(soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - All righty, good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. I hope you had a good week in the Lord. In Psalm 92, it reads, it is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your loving kindness in the morning and your faithfulness by night. With a 10-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre.

For you, O Lord, have made me glad by what you have done, and I will sing for joy at the works of your hands. Amen. (soft piano music) We're gonna begin our worship by singing a song. It is good to praise the Lord. (soft piano music) (soft piano music) ♪ It is good to praise the Lord ♪ ♪ It is good to gaze upon his majesty ♪ ♪ To proclaim his love in the morning ♪ ♪ And his faithfulness at night ♪ ♪ Oh, it is good to worship and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ It is good to praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, it is good to gaze upon his majesty ♪ ♪ To proclaim his love in the morning ♪ ♪ And his faithfulness at night ♪ ♪ Oh, it is good to worship and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ And praise the Lord ♪ One more time, it is good.

♪ It is good to praise the Lord ♪ ♪ It is good to gaze upon his majesty ♪ ♪ To proclaim his love in the morning ♪ ♪ And his faithfulness at night ♪ ♪ Oh, it is good to worship and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, it is good to worship and praise ♪ ♪ Oh, it is good to worship and praise the Lord ♪ - All right, good morning.

Welcome to Brain Community Church. And I'm sure as some of you guys may have already noticed as you're coming in to find parking, the Ortho parking lot that's on the corner of Mitchell and Red Hill, it's one of the bigger ones that we've been using for a while. The church, the building was sold and they have new owners in there.

And so we need to figure out a way to renegotiate the exchange that we have between them and us. And for the time being, that parking lot is shut down until further notice. So when you come in, we encourage you to use all the other lots. If you are a family with small children, again, the lot behind us is reserved for you.

So it may be a little bit tricky to go find it for the first time, but there is plenty of parking there that a lot of the parents have not utilized yet. And so if you're looking for parking and you have small children, that's the first place we want you to park.

And then obviously across the street, and we have plenty of parking. If you drive around, you'll see. Especially if you're gonna park and then get shuttled here, we have more than enough parking for that. But again, for the time being, the ortho parking lot, again, at the corner of Mitchell, at the end of the street and Red Hill, that will be shut down for the time being.

We are trying to communicate with them, but we don't know if that's gonna open up again. So just to give you a heads up on that. Baby seating. There's a new ministry that's starting, and the name of it is Baby Seating. So this is a new name that I forgot who came up with, but very clever.

So it's Baby Sitting, but it's Baby Seating. So those of you who have children, one year to 17 months, before you send them to the Seeds Ministry for babysitting and program that they have there, but in order for us to have space and so that the program that they're running for that service, they're gonna target some of the older kids who are able to participate.

So Baby Seating Ministry is gonna be happening starting from March 3rd. Okay, sorry, is it March 3rd? Yeah, March 3rd. So not this Sunday, but the Sunday after. And it's relevant only to this service, okay? And so if you have children that age, between one and 17 months, you drop off the kids over there, and there'll be, volunteers will be babysitting.

They've already carpeted the floor so it's cushiony, so it's not on solid ground. And so they're gonna be decorating and getting that room ready. So it's not this, it's coming Sunday, but Sunday afterwards, that ministry will be open, okay? Then obviously after 17 months, they'll be coming to the Seeds Ministry after that.

Old Testament Survey, as I have already mentioned, on March 3rd, for six weeks, Pastor Peter Chung is going to be leading our church in the study of the Old Testament Survey. And if you haven't taken that class, or you need a refresher on the general outline of how the Old Testament is put together, and how it relates to the New Testament, that's a class I strongly recommend you to take.

And so please sign up for that, and that's starting on March 3rd. Again, on March 9th, 9 a.m., we have an All-Church Cleaning Maintenance Day. So the more people sign up, the quicker it'll go, and the more we're able to clean the church. And I know that, you know, we've had a lot of questions, like at a church our size, wouldn't it be better if we just hired janitors to do that?

But I think there is a benefit. It's not because of finances, but there is a benefit for the church to take ownership of the church that we're attending, that even though our church is a certain size, it would be beneficial to have, I think it's beneficial for our church members to take ownership of the building that we're using.

