Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
In this section of the Gospel of John, we see how the early disciples responded to Jesus' call. They immediately followed him without hesitation, recognizing him as a teacher and wanting to learn from him. They also shared the good news with others, like Andrew telling his brother Peter about finding the Messiah. Jesus gave Peter a new name, symbolizing his new calling. Jesus also sought out Philip and invited him to follow. When Philip shared the news with Nathanael, he had doubts, but Philip encouraged him to come and see for himself. Jesus recognized Nathanael's sincerity and assured him that he would see even greater things. The main point is that following Jesus requires leaving everything behind and being willing to go where he leads, even if it goes against our preconceived notions or biases. All right, so we're going to pick up where we left off last time in the gospel of John 1, and we're going to be starting in verse 35. The next day, John, and this is now John the Baptist, who we talked about last week, who is declaring about Jesus coming, letting people know, preparing people, Jesus is coming. The next day, John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, look, the Lamb of God. When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, what do you want? They said, rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? Come, he replied, and you will see. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent the day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who had heard what John had said and had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him we have found the Messiah, that is, the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas, which when translated is Peter. The next day, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, follow me. Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets also wrote about. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nazareth? Can anything good come from there? Nathanael asked. Come and see, said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said to him, here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. How do you know me? Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you. Then Nathanael declared, rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus said, you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that. He then added, very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. So I want to highlight tonight for you a few of the different ways that these early disciples of Jesus responded to the call of Jesus, or the news of Jesus. That's really what this section is about. These are the first few disciples being called, and they all responded or all had slightly different circumstances around how they met Jesus. And I think there's something for us to learn and unpack here. So first we had Andrew and the other disciple of John. And again, if you're not familiar with the terminology, a disciple just means that they were essentially a student of this person, right? They would be with the same root word for discipline, right? To be disciplined, to be trained. Not discipline as in like, I'm going to discipline you. No, like discipline as in to be trained in a discipline, right? And so they were disciples of John who was talking about Jesus coming. Now Jesus has come and John is saying, hey, look, I've been talking about the guy. There's the guy, right? And they immediately followed Jesus, no questions asked, which is remarkable to me, right? Because we have a lot of questions, right? Before we'll do anything, not just follow Jesus. Like, you know, you want to go out for dinner? Well, where are we going to go? You know, who's buying? When are we staying till? You know, things like that. We have a lot of questions before we'll do anything. You know, if you've ever tried to watch a movie with someone, I mean, Hannah and I are like this, it's a negotiation, like, oh, we're going to watch this. No, it's too long. I don't feel like science fiction tonight, or I don't feel like, we'll go back and forth. We'll figure out what we're going to do. And I'm sure anyone can relate to that kind of thing. So we have a lot of questions, but they didn't have any questions. They just went for it. And what I think was really interesting is Jesus questioned him. So here's the funny thing. We use, we say following Jesus a lot as Christians or in the church. And we often use it metaphorically. Right? This was very literal. When it said that they followed Jesus, it meant they literally, John's like, that's the guy. And they got up, and they physically like, yeah, I'm stalking the man now. Right? They just were walking. Jesus is walking along. They're walking along. And he's like, turning around like, oh, like, what do you want? Kind of thing. Right? Like, asking them what, right. He says here, what do you want? Right? And I like how the, I was just looking at earlier, I like how the New King James says here, he says, what do you seek? What are you looking for? I think that's a question that a lot of us have to ask ourselves. And that as we are looking to follow Jesus, Jesus is asking us, what are you looking for? Right? Because it's one thing to come to Jesus. It's one thing to follow Jesus. It's one thing to want to be a Christian. But we have to ask, but he's asking us, what are you looking for when you come to him? Are you looking for all of the current or past hurt or traumas in your life to be healed and resolved? Are you looking for, you know, maybe a fix to current life circumstance issues, finances, things like that, or as we sometimes, in a cheeky way, say the spiritual genie or the spiritual ATM, you know, please give me what I need, you know, and he's going to give you. Is that what we're looking for? And I'm not saying God doesn't want to bless you. