Decision Models to Avoid

Number one, I couldn't help this morning as we were singing to cross-reference the song and the words in my own thinking against Psalm 119.

! It says this,

Open thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous truths of thy law.

And so I trust that as you were singing that, you were thinking and praying to yourself,

Lord, I just don't want to be going through the motion of singing.

I really want to consciously and deliberately be in prayer that you would open my heart and my ears, my life, that I would hear what you have to say for me.

That was one.

The second thing that I thought about, I thought, what a way to set the stage for a pastor to walk to the platform.

I have no business doing anything but speaking what is true.

And that's the reason that I began by saying, what did I say to start with?

Turn in your Bible.

I am so very thankful.

I am so very thankful that my calling and my privilege, my responsibility and the thing that you pray for

is that when I preach, that I preach the Word of God.

And that you can hold it in your hand and you can follow along and you can track and reference and understand by the prompting of the Spirit,

what is it that we're looking at and what is it that God says here?

So, we're going to look at John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

Let me read from verse 40 a little bit to kind of set the frame.

And then we're going to pray together.

And then we're going to open up and study the Word of God together.

When they heard these words, some of the people said, this really is the prophet.

Others said, this is the Christ.

But some said, is the Christ to come from Galilee?

Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David

and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?

So, there was a division among the people over him.

Let's pray.

Father, our time this morning in prayer is without question something that is not just a habit.

It is a confession of our absolute dependency upon you for everything.

For me.

And for the enabling of the Spirit in preaching your Word,

to preach it with accuracy and with clarity and simplicity and sweetness.

That the hearts of people that love Christ are lifted up to glory in His name

and the blessing of salvation.

And that those who are here that don't know Christ,

would not slip into a Christless and hopeless eternity in hell

because they have refused the sweetness of the gospel.

And we plead with you

that you would work this morning to make Jesus clear

and winsome

and draw people to faith.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I really don't remember when I first heard it.

But if there's anything you know about me,

it's that most everything I've ever said that's reasonable,

I repeated from somebody else.

There are very few original thoughts that I've had

that are anything worth ever saying twice.

Most of the things that come out of my head

that I think of on my own

happen to be rather skunky.

And so I am a gleaner from every resource that I can think of.

And I remember when I first heard John MacArthur say

that the purpose of preaching

is to really put people on the spot of saying yes or no.

Yes or no to God.

And so I am conscious and deliberate of that.

Not only this morning

because this passage is a perfect illustration of it.

But I'm under that sense of responsibility

and conviction that preaching really is about

making the word of God clear

so that people say yes, yes, yes, yes.

That's what I know God thinks

and I'm going to respond in faith.

Or, hey, I hear it, but I'm not doing it.

Can I tell you something?

Nobody's going to end up in hell.

Everybody smile because I'm talking to you.

Nobody's going to end up in hell because of ignorance.

Do you got that?

People make conscious, deliberate decisions

to refuse the clear, convincing, persuasive work of God,

whether it is in creation or in the declaration of the word.

And that's what we're doing here this morning.

And as we are working our way through John,

and I thought about taking the time this morning

to kind of give you a real quick rundown, and I won't,

but I will highlight the fact that as you look through John

up to chapter 7,

you will find over and over again

that in these short little pictures we have of the Savior,

in the same frame in which we're given,

whether it's Nicodemus or the woman at the well,

we have clear instance of individuals

making conscious and deliberate decisions.

In essence, saying yes or no.

And here we are at the most public declaration

that Christ made to point to date of His ministry.

Remember, He came at the last day of the feast and said,

hey, listen, in essence, He says,

believe on Me, you'll have everlasting life,

and you'll receive the Spirit.

And in essence, He's saying, listen,

I am the one that you believe in and trust in

for salvation and for all the blessings that God has promised.

Against that reasonable statement that Jesus made,

John wants to take the time

to have every one of us recognize

that what Jesus said was handled and responded to

in different ways.

Now, why is that?

How many of you do better with examples

than you just do with kind of auditory things?

I have to confess that,

and this is my last remodel.

I've said that before,

but we now have heat in the home

that Judith and I bought over on Guernsey.

We have a hard pipe that is running hot water

through the house,

and hey, listen to me.

A boiler system is really kind of easy.

Once you watch other people do it.

And I've been,

some of you are smiling

because you have no idea what hard pipe is.

Bob, you understand.

And so, after I watched

the boiler guys doing the boiler system,

I hooked up two of them myself.

Yes!

Now, my point is,

hey, we want to see it in real life.

And what we're looking at this morning

is how people responded

to the offer of Christ

to be their Savior.

Four different pictures

that I want you to see this morning.

First of all, we see believing.

And very interestingly,

picking up there in verse 40,

when they heard these words,

remember Jesus had said to them,

in essence,

I am the one who came

to be your Savior.

And there were some

who responded by believing.

When they heard these words,

some of the people said,

this really is the prophet.

Keep your finger there on verse 40

and go back to verse 31

just for a second.

You remember earlier

in this very chapter,

it says this,

yet many of the people

believing in Him said,

they said,

when the Christ appears,

will He do more signs

than this man has done?

There were a lot of people

that recognized

that what Jesus was doing

was undeniably spectacular,

and there was no way

to deny the significance

of the things

that He was doing

apart from coming to grips with.

He was pointing attention

to His person

and His ministry

and putting them on the spot.

And so we look back here

in verse 40

and we see that John

wants us to see

the conclusion

of His public ministry

and offer,

and in essence,

He was putting people

in that spot

where they had to decide,

well, who is He?

And their confession

was more

than just an admission

that He was a pretty

spectacular miracle worker.

And why do I say that?

Look at the two different words

there in 40 and 41

with which they identify Christ.

They say,

number one,

He really is the prophet.

That is a very,

very significant statement.

And in order to help

you understand it,

I want you to go back

just for a moment.

There you are in John.

But go back to John 1, verse 21.

John 1:21

It is a picture of John the Baptist

after he'd had a very significant

onset to his ministry.

Remember,

a delegation was sent

from Jerusalem.

They came down

to John the Baptist.

And there in verse 21,

they said,

are you the Christ?

That was in 20.

He said,

no, no, no.

Well then,

are you Elijah?

Does anybody know

why they would ask him,

are you Elijah?

Remember how Malachi ends,

right?

Talks about Elijah's coming.

And they asked him,

well, okay,

are you kind of the one

who's going to come

in reference

and eventually

in relationship

to the coming

of our Messiah?

Okay, well,

you're not that.

No, I'm not.

Are you the prophet?

Are you the prophet?

Now, by the way,

I remember driving,

I forget where it was,

Broad Street or somewhere,

and running past

one of these churches,

and it had the pastor

identified as prophet,

so and so.

You know,

yeah, I'm no prophet.

I'm a pastor.

I'm a shepherd.

There is a sense

in which I serve

in a prophetic role

in that I say,

I bring forth

what God has said,

but I'm not up here

telling you I got

a new word, okay?

It's all settled.

It's in the book.

Look,

this reference

to the prophet

is one that goes back,

and I want you

to turn in your Bibles,

to Deuteronomy chapter 18.

Deuteronomy 18 · chapter mention

Deuteronomy chapter 18.

Deuteronomy 18 · chapter mention

Now, it is very important.

How many of you understand

that one of the rules

of Bible study

is to pay attention

to context?

Hello?

Nod your head.

Sorry.

I know you're tracking.

I got it.

Thank you, Bettina,

for nodding.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate it.

Deacon's wives,

they got a lot

of pressure on them.

You know,

it's like,

nod your head, okay?

I appreciate you, Bettina.

I mean that, okay?

Deuteronomy 18,

we got sidetracked

with my little foray there

just for a second,

but here's the deal.

Remember context?

Remember context?

We pay attention

to context.

Here is Moses.

Let me read the passage.

It says,

The Lord your God

will raise up for you

a prophet like me

from among you

from your brothers.