And so if you're able to come out, we highly encourage you to come and help us clean. That's happening on March 9th, Saturday at 9 a.m. And then one last announcement. If you are part of the FAM 245, and this is a ministry for young couples who've been married for three years or less, there is a Men's Hiking Fellowship that's taking place on March 9th, from 7.30 to 1 p.m., and they're gonna be reviewing the Divine Design for Marriage from MacArthur, John MacArthur, and then the fellowship is gonna center around that topic, and they're gonna be going hiking, having fellowship.

And so if you're a part of that ministry, please sign up for that with our brother, Jason Choi. All the other announcements, I'm just gonna refer you to our website and to our app. But let me pray for us for the offering. Again, if you haven't transitioned to Subsplash, we wanna encourage you to do that.

We're gonna keep the Zelle open for just a little bit longer, maybe about a month longer, to give you more time to transition. And if you choose not to, you can always bring a physical offering that you can bring in the back. But again, it will only be open for a little bit longer to give you a little bit more time to transition.

But let me pray for us and give you an opportunity to give, and then we'll enter into the main worship. Let's pray. Father, we've gathered here together to corporately worship you, Lord God, with our brothers and sisters. Help us to give you what is sincere in our hearts, not simply our time, not simply out of obligation.

I pray, Father, that you would fill our hearts with joy and gratitude, that what we give you will be an overflow of the worship that you're creating inside of us. Help us to lift up our eyes to know where our true help comes from. Help us to be committed to the cause that you're committed to, that even in our giving, it would be in reflection of our dedication to you.

May your name be honored and glorified through this time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - At this time, let us stand together, and as always, I'll take a minute to greet each other, and we will continue our worship.

(soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) ♪ How has the sinner been forgiven ♪ ♪ How has the rebel been made clean ♪ ♪ Or blinded eyes been made to see ♪ ♪ How have the orphans been adopted ♪ ♪ Who hated your love and ran from grace ♪ ♪ Despised and rejected all your ways ♪ ♪ How wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ The Father's love for us ♪ ♪ He would send his only Son to come and rescue us ♪ ♪ He has saved us from us faithless ♪ ♪ Binds us now and will sustain us ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ (soft piano music) ♪ Your mercy, Lord ♪ ♪ Your mercy was a rising tide ♪ ♪ Your grace has covered all we see ♪ ♪ You have a promise not to leave ♪ ♪ You can't break it ♪ ♪ You can't steal it ♪ ♪ It's you who has it ♪ ♪ You can be sure the Son's a God ♪ ♪ Rest in the home of one divine ♪ ♪ How wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ The Father's love for us ♪ ♪ He would send his only Son to come and rescue us ♪ ♪ He has saved us from us faithless ♪ ♪ Binds us now and will sustain us ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Victory is our life ♪ ♪ We're confident we'll answer Christ ♪ ♪ So we cry, "Father, Father" ♪ ♪ Victory is our life ♪ ♪ We're confident we'll answer Christ ♪ ♪ So we cry, "Father, Father" ♪ ♪ How wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ The Father's love for us ♪ ♪ That he would send his only Son to rescue us ♪ ♪ How wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ The Father's love for us ♪ ♪ He would send his only Son to come and rescue us ♪ ♪ He has saved us from us faithless ♪ ♪ Binds us now and will sustain us ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ , ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful the Father's love ♪ ♪ You will love me all the time, baby ♪ ♪ You'll be just as fine as the brightest star in the sky ♪ ♪ You will love me all the time, baby ♪ ♪ You will love me all the time, baby ♪ ♪ You will love me all the time, baby ♪ ♪ You will love me all the time, baby ♪ ♪ You will love me all the time, baby ♪ ♪ You alone can rescue ♪ ♪ You alone can save ♪ ♪ You alone can lift us from the grave ♪ ♪ You came down to find us ♪ ♪ Let us out of death ♪ ♪ You alone belongs the highest praise ♪ ♪ You alone belongs the highest praise ♪ ♪ You alone belongs the highest praise ♪ Amen, you may be seated.

All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter seven, and we will be reading from verse 18 to 23. For the next about three weeks, the message is going to center around John the Baptist, and so this is gonna be the first part of it.

They're not necessarily directly related, but we're gonna be on the subject of John the Baptist for the next few weeks. Luke chapter seven, verse 18 to 23, reading out of the NASB, "The disciples of John reported to him "about all these things, summoning two of his disciples. "John sent them to the Lord, saying, "'Are you the expected one, "'or do we look for someone else?' "When the men came to him, they said to John the Baptist, "'Has sent us to you to ask, are you the expected one, "'or do we look for someone else?' "At that very time, he cured many people of diseases "and afflictions and evil spirits, "and he gave sight to many who were blind.

