John 1:29 – The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
The world has been waiting SO long for this moment and John the Baptist has the privilege to introduce Jesus – Behold, here He is. (what a moment for John) What a highlight that day must have been..
He even baptized Jesus. What an honor! What a day.
Fast forward 16 months to Mat 11 – John is in prison because of King Herod, and King Herod’s wife demanded his head on a plate.
In this time John gets some of his disciples and sends them to Jesus to ask “Do you not know that I am in prison? Ask Him if He is the one, or do I need to look for another?
John was the one to introduce Jesus, but now his circumstances have changed and he is starting to wonder…
The disciples find Jesus doing miracles. The ask Him, but He does not directly answer the question: “You tell John what you are seeing and hearing… The lame are walking, the blind are seeing, lepers are cleansed, the deaf are hearing”
And then Math 11:7, 12 – As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John (how great he was)… “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist;”
Jesus gave a message on John than John did not hear and probably never heard.
Imagine how this would have encouraged John if his disciples would have told him “John, Jesus was doing miracles and in the middle He stopped and started telling the people that you were the greatest man ever born…”
But John’s disciples have left already. And Jesus was bragging about John, and John probably never heard this, because he died soon after.
Maybe you are in a bad spot like John, in a spiritual cell, maybe you are caught up in something
If John heard what Jesus was saying about him:
You are doing better than you think you are. (turn to someone and say…)
Someone needs to hear this morning that God is thinking differently about you than what you are thinking of yourself.
You are on a journey: Don’t stop moving. Don’t stop going.
Eccl 3 – 28 times and seasons in life
Ecclesiastes 3 (NKJV)
Everything Has Its Time
3 To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
4 A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
A time to give up and a time to keep going
5 A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
8 A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.
This is no time to quit in here. Time for everything, but no time to quit.
The word this morning: You are doing better than you think you are.
How do you know this: Well you are here this morning aren’t you?
You are here listening to a preacher. You are here to listen to God’s word. You are here because you are on a mission to know God more intimately.
And if you do fall, get up and beat the accuser to the throne of grace.
Don’t you quit. Don’t you give up.
Job het feitlik alles verloor wat vir hom belangrik was – Ons almal weet van die VERSKRIKLIKE dinge wat hom oorgekom het.
Dink julle Job kon dink “God het my nie lief nie”?
Dink julle Job kon dink “As dit is wat God toelaat, wil ek hom nie dien nie”?
Natuurlik – maar dinge was heeltemal anders – Want daar was n gesprek in die hemel wat Job nie gehoor het nie “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
Hoeveel keer twyfel ons soms in die Here, of in ons self – terwyl die Here op daardie oomblikke gesprekke van hoop oor ons het, maar ons is so in die “nou” vasgevang dat ons realiteite anders is.
Maar Sy gedagtes oor ons is anders oor ons. You are doing better than you think you are.
2. Waking up your faith
2 Cor 4:17-18
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Fixing our eyes on the seen will surely bring us down.
This verse talks about the paradox of looking at the invisible. (look at something unseen / invisible)
What is the unseen?
If you were “looking” at the unseen, you were just “looking” with spiritual eyes to what is beyond this school hall. Even to what is beyond this world.
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Please close your eyes.
2 Cor 5:7
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
I dare you to get up after service and to close your eyes and walk back to your car without looking, totally blinded. It will be hard, totally unnatural.
Yet what comes so natural to us is exactly what we should not do.
Our life cannot be determined by what we see.
The verse does not use the word run, but walk is used.
Running makes us tired quickly. Walking, we can continue longer.
We have to walk this life by faith.
We also do not sit by faith. Walking implies to keep going.
Keep going by FAITH and NOT by sight.
Do not focus your eyes on the seen…
You can open your eyes.
Are these new scriptures to you? NO. Have you heard these scriptures / principles before? YES.
Maybe someone here is in a situation and you are walking by sight.
And you need to hear that to be “Up” in a “Down” situation, you cannot afford to walk by sight.
In a “down” world, we cannot live by what we see.
Rom 10:17 “faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God”
Faith comes by hearing and hearing… and hearing and hearing the word of God.
Faith does not just look at facts – faith looks at situations that look like defeat and yet respond to what is heard from heaven and not what you are seeing.
Will your day be determined by what you see, or by what you are hearing from heaven?
I will fix my eyes on the unseen and not on the seen.(repeat)
3. Being weak is being strong
Psa 16:11 – You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Increasingly today, people are being diagnosed by doctors with a condition called Anhedonia
The inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable things.
An – without – Donia – pleasure (Greek word)
Anhedonia is a recently identified issue where people suffer from over stimulation. It is suggested by some researchers that our ability to enjoy pleasurable activities can become exhausted, resulting in an inability to enjoy the little pleasures in life because of this overstimulation. The danger is that we can have drug like dependency in seeking more and more pleasure, resulting finally in an inability to enjoy those things that initially gave great pleasure.
We are a society that wants to be entertained. It takes more and more extreme things to grab our attention.
We hate boredom and being still… we fear being still…
And yet the Lord says in Psa 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.
Exo 14:13 – Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
Exo 14:14 – The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.
Be still:
Cause yourself to let go
Let yourself become weak
Become weak?? NO
We can never show that we are weak.
But the Christian believer finds his / her strength when we become weak in the presence of the Lord.
In a down world, we are strong when we can let go, when we can become weak and know that He is God.