John 6 — John 6

0:00 Let's pray. Father, we we're grateful that you've given us this opportunity to open your word. We pray that those words that you would have spoken will be spoken, that the the message that you have intended will be heard. Lord, we pray that I'll get out of the way and let you speak through and we just thank you for this opportunity. In your son's name we pray, amen.

0:24 We're going to continue in in our study of John chapter six. We're gonna pick up where Ray left off a couple weeks ago. But before I do that, I'd like to just ask you one question. Because I think this is the question that's attempting to be answered here in this chapter. And and that question is a simple one, one that has been asked, will be asked, you should ask, and that we need to answer.

0:50 And and that question is, who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? That's what they're trying to figure out here. Just who is he? Now, I'm gonna give you, we're gonna read in, Matthew chapter 16 real quick here, and, starting in verse 13.

1:06 I wanted to sort of set the stage a little bit here for you as as we go forward. Verse 13 of chapter 16, Matthew says, when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked the disciples saying, Who do men say that I am or say that I, the Son of Man, am? There it is. Who is Jesus? Who am I?

1:26 So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of a spoiler alert.

2:00 That's where we're trying to go today. Okay? If we don't get there, you've heard it already. Okay? Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.

2:11 And if we don't get anything else out of this message, please try and get that out of this message. What Peter has exclaimed is what he's gonna exclaim at the end of our portion today. But let's move on with that. So let's, let's think from a high level point of view. Where have we been in John so far?

2:33 You know, Jesus was foretold by and exalted by John the Baptist. He had drawn some disciples to him, some close disciples, turned water into wine. Quick summary. Confused and challenged Nicodemus, you must be born again. He greets and amazes the Samaritan woman at the well.

2:53 Water that takes away thirst is what he offered for them or for her. He teaches several things that are hard to understand, and, he's really attempting to explain who he is. He tells about these witnesses. Does this keep popping? Do I have to move this down just a little bit?

3:11 Is that a little better? Let's see how it goes. Maybe I'm just too too wound up here. But, he teaches that there there were many witnesses, several witnesses that that foretold who he was. Not just what he's saying, but look at these other witnesses, John the Baptist, his signs, etcetera.

3:29 He heals the nobleman's son, heals the man by the Pool Of Bethesda, feeds 5,000 with just a few loaves and fishes, walks on the water and calms the sea. You know, we're only six chapters in, but he's moving along pretty fast. And, you know, if you read the other gospels, to this point, you you find a lot more detail. There's more information baked in there, boiled in there. And in only four more chapters, we're going to be at, chapter 11, where, he raises Lazarus from the dead.

4:19 We know and we've heard up until this point that John has considered what he wrote. Right? He wrote it later than the other Gospels. He he'd probably read and and and certainly had been amongst the apostles and knew what had been written. But but but then John writes this Gospel.

4:36 And he moves pretty quickly in sort of what I call a testimony. It's almost considered and rehearsed. It's a focus on Christ, and yet John writes very humbly. He writes in the third person. He doesn't name himself as the one that had put his head on the Lord's breast or the one that had beaten Peter to the tomb.

4:57 He writes about himself in a humble way. But the testimony is in the sense that, you know, just as we have a testimony. Okay? If if you you can have a testimony of your life, you can have testimony to where you came to the Lord, or, you know, how you came to the Lord. And when we give our testimony, we don't go back and say, listen, you know, there was this minute and the next minute, and then the next minute.

5:24 It's really about, you know, there was this point in life and something changed. And then that point, and and, you know, I realized. And then this point, I was humbled and I learned. And at this point, I finally could say that Jesus is Lord. And so so that's the way our testimony is.

5:44 And I I think that's the way John's stepping through this. He's saying, look, here were some things that, you know, it sort of changed my way of thinking to bring to me to understand this is the Christ, the son of the living God. So, you could consider your testimony. My testimony goes something along the lines of, I can remember the Lord, tapping my shoulder way back in Sunday school when I was a young man. My mom and dad don't go to church now.

