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Andy Stanley - Under the Circumstances Part 3 For Those Who Doubt · Andy Stanley Sermons

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So if you are in the middle of a difficult season of your life,
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maybe something going on in your marriage. Maybe there's you fear there's something going
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on in your marriage. You can't quite put your finger on it, but
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there's just it's just an overriding concern and he or she isn't willing to talk
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about it, and it just kind of sits there with you every day,
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all day, every day. Maybe you just went through a tough breakup and
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you thought he was the one, she was the one, and then you
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discovered or it just it just is falling apart and you're thinking, there it
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goes again, and is there ever going to be anybody for me? Maybe
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something to do with your job. It's not the job you thought it was
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going to be. They're not the people you thought you were working for.
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Maybe you're looking for a job. Maybe you're looking for a job again.
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Maybe it's a medical crisis and the doctors are doing their best, but there's
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just there's just unanswered questions, and it just sits there every single day,
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even though you're working and trying to function, there's just just the questions and
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it just, you know, it just presses you down. You feel like
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you're literally under those circumstances, maybe something to do with one of your kids,
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and you're not sure what it is because he or she won't talk about
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it, but you know something's going on. Maybe it's your inability or the
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inability to have children, maybe you're lonely, or maybe you're dealing with depression,
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and you're so shocked by this, because depression that's like for older people.
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Depression is like for people who don't have good circumstances, and you have
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good circumstances, depression, you just can't believe that's you, and you're not
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sure you're ever gonna getut from underneath the weight of that. And you know
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there's medication, but you just think, is this really me? Is this
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really the life I'm living? And again, it may be something I didn't
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touch on, but if you're today, you're just carrying that thing. In
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fact, it's so big it's hard to even sit here and listen. You
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almost didn't show up, you almost didn't tune in because it's just all consuming.
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You're the audience for today, your heavenly father has something for you today,
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and then there's this that makes all of it worse. I think the
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thing that makes any of those kinds of things worse is that you look around
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and isn't it true? It seems like everybody else is doing fine. And
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in fact, Christians have a phrase for this. If you're not a Christian
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partners, we have our own language sometimes, and yes it's a little bit
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weird, I'll acknowledge that. But the way we say this, it's like
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I look around and looks like God's just God just blessing them, And you
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wouldn't say this, so I'll say it for you, and you're thinking I'm
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a better person than them. Okay, I know I'm like a better person.
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Why is God blessing them? And why is God not blessing me?
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Why is God answering their prayers? And I'll say this for you too,
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even though you wouldn't say this, Why is God blessing their silly prayers?
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I mean those aren't even good prayers, Like that's not even a prayer request.
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I'll share. I'll tell you a good, you know, prayer request,
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and their prayers are like, oh hey, listen, I got answer
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my prayer. I couldn't find the key to my brand new car, so
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I just stopped and prayed and and and you're thinking, hey, let me
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I have a real prayer request. My son was arrested again and we've been
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praying for months, so I have a suggestion for what you can do with
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your prodigal car key. Okay, And you hate the fact that you think
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things like that. I do too. It's like you want, I mean,
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we've all been there. You want to be happy for the happy people,
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but it's just kind of hard to be happy for the happy people when
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you're not happy. You want to be happy for the blessed people to God,
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people that God's blessing, but when God's not blessing you, it's just
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hard sometimes to have a good attitude. It's hard to celebrate with people who
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are celebrating, and rejoice with people who are rejoicing because it's like, hello,
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what about me? Where is God? And why doesn't God answer your
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serious prayers? And then insult to injury just you know, while I'm kind
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of you know, talking about us for a minute. The excuses sometimes that
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the Christians make for God when God doesn't come through for you, I mean,
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I don't think they ever internalize this when God doesn't come through for them,
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But when God's not coming through for you. There's there's something in some
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of us sometimes that want to kind of back away from your pain and back
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away from what's going on with you and kind of give you hallmark God.
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You know there's Hallmark God. And then you know, I got to go.
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You know, everything everything happens for a reason. By I see,
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I hope you figure out the reason, you know, And maybe this is
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true, but it's not helpful when somebody says that. Or you know,
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maybe God's trying to teach you something. Well, yeah, maybe he is.
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And I got my pen out, So if God would just make it
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clear, I'd like to learn this lesson and move on to something else.
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And maybe maybe this is true, but that's not helpful, and then hey,
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you just got to have faith. By it's kind of offensive and it's
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dismissive, right, And what I hear when I hear somebody say that about
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somebody else's pain, and somebody kind of throws out one of those one liners,
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here's what I hear. This is just me. Okay. What I
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hear is don't disturb don't disturb my God in a box faith with your actual
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circumstances. See, I got God all figured out, and you sow and
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you reap, and you sow and you reap, and so I sowed good
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things. So good things are happening in my life, and now good things
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aren't happening in your life, and I don't understand why, because you seem
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like a good person too. But I can't. I can't really face all
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that because I don't have an explanation for that, and I've got God kind
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of all figured out, so I I hope it works out for you.
