Transcript from Part 4 of the sermon series on what is Discipleship: The Dogma and the Dugma

Did Nisam already leave?

Because we're very blessed, forgive me a little selfish moment.

My Israeli son met him when he was eight, I think, and his lovely wife Lizzie and our grandbaby, Shawnee.

He's an American Israeli.

They're, I think, becoming Israeli Americans here sometime soon.

but we are blessed to have them with us this morning.

And if you saw the little, I can't believe Chris didn't say anything about it because my little Israeli grandson has a baby man bun.

So, (laughs) Well, it is good to be with you.

I wanna be real honest with you before we dive in, just as kind of an update on my father who you know has been in the hospital going on two weeks now.

Tanya and I are supposed to actually leave next Saturday for Israel, for a couple days in Jerusalem by ourselves and then to lead a tour.

That's a huge question mark right now, given the situation with my dad.

He is progressing, but it's just kind of an unknown as to whether or not he's gonna be where we will feel comfortable in leaving the country and we won't leave the country if we're not 100% comfortable and feel like it's the thing of the Lord.

If by chance the Lord says, no, you just need to stay home, then we will probably, I'll probably be able to back up in the pulpit next Saturday as well and continue this on.

But if not, then it'll be about three Shabbats before we get to see you again.

Please be in prayer for my dad, not so that we can go to Israel.

But I gotta tell you, I asked my dad the other night, I said, well, how are you feeling about things?

And he said, well, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

I said, slow your roll.

That's his decision, not yours.

But we do appreciate your prayers on his behalf.

When I was a high schooler back in the 1800s, I went to a summer youth conference.

I think I've mentioned it before, the Preacher Training Institute.

And it was a two-week thing for young high school boys who had dedicated their life to the ministry.

And it probably was one of the very first times that I decided to start attempting to commit larger portions of scripture to memory, which I have not done nearly as well since then.

But I remember going to the book of Philippians, and we've kind of been in this series about discipleship, the dogma and the dogma, have kind of been using two different passages.

We've been looking at Paul's letter to the church in Philippi and we've been talking about looking at examples of Yeshua in the Gospel of John.

But there was a verse in the opening lines, opening few verses of Philippians that when I was a teenager just kinda, you ever had one of those verses that just kinda grabs your soul and for a season it kinda becomes your theme verse, you know, and it just kinda speaks to you.

And this is one of the first verses I ever remember really kind of capturing my heart.

And it was from Paul's letter to the Philippians in chapter one, verse six, he says, "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Messiah Yeshua, until the day of Christ Jesus.

" I don't know what it was really that just grabbed me so much by that verse.

Maybe it was the insecurity of a teenage boy, wondering, you know, God, am I gonna make it Are you really gonna use me?

I mean, with all the insecurities and the battles with sin, wondering, God, are you really calling me?

Am I just doing this because my dad was a minister?

Are you really invested in me as I'm invested in you?

But this verse inspired me at a couple levels.

The first one was the confidence to know that God was working in me, not just for me.

I totally get the gospel where Jesus dies for my sins, rises again, ascends to heaven, pours out the Holy Spirit.

I totally get that aspect of what he's done for me to rescue me from the punishment of my sins.

But the gospel goes beyond just what God has done for you to what God is doing in you and through you.

And I love this verse because it kind of focused on having the confidence to know God himself was working in me.

That's a little bit of a humbling, overwhelming thought.

Have you ever taken time to think about it?

It's easy just to be a face in a crowd.

But what about that moment when you discover that God knows every face in the crowd by name and He has chosen you and called you, not just to save you, but to walk with you and to work in you and through you.

That's discipleship.

That's what it means to be tell me, shall Yeshua, to be a disciple of Jesus.

It's not just to be thanked, it's not just to glom on to salvation, but it's to let His purpose begin to work in our lives.

So it was the confidence to know that God was working in me, even in those battles, even in those dark places in my heart and mind, God wasn't giving up on me.

I needed to hear that.

I had some big battles in my life.

Some of you need to hear that.

He's not done with you.

He's just getting started.

The second thing is that confidence to believe that God would actually work through me.

