March 3, 2019 "I'm A Believer", Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley

beloved I want you to know something God is not in the habit of making empty promises don't you bow and be in prayer with me consecrate me now to that service Lord by the power of grace divine let my soul look up with a steadfast hope and my will be lost in dying in Jesus name we pray amen brother sisters for this entire month of March as we make our way towards the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus we're going to be hanging out in the Gospel of John I'm gonna invite you this morning to hear reading from the first chapter of the Gospel of John reading in the New King James Version beginning in verse number 43 once you found John chapter 1 verse 43 if you're physically able would you stand with us that together we might reverence the reading of the word of God beginning in the 43rd verse of the first chapter of the fourth book of the New Testament John chapter 1 beginning in verse 43 the following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said to him follow me now Philip was from Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter Philip found Nathanael and said to him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph and Nathanael said to him can anything good come out of Nazareth Philip said to him well come and see Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him instead of him behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit Nathanael said to him how do you know me Jesus asked him said to him before Philip called you when you were under the fig there I saw you Nathanael answered and said to him rabbi you are the son of God you are the king of Israel jesus answered and said to him because I said to you I saw you under the fig tree do you believe you will see greater things than these and he said to him most assuredly I say to you hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man there's a whole lot of meat on that bone do me a favor look at somebody next to you tell them neighbor Oh neighbor I don't know about you but I'm a believer you may be seated in the presence of the Lord one common question that is asked of those who begin the serious study of Scripture a question that some of us may still have within our heads and hearts today that's never been answered it's a simple biblical question why are there four Gospels why does your Bible contain four stories of the life of Jesus Christ and when one reads the Gospels of Matthew Mark Luke and John another question evolves why are they so different if all four writers are telling the same story of the same person what is the accounting for the variation in details and chronicling of the itinerary of Jesus why their subtle differences in the same stories well in case you've never been taught and maybe you've forgotten the answer to why their four Gospels can be attributed to a few things number one recall it remember that each writer is addressing a different group of people they're writing to different congregations and different communities and what they write and how they write is directly impacted by to whom they're writing Matthew writes to a predominantly Jewish audience Luke to a Gentile crowd and they flavor the story of Jesus differently based upon whom they're dressing also you must remember that after the death of Jesus there was no immediate urgency to write his life down on paper the original disciples believed that Jesus would be back before they died and so rather than writing the story of Jesus the story of the life of Jesus was orally transmitted it was shared in conversation one to another people talked among themselves about what Jesus did and the miracles he had performed and his death and his resurrection but after 40 years it became apparent that Jesus was not coming back as soon as everyone thought and so 40 years after the death of Jesus marked the first gospel writer sits down to put the life of Jesus out of the oral space and onto paper because you and I both know what happens when you put it out there orally and you begin to share it in conversation the longer it remains in conversation the more the details change and so the Gospel writers wanted to solidify the story of Jesus so that successive generations of Christians would have a verified account of the life of Jesus and so as they're sitting writing they are pulling down stories that they've heard in the oral transmission and one of the things John lets us know in our scripture reading for the entire month in John chapter 20 is that everything that Jesus did is not written in the Gospels that there's no way to contain everything that the Lord does as a matter of fact when you read the last verse of the last chapter of the Gospel of John John declares that there's no way for any book to tell you everything that Jesus did and if you get that then you know that every author is selected choosing what stories to tell about Jesus based on their agenda that the writers are not only guided by the audience the writers are also guided by their agenda Matthew writing to a Jewish crowd pulls down the stories of Jesus and flavors them with some Judaic tones so that the Jewish crowd would understand that Jesus is the Messiah who Moses and the prophets spoke about Luke pulls down stories that he shares with a Gentile crowd to let them know that the gospel is not locked in or limited to the Jews but that Jesus was intentional about sharing his good news outside of the Judaic circle so the Gentiles would know they too can freely enter into the kingdom of God don't each pastor Wesley mark pulls down the actions of Jesus he leaves out the speeches of Jesus because mark wants you to know who Jesus is not by what he says but by what he does because actions speak louder than words and then there's John who says in chapter 20 everything I'm writing I'm writing so that you might believe and if you believe in Jesus you can have life in his name belief belief belief believing is at the core of the Gospel of John when you go home and you read John 1 through 21 I want you to underline every time you see the word believe and you will find out that John makes reference to believing and receiving Jesus 98 times more than any of the other Gospels combined John makes it clear this gospel is about whether you believe that Jesus is the Christ matter of fact he lays it out in the beginning of his Gospel chapter 1 in the prologue he says in verse 11 in verse 12 he says Jesus came to his own and his own did not receive him but to those who believed in him he gave them the power to be the sons and the daughters of God and those two verses are really the table of contents for the rest of the Gospel of John that scene after scene chapter after chapter page after page the Gospel of John focuses on scenarios where Jesus interacts with somebody and the question on the table is do you now believe who Jesus is he raises the dead and asked do you believe Who I am he feeds 5,000 says is that enough for y'all to trust in me he opens blinded eyes to ask do you now believe in Who I am as a matter of fact you can't get out of chapter one without the question of belief putting right in your face it's the question of believing and discipleship watch how the story goes down Jesus was walking in Galilee and one day he passes by John the Baptist and John tells his followers that's the Lamb of God I've been telling you all about barber says the two of the disciples who were following John now start following Jesus one of them is named Andrew let the church say Andrew Andrew is about to become a disciple of Jesus and Andrew is so amazed by this Jesus that Andrew says I can't keep it to myself he runs and gets his brother named Simon who you better know s Peter let the church say Peter when Jesus sees Peter Jesus says alright you follow me nah Gattu the next day Jesus is walking and the Bible says that he calls Phillip and Philip says yes because Philip sees that Andrew and Peter his homeboys from his town are following Jesus so Philip decides to follow Jesus and Philip is so amazed by Jesus that Philip goes and gets Nathaniel I want you to see this huh Andrew got Peter Peter got Philip Philip got Nathanael because anytime you really love the Lord and know how good god is you are not content to keep it to yourself but you got to go tell somebody else Philip goes get the thing this way says Nate we have found the Christ the one written about in the word his name is Jesus he's the son of Joseph and he's from Nazareth right around the corner Nathanael looks back and he doubts and listen to what he says can anything good come out of Nazareth y'all it's a shame when where you're from limits people ability to see who you can be can have anything good come out of the southside of Galilee and Nathaniel doubts and in order to become a disciple there's some things he's got to believe and when you read the rest of this text it's tailored to teach us what disciples need to believe that if you're going to follow the Lord and if you're gonna claim Jesus is the lord of your life if you gonna come to church every Sunday if you don't carry a Bible if you can get a tattoo of Jesus a name on your neck then at some point there's some things you've got to believe if you're going to follow the Lord here's what you got to believe three things I'm gonna drop rowing you get out your way number one the first thing this text teaches us is that if you would follow Jesus you've got to believe that what God said you're going to see let me drop that on you again then whatever God said God's gonna show whatever God promised God is going to before whatever God declared God is going to do beloved I want you to know something God is not in the habit of making empty promises God does not waste words with things he has no intention of doing that whenever God speaks God is going to do whatever God said I wish I had a Bible reader who knows you can't even get out of Genesis 1 without finding out that when God says let it be it shall be so that if God said it you ought to believe it I'm so grateful tympani sang that song God said it I believe it because if God speaks it God's going to do it and God will show you what God said watch it watch it watch it here it is Philips estimate annual listen Jesus is it he's the one written about in the word Nathaniel doesn't believe so Philips answer is we'll come see with your own eyes because when you find it hard to believe what you've heard God will set up a scenario for you to see what he said come here come here come here I'm glad God does that because of the truth be told there's some moments in life when believing what we heard is hard it's gotten so bad so many folks stand against you the doctor said what couldn't you ain't got enough money it's hard to believe that it's gonna work together for you good it's hard to believe the Lord will make a way out of this is hard to believe God can turn this thing around it's hard to believe that God will heal you and God says whenever you doubt what I've said I want to show you that I can do what I said I'm going to do beloved that's why you ought to read your Bible so that you can know what God said and every time you read your Bible you know what it's like it's like going to a movie and you go to a movie to see what you pay for but the benefit and blessing is that if you get there early you get to see some sneak previews I love previews I go to the movie to see previews I've taken my kids and I make them go early we get there a half hour before the movie starts and they're always mad can the why why we got to get here early why we got to come a half hour before the movie so we can see previews my youngest son suddenly one day dad why do you get so excited about the previews it's not even the film that's in the show right now I said the reason I get excited about the preview is that I found out they never show you a preview until the production is already done the movies already been filmed the script has already been written the actors have already been hired the scenes have already been cast and when you want to preview all you're watching is a production that's on the way can I tell you why you ought to read your Bible all things work together that's a production that's all the way they that wait on the Lord that's a production would you know somebody telling me it's all the way every promise God made is on the way now now Siobhan I got bad news you shouted too early because what I'm about to say is gonna quiet some folk watch the text Nathaniel doubts Philip says come and see he invites meThe annual to come see the word that has been fulfilled in Jesus Philip invites the Nathaniel to see that God