It is to him

you shall listen.

By the way,

tonight,

we are going to be

together

for a family gathering,

and I am going to be

preaching on

seeing Christ

in the Old Testament.

I do not have

any intention

of covering

all of the books,

but I'm going to give you

an overview.

This is one of those passages

that we will touch on,

and so here is Moses

in chapter 18

saying,

prophetically,

that means he's speaking

about something

that's going to happen

in the future.

He says,

The Lord your God

will raise up for you

a prophet like me.

Now,

does that mean

that the guy

would walk around

with a stick like Moses

and a robe like Moses

and kind of be

the head of Israel?

That's not really

what the reference is to.

Here's the setting.

God had come

to the nation of Israel

and he revealed himself

on the Mount Sinai,

and when he revealed himself

in his holiness,

they were absolutely terrified.

They were,

they were,

ah,

and they said to Moses,

Moses,

Moses,

would you go talk to him

and then you talk to us?

By the way,

that's called being a mediator.

Do you know what I mean

mediator is?

Terrifying,

awesome,

overwhelming,

unbelievably glorious

and absolutely frightening

to the hearts of men

and they cried out

and said,

Moses,

would you do us a favor?

You kind of stand in between

and you be the one

who communicates to us

and Moses said,

yes,

yes,

yes.

God is going to send

someone like me

and you're going to listen

to him.

that's Jesus

and throughout the Old Testament

that issue of

God will send

his prophet

was something that

people longed for.

They hoped for the day

that the prophet came.

Well,

there's a second statement

that we find there

in John chapter 7

John 7 · chapter mention

so look at it

if you will.

John chapter 7

John 7 · chapter mention

others said

this is the Christ.

This is the Christ.

Well,

what does the word

Christ,

we all know that word.

We all know that word,

Christ.

But,

and not a big quiz here

but just out of curiosity,

does it,

how many of you know,

just nod your head

if you kind of got a rough idea,

how many of you have some comfort

that you have an idea

of what the word Christ means?

I'm seeing some nods.

Some of you are sleeping

but I mean,

I'm not talking about that.

Okay.

So,

here we go.

The word Christ means

anointed.

Right?

Anointed.

Well,

where do we get that from?

Turn in your Bibles.

We're going to run

at a couple different passages

and just to frame this for you,

look first of all

at Isaiah chapter,

I mean,

Psalms,

we'll go to Psalms first.

Psalm 45 verse 7.

Psalms 45:7

I love this.

It appears also

in the book of Hebrews

in relationship to Jesus.

Psalm 45 verse 6.

Psalms 45:6

Your throne,

O God,

is forever and ever.

The scepter of your kingdom

is a scepter of uprightness.

You have loved righteousness

and hated wickedness.

Therefore,

God,

your God,

has anointed you

with the oil of gladness

beyond your companions.

Do you know what it's saying?

This is Jesus

in the Old Testament

and saying,

God has anointed you.

And by the way,

what was anointing for?

Does anybody know?

It was the way

in which in the Old Testament

individuals were set apart

for a particular

and special ministry.

God has anointed you.

Why?

To be our Savior?

To be the one

who fully and completely

reveals to us

God the Father?

Another passage,

if you will look

in Isaiah chapter 11,

Isaiah 11:2

verse 2.

Isaiah chapter 11,

Isaiah 11:2

verse 2.

It says,

And the Spirit of the Lord

shall rest upon him,

speaking of Jesus,

the Spirit of wisdom

and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel

and might,

the Spirit of knowledge

and the fear of the Lord,

and his delight

shall be in the fear

of the Lord.

And he shall not judge

by what his eyes sees

or decide disputes

by what his ears hear,

but with righteousness

he shall judge the poor

and decide with equity

for the meek of the earth.

I want you to look also,

if you would,

at Isaiah chapter 61,

Isaiah 61:1

verse 1,

which is probably

one of the preeminent passages

in relationship

to the coming of the Messiah.

