Do you know who you are or do you let people tell you who you are?
what was it about Nazareth that made
them push away the one who came to set
them free what was it about Nazareth
well Nathaniel is gonna tell us
Nathaniel doesn’t get a lot of speaking
parts in the Bible so let’s pay close
attention it’s very uncommon that
Nathaniel speaks but the Bible tells us
one thing that he said that this whole
text and our entire understanding of why
God often cannot do what he wants to do
in our lives it hinges on this because
when Philip came to find Nathaniel he
was excited about Jesus this is when
Jesus was first assembling his squad
this is before he sent them out to do
any miracles and Philip comes running up
to his friend Nathaniel
he’s called Nathaniel in John’s Gospel
other writers call him Bartholomew
he had an alias here he’s called
Nathaniel and Philip comes to Nathaniel
because sometimes the first thing you do
when you really meet Jesus is drag
people with you
sometimes when God really gets ahold of
your life you will bribe people into
coming to church with you you’ll buy a
Starbucks to get them to sit with you in
church because you know how messed up
they are but you can’t tell them that
but if you drag them in this church and
let me open the Bible God will tell them
and together the Holy Spirit and you can
get them fixed and so you say come with
me to church and they say I don’t like
Church and you say well this isn’t
normal Church and they say I’ve been to
church before I heard about that
evolution Church I don’t really uh know
animation in the church yeah that’s the
church where you’re coming with me now
shut up and come and so philip found
nathanael verse 45 john 1 and told him
we have found the one somebody shot we
found him this is the one Moses wrote
about in the law and whom the prophets
also wrote watch Jesus of Nazareth
where’s he from again Nazareth the son
of Joseph and Nathaniel’s reaction
helped me to understand why the people
of Nazareth resisted Jesus and missed
his miracles and it helped me understand
why I tend to push people away sometimes
and it helped me understand why
sometimes I reject the love people are
trying to give me but really I’m
rejecting something else because when
Philip said we found the one Nathaniel
was excited but when he said where he
was from Jesus of Nazareth Philip say 46
as Earth let me do this in my best AI
voice practice Nazareth
NASA someone as ER
watch what he says it hinges on this I
thought they only rejected Jesus and
took offense and were trapped scandal on
to set a trap I thought they were
offended by Jesus because they were so
familiar with him but now I think the
reason that they rejected Jesus is
because they rejected themselves
apparently Nazareth had a reputation
because the first thing that Daniel said
was Ezra can anything good come from
there that’s how I feel about myself
sometimes you know because I know myself
and when they took offense at him at
first I was angry with them then I
realized they weren’t really rejecting
him
they had a reputation Nazareth is this a
backwoods town Nazareth is on nobody’s
bucket list they talk funny in Nazareth
it’s not like Jerusalem it’s not a very
religious place Nazareth you mean the
boy with a baby daddy who were not even
short Nazareth he came from us it wasn’t
that they couldn’t believe what he did
they couldn’t believe it came from them
his miracles to them were remarkable but
when they tried to reconcile the fact
that he was one of them with what he was
doing they they couldn’t reconcile the
fact that something good could come from
us and when you have a view of yourself
that has been shaped year after year
even generation after generation by
stereotypes or by generalizations or by
failures it comes to a point where you
really start to believe that nothing
good can come from you and some of you
are right there today trapped in
Nazareth because you got some things in
your past and some of them aren’t even
your fault but just because it wasn’t
your fault doesn’t mean it’s not your
prison and in this room there is sexual
molestation that happened twenty-three
years ago and still dominates your
perception of what your future can be
and there are many in this room who are
still imprisoned in a failed
relationship the relationship failed
five years ago but you are living in it
in this very moment Nazareth can
anything good come from someone like me
he’s just like us he’s one of us and
they were amazed at first and then they
began to despise what they were first
amazed at when they realized wait a
minute he’s one of us there’s a part of
us that is able to believe that God is
great but when we try to reconcile the
fact of his greatness with the reality
of our brokenness we start to feel like
these people and we push Jesus away and
it’s not that we can’t believe that he’s
great it’s just that we can’t believe
that anything good could come from our
life
because there’s so much that I don’t
know and there’s so much that I should
have done it so much that I shouldn’t
have done and now I’m trapped in
Nazareth because see I’ve made some
mistakes and I know Jesus is a healer
and I know he’s amazing and I know he’s
a miracle worker it’s not his
miracle-working power that’s in question
here is me I’m trapped in Nazareth it’s
me and I’m a preach to all of your
facade comes falling off because you
come in this church and you look at me a
certain way and you come with this
sterile approach to God but he can’t do
what he really wants to do in your life
because you’re trapped in Nazareth so
you listen to me preach you sing a few
songs you say a few prayers but Jesus is
limited in what he can do through your
life because you are trapped in what you
were Nazareth was so unknown and so
disregarded that Nathaniel’s first
response was not Nazareth not Nazareth
like the devil tells you not you you
really think you can race those kids you
never saw it done what makes you think
you’re gonna be any better than your dad
was is what tells you you can’t it’s
what can be in proximity of the power of
God but not receive they were right
there but they resisted and rejected and
yet it wasn’t Jesus they were rejecting
it was that they had been rejected and
people have said something about you
long enough you start to believe this
really true
and I am convinced that the people of
Nazareth that day
we’re not rejecting Jesus as much as
they were rejecting themselves see you
have to develop your view of who God is
through the prism of who you think you
are and if you believe the rest of your
life that you are worthless it will be
very hard for you to worship a God who
thought you were worth dying for
[Applause]
as a matter of fact I want to helps set
somebody free who has been disappointed
because someone rejected you a lot of
times they’re not rejecting you a lot of
times what they are rejecting is
something that had nothing to do with
you and sometimes they push you away
because there’s something pushing on the
inside of them a lot of what we
experience as rejection is really just
projection it’s people who have been
disappointed who have been hurt and now
you’re thinking what’s wrong with me
why doesn’t she appreciate me it’s not
you she doesn’t appreciate it said she
can’t appreciate herself because she has
not yet healed from something sometimes
when people are pushing you away it’s
not even about you stop being so
self-centered stop thinking that people
are responding to you people have real
hurts people have real issues sometimes
they can’t get over what happened to
them to celebrate you will you love them
anyway are you strong enough in God is
your relationship with him strong enough
to know that what they say about me
doesn’t change who I am
[Applause]
men’s denial cannot block my destiny
Jesus was still a prophet whether they
knew it or not whether they celebrated
him or not whether they rolled out a red
carpet or ran him out of town he knew
who he was
do you know who you are or do you need
people to tell you who you are because
if you let people tell you who you are
they’ll say you’re just a carpenter
they’ll say you’re just a single mom
they’ll say you’re just a teenager
they’ll say you’re just a divorcee but
if you know who God is you realize your
life is not defined by an event Oh as a
matter of fact it actually is that event
happened on a hill called Calvary when
He shed his blood for me when the
precious Lamb of God look
me through time and said I’ll die for
him so now I know that I am accepted by
him hey thanks for watching if you
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[Music]