6:13 They didn't for much of that time. But when I was young, I was in Sunday school and and, you know, you could feel the Lord tap. And then in sixth grade, there was a teacher who witnessed to me. You know, he would he was involved in Bible studies, and then, you know, I... He was calling, calling.

6:29 I went into high school and had several friends that, said, let's go to Young Life. Let's get involved in fellowship Christian athletes. Okay? And then and then finally, on that one day, 16 years old, I don't remember the exact day, but I remember sitting in study hall and saying, you know, for all that I know, I know it's not about me, and I know I can't do it myself. Lord, I need your help.

6:56 I can't I can't, walk this way alone. And then several weeks later, I can remember being at a Young Life retreat and saying, you know, them giving sort of that that gospel message again and and me realizing really directly then, that's what I did. That's what I had committed my life to the Lord at that moment. Now, that's a real short summary. And there's much in between there.

7:22 And there's been much since there. And I... My testimony, I can I can go on to tell you about how I I really, am convinced? More and more, day by day, as I see the Lord working in and amongst you, in and amongst the body here, in and the world, and how I can be more and more convinced of his, his reality and who he is and what his claim is on my life. So, we know a lot about John.

7:54 But the one thing we do know is that John wasn't the flashy one. Right? He didn't jump up and be the one to say, this is what we believe. This is where we're going. I'm going to swing this sword.

8:06 Right? He wasn't the one like Peter, but he wasn't the one like Paul either that that had the lightning bolt that came down and said, Why are you kicking against the goads? There wasn't some fantastic exclamatory point in which John finally changed. But we do know that John had a long life. He's considered, or he calls himself, the elder late in life.

8:33 Late in life, he was exiled to the Isle Of Patmos and and received the revelation. Right? And and there's something to be said for a long history with the Lord and a long consistent walk with the Lord that gives a testimony to who he was and what he did. You know, I, I appreciate things like... Or men like Billy Graham who have a long history.

9:00 And you could say that his ministry, we know a lot about because we're in this country, and he's an historical figure, he's written a lot about him. But, you know, he he gave a major testimony in his events throughout the world, and we could say that was great. He was counselor to presidents, and I think through his own admission, George W. Bush would say that, Billy Graham was instrumental in his coming to the Lord. That's excellent.

9:28 But he was faithful to the Lord and consistent over a long period of time, something that many can't say and we all hope that we can say at the end of our lives. That's priceless. And I think the same thing with John. The way that he writes and what he has to offer and the advice and just this way that he's put it together is something special. So let's get back to John chapter six.

10:10 He's done these... What we've seen so far, looks like he'd be a good king to me. Let's forcibly take him. And and the Lord walked away from that and said, no, that's not not what I'm here for. It's not not what it's about.

10:21 He responds by basically saying, You're missing the point. This is not about the physical body. It's not about the physical things that you see here. It's not about me being a king. It's about the spiritual sense here.

10:36 Not here to provide bread in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense. And, that can't come from a man. It must come from God. He said, I am God. Came from heaven to do God's will.

10:49 And you need to believe that's true. So let's read, Matthew chapter six starting in verse 41 to the end of the chapter. The Jews then complained about him or grumbled because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I've come down from heaven?

11:13 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be taught by God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the father except he who is from God, he has seen the father.

11:40 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat it, eat of it, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

12:00 If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up the...

12:31 At the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living father sent me, and I live because of the father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven.

12:52 Not as your father ate the manna and are dead, he who eats this bread will live forever. These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Verse 60. Therefore, of his disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it?

13:09 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, does this offend you? What then if you should see the son of man ascend where he was before? It is the spirit who gives life. Flesh brings... Profits nothing.

13:25 The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. And he said, therefore, I've said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

14:10 He spoke of Judas Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him, being the one of being one of the 12. Typical format here for for this chapter, know, Jesus makes some teaching and the people that are there listening to him respond with, let's kill him. Let's make him king. We can't understand. You know, it goes back and forth like this.

14:38 It's really confusing. It reminds you of, of Nicodemus, and he said, what do you mean I need to be born again? I I don't understand that. And the whole point is the the same thing with the Samaritan woman. Living water that never allows me to...

