I didn't ask anybody if they were hot. I am hot, so I'm turning it down, so whatever. A little warm in here. So, anyway, I want to say welcome, welcome, welcome, and if you're here visiting with us, we're so glad that you're here.

Please take the time to fill out a visitor card. They're in the chairs in front of you, and give us some information about you so we can touch base with you, and drop them in one of the little churches here in the front, and there's one in the back as well, too.

That's where we receive our tithes and offerings as well, too, as you continue to be faithful to the Lord. A couple things before we dismiss the children this morning.

We're going to dismiss the children to go into children's church if you feel comfortable. Taylor has put out some information on the steps that we're taking to make sure you're a child.

It's safe. Your children are safe, and our workers are safe. If you'd rather have them in here, that's fine, too, and there's some coloring pages, and this, that, and the other, but the coloring pages are limited to 10 and under, so if you're over 10, you can't get a coloring page.

You have to pay attention to the message today, so there you go. Sorry, Tom.

But I wanted to make an announcement. On the back table back there in the middle, there's the Skylark baby bottles.

Those bottles have all been sanitized, and Skylark takes an offering every year to help with counseling for young teen women coming unexpected pregnancy out of wedlock,

and help to get diapers, help to get cribs, all this stuff, and we help support this ministry, but that's one of the things they do.

They ask you to please take a baby bottle, fill it up with change, and bring it back by the end of this month, and if you'd rather do it virtually,

they're able, if you don't want to touch something, then that's fine. You can do it virtually.

You can go on their website as well, too, but just knowing that that's our push right now to get you to participate with Skylark by the end of this month.

Just as a note of reminder, we have prayer service here each Wednesday at 6.30.

If you'd like to come and be a part of that, we'd love to have you.

We do have child care available on Wednesday as well, too, if you want to come and let your children participate in the children's ministry as well, too.

It's a great time of just prayer, and a great time of, that's our main focus, is praying.

There's a lot of things we need that we should and could and need to be praying about these days. Amen?

And so we spend a lot of time in prayer on Wednesdays, and we've seen God answer and do some,

some just great things.

And also, by way of reminder, on Thursday mornings at 6.30, we have a men's Bible study.

We meet in the large opening area in the office over there at 6.30.

Bobby Mack is helping to lead us, as we're almost finished with the book of Ephesians right now,

studying.

We have about 10 to 12 men who are showing up and coming,

and if you need to leave early to get to work at a certain time, that's great, but we usually wrap it up right at an hour.

So, ladies, if you want to get your husband to be a little bit more involved and hear the word,

hey, it's a great opportunity to nudge him.

So there you go.

I know everybody's got busy schedules, but we can always, we make time for the things that are important to us.

That's kind of how we seem to roll.

And so at this time, if you feel comfortable and you would like to send your children to Children's Church,

if you'll go out that door right there where Taylor is, and Taylor is supposed to open that door right now,

or maybe follow Mr. Chris.

How's that?

There's Taylor.

Okay.

The rest of us, let's grab our Bibles and turn to John chapter 1.

We are continuing in our series.

We have just really gotten started in our long series.

Our series is called Faith to Believe.

Faith to Believe.

We're entitling the whole series Faith to Believe because we believe that in the study in the book of John,

John will enrich us and give us the strength to have a greater faith.

I think all of us, including myself, would love to come to a point where I say my faith has been strengthened.

My faith is overrunning.

And so I pray that for each of us as we go through this.

And today we get to, today's message is entitled The True Light.

The True Light as we get into really verses 6 through 13,

but I'm going to back up just a little bit for the sake of context.

But on the Florida State license plate, it has a slogan on it that calls itself the what?

The Sunshine State.

The Sunshine State.

But did you know that there are five other states, they're calling themselves the Sunshine State,

there are five other states that have more sunshine than Florida does,

and yet they claim that.

And in order, those states are Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico.

The Sunshine State.

