Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / The Gospel of John | John 2:12-25

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The Gospel of John | John 2:12-25 · Bayside Davis Podcast

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Baside Davis podcast.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: You are now listening to our current teaching series in the Gospel of God.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everybody.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Man, can I just say this?
0:19
SPEAKER_00: If that's West sick, like, oh my gosh.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Man, I want a ginger shot too, man.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: What is in that thing, dude?
0:25
SPEAKER_00: That's ridiculous.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, I just to be fully transparent, I've been in like the process, right?
0:30
SPEAKER_00: And so on one of my first uh interview flights or second interview flight, I actually got to go to the building and kind of, you know, randomly, because Pastor Scott just makes me come to places and then I'm in a room with 30 other people I don't know, and he goes, This guy's looking for a job, and then it's just awkward.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: And and so I got to walk around uh the building.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: And can I tell you this?
0:49
SPEAKER_00: That obviously you just saw how excited Pastor West gets.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: I got to see from the outside watching a man talk about the love for his city and the love for you guys, and he had so much passion, and I'm excited.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: I think Natomas is pretty close to Davis, and so I want to go use that playground too.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm and that and that basketball court.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Um today you do get me.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: I feel really weird speaking after all those great announcements, and I'm gonna talk about Jesus whipping people right now, and so this is gonna be a ton of fun.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, I am when uh when Wes said I'm a basketball player, like I'm obviously shorter and chubier.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm Timu West right now.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm like I'm like not quiet, but right there.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Um and so we're gonna talk about Jesus uh uh, you know, cleansing the temple.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about that.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: My wife is right here, babe.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: If you could just raise your hand really quick.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: I know you don't wanna do that, but that's my wife.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: We have two girls, Soraya, who is 11, and Ellie, who is seven.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: They're amazing.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm from a family of four, and we're all a year apart.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm the oldest.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, I actually grew up in a town called Atascadero, California.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody ever heard of Atascadero, California?
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Nice! Because y'all from San Luis, right?
1:58
SPEAKER_00: And you drive through Atascadero as quick as you can.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm from like a small town that no one really knows about, and uh and I have an amazing family, and I have an amazing mom.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm a mama's boy.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: Any other mama's boys in the building?
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Um and if you're a mama's boy, uh it's a great thing, but I also have a short mom.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is the thing about short moms.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: I have a theory on short moms.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: They're a little feisty.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know if you ever met a tall mom, like a mom that's like 5'7 or over, and they're so nice.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: My wife's like 5'7, she's so gracious and angelic, and she just kind of she's very nice.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: And then if you have like a mom who's like 5'3 or under, like they're just they're kind of nuts, man.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna lie to you.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you though, my mom, I my mom is very empathetic, like my mom loves people, my mom will like, my mom would watch if you said you were having a hard day, my mom would legitly watch your kids right now without even knowing you, and she would like take them shopping, and like that, my mom is that kind of person.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: But my mom, my mom also fight you on the same day, so don't mess with her, okay?
3:04
SPEAKER_00: And there was this one time I was in uh I was in fifth or sixth grade and I was going to San Benito Elementary School, and I made a bet with my friend about something dumb, right?
3:14
SPEAKER_00: It was like a two-dollar bet, like, I bet you can't do this, and they did it.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: So I had to pay my friend$2, right?
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Not that big of a deal.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: My mom had all my allowance, so I approached my mom and I said, Mom, can I get two dollars to pay my friend Brandon Eckblad back?
3:27
SPEAKER_00: And my mom, I don't know what she heard, because I said, Can I get two dollars to pay Brandon Eckblad back for a bet?
3:33
SPEAKER_00: I think my mom heard that I had entered into some like illegal gambling ring, and that, and that I was like, you know, two steps away from like being in Vegas with like no money in a ditch or something, because my mom just goes off on me.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: She's like, You're betting on school grounds, how could you do that?
3:48
SPEAKER_00: No, you're not getting two dollars back, you're like, you're you're you're gonna go back, you gotta be in celebrate recovery right after this.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Like it was like all this stuff, right?