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There's probably something going on in your life that I don't know about, but
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I don't want to know about. But I've got God figured out, So
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you do you and I do me. Now, if you're not a Christian
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or not a person of faith, or you used to be this dynamic that
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I just described, this may be part of the reason you're not. Because
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your mom or your brother or your sister had like an actual crisis, like
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an actual thing, you know, and a pastor or a priest responded with
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a platitude, you know, and you felt like, hey, wait a
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minute, wait, you're the pastor, you're the priest. You're supposed to
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walk with us through this, and you felt like they were just kind of
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unwilling to step into the unresolvable, because some things are unresolvable. You just
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felt like they were unwilling to step into the unresolvable, messy reality of your
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life. And you're like, well, if that's what the church is,
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if that's what Christianity is, No, thank you, I get that.
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And if that was your experience, I'm sorry. You deserved better than that.
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Your mom deserve better than that, your family deserve better than that.
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And whether you listen to anything else, I have to say, I just
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want you to know this Jesus is better than that. Today we're wrapping up
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our series three part series Under the Circumstances Holding on to God when it appears
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God is no longer holding on to you. And in this series we are
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exploring the question, not answering it. We're exploring the question, what do
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our circumstances say about the love of God? And what do your circumstances say
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about the presence of God? What do your circumstances say, if anything,
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about the existence of God. Because we're all tempted, all of us,
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me included, we are all tempted to jump to conclusions about God based on
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our circumstances, both positive circumstances and negative. Our circumstances and the circumstances of
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other people. You've jumped to conclusions, perhaps or drawing conclusions about God based
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on what you've seen other people go through, or maybe what groups of people
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have gone through. Right, and when things are up into the right,
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God's blessing. When things are up into the right, I got God all
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figured out. When things are up into the right, you know, you
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know, God is good. God is good all the time. Right when
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things are down into the right, Where's God? Is there? God?
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What am I doing wrong? Or what did I do wrong to somehow deserve
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this? Now? If you have to leave early or tune out early,
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I hope you don't. I just want to go ahead and give you the
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bottom line. This is so important. Circumstances, regardless of how negative they
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are, circumstances, regardless of how extreme they are, circumstances do not have
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to be an off ramp to faith. Jesus went out of his way to
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create a scenario to make that very point. If you miss part one of
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this series, you need to go back and watch it. Jesus went out
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of his way to create a scenario to prove to us and to give us
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an example that the most negative circumstances is imaginable. Do not have to be
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an off ramp to your faith. And today we're going to discover that doubt
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and doubts don't have to be an off ramp to our faith either, exhibit
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a John the Baptist. In fact, John the Baptist story is a reminder
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that actually that doubt and doubts are baked into the story of Christianity. That
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if you have doubts, there's nothing wrong with you. You were probably right
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where you need to be, and you're gonna discover yourself in today's story because
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like Lazarus, John the Baptist was actually one of Jesus's favorite people. We
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discovered that in Week one about Lazarus, John the Baptist one of Jesus' favorite
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people. They were probably cousins. And when I say that John the Baptist,
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who was clearly a historical character figure, other first century writers talk about
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John the Baptist. But when I say John the Baptist was one of Jesus'
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favorite people, I mean, get this, this is something that Jesus said
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about John the Baptist, not when he was in the audience, like he
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was bragging on him. You know, you people brag on people when they're
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there. Jesus is miles away from John the Baptist, and here's what he
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says to an audience about cousin John. This is amazing, I say to
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you, Jesus said, I say to you, among those born of women,
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there is no one greater than John the Baptist. Are you kidding?
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This is Jesus of Nazareth saying, let me tell you about the greatest person
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who has ever lived so far. It's my cousin, John the Baptist.
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He's the original goat. He is the original greatest of all time. This
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word actually is mega. He's like a mega man. And the fact that
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Jesus will say this about John the Baptist is what makes what transpired so confusing
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or maybe for you today, it's what makes what happened to John the Baptist
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so encouraging. Now. As you probably know if you've been around church,
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John the Baptist took on the role of a prophet, which meant there was
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no nuance. Everything was good or it was bad. There's no one between.