has done what God said he would do but you got to see it in somebody else first that the first performance of a promise isn't another person that God's invitation to see God's work is not first revealed in your life it's revealed in you seeing it in the life of somebody else that that's why you need to come to church that's why you need a church home so that when life gets rough and you begin to doubt the Word of God that ain't the Sunday to sit at home that's the Sunday you ought to push yourself into the house of God so you can see what God is able to do can I preach right here so when your pastor gets all excited and gets to that point in the sermon when he hollers is there anybody here and folks start standing up and shouting That's not me trying to manipulate some praise that's me trying to give you evidence that God is able to do what God said he's going to do is there anybody here who knows he answers prayer he delivers from storm he heals our body so when you see people bearing witness of what God has done don't let it anger you let it excite you now I just preached the brother sit down and sister not stand up right over there cus because there's somebody on your Pew who's saying this reverent hold on hold on how is somebody else shouting I suppose encouraged me huh because you know it really really don't take all of that I came over here cuz y'all was Alfred Street if I wanted Pentecostal a lot of been in South East you not I crossed the bridge for YouTube I passed fo churches this shout all day long and if the truth be told you know there's some folk they praise God so much let's be honest they get on your nerves why she always got to shout you can set your watch you know in about three more minutes she's gonna be running and he gets on your nerves and you're wondering how are you supposed to be encouraged by somebody else shouting let me see if I explained it like this I finally figured out a way to make it clear my oldest son deuce he's his basketball player and he's getting good he's getting I'm watching him he's growing he's getting good he's almost 6 3 now and we just found out after playing JV they're gonna bring him up to varsity next year as a sophomore he's going up to varsity and so we had a meeting with with the varsity head coach and varsity head coach that's what he said to my son he said listen I love that you're cool calm guy I love your demeanor in the hallway I love it that you're nice to folk he said but but on the court I need you to have an attitude I need you to be aggressive I need you to be angry because you play better when you're angry I need you to get rough and tough and I'm sitting there and Jeff I figured it out his problem is that he's played too much on hardwood indoor with air conditioned yeah he he's played AAU two months so I made a decision that said since since we got to grow this summer I'm I'm gonna help you grow and we we gonna go play in the neighborhood cuz if you're gonna be a baller you learn in the neighborhood oh concrete with metal nets and a broken backboard and no referee calling fouls and a whole lot of folk talking in your ear you got to learn to play in the neighborhood so I decided the other day i'ma take him to the neighborhood we cross bridge with over in PG right there in Oxon Hill yes sir we you gonna play in the neighborhood I took into the neighborhood and uh there's some fellas play in the neighborhood and I dropped him off time to be a man got to be a man got to be a man you need to play where nobody cares what your last name is come on I dropped him off I said listen I'm going to the store to get some Gatorade I'll be back in a little bit I stayed gone for about half hour I came back to the neighborhood and there he was on the side of the court watching the game I said to mr. doose have you played yet he said no I said what's going on he says I like this game they're they're rough they're tough they're going at it I'm enjoying this game I said why haven't you gotten in yet he said ain't nobody picked me yet I said son that ain't how you get in the game [Applause] when you play in the neighborhood you got to go to the side of the court and holla I got next that's how you get in beloved the next time you see somebody shouting in church don't get mad don't get angry run over next to her and I got next if not doing it for you I got next if God's blessing you I got if you find somebody hollering nudge them and tell them I get next [Music] [Applause] I want you to believe that what he said you're gonna see but you're gonna see it in somebody else and all you got to say is I got next I want you to believe God's gonna do what God said here's the second thing you have to believe not only that you'll see what he said but what's the second thing you need to believe Nathaniel you need to believe that the Lord knows everything about you there's nothing about you the Lord doesn't know Nathaniel is walking towards Jesus and Jesus seemingly gives him a compliment he says here's a man in whom there is no deceit it sounds like the Lord is applauding Nathaniel but when you read it in the original Greek this what it really says here is a man in whom nothing is hidden no matter how hard he tries he can't hide it because when the Lord looks at us the Lord sees everything Lord knows what's in your heart the Lord knows what's in your head the Lord knows what keeps you up at night the Lord knows the aching your knees and the pain in your back the Lord knows the enemy all around you the Lord knows what you struggle with the Lord knows what you're tempted by the Lord knows what makes you angry the Lord knows what you haven't forgiven the Lord knows the error in your life you're still growing in the Lord knows where the deficiency of your spirit is the Lord knows the mistakes you've made the Lord knows everything about you now if you get that I got I got some good news and I got some bad news I got some good news and I got some I got some good news and I got some bad news here's the bad news the Lord knows everything about you ah the Lord knows where your holy and he knows where your hell bound he knows where your sanctified and he knows when your sinful he knows where your righteous and he knows when your ratchet the Lord knows everything about you which is why it really don't make sense not to confess your sins to the Lord because the Lord knows