"And he answered and said to them, "'Go and report to John what you have seen,' "and her, the blind, received sight, the lame walked, "the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear. "The dead are raised up, "the poor have the gospel preached to them. "Blessed is he who does not take offense at me." Let's pray.

Lord, we pray for wisdom. We pray for insight. We pray for the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us, convict us, that we may do more than just listen and to learn, but that we may live lives, Lord God, truly worthy of the calling that you've given. We love you, Lord.

We desire to worship you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let me ask you a question that I want you to think about just for a few seconds. How sure are you about your faith? How convicted are you that what we sing, what we study is true? That heaven and hell is real?

That the Son of God came and walked on this earth and he gave his life so that you and I, sinners, can be saved? How assured are you of this truth? For whatever the reason, the beginning of our faith begins by confessing we believe that. We repent, we receive Christ, but for whatever the reason, after we become Christian, we don't ask, we don't seek.

And so we go through various periods of our life where we come to a crisis of faith, but we don't seek, we don't ask. And so as a result of that, sometimes we remain in our doubt, and that doubt causes us to remain distant from God. Some people have certain crises.

Maybe you've had somebody that you dearly loved, and they passed away, and you cried out to God, and God didn't answer. So why didn't he answer? Or certain things that are happening in your life, you thought it was going to be a one-way, but it didn't happen that way, and so you start having a crisis of faith.

It's like, is this real? I know that the congregation can wrestle with that, because I know many pastors who wrestle with that. Is this all real? Is this just something that I'm wishful thinking? As some people may face crisis, and they get to that point and they never move beyond that, most people have a crisis of faith simply out of neglect.

They began with a bang. It's like, I met Christ, and initially I didn't go to church, and now I go to church. But outside of going to church and have made the church your community, the passionate pursuit of Christ no longer exists in your life. You just learn to play the church game.

And so you have lingering doubts, and many people simply out of neglect. They didn't pursue it, they didn't seek it, they didn't ask. Now, everyone at some point in their walk with God will have some sort of crisis of faith. But every once in a while, we run into somebody where we are surprised, maybe even shocked, that they struggled with this.

In the last few years, we've run into some people, without mentioning any specific names, I think many of us would know, that people who have lived and did ministry and bore so much fruit, and then after they die, found out that their faith didn't match what they were presenting up in the public.

That their private life, they were completely different people. And maybe most people, their difference may not be as drastic. But we wonder, how can somebody who seemed to have everything together, who seemed to be used by God so powerfully, be so bankrupt in his faith? Today, we're going to be dealing with John the Baptist.

John the Baptist. In Luke chapter 7, 18-20, it says the disciples of John reported to him about all these things. Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, asking, "Are you the expected one, or do we look for someone else?" When the men came to him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, are you the expected one, or do we look for someone else?" It says, Luke's recording has two separate, same statement, "Are you the expected one?

Are you the one? Are you the Messiah?" Again, any time you see something repeated, you know that it's for the purpose of emphasis. The fact that Luke records the same question twice means the significance of what he is asking. But the fact that he asks this question, many people ask this question.

Many people during that time asked the question. Many people today will ask the same question. Can this be true? Is this real? Is Jesus really the Son of God? But the reason why we're perplexed is because it's John. How could John ask this question? John is the last prophet of the Old Covenant.

In fact, in the next text, we're going to see that Jesus says, "Of all the people who were born of a woman, John is the greatest." He is the greatest of all the prophets. Think about that. Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, all the prophets that we know, Daniel. He said, "Of all the prophets, John's the greatest of all the prophets." John was the one who, from the very get-go, God had personally ordained.

He's going to be the one who's going to go and prepare the way for my Son to come. Even before he was born. In fact, in Luke chapter 144, when the two mothers, Mary and Elizabeth, they get together with the children in their womb, it says that John the Baptist leaped because he recognized the Savior in Mary's womb.

Even before he ever set eyes on Jesus, he recognized Him. It's that John that's asking this question. "Are you the one?" He's the one, when Jesus showed up on the scene and told everybody, "That's the one we've been preparing for that's greater than none. My whole life was dedicated for His coming." And so he diverted all the attention to Christ.