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There's no gray, there's no compromise. He called it as he saw
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it. He was not shy, he was not capable of compromise. So
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when King herod Antipus, King herod Antipus decided to let me tell you who
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he is. First of all, King herod Antibus was the son of Herod
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the Great. Herod the Great was the Herod who had the babies in Bethlehem
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slaughtered. And then he had several sons. He had several He had a
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huge family, and this was one of his sons who actually he wasn't a
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literal king, but he was a ruler. Sometimes he was referred to as
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King herod Antibus. Who Anyway, when King herod Antipus decided to marry his
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brother's wife, John decided, Okay, I gotta talk about that, and
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I gotta talk about it publicly, because that was against the law. You
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couldn't marry your brother's wife, even if they were divorced. And not only
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that, he's the king, and as the king goes, you know,
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so goes society. And besides that, this relationship between Herod Antipus and his
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brother's wife started as an affair and far away rome. Then they show up
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together back in Judea. And it's like she says, honey, I'm you
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know, I'm leaving you for your brother. And to make it even more
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complicated, you're gonna have to follow this Herod's brother's wife, Herod's brother's wife,
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Herodias. Everybody was named after Herod the Great. Herod's brother's wife,
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Herodias was his sister's daughter. Follow that, Herod Antipus married his niece.
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I know, it's like even now, that's the thing, right, okay,
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back then that was like a thing. Thing. He didn't marry your
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niece, right, And again John the Baptist speaks up because it's like,
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no, this is against torric it's against the law, it's gross, and
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it's you know, it's not good for society. And as the king goes,
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so goes society. So John the Baptist would talk about this in public.
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I mean, maybe you know their cardon and Herodias or Herod Antipus through
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the you know, through the streets on one of those things they would carry
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on slave shoulders of slaves. That's how they traveled because they were above the
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ground and the dirt, well, you know, his muddy and get your
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feet muddy, that's what they did. And they had little shades pulled,
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and you know, they're going through this town and they hear John the Baptist
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adulterous, adulterous, adulterous. I mean, he just it's like he just
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called him out and he's in his mind he's doing the right thing. I
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mean, he's speaking truth to power, right, this is what he would
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say. Literally, we we were told in the text, this is amazing,
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Mark tells us, and Mark was that Mark got all of his information
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from Peter, who was there for all this. It is not lawful for
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you to have your brother's wife. I mean not just your committee committed adultery.
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It's not lawful for you. You are breaking Torah. You are violating
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God's standards. You were un you were ceremonially unclean. It is not lawful,
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lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So, as you might
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imagine, Herodius, the new wife nurse a grudge against John and wanted to
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kill him. Of course he did, but there was a problem, but
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she was not able to do so because Herod feared John. And one of
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the reasons he feared John is because John was the most popular person in Judea
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pretty much at the time that when John the Baptists began baptizing in the Jordan
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River, the text tells us that all of Judea and all of Jerusalem went
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out to hear John preach. Now that was hyperbole, but if only ten
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percent of the population or fifteen percent of the population showed up to hear John
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preach and teach thousands tens of thousands, everybody knew who John was, and
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Herod's like, okay, we're not touching this guy. If we touched this
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guy, there's going to be trouble in the land. He was not able
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because he feared John and he protected him specifically from Herodias right, knowing him
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to be a righteous and holy man. I mean, Herod Antipus knows,
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okay, what I did was not cool at all. It did violate God's
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law. I know what I would think about somebody else doing this. So
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he knew he was guilty. So when Herod heard John, this is amazing.
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When Herod heard John, because he'd loved to hear him speak, he
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was greatly puzzled, and yet he liked to listen to him. So we
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don't know if he stood in the back of the crowd, or if he
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disguised himself, because rulers would do that from time to time to find out
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what's going on with the people. But he would listen to John, and
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he knew he was a holy, righteous man. He's the most popular guy
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in Judea. And he didn't understand everything John taught, but he knew there
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was something to this guy. Right. Well, Eventually, Herodias has her
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way and she at least convinces her husband to have John the Baptist arrested.
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So John the Baptist gets arrested by Herod's men, and Herod wisely does not
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imprison him in Jerusalem, where Herodias could get to him. He imprisons John
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the Baptist in a desert dungeon down in the Jordan River valley, far away
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from the city of Jerusalem. But it is a miserable, miserable, miserable
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place to be, and perhaps I think he put him there to protect him
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from his new wife. And this is when the story goes completely off the
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rails. This is when the story gets extraordinarily confusing or perhaps extraordinarily encouraging.
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Is he ready for this now? When Jesus heard that John cousin John.
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Now, when Jesus heard that John, the most popular man in judea righteous
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man. Everybody knows he's a good guy. When Jesus heard that John had
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been taken into custody, what do you think, Jesus dead for the goat
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for the greatest man of all time who leveraged I mean John actually leveraged his
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own popularity to launch Jesus ministry. Remember this, Remember John the Baptist has
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thousands and thousands and thousands of people coming to hear him and preaching, teaching,
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baptizing the Jordan River valley. And one day he's doing his thing and
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he looks up and he says, Okay, the Son of God who has
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come to take away the sin of the world is here, the Lamb of
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God who comes to take away the sin of the world. And he says
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about Jesus of Nazareth, Nazareth his cousin. Look, you guys think I'm
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great, You think I've drawn a big crowd. Let me tell you I'm
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not worthy to even lace this guy sandals. I am nothing in comparison.
