John 12:37-50 - Caleb Richardson

Hey, if you don't have a Bible, maybe you're

new with us and you didn't bring one, that's

totally okay. In the back there, you saw what

Courtney was reading. It's a little Gospel of

John. That's what we're working our way through.

Grab one of those. Take it home with you. It's

yours. Write in it. Do whatever you want. But

don't be shy to jump up and grab one because

we're working our way through it. Hey, if you're

new with us, my name's Caleb, by the way. Yeah,

thanks. Nice to meet you, too. If you're new

with us, or if you've been here for a while and

you just forgot what I'm about to say, is when

we started this little church in my living room,

the vision was that we would be a group of people,

no matter where you're at in life, that would

come together to get our eyes on Jesus. and live

our lives around him that's what the church is

that's what we're called to jesus has called

us to that and so if you're wondering like i

don't know your background i don't know where

you come from some of you may never been to church

some of you may have been to church you got a

lot of different opinions about it but the church

is simply god's people that he's calling to himself

to live with our eyes fixed on him in a way that

reflects him so what we do together here Is that

each week we open up his word. And we say, okay,

what is it about Jesus we need to learn and know

about? So that as we walk out this door, that

we begin to live in such a way that reflects

Jesus. And live in such a way that that vertical

relationship begins to affect our horizontal.

And so we're a messy group of people. Because

every one of us in this room is broken at times.

And most of the time. Including myself. And we

desperately need Jesus. I don't care, I don't

know where you're at, and I don't care where

you're at at this point. I'm just glad you're

here. And Jesus will take you right where you

sit with all the junk that you bring, and that's

okay. So, yeah, so here, one of the things we

don't want you to do is pretend that you got

it all together. Because I know it's not true.

And we don't want you to bum and be fakey and

act like, man, I just don't, I got to put up

a front, put up a show. I don't see that reaction

to Jesus anywhere in the Bible. In fact, the

opposite is true. We want you to be real. As

we come together today, starting with myself

and all of us, we want to come with just saying,

God, you can see every piece of me. You can see

all my brokenness. I just want to come and be

okay with sitting all that at your feet. What

I'm going to do is I'm going to pray because

we believe that It's the work of the Holy Spirit

that makes a lot of this Bible come alive in

your life. And so I'm going to pray and ask God

to do that and help me. So would you pray with

me? And then we're just going to jump right in

and work through those verses today. Lord, we

come before you. I just pray that for some in

this room that we're not pretending, that we

lay, that we can actually be honest and real.

with where we stand in this life and for others

maybe that are here for the maybe for the first

time and and they are skeptical lord you love

all of us and you accept us right where we're

at and so lord as we unpack these really challenging

verses will you by your spirit help them come

alive make sense and begin to change us in your

name we pray amen well um You know you're in

for it when one of the top scholars of the world

takes these verses and starts off by saying,

this is a really difficult section. And so my

wife will attest to the fact that it really was

a challenge for me to work through this on several

levels. One, to understand it. Number two, to

figure out how to explain it. And then honestly,

how does that apply to me? So all of those are

true, and so together we're going to walk through

these. But today we get to finish chapter 12,

and it's a critical moment in the Gospel of John.

If you've been tracking with us in John, the

reason it's a critical moment is that it's at

the very end of Jesus' public ministry. All of

everything we've been covering in John up to

this point has been a three -year period of Jesus

touching down. In the lives of people for three

years in what we call public ministry. And after

this point, after what we talk about today, the

shift happens where all that Jesus does is focus

on the training of his few disciples and then

he goes to the cross where he dies in our place.

And he goes and he's resurrected. And so that's

the last chunk. And if you look, there's a lot

left in here. But that's all a matter of a few

days. If you've been tracking with us, though,

through John, and we've covered these three years

of his life, the big theme of John is belief.

