphasizes the point again,
which were born not of blood.
Nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The Gospel of John again, identifying the purpose of Jesus Christ was not just for the Jews,
but for the whole world.
And that being a part of his family is not based on a blood
descendancy, but rather it's by faith in Jesus Christ and it's a spiritual descendancy.
Abraham is our father by faith, not by blood.
Now arguably he's probably a lot of people's father by faith,
or I'm sorry by blood too, but at the end of the day,
The only way he's truly your father is by faith in Jesus Christ.
Verse 17,
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
We notice that Jesus Christ's purpose was not to give the law, but to give grace.
And what is that grace? It's the death, barren resurrection.
It's the gospel message, which is a message of grace, not of race, not of law, but of grace.
It's not by your, who your descendancy is, or your lineage, or a physical group of people,
but rather it's by faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 29 says,
The next day, John seeeth Jesus coming unto him and sayeth,
Behold, the Lamb of God, which takeeth away the sin of the world.
What is the purpose of Jesus Christ?
It is to take away the sins of, notice this again, the world.
Not the sins of the Jews only but of the world that he is the lamb of God which take of the way the sin of
The world because Jesus Christ truly paid for the sins of every single person
You know don't believe in this Calvinism nonsense that says that well
He only died for his people or for some people or paid some sins
No, there's no such thing as him paying for a limited amount of sins it he paid for the sins of the whole world
He took away the sins of the entire world
even the Calvinist. He did pay for the Calvinist. He just didn't only pay for the Calvinist.
He paid for everybody, okay?
So, hey, the Calvinist is right that he paid for his sins, but he also paid for the sins of the whole world.
Verse 41, he first findeth his own brother, Simon, and saith,
and we have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ.
So again, we see the purpose and who this is. This is the Christ.
Go to verse 49.
It says, Nathaniel answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel.
So we see some identifying marks about Jesus, but if we look at chapter one as a whole, we can look at it as saying this,
Jesus is the
Jesus is the Word and He's God, He's the Creator, He's the life, He's the only light of men,
and that all men through Him might believe, and that He lights every single man,
and some will receive Him, but not everyone, and they're not born of blood.
It's salvation's not of the law, but of grace.
He's the Lamb of God, which is going to take away the sin of the world.
He is that Christ, and He is the Son of God.
And of course, this is the purpose of Jesus Christ, that He would come to the world
that we needed a Savior, that that salvation was of grace,
not of a blood lineage, not of a certain group of people,
but the whole world, and that not everyone was going to
receive him, but many were going to reject him. And of course we're going to see that
play out in the Gospel of John, all of these elements
that are present here. In chapter 2 verse 4 it says this,
Why does he make such a statement?
Because Jesus understands his purpose, his role in life,
and he has a specific mission,
and he needs to follow specific instructions.
And when his mother is trying to get him to do certain things,
he's saying, no, I need to follow a specific timeline.
Why? Because he's dedicated to his purpose.
And he understands his purpose throughout this entire gospel
and throughout his entire ministry and his entire life.
his purpose specifically.
Chapter three, verse 16,
here's his purpose for God to love the world
that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
I mean, when we talk about purpose, John 3.16, the most famous verse in the Bible is identifying
for us the purpose of Jesus Christ.
The entire purpose of the Bible, the greatest statement really, probably the thesis of the
entire Bible, the thesis of the Gospel, the thesis of life is that God loved us enough
to give us his son Jesus Christ, that we could have eternal life or everlasting life and
that we wouldn't die.
needs to understand that verse and understand that purpose
so that he can fulfill his life's role
that he's gonna be that sacrifice,
that he's gonna be that gift that God has given to us.
Verse 17, for God sent not a son of the world
to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved.
So understanding his purpose,
that he's there to give his life a ransom for many,
he's not going around condemning everyone.
This isn't the time for him to go around judging and condemning.
This is his time to minister and to love and to work.
And so he understands his purpose in life.
And again, you know, we sometimes need to get the same mindset of understanding our purpose in life.
Now, does this mean that Jesus Christ never condemned anyone or never judged anyone?
No, of course he did.
But that wasn't his main goal in life,
and that wasn't his main purpose of being here.
His main purpose was to get people saved.
And you know what, as Christians and as fundamentalists,
sometimes they're gonna condemn things,
sometimes they're gonna judge things.
We have to realize and balance the fact that our main goal
and our main purpose in life is to get people saved, isn't it?
We should mainly focus on soul winning
and preaching the gospel and getting people saved,
not necessarily going around condemning everyone
and judging everyone for all of their sin.
And, of course, a lot of people would get mad at fundamentalists because they'd say,
oh, you're so judgmental, and oh, you're so self-righteous, and sometimes there's a layer
of truth to that.
You know, instead of emphasizing our judgment on the loss and our judgment of the people
that are outside the church, we should also balance that with grace and with humility
and trying to help people to get saved and be turned under righteousness and not always
just looking down on everyone that's not like us.
or being like us, but rather extending them some grace and some mercy, just as Jesus did
likewise to many people.
And so we see he realizes his purpose right now is not to condemn people or judge people,
but rather to minister under them and to give people an option to be saved.
As we keep reading, look at verse 30.
He must increase, but I must decrease. Again, the purpose of Jesus Christ is not only understood and realized by Jesus
It's also understood and realized by other people like John the Baptist and John the Baptist understood that at this time
It's more important for Jesus Christ to take the disciples unto him and to teach them
rather than John the Baptist to be the main guy or the one getting all the attention and you know, that's
That's hard for some people. It's hard for some people to recognize their purpose and for John the Baptist to realize his purpose
that his purpose was not to be the star of the show forever but rather was to pass the torch on to the Lord Jesus Christ and allow
Him to take the preeminence to take a lot of these disciples to get more of the recognition for him to increase and for John
The Baptist to decrease from the picture from the story and again
They're both working in that purpose that God has for them and their lives
Chapter 4 verse 34, and again, I'm just going through this pretty quickly, but it says,
Jesus saith unto him, My meat is the do of the will of him that sent me, and to finish
his work.
A couple words I want to point out in this particular verse that I think are important.
The first word I want to point out is work.
The word work is used the most in the Gospel of John.