3:56
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, mom, calm down.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: And and uh, and so I was kind of worried because I was gonna have to go to school and tell my friend, like, I couldn't get the money, I'm really sorry, it was gonna be kind of awkward.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to school and we're driving up uh to the the school, and in my elementary school, I don't know what yours was like, but my elementary school had two loops.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: So they had like the bus loop and then like your parent loop, right?
4:17
SPEAKER_00: And my mom was taking me to school, and I knew Brandon Neckblatt took the bus.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And there's no way that we're both gonna get to school at the same time.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: There's no way that could happen.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: My mom drops me off, and I see a bus there.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you've ever just started praying, like intercessory prayer, like on the spot.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever done that before, but I saw that bus and I said, Jesus, please don't let that be Brandon's bus.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Please don't let that be Brandon's bus.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: And I look and out of that bus came this little sixth grader with spiky hair, bleached tips, looking like Backstreet Boy Porcupine coming down, and and he's coming around, and now I'm really praying.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm out of the van and I'm watching Brandon and Eckblad and I'm watching my mom, and now I'm praying as hard as I can.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Mom, Jesus, please don't let my mom see him.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: Please don't let my mom see him.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And I open my eyes and I look, and my mom had spotted him.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: Bam! And this is like, I don't know if you've ever had this, like where life moves in slow motion.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's ever happened to you, but life moved in slow motion right then, and I saw that passenger side window roll down, and there's nothing I could do about it.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: And in front of the whole school, as all of the bus and all of the kids are getting dropped off, Mama yells from her driver's seat, Hey left blood! And he turns around and she goes, If I ever catch you and my son gambling on school grounds again, I'll have you both suspended.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Rolls up the window and drove away.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Just dropped a grenade, left me there.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: And I was, I was, I was like, I was I was done.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Like I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that just happened.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: All these kids are looking at me, Brandon's looking at me, and he comes up to me and goes, Bro, you don't gotta pay me back.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: I was like, thanks, man.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: All right, cool.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: So I was grateful I didn't have to pay him, but just like this really embarrassing moment, right?
5:58
SPEAKER_00: And there was this kind of this, like I was in shock that it was happening.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Like I was looking and I was like, what is happening right now?
6:04
SPEAKER_00: I think that was the same kind of thought process, the shock that some of the disciples had when Jesus enters in the story.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about Jesus cleansing the temple.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Some of this, this is your favorite story about Jesus.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, I love this Jesus.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: He turns over.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: This is why I can post what I want on Facebook, man.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: I can do whatever I want.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Look at Jesus, he turned over the tables.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, and some of you, this is the kind of Jesus makes you a little uncomfortable.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: This is like me.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Like we're a little awkward.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: We're like, ooh, he wasn't, he wasn't whipping them.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: He was just, it was like traffic.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: He was just trying to get them out like nice, right?
6:42
SPEAKER_00: And in both those scenarios, we're reading, we're reading the gospel of John wrong.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: If we take whatever it says and kind of make it whatever we want, then we're not seeing the real picture that John's trying to create.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: So give you bow your head, close your eyes.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pray over the scripture.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: Father, first thank you.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for what you're doing in Davis.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for what you're doing in my life personally.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray I'd get out of the way.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: God, let your word speak.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Let me just be a vessel.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: We love you, Jesus.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Let us know you more today.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: In your name we pray.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so in the Gospel of John, let's just set this up really quick.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: We just had, remember, the the wedding in Cana, right?
7:23
SPEAKER_00: So we had the wedding.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has left the wedding.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: He is now with his disciples, and they're about to go to the Passover meal to the temple in Jerusalem.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: So let's just talk about those two things really quick.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: The Passover meal is one of the most important meals in Jewish culture.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Like this is the thing to go to.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you lived in the 15-mile radius around Jerusalem, you were mandated to go to the temple for the Passover festival.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: Like this is something you had to do.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus and his disciples are obviously going to go.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: So they head up.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: And the temple is this very important place in Jewish culture, in the Israelite culture.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Like it's like the Capitol building, the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and the Granite Bay campus, all rolled into one, all right?