I mean, that's just an overwhelming thing to even stop and really think about.

the responsibility.

In fact, it's kind of such a responsibility that the truth of the matter is a lot of us spend more of our time running away from that instead of running to that.

You don't believe me?

Go try to find leaders for a church.

I mean, you will see old men run faster than you thought anybody could run.

That the divine Creator of the would choose me to use me for his glory, and that somehow my life would become a conduit, a river, if you will, of his good pleasure and purpose.

That was amazing to me, and it captured my heart when I was just 14, 15 years old.

My friends, the call to discipleship is not just a call to try harder, to be a better Christian, to say fewer cuss words, to be nicer to your spouse.

I mean, all those things are important, okay?

But discipleship is, it's not just a call to the burden of trying to be better.

It's a call to a life of adventure, a life of opportunity, a life not of just sitting around reading what God has done in someone else's life, but a chance to actually be called to walk with the master and let them start doing those things in you, for you, and through you.

That's discipleship.

But quite honestly, that's why some of us never really commit.

Because the doing for me, I'm all about.

Save me, forgive me, yeah, yeah.

But too many times in the life of believers, It's what we want him to do for us, and then we want him to leave us alone.

Because if I ever really become a disciple, my life stops being my own, my purpose stops being mine, and I get to be in a river of an amazing adventure.

I wanna talk to you about that today.

Let's pray.

Abba Father, I come to you, B'shem Yashua, Hama Shioch, in the name of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.

And Lord, I'm not a perfect example of what it is to pursue you, but I am an example of one that you have pursued and been patient with and continue to fulfill your purpose in my life.

And so I do stand here, not in my own confidence, but in the confidence that you are the one working in me and working in these good people here today.

And so to that end, Father, I pray that the Rukah Kodesh would have his way in every heart and mind and that we would hear only what your spirit would say to your people who have ears to hear.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, so as we're continuing our study of discipleship, I've introduced two words, dogma.

The dogma of discipleship is this.

The thing that we're gonna, the reason we start following him in the first place is that Yeshua of Nazareth is Emanuel.

He is God with us.

He is the Son of God.

You know, we've been making this case over and over about the deity, the word deity and divine just mean the same thing, that he is God in the flesh.

The word became flesh in Dweltomyrus.

That's the dogma.

And that's the only reason we would be following him in the first place.

But we're not just following a man who had good teachings.

We're following a man who is the word of God.

Now the dukema is the example that Jesus has set as we watch how Jesus interacts with his own identity being in fully nature God.

And you know what, I kind of like that.

I mean, can we just sidebar for a minute?

I spend, I don't know about you, but I spend a lot of time dealing with me.

Come on, can I at least get a, oh, you know, just, yeah.

I mean, let's just be honest.

I mean, I don't really have time to fix you because I'm trying to figure out who I'm supposed to be in him, right?

And I kind of like when I look at Jesus, I see this example being played out.

Here's this one who is fully God, fully man at the same time.

How do you even live that?

But he shows us how to do it.

And in showing us his relationship with the Father God, he shows us how to deal with our own identity and how to follow him.

So that's the dugma.

Now normally we've been looking at some examples in John and then we go to our theme verse, but today I wanna flip the script real quick and I wanna read from the Philippians passage which we'll just call our theme passage.

Philippians chapter two it says this, have this mind or attitude in yourselves which was also in Messiah Yeshua who also though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.

Meaning he was so humble even though he was God He wasn't gonna, you know, he was gonna humble himself.

But he emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of a man and being found in appearances of man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For this reason also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Yeshua, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and under the earth or on the earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So Jesus humbled himself, even though he was God, did all these things, and then Paul just lists this because of this, because Yeshua was faithful to the purpose God had for him, Paul then continues his theme of God's work in us through the ministry of Christ, and listen to what he says in verse 12 and 13.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but also in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Paul says, so then, my beloved, so then is like saying, therefore.

And the minute you say, therefore, what do you ask?

Well, what's it therefore?

What has he just said?

So what is the so then?