When Jesus came to get baptized, He said, "How can you baptize me? You are so much greater than that. The whole reason why I exist is to prepare for you." Jesus says, "It is good to do this now to fulfill all righteousness." So John reluctantly baptized Jesus, and then when he comes out of the water, he hears the audible voice of God that says, "This is my beloved Son, who I am well pleased." John saw all this.

He heard all of this. He's the one who dedicated his life for this purpose. And yet, it's that John who's asking, "Are you the one? Are you the one?" Why is John asking this question? Just to kind of give you a background behind what was happening, John has become extremely popular.

So many people were leaving everything and they were coming to follow Jesus because they clearly understood he was a prophet from God and he was speaking the truth. And even though he lived a difficult life, by the time Christ shows up, he was the superstar. He was the main guy.

He was the closest thing that they've heard of a prophet in hundreds of years. And so John, the Baptist disciples, see that Jesus' ministry is starting to flourish and all the disciples who were coming to John were starting to transition to Jesus, and it looked like it bothered some of them.

And so in John chapter 3, 26, "And they came to John and said to him, 'Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan to whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing and all are coming to him.'" So there's some coveting that's going on. Why are we losing all our disciples that you've worked so hard to garner?

They're all going to him. John, I don't have the text for you for the sake of time, but John basically corrects them in saying, "I am not the bride. I told you that I came to prepare the way for the bride, that they should be going, and I've been preparing you for this, that when he comes that you ought to follow him." And he ends that passage in John 3, 30 by saying, "He must increase, but I must decrease." All this is from John.

John's the one who told us who he is. John's the one who identified. John's the one who prepared and sacrificed for the coming of Christ. And yet he's sitting and asking the disciples. And you go ask him, "Are you the one?" It tells us in Matthew 11, the parallel passage to the text that we're looking at, it doesn't tell us here, but in that text it tells us that John is sitting in prison.

Most commentators believe that John has been in prison for at least a year, possibly up to two years. And so during the two years that he's sitting in prison, just waiting for his execution, because he ended up calling out King Agrippa for marrying his brother's wife. So that angered somebody who was in great power and put him in jail.

And then eventually, as you guys know, he ends up getting beheaded for him calling out the sin of the king. During the two years that he's sitting in prison, it seems like his faith started to get questioned. Because what he was experiencing and what he dedicated his life to, it just didn't fit.

His idea of the Messiah didn't fit what he was seeing. In fact, in Matthew 3, 10 through 12, John the Baptist, introducing Christ, describes what Jesus' ministry was going to be like. He says, "The ax is already laid at the root of the trees. "Therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit "is cut down and thrown into the fire.

"As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, "but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, "and I am not fit to remove his sandals. "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." He says, "I am preaching to you, "repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." But because he's just a mere man, all he can do is lead them into baptism, a physical ceremony.

But he said, "The one who's coming, when Jesus comes, "he's going to baptize you "with the power of the Holy Spirit and fire." And fire, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, is referred to as judgment. It's a cleansing agent. And so when he comes, he's not simply going to take you through a ceremony.

Real judgment, real cleansing is going to happen because of the sins of Israel, because of the oppression of the enemies. Real power is coming, and he will make things right. In verse 12, it says, "His winnowing fork is in his hand, "and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor, "and he will gather his wheat into the barn, "but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." This is how he understood the Messiah's ministry.

He said, "When Jesus comes, he's going to bring this fire." But after he says this, he spends two years in prison, and it didn't make sense. Why would a man who was handpicked by God himself to prepare the way of the coming of Christ, and as soon as Jesus appears, his life is over?

Not only did the judgment not come, not only did the judgment and the fire and the separating of the wheat and the chaff did not happen, because they're still sitting in power, that power put him in jail, and that power is about to behead him. And so John the Baptist sitting in prison is asking an honest question.

Are you the one? Because what's happening, what he's seeing, just doesn't fit what he thought. In fact, we know that this was not just a problem with John the Baptist. We know that all the Pharisees and the people who were crying out, "Hosanna, Hosanna," turned against him because he didn't come to conquer.

His idea of conquering was giving up his life, and even the disciples, even though Jesus made it very clear he's going to go to the cross, he's going to be beaten, and then put to death and be resurrected, they didn't understand because what they understood to be the Messiah didn't fit what Jesus was doing.

So they also had a crisis of faith. This is a common experience of most people, where we imagine what our life is going to be like, and when life doesn't turn out exactly the way that we thought it was going to work out, that if I followed Christ, if I'm faithful, that God will provide this and that, and this will happen, and that you will bear so much fruit.

