Skip to content More Than a Man: Seeing Jesus Clearly || Pastor Adam Mesa Apr 13 · 47 min ...more
More Than a Man: Seeing Jesus Clearly || Pastor Adam Mesa
April 13, 2025 · 47 min
Series Patria Sermons April 13, 2025 · 47 min · Patria Sermons
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492K followers
Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
492K followers
0:01 Well, amen. It's good to see everybody in the house of God today, and I wanna welcome all of our campuses joining us as well for service today. I'm ready to dig into the word of God. I hope you're0:13 excited to uncover. It's Palm Sunday. It's a special day. I know across all of our campuses, we had an incredible time of worship. I know here in Rancho, wasn't worship just absolutely incredible? You know? We had0:25 a little choir up here this weekend and things like that. And they were a good choir, you know. Like, it's like, you know, there's times you hear a choir and you think, I don't know if they get might be on different0:35 tunes, I think. You know? It was it was really great. What great time of worship. Some some great songs as well. If you have your Bible, I'm a ask that you prepare yourself. Matthew 21. Hold your place there.0:47 You know, it's quite difficult, not that we endeavor to do this every time, but however long you've been a believer, that's probably how many more likely, that's how many Easters you've celebrated. So, that's as0:59 many times as you've read this passage in particular on Palm Sunday. Next or this Friday and next Sunday, you'll have read those passages for however long that you've been saved or you've been in1:11 church. For myself, I grew up in church, but I wasn't a Christian the whole time. So, not only have I been in church hearing these verses my whole life, but also as a believer, these verses meant so much more1:23 to me when I finally received Jesus or saw Jesus for all that he is. And so, we look at this powerful day, which is known as the triumphal entry. It's it's the moment where1:35 Jesus' ministry, his 3 year ministry comes to a culmination where he enters the city of Jerusalem. And what happens is all of Israel has been on standby1:46 mode waiting for this moment. And everybody celebrates this moment. Israel, they begin many people come together. They begin to cry, Hosanna. Save us. But we're gonna see1:58 today is that they were yelling, Hosanna, for different reasons. Not everyone was yelling, Hosanna, for all of the same reasons. And we live in an age today2:11 How many of you guys know whenever you have a question about something, most of us, before we open up a scholastic book, before we read something by someone who's a professional, so to say,2:22 nowadays, what do we do when we have a question about anything? First thing we turn to is Google. Second thing we take we may look at, or maybe the first, is YouTube. And2:34 then, nowadays, we even have artificial intelligence, which it's that thing is still trying to figure its life out in and of itself, and we'll have different answers at times. And so we live in an age2:46 today where you have more answers, more information on your fingertips than ever before in all of history. Just the other day, I took a picture of2:58 an animal, and I opened the picture in my iPhone, and my iPhone had like a glow around the animal, and I clicked it just in the picture. I clicked it, and it told me what3:09 species and what bird it was. I didn't even ask it. It just you know, when you normally, in your phone, take a photo, you open up photos, the the bird had like a hue around it. When3:21 I pressed it, said, this is the type of bird that you're looking at. I thought, number 1, I didn't even ask you. And number 2, now I'm spending the next 2 hours learning3:33 about that animal because it prompted a thought. And today, right now, they say in 2025, of any kind of recent generation, there is more curiosity3:45 and more hunger to learn about Jesus than ever before. Now, that's great news, and I hear we celebrate. So do I. I celebrate that. What I'm cautious of is if they are hungry to3:57 know Jesus, guess where they are going? Google. Yes. YouTube. AI. But what we have in our hands and in our4:08 phones is the fullness of God's word. In our hands. And oftentimes, we see in this generation, this is somewhat the last thing we turn to.4:21 It's like once I do all of once I watch the good videos I wanna watch, once I see the Google search I wanna watch, and then what I often get from people is I get DMs. I get messages that says, pastor Adam, I spent4:33 the past 20 hours on YouTube and Google. I I was trying to learn about Jesus. Now, I'm more confused than ever. And they say now they say, what books do you recommend?4:45 Well, number 1, first book I recommend is in my hands. But there are other books, and there are other resources that help us. But it's important to recognize. That's why for this Easter season, as we4:56 see more people searching online about who Jesus is, not only do we wanna share about this spiritual renewal that Jesus can do in our life by the power of the spirit, but also, we wanna be5:08 able to answer some questions for