Now they'll get that confused you because we talked about in the Gospel of Mark how
But we have to understand that in the Gospel of Mark it's not really bringing up the word work or talking about the works
It's just showing you the works. It's just
Evidencing the works the works are happening, but in the Gospel of John
It's constantly bringing up the word work because I believe it's describing the purpose and again these things work in tandem
They work together
He's talking about the work because we're trying to identify the purpose in the Gospel of Mark
It's not talking about working or the works
It's just doing the works.
And so even though the word work is used more
in the Gospel of John,
I think that Mark is just showing the works,
whereas John's more talking about the works
and explaining the works and talking
and identifying the purposes
so that we understand what work was to be accomplished.
The other word that I think is important
in this particular verse is the word finish.
The word finish is only used a handful of times
in the Gospel of John,
but probably the most famous is when Jesus is on the cross
it is finished, and that's something that a lot of people will quote.
Well, what is finished? That's usually the debate, is what was finished,
but you'll notice that the word finished is used a couple other times in the Gospel of John,
and what it's always talking about is finishing the work, and that Jesus had what?
purpose and vision for his life.
He realized there's certain works he had to accomplish
and it's all driven.
The Gospel of John, he's just driving that purpose,
that vision, I need to accomplish this work
so that it comes to that great finale.
When we get to the Gospel of John in chapter number 19,
when he says it is finished, what was finished?
The work, because he had this purpose to finish that work
and to do the works that God had laid out for him.
So we're gonna notice that.
Also notice in John 5, verse 17, I'm sorry,
Jesus answered that my father worketh hitherto,
and I work, again, emphasizing the work.
Look at verse 36.
But I have greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish
The same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me. So again, we say finish again here
So it's mentioned in chapter 4. It's mentioned in chapter 5 and what is it that's being finished
It's the works that the Father had given him and what did the works do?
They testify of who Jesus Christ is.
His purpose is to do the work and the work testifies of him,
and he's doing that work because of his identity.
Even though he may have some human limitations,
he's still capable of accomplishing that work.
Chapter 6, look at verse 29 now.
Chapter 6 verse 29,
Jesus answered and said to them,
this is the work of God.
that you believe on him whom he heth sent.
So God has a work for all of us to do,
and that's to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
whom was sent, verse 30, they said therefore unto him,
what signs show us thou then,
that we may see and believe thee.
What does that work?
What is your works? What are you doing? What is it that we're supposed to see?
What is it that we're supposed to believe in and of course that's a rhetorical question, but what is the what is the answer?
It's the gospel. That's the work that Jesus Christ is going to do and
He's going to give them the work of Jonas,
for his Jonas was three days and three nights,
and the well's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth.
And that's the work that he gave us,
was his death, burial, and resurrection,
that he paid for all of our sins,
while man was enjoying the Sabbath.
Because if you understand how the Jewish calendar worked,
that Friday and Saturday, the whole time,
while Jesus was working for our salvation,
they were resting, and they were not permitted
to do any kind of work,
and then he rose again on the first day.
In this chapter, it has more, though, in chapter 6, it really emphasized this,
the fact that he's doing this work. Look at verse 35.
Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Jesus realized that he is the bread of life.
Meaning what? This is his purpose. Jesus' Christ's life
his purpose is to be the bread of life. And if you think about
what does bread do? What is bread?
Bread is coming from grain, right?
I mean, it's pretty simple.
You grow wheat and you have bread.
But where did the wheat come from?
Well, the wheat came from grain.
And what happened to the grain?
Well, the Bible talks about how the grain
has to be buried into the earth
and it's kind of like it has to die.
and then it sprouts up, it's resurrected.
And through its resurrection, it grows the crop of wheat,
which is then harvested, and then that wheat is harvested,
turned into bread, and we get to consume it,
and it gives us life.
Bread gives us life.
In the same way, Jesus Christ had to die.
And then that death is what's going to give us that life
through us consuming his death in a sense.
We get to consume his death by believing in him
and that's what gives us life.
The only way for us to have life is for him to die.
and that's just like how animal sacrifices, the only way for
the lamb to be consumed is for it to die
and then for us to eat the lamb and that gives us life
and so in the same way Jesus Christ is going to die
in order to give us life and he's realizing he's recognized I'm that bread of life
something has to die in order to give you
life, in order to sustain you, in order to give us eternal life
and he's realizing that is my purpose in life is to be bred and is to die
to die so that you can have life and so that you can never hunger and so that you can never thirst.
I'm the bread of life.
Verse 36,
But I said in you that ye also have seen me and believe not, although my father giveth me,
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will know why he's cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will,
but the will of him that sent me. And this is the father's will, which he has sent me.
That of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day
And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone who sees the Son and believe with on him may have everlasting life
And I'll raise him up at the last day
What is Jesus Christ's purpose to die to be the bread of life and to give eternal life to those that receive him to those
That actually believe in him and that everyone that believes in him he would lose none of them
But that he would resurrect all of them
Isn't that a great promise that every single person that is ever believed in the Lord Jesus Christ will be resurrected?
There will not be a missing person. There will not be hey
I got 99% of them resurrected or the 99% of the people that believe in me got to be saved and have eternal life
He's not gonna forget any person every single person that is ever believed in the Lord Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ will lose none of them. His purpose is to resurrect all of them
And that's why it said they should not perish but have everlasting life.
What a great promise that everyone that believes in Jesus Christ will be saved
and will be resurrected and will not taste of death, as the Bible describes.
Great verses here, great verses on what his purpose is.
He understands his purpose very clearly.
Chapter 7 verse 1,
After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee
for he would not walk in Jewry
because the Jews sought to kill him.
This is a very interesting verse.
Because Jesus understands his purpose in life. What is Jesus Christ's purpose in life?
Well, it's the die for the sins of the world is it not but it's not just to die
He has to die a very specific way. He has to be lifted up on the cross
He has to die on the cross at the right time at the Passover at that exact moment at even
Fulfilling all kinds of different scriptures. He has to be that perfect sacrifice lamb. He has to resurrect three days
I mean he has a specific goal a specific vision a specific plan. He can't just die just randomly
And so, therefore, he can't even do certain things a certain way.
He can't just walk wherever he wants, he can't go wherever he wants, he can't be reckless
with his life, he has to be very careful with his life, and he has to go in certain directions,
certain places, at certain times, and he has to be very careful.
He can't just walk wherever he wants and do whatever he wants, he has to be careful
with his life.