And when things just don't fit, our honest crisis of faith is, "Where are you? "Why aren't you answering my prayer? "Why did it turn out this way? "Why did these things happen?" In fact, if you read Psalms, so much of the Psalms is a godly man complaining before God or questioning.

"Where are you?" Typically, when we read Psalms, you kind of pick and choose the favorites, and so you don't really get to see the whole experience of Psalms. But one of the beauty of the Bible, and in particular, Psalm, is that it's just an honest expression. So it doesn't hide.

It doesn't just say, "Oh, God is so good. "He's so wonderful. "He's worthy of praise." Again, Psalm is filled with that, but it's also filled with grumbling and complaining before God. "Where are you?" In Psalms chapter 13, one and two, David, a man who was handpicked as the king of Israel, considered even to this day the greatest king of Israel, man after God's own heart, he says, "How long, O Lord, "will you forget me forever?

"How long will you hide your face from me? "How long shall I take counsel in my soul? "Having sorrow in my heart all day long, "how long will my enemy be exalted over me?" Even though this is a man after God's own heart, what he was experiencing just did not fit.

And so we have Psalm after Psalm, this man of God coming before God, "Why are you allowing the wicked to prosper? "And I've sacrificed so much to honor you, "and why are the enemies still after me? "Where are you? "How long are you going to let this happen?" Psalm 10, one through five, "Why do you stand afar off, O Lord?

"Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? "In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted. "Let them be caught in their places "which they have devised. "For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, "and the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord. "The wicked, in haughtiness of his countenance, "does not seek him.

"All his thoughts are, 'There's no God.' "His ways prosper at all times. "Your judgments are on high out of his sight, "as for all of his adversary, he snorts at them." He says, "I've lived my life righteously to follow you, "and here's these wicked people "who are basically blaspheming your name.

"I don't even believe you." And they said, "There's no judgment coming upon me." And yet they continue to prosper. Why do you do this, God? There are things that happen in our life. If you live long enough, multiple times you may have asked the question, "Why didn't God answer that prayer?

"Why did he allow this to happen?" And we get to that crisis of faith, and when we get to that crisis of faith, many of us just linger. Just linger. And we allow that doubt and that crisis to linger, just to affect the way you live your life. You'll come to church.

You'll give. You'll serve a little. But when Christ says to pick up your cross and follow me, that I cannot do because I'm not sure. And we are okay with not being sure. See, John wasn't simply doubting. John was asking a question. And there is a huge difference between questioning and asking questions.

Questioning is somebody who's already come to a conclusion, and they're presenting to you their concerns or their opinions in the form of a question, but they're not asking you any questions. They're questioning. "Why does your God do this? "Why is God like that? "Why is he this way?" And he's already come to the conclusion.

Someone who is asking questions simply has a crisis of faith in asking, "God, what is happening?" Maybe there's things that you don't understand. Maybe you had an idea of God that was wrong. Maybe your perception, your goals, your dreams were all founded upon something that God desires to destroy.

And God leads you to this place of crisis so that you would seek him. In fact, the Bible says, "Seek, ask, and knock, "and he will answer. "You'll open the door, and he will be found." He wants us to seek. He wants us to ask. John wasn't simply questioning God.

He had to confirm his faith. He had to confirm his faith because, one, it didn't fit what he thought, but, two, he's about to give his life. So he's asking, "Is this true?" Somebody who's never sacrificed anything to follow Christ can remain in the crisis of his faith the rest of his life because you lose nothing.

A nominal Christian neither wants to be shaken in his faith and then have to walk away from his faith, nor does he want to be challenged and be convicted because either his faith gets shaken or either his faith gets challenged, it will force him to move beyond his mediocre life.

It will force him to sacrifice what is important to him, and what is important to that person is the Christian life that he has created for himself that cannot be shaken. So if he pursues the question of his faith and the conclusion that he comes up with is, "I'm not sure if I believe this," and as a result of that, you may have to leave the church.

I mean, I can't keep coming to church if I don't believe this. You're going to lose all the friends that you've created. What about your parents? What about the community that you've built? What about the expectation? I mean, you became a Sunday school teacher or even a pastor or an elder in the church.

Everything that I built up has to be sacrificed. If I pursue this and I come to the conclusion that maybe I don't believe this, and so as a result of that, they come to a crisis of faith and they remain because they don't want to face the consequences, nor does that person pursue this because if they come to the conclusion and they are convicted that this is true, they also need to move beyond where they are, that this nominal Christian life, this cultural Christianity that they've embraced is not enough, that you've never truly surrendered your life to Christ, that you've admired Him from a distance.