14:54 I don't understand it. So we've got to understand that we're taking physical lessons here or something in the physical world and trying to make it an example or translate it into a spiritual teaching. Okay? Over and over again, that's where people are getting confused. Now, we're trying to break this down into bite sized pieces.

15:12 I don't know about you, but when I first read this passage or this section, I I, you know, I might as well have read it this way. You know, I I have to keep keep reading and rereading and picking it apart and seeing if I can understand it a little bit more. But I would tell you that while it's all there, it's all true, and there's so much packed in there, I don't believe that the Lord expected everything to be understood at this moment. You know, it reminds me back, you know, in Luke 24, after he's been resurrected, he comes back and he he teaches them a little bit more. Okay?

15:46 And he says, listen, this is what I said. Now this is what it means. Do you understand, based on the experience you've been through in this last time, what it means now? Do you have a better understanding? You know, experience is a great teacher.

16:03 How many of you here, over 40 years old, can honestly say that now that I'm at this stage of life, I understand what my parents were trying to say? You learn some things, right? We do. Experience is a great teacher. And I can remember my dad teaching my brother and I when we were, you know, from this big to probably whatever, how big I am now.

16:28 He built his own house and he told me, he says, You know, the next house I build is gonna have a concrete floor with a drain underneath the the kitchen table. And you know what? I didn't really believe him or understand it until I had three boys sitting around the table, And I wish I had that garden hose that I could wash down the kids and then the floor. So so... But it's a it's a funny one, but my point is I can understand better after I've experienced something.

17:00 And so the Lord is laying down layers here and just piling it on. And He taught it at the appropriate time. We have the benefit of biblical hindsight. We've seen the whole thing. So we can take it and look back and understand and try to unpack some of this.

17:17 I'm sure I won't get it all today, but let's hope we can unpack a little bit of it with our hindsight too. So remember what they're confused about when they first start off this section. You know, you're from heaven? He's just a man. He's just the son of Joseph and Mary.

17:34 Right? And and and Jesus doesn't launch into a dissertation about the virgin birth and how Mary and Joseph and their... He didn't he didn't start... He didn't go back. He just said, let's move on.

18:01 I'm a man. But it's not just a message from the man. I've had witnesses before, but now I'm telling you that you've heard this someplace else. You are hearing something else. You are hearing from the Lord.

18:14 The Lord is going to draw you in. The Lord is going to reach out and make what you're listening to, what I'm saying, understandable. He is going to reach. He is going to draw you. He is already drawing you.

18:31 He is trying to reach you. Then he says... He compares himself to bread. Now, bread, in the physical sense, is wheat, beaten into a fine grain or fine powder, combined with water, many times baked. It's nourishment for the body or the flesh.

18:48 Right? In spiritual sense, Jesus' body was broken. Right? And tested, in a fiery sense, if you will, and used for everlasting life. Okay?

19:01 The provision of the bread was something very special. You remember the manna that was provided in Exodus 16? They talked about how the Israelites were complaining. They, oh man, you brought us out in the wilderness just to kill us. We don't even have anything to eat here.

19:21 And Moses says, no, the Lord's going to provide for you. And here's how He's going to provide. Every morning, you're going to go out. You're going to be able to get that manna. You're going be able to take it, and you're going to be able to make it into bread.

19:35 Okay? And on the Sabbath, you're going to get twice as much, but don't keep any extra. Because if you get any extra, what happened to it? It smelled. It had worms in it.

19:48 It rotted, right? It was no good. He was going to provide what you needed for that day. The thing and he keeps repeating this example. And he reminds them that, look, you think you'd like to see that?

20:01 And they were like, yeah, that would be great. Something like that is what we're looking for. We'd like to see bread, right? We'd like to see you provide bread for us. And he's saying, well, you know, you're still not getting it.

20:19 But he's trying to break this misconception. Right? That it's not just about physical sense. Okay? It's about this spiritual message that I'm trying to do, trying to come up with.

20:31 You know, he didn't just come to heal. Many remained ill. He didn't just come to feed. On a good day, it says he fed 5,000 people, but there were millions on the earth. Right?