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. But we have to ask ourselves, what is it we're looking for as we come to follow Jesus? Are we looking for him to give us something? Are we looking to give him something? Are we looking to be a life surrendered? Right? They had, and he's called throughout this chapter, you hear that a lot of these early disciples, that they immediately call him rabbi, right, which is the term for teacher. They recognize him as a teacher. They recognize themselves as someone who needed to learn from Jesus, right? There's a humble posture in that, you know. They weren't asking for his credentials. They recognized it right away, and they were coming humbly to learn from him. I also find it interesting that they wanted to, their answer to his question was, where are you staying, right? That's interesting to me. Why did they ask that? Because they wanted to spend time with him. They wanted to find out more about him, about this person. They've been with John, you know, and John had a bit of a reputation being, you know, the crazy guy in town, right? And so he had a bit of a reputation. I'm sure they did too. They've been out in the desert, and so obviously they were following, they were disciples of John and learning from John. They weren't doing it to get popular, right? It wasn't earning them a lot of credit, you know. There's a lot of people who didn't like John, right? So these were people who were serious. They wanted to know God, and here their teacher said, okay, this is the guy you need to follow, and then immediately they went into that. So they wanted, and they wanted to spend time then with this person that John had told them was the way, was the very Lamb of God, as they said, and as we said last time, that's the sacrifice for us, right? And so we should want to be where Jesus is, right? And when I say that, I'm not talking about church, although he's here with us, absolutely. But I'm talking about when you follow someone, that means they're going in a direction, and you're going in the same direction, right? If you and I sit for coffee, neither of us are following each other. We're in each other's company, we're talking, we're having dialogue, but nobody's following anybody unless you're going, right? So to follow Jesus means that he wants to take us somewhere, and so we have to be asking ourselves, where does he want to take us? What does he want us to do? I find it really interesting after that, as we move to our next person, was what it tells us about Andrew. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, we have found the Messiah. I think that's really, really, really interesting. He found something amazing, and he couldn't keep it to himself, right? So recently, this past weekend, Hannah and I love to try new restaurants, and we tried a restaurant over in Esquimalt called Siriana. It's a Syrian food restaurant, very, very good food. If you like your mouth, go there. It has good food. That's right, they're not paying me to say this, but it was good food. But the thing that's interesting to me is my response after having this delicious food is, I want to tell people, you should go experience this too. It's good, you know? And the Bible tells us to taste and see that the Lord is good, and his response when he had tasted and seen that the Lord is good is, I want to go tell somebody, and in his case, somebody very important and close to him, his brother, right? I'm sure that he loved his brother, and that's why he wanted to tell him this, and we each have loved ones in our lives, people that we want to see succeed in life. We want the best for them in life, and sometimes we can have hesitation. Maybe we found the goodness of God, but we have hesitation around sharing it with them. Maybe we're concerned that it will cause a rift in our relationship if they're not interested in God. Maybe we're concerned that they'll judge us, or maybe they'll have a million questions that we won't have answers to, and we'll be like, well, all of a sudden, I thought I found something great, but now I'm not even sure anymore because they have so many questions for me, right? It's not about knowing all the answers. It's about knowing God himself. He has answers. Don't worry about having all the answers. You don't have to have all the answers because what Andrew did was just tell him and bring him, right? He didn't give him a million answers. He brought him to Jesus, and I think that's beautiful, right? So Peter was told by someone close to him as we move to him now, and when he came to Jesus, Jesus gave him a new name. You will be called Cephas, which is translated as Peter. You know you're not about to have a normal friendship when the first thing that happens when you meet somebody is like, oh, oh, your name is so-and-so. It isn't anymore. It's this now, right? That's not a normal human interaction, I think we can say. I think if I met somebody, the first thing they said to me is, oh, Chris, well, I'm calling you Jiminy Cricket now, you know? I would be like, what? Who do you, what? Right? I would be confused, and I'd probably be off-put, but he wasn't off-put by this at all, and I think it also feeds into the culture of the Jewish people, and in the Bible, you have to understand that having a name change is always significant in the Bible. It's not just a nickname for