You sang about Him, but you never followed Him. You never gave your life to Christ, and so you've pursued your life in mediocre Christian life, pursuing your own pleasure, pursuing your own life, but when the Scripture says that this life no longer belongs to you, what is your career?

It no longer matters. What is your reputation? It no longer matters because you have been crucified with Christ. The Bible says that you have been purchased by the blood of Christ and you now belong to Him. God didn't die for you and then said, "Now go live the way you desire." He says, "No, your life is mine." Your life will come when Christ comes in His glory, and when Jesus said, "He who wants to come after me must deny himself and pick up his cross, follow me," if you are convicted by this truth, you are forced to face that reality.

Am I following Christ? I've heard people say that if you reject Christ, the consequence of that is that if heaven and hell is real, you'll go to hell. And I've heard people say, "But if I'm wrong, I've lost nothing because I have family, friends, and I have purpose, and I have the Bible, and I have community.

But if I'm right, I get to go to heaven. If I'm wrong, I've lost nothing." That sounds like wisdom initially, but there's nothing further from what we see in Scripture. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, 17, 19, it says, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless.

You are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ, in this life only, we are all men most to be pitied." If this is not real, we are to be pitied. And the reason why we are to be pitied is because Christ requires our life.

He didn't simply say, "If you don't have a community, if you feel lonely, if you need purpose, you want to be a righteous person rather than unrighteous, you want a place where your children are going to be raised with good morals." No, he said, "Pick up your cross. Your career no longer matters.

Your bank account no longer matters to God. It no longer matters." Because our whole life is to be dedicated to follow Jesus, and he went to the cross, and he told us all, "If you believe me, follow me." See, John wasn't simply tickling his ears. He needed confirmation because he's about to give his life.

Are you the one? Those who have never surrendered their life to Christ can live with doubts. Can live in mediocrity because you already have what you desire in Christ. You have everything that you have desired in Christ already. So you don't want your faith to be bothered and force you to make a decision out of the church, nor do you want to be bothered to force you to question, "Are you really surrendered to Christ?" So we oftentimes embrace the crisis and stay there because of the consequence one way or the other.

The person who has sacrificed the most has to be convicted the most. The person who is picking up his cross needs to know for sure that when Jesus says that there's life on the other side of this cross, that this is true. You can admire him. You can be a fanboy of Jesus, but you cannot follow Christ if you're not convicted that this is true.

The way that Jesus even answers this question, he answers them, he says, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. Blind receive sight, lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up. The poor have the gospel preached to them." Now this is nothing new.

In fact, in Matthew 11, 2-3, it tells us that he was already hearing this, and he's sitting in prison. Can you confirm? Can you confirm if this is true? And Jesus, all he does is confirm to John what you have heard your disciples have seen. Go tell him that the true evidence of the one is in me.

You see, people who've endured in their faith are not people who understood. I understand God. I understand why he's doing it. I understand what he's doing now in our culture. I understand. It's not because they understood. It's because they believed. Even the disciples, when Jesus began to say, "If you don't drink of my blood and eat of my flesh, there's no relationship with you," they didn't understand.

But Jesus turned to them and said, "Are you going to go too?" And he said, "Where am I going to go? We believe you are the Son of God, and you have the words of life. Where else are we going to go?" It's not because they understood. It's because they believed.

They believed. There are things that often happen in our lives that we can't make sense of. Why did God do that? Why is he allowing him to do that? Well, what causes us to persevere is a conviction that this is true, that he is the Son of God, that this is the Word of God.

Even if I don't understand what he is doing, even if I don't understand where he is leading me to, I believe him. That's exactly what the Scripture tells us, that Jesus left this evidence. In John 3, 2, when Nicodemus comes to him at night, this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." They recognized these signs, and Nicodemus says, "Clearly, you must be the one." John 7, 31, many of the crowds believed in him, and they were saying, "When the Christ comes, he will not perform more signs than those which this man has.

Will he?" So they believed because of the many miracles, because they knew it was a clear sign that he's the one. And then in John 15, 24, it says, "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sinned. But now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well." In other words, they do not reject me because I have not given them enough evidence.