And I heard a story years back about these three NASA scientists that were gathered together, and they were trying to figure out how they were going to spend this 20 billion dollar allotment from the government, and what was the program they were going to get to use this money.

So the first scientist said, I know what we need to do, we need to be very ambitious, and we need to send someone to Mars. And the second scientist says, well, that's pretty good, but that's really not, that's not ambitious enough.

We need to send a man to Venus. And they were like, whoa, that's pretty crazy, okay?

Then the third scientist said, no, you've got it all wrong. We need to really, really raise the bar. You know where I'm going, don't you, Foster?

We need to send a man to the sun. We need to send a man to the sun.

And the other scientist said, you are an absolute moron. You can't send someone to the sun.

He says, I've got it all figured out. Even though it's 93 million miles away, we'll time it, and we'll go there, and we'll send him at night.

So, with Father's Day being next week, that's a good father's joke.

All the fathers have lame jokes, so there's my lame Father's Day joke for the day.

So, but I'm reading about the sun, and one of the sources stated, it says that the sunlight is the fuel of life,

and its energy maintains everything upon the earth.

I mean, you think about it, everything from photosynthesis to vitamin D that all of our bodies enjoy,

to the reflection off of things so that we can visibly see things,

and even the gravitational pull, if you will, that keeps the earth sort of tethered, so to speak,

in this rotation around the sun.

The sun, the S-U-N, it's spelled two different ways in our English,

but you have S-U-N and S-O-N, and even the S-U-N is needed for physical well-being.

It's needed for physical well-being.

All you have to do is be locked up in home shelter lockdown to know when you go outside,

you're like, holy cow, I forgot how much I missed being outside, right?

And so, just as the S-U-N is important,

okay, John would say that the S-O-N, the Son of God,

his light is absolutely needed for spiritual life.

His life is.

And that becomes the theme of the paragraph that we're going to talk about in verses 6 through 13.

John steps up and would say, you know, this is the sunlight,

and he's going to use that term, you're going to see that term a lot within the Gospel of John.

But for the sake of context, I'm just going to back things up to verse 4 where we ended last week.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Now, just by way of reminder, the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John are introductory, okay?

It's a prologue, if you will.

And in those 18 verses, John gives us the entire theme of the entire Gospel in there.

You know, so sort of think of it as a briefing, if you will, okay?

And this briefing that you get these details before you get the whole story of the life of Jesus Christ.

And here's the briefing of who he is, who we're dealing with, okay?

The plan of his life.

And then you get to the whole detail of the story of Jesus, and that's what John does.

The first five verses, the Apostle John considers the deity of Jesus Christ in those first five verses.

He's the Word.

He was with God.

He was God.

He created everything.

He's the source of light.

He's the source of life.

And now John shows us the reaction of this world to the light that has come in here.

Generally and specifically, the light is coming into the world.

So John the Baptist comes and he represents or introduces Jesus.

And that's the first verses of our paragraph, beginning in verse 6.

And then the world, by and large, doesn't recognize him.

The world rejects him, by and large.

In fact, it's typically the first book of a new believer. We have a new believer that comes on board. Usually we say, hey, read the book of John. That's a great book for you to start on. It's a great book for you to read, okay? A new believer, we don't say, hey, man, you need to dive into Hebrews. That's a good book for you. You need to pour into Exodus. That's a winner for you right there as a new believer. No, we send them to John, okay, for a very good reason, because it's simple, it's straightforward, and Christ is exalted in that. We also talked about

last week that in the original Greek that in the original Greek, it's the easiest to understand. It's simple language, but it's very straightforward. The concepts are very profound and very deep, even though it's very simple.

And what John does is he paints these portraits of Christ using metaphor, using a metaphor, okay? And here he talks about light. He talks about life. He'll talk about birth. He'll talk about all these things, using them in spiritual terminology.

And what John shows us here, basically, is that there's really only two responses to Jesus Christ. You either accept, you receive him, or you reject him. That's it. John lays it out there.