The so then is, the so what is that God has fulfilled all of his intentions, plans and purposes in Messiah just as the prophets of Israel foretold and because Jesus humbled himself even though he was God, God exalted him to the right hand of the majesty in heaven exactly where the prophets and ancient Israelites believed the Messiah would one day sit.

Now that's, it's amazing because if you remember the story of Jesus, there's a whole lot of opposition to him fulfilling his role.

In fact, when Satan, when the Jewish people turn him over to be crucified by the Romans and they nail him to the cross, what looks like, well, that plan failed, actually was that plan being fulfilled.

He was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Just like Isaiah the prophet had said, what looked to the world like he was failing was actually God fulfilling his purpose.

And because Yeshua submitted to that purpose, God gave him a name that is above every name and exalted him to the right hand of God.

Which by the way is exactly where the Koumron community, the Essians, if you read any of their writings, that's exactly where they expect the Messiah to sit and reign.

How can we have such confidence?

Because the dukema of God, the example that God has given us, the example of what we have seen in Jesus, if I believe that he did these things in Jesus, come on church, think with me, if I really believe in spite of all of the opposition and all of the oppression that Jesus experienced and yet somehow even in those moments that look like failure, God, turn them into glory.

If I really believe that God is doing that, fulfilling His purpose in Yeshua, then how should I look at my own life?

Are your financial struggles evidence that God isn't fulfilling His purpose?

No?

Are those relational struggles evidence that God's word has failed?

No.

Are those children who have gone astray, evidence that you're a failure and God is done with you?

God is just getting started.

Because he who began a good work in you, in the same way he started a good work in Messiah Yeshua, will carry it on to completion, amen?

Why do I believe that so strongly?

Because Jesus is my dogma.

He's the example of God saying, "Once I say I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it.

" And he did it.

And God is doing that in us.

And that's where one of the places I keep coming back to where discipleship begins.

Paul says something kind of interesting.

He says, "We need to work out our salvation "with fear and trembling.

" Now, that doesn't mean like, oops, I lost it.

It's not like fear and trembling like, oh, I sinned today, so I'm not saved today.

And I know there's a denomination out there.

I don't think they do this so much anymore.

But there was a generation of believers that were taught by one particular denomination that if you died with an unconfessed sin, you went to hell.

I mean, if you forgot, I remember meeting a lady who was terrified because she was afraid her children would die in a car wreck or something like that, having not confessed and repented of a singular sin.

Guys, that's not the fear and trembling that he's talking about here.

The fear and trembling has to do with recognizing the awesomeness of the fact that God is working in us.

And here's the amazing thing.

You know, he could have just said, you know, God's purpose is being fulfilled in us.

Well, that's fine, but it calls his purpose his good pleasure.

Meaning, do you realize that, I mean, if I ask you to raise your hand, just tell me some of the things that you are really pleasurable to you, things that you enjoy doing.

Do you understand that God's hobby, the thing that God loves, the thing that he's the most focused on is fulfilling his goodwill in your life.

That's the most important thing to God, is fulfilling the promises that he has made and letting you remember our definition of discipleship, pursuing the Lord his presence and his power so that God's purpose would be fulfilling us.

That is God's passion.

Nothing is more important than his purpose being fulfilled in your life.

So the question is as disciples of Christ Is that our passion?

Remember that what I just said about, "Hey, I love what he does for me, "but if I'm ever gonna let him do things through me, "then I have to submit to his purpose.

"I have to decide that what he wants "is more important than I want.

" Paul is making the point that we are to live our lives exactly like Jesus lived his.

As Jesus only did and said what he saw the Father saying and doing, so we're supposed to do the same thing with Jesus.

Saying what Jesus said, serving the way Jesus served, loving the way Jesus loved, doing righteousness the way Jesus did righteousness.

That's our passion.

So having said that, let's go to the Gospel of John chapter And I got to tell you, I intended to do three moments looking at, there's three different events in John chapter four and the first part of chapter five.

We're only going to do the first one in chapter four because the more I got into it, I thought, oh, this is too good.

I can't skip it.

I just want us to take time to look this morning at the interaction between Yeshua and the woman.

By the way, she's, it's not just the woman at the well.

We need to change our terminology.

It's the woman at Jacob's well.