fun, you know? Cephas meant rock. He wasn't just like, oh, you're like a rock, you know? You're like Dwayne Johnson, you're like the rock, you're really strong, you know? I've just got a new nickname for you. No, he was speaking towards a new calling that he was putting on Peter, right? And Peter, as we see later in the Bible, was one of the, Peter is an interesting person. I'm so glad Peter was chosen as a disciple of Jesus, because Peter is not a perfect person. We can see, none of them are, none of the disciples were, but it's really obvious with Peter, right? He makes a lot of mistakes, but Jesus is patient with him. He restores him and all these things, and he's one of the most instrumental people in the early church. The first person post-Jesus to preach a sermon in the early church, where 3,000 people joined after that. That's huge. God did an amazing thing through Peter, and that never would have happened had Andrew kept to himself this new Jesus that he had found. And so I just wonder how many of us have a Peter in our life, not Peter back there, we have this Peter in our life, but a Peter in our life who God has amazing things in store, amazing plans, and maybe we have not been as bold as Andrew and have been nervous to tell them, right? So after that, Jesus found, I find this one interesting, Jesus found Philip. Nobody went to him this time, right? This is different. Jesus went and found Philip. Jesus knew, the next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee, and he found Philip. It wasn't like, just like, oh, hey, he's on the side, this guy on the side of the road, I didn't expect him to see here. He's God. He knew he was going to be there. He was looking for him. He found him, right? And I also want to bring, what I want to highlight here is there are people that maybe, for circumstances and various reasons, maybe you have told. You've shared as much as you can, and they're just like, so closed off. They're not listening anymore. Maybe they're just completely out of your life now, right? And you're like, you're heartbroken for them, and you want them to meet Jesus, but you're like, who's going to tell them? I don't know, because they've completely put themselves out of contact with anybody that can. God can reach directly to a person. When he has us do it, it's a privilege. It's an honor. It's a blessing that we can get to do it, that God can jump over that. He doesn't need us to be able to reach a person. It's a privilege that we get to be a part of, right? I have a friend, an amazing young man who has done mission trips over in the Middle East, primarily, and he was in Egypt one time, and he met this woman who had been living out in the desert, zero contact with anybody else, like at all, over anything, and she came in to the city one day when he was there. Somehow, they got into a conversation. He speaks Arabic, and so he was able to speak with her, and she starts talking about this dream that she had where this guy showed up and told her, I am Jesus, and he laid out all of the steps of the gospel and what he did. She's like, yeah, that's really weird. Never heard of this guy. She'd never read the Bible. She'd never met a Christian. She'd never been in a church, right? And he's like, oh yeah, I know that guy too. She's like, what? Right? And they're able to have a conversation about it. Jesus came directly to that person. Now, of course, we don't want to just say, okay, Jesus can do that. I don't have to do anything now, right? Because he wants us to be a part of the joy of bringing people to this amazing thing that we have found, Jesus himself. And then Philip also told his friend Nathaniel, and I think this is the reason that some of us are more hesitant, because we're not thinking about the Peters in our life. We're thinking about the Nathaniels in our life, the person that Philip goes to Nathaniel and says, so excited. We found the guy. We found the one that Moses wrote about in the law and the prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And he's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Nazareth? All I heard was blah, blah, blah, blah, Nazareth. Nothing good can come from Nazareth. Nazareth was on the wrong side of the tracks. He had a bias, right? He had a prejudice, right? I would almost say that you could compare Nathaniel to being racist here, except that they were the same race of people. But he certainly had a prejudice. He had a bias. He had a preconceived idea of who the Messiah could be and who he could not be, and the people that he was willing to believe God could work in and the ones that he couldn't. What biases or questions or hesitations do you have that are making you hesitant to follow Jesus? Notice that Philip, this is the really interesting thing here, because this is the thing, because like I say, this is the one we're afraid of, the person who's not going to think it's a great idea, the person who's going to be like, I don't know about this, doesn't seem, doesn't seem possible to me. But notice that Philip doesn't make any attempt to argue or reason with Nathaniel. He doesn't give scientific evidence for Jesus as the Messiah or pull out the Bible and tell him the Old Testament scripture points to Jesus Christ, although there's a time and a place for both of those things. Don't get me wrong. Philip dares Nathaniel to come and see. He says, if you want to know if Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, you need to come and see for yourself. You need to meet Jesus. And so today, if you never have, I dare you to meet Jesus, to say, Jesus, I want to know you. I'm going to take