And you know, I think that some of us have to realize that our lives have purpose and
So sometimes we have to use safety, don't we?
We have to be safe about the decisions that we make
and we have to be careful about the decisions we make
and we can't just make every decision that we want
and go everywhere that we want
and do everything that we want.
Sometimes we have to be careful and think about
where we're going and how we're living our lives
and use a discretion so as to not die
outside of our actual purpose.
God has a purpose for our lives, and he has a purpose for Jesus Christ's life, and he cannot walk in Jewry.
Why? Because if he does, he's probably gonna die. They're gonna hunt him down. They're gonna kill him.
So he had to be careful. He had to understand his purpose so that he would not die a foolish way or a bad way or out of the
will of God, but rather he would die the way that God desired for him to die.
You know, sometimes we have to be careful about the decisions we make.
Maybe God wants you to die in old age as a soul winner.
and not die of some kind of just stupid decision you made,
right, eating unhealthy, or just being reckless,
or being foolish, or doing something weird,
or going and hanging out with the wrong person
at the wrong time, and allowing yourself
to go down the wrong path.
You know, sometimes as a Christian you have to say,
you know what, I can't walk that path,
I can't go down this road, I need to take my life seriously
so that I don't die outside of God's will,
but rather I die according to His will.
Because you understand your purpose in life just like Jesus Christ understood his purpose and he said I can't walk in Jewry
I bet that was more difficult. I bet it was a longer path
It's probably harder it may have cost him more time or more money or more effort or more energy to walk this other pathway
I'm sure it wasn't as convenient. He didn't like it. It wasn't what his first choice, but
He was doing it because he understood his purpose
and he said, this is not my way to die.
I need to be careful with my life
and not put myself in jeopardy here.
I need to make the right kind of decisions, don't I?
Look at chapter eight, verse 28.
Chapter eight, verse 28.
Then said Jesus unto them,
when ye have lifted up the Son of man,
then shall ye know that I am he.
And that I do nothing of myself.
But as my father taught me, I speak these things.
And he that sent me is with me, the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him."
Notice, what is his purpose?
His purpose is to please the Father and to do the work and the mission that God the Father has laid out for him.
And so he's making sure, hey, I'm going to do what's pleasing unto the Father.
Chapter 9 verse 3, Jesus answered neither at this man's sin nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
I must work the works of him that sent me.
While it is day the night cometh when no man can work
He said this is my one opportunity to do what God the Father has me to do
I have to do the works that God the Father has given me because when I die
I can't do any work and in fact nobody can do any work. This is our one opportunity to serve God
You know, we can always play all of these hypotheticals with our life. Can't we?
What if I was born in the 50s man? It's a shame. I didn't live in the 50s when everything was magical or something
Yeah, everybody has this weird idea that the 50s were just magical or something like you just you just showed up at an easy
Job and they just handed you so much money and you could just buy houses and cars and everything was just fun
And the Ys were just so submissive and we're just like yes, sir no matter what
That doesn't exist, okay?
I know that somebody wants to paint the 50s is like this magical la la land that you watched on TV or something
Look the 50s are the same as today
You know what the fifties were?
Well, if you didn't live in America, it was a hell hole.
And if you lived in America, you're coming back
and your best friend died and warred in combat.
You're struggling with PTSD.
They just had a bunch of women in the workforce and playing baseball and all this kind of stuff,
a league of their own, and so now you have all this fighting over feminism and what's
really going on.
A lot of the women went to college, now they're college educated, you're not college educated,
you just know how to blow Germans' heads off or whatever.
I mean, you really think like the 50s is just this picturesque time, but look, there was
problems back then too.
Oh, I wish I was at the time of Jesus.
Yeah, but then you don't have your air conditioning that you love so much.
I mean, this is what I was saying with Brother Wes over there.
I was like, you know what's interesting about heating and cooling?
There's no such thing as a perfect temperature.
You're either hot or cold.
Like nobody's just like, it's just right.
It's like you're either hot or you're cold.
Let me tell you something, without air conditioning, you're just hot.
You want to think, talk about hot or cold, it's real hot or real cold all the time.
There's no such thing as the perfect temperature there.
That's why most people always live by a seacoast because they have the most moderate climates
typically throughout history.
That's why you'll notice most of the larger cities are near a seaport or something or
a seacoast.
For lots of reasons, one of them just being climate in general because when you're far
away from a seaport, the weather is really high and low and we didn't always have air
You know, what's the point that I'm trying to get to?
Well, I'm just trying to say that we could always think like,
hey, our lives could have been better and all these hypotheticals.
But here's the thing, this is the life that you're in.
And God has created you in this timeline and in this period
to have a real life and have a real purpose.
And you know, he wants you to really do it and really accomplish it.
And Jesus is saying, I must work the works of him that sent me.
This is the one opportunity for me to do it.
God's given you one task, this is your opportunity.
You need to do what God has purposed you to do
because soon you're going to die
and then you don't have any opportunity to do anything else.
I wish I was this other person.
I wish I had this other life.
I wish I could go back in time.
I wish I had trained to be a professional athlete,
or I wish I had bought more Bitcoin,
or whatever it is that you sit here in hypothetical.
I wish I had bought NVIDIA stock.
What was it like a few years ago or something?
You could always sit here and just think like,
I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish,
but who cares because you can't.
You need to do the work that God has given you right now.
I wish I was taller.
What is that son? I wish I was a little bit taller. I wish I was a baller. You know, I'm sorry
Shot-caller whatever 20-inch blade. I can't stop right
No, you are who you are
You have a purpose. You need to just live that purpose out
You know Jesus is like hey, I gotta do it. Jesus. I gotta do what the father's given me because pretty soon nights coming and
Nobody nobody's gonna do any work then it's over
Look at chapter 10, verse 11.
I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveeth his life for his sheep.
Sounds like he knows what his purpose is, isn't he?
He's going to have to die, and he understands that.
He realizes what his purpose is, what his life is.
Look at verse 25.
Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believe not,
the works that I do in my Father's name.
They bear witness of me his works and his purpose are bearing witness of who he is and he understands who he is
I mean he went around for three and a half years saying hey
I'm gonna die and then rise again
He understood his purpose and he kept preaching that and the Jews did not believe him
They did not trust in him even though he did all of that and that's what testifies the fact that he really is the son of God
Verse 37 of the same chapter if I do not the works of my father believe me not
but if I do
Though you believe not me, believe the works that you may know, and believe that the Father is in me, not him.