If you were to sum up all of the gospel of John

into one word, it's belief. It's to believe,

though, that Jesus is the Savior, and he's the

Lord. What John wants us to do, and what John

wanted those original writers to do, is to believe

that Jesus, this Jesus, is the true Savior of

the world, and he wants us to put all of our

life into his hands, and to say, I put you at

the center as Lord of my life. That's what John

is all about. Initially, he wants us to say,

yes, I will do that. I don't have to know all

the answers, but Jesus, I put you first. I put

you at the center. But then it's not just about

initial belief. It's about belief that grows

deep, like as trees' roots go deep into the soil.

He wants your belief to go deep. So the text

we come to today is really a summary of the book

of John around the area of believing in Jesus

up to this point. So this little verses in here,

it's kind of John going, let me squeeze it and

help you understand what everything I've been

talking about doing, the signs, wonders, all

these things have been pointing to, okay? So

I think if you think through these verses, I'm

going to give you three kind of chunks. There's

three movements through these verses, okay? You

got ready to write these down? The first one

is the word unbelief. And that's to look at,

we're going to look at that in 37 to 43, unbelief.

And then it looks like, And the priority of belief,

which is 44 through 46, and then the last part,

47 through 50, is the judgment of God. Unbelief.

Let's start there. Look at verse 37. Even though

he had performed so many signs in their presence,

they did not believe in him. Underline, did not

believe. Did not believe in him. This is... primarily

talking about these religious elite leaders who,

for most of them, they had almost the entire

Old Testament memorized that we have today. They

were the ones who should know all of the things,

but they didn't believe. And so you get to the

end of Jesus' public ministry. Many people had

seen and experienced Jesus, his incredible...

his incredible preaching, right? His selfless,

compassionate, loving of others. And they had

seen these incredibly miraculous signs. They

had watched, they had seen him turn water into

wine. The very first miracle they ever did. They

had, I mean, and that was just kind of the warm

-up, I call it. He had healed the official son.

These are all this in John, by the way. If you

look at the other gospels, you'll see a lot more,

or different ones, or different things. He healed

official's son. He fed thousands just with a

few little pieces of bread and fish. He calmed

the sea. He walked on water. He healed the blind.

And just a few days ago in this text, he raised

Lazarus from the dead. Now, John tells us, and

if you look over in chapter 20, verse 30, it

says, Jesus performed many other signs in the

presence of his disciples that that are not even

written down in this book, but these are written,

so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah,

the Son of God, and that by believing, you may

have life in his name. What was the purpose of

all that he has done? Is that you would believe.

What is the purpose of all these signs and wonders?

That your belief would go deep. Okay, so why,

after all the evidence, Right in front. I've

heard people say this to me all the time. Like,

well, if I could just see something, maybe I

then would believe. They all saw it. And yet,

why did they not? Right in front of them. They

had Jesus there. They watched him and they could

find no fault in him. And yet, at the same time,

he's doing all these miraculous things. And yet,

why would they not believe? That's the first

question. Look at what verse 38, starting in

verse 38, what it says. This was to fulfill the

word of Isaiah the prophet who said, and this

is from Isaiah 53 .1, Lord, who has believed

our message? To whom has the arm of the Lord

been revealed? This is why they are unable to

believe because Isaiah also said, and this is

from Isaiah 6 verse 10, He has blinded their

Isaiah 6:10

eyes and hardened their hearts so that they would

not see with their eyes or understand with their

hearts and turn and I would heal them. So here's

what's going on. We could spend a lot of time

unpacking this, but here's what's going on. In

verse 38, John quotes Isaiah 53. And it's in

Isaiah 53. You can go back and look at this later

if you want. Isaiah 53 is a description of what

we now know as Jesus, our suffering servant.

It was Isaiah pointing to Jesus. And it's a description

of who Jesus is. And then if you take it a little

bit further, that's out of verse 1 of Isaiah

53. And if you take it and you go to verses 2

and 3 of Isaiah, and I have this up on the screen

for you, it says this, talking about Jesus. before

him like a young plant, like a root out of the

dry ground. He didn't have an impressive form

or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance

that we should desire him. He was despised and

rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew

what sickness was. He was like someone people

turned away from. He was despised and we didn't

value him. Isaiah said these things because he

saw his glory and spoke about him. So why didn't

they believe in him? Because he did not have

an impressive form or majesty. That's what he

says. Meaning, as a man, you looked at him and

you said, he doesn't have the stuff. of their

Messiah, what they expected a Messiah to be.