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Like it's like it is that important to what is happening in their culture.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: It is the place where God's presence dwells.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: It is huge, it is enormous, it's about 36 to 40 acres.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: It's made to kind of look like the Garden of Eden.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: Like it's kind of, it's got this beautiful artistry, and it's it's this grand place.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus shows up.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: And in the temple, there's the court of the Gentiles, and then a little bit further is the court of the women, court of the Israelites, and then in the middle, where the Ark of the Covenant, where God's presence was, was the court of the priest, the Holy of Holies, right?
8:43
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus walks in, he knows he's supposed to be there.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: This is a very important time.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: And when he walks in, he sees this.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Would you go with me to verses 13 and 14?
8:53
SPEAKER_00: When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: In the temple courts, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, another sitting at tables exchanging money.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Now that just kind of looks like, all right, there's stuff happening in the temple courts.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: But what's happening there is not just people selling and exchanging money, there's stevery and selfishness taking place.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: In the money exchangers, like when you walked in, any uh Jewish male, 19 and over, would have to pay the temple tax.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: So that means you would have to pay about a half shekel.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Now, they couldn't take just any foreign person's money because on foreign money they'd have other gods on there, so there'd be stamps of other gods, all kinds of stuff.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: So you would have to go and exchange your foreign money, your unclean money, for a Galilean shekel so you could pay your temple tax.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: So it was clean money.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: But what the money exchangers would do is they would charge you to exchange your money.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And if they had to give you money back, they would charge you again.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: And something that was just supposed to be, so you could give your clean and holy money to the temple, they were gonna make a quick buck on.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: And then with the animals, the cattle, the sheep, and the doves, like you would maybe walk in with your own cattle, but 99% of the time someone would say, It's too dirty, it's not good enough.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: You gotta buy one of our pre-clean.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: These ones are the ones you can buy.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: And they would hike up that price sometimes 15 times more than what you could buy on the outside, but you had to pay for it because this was a clean and holy place.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus walks in to his father's house, which is supposed to be holy, clean, set apart, like it's supposed to be this place that is different than everything else.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, they do all the rituals and they have the clean animals and they they give the clean money, but in their hearts, they're just as dirty and rotten as the people outside.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus sees this, and it says in verse uh 15 it says, So he made a whip out of cords.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: He probably grabbed one of the uh uh like kind of brussels that were woven together to hold the animals, grabbed one of those, began to make a whip, and made a whip out of cords and drove them all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their temples.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: To those who sold doves, he said, Get these out of here.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Stop turning my father's house into a market.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to remember that word market right there.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about that in a second.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: His disciples remembered what was written, zeal for your house will consume me.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is from Psalm 69.9.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: This is another way that John, remember, John is all talking about who Jesus is.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: So he's gonna highlight right here that, hey, there's this psalm that talks about the Messiah, zeal for your house.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Remember that.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, we clocked that right there.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus the Messiah.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: And then he and then he goes on, verse 18.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Then the Jews then responded to him, what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all of this?
11:57
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a random question, right?
12:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, wouldn't your question be like, Jesus, let's square up, man.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: You just like drove out my cattle.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Like, what's up?
12:04
SPEAKER_00: What's up with that?
12:04
SPEAKER_00: Like, do you know what I mean?
12:05
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a random to ask about what kind of authority do you have?
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, because the Jewish people seeing somebody clear the temple of merchants, of the doves and the cattle and the sheep, would remind them of a prophecy in Zechariah.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: So if you can, really quick, go to Zechariah.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm cheating, because I knew that we were going there, so I have a bookmark.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah chapter 14, look at verse 20.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: It says this on the day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like sacred bulls in front of the altar.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some pots and cook in them.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: And then, in this verse, and on that day there will no longer be a, if your Bible says Canaanite, if you look at that little uh scribble right there, you can go down and find that, and it says or merchant.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: The reason they would do that is because Canaanite was kind of a slang term for someone who is sleazy or slimy or just someone like that.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: So they say or merchant, right?