And it's just saying like, hey, if you don't believe that I'm really the Son of God, or what I've said about myself,
you have to believe just because of the works.
Because who else could do these works? Who else could accomplish this?
You know, it'd be funny to me, it's like, if you really believe there's Christians out in the world,
who cares what they say about themselves? Who cares how they label themselves?
but believe the ones that are doing the works.
You know, show me the Christian preaching the great sermons,
show me the church going out and getting lots of people saved,
show me the one that's exercising their faith,
and I'll show you the real Christians in the world.
And the ones that are not preaching great sermons
and afraid to preach the rapture.
Afraid to preach the post-trib rapture,
afraid to preach against the modern version of the Bible,
afraid to preach against Lordship salvation,
afraid to actually preach about what the Bible says about
sodomites and faggots,
afraid to preach what the Bible actually says about the Jews
being the synagogue of Satan,
and also use someone that doesn't have a great faith.
And I know there's always people that love to just brag and say,
oh, these guys are so great, they have such great faith.
Okay, show me your faith.
Where is your faith, you know, I don't see remember the guys in the Bible that it's like hey
There was some Jews that believed on them, but they would not confess them openly and then there was people like Paul
Who was better Paul or the Jews that would not openly confess him
But we're afraid of being put out of the synagogue
They're afraid of the Jews and I'll show you the old IFB
I'll show you a lot of modern Christians today that are afraid to say what the Bible says.
And you know what?
They're not the people that I'm following.
They're not the people that I'm the most jazzed about.
You know what I'm most jazzed about?
The people that have the works.
You know why I love my friends?
Because of the works.
Because of the preaching that they have, because of the works that they do.
That's the same reason I even believe in Jesus is the works.
It's all about the works.
And again, it's the purpose.
What is the purpose of Christianity?
Isn't it to get people saved and to rile people up
and get them living for God and turn many to righteousness
and to get people saved and get people baptized
and bring them into church?
If that's the whole goal, then what would be the point?
Well, I went to this really sweet little church,
little Baptist church out there
and we never got anybody saved
and we never turned anybody to righteousness
and we reached no new people.
Then what was the point of ever going there?
But it has a sweet spirit.
Is there a sweet spirit crowned in heaven?
How many people in hell are gonna be like,
you know what, I'm so glad that you didn't get me saved,
but at least you had a sweet spirit.
Whereas there's this one guy,
he was like rough around the edges,
he said some choice words occasionally,
but you know what, he came into my neighborhood
and he got me saved one day.
You know, who do you think that guy appreciates more?
Right, because at the end of the day,
if you don't accomplish anything,
it doesn't really matter.
You know, what really matters is producing something.
What really matters is that Jesus actually accomplished the works.
What really matters is that Jesus really died on the cross and really went to hell and really
rose again.
That's what really matters at the end of the day.
And you know what, I want a Christianity that's going to produce something that's going to
do the works because otherwise it's all in vain.
Vanity of vanity is saying at the preacher, why do I, you know, how many people went to
church this morning and accomplished nothing and their church is accomplishing nothing.
My wife and I we live next to a gateway. We're passing it was filled. I mean the parking lot was just packed. I
Mean it it was it was tons of people and
You know, I was I was saying we were joking about
You know how they probably have a coffee shop in there or whatever we were saying man
If we had one of those we have to give it away for free and I was thinking like how much would that cost?
And I was like, you know, but everybody likes to have coffee before church and she's like well those people didn't go to church
And I was like, that's kind of a spicy comment.
But at the end of the day, it's kind of like, yeah,
how many of these people are just going to watch a screen
of some guy just monologue about nothing,
and they accomplish literally nothing,
and they never preach the gospel,
and they're not getting anybody saved,
and they're not getting, you know,
they're not doing anything.
What's the point?
Oh, I just want to go back to the Nandanam Fun Center
and just hang out and have the sweet spirit or whatever,
and accomplish nothing.
What's the point?
What is the point of of living your whole life and accomplishing nothing and producing nothing?
You know, we should care about getting people saved and doing the works and you know what?
We should believe in a Christianity because of the works not because of what they say about themselves
Not how popular they are not how many five-star reviews they have not how many coffee shops they have no no
What are the works of the church? That's the church. I want to go to you know, I love evangelist or banek
One reason it's the works
Not because of his face. It's not because his brother makes really good brisket
It's not any I mean, it's not it's not really anything about him
Frankly speaking like I've never really hung out with Duncan that much outside of a church setting
I don't have that much in common with them. You know what? I really like about him his works
So I love about him
And you know what? We should love people that have the works.
You know I love Pastor Matthew Stuckey?
I mean I've never gone to church with him, I've never hung out with him.
I only just know about him and I've hung out with him a little bit going to church, like visiting his church.
But you know I love the guy? Because of the works.
I mean the guy's planting churches everywhere.
Just started a big church over there, getting tons of people saved.
How can you not like Pastor Matthew Stuckey?
I mean, to not like Pastor Matthew Stuckey is to just not like the Gospel, not like souls,
not love God at all.
If you love God, you would love Pastor Matthew Stuckey, period.
And let me tell you, it's not just limited to people that we know, it's anybody.
If there's anybody out there just getting tons of people saved, preaching the raw true
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should love that man, we should rally behind that
person, we should support them and do good unto them.
I mean, because again, it's about the works.
Why would you believe in Jesus?
Because of the works.
How could you literally see someone come into town?
Healing, sick people, making people that are lame walk,
rising people from the dead, preaching the truth
and not love that man.
You have to love that man if you love the truth.
You have to love that man if you love God.
And of course, we have to believe his message because he is the Son of God, and he's saying,
even if you didn't believe anything I said, you have to believe the works, you have to
believe the evidence, you have to believe the fruit.
And that's something that's really, really important, and it can help you see sometimes
when people are trying to confuse you.
You can just see the works.
You know, you look at the tree.
Maybe you don't like the color of the bark, maybe the tree is a little crooked, maybe
it's got some weird stuff going on, but you know if it just has great apples on it, you're
like, this is an awesome tree.
And at the end of the day, you don't even really care what the tree looks like.
No one has ever gone to a grocery store and said, can you please show me what this tree
looked like?
They're just looking at the apple and they're saying, that must have been a great tree.