And by the way,

the Jews were looking

for the Messiah

and they missed him.

But if you would think

for with me

just for a moment,

Jesus made reference

to this passage

in his own ministry.

Isaiah chapter 61,

Isaiah 61:1

verse 1,

the Spirit of the Lord

is upon me

because the Lord

has anointed me

to bring good news

to the poor.

He has sent me

to bind up

the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty

to the captives

and the opening

of the prison

to those who are bound,

to proclaim

the year

of the Lord's favor.

Jesus was understood

by some

in that passage

that we are looking at

in John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

They confessed their faith.

They said,

listen,

we've seen what he has done.

We have heard

what he has said

and we believe

he is the prophet

that God has sent

to be the one

who is the mediator

between God and man.

And he is the one

who has been anointed

to be our Savior.

That's pretty spectacular.

And so I want you

to recognize

that as you listen

to this passage

this morning

and here at the very beginning

as John is saying,

all right,

all right,

I want you to realize

some people,

everybody actually,

responds to the truth

of who Christ is

in different fashion.

The question for you

is this,

have you boldly

let others know

you trust in him?

Have you done that?

Now remember,

by this point already,

there had been

a hardening

in the nation of Israel,

particularly on the part

of religious leaders,

and if you were willing

to confess

that Jesus was the Christ,

guess what happened to you?

You got booted.

You suffered

some informal persecution

by this point.

Later it became

even more hardened.

So my question is this,

is have you boldly

let others know

that you trust in Christ?

By the way,

when was the last time

you did that?

I don't know,

but fair question, right?

How many of you realize

that in the course

of conversation,

at the end of the day,

people eventually figure out

what our worldview is,

what we value,

and what makes us tick?

Jesus is the Christ.

He's the prophet

that God has sent

to be the mediator.

Well, I want you to look

at a second response

this morning.

There in verse 41 through 44,

others said,

this is the Christ.

No, no, no, no.

I is the Christ

to come from Galilee,

and I would call this dithering.

How many of you

know what dithering is?

Anybody here know

what dithering is?

How many of you

are perpetual vacillators

between decisions?

You know, it's like,

well, should I buy

this candy bar

or that?

Not a good question

for a diabetic to pose,

but, you know,

there it is.

Right, Seth?

And dithering means

never really coming

to a decision,

but kind of bouncing

back and forth.

You know,

well,

the famous phrase

for dithering

is on the other hand.

You can be in a perpetual loop,

kind of keep on coming back

to the well,

well,

well,

you know,

and so here we have them.

You look at this group

and there are some

who say,

he is the Christ.

Oh, well,

but is the Christ

to come from Galilee?

Interestingly enough,

the question was kind of

an early gotcha statement.

How many of you know

what a gotcha statement

is in politics?

Asking questions

that you just can't answer

without doing something

malicious to yourself.

Case in point.

Now,

don't take this personally,

but if I were to ask you,

have you stopped

beating your wife yet?

What's the answer?

If you say,

no,

I've never done,

just one word answer.

If you say,

no,

it's like,

you haven't?

Well,

I'm calling the officer,

the police.

If you say,

yes,

what happens to your character?

It's like,

you mean you've been doing that?

Yeah,

I can't believe it.

There are some kinds of questions

that are really designed

as gotchas.

And so,

when they ask this question

about Jesus,

well,

you know what?

Isn't he supposed to be

from,

you know,

they were putting together

information

without really doing

much research.

In fact,

you know,

here's the truth.

these people never really

dug for the truth

and never brought themselves

to a conclusion.

Now,

here's why I say that.

In Israel,

at this time,

everybody who was Jewish

knew what tribe they were.

In fact,

remember,

when Mary was with child

and they had to go be

registered by,

you know,

by edict from,

what was it,

Cyrenius,

blah, blah, blah,

something like that.

When I tell the Christmas story,

we'll get around to that part.

But anyway,

remember how it played out?

What did Joseph know?

He had to go to the town

of Bethlehem

because that's where

the registration

took care for his tribe.