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Is time for me to shrink. It's time for him to become great.
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And at that moment, many, many, many of John the Baptist disciples
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left John to follow Jesus, and Jesus was off to the Racis in terms
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of his public ministry. So John the Baptist, I mean, he's the
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forerunner, He's the warm up act for Jesus. And of course Jesus is
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extraordinarily grateful for John the Baptist. So when John is arrested and taken into
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custody, what do you think he did? I mean, spring him,
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bust him out, sends an angel to bust him out, Send some friends,
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you know, bake some brownies and visit him at least loaves and fish,
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you know, or turn Herodius into a loaf feeder to the fish.
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I mean, there's all kinds of things, you know, Jesus could have
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done. This is so strange. And Matthew, who's there for all this?
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Matthew was a tax collector who had people who worked for him, scribes
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who scribed everything down. That's why Matthew's gospel account is so full of detail.
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That's too how Matthew explains what happened. Now, when Jesus heard that
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John had been taken into custody. He withdrew. If we had a map,
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it would illustrate just how much he withdrew. He withdrew to Galilee,
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leaving Nazareth. He went and lived, not visited, not vacation. He
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went and lived in Capernaum. If you had a map of the Holy Land,
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Judea and Jerusalem is in the south. Jesus left the south, left
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Judea, went all the way to Galilee, and went as far north into
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Galilee as he possibly could. He gets to the Sea of Galilee, and
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he goes all the way up to the very tip top of the lake.
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He's by walking distance, He's close to two hundred miles away or more from
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John to Baptist. And he wasn't already there when he heard this is what's
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amazing. When he heard of what happened to John, Matthew sandwiches these two
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ideas together, almost in a single sentence, Jesus automatically, in a minis
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withdrew to Galilee and get this. He settles. He settles in Capernaum,
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which is a beautiful, beautiful fishing village on the north end of the Sea
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of Galilee. John the Baptist is arrested, put in a dungeon. Jesus
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went to the lake, and he didn't just go for the weekend. He
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went and he lived there with his guys the opposite direction, while John is
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sweating it out in a desert dungeon. Now here's the question. This is
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so important. This is why I don't know what you're taught you know about
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the reliability of the Gospels. I'm telling you this is why you can believe
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with confidence that the Gospels Matthew, Martin, Luke, and John, they
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are reliable accounts of actual events. Why in the world would Matthew tell us
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this, Why doesn't he just say John the babtist was arrested. Meanwhile,
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let me tell you what Jesus did. He wants us to know that Jesus'
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response to his cousin's arrest is that he went in the opposite direction. He
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actually with drew. This is horrible, This is terrible, This is embarrassing.
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This is how you know what happens in literature. One of the ways
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that you know literature is authentic is whenever anything makes the hero look bad,
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you know they didn't make that up, because you don't make up a story
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that makes your hero look bad. If you're trying to convince somebody to believe
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something about a person, you leave out the bad stuff. We do it
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all the time. Why in the world would Matthew included two reasons? Number
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one, it happened. Number two because when Matthew wrote this, he had
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the insight to know why Jesus did what he did, and he believes.
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I believe that he did this for you. It's horrible. It was intentional.
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Here's what I mean by that. Do you ever feel like God is
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a million miles away, that in your moment of greatest need, you've never
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felt more distance from God? I know you had felt that. When things
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are up into the right, you just feel like the presence of God.
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You know, you sing these songs with you know, so much enthusiasm,
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and then circumstances turn and it's like, where is God? Do you ever
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feel like God's a million miles away? Kicked back at the lake while you're
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sweating it out. You are not the first, you won't be the last.
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Matthew's like, I want to make sure you see the connection between these
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two Big Eye death. Isn't that amazing? So John's in prison for a
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year, let me tell you about prisons. Back then, they did not
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have a cafeteria then have a lunch line. You didn't get some time out,
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you know, to stretch your legs. Okay, nothing like that.
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You're in a hole in the ground, or you're in a you know,
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a basically a brick building that you're let out from time to time. There's
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no food. The only way you're gonna eat is if you have friends and
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family. If you don't have friends and family, the visit you bring you
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food, you may starve to death. You may just die of malnutrition or
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of thirst because there's not a food program. So John the Baptist's people coming
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and going and taking care of him. So a year goes by and never
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hears from Jesus. Six months goes by and never hears from Jesus. And
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the greatest man born of women, according to Jesus, begins to doubt because
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what was true of Us is true of John. A change of scenery rock
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his serenity. Things are up into the right. God is good. Things
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take a turn for the worse. You get that call, you get that
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call from one of your kids. It's like, oh no, where's God?