anyway the bad news is the Lord knows everything about you here's the good news the Lord knows everything about you great great and the shout is he knows everything about you and he calls you anyway he knows everything about you and he loves you anyway he knows everything about you and he claims you anyway now the reason you ain't shouting yet is did you ever remember people will reject you on what they think they know but the Lord loves you with everything he already knows there are people who don't know anything about you and don't want to have nothing to do with you and then there's a God who knows everything you struggle with everything you've failed in and that God loves you anyway he knows me and loves me anyway you know when this really hit me it hit me the other day I'm out running I'm now that the weather's breaking I'm trying to get back in rhythm for a half marathon and and when I run like many of you when you work out I have playlists that I listen to the music helps helps get me going it it krunk's me up there's some music that just makes me want to work out and ain't none of the gospel I'm just gonna be honest a child [Applause] Amazing Grace does nothing for me when I need to work out so I've got all these different playlists and the other day I went out running and I pulled up a new playlist that I made with all my favorite songs from one artists eye I created a playlist machine from Beyonce yeah yeah Beyonce uh she inspires me to uh to run on you understand it there's just some about beat it that make me want to put the miles behind me and leave all my cares and the way I just I love me listen mr. Beyonce and I I put all my favorite music up on the I first put my favorite Yonsei song love on top you know maybe it's you you're the one I love you you're the one I need you're the only one I see come on baby it's you you y'all know that that thing just get me running then I had up green come on you know I I love jay-z and Beyonce together and Jay say baby how you go upgrade me what's higher than number one you know I I just like that and then then I put on her cold-blooded songs you know the best thing I never had I wanted you back I'm so through with that cuz turned out you were the best thing I never had that that thing got me going and then then came some irreplaceable or love me some irreplaceable uh you must not know about me you you must not know about me uh I can have another you in a minute matter of fact he'll be here in a minute ah I like some irreplaceable and then song came on that I hadn't heard before called flaws and all if you've never heard it I want you to listen to it not on Sunday because there's some stuff from there you shouldn't be listed - on the Lord's Day but uh flaws and all listen to the lyrics I'm a train wreck in the morning and I can be a something else in the afternoon all of a sudden without warning I can be real mean to you I'm a puzzle yes indeed complex in every way all the pieces ain't even in the box yet you see the picture clear as day I don't know why you love me but that's why I love you in the song Beyonce acknowledges I am far from perfect I'm not what I should be I'm complicated I'm confusing I messed things up and yet you look at me and you love me anyway in the middle of running I had to stop and start shouting I said god that's all about me right there Lord I'm not what I should be I mess up more than I should I'll drop the ball every now and then I'm complicated I'm sinful and I don't know why you love me but I love you because you love me in spite of everything you know about me is there anybody here that's grateful to have a God that loves you I don't know why God loves me but he does I believe that he knows me and he loves me I believe that I will see what he said and then watch this last one Nathaniel you believe simply because I told you I saw you sitting under a tree what Jesus says boy you ain't seen nothing yet because I want you to believe that greater things are on the way I don't know who this is for I ain't got to shout it cuz you feel it already one of the saddest things in the world to do is sit in the sanctuary and have no hope give in to the darkness of a temporary moment believing that nothing better can ever come this is not the last chapter of your life this is not the last stop on the train this is not your final destination God is not finished with you yet I wish I could encourage you to believe that eyes have not seen ears have not heard it hasn't even entered your mind all the good things God has in store for you greater things are on the way what God is about to do is better than what God has done God's next is better than God's last is there anybody in this place who just believes that guarding finished with me yet that God has more in store that God has greater somebody say greater I want you to believe that you're gonna see greater things than this God's not done God's not done and if you believe the Lord he'll show you greater if you believe the Lord you'll see what he said if you believe the Lord you'll find out he loves you in spite of everything he knows about you I don't know about you but I believe that I believe if he spoke it I'm gonna see it I believe that I'm loved in spite of who I am and who I am not and I just believe that greater things are on the way I want you to believe the same way Andrew got Peter and Philip got Nathanael I'm coming for you I want you to believe in this Jesus I want you to open your heart to him I want you to see the goodness of the Lord that you cannot see until you follow Jesus so if you're here today and you want to say yes to that invitation you want to believe or maybe you someone you believed a long time ago then life happened and you found yourself straying from the Lord but your desire to come back or maybe you believe but you're not in a church listen your discipleship is incomplete until you're in a place where you see what God said so today my brother my sister I extend this invitation to you our deacons extend this invitation our church family extends this invitation

Channel: Alfred Street Baptist Church

Views: 70,465

Rating: 4.7657456 out of 5

Keywords: Alfred Street Baptist Church, 2019, I'm A Believer, #imabeliever, #pastorhjw, #redtabletalk

Id: 8njUz3xWg-U

Length: 35min 27sec (2127 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 04 2019