And everybody knew

where they were

and it was easy to find out.

Stop.

If the religious leaders

had been able to do

research

to deny Christ,

don't you think

they would have checked in

on this major issue

of where he was from

and what his family background was,

et cetera, right?

I want you to know

that it's not just

the 21st century

and politicians

who have research teams

behind the scenes

who are trying to dig up dirt

on candidates.

It happened before.

And I assure you

that people were digging

at this issue

of who Jesus was

and when they made this statement,

well, you know,

Jesus is from Galilee,

and, you know,

David and Bethlehem

and all that,

which you see in verse 42,

it would have been

very, very easy for them

to really get to the information

if they'd wanted it.

How many of you realize

that sometimes

we don't make decisions

and the way we avoid

making decisions

is we avoid asking

hard questions

or being around people

who will help us

with hard questions, right?

I'm reminded

a little bit

as I remember

studying and thinking

about this,

it reminded me of

Elijah's confronting

the nation of Israel

on Mount Carmel

there over in 1 Kings

and just kind of

stick it in your mind

for later on.

1 Kings chapter 18,

1 Kings 18:21

verse 21,

when Elijah had the showdown,

he alone

and all the fancy,

decked out,

superbly religious

prophets of Baal,

remember they had

the dance off,

you know,

and those guys

were just going at it

and when it's all finished

and they were exhausted,

you know,

kind of Elijah wanders over

and says,

would you guys pour water

on that thing?

And then, you know,

anyway,

before he started out,

he says,

why do you halt

between two opinions?

If God is God,

serve him.

If Baal is God,

serve him.

You know,

let's cut to the chase.

Let's decide.

And there are some of you

here this morning,

truth of the matter is,

you keep dithering

on the issue

of who Jesus is.

Can I tell you

that's not wise?

There's ample evidence

and the purpose

of the evidence

is to bring you

to the spot

of saying,

he is the Christ,

he is the one

who God sent

to be my Savior

and I'm not going

to turn my back on him.

Third,

there are those

who decided

against the evidence

and that's

something people do.

You look there,

if you will,

in verse 44,

some of them

wanted to arrest him

but no one

laid hands on him.

I'll kind of give you

a little bit of background.

Actually,

earlier on

in the life

of Christ,

by this point,

the Jewish leaders

hated him enough

that they intended

to put him

to death.

Now,

he had a public

and popular following

and so,

they were concerned

with how they

would be received

and so,

they thought

the best way

to really

do Jesus in

was to catch him

in something

that he said.

I am not

positive of this

but there's a passage

in Proverbs 10,

Proverbs 10:19

verse 19

that we all

bear testimony to.

Let me kind of

recite it for you.

It says,

when words are many,

transgression

is not lacking.

What does that mean?

If you talk long enough,

you say something stupid.

Let me go further.

If you talk long enough,

you say something wicked.

And so,

they were kind of,

they knew their own hearts.

I mean,

just open the mouth

and insert foot.

Worse than that,

open the mouth

and out comes ugly.

And they figured out,

well,

if we listen to Jesus

long enough,

we're going to catch him

at something

and when we catch him,

it's gotcha.

Well,

they sent out

police officers,

you know,

officers of the temple

and they said,

we want you to kind of

lurk around on the sides

of wherever Jesus is teaching

and we want you

to keep track

of what he says

and when he says

something that's wrong,

grab him.

How'd that work out?

Back they come.

Verse 46,

put your finger on it.

The officers answered,

now this is probably

a rare illustration

of absolute truth

in the face

of the consequences.

The officers answered,

no one ever spoke

like this man.

That just blows.

I wanted to preach

a sermon

on that one sentence

because it just,

it's stunning.

The most impressive thing

about Christ's public ministry

was not his miracles.

It was his teaching.

So back they come

and they say,

no one ever spoke

like this man.

Now by the way,

stop just for a minute.

does that mean

that Jesus was so intelligent

and intellectual

that people were kind of awed,

you know?

No.