13:10
SPEAKER_00: So they would drive out the merchants in the house of the Lord Almighty.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: So somebody that comes in to the temple cleanses the place of the merchants.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: All of them are gonna think that is only from the authority of the Messiah.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: Now show us a sign that you can do that.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: But I want to stop right there on the word authority.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: That John is showing us that Jesus has the authority to clear the temple, that Jesus has the authority to cleanse.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's showing us right here as he clears the temple.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: This is a messianic sign that Jesus is the Messiah and he has the authority to cleanse this temple, that Jesus has the authority to cleanse.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: For those of you in here that believe that Jesus is your Messiah, does he have the authority to cleanse the parts of your life?
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Does he have that authority?
14:00
SPEAKER_00: When when my wife tells the girls that they need to clean their room, that they need to put everything away, and they know dad is gonna check, this is what they do, especially my oldest one, Soraya.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: They will take everything off the floor and shove it into a closet or underneath their bed, or Sarah has really gotten smart.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: She's taken things off and put it on her bed and then covered it so it makes it look like her pet's made.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Just cover it up.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: And me, you know, not taking the time to check if the rooms actually can just go look up, everything looks good.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you guys go watch a TV show, perfect.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: I get in trouble later, it's not that big of a deal.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: But that's what happens, right?
14:39
SPEAKER_00: Imagine Jesus comes into your house, and some of you view this.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, Jesus being a part of your life as Jesus getting the biggest room in your house.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: You're like, Jesus, you can have the master bedroom, you clean it all nice, you're dusting the floor, you're wiping down the baseboards, you got the counter clean.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: He can come in.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, you can have the biggest house, the biggest room in my house, that's yours.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: But the rest of the house, you just kind of shove things there.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: You gotta understand when Jesus becomes a Messiah of your life, he's not just talking about having the biggest part of your life, he's talking about having your whole life.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about every single room.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And some of us, we just kind of, hey Jesus, just hang out in that room.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: My church room is really good.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Like I volunteered for parking today.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: You know how crazy that was?
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm awesome.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: But don't go into this room, don't go into the business room, Jesus.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Like, I know I run my business.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe I don't do everything the way that I should, but that's just the way my industry works.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you gotta make a couple deals or cheat a little bit, and that's just the way it goes.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, I make really good money so I can tithe more.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: So, Jesus, isn't that okay?
15:49
SPEAKER_00: We just try to cover it up a little bit.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Or, Jesus, me and my girlfriend, we live together.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: I know it's it's probably not what you'd want, but have you ever tried to live in California, Jesus?
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Like it's really expensive, and we can kind of pool our money together.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get married anyways, and so we just cover it up.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is the Messiah of your life, does he have the authority to cleanse?
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Does he have the authority to come into those rooms that you don't want him in and say, hey, right here?
16:18
SPEAKER_00: In love?
16:20
SPEAKER_00: We should probably get this right.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: I love you enough to tell you, let's clean this room.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: That if we're gonna say that Jesus is our Messiah, we gotta say that Jesus has the authority to cleanse.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: So they say, Hey, if you have that authority, Jesus, can you give us a sign?
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Can you show us?
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Give us show us that you are this person.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says this.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered, Destroy this temple, and I'll raise it again in three days.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And they replied, It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you're gonna raise it for three days?
16:53
SPEAKER_00: But the temple he spoke of was his body.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: And after he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said, and they believed in the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, this right here, this here is the crux of what John is trying to show us.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Because this here, theologically, for them, is massive.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: They have believed, they have, and it's been true, that God's presence resides in the temple.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: This temple.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus comes in and says, I'm the temple.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: That the temple is moving from the physical structure that you go to, that you perform your sacrifices in, the things that you go and you bring everything and you and you sacrifice on the altar.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: He says it's going from that into me.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: From physical structure to personal relationship.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: That it's no longer something, a place that you go to and something you do to make yourself right before God.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: That now Jesus says, You come through me.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: That the presence of God lives in me, and no longer do you bring sacrifices, I'm gonna be the sacrifice.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: And I'll rise again in three days.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: That we need to realize that it's not that it's not something we do.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: Just because you come to church every Sunday, right?