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And John the Baptist begins to wonder if maybe he had Jesus all wrong.
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And there we are, once again right in the middle of the story.
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But there's more insult to injury. John receives. John receives regular updates
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on all the amazing things Jesus is doing for other people. His disciples actually
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are coming in going. John's disciples are coming and going, and they're keeping
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John updates, like John, I'm not going to believe what your cousin did
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this time. Okay, you're ready for this. He's on his way.
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He preests this amazing sermon. We don't understand what most of it meant,
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but anyway, right afterwards, he comes down into the town and a centurion.
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A centurion comes up to your cousin and says, hey, my servant
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is at home sick, and your cousin the rabbi Jesus said to a centurion
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he'd never met before, I'll go to your house and heal your servant that
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I've never met before. And then on their way he stops and he heals
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the servant from four blocks away. Your cousin works remotely. It's amazing.
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He can say words and people are healed. And John is thinking exactly what
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we would be thinking. Well, then why not me? Why not me?
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Why doesn't he just say the word? Whatever? Whatever happened to the
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part about I've come to set the captives free. I'm an actual captive and
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you know my name? What about me? And once again, there we
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are in the story. I want to be happy for all the happy people.
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I want to be happy for all the healthy people. You want to
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be happy for all the people who had children and grandchildren. You want to
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be happy for the people whose marriage made it and the counseling worked and they
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overcame the thing. They overcame and their husband overcame it. You want to
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be happy for them. Congratulations on your promotion, Congratulations on your scholarship.
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I'm still waiting to see if I got in anywhere. Right. Oh,
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and that's so cool. Your sore throat went away right before your presentation.
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I'm so happy for you. Do you have any real problems? Because I
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do, and I want to be happy for you. John the Baptist,
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the greatest man who ever lived? According to Jesus, Right, isn't God
23:45
good to you? Why is it that God comes through for everybody but you?
23:55
Why is it that God seems to be coming through for everybody right now
24:00
on the Baptist, one of Jesus' favorite people. Well, finally John,
24:03
he's had enough because he's human like us. And so the text says,
24:07
when John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah,
24:12
he sent his disciples to ask him. So it's like, Okay,
24:15
I keep hearing all this stuff, but I've got some questions. This isn't
24:18
making any sense. You're doing all this amazing stuff. Meanwhile you're letting me
24:22
rot into prison. And I didn't do anything wrong. In fact, I
24:26
did something right. I did the bold thing, the powerful thing, the
24:30
courageous thing, and now I'm suffering for doing the right thing. Meanwhile,
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you're doing all these favors for people who've not done perhaps anything right. In
24:37
fact, in some cases they seem to be the enemies of Rome. I
24:41
hear you have a tax gatherer as part of your posse, right, so
24:45
how about delivering me from our sick king. So when John, who was
24:52
in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples
24:55
to ask him. Here's the question he sent to Jesus. Here we are
25:00
in the story. Are you the one Was I mistaken? Have I been
25:07
believing a fairy tale? Have I been believing a lie? Or? Are
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are you the one who is to come? I mean, this is this
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John the Baptist, who announced Jesus as the one who is to come?
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But oh, the Lamb of God who comes to take this into the world.
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But I don't know anymore because this doesn't make any sense to me.
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You're not doing what I think the Lamb of God should do for his friends.
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Are you the one who is to come? Or should we expect someone
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else? Is this? Is this even real? Is Is there anything to
25:44
this? Am I just a victim of wishful thinking? Am I just believing
25:47
because my parents taught me to believe this stuff? Is this magic? Is
25:49
it a fairy tale? Is the sky Father right? Is this something that
25:53
we teach just to keep the kids in line? John the Baptist. See,
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I'm convinced, and I could be wrong. I'm convinced that Jesus let
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Lazarus die for our benefit. And I think Jesus let John stew in a
26:11
prison cell for our benefit as well? Did Jesus love these men? Are
26:17
you kidding? Do you remember this story of Lazarus? When the servant comes
26:19
to tell Jesus that Lazarus is sick. Remember this part. The servant says
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to Jesus, Jesus, the one you love is sick. Didn't even have
26:30
to use lazarus name. Did Jesus love these men, yes? Does Jesus
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love you yes? Does this make sense in a way yes, in a
26:48
way no, But did Jesus love these men? Yes? Does Jesus love
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you yes. So they come to Jesus and they say, hey, they
27:00
finally find Jesus. He's with a crowd again, and they're like, hey,
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Rabbi, Cousin John has some questions for you. He wants to know.
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And this is a little bit embarrassing. Please don't judge him too harshly.
27:11
But it's been a year and a half. Cousin John wants to know.