So, you know, the question for you this morning is, are you living in the sunlight, or are you living in the shadow land? You know, are you walking in the light of the living Son of God, or are you still walking around in the shadows of life?

That's really the question that we throw out. So, let's see how the light was represented by John, verses 6 through 8.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. Now, here's one of the first things you'll notice as you're reading through chapter 1.

In verse 6, we have this abrupt change, okay? John's been dealing so far with everything heavenwardly, okay? Or heavenward.

He's dealing with the deity of Christ, this man, God coming down as a man, the Word. Christ is God. He was with God, but he was also God himself.

He created everything. He's the source of life. He's the light of the world, all these things. And now there's a change.

And after dealing with all of that, he goes, there was a man. Now, he's not dealing with God. He's dealing with a man, okay?

And he's not dealing with the man, the Son of God. He's dealing with a man who was sent by God, okay?

Who was John. And he's not talking about himself. He's talking about John the Baptist.

John the Apostle never mentions himself by name in this book when you read through it.

He never goes, oh, by the way, I'm John. I'm a really close friend to Jesus. I'm the one who's writing this.

He doesn't, he doesn't, the only reference he ever gives to himself in this whole book is this.

He says, the disciple whom Jesus loved. You know, that's how he referenced himself.

And you might read that and you might think, well, that's a little bit arrogant, isn't it, that you would say that?

I think it's beautiful because Jesus loves everyone, okay?

And so he personalizes it and he says, oh, by the way, I'm the guy who Jesus loves too.

I'm one of those guys. Jesus loves me, okay?

And he's speaking here, though, about John the Baptist.

And since John the Baptist was from Judea, which was down south, I guess that would make John a southern Baptist, right?

Come on, guys.

All right, I got all the dad jokes today.

I got a couple more to throw at you today just to make sure that you're listening.

All right, so in the light of Father's Day being next week, I'm just trying to prep you, okay?

But don't send me an email. This was way before denominations, okay?

Just kidding, okay? But he baptized people, okay?

But this is what it says about John the Baptist, that he was a man sent from God.

Man, if there was anybody who was ever sent from God, it was this dude, right?

John the Baptist.

He was predicted twice in the Old Testament, once in Isaiah chapter 40,

where it says that he was a voice crying in the wilderness, prepared the way of the Lord, all that.

And John the Baptist will even refer to himself in this text later on.

But also in the Old Testament, there was a prediction of an Elijah-like forerunner,

where the prophet says, and God speaks to him, that I will send my messenger who will...

his birth was, um...miraculous in and of itself because his mom and dad, uh...elizabeth and zechariah, they were way past the age of being able to have kids, right?

and so they end up she gets pregnant in a natural way and so we we know that all of a sudden

they're going to have a child when they didn't think it was going to be possible but his birth

is miraculous too because zachariah is a priest and he's doing his priestly duties this this one

point in time and the angel of the lord comes up to zachariah and says you're going to have a child

and he's going to prepare the way of the messiah he's going to be the forerunner and he spills out

the whole story and he says his name is going to be called john and he is going to be sent by god

okay and so he is just um he he it all comes to fruition on john so he has a miraculous pregnancy

with his parents a miraculous birth and so john comes and he he's there but he's just a man

sent by god and something else we need to know though about this is that even though he was he

was john was just a man did you know he was the greatest man who ever lived up until this point

in time that jesus christ comes he's the great where do you get that matthew chapter 11 jesus even says

i assure you of all who have ever lived none is greater than john the baptist i mean that's quite

a statement isn't for jesus to make that statement you mean he's greater than abraham yep what about

isaac yep what about what about jacob yep yep yep what about moses yep yep greater great jeremiah

yep greater than everybody anybody who's ever lived that's what he's saying

now why is that why is that it's because he performed john the baptist performed the greatest task

announcing publicly publicly for the first time introducing jesus christ as the son of god

what a responsibility what a task the savior of the world we'll read about that in a few weeks