20:44 He didn't come to be used by the people to gather wealth for them, or to make them protected, or, you know, on earth. He came to show those signs so that they could tell who he was. See, if He had just come and fed them, or just come to heal them, at the end of the day, just like those that ate the manna, they would die. They were going to die. They were going be dead physically.

21:12 That was a physical bread that he provided for them, a physical meal, right? But don't forget, he provided that until they got into the Promised Land. Who didn't go into the Promised Land? A whole generation. What did they eat?

21:29 The manna. They all died. Okay? He's saying, this is a different life. This isn't the physical life.

21:37 It's a spiritual life that you can have forevermore. He came to accomplish God's purpose, not man's. So he layers on a little bit more next. He says, not only am I from heaven, and the father in heaven is going to explain it to you. I got a little ahead of my notes here.

22:28 We have a saying in our culture, in our language, that says something like, That's a little hard for me to swallow. What you just said is a little hard for me to swallow. Right? And what does that mean? You know, it's an idea.

22:42 Right? It's an idea that gets stuck right here. It's something that I can't quite figure out. Right? Well, the Lord's saying, this is something you need to swallow.

22:51 Okay? You need to eat this. It's an idea. My body is here for a purpose. And what is that purpose?

22:58 It's to be used on your behalf. In order for you to believe, you need to understand that concept. Okay? You need to be able to swallow that idea. You can't choke on it.

23:10 You need to have... You need to understand it. You need to consume that thought. You know, this isn't hard for us to understand today. Again, we have this biblical hindsight that we're looking at.

23:22 We can look through. But imagine them sitting there with their mindset. What was their mindset? We're looking for a king who's gonna provide us bread, maybe some protection. No worries.

23:37 And he's saying, you have to think about my body that's going to be given for you. So he doesn't stop there. He piles it on a little bit harder. And he said, Not only is it my body, but also my blood. Now, in the culture of the day and in what we know of Jewish history, we know that blood refers to one thing.

24:03 Right? Loss of life and sacrifice. So, again, picture the people standing there listening to them and thinking, wait a minute, this is the guy that we wanted to follow. Excuse me. And he's the one that isn't saying, come on, let's go.

24:24 I'm gonna live, I'm gonna lead, I'm gonna... Now what he's saying is, you need to consume my body. You need to drink my blood. And all he can mean is that he's gonna die. Is that the one we wanna follow?

24:39 And so, you can imagine him being confused and difficult. But we certainly can see this as a foreshadowing. Right? That he is foreshadowing or telling the future, I am going to be sacrificed on your behalf. I am going to, I'm going to die.

24:58 And, in some ways, isn't that what we remember every week? That we have this, remembrance meeting where we remember his body broken on our behalf and his blood shed on our behalf, sacrificed that justice could be served on our behalf so that it didn't have to be served out on us. So again, we can look back through that, film and see what he's referring to here. And he laid this groundwork early. He taught this lesson early.

25:35 He really is telling them, look, you need to understand this someday. Here's the teaching. Learn learn it as we go forward. He taught in the open. They said that this teaching was done in the synagogue in front of the rulers, in front of many of the, learned people of the day.

25:52 It wasn't like he was sitting in the in the cave somewhere writing these things down. He died and, you know, left them. It was out in the open. And what's the response of these, people that are listening to it? Who can understand this?

26:07 What is he really saying? Did I really hear you right? Did I really hear you right when you said, you're going to sacrifice your life? How does this allow you to lead us? And he answers the question and says, yep, you heard me right.

26:41 What if you saw the son of man return to heaven right here? Would I be here to lead you? Well, that would be the same sense. No. I'm not I'm not here to lead you on earth.

26:51 I'm here to sacrifice on your behalf. And so, it's not the body that's profiting, it's this message and what the purpose of the body is that you need to understand. You're not getting the point. Then Jesus says, look, I'm gonna read verse 64. It says, but there are some of you who do not believe.

27:19 For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. All this teaching, all this understanding, all these signs, and now we get to a watershed moment. Okay? In a sense, you know what the watershed is? You ever drive across the Turnpike?