He doesn't have the stuff. He's not the kind

of Messiah they wanted. I was thinking about

politics right now because it's everywhere. You

can't even get your phone when it's ringing off

the hook right now, right? But what are they

doing? They're presenting people and saying,

here, we want these guys to be our leader. And

what they're saying is Jesus says, here, I am

your leader. And they're going, don't like that.

You're not impressive enough. You're not pretty

enough. You're not eloquent enough. Whatever.

We have a standard for what we want this Messiah

to be. So that was the first reason. The second

reason is because God blinded and hardened their

hearts. Why? Because they did not want to hear

of such majesty and glory and power and holiness.

They wanted, listen to this, they wanted the

glory and the power and the majesty. They loved

human praise more than the praise of God. This

should remind us, if we think about this, if

you know your Old Testament, this should remind

you of a story in the Bible, in the book of Exodus,

called Pharaoh. Where Moses was saying, Pharaoh,

you've got to let our people go. And God's telling

you to let the people go, and Pharaoh's like,

uh -uh. And so there's two things that you'd

hear in this section in Exodus that was constantly

said. It says, first you'd hear that Pharaoh

hardened his heart. Right? Pharaoh did. Then

the other side of that, it said that God would

harden his heart. Well, which is it? Yes. It's

both. So you come, so this is kind of what's

going on here. There's a hardening of hearts,

and God's saying enough is enough. I'm hardening

your heart, okay? Now, we could spend, like I

say, we could spend a lot of time unpacking that,

and I'm sure there's questions that come to your

mind, but hang on, because you come to verse

42 and 43, and these are challenging. And so

I think part of what this chunk is is really

wanting us to hone in on verses 42 and 43. So

I found them to be incredibly challenging, and

so let's just unpack this. Remember, that all

the way through John, we have been called to

believe in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Not

to believe that Jesus exists, but to believe

in. And so if you remember, we started off John

with an illustration of a chair. I think, Craig,

this was one of the critical things you talked

about in your journey, where we were like, oh,

that's what I'm missing. I know that God... I

believe that Jesus exists. I believe that he

even is Savior. But the difference is I can believe

that this chair will hold me. I can believe that

it has a good function. Yep, I believe that it

exists. But to believe in means I rest all of

that in. I, okay, I trust this chair. I let go.

And the chair now holds me. And so what John

is shooting for is he says, I want you to have

that kind of belief. Where you are trusting.

You believe that the chair exists, but then also

that you believe in the chair. That you're willing

to sit in it. Look at verse 42. So after all

of this stuff he's talking about that they don't

believe. Then he says this, nevertheless, many

did believe in him. Even among the rulers, even

among those powerful people that knew their Bible,

many did believe in him among the rulers, but

because of the Pharisees, they did not confess.

Underline that there. That's a critical piece.

Did not confess him so that they would not be

banned from the synagogue, for they loved human

praise more than the praise of God. Two words

you need to hang on to here. First is the word

believe. And then the other is confess. Believe

is this inward conviction. Inward conviction.

Confessing is an open identifying with what you

believe. So inward conviction is an open declaration

of what you actually believe. Confessing. Believing

is I am convinced that Jesus is who he says he

is. That he is the light of the world. That's

what he's been claiming. I believe that. Confessing

is I believe in Jesus so much that I'm willing,

no matter the cost, to be known as someone who

belongs to Jesus. You hear the difference? I

am stepping out of darkness into the light of

Jesus. That's what he's saying. So confessing,

it's kind of like the in part of believing. I

believe that this chair exists, but do I actually

believe it enough to give all of my life to it?

And that's what he's calling us to. And so this

is what they're struggling with. They believed

it here. Man, the other part was hard. To believe

in Jesus and openly confess him as Lord would

mean, I mean, this was a big call. Because it

would mean that they would get banned from the

synagogue. And you're like, well, that's weird.