so for god to do the most important task the greatest task of all he gets the greatest man who's ever

lived up until this point and now it tells us his mission verse seven he came as a witness to bear

witness about the light that all might believe through him he was not the light but he came to bear

witness about the light that's why he existed he is pointing to the sun light okay to bring the

message of the sun light hey to you know hey step out into the sunlight that's what john john is saying

here comes the son of god he was a witness now that word right there is a is a technical term

it's actually a courtroom term and a witness is somebody who testifies to the truth they go

they're supposed to that is right they go to court and they tell us what they've seen and what they

have heard and john the baptist was that he came into the world to testify of the truth of who

jesus christ really was that that he's he's a witness it's sort of like john the apostle okay puts all

of humanity all of humanity together in a courtroom all right puts them together in a courtroom and he says

i got a message i want to write to you i got a message i got to give to you jesus christ is the

messiah he is god in human flesh he is the creator of all things that exist he is the source of life

he is the source of light and i want to call to my first witness to the stand john the baptist

and so john's going to tell you what he has seen and what he has heard and john's the first witness

okay and he came to he came to bear witness now you need to watch this because as we go through the

gospel of john john's the first of eight witnesses that the apostle john will call to the stand he's

going to call other witnesses to for this but john becomes the first and so the whole purpose of

john's light was to be life was to bear witness to the light the light of christ now he uses the term

light to refer to christ and again he's using a metaphor okay it doesn't mean that jesus actually

glowed okay he doesn't mean that whenever jesus walked into the room you didn't have to have a

candle okay because candles weren't needed because jesus was glowing it wasn't the hallmark picture

card that you're thinking of where jesus was glowing and in this aspect okay he's using a metaphor

okay and in the scripture the bible uses the term light as a metaphor on a few different things

number one

you

you

you

the moon and the stars were shining he says that the heavens declare your glory Lord okay you know when I look at the starlight the moon the sun and everything shining it speaks to me of God's glory and the magnificence of God and so in fact in Revelation when we get to the book of Revelation in the New Jerusalem we're told that we there is no sun when there's no moon shining in it doesn't need it for the glory of God is its light the glory of God is its light and so

for John to say that Jesus embodies the glory of God so for John to say that Jesus embodies the glory of God Jesus embodies the glory of God the writer of Hebrews will tell us in Hebrews 1 that Jesus brightness is God's glory it's God's glory the second thing that light tells us intellectually intellectually light speaks of the knowledge of God theologians call this omniscience

ok omniscient ok omniscient which means that he knows everything he knows everything he knows everything he knows everything he's the ultimate knower he didn't learn it he didn't learn it he knew it he knew it ok now all you history buffs will know that there was a time called the dark ages right and where it was said that people were without the light of knowledge and then came the age of enlightenment when suddenly there was this renaissance of learning

learning and knowledge and knowledge and art and all this stuff but God is the ultimate knower and to say that Jesus is the light means that he is the ultimately enlightened one he's the old he he man was he ever you know think about it do you know how dangerous it must have been to be around Jesus every last time because he knows everything he knows what you're thinking

you know people say well I wish I wish I wish I could have hung out with Jesus no you don't no you don't I mean scripture tells us he walked up to people and said why are you thinking such evil thoughts in your heart how do you know that because he's the ultimate knower he's the ultimate enlightened one ok and so and so uh he he knew Jesus knew everything the scriptures bear that out to us ok and because he was so ultimately

enlightened enlightened I mean he knew he knew he predicted his own betrayal he predicted predicted his own death ok he predicted the future events coming to this leading up to the second coming the third thing that light is used for it speaks morally of God's holiness

his purity light is pure and light is brilliant and to say that God is light or Jesus is light speaks of his purity and speaks of his holiness