27:41 Then there's a big sign that says, You are now leaving the Mississippi River watershed. Well, what does that mean? The Mississippi River is not around here. Well, what it means is there's a top of the hill there, right? And the raindrop that falls on one side of the hill slowly gathers steam, it ends up in the Mississippi River, right?

27:59 The one that drops on the other side of the hill ends up in the Great Lakes. That's the difference between a watershed. Something changes here, one versus the other. And here's the point that Jesus is now saying. He knew it from the beginning.

28:13 He knew all along that what would happen? Some would believe. Some wouldn't. That's a big difference. You know, when when they were thinking about Moses.

28:27 When Moses left, who did he take with them? All the Jews. Right? He took them all. It was a heritage thing.

28:35 And he was given that picture then. Everybody's going, come on. Everybody leaves. And they were run out in a sense, right? Everybody's going.

28:45 In this case, that was for physical life. Your physical life is going to be spared. Everybody that was spared is leaving. Now, everybody that believes is going to the eternal life. Okay?

29:02 We had to believe. Paradox of all time. You can be confronted with the creator of the universe and make a choice to say, yes or even no. And that's that's a hard thing for us to understand, but that Lord gives us that free will to make that choice. The opportunity for us to choose to follow him is an important thing.

29:37 And it's an important thing that we have to exercise on his terms. Okay? He set the terms. Okay? It's my son's sacrifice that's made for you.

29:53 You have to accept that. Not what you want. You can't set the terms here. You can't say, well, give us the bread, but nothing else. If you want salvation, it's on my terms, not your terms.

30:12 We're not giving up our choice. We're exercising it when we do that. So, we finally come to the point where g... Or Peter says again, you have the words of eternal life. He's not just a deliverer of good works in this physical life.

30:35 We have come to believe, and that's what the Lord has been preaching for this whole section. You must believe this. You must believe this. And that's where we find Peter and others presumably, John and others, not all, that say, we do. We have come to believe that.

30:54 We have come through a process. We now believe that. That who? That what? You are the Christ.

30:59 The one that has been told from before and now the one which will deliver the... Deliver us. One... The one that has been prophesied about. And that it is a requirement for eternal life.

31:13 And then, you are the son of the living God, equal with God and from God. So these are the points that has been taught throughout this chapter. And and Peter is giving the evidence that some understood it. A concise summary of what he's been trying to teach. That is it.

31:35 But one didn't. Actually, many didn't. It says from that point forward, many turned and walked to the back, walked away, turned their backs on him and said, we don't believe. We choose not to believe. Okay?

31:55 And then he makes an example out of one. Okay? He distinguishes between the 12. Right? There's many, and now we're down to 12.

32:03 He says, But even amongst you, there's one that would not believe. And this is where theologians and people do a lot of debate. Right? And and I I don't wanna I don't wanna go too far down this path, but, they use big words like, you know, predestination and election. Look, it's it's about this.

32:24 Let's let's try and break it down without making it trite. Okay? Does God choose or do we choose? Does God choose or do we choose? And the answer has to be yes.

32:41 Okay? You can't you can't get away from both. You see in here that that God grants, God draws. Right? And yet, the Lord says, He believes, we must believe.

32:52 Now think of God choose, we choose as two goalposts. Okay? It's in there. How close they are, how far apart they are, it's in there. Okay?

33:05 Both have to be true. If we give up one, we give we say that God's not sovereign. He can't make decisions about what we're going to do and what's going to happen. If we give up the other, it means that we have no free will. Right?

33:20 And we can't choose. But yet, he says, we must believe. Okay? To quote one of my favorite movies, Facing the Giants, you can't go wide right or wide left. You've got to be in there, though.

33:51 It's an important thing on how you pick what's good and what's not good, and that kind of thing. Right? But I think the the analogy you'll use and forgive me because every analogy we use to describe the Lord and how He acts is short in some way. But but but do any of you remember that skit by Lucille Ball? Do you remember where she's standing on the conveyor line and she's picking the chocolates up?

34:16 Right? And here they go by and she's thinking, this is kind of fun. And pretty soon, she's trying to eat them. And whatever she can do to get I can't keep up with them. But but think of think of this as a sorting process.