They don't even know what that tree looked like, where it was, what it was doing.
They're just like, this is an epic apple, therefore it must have been a great tree.
And then they look at an apple that's like, oh moldy and weird and odd shaped and there's like,
but the tree looks great.
Like, you don't care.
You don't care what the tree looks like if the apple looks like junk.
And you know what? Christianity should be evaluated by its fruit, not by the tree.
Because the tree is known by its fruit, not the other way around, okay?
Obviously, you're going to only get apples from an apple tree, but at the end of the day,
we should really be evaluating the fruit of things.
That's what Jesus told us in Matthew chapter number seven.
And Jesus is emphasizing here, hey, believe me for the works.
Chapter 11, look at verse 14.
Chapter 11 verse 14,
Nevertheless, let us go into him know he noticed his purpose and you know part of his purpose was to allow Lazarus his friend to die
To not visit him early, but to allow him to die so that he could then come and raise him again from the dead
So that people more people would believe in him and you know, this is a this is a hard message, but
Somehow in God's providence sometimes people have to die for God's like work to be accomplished
There's great people in the Bible that die.
John the Baptist dies, Steven dies, Antipas, my faithful martyr, Abel dies.
And we can always ask like, why in the world did that happen?
It doesn't make sense.
But he said, hey, there's a reason here.
This was the reason and I don't even know that even in our human minds and our human intellect will ever even understand that
Joe brings this up in the book of Ecclesiastes. It brings it up that many times even great people die the righteous die just out of nowhere
And it's confusing. It doesn't make sense. I mean it had to be deflating when John the Baptist died
I mean John the Baptist is epic
He's one of the greatest Christians and then he just dies and you're just like man
But, that was what God had purposed for to be, and you just have to keep going.
You just have to move on.
You just have to keep serving God.
You can't let John the Baptist dying stop you from serving and, hey, this was the whole
point.
This negative thing happened.
Jesus said in verse 25, Jesus said in her eye in the resurrection of life, he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth in believeth in
me shall never die.
Hey, what is his purpose, he's the resurrection, only through him will you have eternal life.
Verse 35, Jesus wept.
In the most famous verse of like a short size, it's the shortest verse, and it's really
famous for being the shortest verse, a really emotional verse, Jesus wept.
Why did he weep?
Verse 36, then said the Jews behold how he loved him.
You know, obviously as a man we don't really weep much, we don't cry much.
But we see Jesus himself crying. Why? Because he lost a friend that that mattered to him
We see that you know, we can still see the humanity in the Gospel of John
You know, I don't want you to say think like the humanity is not shown in other Gospels, too
We get to see a little bit of just Jesus's humanity here
But he understands his purpose and his purpose was to go through some difficult things and some emotional crisis
see and you know at the end of the day if
You if you make friends
If you have a wife, if you have children, if you have family, and you invest in people's
lives, here's a sad reality.
Eventually people are going to die.
People that you care about, people that you love and you're going to lose them.
And I think, you know, there was somebody that had lost somebody and I talked to them
this is a while back.
I don't think they were part of our church, I can't remember, but.
They were kind of mad about it, and they said, well, I just, I don't even know why God would have let me have this relationship
or bring this person to my life, because I feel like it's worse than if I had never known them, or never had this relationship.
And I was trying to tell them, you know, my belief is that it's better to have loved and lost than to never loved at all.
And, you know, I preached a sermon on that in the past, and Jesus Christ obviously loved the whole world, and they didn't all love him back.
But, you know, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Job lost all of his children and we have to just reconcile with that reality that if you
choose to love people, you will also choose that you will lose people because you can't
love a ton of people and not lose somebody every once in a while.
It's just life.
It's just reality.
But we shouldn't get hardened by that,
hey, there's a time to weep, we should mourn.
But at the same time, you know what,
we also have to stay with our purpose.
And you know what, our purpose is still to love people,
is to still do good, is to still have children.
You know, I went to a church, an old IB church,
and at one point one of the newly mothers,
one of the new mothers, their baby died.
They went on a date left it with a babysitter when they came back the baby had died and I think I think was under the one years old and
You know, I can't remember I think they might have had like one child like one older child and that one
It was like their second, but you know, I was I was really worried that they would decide not to have any kids again or something
You know what, praise God, they still decided to keep having kids, and you know what, that's
the right move, is to keep having kids, and to keep loving, and to keep going, even when
tragedy strikes.
And you never know when something negative is going to happen, or bad things are going
to happen.
I think anybody that is in our church that actually tries to have a lot of kids, you're
probably going to for sure have a miscarriage.
I mean, just statistically speaking, the chances of someone having a miscarriage, if they try
to have kids their entire life, is just like, virtually going to happen.
And you know what, it hurts all of us.
It hurts all of us, it's difficult.
You know what, don't let that discourage you.
In fact, I've known many couples, their first was a miscarriage.
And, you know, that's going to be pretty hard, that's going to be more discouraging.
And you know what?
Just keep going, keep trying.
You never know.
And of course, there's nothing wrong with Jesus weeping or being sad, but you know what?
His purpose is to keep going.
And you know what?
He ends up raising Lazarus from the dead, and he loved him very much.
Loved him and Jesus really loves us and that's why we need to do the things that we do. That's why we keep going
That's why we keep preaching the gospel. That's why we keep fighting. That's why we keep helping people and loving because of our
Love let us not get hardened by the difficulties of life
Job's wife said why don't you just curse God and die? That wasn't the right attitude and
Then he ended up getting 10 more children and he ended up being restored by God and we never know what God's gonna
Give us, you know, I think the hardest story in the Bible for me
Like one of the hardest it's just like you're reading Ezekiel and his life is just a train wreck because it's just like all right now
Lay on this on your side
Then lay on the other side then eat this really crappy bread like literally okay, and you're just thinking like this can't get any
Worse like is this life is just it's just like he's like bury this underwear and the ground and where and you're like
What is he telling him to do but then just randomly he says hey, I'm gonna take away the desire of your eyes
And you can't cry about it and then the text just says and then his wife died
Just like man that is like it just seems like crazy just thinking like what in the world
I mean this guy is just trying to serve God. He's faithful. He's probably the greatest Christian and then all of a sudden
He's just like wife dies
You're not even allowed to cry about it. I don't even I couldn't do that. I don't think that's possible
Like, if there was a commandment that God wanted me to keep, I don't think I could keep that commandment at all.