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean, man, that's it, that's all you had to do.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: Now you and God are good.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: That to be in the presence of God is to go to the person of Jesus and say, right here, I want a personal relationship with you.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: That to be reconciled before the Father isn't, well, I did a really a lot of good things and I did some bad things, but I did more good things than bad things than no.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: To come into the presence of the Father means that I go to the person of Jesus.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: And I say, Christ, humbly, I'm a sinner.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: But through you, I can know the Father.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Not by what I've done, but by what you've done, by your sacrifice.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: This is huge for people then.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: This was mind-blowing.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: For us today, sometimes it's something that just gets said, and yet we still fall into the, well, I gotta do this and I gotta do this.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: What you have to do is have a personal relationship with the Father.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: In fact, some of us we read our Bible and we pray because it's things to check off.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: These are the good things I do to know who to be good with God.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: We read our Bible and we pray to know and have a more personal and deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: That's why we do this.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: To know him more.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: Jesus then stays in Jerusalem.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 23.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover festival, many people saw that he was performing and believed in his name.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: He did not need the testimony of mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, this John is showing us that Jesus is divine.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: Like the only person, the only entity that could know what was going on in your heart was God, right?
20:04
SPEAKER_00: The God of Israel.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: It says he knows our hearts.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: It says that he stitched us in his mother womb.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: So when John says that Jesus knows what's going in each person's heart, he is saying he has divine authority to not just read your body language, not to kind of know who you are, but to actually know what's going on inside of your soul.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: That he knows you.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is looking at these people in Jerusalem, knowing who they are.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna entrust who he is to them.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: It's not time.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he tells Mary, it's not my time, it's not my time yet.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: He's telling them he knows it's not my time.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna reveal who I am, we're not gonna raise up an army.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: That's not the time now.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna reveal myself.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: They would just fall in line, they would do something.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: This is it's not the time to do that, but he knows what's going on in each of their hearts, and he loves them.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: He'll die on a cross for them.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that Jesus knows you and he loves you?
21:03
SPEAKER_00: That sounds so like what they're learning in a kids' church right now, right?
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Like they're gonna sing the song, right?
21:10
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want you to sit with that for a second.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus knows you.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: He knows everything about you.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: And he loves you.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: I was um a teenager when my parents split.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I have like a weird testimony, like where I went to church all the time, my parents went to church, and then they got a divorce, and I just kept going to church.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm I didn't like rebel or anything.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: It's just like this when your dad's on the board and your mom's a Sunday school teacher and they have a divorce, everybody's like, What happened?
21:38
SPEAKER_00: So my parents get a divorce, and I start struggling.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: I really start struggling with less and pornography.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: And I'm this good Christian kid that has a secret struggle.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: And I cheat, I keep trying to like make it up to God.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, God, I'll I'll I'll I'll do a lot of good things.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: In fact, what I would think is when something bad would happen to me, I would think, all right, that's God punishment.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Me for struggling.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: And I kept thinking that it was gonna get better.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, it's just gonna get better.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: I just need to maybe when I go to college, it'll be better.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: Like it, I'll just get away from here and just be better.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: I'll be away.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: I go to Vanguard University, it just gets worse.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: I become a youth pastor.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna be a youth pastor, maybe in ministry.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: God's gonna take this burden from me, it's gonna be awesome.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: I become a youth pastor, it doesn't get any better.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: Then I'm like, okay, I'm gonna graduate.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna graduate from college.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna have the stress.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: I can just be a youth pastor, it'll get better, it just got worse.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: And I would be preaching and I would be thinking, okay, this is me doing something good, God's gonna bless it.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh-uh, and then I go and I'd struggle and I'd be like, all right, now something bad's gonna happen, and I would I would almost look for ways to punish myself, and I was trying to earn God's love so that he would bless me in ministry.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: That was my thought process at the time.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: And I came to a point where I had my pastoral license in uh where where I was from, like you had a document, like almost like an application that you would fill out and you would uh and you would kind of put all things and send it in, and then they would look at your application and bring you in for an interview and all kinds of stuff like that to become a licensed pastor.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: And I remember on the the application, it says, Do you currently struggle with pornography?