Forgive me my oakiness.

It ain't just no well.

It's Jacob's well.

Now you're gonna understand why I'm stressing that here as we go in just a minute.

So let me begin reading.

Set the stage, verse one.

Therefore, when the Lord Jesus knew that the Paroshim, the Pharisees, had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, and then, parenthetically, it tells us that although Jesus himself was not the one baptizing, but his disciples were, he left Judea and went again into Galilee.

Remember what we were talking about last week?

God-knowledge.

Jesus knows what's going on in the heart and mind of the religious leaders of Judah in Jerusalem.

And the Pharisees are becoming aware that Jesus of Nazareth, this movement, is now outpacing and outgrowing even John the Baptist, the prophet out in the wilderness that was the forerunner to the Messiah.

And so Jesus is smart enough to figure out things are about to get dicey in Jerusalem.

And so he leaves.

Now he could have taken a couple different paths back to the Galilee, but he instead this time did something a bit shocking.

He decided to go right through the land of Samaria where the Samaritans who were considered half-breeds by the Jewish people lived.

So picking up in verse four he says, "And he had to pass through Samaria, "so he came to the city of Samaria called Sychar "near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

"And Jacob's well was there.

" So Jesus being wearied from his journey was sitting by the well, not a well, the well, Jacob's well.

It was the sixth hour.

And there came a woman of Samaria to draw water and Jesus said to her, give me a drink.

" Now again, sometimes in English it sounds so rude to us, but I promise you in Hebrew in that context it wasn't rude.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food, by the way, there were certain parts, there were certain foods, bread and stuff that the Jews could buy from the Samaritans.

For his disciples had gone into the city to buy food.

Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans?

Just a little historical note thrown in there so we understand that she's kind of shocked by this.

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.

" She said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with "and the well is deep.

"Where then do you get that living water?

" She said, "You are not greater than our father, Jacob, "are you who gave us the well and drank of it himself "and his sons and his cattle.

" And Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water "will be thirsty again.

"But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him "shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him "will become in him a well of water springing up eternal life.

That is amazing.

Here at Jacobswell, Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman, a total taboo, and he tells her that he will give her water that will be like a well of Chaim Lenechthach, eternal life, that will rise up within her, and he will give her Mayim Chaim living water.

Now this is amazing for multiple reasons.

One, that he would tell a non-Jew this at Jacob's well.

I mean, it just doesn't get more Jewish than Jacob's well, right?

I mean, this is home turf.

Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes.

By all rights and purposes, He should be saying this.

In fact, in a few verses, he's gonna say to her, "I am the Messiah.

" He should be saying that to Jews.

He's been trying to say that in Jerusalem.

And they know what he's saying, but he has to get out of dodge, as we say.

And now he's in Samaria at Jacob's well, talking to a Samaritan woman.

Do you remember what God had promised Abraham?

That he would become a father of a multitude of nations?

So Jesus is doing exactly what God promised Abraham would come to pass.

And by the way, God's not just still fulfilling his purpose in Brent, he's still fulfilling the purpose of Abraham.

Abraham was supposed to become a light to the nations, he was supposed to become a multitude of nations.

When Jacob prophesied over Judah in Genesis 49-10, he said, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

" What does Jacob say will happen when Mashiach, who is called Shiloh, comes?

To him will be the obedience of the nations.

Guys, you want to know why I believe Jesus is Messiah?

Where are the temples of Zeus?

Where are the temples of Artemis?

If you go to Greece, if you go to Europe, if you go to Asia Minor, if you go on a tour, all you're going to do is you're going to tour the remnants of a pagan lost religion.

The gospel literally brought polytheism to its knees.

By the way, Constantine didn't do that.

Stop giving him credit for it.

The gospel did that.

People giving their lives to Jesus, Jews and Gentiles, as the gospel spreads through Asia Minor and jumps the Aegean, goes into Greece and all the way to Rome, and suddenly an entire continent, two continents, pagan religions begin to disappear.

The gospel did that.

And when those places fall down, churches rise up, and those people in those places were doing the exact same thing we were doing here today, worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I don't want to grandstand, but the Pharisees didn't do that.