If my wife just died, somehow it must have been supernatural or something.
But I mean, that is messed up.
But you know what? That was God's purpose for Ezekiel, wasn't it?
Just like God's purpose for Jesus Christ is to die.
and for Lazarus to have died and for, you know, these different tragedies to happen in life.
And you know what? Sometimes it's hard to accept our purpose in life or our plight in life
or where we're supposed to go or how we're supposed to react.
But you know what? It's not my will, but it's thine to be done.
And of course, that's kind of reiterated later in this.
Verse 42, he says,
that they may believe that thou set me."
Hey, he wants people to believe that he has sent him.
Chapter 12 verse 7, then said Jesus let her alone
against the day of my burying as she kept this.
For the poor always ye have with you, but me, ye have not always again."
He recognized that he was going to have to die, and that what was happening was for his
burial.
You know, that's pretty somber when you're picking out your own grave and, you know,
preparing to die, but he knew that that was his purpose.
Verse 23, Jesus answered them saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.
What does he realize?
Hey, this is the timing.
This is my purpose.
And what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this hour."
You know, interesting point to Esther,
Mordecai tells her, you know,
she's like nervous about presenting herself
unto the King of Hazards, because she could die.
She's not sure she's going to lose her life.
But he's like, hey, maybe you've come to the Kingdom
for such a time as this.
And that's kind of a famous,
Line or phrase for such a time as this hey, this might be why you're here. This is your purpose
This is your time. This is what you are to do and this is what Jesus is to do is he is to die
And he's tear he doesn't like it. His soul is troubled. I mean think about what God is telling
Many of the Christians of the book of Revelation. He says be thou faithful unto death
And I'll give thee crown of life. It's not only Jesus that's told. Hey, you're gonna die
There are other Christians that are told hey be thou faithful unto death
and they'll give thee a crown of life.
But you know, think about that verse
and your timeline, you're like,
oh man, I don't wanna die soon,
but you have to realize that you are gonna die.
Let's get raptured,
and I don't know if that's gonna ever happen
in our lifetime or not,
but if you don't get raptured, you are gonna die.
So we might as well just decide
I'm gonna be faithful to death
whether that's 10 days, 10 years, 100 years.
But you know what?
That is our purpose is to be faithful.
unto death, just like Jesus is here and he's worried about it, he doesn't like it, his soul's troubled.
No one wants to die, it's not a good thing.
But at the end of the day, that could be your purpose, that could be your time.
John 13 verse 3, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God,
and went to God.
Notice he knows his purpose.
He knows all things.
Verse 21, when Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit and testified and said,
Verily, Verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me.
He knew he was going to be betrayed.
He knew that purpose.
Chapter 14, verse 11, believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me or else
believe me for the very works sake.
He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also in greater works than these shall he do because I go on to my Father.
He realizes purpose that he was going unto his Father.
Chapter 15 verse 25,
But this comeeth the past that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause.
He realized he was going to be killed without a cause.
They were going to hate him without a cause.
He was going to go through the embarrassment and the shame of people ridiculing him, mocking him.
Chapter 16 verse 5,
Tim, that sent me, and none of you ask of me where there goest thou.
Because I have said these things unto you sorrow hath filled your heart.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away.
For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send
him unto you."
You know, he's realizing, hey, this is my purpose, I have to go, so that you can, it's
better for you, and then you'll get the comforter.
Of course, it's expedient because he needs to die and be buried and rose again for our
salvation.
And then when he does that, then we can be comforted through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
Chapter 17 verse 4, I have glorified thee on the earth.
I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
So this is the last finish.
We have three finishes prior to the fourth, which is going to be mentioned in chapter 19 of It Is Finished.
And notice the coupling again that he's finished what?
The work.
He's understanding his purpose.
He's finishing the work.
Chapter 18 verse 4, Jesus, therefore,
knowing all things that should come upon him,
went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye?
He understood everything that was gonna happen.
He understood his purpose.
He understood that he was gonna be kissed,
and betrayed, and delivered unto sinners, and crucified.
Verse 36, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight,
that I should not be delivered to the Jews.
Is my kingdom not from hints pilot therefore said in them art thou a kingdom Jesus answered thou sayest that I am a king
To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth
Everyone that is of the truth
He understood his purpose.
I am here to testify of the truth.
And what is that truth?
That he is the Christ, the son of the living God.
And when he said that,
that's when the Pharisees condemned him to death
and that's why he was crucified
by telling him that he was the Christ.
By telling him that he was the son of God.
They said, art thou the son of the blessed?
Art thou the Christ, the son of the blessed?
And he said, I am.
And Mark chapter number 14.
says in verse 30, chapter 19 verse 30,
when Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegary,
said, it is finished, and he bowed his head
and gave it to the ghost.
He understood his purpose, he did it all the way to the end.
Chapter 20 verse 30, this is an interesting section
of scripture, but it's basically telling us
the whole purpose of John.
Which is, again, the whole point that we're making.
The purpose is being emphasized in this Gospel, and it is emphasized.
Verse 30 and many other signs truly to Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are
not written in this book.
But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you might have life through his name.
What we need to believe is the identity of Christ.
And the works that he did through his humanity and his purpose was to give us eternal life and that's how we get salvation.
And that was the purpose of John, that's the purpose of the Gospels, that's the whole purpose of the Bible, that's the whole purpose of life.
And that's being emphasized, I believe, in the Gospels, John.
Is it mentioned in the other epistles? Of course.
But I think that we kind of see some nuances and some intricacies of these Gospels and that's what I'm trying to point out.
I'm trying to show. And I think it's again...
When we talk about a human, a human, I believe, has only the same elements.
We all have these elements. We all have an identity.
We all have works that we do. We all have a human experience.
And we all have a purpose in life.
And I think in John chapter 21, it's interesting because Jesus is kind of like
turning this onto Peter and helping him identify his purpose in life, isn't he?
Look at verse 15.
So when they had died Jesus sayeth to Simon Peter Simon son of Jonas love is thou me more than these
He say of them. Yeah, Lord. I know us that I love thee. He say of them feed my lambs
He said them again the second time Simon son of Jonas love is thou me. He say of them. Yeah, Lord
Now notice that I love thee. He say of them feed my sheep
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, loveest thou me.
