Don't Let The World Tell You What God Wants!

Don't let people tell you what God's will is for your life. Just don't. We're going to get into that today when we get back into the Bible study on John. We're going to dive into chapter 7. So right now, go grab your Bibles. Let's get down to it. I'm reading from the ESV as normal, guys. Read from whatever translation you prefer, but for me, I'm always going to be reading from the ESV when I have that choice. But we'll start right in at John 7 and go from there, see what it has for us today. So. Chapter 7, verse 1. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand, so his brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you're doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I'm not going to go up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come. After saying this, he remained in Galilee. After his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people, while some said, he's a good man. Others said, no, he's leading the people astray. Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly about him. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. And the Jews there marveled, saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking of my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answered, you have a demon who is seeking to kill you. Jesus answered them, I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, Not that it's from Moses, but from the forefathers. And you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision so the Law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's full body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. We're going to stop there inside John 7 for today. But this is exactly what A lot of the church has a problem with today is this idea of, well, sir, can we see your credentials? What are your credentials on this? We really don't think that you should be doing this or teaching this or saying this. The reality is Jesus looks right at them. They go, okay, well, why are you teaching? You've never been taught. And essentially what they're saying is, in Jewish circles at the time, if you were going to be teaching in the temple, they would know your rabbi. Oh, you learned under so-and-so. And so you're qualified or accredited And meanwhile, there's Jesus just spitting truth. He's just— he takes the pulpit and he just starts speaking the word of God. And it's true and it's honest and it's blowing people's minds and they're not sure what's going on. And so he decides he's going to start teaching them and he goes, okay, listen, I've got a message from God. I'm going to share it and I'm going to share it openly. I'm going to share it honestly. And you're going to know whether it's true because you're going to be able to look at the word and tell whether that's on par or not. They take issue with that. They take issue with that. He recognizes their hearts and he speaks into them and says, okay, well, you guys want to kill me. That's what's going on right now. They accuse him of having a demon now. So they've departed from the teaching side of things altogether and they're saying, okay, well, now he's got a demon in him. This is surely something that he's wrestling with. And he goes, I don't have a demon. I'm trying to explain to you, you guys will follow your laws so long as it stays inside of a little box. But I healed a boy back in John 6, and you guys want to kill me for it because it breaks your box. And that's your problem, is that you're living in this box. You're deciding that if it doesn't fit in the box, it's not from God. And that's not true. God loves to work outside the box. He does it all the time. We were reading just at the end of John 6 that Jesus himself, when he's choosing the 12, thinks outside the box. He chooses 11 good guys that are going to stand by him, and he chooses the 12th Guy that's going to betray him and have him killed, right? So we've got this problem, this dilemma of the church thinks that it's got to go in the box, and Jesus just doesn't work that way. God doesn't work that way. Now, the one thing that he does work with is the message has to come from God, which means what? How do we how do we test? How do we know whether or not something is a message coming from God? Because we see a lot of people. If you're on social media, if you're on TikTok or YouTube, you'll see. False apostles, false prophets, people coming out there saying, oh, I know this thing. God told me to say it. So clearly it's from God and I'm going to speak it to you. Just like always be very, very wary about that. It's not that it's impossible that could happen, but be very wary and always, always, always use the litmus test. And what's the litmus test? Bible. Crack it open. If the message you're being given, the message that's being delivered is different from what is in there, You got a problem. There's a problem. It's just not going to work out. If what's being taught is in here, great. It'll coincide. The question was, does the message need to be delivered necessarily if it's not directly from the Bible? But I mean, the Bible's got it. It's in there. Okay. You're okay with it. So what's amazing here is Jesus just constantly comes back to that. He was talking about this in John 6. I don't do my will, but the will of the Father who sent me. And those that want to listen to that are going to hear it. And those that don't want to listen to that. That's that's on you. That's a you thing. God's going to bring those to me that want to hear it, and those that don't want to hear it—that's you. That's you. Loving this, loving John. It really is this beautiful message that Jesus is bringing it back, and he's just breaking down walls. He's he's oh I I can't do that. You're telling me that I can't heal. that person because it's a Sunday. Well, I did it. Now what are you going to do? Oh, you're going to kill me. You're going to kill me for it. But if we were playing by your rules, it would have been okay. But because it's not your rules, it's not okay. Kind of falls apart, right? So I love that Jesus is constantly coming back to it's about the will of God. What does God want? Where do we find that? We find that in prayer. We find that in the scripture. What does God want? And if he wants it, do it. And if he doesn't want it, don't do it. It's just that. But don't let a church, don't let a group of people tell you what you can and can't do if you very clearly are hearing a calling from the Lord. If you're reading the Word daily, if you're in the Word daily, if you're praying daily, and you have a conviction to pursue, teach, guide, speak, so long as it doesn't contradict Scripture, You should do that. You should exercise that gift. And for each of us, there will be different ways and means of doing that for sure. There are some that are called to do it from a pulpit. Maybe some are called to do it from a YouTube channel. Some are called to do it in a women's group. Some are called to do it in Sunday school. Some are called to do it on the street. However you're called to do it, whatever message you've been given, whatever purpose or role you've been given by God, it'll line up with the Bible. It'll line up with this. And then you just go do it. It's that easy. And if people get in the way, you just say, well, it is what it is. It is what it is. As long as you've got the word backing you, just keep going, keep doing it. That's it. Uh, we're not done John 7. John's got a long chapter, so, uh, come back tomorrow. We'll keep going through John, but that's where we're gonna stop for tonight. Have an amazing night. I'll catch you guys tomorrow. Bye.