I just go to a different synagogue. Didn't work

that way. Okay? The synagogue for these Jews,

for this time, the synagogue was the center of

Jewish life. To be banned would mean that you

would now become an outcast culturally and socially.

We don't even have a category for this kind of

band. I'm trying to think of like, maybe in other

cultures around the world right now. Like if

you grew up in a Muslim country, in a Muslim...

and you denounced Islam and came to follow Jesus

with your life, the family would denounce you

culturally. Everything would go against you.

Right, Joe? You grew up in that? And so it's

kind of like that. So to say that they were afraid

that if they came out that they believed in Jesus,

that, man, this would affect you. Okay, so back

up. To be in the synagogue is where all the business

transactions would happen. You know, Jay, you're

doing real estate. That's where all of it, that's

where you learned about all of your future transactions.

Dan, I mean, that's where you picked up all of

your mechanical work. But if you got banned from

the synagogue, that means all of that was gone.

That means you're now an outcast culturally,

socially, and it affects your economy. It would

result in loss of those business relationships.

So confessing Jesus as Lord, would be costly.

They're sitting there going, is it worth it?

Is it worth it to actually believe in Jesus in

such a way that I'm willing to confess Him? So

they believed that Jesus was the light of the

world, but because they were gripped with fear,

they were not willing to step out of the darkness.

You've got to see them still in darkness. They're

not willing to step toward the light because

of fear of what would happen. You ever been there?

Let's look at what they feared. Look at verse

43. For they loved human praise more than the

praise of God. So what's going on? What was their

fear? It was a fear of losing human praise and

approval. That's a pretty big fear. It was fear

of losing human comforts. It was a fear of losing

status and belonging. These things were more

important to them. than the glory of God. Meaning,

I do believe in you, God, but I don't know if

I want to step over the line enough that it'll

cost me that much. And that was the tension.

It was their standing, their social relationships,

their positions of influence, their reputation,

their glory. And so my question, I think, I've

been wrestling with this week, and I'm hoping

you will too, is what things are more important

to you? What do you not want to give to the Lord?

And this is why this is a heavy text. What is

it that you, no, I'm not ready to give that up.

So what is the real problem they're having? They

were, the problem was, is that they were at the

center of their life and not God. So you guys,

we've used this before, right? This illustration.

This wheel has a very critical part to it. It's

called the hub. Right here in the center. And

in the hub, the hub is the center of this wheel.

And all the spokes in this wheel that give it

the life of the wheel are centered off of this

hub. And Jesus is saying, belief is putting Jesus

at the center of this hub. He becomes the center.

Standing in the darkness, looking and believing.

Yeah, I believe that that's important, but I

want to be at the center. I want to be the hub.

And so here's the interesting thing that happens

when Jesus becomes the hub of your life. Every

spoke of your life is connected and begins to

be influenced by the good news of Jesus. But

if you are the center of the hub of your life,

then every aspect of your life, and I put these

little pink things on here to kind of remind

me that, you know, here's your... Oh, and I didn't

see what I wrote. So here's your, we'll start

easy. Here's your church. You know you can go

to church and not have Jesus at the center of

your life? What happens though if Jesus becomes

the center? This community changes. What about

work? When you go to work, if Jesus is at the

center of your life, it begins to influence how

you go to work and what you do. What about your

family life? You're not just going and you don't

come home and you're the king of the world, man.

Like you come home and you function. If you are

the center, you become the king of the world.

And your kids are there to serve you. But oh,

if Jesus is at the center, then you become a

reflection of Jesus in your home. And then it

works out. And what about your marriage? You

know that God has a plan for your marriage, a

design for your marriage. He created marriage.

And he says, if you put me at the center of your

marriage, it changes everything. But if you're

at the center of your marriage, you know what

it will result in? Selfishness. It's darkness,

and it doesn't work very well. I know. I do a

lot of marriage counseling. Have. Don't really

like it, to be honest with you. But it's important.