I mean Paul's goodness I mean Paul's good to write in first Timothy 6 that God alone is immortal and he dwells in what unapproachable light

unapproachable that's how holy he is an unapproachable light another way to put it is that there is no flaw in the character of God whatsoever

no indiscretion in the character of God whatsoever and to say that Jesus is the light is to say that he is pure and he is

holy and he is perfect and there is no flaw in his character and Jesus will even speak this to the religious leaders of his time

this very penetrating question because he'll say which of you can convict me of sin he'll say to the leaders

answer none none

and there's something implied in all of this

if Jesus Christ is is the light that means that when we when we follow him we step out of what

darkness

darkness out of darkness to and to say that I'm a Christian I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ

means that you are stepping out of moral darkness and you are walking in the holy light of Christ

that's what it's saying here does it mean that you're perfect no because you're not and neither am I

okay none of us are but we're growing we're becoming as we follow him he is the light and before I leave

this little move on to the next little swath that John gives us I just want to say that that what John was

in this passage

in this passage

in this passage

in this passage

Or a woman sent by God

Somebody who would be willing to do

The bidding of the Lord

And all my job is to point to Christ

To point to Christ

He came as a witness

To bear witness about the light

That all might believe in him

That all might believe through him

I'm sorry

Through him

Through him

Not Jesus

Through him

Through John

Because notice it's a small H

And not a capital H

In other words

John was the conduit

John was the conduit

His life was a channel

He was the guy pointing to Christ

That people

Through his testimony

Might believe

You know I picture it this way

That John the Baptist

Was like a moderator

The big MC of the big show

Ladies and gentlemen

You might want to put your sunglasses on

Because the light of the world

Is about ready to show up

Right

That's what he's saying

Let's get ready to rumble

Right

Okay another dad joke

I don't know man

But I just see it

You know that's

That's John

John was that voice

We should want to be that voice

We should want to be that voice

Pointing to the light

He just wanted to be a man

Sent by God

Pointing people to the truth

To the truth

And so I ask you this morning

Is your life a gate

Or is it a wall

Is your life a gate

Or is it a wall

When people see

Or can people see

When they look at you

Can they see

Look through you

And thus see Christ

Or when they look at you

Is all they see is a wall

You know that's the highest goal

That any of us could have

To be sent by God

So the light was represented by John

But look what happened in verse 9

The true light

Which gives light to everyone

Was coming into the world

He was in the world

The world was made through him

Yet the world did not know him

He came to his own

And his own people

Did not receive him

Did you know that

Jesus' whole life

Can be summed up

In those two verses

Two or three verses

Right there

I mean Jesus' life

Was one of rejection

I mean his whole life

Was a story of rejection

Okay

He came into the world

The world that he created

And the world didn't get it

The world didn't get it

And you know what

They still don't

They still don't get it

And that word right there

Know him

Is the word

Gnosko

Gnosko in the Greek

Which has the idea

Of recognition

Okay

The creator came in human form

And they didn't recognize him

They couldn't put the dots together

They couldn't put the dots together

You know

If there's one thing I've discovered

It's that the world

That the world consistently gets wrong

And that is the identity

Of Jesus Christ

They consistently get it

They get the answer wrong

All the time

Jesus was a good man

Jesus

He stood for a lot of good things

He had a lot of really good things

To say

You know what

They're consistently wrong

And here's the thing

You shouldn't be surprised by that

You shouldn't be surprised

In the story of Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

In the four gospels

There's individuals

Or groups of people

Who thought certain things

About Jesus

That were not right

In all the gospels

It's portrayed

In John chapter 7

Some said he was just a good man

While others said he was a deceiver

Wrong answer

Both

Wrong answer

In Matthew 16

They said that

That he was John the Baptist

Others said Elijah

Others said Jeremiah

Or one of the other prophets

Wrong answer

That wasn't it

In John chapter 6

After he makes free lunch

For everybody

They wanted to force him

To be a king

To be a monarch

Of this age

He wasn't that either

In Luke chapter 23

They called him a tax evader

Can you imagine Jesus

Up against the IRS

I like to see them

I've got to go into that

This morning

Okay

But they said that

He's a tax evader

That he's subverting

The government

Wrong answer

He wasn't that either

In John chapter 10

They said he was a demon

Wrong answer

Mark chapter 3

They said

Yeah, even his own family got it wrong They bring his own family down to Capernaum to get him Okay, and because they said and I quote because he's out of his mind