Listen,

the mark of true genius

in communication

is making profound truth

simple enough

for the seventh grader

to understand it.

Since some of you

are seventh graders,

I'll say fifth grade.

Okay,

but keeping it simple enough

that people can get

their hands around it

is the thing

that characterized

the ministry of Christ.

So,

you know,

in relationship to this,

I kind of struck by here,

remember,

these are people

who denied the evidence

and they were desperately

hoping that Jesus

would say something wrong.

They assumed

that Jesus was like

they were.

Now here's something

that really blows me away

when you stop and think about it.

Jesus never said

a single word,

a single word

that was unjust,

inaccurate,

or ungodly.

One of the things

that I pray about

more often

than I used to

is that I won't say

things that are wrong.

I'm a verbal person.

I was born that way.

Probably a couple weeks

after I was born,

I was talking

in full sentences

to my chagrin

or to my parents' chagrin.

Talk, talk, talk, talk,

and shut up.

Okay,

so here's Jesus

never said a wrong thing.

Wow!

Think with me

just for a moment

to James 3, verse 2,

James 3:2

and I'll just recite it.

For we all stumble

in many ways,

and if anyone

does not stumble

in what he says,

he is a perfect man.

And that's our Jesus.

Isn't that right?

Can you see him there?

Everything he ever said

was perfect,

and people were

hanging on his word

hoping to crucify him,

and he never blew it.

I want to be like him.

I want you to look

at one more case

before we come

to deal with the issue

of your heart.

Nicodemus is pretty spectacular

in the midst of this.

You find here

that Nicodemus

in verse 50,

who had gone to him before

and who was one of them,

said he was one

of the Sanhedrin.

He says,

hold it, guys.

We're all about the law.

We know the law.

We are the specialists.

He says,

does our law judge a man

without first giving him

a hearing

and learning what he does?

Now,

you probably want to say,

okay, well,

Nicodemus gets a pass.

You see,

they'd already decided

that Jesus was guilty,

and they were ready

to kill him,

and here's Nicodemus

standing up and saying,

hold it, hold it, hold it.

But remember,

remember,

if you were to go back

to John chapter 3,

John 3:2

verse 2,

Nicodemus had already

been through this process.

He'd come to Jesus

in chapter 3,

verse 2,

and here's what he said,

we know that you are

a teacher come from God,

for no one can do

these signs

that you do

unless God is with them.

Nicodemus

had information,

but just like the other group

that was willing

to kind of dither

and vacillate

back and forth,

Nicodemus was unwilling

in practical terms

to pull the trigger.

So,

what will you do?

That's the most important issue

this morning.

I want you to understand

what I said

at the very beginning

is undeniably true.

The purpose

of biblical preaching

is to put people,

every time they hear,

to put people

on the spot

of saying yes

or no to God.

God's speaking to you

this morning.

And here's what he says,

he says,

Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners,

and there are some of you

sitting here this morning

that do not know Christ,

and you know

that you don't know Christ.

I think about the passage

in 2 Corinthians

where Paul says this,

knowing therefore

the terror of the Lord

we persuade men.

Do you know what that means?

By the way,

I don't persuade

with intellect

or exceptional genius.

He is just talking

about a passionate,

winsome appeal

that those who are

sitting here today

that do not know Christ

would come to faith.

Here's what you need to know.

God is holy

and will judge sin.

We stand justly condemned

before a holy God,

and we are given

an opportunity

to respond to the free gift

that God gave to us

of His only begotten Son

who came to this earth

and took upon Himself

the form and flesh

of a man

to be the perfect sacrifice

and substitute

for my sins,

for your sins.

And when Jesus stood up

at the last great day

of the feast,

and when Jesus spoke

to the woman at the well,

in essence,

He was saying

the same thing

that comes to you

this morning

in the teaching

of the Word of God

saying this,

you are desperate

in your sins

and need Christ

as your Savior,

will you say yes?

Will you humble yourself?

Will you admit

that the evidence

is undeniable

and you need Christ

alone?