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Are you are you who he told everyone you are? Because he has
27:19
his doubts, and to be honest, we're wondering ourself. And here's what
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Jesus said. Matthew again, who recorded all this. Jesus said to John's
27:30
disciples, go back and report to John what you hear and see, to
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which they thought, okay, that's not like really encouraging. We want to
27:41
let you know we've been doing that all along. He's not encouraged by all
27:45
the things you're doing for everybody else that you never met. Until they ask
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and John, Jesus is like, no, no, I want you to
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go back and tell him what you hear then see, and I want you
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to tell him this specifically, Tell cousin John, tell tell the prophet,
28:02
Tell him that the blind receive their sight. This is this is unheard of,
28:08
this is remarkable. And tell them that men and women who've never walked
28:12
before are walking, and those who had leprosy or cleansing the death here and
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the dead are raised. And they say, okay, well we'll tell them.
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They write it down, remember it, and they leave. And then
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this is the best part. Then Jesus says something for us. He addresses
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the crowd, But he didn't say this for the crowd. He says this
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for me. He says this for us, for those of us who wonder
28:47
if God knows, and wonder if God really cares, to those of us
28:49
who are disheartened by his inattention, his lack of attention, or his seeming
28:55
lack of attention and lack of care he says something for those of us who
28:59
feel like where in the dungeon and we don't have a court date. In
29:03
fact, we don't have any representation. It looks like he's just gonna go
29:06
on and on and on and on, and there's no end in sight,
29:11
and we're starting to doubt, and it's wearing away on our faith and our
29:15
confidence in God. And Jesus looks at that audience, but he says this
29:18
for you, and he says that for this for me, says this for
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us, and this is amazing. I'm gonna read to you, but I
29:23
guess, hoho more time. Nobody would make this up. Nobody in the
29:27
first century could make this up. Jesus looks at them and speaks to us,
29:33
and he says this. It's amazing. Happy or blessed is anyone of
29:40
any generation? Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.
29:52
Jesus anticipated your confusion in mind. Jesus anticipated our doubts. Jesus anticipated as
30:03
we sit back and try to make this a formula. And I thought,
30:04
if I did, God must, and if I promised, then God will.
30:07
I thought there was some kind of formula, some kind of code,
30:11
and God's not acting like I think God should act, and Jesus isn't responding
30:15
like I think Jesus should respond, and Jesus is saying blessed is the person
30:19
blessed is the person that does not get tripped up when I don't act like
30:26
they think I ought to act blessed or the followers who don't quit following when
30:33
their heavenly father doesn't do what they think their heavenly Father ought to do.
30:38
He anticipated our confusion. His response or non response may trip us up.
30:45
His response or non response may cause us to doubt. It might tempt us
30:51
to walk away. And that's unnecessary. And I want to say this to
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some of you today because you're right on the edge of that. You're reaching
30:55
for the doorknob to go okay. The reason Jesus said this is this,
31:00
and some of you've experienced this, that when you lose faith, you opt
31:03
for something to substitute for your faith. When you decide God's not it,
31:07
Jesus is not it, Christianity is not it, you will opt for something
31:11
else. You will choose something else, and that something else usually makes things
31:18
worse, not better. I love what Philip Ansy says, I don't even
31:23
I don't even remember which book this was from, but I just hang on
31:26
to this. He says, the only thing worse, the only thing worse
31:30
than disappointment with God, is trying to navigate disappointment without God. The only
31:38
thing worse than disappointment with God God's not acting the way I think God should
31:44
act. Is facing disappointment once you put God in the rear view mirror,
31:51
because in that moment you have no hope of ever making sense of things,
31:56
and you have no hope that things will ever make And Jesus says, this
32:02
is amazing. He says, I understand. I understand how my behavior.
32:10
I understand how the inactivity of the heavenly Father. I understand how unanswered prayer
32:16
may trip you up. Blessed is the one who doesn't allow themselves to be
32:22
tripped up. Happy, Happy is the one who does not confuse my silence
32:29
for my absence. Happy is the happy is the follower who follows anyway.
32:34
Happy is the believer who continues to believe anyway. And then John's disciples leave
32:42
to go tell John the good news. Jesus makes the comment I just read,
32:47
And this is when he says to the audience, because they're confused,
32:52
like, why don't you go with him? Why don't you do something?
32:55
We love John the Baptist, I mean, John the Baptist is a legend.
33:00
Why don't you do something? And Jesus assures them, he says,
33:04
nah, I get it. I understand how my behavior is so confusing to
33:08
you. So let me just assure you. This is when he says it.