Plenty of evidence has been given to them, but yet they chose to reject me. So therefore, they are guilty. We may look at that and say, you know, we're 2,000 years removed from these miracles. So if Jesus said, "I'm going to leave you these miracles as a clear sign of who he is," what about us?

When we come to crisis of faith, what do we do? If Jesus' answer to the crisis of faith that John the Baptist had, and he says, "Look at all the miracles because it's a clear sign of who I am," well, if you're asking that question, good, because people of that generation asked the same question.

Even though they had front-row seats of his miracles, they kept on asking him, "We need signs, we need signs." Remember what Jesus said, this wicked and evil generation, "I will give no sign except for the sign of Jonah," referring to his death and resurrection. I will leave that sign until I come.

So if anybody doubts, anybody has crisis of faith, you can look into that, and I will leave that as a proof to everything that I have said. For 2,000 years, even though we're 2,000 years removed from these miracles that Jesus is referring to, people have dissected, studied, questioned the resurrection of Christ, and even those who reject Jesus as God will tell you that something spectacular happened in the first century.

The fact that the Jews and Gentiles got together, the fact that this obscure small group of fishermen turned the world upside down in the first 100 years, the fact that we have Scripture that's been copied and recopied thousands of times, more than any other historical document that we have, people have questioned the validity, historical validity of the resurrection of Christ, and so many have come to the conclusion that this must have happened.

I've had so many people throughout the years come to me in crisis of faith, telling me that they're not sure if they believe. And so I would ask them, "What is it that you have a hard time?" "You know, these miracles and these things, I'm not sure if I believe." And they're about to walk away from their faith, and I would suggest to them to read this book, "Who Moved the Stone?" There's so many things that you can read.

And at the end of it, you can read that and say, "I don't believe it," and walk away. But you don't know how many people that have come to me and asked me, when I pointed them to the evidence, that they wouldn't even take time to read that. So were you really asking a question?

You've already come to a conclusion without even searching. You've already made the conclusion that Christ is not what you want. So even though the Bible says, and God said, that He left enough evidence that anybody who is searching and asking and knocking, He says He left evidence for you at least to come to the conclusion that something spectacular must have happened.

And the most logical, reasonable thing is the conclusion that Jesus must have been resurrected from the dead. Yet so many people who will never search, ask, and knock simply walk away from their faith and say, "It doesn't make any sense." Well, how do you know it makes any sense?

How do you know if there's any evidence? You've never researched. You've never searched. And just as it says in Romans 1 that they suppress the truth because they love darkness more than the truth, so many nominal Christians will come to a crisis of faith and have doubts that they never share with anybody else.

But you can see it in their life. They doubt if this is real, but you can see by the decisions that they make. They doubt if God is going to take care of them because of the way that they make decisions about finances, but they'll never share that. They'll live it.

And they will never pursue because if you pursue this, either you will conclude that you don't believe and everything that you've built up is destroyed, or you will come to the conclusion that this is absolutely true and it will destroy your nominal Christian life that you've built up. And you can no longer embrace cultural Christianity and be okay.

Neither option is acceptable to a nominal Christian. The question isn't, "Why did John ask?" The real question is, "How come more people don't ask?" It isn't that John asked to clarify because he's about to give his life. I need to be sure that this is the right path. But so many people come to that conclusion and they're perfectly okay with living with their doubts, but they're unwilling to face the consequence of that question.

Jesus ends this interaction in Luke 7:23 by saying, "Blessed is he who does not take offense at me." He's reconfirming for John that what is happening to you is ordained. You are hated because they've hated me, just like Jesus said. They will reject you because they rejected me. In fact, over and over again, this was the prophecy given to us clearly in Luke 2.34-35, "And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, 'Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel.'" The fall and rise of many in Israel.

He understood the rise of Israel, but he didn't understand the fall of Israel, which was prophesied from the get-go and for a sign to be what? Opposed. When Jesus reveals the sign of who he is, he said many will oppose him. They will hate him. They will be offended by him.

"And a sword will pierce even your own soul to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." When he is revealed, the opposition will be revealed. What's truly in their heart, he says, will be revealed. And he will be the cause of the rise and fall of many in Israel.

1 Peter 2.7-8, Peter says, "This precious value then is for you who believe, but for those who disbelieve. The stone which the builders rejected became the very cornerstone and a stone of a stumbling and a rock of offense. For they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed." That this cornerstone, which the church is built upon, is an offense to those who do not recognize him.