So,

that's the decision

for the unbeliever.

Do you follow that?

And there are some of you

here today

that need Jesus.

But how does it relate

to us as believers?

That's practical

because most of you here

are believers,

right?

Here's your job.

You're the yes or no crowd.

You're called

to do the same thing

in essence

that I'm called to do.

Isn't that right?

Hello?

Am I right?

Your lives

are all about

being in the front lines

of helping people

see Jesus

is the Savior

and bringing them

by grace

and pleading

with them

to come to grips

with the need

of their soul.

Is that why

you draw breath?

Why is it

that through John

we keep on having

these little pictures

where we find out

who Jesus is

and then

so what are you

going to do with it?

So what are you

going to do with it?

So what are you

going to do with it,

right?

Woman at the well?

Wherever it is,

John 6,

John 7,

it's putting you

on the spot

of either trusting

in Jesus

or being an instrument

to help people

come to faith.

So here's what

I would ask

and I close

with this.

if this is

the recurring

theme of John,

who is Jesus

and what are you

going to do with him?

There are those

here this morning

that need Christ

and I would plead

with you,

don't walk out

those doors

saying no.

That will have

eternal consequences

that is beyond

imagination.

and for you

who have come

to faith,

line your life

up with that

very singular

affection and

ambition that you

by his grace

having been drawn

from darkness

into light

are an ambassador

to let other people

know who he is

and why he came.

let me tell you

something.

When it's all

said and done,

when your life

is at its end,

what you have

done with the

sweetness of the

gospel is going

to stand out

as preeminently

important.

And I would

plead with you

to decide.

yes.

Knowing Jesus

as my Savior,

I am going

to live my life

with a passion

to lift up

Jesus

for the glory

of the cross.

Let's close

in prayer.

Father God,

this morning

as we

take the

scriptures in

hand,

we understand

that you've

given us a

picture of

your Son.

You've given

us a picture

of your Son

first for those

who are here

that do not

know Jesus,

that this morning

their hearts

would be drawn

to see the

hopelessness of

their condition

and cry out

upon Christ

as Savior.

You've given

us also who

are believers

a picture of

your Son

that we with

ambition and

affection,

delighting in

the privilege

we have of

being delivered

from darkness

into life,

would live our

lives with a

more conscious

and deliberate

passion to

see Jesus

lifted up.

That we

would do

more than

just sing

about Him.

That the

way we live

our lives

would reflect

His glory.

And the

things we

say when

you open

the door and

give us the

opportunity would

draw wounded

and hurting

people to

understand that

Jesus came

into the world

to be the

Savior of

all who

call upon

Him.

We ask

this in

Jesus'

name.

Amen.

Let's stand

together as

we sing.

And as we're

singing this

morning, let

me tell you

one of the

things that

goes with

preaching and

talking about

putting people

on the spot

is that

sometimes along

with that

comes the

issue of

going ahead

and going

on public

record.

And I would

encourage you

if you are

here this

morning and the

Spirit of God

is saying,

hey listen,

this is what

you need to

do.

Some of you

may need to

say, I need

Christ as my

Savior and I'm

humble enough that

I'm going to let

others know that.

I'm going to cry

out to Him to be

my Savior now.

You do that as

we're singing this

song.

It may be that He's

calling to be part

of our fellowship

here and you need

to come forward

and say, this is

where God wants

me, this is where

He wants me to

connect and serve

and be part of a

team that lifts up

Jesus.

There may be some

of you here today

that need counsel

and prayer and

there's a brokenness

in your heart

that you can't

solve and you

want others to

pray with you.

You come forward

as we sing this

song in closing.

Amen.

So sweet to trust in

Jesus just to take

Him at His word.

Why are you coming

forward, hon?

I want to be

baptized.

Amen.

Do you know

Jesus as your

Savior?

Yes.

I'm going to...

He'll be baptized.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There in verse 40 and 41.

When they heard these words, some of the people said,

this really is the prophet.

Others said, this is the Christ.

Thank you.

Thank you.