people. Because more than ever, we're gonna have people visiting our campuses with questions. You may be here today because you already know Jesus. You've already received5:20 Jesus. But there will be people here this Sunday, this Friday, and next Sunday who simply more than believing in who Jesus is fully, all they have is questions. But5:32 when you can ask questions and come to an answer by miraculously the spirit of God, what will happen is then you will see God in the fullness of who Jesus is. You will see him clearly. And that's5:44 what we wanna do. So if you're ready for Matthew 21, here it is, verse 1 to 11. We've read it so many times before, but to me, it never gets old because of the word of God never5:56 returns void when we read it, and it's never old. And no matter how many times that you read this, here's the moment if you'd like to stand with us. You're more than welcome to. It says this, as they approached6:07 Jerusalem and came to Beth Bethpage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent 2 disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her.6:19 Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says to you, say that the Lord has need of them, and he will send them right away. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets,6:31 saying to the daughter Zion, see, your king comes to you, gentle in riding on a donkey, and on a colt the fowl of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They6:43 brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread out their cloaks on the road, while the others cut branches from6:55 trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them of him and those that followed shouted, Hosanna, son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the7:07 Lord. Hosanna in the highest heaven. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? The crowds answered, this7:18 is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. You may be seated. We've read this passage many times before, but here's what I7:30 wanna focus on because if you've heard Palm Sunday messages, there's with only so much time that we have, only so many aspects of this that we could tell of this story. And you can read it on your own7:42 and discover it on your own, but 1 of the things we wanna be able to show you in just a few moments, I'll get there, is the perspective of the crowd. You know, we could talk about the unridden7:53 donkey. That that in and of itself is a beautiful message. We could talk about the obedience of the disciples and how they were willing to obey Jesus even when they8:05 thought it was crazy. Jesus wanted them to go and untie a stranger's donkey. That's like me telling you, want you to go to Victoria Gardens, the local mall, and I want you to get the keys to a Honda Civic, and I8:17 want you to just get in a stranger's car and tell them pastor Adam needs your Honda Civic. Now, I know some of you guys love me. Some of you maybe not so much. But those that love8:29 me, even that would be hard pressed to believe. You'd be like, pastor Adam, like, man, I I trust you. Like, I think you hear God, but, like, I'm not getting into strangers Honda8:41 Civic. That's just not and I'm not gonna tell them that you told us to do it. All in all, that would be quite ludicrous to ask that of somebody, or it would take great faith. Jesus did that to the disciples.8:53 Go and take someone from their farm, their donkey, and bring it to me so that I could ride it in Jerusalem. The disciples trusted Jesus. They loved Jesus. But over the next course of the couple days, the 8 days that9:05 they're gonna be stretched and challenged, we're gonna see that they too had a limited view of Jesus. What often happens is, depending on how you first approach Jesus, will ultimately be part9:17 of your perspective. Whether we recognize it or not, all of us have a perspective of Jesus before we meet Jesus fully for how he is. Right. Everyone. Whether you grew up and have heard9:28 of stories of Jesus or you hear stories of Jesus for the first time, when you first hear about him, everyone's perspective is different. Some people may have an unhealthy9:40 view of Jesus because they've met people who have represented Jesus that didn't represent them well. Right. Right. Other people may see another version of Jesus that they're like, no. I love I meet people9:52 all the time that are like, I love his phrases and his words. He's got great teachings. He has great morals. The question is, who does10:03 Jesus see himself as? Because if you ever wanna follow Jesus, it's not to receive Jesus through your lens or your perspective. It's to receive10:15 Jesus through his perspective. Palm Sunday begins to open up the lid even more so of Jesus' perspective of who he is and how it bothers people.10:27 Life will often change your perspective. When I was in junior high, I had a a crush on a girl. Anyone did anyone have any crushes on people when you were, like, elementary school or junior high? Anybody? You know? You're10:39 like, I I still do on that person. You're 60. Give it up. It's okay. You know? No. I had this crush since elementary school. It's eighth grade graduation. I