But here's the fundamental problem, is we all

want to be at the center. And so it influences

every aspect of my life. And I think probably

one of the biggest ones, as I've asked people,

I said, what's your biggest struggle? What is

the hardest thing to release to the Lord? You

know what it is? Time. I have my agenda, Lord.

I want to be at the center so every piece of

my life revolves around me. And Jesus is saying,

that's not what it means. I want you. I want

to be at the center. And that changes everything.

So that's the real, I believe that's the real

struggle in our belief. Is God, do I really trust

you enough to release my life to you in such

a way that says, all for you. You know, here's

the funny thing. We're going to sing a song at

the end of the sermon, all of me for all of you,

right? All that I am for all that you are. You

know what we love? We love all that Jesus is.

If we really be honest, we love all that Jesus

is, we just have a hard time with giving all

of us. That's really the tension. Okay, so that's

the first section. Number two, the priority of

our belief. Now, this is a very powerful thing

happens here in this verse. In verse 44, Jesus

all of a sudden comes back on the scene. Now,

if you remember the last time, it says Jesus

went and hid himself. He was done. Look how John

introduces Jesus. Up to this point, it's been

a dialogue about him, about what's going on,

the response of people. And Jesus comes on the

scene in verse 44, and he says this, Jesus cried

out. Now, this is not a normal way of coming

on the scene, is it? It's almost like Jesus comes

up with great passion and great energy, and it

says, Jesus cried out, the one who believes in

me believes not in me, but the one who sent me.

And the one who sees me sees him who sent me.

I have come as light into the world so that everyone

who believes in me would not remain in darkness.

Guys, this is a picture. of incredible hope.

Two things, two priorities about the priority

of belief in Jesus. Two things. One is this,

God the Father and God the Son are one. And Jesus

just takes the people who really do believe,

he's talking to these Jewish people, they believe

in God, and now he's saying, I and the Father

are one. That might not hit us the same way it

might hit, but it would be a really big statement.

If you say you believe in God, you have to fully

embrace Jesus. That's what he's saying. If you

say you believe in God, as do many people in

our valley, do you fully embrace Jesus for everything

that he is? Jesus, he says, if you embrace God,

then Jesus is the center, must be the center

of your life. Everything Jesus is doing, he says,

like, I'm in. That's the first thing. But believing

in Jesus, number two, is stepping out of darkness

and into light. Here's what he's saying to everyone

in this world. He says, everyone in this world

is in darkness. He uses a very simple metaphor.

We could unpack this. You may want to go back

and say, what happens if I live in darkness?

What are the effects of that? There's a lot of

interesting effects. But he's saying everybody

lives in darkness. In this whole world. And your

only hope, church, is Jesus. It's me. It's Jesus.

That's what he's saying. I'm the only hope. So

what is darkness? Darkness is a metaphor for

hopelessness and evil. It's a metaphor for that.

And he's saying, so basically in this world that

you live in, this is what you got. Hopelessness

and you have evil. And it's just constantly crashing.

around you. The older I get, the more I see the

compounding effects of the hopelessness and the

evil of this world. Agreed? And you guys are

a little older now, you're like, man, this just

won't stop. What Jesus is saying is, without

me, you will all remain in darkness. This world

is dark, and it doesn't have the resources for

hope or the solution for evil. It's going to

remain. This broken world cannot give you the

hope you desire. This broken world cannot fix

your marriage. It cannot fix your business. It

cannot fix your comfort desire. In fact, you'll

just long for more desires. You'll long for more

satisfaction, and it won't match it. You can

have the best hunt in the world, and it'll just

like, okay, I got another one. It's got to be

better next time. The world will not give you

hope. That's what Jesus is saying. He says, look,

I am the only thing that gives hope. And then

the last verse, Jesus turns up the volume on

the urgency of your belief. He's speaking about

the coming judgment of sin and the hope for eternal

life in God. Look what he says in verse 47. If

anyone, if anyone hears my words and doesn't

keep them, I do not judge him. Listen to that.

I do not judge him. For I didn't come to judge

the world. What? Jesus just said something really

important. He says, look, if anyone hears this,

understand this, I don't judge him. For I didn't

come to judge the world. But why did Jesus come,

guys? What does it say? To save the world. What

is Jesus' mission? Jesus' mission is to save

the world. He says, I see your broken and hopeless

world that you live in. It's a jacked up mess.