Wrong answer They get it wrong and today nothing has changed

every year around Christmas and Easter

you'll find these magazines

and various articles about

the true identity of Jesus Christ

these people write these things

it's laughable, it's too laughable

I can't make this up

but some have written and said that Jesus was a magician

who practiced illusion

and hypnosis

wrong answer

others said that he was a zealot or a guru

or a world traveler

some believe that he was the husband of Mary Magdalene

who procreated a secret lineage

to rule the world

I'm not making this up

this is what's posted

people write articles all the time

and if there's one thing the world gets consistently wrong

it's who Jesus was

he was in the world

and the world was made through him

yet the world did not know him

but John gets more specific

in verse 11

he came to his own

and his own people

did not receive him

and so

what I think John is doing here

is he's saying

okay

generally

generally

you put

you put Jesus in the world

and generally the world

doesn't recognize him

but specifically

his own people

the Jewish nation

didn't receive him

didn't receive him

and this is what I think he's referring to

in verse 11

and here's why

when it says he came to his own

the first own

O-W-N

in that sentence

is in the neuter gender

okay

and it refers to things like

place

land

or home

okay

but the second own

O-W-N

in that sentence

is masculine gender

and it refers to people

it refers to people

so it literally could be translated

he came to his own place

or nation

but his own people

did not receive him

that's why the New Living Test

translation

renders it this way

it says

even

in his own land

and among his own people

he was not accepted

you know what the Jewish Talmud

said

Jesus was

this is a quote

right out of the Jewish Talmud

it says that

he was the illegitimate son

of Mary

the illegitimate son

of Mary

whom

they fancy Mary

as a hairdresser

in the Jewish Talmud

I don't know where they get this stuff

she was a hairdresser

okay

and so

but it also says

in the

in the

in the Talmud

that Jesus was called

Panthera

where he learned

the magical arts

in Egypt

and he came to Israel

to instigate a rebellion

and see

what John is saying here

is that Jesus

the creator

the light

the life

he came into the world

he came to his nation

he came to his

his city

his

his place

his temple

and they didn't recognize him

and they did not receive him

even though for centuries

centuries

the Jews had predicted

and waited for the coming

of the Messiah

and they

you would read the Old Testament

and there's a flicker of light

and a flicker of light

and you think

there's a trace of light here

and a trace of light here

and they get their

all their hopes up

and then

it's like

you know

the sun itself

comes out

and the light

comes out into the earth

and John the Baptist

goes

that's it

that's it

see it's not me

I'm just a preacher

there's the light

there's the light

and the world says

turn it off

turn

turn off the light

and the words of scripture

they say

crucify him

crucify him

his blood

be on us

and on our children

that's what the people

of Israel said

his blood

be on us

and on our children

that's how much

they despise

the light

that came into the world

he came into his own

and his own

did not receive him

and that's the position

of the world

and you can see it

over and over

as we go through this

this series

faith to believe

you'll see it over

and over

this light

that was

represented by John

but there is good news

there is good news

the light was rejected

by most

but the light

was received

by some

verse 12

but all who did

receive him

who believed in his name

he gave the right

to become children

of God

who

uses this because this little

negative conjunction right here

is a huge fulcrum that shifts

the whole thing into a whole

other direction.

Do you notice how John goes from

very, very wide to very narrow?

From a very general population

to the individual.

He goes from everywhere to

the individual. He talks about the world

first of all, that the world didn't

recognize him, okay? And then he came

into his own people, the Jewish people,

and they didn't recognize, but now to

the individual, but to all

who did receive him. All

who did. In other words, anyone.