told 1 of my best10:51 friends, I said, hey, will you go tell her that I have a crush on her? We were going to separate high schools, and I thought this is my last chance to know if she likes me or not. I'd liked her since elementary school.11:02 And so, 1 of my friends goes and tells her and says, you know, Adam thinks you're pretty. He has a crush on you. My friend comes back, and I'm excited. I'm anticipating. And he says, Adam, she11:14 said that you're a really nice guy and you're really cute. It it's just that you're fat, and she's not interested. Why are you guys laughing? Why are you laughing at that?11:26 Now, in junior high, I did. I stopped I stopped playing sports, you know, and and I did. I put on a few pounds, but I wouldn't say much. And immediately, I become extremely insecure.11:38 Eighth grade, that's all I start to view myself now as, in that sense. I'll never think. And, you know, for a junior higher, that that can wreck a world. To an adult, that can wreck their world, let alone11:50 to somebody whose brain and mind and body is still developing. And so, all of a sudden, it's just about 5 months later, I'm in ROTC air force program, and we go down to Miramar12:02 San Diego, and the the marines have like a little recruiting area. You've probably seen it before, and they have the little pull up bar. So, me and a bunch of guys, we get in a line to see how many pull ups we could do12:12 my freshman year of high school. And there was another girl in ROTC that I kinda developed a a crush on. And so, it comes my turn in line, and I'm about to jump. And she says, Adam, make sure you don't break the pole12:23 when you jump on it. Man, it'd been less than a year since I could get a break. In 1 year, my crush at elementary school tells me that12:35 she thinks I'm overweight. New crush that I thought that I developed said, hey, don't break the poll. Thought she was funny. And from that point on, it changed my perspective, number 1, of girls,12:48 and it changed my perspective of myself. And so, joined cross country, and I ran every single day, and I got to varsity, and I lost all this weight, and I started caring about the way that I13:00 look and the way that I appear to myself, not because I wanted my own confidence, but I wanted to prove people wrong. I wanted to prove those girls wrong. And it started a really unhealthy13:11 viewpoint of myself, but also how I viewed other people. Now, you may say, I can't relate to that, but I can guarantee you if we sat long enough, you have a perspective about something that's been altered because of13:22 something you've encountered or something you may have experienced. You see, what happens is we see in this moment that people have an expectation, and they have an outlook of who13:34 Jesus is, and it's not who he really is. I want you to see in verse 10 and 11 again. I want you to look at this in Matthew chapter13:44 11 chapter 21 verse 10 and 11. It says this, after he had came on the donkey, after everybody had celebrated, after everybody had called13:56 hosanna, Now, it wasn't all of Israel. It was kind of Jesus' followers. It's the ones Jesus did 90 percent of his ministry in Galilee. That is just 1 city. So so so14:08 just just pick a city. Pick Pomona. Pick Rancho. It's it's like Jesus did 90 percent of his ministry just in the city of Rancho. And so now he's going to Los Angeles. And then people from the14:19 area, they're like, well, let's go down to Los Angeles, and let's let the rest of Los Angeles know that Jesus is coming. That's what's happening. It's it's Passover season. So, all of the Jews in all of Israel are coming14:31 to Jerusalem no matter where they're from, even people from other countries. And so, what happens is is they're celebrating Jesus entering Jerusalem. There are people there that are merchants that are just going to14:43 church, that are going to live their life, and they hear the commotion. They hear all the cheering. They hear all the celebrating, and it says this, and the whole city was stirred. It was shaken. I mean, it was it was14:54 catalytic that Jesus was coming into town. And it says, they asked, who is this? Now, the crowds, the ones who were yelling out, Hosanna, the ones that were celebrating15:06 Jesus, How do they answer? They say, this is Jesus, what? The prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. Jesus was not a prophet. These15:19 were his followers. He wasn't a prophet. He's not a prophet. Prophets point to Jesus. Jesus is not a prophet. He15:30 is Lord. He is king. Yes. People who were following Jesus at this time, their their view of him is15:42 limited. Yes. It's limited. This guy's a prophet. No. He's not. He's not just a prophet. I want you to15:53 see this today. Over the next 3 services, we're gonna have a common concern that maybe you or society has, and maybe your loved ones have, or a neighbor have, or maybe a coworker would have. And I want you to I wanna16:05 share with you, if you take notes, today and or this weekend, and Friday and Sunday, we're gonna share a common concern that people have about Jesus, but how Jesus says contrary. 