you at your word. Show me yourself and let me know you. And if you're having a conversation with a Nathaniel in your life, dare them to this. My mom got saved because somebody said to her, give me one good reason why you shouldn't become a Christian. She couldn't, she couldn't think of one, so she became one. Because we can make all of the arguments that we want, but if you're willing to ask God, show up. And I'm not saying he's going to come down in bodily form in front of you, but he's going to show up in a way in your life that is going to mean something to you, that's going to connect on the language and in the way that you need to hear him. He will. I believe that. And so if you ask him to show up in your life, I believe he will. And here's the thing, here's the thing. Maybe you're like, I don't know about that. If Jesus is a fraud and you've asked him to show up in your life, all you've done is talk to the air. Okay, big deal. Maybe you look silly for a couple minutes. What have you lost? But if he is real, then you have everything to gain and your life will be changed forever. And what happened when Nathaniel did come and see, Jesus said, this is a man who seeks the truth. There's no deceit in him. He said, you're a straight shooter. And I always think this is so funny. He says, here's truly an Israelite in whom there's no deceit. And he says, how do you know me? Like, it's this big compliment, but he's not just kind of like, oh, I don't know about that. Jesus is like, yep, that sounds like you got my number. Yeah, I'm a straight shooter kind of thing, right? And when he tells him that I saw you while you were still under the fig tree, which for context, like they weren't next to each other or anything like that. So when he took for him to see him under the tree, it wasn't like he saw him off in the distance. He saw him supernaturally. And so therefore he could tell like, well, this is not a normal guy. This has to be the one that we've been waiting for, the Messiah. And so he believed. And Jesus is like, you know, oh, like you believe me? Because I told you that like, you're going to see a whole lot more than that, my friend, a whole lot more than that. And the interesting thing, I just noticed this this week, is that when it says the you in here, very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and man descending on the son of man in the Greek. I'm not a Greek scholar. I just read the footnotes in the Greek. It's plural, meaning when it says you, he isn't talking to Nathaniel exclusively. Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. He was talking to everybody there that he was talking to. He was talking to the followers of Jesus that have shown up. So how do we follow Jesus now? Following Jesus means we're called to leave everything behind. The Lord is calling his church, and again, his church is not us, it's not this building, it's not, you know, particular members of a particular organization, it's those who follow Jesus. That's the church, okay? But Jesus is calling his church to purity, to holiness. What is that? You hear people talk about holiness, and does that mean just like the sparkly shininess of God? He's holy? No. Holiness, it's not merely the idea of being well-behaved, but like when you buy a blend of coffee, you have a mixture of different beans from different sources, right? When you get single origin coffee, you get beans from one source. And Christ, Jesus, wants to be our one source. We can't continue to offer God a life that draws from sources other than him. It's not enough for Jesus to be a source, a person to follow, you know? He requires that he is our only source. We have to leave our old life behind. And I'll explain it to you another way. I have a bunch of keys in my pocket, okay? These keys, they're all keys. They all open things, or in the case of my car key, it starts my car. They're all keys. I think we can all agree on that, right? So I guess, since they're all keys, I can go start my car with this, or maybe this one. Anyone will do, right? They're all keys. No, we know that, right? There's only one key that's going to start that car. In fact, if I tried to use one of these other keys, I'd probably break the key, snap the thing off, and not be able to get the real key in anymore. I'd ruin it, right? So let me be clear. Jesus does not accept a spirituality, as I've said the last few weeks, made of a trail mix of belief and cultural mindsets and philosophies. He only accepts pure devotion to him alone. I'm not talking about perfection. I'm talking about having one focus, right? Like we prayed about at the beginning, about an undivided mind. We have to ask ourselves, are we attempting to shoehorn in other beliefs, spiritual disciplines we got from outside of Christianity? And we can't keep trying to start our car with a key that doesn't fit. We can't try to buy something with currency that isn't accepted in this country, for example. We must dedicate ourselves to God alone. And there's a lot of things that we try and do that with. And I think I've attempted to talk about this for the past three weeks now, and I've been vague because I want you guys to be able to fill in your own blanks. But I think it's helpful to get an idea of the kind of cultural mixing that we're talking about here. Here in Victoria is one of the most secular places on the continent. I said that a couple weeks ago as well. And it's very, very common to have an idea that Jesus is a good guy. He's a great key. He can open the door just like any other one. But he's the only one that can open the door. And we're trying to open the door with