Any individual. From wide

to narrow. And I think

what he's saying could be summed up

in this. The world didn't want him.

The world didn't want him.

His own people didn't want him. But hey,

do you want him?

Do you want him?

But to all who did receive him, who

believed in his name, he gave the right

to become children of God. Do you

want him? Because if you want him, you're

going to have to receive him.

You're going to have to receive him. And

that's another word for

believe. It's another word.

Grammatically, they are

oppositional terms. One means

the other. To receive Christ

is to believe in him.

It's to believe in him. And it's

more than intellectual. Okay,

yes, I believe there's a God that exists

up there. And there's the Son of God.

And I believe that up there.

No, the idea is that you

receive it. You make it

personal. To surrender.

To commit. You repent from

where you were in life.

And you have a new

journey. You have a new

path that you're going on.

It's sort of like a gift.

If you get a gift at

Christmas time, okay, it's not

really your gift until you

receive it and you open it.

If you're given a gift and it

just sits in your closet all

year round, guess what? You

really haven't received that

gift yet.

You've got to open it.

You've got to receive it.

It's the same with Christ.

You have to receive him.

And I know this is obvious, but

we should note that notice it

says that you are not born a

child of God.

You become a child of God.

Look again at verse 12.

But to all who did receive him,

who believed in his name, he

gave the right to become

children of God.

God, you don't get born a

Christian.

You get born again a

Christian.

Born of God is what it's

going to say in the next

verse.

And I'll tell you why this is

so important, because this

becomes an issue today, because

there is this prevailing belief

system.

It's called the fatherhood of

God and the universal

brotherhood of man.

We're all children of God.

And everybody in the world is a

children of God by creation.

Now that's good Oprah theology, but

that's not biblical theology.

It's not biblical theology.

You are a child of God, not by

creation, but you are a child of

God by redemption.

By redemption only.

We are all created by God, yes, but

you only become a child of God by

redemption, okay?

And so, by redemption you receive

Christ and you have the right and

the power to become God's child,

God's children.

Verse 13, who were born not of

blood, nor the will of the flesh,

nor the will of man, but of God.

It doesn't come by bloodline either,

okay?

Remember the Jews, remember they

were saying, we have Abraham as

our father.

We got Abraham.

And they tried it out with John

the Baptist.

We got Abraham as our father.

And so, and John says, I know what

you guys are thinking, you're

thinking that because you have

Abraham as your father, you have

salvation by a birthright.

And John the Baptist said, God can

make children of Abraham out of

these stones.

So what are you guys bragging about?

I mean, he gets very direct with

them.

And yet, you ask people today, are

you a follower of Jesus Christ?

Are you a Christian?

And they'll say things like, man, I

was born a Christian.

I've gone to church my whole life.

If you go and you sit in your

garage your whole life, you don't

become a four by four just because

you sat there your whole life.

That's not how it works.

Listen, listen.

And you know what?

My mom and daddy, my great...

And you do it by believing, by receiving. Believing and receiving. So there's really only two possible choices, two responses to the light, okay? And have you ever stopped to think that the majority is not correct? There's only two responses. And I know that sounds very un-American to say it, but the majority is wrong. It's wrong. And I want you to consider with the Apostle John, I'm going to wrap this up. The Apostle John writes in 1 John in his epistle, 519.

He says, We know that we are from God. And the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Wow. The whole world lies. So is the world, by and large, right about Jesus? No. That's so un-American to say. I'm all about the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. Jesus will go on to say that wide is the gate that leads to destruction. And most people enter therein. And narrow is the gate that leads to life. And very few enter therein. Not my words. His words. So the light has come. The light has come. John representative in most of the world rejects Him. But some will receive Him.

Jesus says, You are either for me or you are against me. What's the third option? There isn't one. You are either for me or you are against me. You know, in keeping with the dad jokes, one of the things I loved as a young boy, maybe some of you remember, remember the old Bazooka Joe bubble gum? He used to love those things.