1 of the16:16 concerns that people have of Jesus, or a question is they have, is it is it's, is Jesus only a man? Is Jesus only a man?16:29 Because a lot of people, they have no issue with Jesus being just a man. If he's a man who taught some good things and said some great things, and and, you know, they take 216:40 positions, either he faked his death or somebody went in his place on the cross, and he slipped away and escaped. And so, if if you just limit Jesus to just16:52 a man, you will not see Jesus for everything that he is. Questions people have today is, is Jesus just a man? And right now, at this moment, the crowds that are17:04 surrounded around Jesus, they think that Jesus is just a man. He's a prophet. And, you may be here today, and you may have limited who Jesus17:16 is. It's that it's that guy I go to when I have problems. It's it's it's the book I read when I just need some self17:28 help for my life. It's it's the place I go to because my grandma took me there when I was younger. So she's got fond memories. But that's not why17:40 Jesus came. That's not why he died, and that's not why he resurrected. He didn't come die and resurrect so that you and I could have good teachings in life.17:52 So that you and I could have something to do on Sunday. He didn't do that. Jesus did so much more than that. We have to be able to ask ourselves, do I really do I just view18:04 Jesus as a man? And society has to ask themselves, who is Jesus? Because the reality is historically, he existed. Yes. No modern day scholar denies that. No. There are no modern atheists who18:15 even deny that. He existed. And his teachings existed. And what Jesus said and what Jesus did, it existed, and he existed. CS Lewis kinda18:27 puts it like that. He says he says, anyone who gets told about Jesus, anyone who hears the message and the story of Jesus, you are only able to come to 1 of 318:39 logical conclusions. He calls it the 3 l's. It's a it's a it's a trifecta of an argument that he says. Because number 1, you cannot say that Jesus didn't exist18:50 because nobody agrees with that. So he says, when you hear about Jesus, you have to come to a conclusion about Jesus of 1 of 3 areas. The first 1 is is19:02 you have to believe then Jesus is just a liar. He just lied about himself. He he he told lies about himself.19:14 Everything he said just wasn't true. He walked this Earth to deceive people. The second thing is he was a lunatic. He was just crazy. I mean, he believed all the things he19:26 taught, but crazy people believe things all the time. You know, I I recently saw someone online who was crazy who said they were the president of the United States 20 years19:38 ago, But they but they weren't mentally there. Just wasn't true. And so they some believe or have said that Jesus is just he's crazy. Like, he walked this Earth19:49 and he believed those things about himself just wasn't true. The third thing is is is the only logical conclusion, if you don't agree that Jesus is a liar, if you don't agree that Jesus is a20:01 lunatic, then you must deduce that Jesus is Lord. Yes. Because you cannot limit the things that Jesus did and he said and ride those20:13 things off. If Jesus said he's the Lord of all and he's the Lord of the Sabbath, you have to say When you read your Bible, if Jesus says something concerning himself, if you say, I don't know about that, or I don't know20:24 if that's true, that doesn't settle well with me, you gotta say, is he a liar, a lunatic, or is he Lord? Right. Right. Because you can't just say, I just disagree with that, Jesus. Well, then what is is he a liar?20:37 Is he a lunatic? Or is he Lord? It gets a lot harder to be able to wrestle with Jesus when you're put in a corner and I'm put in a corner to call Jesus a liar. Yes. It's a lot harder to20:49 be in a corner and be like, Jesus, you're crazy. Maybe I'm crazy. If I can't see Jesus as Lord. Because that's what it causes our heart to21:00 do. Adrian Rogers says it like these like this. Jesus is not merely a man. He's either Lord of all or not lord at all. In our life,21:12 Jesus is either lord of all or he's not lord at all. We can't cherry pick what Jesus is lord of. Yes. And say, Jesus, you can21:24 have this. It's like when my son's playing. I tell them to share. They begin to immediately start to separate what is allowed to be shared and what's not allowed to be shared. It's like, no, boys. I told you to share21:36 your toys. Like, well, no. You not my favorite toys. No. All your toys. You gotta share all your toys. And we'll do that with Jesus is when we encounter Jesus, say, Jesus, you can be lord you man, you could you could be21:47 lord of so many things except for these things. Jesus is either lord of all or not lord at all. And that's the point Jesus21:59 comes to make with Israel, and this is ultimately what gets everybody upset. Because at the time when he comes into Jerusalem and his followers are deducing he's just a prophet, and then the people that are22:11 there are then deducing that Jesus is just the Messiah, the prophet, the 1 that's there to liberate them from Rome, then what happens is everybody goes, this is the Jesus that we're good with. We're okay with that22:22 