Peter was grieved because he had said unto him the third time, loveest thou me.
And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep.
What is Peter's role in life?
Is it to be a fisherman?
No, he went fishing.
That was not his purpose in life.
His purpose was to be a fisher of men.
It was to go out and preach the gospel
and to be the leader of the church.
That was his purpose.
And so Jesus is challenging him
and saying, you know,
like, who are you?
You know, of course, he's a son of God.
He's a disciple. He's Peter. He's that rock.
We have some different identifying things.
What is the works? He's supposed to feed his sheep.
Because that is his purpose.
Even though in his humanity
Hey, Jesus didn't give up on him.
Even though he had turned on Jesus,
even though he denied him thrice,
hey, your purpose is still to feed my sheep.
You need to go and do that work,
and that is your identity.
See how these things are overlapping.
And if we keep reading, it says in verse,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself
and walkest with thy woodus, when thou shalt be old,
thou shalt stretch forth thy hands
and another shall gird thee
and carry thee with thy woodus not.
He should glorify God.
And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him,
follow me.
What is he emphasizing into Peter's life?
His purpose.
What is your purpose in life, Peter?
Your purpose in life is to feed my sheep,
is to die a death that would glorify me,
and ultimately it's what, to follow me.
And really in our lives, you know,
we can look at Ecclesiastes chapter number 12,
and...
All of us have very similar purposes.
We have similar purposes and then we have unique purposes.
One of our similar purposes is to fear God and keep His commandments.
That's the whole duty of man. We all have that.
We are all commanded to follow Jesus Christ.
We are all commanded to follow the commandments
and we are all commanded to be evangelists
and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Every Christian has that purpose.
Of course, I'm talking to Christians.
All of us have the purpose of getting saved.
Everybody's supposed to get saved.
But then beyond salvation, we are supposed to do certain works for Jesus Christ.
I want you to go to Ephesians chapter number two.
If you want to go to Ephesians chapter number two.
And I just want to give you some closing thoughts on what we've talked about this morning and this evening.
We talk about our identity.
You know and again, there's overlap on all these categories, but it will identity. I'm really thinking about this is like who your parents are
Your birth parents, you know, I'm the son of Trey. I'm the son of Diana. My parents were Trey and Diana
I think that's part of my identity and I get the name Shelly. That's my last name. I have the family name
I'm also a man. I'm a male. You know, that's just part of my identity. I can't change those things
I also have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ so therefore I become a son of God and that's
another part of my identity that I am a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
That's another thing I can't change.
I am a son of God and I am a son of my parents.
These things are just my identity and I could never change them.
That's just who I am.
And I need to accept who I am.
You know, some people struggle, I guess, out there accepting that they're either a man or a woman.
And look, I'm not talking about the trainees. I'm talking about saved Christians.
Because saved Christians, there are men out there that don't want to lead,
that don't want to work hard, that don't want to provide for their family,
that don't want to make the tough decisions, and they don't like being the man.
And there's women out there that don't like submitting and following their husband, and
they want to be the leader, and they want to boss their husband around, and they want
to have the gently led podcast.
But you know, in the Bible, Jacob's the one gently leading his family, isn't it?
Isn't that interesting that it's Jacob gently leading his family, and then there's some
people that aren't comfortable who they are, they have to be, as the woman, the one gently
leading their family around.
You know, we need to embrace who we are and the role that God has placed us in.
You know, not only that, I was born an American citizen, I'm born, you know, with a certain
trajectory in life.
I'm only going to be a certain height.
I went to a certain place where I learned, I learned English.
English is my mother tongue.
Not only is that my mother tongue, you know, I have a certain education that was just kind
of pressed upon me based on my own childhood.
The life the plight of life that I have
Beyond my identity though I have my humanity and and these overlap a little bit. I
Kind of likened my identity to things. I can't really change. It's just how things were
Also humanity can be things that are not necessarily changed
But they go more to our limitations and our humility of who we are, right?
I'm only gonna be so tall and I you know growing up. I was really short
And that always frustrated me.
You know, we're only gonna have so much athletic ability.
We're only gonna have so much mental capability.
We may only have so much financial capability.
You know, some people are limited by their geography.
They can't be an American citizen.
They can't have a passport.
They can't travel the entire world.
Or maybe they're limited by their language.
Maybe they're just never gonna really be able
to learn a foreign language
and they're stuck with just their mother tongue
and what that limitation is given to them.
and what they can say in that particular mother tongue.
Other parts of our humanity is our personality.
You know, some people have a real leadership-driven personality.
Some people have more of a following type personality.
And you can't necessarily change.
That's part of your humanity.
The talents that God has given you, the way He has shaped you.
Your height, you know, your genetics, your ethnicity,
your whatever pros and cons you have genetically speaking.
I mean, these are all parts of our humanity.
You know, the relationships we had growing up,
our brothers or sisters are lack thereof.
You can't really control that,
but that affects who you are, that affects your life,
that affects how you're gonna react.
These different things, your personality,
the struggles you went through with life,
the feelings, your relationships.
You know, one thing I thought about is a lot of people,
unfortunately, struggle with a personal disability.
I mean, it's not necessarily their identity though,
it's their humanity, right?
Let's say someone was handicapped.
That's not necessarily their identity, but it is a part of their humanity, right?
They're limited by maybe that particular handicap, whether that's a physical handicap, a mental handicap,
or just really just an age handicap. Starting to learn the age is a handicap, you know?
It's like you used to be able to be young and run around and do whatever you want, and then it's like you get older and it's like,
wow, you wake up and you feel sore.
And you're like, did I work out?
No, it's just I'm old, you know, or whatever.
There's all kinds of limitations on our lives.
That's just part of our humanity, aging.
You know, for a while you're limited by being young.
And then pretty soon you're limited because you're old.
Like it's just, there's always limitations based on your age or who you are or where you're at.
This is part of our humanity.
You're limited by your geography, by your finances, by relationships, situations that happen to you.
You know, sometimes people go through traumatic experiences.
difficult life circumstances.
I can't remember the statistic,
so please don't quote me on this.
But I feel like when I was reading,
it was something like 20 or 25% of women
have been molested at some point in their child upbringing.
That's high percentage.
And again, I'm not, look it up,
I think it's something like that.
But you know, think about that,
that would mean there's lots of people you know
that have gone through that.