33:13
I say to you, among those born of women, there is no
33:17
one greater than John the Baptist. He's the best. He's one of my
33:22
favorites. But I'm not going to rescue him, and he didn't and he
33:30
may not rescue you either. But you don't have to stumble away from Jesus,
33:42
your savior. God may answer your prayer. He may answer it in
33:46
a way you don't expect. He may answer your prayer and the timing that's
33:51
not your timing. I get all that. But there may be a no
33:57
There may be a no rescue. Does that mean God doesn't care? Does
34:00
that mean God is silent? Does that mean God isn't up to something?
34:04
Absolutely not. Jesus arrange these scenarios, these narratives, these actual historical incidents
34:12
for our benefit happier those who face adversity, trust anyway, follow anyway,
34:21
and don't stumble away from God their Father. Now I know some of your
34:30
thinking. I would be thinking, Yeah, it's easy for you to say
34:31
Andy, easy for you to say, you don't know my story, and
34:34
I don't know your story. I'm telling you. If I was not confident
34:37
of this, I would not stand up here and say it. And if
34:42
I was that other kind of preacher, I would get up here and say
34:44
no. If you trust in God, it's all gonna work out. You're
34:46
gonna get a beau. And then over time we just chase off all the
34:49
people who don't have a bow. We just have a big church full of
34:51
people with bows and everybody they look around, everything's working out. We must
34:54
have more faith than everybody else. That is not Christianity, That is not
34:58
the gospel. You do not. I find that in the teaching of Jesus.
35:00
What you find is two of his favorite men he let suffer, and
35:07
yet he was as active as he has ever been, and here we are
35:10
talking about him two thousand years later. But I wouldn't get up here to
35:16
stay it if I wasn't confidence so on Sundays, I get here early,
35:20
as you might imagine, and one of my things I like to do is
35:22
just walk around the auditorium and meet people. And I'm always looking for people
35:27
who are sitting by themselves because I hate it when somebody sits by themselves.
35:30
I always think, oh, do you have a friend. I want you
35:30
to connect here. So I sit down with people and is this your first
35:34
time? You know? And you by yourself. Sometimes you're just waiting for
35:37
the husband or wife or girlfriend to come sit with them, you know.
35:39
So in one of my journeys about a year ago, I met a woman
35:43
named Mariann Jones. Marianne is eighty six years old, and so every Sunday
35:46
she stands up because she has something she wants me to do, and we're
35:50
kind of arguing about it. We've been arguing for a year. I'm not
35:52
going to tell you what that is. But anyway, so when she sees
35:53
me coming, she stands up and she's waiting for me, you know.
35:57
So every Sunday Mary and Mary and I have a friendly conversation. So at
36:00
some point I wanted to ask her a question. I got her cell phone
36:02
number, and so then she had my cell phone number, and then every
36:06
Sunday, every Sunday, she sends me a text and rates the sermon.
36:10
Every Sunday, not making this up. She's gonna rate today's I guarantee you
36:15
I'll get a text and I usually get an eight nine or sometimes at ten.
36:17
A few weeks ago, I got a one hundred. I'm like,
36:20
WHOA, did you change the scale or was it really that good? You
36:22
know? So one Sunday, I said, Marianne, I want to know
36:27
your whole story. You're eighty six years old. And she said okay.
36:30
So I invited her to my office. She came. We spent two hours
36:32
together. I said, start from the very beginning. She told me your
36:36
old story, very very difficult childhood, just needed to escape the home.
36:44
Met her husband, got married fast forward and had three beautiful daughters, and
36:50
then their youngest daughter, Karen, when she was twenty one, was hit
36:53
by a drunk driver, a nineteen year old drunk driver. He killed instantly,
36:57
along with a friend. It was a Christian and she and Tom you
37:00
know were you know, had their faith and their personal faith and what with
37:05
God. But this was of course devastating, just completely devastating, just wrecked
37:08
them in every single kind of way, and Where's God? And why God?
37:13
And we did all the right things, all the things we would say,
37:15
and all the questions that we would ask. She kind of clawed her
37:17
way back to developing a faith and was able to pray again and trust God
37:22
again. About six months after that, their church had a special guest speaker
37:25
who came in during the week on a weeknight to do a lecture on the
37:30
topic of why bad things happened to good people? And Marian's husband didn't want
37:34
to go, but Marian said, I want to go. So she went.
37:37
And so this lecturer, this pastor, got up and there's about one
37:38
hundred and fifty people there and he talked for about thirty forty five minutes about
37:43
why bad things happened to good people. Then he said, are there any
37:45
questions? And Mary Ann said, I raised my hand and he said yes,
37:46
and I stood up and I said, so, Pastor, why do
37:51
bad things happen to good people? After he just spent forty minutes answering the
37:54
question, and so she said, she sat down, and she said he
37:59
kind of reviewed the whole message again and asked, are there any more questions?