Jesus. Because that doesn't create any uncomfortableness from us. They just saw Jesus as a liberator. He's just gonna rescue us from Rome.22:35 Or others thought, oh, he's a prophet, so he's gonna give us some good news about the future. But instead, Jesus tells us to look within,22:47 see our own sin, see our own hypocrisy, see our own challenges, and then and then he encourages us to then say, and then give it all to me. They're gonna be uncomfortable22:59 with that. Because what happens is they have a concern, and then the second part is people begin to have doubts. And this is how we start to get into holy week because it's often talked about how do you go from being23:10 celebrated on Sunday, Friday being yelled crucified, killed on Friday, and then on Sunday, you resurrect. How how do people get so turned23:22 off so fast? Well, number 1, you and I probably have personal experience with that. You've probably had people that you were in great relationships with, and just in 1 experience or 1 moment, it just turned23:34 sour. You're just not in relationship with them anymore. It's normally because of something that we have said or they have said. It's something because they have done or they have done that's offended us,23:45 That's caused us to second guess who they are or who we are to them? Well, this is what happens with Jesus. They like to limit Jesus in a box, and Jesus busts out that box. And he says, I'm23:57 more than your little prophet. I I I I'm more than your your your little magic 8 ball. I'm I'm I'm more than your candles. I'm more than your crystal. He says, I'm more than all24:09 those things. Yeah. And you would think Israel would be like, yes. I I love this. I want this. No. They're like, I don't like this. Because you're making us change our religious structure24:21 in order to come to reality. You're you're telling me to change my traditions. You're telling me to change my practices. You're tell you're tell you're telling me to change. I don't wanna change. I just wanna add.24:33 I don't wanna change. I don't wanna give up. I don't wanna walk away. That's good. I just wanna put on top of. I just want an addition. Look what happens. It says this in Matthew 22. This is now on24:44 Tuesday. So on Sunday, from Sunday to Tuesday, you'll see in holy week, Jesus begins to do some teachings. He goes into the synagogue. He flips money changers. He does a small24:56 sermon. But now, basically, from Matthew 22 to 26, Jesus just talks. It's 1 of the longest recorded groupings of chapters where Jesus just talks. And he's25:08 teaching us, and he's preparing he's teaching a sermon. He's talking to his disciples. He's talking to crowds. He's he's now, over the next couple days, he's just disgusting with people in Israel. But this is the moment25:20 that gets people upset. This is the moment that leads on Tuesday to Jesus' crucifixion on Friday. It's this moment right here. It's hard to believe, but it's there. It says in Matthew25:32 22 verse 34, hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, so he had a conversation with a group of other religious Jewish people. Now, there's another group of religious Jewish people called25:44 Pharisees that they come together. It says, 1 of them, an expert in law, so basically a lawyer, tested him with this question. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the25:55 law? Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind. This is your first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your26:07 neighbor as yourself. All of the law of the prophets hang on these 2 commandments. While the pharisees were gathered, Jesus asked them, what do you think about the Messiah?26:20 He's almost like almost like, I'm glad you guys are here. Let me ask you guys. What do you what do you guys think about the Messiah? And it says this, whose son is he?26:33 The Jews are experts at the Messiah, the coming 1, the anointed 1, the Christ. And so Jesus asks them, when the Messiah comes, whose son is he supposed to be? Now, naturally, they26:45 say they say the son of David, they replied. Which is true true. Through Joseph's adoption of Jesus, he inherits the bloodline of Joseph, which inherits26:57 the royal line of David. There is truth to that. But Jesus points something out. He said to them, how is it then that David, speaking by the spirit, calls the Messiah27:08 Lord? You'll see in our English translation, it's a capital l, which is Yahweh. Why? He like, why when David is expecting the Messiah, he calls the27:20 Messiah Yahweh, Lord? And then he says, for the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.27:32 If then David calls him Lord, how can he what he would be saying is naturally, how could he naturally just be his son? No 1 could say a word in27:43 reply, and what? And from that day forward, no 1 dared ask him any more questions. Because what happens is Jesus27:55 infuriates the religious audience so much that they were done asking questions. They have now decided this guy's gotta go. This guy just called himself God. He's gotta go.28:08 If you ever meet someone that says, where does Jesus call himself God in the Bible? Number 1, it's