And you know that's just part of their humanity, it's part of their human experience and it's
a negative human experience, obviously, but don't let that limit you from serving God.
Don't let the mistakes, the bad decisions you've made limit you and stop you, that's
just part of our humanity.
And of course we have our works, these are the things that we're doing.
What do you do for a living?
Your job, your work.
You know or hobbies a lot of people like to identify themselves with all three of these things don't pay
You know all these things are just an I am statement. I am Jonathan. I
Am a pastor. I am 510. I am white
I am male, or I am a developer.
We could be like, what are we going to?
I am identity, I am humanity, I am works.
Some people say I am handicapped, I am disabled.
When you have to fill out a job application,
they even have that on there.
It's like, are you a...
Someone in the military.
Are you someone with disability?
Are you someone with mental case, you don't think?
Are you what?
We're talking about all these I ams
and we're looking at different shades
because a person is more complex than just their identity.
A person's more complex than just the work that they do.
A person's more complex than just the humanity,
the human experiences that they have.
And here's another way you can look at a person
is their purpose.
What is their purpose in life?
What is it that they are to accomplish?
Who are they and what they are supposed to do?
And, you know, when we talk about a person or Jesus Christ, we all have these different things.
What is your purpose? That is what God wants for you to do in your life.
And what are you striving for?
All these are very important.
We need to, as humans, understand and accept our identities.
We can't change them.
And then we need to focus on the works.
That we are accomplishing because even if even if you haven't thought about this sermon at all
You're you're doing something all of us are doing something. I
Don't think anybody's a homeless person just sitting on a bench sleeping all day. We're all doing something
We need to focus on our works and we need to align our works to our purpose
We need to think about our purpose in life and make sure that our works are actually in line with the purpose that God has for us in
our lives
All the while doing what?
Embracing our humanity and realizing hey, we're gonna have limitations
We may not be able to accomplish every work that we could possibly dream up, but God already realized that
And he put us in the vessel that he gave us for a reason.
He put us in the life and the circumstance and the family and all the different things for a reason.
He realizes we have limitations.
He realizes that we're human.
But you know what? He still has a purpose for your life and he still has works for you to accomplish.
And you need to embrace your identity of who you are and who God created you to be.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 for by grace you saved through faith and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, as Sidney mentioned both, for we are his workmanship.
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
God has a purpose for you if you are saved, God created works for you to walk in.
But how are you going to walk in these works?
Well, you have to understand your purpose from the identity that God has created you to have
and realizing, hey, your humanity, we all have humanity, but we are saved by grace anyways.
And then we can have the great expression that the Apostle Paul says,
I am what I am, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. Yeah, I'm just a man,
yeah, I'm just white, yeah, I'm barely white.
I'm like really, I got a lot of Cherokee in here too, you know what I mean?
You know, it's so funny that they can call me white or something like that. It's like I'm Greek and and like Cherokee
How is that white? I don't even know. You know, it's like people want to act like
Every white person's special or something like that. It's like look who cares about that kind of stuff
You know my the real identity that matters is not those things. That's my humanity
My identity is I'm a son of God
I'm a child of God
That's important and as a child of God
I have some works that are really important for me to accomplish
But I need to be laser focused on my purpose in life so that I'm accomplishing those works
I'm not allowing my humanity to stop me and getting backslidden
You know, I think that sometimes all of us can be guilty of forgetting who we are
Who are you and I think sometimes our works can become aimless because we're just we're just
Going around just doing the will of the Gentiles just doing everybody else eat sleep drink be merry
Just do whatever but our works really in line with our purpose
I think sometimes people get backslidden and discouraged due to their humanity
You know, we're supposed to, like I said, this morning sermon, we're supposed to seek for that grace and help from God.
When we struggle, when we backslide, when we have those limitations, when we have those difficulties, when we go through life.
Because we're human. It's part of the human experience.
And I think some people reject their purpose in life.
God has a purpose for them to do something and they don't want to do it.
There's a lot of purposes. You know, as a husband, it's important for me to love my wife.
As a father, it's important for me to love and provide for my children.
Not only that, as a pastor, it's important for me to preach the truth uncompromisingly
and to love the people of God.
As a church member, it's important for you to love the church and to love your pastor
and to go soul-winning and to preach the gospel.
You know what?
All of us have different purposes in our life and instead of rejecting those, we should
embrace them and do the works that God has given us to do.
You know, some of us have a work to do in the Bahamas.
We should embrace that.
You know what, some people, because of their humanity,
have limitations and they can't do that.
You know, some people are doing great work
in Mexico right now.
Some of us can't do that work because they were humanity.
You can't even speak Spanish.
You can say taco, you know,
and that's just not gonna get anybody saved, right?
And then some people, they were born
where Spanish was their mother tongue.
And you know what, God has a lot of works for those people and they're rejecting their
purpose because they're not preaching the gospel to Spanish speaking people.
They're not speaking the gospel that God gave them that mother tongue.
They live, they got saved, they got the King James Bible, they got these things and they're
just not doing their work because they're not focused on their purpose.
And you know what, we need to embrace our identity, accept our limitations, focus on
our purpose so that we are steadfast in our works.
We need to embrace our identity, accept our limitations,
focus on our purpose so that we are steadfast in our works.
Just like Christ was, let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us your son.
Thank you for him understanding his purpose
and accomplishing his purpose so that we could have life.
We could have eternal life that we could be resurrected.
And I pray that we would try really hard to understand
the purposes that you have for us in our lives.
To fear God to keep his commandments to be a soul winner to love the church to go to church
to be loving spouses and
To love our children for the children to be obedient to the parents
I pray that we would not lose focus of our purposes in life, but rather we would try
to align our works to our purposes.
And I thank you that when our humanity comes into play, that you're always there to give
us grace, you're always there to give us mercy.
I pray that we'd constantly seek that when we go through struggles, temptations, trials.
When we screw up, when we make mistakes, when we backslide, I pray that we would seek that.
And we realize our identity, that as children of God, we're going to live with you forever.
that this is our only opportunity to serve you. I pray that we would realize
that we must work the works of God now. I pray that you would help us to have
that vision in our lives so that we could be faithful into death. In Jesus' name we
pray. Amen.
Alright for our last song tonight let's go to song number 230.
Song number 230, Heavenly Sunlight.
Song number 230, let's all sing that out together.
Thank you everybody, we're all dismissed.