all these different things. And I feel like people are spiritually hedging their bets. Do you know what I mean? I feel like, well, I believe in God, but I also believe in my healing crystals. I also believe in my Tai Chi, my yoga, my Reiki, my good luck charms, my Buddha, my New Age stuff. Maybe one of them will get me in where I need to be. And God is saying, I want to be the only one. If we're going to say Jehovah Jireh, you are enough. And if he's enough, then we don't need to add anything else in. And I'm not just gunning for us when it comes to these spiritual things, because I think we do this in other ways as well. We say, you know, man, our country is going to the dogs. We just need to just, we just need to elect the one person that checks all the boxes of the things that I believe in. And I'm not trying to tell you that you shouldn't vote for people or anything like that. But I'm saying that I don't care who's in Ottawa, and I sure as heck don't care who's in the White House. I don't. And I never will. Because no matter who's in the White House and no matter who is in Ottawa, Jesus is on the throne. And I am tired of us trying to mix these things in. I am tired of us having a cult of politics. I am tired of us having a cult of spiritual but not religious, or this idea of like, we can just mix it all in and then maybe it's going to be okay. Here's the thing, and I know it sounds like I'm coming down really hard on this, but here's the thing. If Janet was up here, and she was walking over to that table, and I followed her, and Trevor was up here, and he was walking over to that exit door, can I follow them both at the same time? Like, we just know that in the natural. I can't follow both directions at the same time. So here's what I'm trying to tell you is, if you're following other things, you can't also be following Jesus. That's the thing. And this is why I'm coming down on this, to try and show us that we can't follow Jesus and. When there's an and, it means we're not following him at all. And I'm not trying to shame anyone, because there's not a single person in this room, myself included, that hasn't tried to do a little spiritual trail mix. We all do it. We all do it. We've all tried to put other things in. And I'm not gunning for anyone. If I've had conversations with you about anything that I've touched on, I'm not gunning for you. I'm gunning for the sin that wants to separate us from God. It's about all of us. It's about becoming more pure and holy to be consecrated, which means set apart for God. It's like the good dishes at home. You have the good dishes that you bring out when there's company, right? They're set apart, or if you're like me, the dishes I bring out when there's company is paper plates, but you get my point. They're set apart for specific use and purpose. And again, you may think, Chris, these things aren't that bad. Can't I do spiritual things apart from Christianity? Can you do married people things apart from your spouse? Right? Like, think about this for a second. You know a couple, they're just madly in love. Oh, they're so madly in love. But then you go and you meet one of them, and they're asking you like, you know, would it be cheating on my spouse if I did this? If you have to ask that question, it probably is. Right? You're not going to be looking at that person going like, oh yeah, they're madly in love. You know, he asks all the time, is this cheating? Is that cheating? But they're such a good couple. No, it doesn't add up. That person's no more in love with their spouse than we are with God when we ask, well, how close can I get to something before it's sin? We've been given freedom in Christ, but we should not use our freedom to get close to sin, but instead to get close to God. We have to stop cheating on God. And this is hard to swallow. I guarantee it is. But understand that God is growing His church. He's calling followers to Him, but He's repelling the darkness within us. So if there's a part of this that is making us, we're feeling repelled by this idea of this exclusive devotion to God, if there's a part, there's something in us that feels repelled by that, that is the thing that needs to be repelled. And it's a faithful thing that God is trying to do in you because He's trying to free you of that thing, to be devoted to Him. And I think it's interesting too, because a lot of people who have been Christians for a long time, especially in particular circles, are often praying for revival. And if you're not familiar with that term, it basically just means that we're talking about God refreshing us and calling us back to Him and giving us a new joy in Him and that kind of thing. But God cleans up what He's invited into. Now, notice I didn't say there that you need to get cleaned up for God to be invited in. That's not what I'm saying. You don't clean up before the maid comes and cleans it. The cleaning person comes and cleans everything, right? You're staying at the hotel and the room service is coming. You don't clean it. Some people do, but you get what I'm trying to say. But when He comes, while we don't have to clean ourselves up for God to be able to come into us, when He does come into us, you better believe He's going to start cleaning things up, right? The message is, come as you are, but don't leave as you came. He's going to start cleaning things up. God is cleaning up His house too, and the church is being cleaned up. Things and people are being removed, and I don't want to be one that's being removed. Because He will remove, if we're willing, He can remove that darkness from us, or He will