all over in the gospels. Number 2, this is just 1 instance. The Pharisees would not be mad if Jesus was28:20 just the Messiah. That's not what made them upset. It's the fact that Jesus said, I am the fullness of God himself. Right. Right. Because now it means that, you know, when someone's the28:32 Messiah or when someone's just a prophet, people can view it and just say, I just disagree with what the prophet says. I don't fully agree with what the messiah says. I'll be obedient, but I just don't but28:44 but when God starts to speak to you, pharisees don't like that because they're like, number 1, we reject it. Number 2, we don't wanna obey you. We we don't wanna28:56 give up our religious practices. We don't wanna give up the thing. We don't wanna give up this haughtiness that we have where we're showing off our faith and this righteousness that we this self righteousness. We don't29:05 wanna give those things up. And what this reality comes to work in is the devil works through questions not to bring answers, but to stir up suspicion. And so29:17 the Pharisees are asking questions not to learn, but they're looking for a foothold. A foothold that not just for themselves, they wanna be able to get society on their side.29:29 Because they know they can't crucify Jesus unless everybody's on the same page. And so the more questions they can ask Jesus to try to entrap him, to try to expose29:40 him, they didn't care about what was true. They didn't care about discovering Jesus for who he was. What they cared about is a legal reason for how they could kill him. They29:53 asked no more questions, not because they had learned everything they needed to learn about Jesus. It's because they were done with Jesus. They didn't wanna see Jesus for who he was.30:05 They wanted Jesus to fit in their practice, in their model, in their lifestyle. And when Jesus began to speak up and say, I don't fit into your30:17 lifestyle. I don't fit into your model. I don't fit into your convictions. They had to make a decision. Is Jesus a liar? Is he a lunatic? Or is30:29 he lord? They chose the first 2. They said, let's gather Israel and let's convince them. Not only is he a liar, let's convince them that he's just crazy. Because if30:41 that happens, then everyone who follows him, they'll give up on him. Just walk away from him. See, we all have to have a moment in our life that when we truly encounter Jesus for who he really is.30:53 We have to be able to engage in ourselves to say, Jesus, are you a liar? Are you a lunatic? Are you lord of my life? Who are you to me? Because I know what the31:05 world wants to set you as. They wanna set you as just a man, but you walk this earth, and when I read your word, you don't limit yourself to just a man. You're more than that. Fully man and31:17 fully God, you are you are more than just what society tries to limit you. Because Satan has no issue with you knowing who Jesus is. Satan has no issue with you applying his moral teachings in your31:28 life. Satan has no issue with us even gathering on a Sunday. That is not what bothers him. What bothers him is when you recognize Jesus in his fullness. Yes. Because31:40 when you recognize Jesus in his fullness, you are healed. You are redeemed. You are set free. You are anointed. You are called by God. You are gifted the power of the Holy Spirit. That's31:52 what he doesn't want. That's that's what He does not want you to see Jesus as that. And when Jesus starts to expose the truth in this last week, he had32:04 hinted at it for many times, but this time, these last 8 days, Jesus is standing sermon after sermon saying, this is who I am. And people had to start making some32:15 decisions. You know, anyone here in this room, anyone here from our campuses, there's a few things that all of you guys could know me as. You could you could know me as a friend.32:28 You could potentially know me as a brother. You could know me as, like, a a version of family. You could know me as a pastor. You could know me as a counselor. But there's only32:40 1 person in this room that could know me as husband. Only 1 person. Right. Good. There's only 2 individuals at church today that can know me as dad. Yep. I could be a type of dad32:52 to you. I could be a type of uncle to you. There's only 2 individuals that can know me as dad. There's only 1 woman that can know me as husband. Because they, not only are we related by33:04 blood, but we have seen each other in fullness of what God has called us to be. And we have chosen to say, I'm your husband, you're my wife, I'm your dad, you are my sons. Therefore,33:16 the moment that recognition happens, all rights and privileges are awarded to that. Yes. I love everybody here, but no 1 here is allowed to intimately hold my33:28 hand. It's just not gonna happen. Only 1 woman could do that. Only 1 woman could do that. That's right. And when we start to see Jesus who he33:40 is, there are teacher there are people that see Jesus as a great teacher. He's a great prophet. He's a guy with good sayings. He he was a miracle worker.33:51 But only those who choose to be adopted and anointed by God will say, no. No. No. No. No. Some people