Anybody agree our world's a jacked up mess? And

he says, I am the hope of the world and my mission

is to come and to save you from the results of

a broken, jacked up world. His role is the rescuer.

He is the savior of the world. He is the light

that's broken into the darkness. And then he

says in verse 48, look at that. The one who rejects

me does not receive my sayings. Has this as his

judge. The word I have spoken will judge him

on the last days. Look, judgment's already here.

Jesus didn't come to drop a hammer on your head.

The hammer has been brought there by yourself.

Destruction's already there. Judgment's there.

It's coming. Jesus is explaining why rejecting

him, though, is so serious. The judgment's there.

To the world that we live in, judgment is there.

There's going to come a day that you will face

your judgment. And what you do here matters for

eternity. I know that's not a fun word to talk

about, but it's the truth. And this is the last

words Jesus says. And he says, look, I want you

to know that I've come to this world to rescue

you. Your sin and destruction will bring judgment.

You've already brought it. He says, I think of

it this way, church. It's like a person with

this curable disease. You have a curable disease.

And you go to see the doctor. And the doctor

says, just take this antibiotic. And he sets

it right in front of you. He says, if you take

this antibiotic, this disease will not defeat

you. The minute you take this antibiotic, it

begins to reverse the effects of the disease.

And you look at it and you go, I don't know.

And Jesus is saying, I'm the rescuer. Take me.

Don't miss this opportunity. Take it. The choice

is yours. Do you choose to believe in the saving

work of Jesus or to be swallowed up by the darkness

you're living in? To be swallowed up and face

the judgment on the last day. Are you willing

to do that? And Jesus has this final last thing

to say. Look at verse 49. For I have not spoken

on my own, but the Father himself who sent me

has given me a command. I say everything I have

said. I know that his command is eternal life.

So the things that I speak, I speak just as the

Father has told me. Boom. That's it. Mic drop.

Jesus is done. He says in his last words, His

public ministry is over. He now turns his attention

to training those few disciples for the last

days are coming. And then he's going to go and

he's going to hang on the cross and become the

savior of the world for you and me. He's going

to go face death. He's going to take all that.

He's going to go to that ugly, horrible cross

where he hangs on that cross and all your sin

is placed upon him. And in the midst of that,

he's still crying out, believe in me. Believe

in me. The question that we are faced with today

is, do you believe in Jesus? Is he your Savior

and Lord, really? As we close this morning, this

is the imagery that I have had in my head all

week as I've been working through this. And I

think, I tried to find a graphic and Andrew found

this one for me. And this is this picture. But

I want you to picture, and not for the sake that

I've got it all figured out, but pretend for

a second that there's this line across the front

of the room. Darkness is there. It's down here.

And Jesus stands there, and he is the light of

the world. And he says, will you cross it? Do

I step toward him? Do I stay in the darkness?

Come across the line. And that's really what

he's saying in all of this. He's like, I've come.

Jesus says, I'm the light of the world. And here's

the interesting thing. You can't see this in

this graphic, but here's this picture. This is

the imagery you get all the way through the Gospel

of John. Is he standing there like this? With

his arms extended to you, he says, come to me.

As one who deeply, deeply loves you. Because

what he's going to do is he's going to have arms

extended like this out to you, but then his arms

are like this on the cross. Where he bears the

burden of all of our sins. He's going to give

all of himself on that cross. And so you just

simply come to this invitation. He says, come

to me. And I think this morning, I can't. finished

without saying, if you're here this morning and

you've never stepped out of darkness and into

Jesus' light, put your faith in Jesus. Please

don't leave this room. Don't leave. Don't leave

Teeland Middle School. Walk out of here and not

putting your faith in Jesus. I know you don't

understand all the pieces, but Jesus says, I

didn't come to judge the world. I come to save

the world. Do you want what's right and good?