They rip your teeth out. You know, they're so stale and hard. But you chew them. Put like seven pieces in your mouth at one time, right?

But they always had those comics in there. Those really goofy comics. But I remember one that always just stuck with me.

Bazooka Joe is there. And he's looking. He's got his friend. And they're in the front yard. And they're looking. He's lost his house key.

He can't find his house key. And they're frantically looking for his house key.

And the girl that's helping him is a little bit sideways. She's like, Joe, where's the last place you remember seeing it?

She's looking down. He goes, Well, the last place I remember seeing it was over there in the side yard.

He says, Well, why are we looking over here?

He says, Because the light's better over here.

But you know what?

I got a hunch that some of you are here today.

And you don't know exactly when.

And you don't know exactly how.

But you've lost your way.

You have lost your way.

Maybe you're listening this morning on the webcast today.

And you've lost your way.

And you keep coming back here because the light's better here.

The light's a little bit better here.

And you love being around people that you know are sold out for the Lord.

And there's something that's warming to you.

And there's something that draws you in there.

And I praise God for that.

I really do praise God for that.

But there's a step that's got to be made.

There's a step, that single step out of darkness into the S-O-N light.

Into the light of the Son of God.

And all I'm doing is I'm just giving you a message.

I'm just a mouthpiece.

I'm just a mouthpiece here this morning.

And all I have been doing is pointing to the light.

I'm just a man pointing to the light.

Okay?

I can't save anybody.

I can't even fix anybody.

But friends, Jesus can.

Jesus can.

And that's all I know to point to these days.

And He will save you.

And He will enlighten you.

And He will make your way clear.

But it comes by believing.

By believing.

Realizing that you will come to the end of yourself.

And you repent from that.

You believe.

And then you trust.

You trust.

And you receive that gift.

That gift of eternal life.

You receive it personally.

Personally.

Open it.

And many of us here this morning have opened that gift a long time ago.

And I'll see you in the end of this video.

And I'll see you in the end of this video.

And I'll see you in the end of this video.

on that? Some of us have forgotten that the Lord is calling us to tap into his power, the power of his Holy Spirit, the resurrected power that's available for all who call upon his name, for he is the light. He is the light. I'm so grateful that many of you tune in and come here because you feel drawn to the Lord.

here. But I pray that you're drawn to the Lord here so that you would grow closer to him, grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and get involved in what he's calling us to do in this community and beyond. The church, we would love your help. I was going to say we need your help, but God's got it. You get to participate. You get to participate. So I've said enough this morning. Come on up, worship team.

Come on up, worship team.

Come on, worship team. Why don't you say, why don't you, uh, this week go out two things. My challenge for you this week is to go out two things. Number one,

be a man or a woman who is sent by God in all that you do. What do I have to do to do? Just simply point to Christ. Just point to Christ.

and then secondly

listen there's a

there's a lot of hurting people right now

there's a lot of things going on

in this community and beyond

and there's a lot of hateful people out there

let me just say that

there's a lot of hateful people who are saying

and doing a lot of hateful things right now

why don't you give them an invitation

to come and join you here

next Sunday

why would I want to come there

because the light's better

the light's a little bit better over here

he's the light of the world

he's the answer

he's the answer

because when the light of the world captures your attention

you see things

a lot differently

you see things a lot more clearly

the shadows seem to disappear

there's a freshness to what

you see

you walk and you live a little bit differently

amen

let's stand

father we just give you thanks and praise

for your beautiful son

I thank you for

the words that you've given us

in John's gospel today

father and I just pray that

that your words

would go forth

and speak to the hearts of the people

not my words

there's something I've shared today

that doesn't need to stick in the hearts

and the minds

of those listening

that I pray

would just simply fall to the floor

God let your truth resonate

in our lives

that we would worship the true life

we would walk in the true life

knowing and trusting

that those who would believe

you have called them to be children of God

and called them to get busy

kingdom work