We live in a culture where we try to make Christianity as palatable to as many people as possible. And you know who hates true Christianity more than anybody else? Fake Christians. If you read the book of Revelation carefully, the Antichrist figure is a religious figure who is going to unite all religious people under his umbrella.

And the people who oppose that are the ones who have embraced the true gospel that is the cause of rise and fall of many. And so the greatest opposition is going to come within the church of nominal Christians who does not desire to be represented to the world by hateful speech of saying Christ is exclusive.

There's only one way of salvation and his name is Jesus Christ. And it is that message that they hate. And we have churches after churches, pastors after pastors, who are more afraid of the opinion of men than they are of the judgment of God. And as a result, we created a Christianity that doesn't look anything like what we see in the scripture.

Jesus is reaffirming to John the Baptist, "Blessed is he who does not take offense at me." In fact, Paul describes his ministry in this way, "For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved, among those who are perishing. To the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.

Who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but ask from sincerity, but ask from God. We speak in Christ, in the sight of God." The question is not, "Why did John ask this question?" The question is, "Why are we not pursuing this?" Are you certain?

Is the gospel that you embrace worth giving your life for? Be honest. Have you given your life to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Do you just admire him from a distance? Do you give praise for other people that seem to be going hard? But by the decisions we make, by the life that we choose, by the priorities that we have in life, we have crises of faith that we're not dealing with.

So the challenge this morning is not to figure out why John asked the question, because we can clearly understand why John asked the question. Jesus said to pick up your cross, and he has his cross on his shoulder. He said, "They hated me, so they're going to hate you," so he's experiencing this hate.

He's about to end his life in ministry, proclaiming Christ, so he needed to know, "Are you the one?" How many of us have come to that point and just embraced nominal Christianity? How many of us have chosen to embrace mediocrity and blamed our doubt for not giving all to Christ?

This message of the cross requires us to come to a conclusion. Do you believe this? If you do, it is worth everything that you have. Everything that you have. If it cuts your life short, if it ruins your business, if you get fired, if you can't get the job, and your life gets cut short, it's worth everything that God has called us to sacrifice.

And that's why we need to be sure. That's why we need to be sure. Are you sure? Are you sure that this is true? So I want to conclude with the challenge. Not, "Why did John ask the question?" Why aren't more people asking, seeking, and knocking? That we also may follow the path of Christ.

Let's pray. Father, you are worthy of our praise. More than simple lip service, but our very lives. Help us, Lord God, to confess and to believe and to practice that we have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer us that live, but Christ living in us. Help us, Lord God, that that may not be empty confession, but it would be our very lives, Lord.

As John gave his life preparing for Christ's path, call us, Lord God, as you have planned to the church, that the gates of Hades would not be able to prevail against it, that we would not live our lives in mediocrity, but that we would be a community fully convicted of this truth, that wherever you lead us, that we would follow and glorify you.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. ♪ ♪ The grace that leads the sinner home ♪ ♪ From death to life forever ♪ ♪ And sings the song of righteousness ♪ ♪ That matter not by name ♪ ♪ The grace that reaches far and wide ♪ ♪ To every tribe and nation ♪ ♪ Has called my heart to enter in ♪ ♪ The joy of your salvation ♪ ♪ By grace I am redeemed ♪ ♪ By grace I am restored ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ again ♪ ♪ ♪ The grace that I could not explain ♪ ♪ Not by my earthly ways, no ♪ ♪ But with some light without a stain ♪ ♪ Was strained for this sin ♪ ♪ By grace I am redeemed ♪ ♪ By grace I am restored ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ again ♪ ♪ ♪ Let praise rise up and overflow ♪ ♪ My song resound forevermore ♪ ♪ For praise will sing the open door ♪ ♪ To life eternal saved ♪ ♪ By grace I am redeemed ♪ ♪ By grace I am restored ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ again ♪ ♪ By grace I am redeemed ♪ ♪ By grace I am restored ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ, my Lord ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ, my Lord ♪ Let's pray.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the eternal love of God the Father, strengthen, rebuke, encourage, and build up the church that we may be the aroma of Christ wherever you send us. Amen. ♪ God sent his Son ♪ ♪ They called him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love ♪ ♪ He went forth to heal ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to put my Savior last ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living ♪ ♪ Just because he lives ♪ ♪ He lives ♪ ♪ He lives ♪ ♪ He lives ♪ ♪ He lives ♪ ♪ He lives ♪ ♪ He lives ♪