23:17
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, I don't know why, I don't know if I thought like they were just doing an anonymous survey, even though my name was on it.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't know what, I don't know what I thought, to be honest with you.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: But I just put yes.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't know if I thought anything was gonna happen.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: I really didn't even give it much thought.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: I was just answering honestly.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: I put yes.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: I figured if I answered everything else honest on the pastoral license, I probably should answer this.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Put yes, sent it in, didn't hear anything.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a week, a week and a half later, I get a call from my senior pastor.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: Hey Charlie, can you can you come meet with me?
23:51
SPEAKER_00: I walk into his office, he's like, actually, let's let's get out of here, let's go somewhere.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: And we leave and we go and we take a walk, and he tells me that the district called and let him know what was on the application.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and this is just the most awkward moment, right?
24:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is something I've I've been ashamed of, I've kept a secret, I've tried to like do good works to get out of it, and all of a sudden my senior pastor knows.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: And and you might be thinking, if you struggle with this, you're like, oh my gosh, that's the worst.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: That's the worst thing that could ever happen.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you this?
24:28
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes awkward moments lead to freedom.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: And I understand it can be awkward, I get it.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes awkward moments lead to freedom.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: And my senior pastor was Jesus to me right then.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: He didn't, he wasn't ashamed of me, he didn't do anything.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: He he said, hey, you know what?
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Let's get you into counseling.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what's let's see if we can get you help.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Tom Cedarbone got me into a counselor, started talking, figured out that, hey, I had a lot of shame.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: There were a lot of times that I couldn't do anything good for my dad, couldn't put the dishes away just right, couldn't score enough baskets, couldn't perform the way he thought I should.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: So I got caught in trying to be good enough for my own father, and then I put that on Jesus.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: I said, I better be good enough.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: And my counselor was sitting across from me, and he told me that's the same thing.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: He's like, hey, you know, you know Jesus loves you, right?
25:27
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, I know, I've preached about it.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: I tell the students that all the time.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: He goes, No, no, no, you know that he knows everything you struggle with.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: He knows exactly who you are.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: He knows all the things that you've done selfishly, he knows all the things that you've done that are sinful, and he loves you.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: And what that did is it took me out of a shame cycle and put me into freedom.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: That I knew I didn't have to work for it anymore.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: I knew that Jesus loved me.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: And listen, it didn't mean that he didn't want me to cleanse my life.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: But now I wasn't trying to cleanse it to make him love me more.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: Now I was cleansing it because I loved him.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I want, I want this, I want this because I want my life to be worshiped to you.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: I want to clean the parts of my life because I know who you are, that you are my savior, and that you love me right where I am.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to do what was right, not because there was a burden of I better do it so he loves me more, but because I knew he loved me just the same.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know where you're at.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm new, like they just told you how new I was, right?
26:35
SPEAKER_00: They're just like but I can tell you this that if you're in this room today and you've been struggling, you have your secret struggle.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you show up here, or maybe it's your first time and there's something tugging on your heart saying, I know, I know he wants more for me.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: There is no better community to be a part of than this one.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: And there's no better Jesus to serve than the one who loves you enough to tell you what you need to clean.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Who loves you enough who would die on a cross so that you and the Father could be reconciled, that you can find purpose in your life.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: And he already knows everything about you.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: He's just waiting for you to reach out, to call him Savior, to say he's your king, to give him the keys to your house and say, God, this is me.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: Do what you want.