remove us. And I'd rather have it removed from me, right? So let's not hang on to it. Well, let's hang on to Him. And I understand, like, look, as He's dividing these things, as He's taking them off, this is something Jesus said. He said, Do you think I came to bring priests on the earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on, there will be five in one family, divided against each other, three against two, and two against three. They'll be divided, father against son, and son against father, and mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, and the whole shebang. What is He trying to say here? I thought God came to bring peace. What is this all about, right? He's saying that as you devote yourself to me, there's going to be, He came to bring peace between man and God, mankind and God. But He came to bring division between mankind and their sin, and from those who won't reject their sin. So I understand, and this is all the more real to a lot of people, that following Jesus sometimes means a division from other things, and sometimes from people, from toxic relationships that we may have in our life. There causes a division, and that's a good thing, because He's taking off those things that don't belong there. I can't remember which famous sculptor was, but there was a famous sculptor who said that he doesn't really like, he says, I don't carve an image out of rock, like an angel or something. I don't carve it out of the rock. I free it from the rock. I cut off everything that isn't the sculpture, and that's what God is doing with us. He's cutting off everything that isn't that sculpture. We need to be like those early disciples, to immediately and literally follow Jesus, and turn from those old things. Remove those things that are unhealthy to us, those practices, those things in our lives that, you know, inappropriate, unhealthy relationships, if we have to, whatever you have to do, because the day is coming when Jesus is coming, and, well, we're going to have to stand before God, and the thing is, the question at the end of our life is going to be, what did you do with Jesus, right? Did you follow him? Did you simply believe in the idea of him? Did you have a personal relationship with him? So, what will you do tonight? As you've heard someone point out, like John, look, there is the Lamb of God. There is the Lamb of God, and there is the Son of God. Are we going to be like those early disciples, and abandon all to follow Jesus, literally? Or are we going to brush him off like Nathaniel did at first? And maybe you've brushed him off before, but like Nathaniel, you can turn that around tonight, and declare along with him to Jesus, you are the Son of God. You're my Savior and Lord Jesus. So, I understand today that I'm talking to a few different groups of people here tonight, but I have something for everyone here. I understand today that I'm saying to the Christians in the room, are you trying to follow things other than Jesus, along with Jesus, when those things can't walk the same direction as Jesus? Follow God alone, and for those who are not yet believers in this room, I want to ask you, how many keys are you going to try to unlock that door with, to start that car with? There's only one key, and his name is Jesus. And at the end of your life, God will not ask you whether or not you tried to open the door with a similar key. He will ask you, did you follow Jesus? And ultimately, if you're a, you know, a Christian is a follower of Jesus. So, whether you walked into this room believing you're a Christian or not, I don't want to ask you if you're a Christian. Not because that's not relevant, but because it's more than a, it's more than a label. It's following Jesus. I don't want to ask you if you're a Salvationist, a Baptist, a Calvinist. I don't care. Those things are wonderful, but it doesn't matter to what I'm asking you. I want to ask you, do you follow Jesus and follow him alone? So, if you'd like to take a moment with me to really just get serious about God, let's just pray together now. Lord, we, we repent for trying to mix you in with other spiritual things. Lord, meaning that we turn from the way we were doing things before, and we walk in a new direction, following only you. And Lord, that takes a huge amount of trust. Lord, we've got different ways that we have often talked about following you, believing in you, or trusting in you as our Savior, Lord. And right now, we want to ask you, we want to trust you as our Savior, as our Jehovah Jireh, believing that you are enough, that we don't need to hedge our bets, because you are the one and only. So, Father, forgive the people here. Forgive us who didn't know, when we don't know the times that we've been mixing things in, when we haven't realized that we, that we've been mixing on these other things and trying to hedge these bets, forgive us. But Lord, help us to be open, Lord. I pray that each and every one of us now, that you would show us the things, the, the attitudes, the practices, the mentalities, the, the relationships, the things in our life that have caused us to not be wholly devoted to you, Lord. Please show those things to each person, including myself, right now, Lord, so that we can be more devoted to you. I pray that we would be committed to you, Lord, and that you would give us the strength to follow through on these words that we're saying, Lord. And we acknowledge that you are God, Lord Jesus, that you died, that you rose again for us, and that you are now our Lord and our Master, which means we submit and surrender all of our life to you. In Jesus' name, amen.