Come to me. So that's the first invitation. I

think that but here's another kind of invitation

for i think that starts with me and i've wrestled

with this is do you believe but you struggle

to give it all to him so it's almost like this

i could keep thinking this image you're like

i'm standing here i see the light i believe in

the light but i'm i like this line between the

two one leg over here in the darkness and one

leg over here in the light just enough i think

this is the challenge i wrestle with What is

the fear that I'm struggling with to actually

fully surrender? And I think, guys, just to tell

you, I think this is an everyday challenge now.

It's to go say, okay, what about, what part of

me wants to keep living in that darkness? And

Jesus is saying, I'm here, look, I've given you

life, I've given you hope, I've given you purpose,

step over the line. What is the fear that you're

struggling with? What are you having a hard time

releasing in your life? You want all of Jesus?

But you really don't want to give all of you

to him. It's like you say, Lord, I want you to

be the hub. But I really struggle. I really want

to be in there. But how about this idea? I'll

let you be the hub. But this spoke and this spoke

and this spoke are not going to be connected.

They're going to be connected to me. We'll just

do that. How does that work? How does that work,

guys? How does this wheel roll? That those spots

are not connected. It doesn't. And he says, look,

what is it in your life? Is it your time that's

so valuable? You say, God, I like you. I like

all the things about you. But I don't want to

give you my time because that's pretty precious

to me. I like all of the things about you, Jesus.

I like the saving part especially. But when it

comes to my money, no. That's mine. I could go

through and make you feel really bad right now.

That's what I'm not going to do, okay? But I

want you to sit there and say, God, what is it

that I need to wrestle with? Because I'm not

the Holy Spirit. I'm not here to make you feel

guilty. That's not my job. The job of the Holy

Spirit is to convict you so that you will surrender

it all to him. So here's the thing, though, I

think has to happen. You have to believe in a

Jesus that loves you so much that his plan is

for good. It's like, Chase, with your kids. You

said, don't do that. You tell your kids not to

go touch the hot stove because you love them.

You know it will be harmful for them. But they're

looking like, I got this, Dad. I don't need you.

I know what's better. But Jace didn't tell his

kid not to touch the hot stove because he didn't

like his kids. He says, I love you so much. I

want you to be safe. I want to give you hope.

I think that's what Jesus is saying. He says,

I'm the rescuer. Step out of the darkness and

into the light. So your response today, church,

and I just encourage you, for those of you that

have never placed your faith in Jesus, I'll be

in the back today. Jared and Bob will be back

there. And if you want to just come and talk,

you got questions you're not sure about, I'd

love to pray with you and walk you through that.

For the rest of this room, I just ask you that

during our time of response today, will you please

wrestle with what it is you're hanging on to

that you're not willing to surrender to the Lord?

Give it to him today. Lay it down. Band, why

don't you come up? As we go to our time of response,

we always go to the communion table. We always

come back to this place where we go up there,

we grab this piece of bread, and we grab it and

we dip it in the juice, and the body, it says,

the body of Christ is broken for you, and his

blood was shed for you. Do this and remember

to me. Every time you gather together, if you're

a follower of Jesus, we do this every week to

be reminded. To be reminded of that sacrifice

that Jesus gave for you, where he gave all of

him for you. And as we come to that, he says,

eat of it. Take of it. It's free. And I'm going

to pile. See, what I'm giving you is grace upon

grace upon grace. I've given it all to you. And

so if you go and you take communion today, know

this, that he has given everything for you. But

use it as an opportunity to say, God, I want

to give it all back. I want. I want my life to

be a reflection of you. You're not earning God.

You can do nothing to earn God's favor. He's

done it all for you. That's why it's called grace.

It's free. But he does want us to respond to

that grace. Why wouldn't we? Let's pray. God,

this struggle is real. It's released to you because

we believe fundamentally in our hearts that we

know better. And the arguments that are in our

head for not letting go and not releasing are

real. And so I pray by the power of the Holy

Spirit that you will break into our hearts. You'll

transform our lives. That you will help us step

out of darkness and into the light in every little

spoke of our life. That you will be at the center.

Help us, Jesus.