34:28 Right? What is she picking up? Or or or what is the Lord trying to think of? As as these people, as we people go rushing by, is he trying to find those that are defective? Or is he trying to find those that are good?

34:45 Is he pick... Which is he picking? Is he picking bad or good? I think good. He's looking and saying, these are the terms I've set.

34:55 You must believe in my son and what he's done. Okay? And now, you get that chance. And and and he's gonna grant saying, this is the one that believed. This is another that believed.

35:09 This is yet another. And he's so happy that we have and that we do. And then we can have that understanding when we first believe that we have eternal life. Okay? And he chooses to grant us that entrance into heaven.

35:25 As opposed to saying, I'm not gonna allow this one to believe, or I'm not gonna allow that one to believe. I think there's a difference. Okay? And I choose to believe that He gives us every opportunity to believe. And why do I think that?

35:42 Well, I think of it because of verses like second Peter three:nine that says, He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But he also says, among you 12, among the 12 of you that are listening to me today, I know what's going to happen, but what could he have done at that moment? Get out now. Right? But no, John does an interesting job of talking about Judas.

36:14 Right? And and he talks about him more than I think any of the other, Gospels. And and he puts his little bit of, judge... Judgment's not the right word. But he puts a little bit of his disappointment into his writing about talking about Judas.

36:31 This is where he starts. He said, he knows there's one. Judas is the one that would betray him. Okay? Chapter 12.

36:40 We read about how Judas was the one that was disappointed about the vial that was broken to anoint the Lord. Right? And it says that he had a motive for that. It's because he wanted it to be sold so that he could get his hand in the till, and he would get some money out of that. He felt.

36:59 That's what John, tells us and explains a little bit about that. Right? Chapter 13 tells us about the Last Supper and how the Lord sent Judas off. Go. Do what you will or do what you're going to do.

37:16 And then chapter 18, he comes back to betray the Lord with a kiss in the garden that was somewhat of a a private setting, and he brought them to the the people, the guards back to capture him. And and yet, Judas was there and had his feet washed. Judas saw the humility of the Lord. Judas saw he had a front row seat to to all this. He had every opportunity, I'd like to think, to believe.

37:46 The Lord is patient and unwilling that nobody should perish. And I think he demonstrates that in the way that he handled this betrayer. So let's wrap this up. And let me ask you again. We started this way.

38:07 We're going to finish this way. Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus to you? Have you come to the realization like Peter? That that he has words of eternal life, not just his physical life?

38:24 Have you have you come to believe in that? He is the Christ, the one foretold in the scriptures, prophesied about the Son equal with the living God. If you have, then what does that mean to your life now? What does that mean for you going forward? It's a great place to be starting, but we still need to go forward.

38:50 That means something to us. It means it makes a claim on our lives going forward. But if you haven't, if you haven't come to that realization, there's a reason that you're here. Okay? And that is that the Lord's drawing you.

39:05 The Lord is tapping your shoulder. The Lord is... For some reason, this could be part of your testimony. And I remember when, I remember... Because his scriptures are one way of telling about him.

39:23 Testimony of other believers is another way that he demonstrates, his power and and that he is there. But it's also this this idea that if you can look back through your life, and and many of us who who say we have come to that realization can look back through our life, and we can't string those things together without thinking somebody greater than me has been tapping on my shoulder all through this time. And that's further evidence of who he is and what he's doing to try and reach you. So we can't leave the question unanswered. We answer it no matter what.

40:06 We answer it, yes, I believe. If we answer it any other way, it means, no, I reject. It's that simple. Are we going to choose to believe and follow Him forward with whatever might happen? Or are we going to choose to walk away and reject Him?

40:27 The Lord is pleading here and demonstrates, I believe, that he is not willing that any should perish, that he is very patient and not willing that anybody should be lost to reject him. So, if he's tapping on your shoulder today, don't ignore it. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful, Lord, that you've drawn us, you reach out to us, that that you have in many ways presented yourself to us, Lord. And we thank you for your son who is taught many things in this chapter and and and all that he was and all that he is.

41:32 Amen.