38:02
She said, I stood back up and said, pastor, so,
38:06
why do bad things happen to good people? She asked the question three times,
38:10
and he explained slower the third time, but he just kept saying the
38:14
same thing. After she asked him for the third time in front of all
38:16
these people, he kind of lost it and he said, I don't know
38:20
why. She said. I smiled and I said, that's right, we
38:28
don't know why, and then she sat down. In two thousand and nine,
38:34
her oldest daughter was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer. Six
38:37
months later, twenty ten, she passed away that same year. Later that
38:43
same year, in twenty ten, she and Tom were with some friends in
38:46
the neighborhood and the friends invited them to visit what they called the rock and
38:51
Roll Church, And so marian and Tom came to north Point for the first
38:55
time and they've been coming ever. Sense In March of twenty twenty, Tom
39:04
passed away in the middle of COVID. They celebrated his life in their garage.
39:09
Mariann volunteers as a restore mentor at north Point Community Church. And what
39:15
she does is a restore mentor is she meets people who are under the circumstances,
39:20
and she helps them restore their faith, and she reminds them from her
39:24
own life and her own story. She reminds them, you don't have to
39:28
explain the unexplainable to follow Jesus. And you don't have to find a reason.
39:35
You don't have to find a reason for a reason for all the randomness
39:38
in life in order to follow Jesus. She reminds them that doubt and questions
39:45
are just part of the journey, and that you bring your doubts with you,
39:49
and you bring your questions with you, and some of your questions will
39:52
get answered, and some of your questions won't ever get answered, and that's
39:54
okay. You can continue to trust and to follow and to believe. And
40:00
she reminds him, you're not the first person. As we've all been reminded
40:02
today, You're not the first person. We won't be the last people to
40:07
struggle to make sense out of the randomness of life. But it doesn't mean
40:09
that God has lost control. It doesn't mean that God is not still at
40:13
work. It doesn't mean that God doesn't love you and doesn't have a purpose
40:16
for your life. You're not the first to have doubts or the last doubt.
40:20
This is what's amazing about the story of Lazarus, this is what's amazing
40:22
about the story of John the Baptist, and there are other stories scattered through
40:25
the Gospels. Doubt is baked into the story of our faith. You're in
40:31
the story. It is common, it's normal, it's acceptable. It is
40:37
not offensive to your heavenly Father. Because even Jesus acknowledged you may stumble over
40:46
me, he said. And if Jesus' favorites weren't immune, I'm not immune
40:52
either, and neither are you. He loved them, and he loves you,
40:55
and he invites you. In fact, he said, all the weary
40:59
and heavy laden ee, I want you to come to me. And some
41:00
of you wearying, levy, heavy lady, I'm gonna lift the burden for
41:04
others of you. You're gonna endure the burden, and I'm gonna give you
41:06
the strength to endure the burden. And even if you walk through the valley
41:09
of the shadow of death, I am with you. My rod and my
41:13
staff will comfort you. And you do not need to be afraid, because
41:15
I am with you, and I'm offering you hope that touches down in this
41:22
life because I'm offering hope that extends into the life to come. Because Jesus
41:30
promised and illustrated eternal life. The bookends aren't here. The bookends are eternity.
41:40
And so you can trust, and you can obey, and you can
41:45
follow, and you can bring your doubts in your questions with you. You
41:50
don't have to stumble away because God doesn't act the way you think God should
41:57
act now this time. Usually in our messages, I pray and dismiss you,
42:05
but I talk Marianne Jones into coming to pray for you today. To
42:09
close the service, She's written a prayer specifically for all of you who feel
42:15
buried under the circumstances to Marianne, would you come on up here with me?
42:20
Would you please welcome? Sweet mary Anne Jones. I asked Marianne to
42:30
just write a prayer and to read it to you, and she says she
42:36
would be happy to do it, even though she's not a public speaker.
42:40
Marianne, I can't believe I allow Andy to talk me into doing this,
42:52
But here is what I know, or put my classes in time and trust
42:58
have shown me how amazing God truly is. I so believe Jesus will turn
43:06
your brokenness into joy if you let him. It's a wow when it happens.
43:15
It brings joyful tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I would
43:20
like to pray for you now, Heavenly Father, thank you for giving me
43:28
a chance to share a little of my story through Andy. We give you
43:34
praise and thank you for this day. Help us through our anger blaming you
43:39
when we feel totally broken. Help us see with open eyes that you did
43:46
not cause our anger, our brokenness. Help us to see the love you
43:52
are surrounding us, coming through other people. Help us also see the mission
44:00
you want us to accomplish through our brokenness. Help us see how we can
44:07
change our anger into the gifts you are sending us. Help us remember that
44:15
we are not the owners of our lives, but we are the stewards of
44:19
our time here on earth. In Jesus' name, Amen, thank you you
44:30
still appear with me. You have got at