see him as that, but I see him as so much more. Yes. And by doing34:03 so, the Bible says, you are adopted as a child of God because you have seen something that not the rest of the world sees. You have received something that not the rest of the world sees because34:15 you and I have chosen to receive him. Jacob, can you run up here real quick? And we're gonna start to land the play and close with 1 last thought. I've kind of already shared the point. We're gonna talk about clarity,34:27 but just to land it more, I want you to I got these I guess this is a game that pastor Aaron's kids told me about. It's called the upside down game. Can you put those goggles on for me? So, basically, what happens is the34:38 moment you put those goggles on, it inverts everything upside down. So can you see me? Not really. I mean, but you can see me. Yeah. I can see. You just see me upside down. Right? Yeah. So I want you to back up a little34:49 bit more. So, I'm gonna have you back up a little bit more. So, you're not blind. Right? Like, you can see. Okay. And you can see me. Can you see me from over here? Yeah. Okay. So, here's what I'm gonna do, is I'm gonna35:00 I'm gonna give you a football. Alright? And I want you with those, I want you to toss me that football right now. I want you to toss it to me. You may just be oh my gosh. Oh.35:12 Is everybody okay? Hey. Don't look right now, but you may have a lawsuit on your hands. Alright? Just be careful. Hold on. I was not anticipating that. We let me see that 1 more time. What35:24 Javi, you didn't have the glasses on and you still threw like that. What's going on? Alright. We'll get the ball. Here's here's the next thing I want you to do. I want you what I want you to35:36 do, okay, is I want you to run at me as fast as you can on the count of 3. Okay? I just want you to run. Just stop. Just stop at me. Okay? I'm a big guy. I can handle it if something goes bad.35:49 1, 2, 3. Run at me as fast as you can. Okay? Yo. You got to there we go. Okay. Well, you didn't see that you were stopping. Alright. Here's what I wanted to do 1 more time. I want you to take them off. I want you to back35:59 up. Phil, let me get the football again. There's a throw. Look at that. You you know, I heard he was a freshman quarterback when he was in high school, and he stopped there, though. Alright. I'm a give it to you 1 more36:11 time. Alright. I want you to toss me the football now. Here we go. Okay. Now I want you to run at me as fast as you can. 1, 3, run at me. I want you to stop right at me. Much easier. Right? Yeah. You see, you could36:22 see me with those on. Right? But you were inebriated. He he couldn't do every he couldn't do it at full speed. He couldn't do it with clarity. He couldn't run the way he wanted to run. He couldn't throw the way he36:34 could. Other people were getting hurt because of the way he was throwing. Not because he couldn't see, he just couldn't see clear. He saw perfectly fine. He just couldn't see clearly.36:46 So I told him to run to me and stop. What are you he runs into me. So a lot of times give it up for Jacob. Thank you. You could take a football with you for now. See, what happens is when we limit36:58 Jesus to just 1 or 2 things that he is or that he did. I'm not saying that I disobey. He that Jesus' teachings, everyone should live by. Jesus'37:10 words, everyone should pursue. Knowing Jesus as a teacher and a pro everyone should see that. But if you stop there, you're gonna be off course. If you just37:22 stop at that, you're not gonna know Jesus for everything that he is. He is so much more than that. Here's the clarity. Here's the clarity that Jesus sets that starts getting people upset. Here's the point. It says this,37:34 Jesus is more than a man. Jesus is not a prophet from Nazareth. He is the son of the living God. Not just a prophet. He's not just the son of David. He's not37:45 just a messiah. He is both priest, king, and lord. Yes. How do I know that? Not only because we saw that Jesus said that, but here's 3 verses I wanna share with you about37:57 Jesus. John 1 4 1 1 1 14. In the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word became flesh. Jesus right away. Jesus is in the fullness of humanity in38:09 the dawn of creation. Father, son, holy spirit. Yes. He is there and the word became flesh for you and I. Colossians 2 9, for in Christ,38:21 all the fullness of the deity came and lived in bodily form. Jesus is fully God. Hebrews 1 3, the sun is the radiance of God's glory38:33 and the exact representation of his being. Amen. So I wanna encourage you as we go into holy week, don't just see Jesus for how you want to see him38:45 as. Or how society sees him. Or how that 1 YouTube commentator told you he was. Or that little TikTok viral thing that you found that meant, oh, I didn't know that.38:58 But look at Jesus in his own words that recorded in the word of God that says, he is the fullness of all things. And he is the Lord of all.39:10 Athanasius, 1 of the old church fathers said, he became what we are that he might make us what he is. That's who Jesus is. Jesus is GodShow more
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