Jesus did that.

Amen?

Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations, and where they failed to do that, Jesus did it by people who became Talmudim and gave their lives.

It's just amazing.

So how do we understand what is going on in Judah?

Because the prophets foretold that the Messiah would be rejected in and by Judah, but accepted in the Galilee.

And notice the manner in which they're told this would happen.

I want to share a couple prophecies with you today about where the Bible actually says this, where it says this.

But I don't want you to just to hear the prophecy.

I want you to hear the terminology that is used, because it's very relevant to where this is happening.

In Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13, God says through Jeremiah, he says, "For my people have committed two evils.

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hue for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

" Isn't that interesting?

When God wants to describe, prophetically say, "Juda is going to make a huge mistake.

" They're going to read, and by the way, they've already made this mistake more than once, and I'm not throwing stones because we could drag up church history.

We've made a few big ones.

I'm just talking historically here, but they really dropped the ball.

And the prophets, their own prophets say, God says, you have forsaken me, and I'm the fountain of living water.

Isn't that interesting?

How he connects himself with living water.

You reject him, you reject the water.

Remember what Jesus is saying here at the well.

This is the terminology that the prophets used to warn the Jewish people that they were in danger of rejecting God himself who is the fountain of living water.

And this moment at Jacob's well is occurring.

The Pharisees have already begun to see Jesus as a threat.

While Judah was destined to reject him for a season, the nations were promised that we would be included in the good pleasure of God.

Remember what the angels said to the shepherds, "Good news of great joy," which will be for all the people.

For today in the city of David, Bethlehem, there has been born a savior who is Mashiach, Messiah of the Lord.

This is amazing.

Listen to what the woman says at the well.

"The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ.

' When that one comes, he will declare all things to us.

And Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you, am he.

'" Notice the disciples' reaction, verse 27.

At this point, his disciples came and they were amazed that he had been speaking with the woman, yet no one said, "What do you seek or why do you speak with her?

" No one was going to dare to ask Jesus, "Dude, what are you doing?

" They had already seen enough to know if Jesus is doing something that looks crazy and different, we'll get used to different.

Yeah, I just stole that.

But notice that they were paying attention to what he was doing.

Interacting with those who were hated by the Jewish people, yet loved by God.

Guys, this is discipleship 101.

Seeing people through two lenses, seeing people through the heart of God and listening to seeing people through the voice of the prophets.

Jacob prophesied over Judah and to him shall be the obedience of the nations and that Jacob's well Jesus is doing exactly what Jacob's prophecy over Judah said would happen.

God was reaching the nations.

Exactly like God's word said would happen.

So when the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, "Come and see a man who told me all things that I have done.

Could this be the Christ?

" And they went out of the city and were coming to him.

Now before I move on, I want to return to another section of the prophets in Isaiah 7 through 9.

Do you remember a few weeks ago we were in Isaiah 7 and we were looking at the prophecy of the virgin birth?

Remember that at the time, very wicked king of Judah, King Ahaz, refused to ask God for a sign.

And so God sends Isaiah to him, but he doesn't send Isaiah alone.

Do you remember this?

He intentionally tells Isaiah, "When you go stand in front of the king, take your son.

" Now why would he tell him to do that?

Because his son's name is Shai'er Yashub, which means a remnant shall return.

So he takes this son who has a prophetic name which bears a promise of God.

Why does he do that?

Because he's about to tell him about another child that's gonna be born, that's gonna have a prophetic name.

And Ahaz is gonna have to decide, do you believe in that name?

that's gonna be the sign.

Are you gonna trust what God is saying to you through this child?

So, the young maiden, the virgin shall conceive, and in Ahaz's day, a child was born and the child was called Emanuel.

And for whatever reason, that was shocking, but it means God with us.

And every time Ahaz looked at that child, he was to remember that that child, that name was God's promise that all these armies that had surrounded Jerusalem and Judah were not gonna prosper.

They would not succeed.

And so every time he, even when they looked like they were succeeding, every time they got scared, look at the child, Emmanuel, God is with us.

The whole issue is believing in the name of the child.

That's why in Matthew it says when Mary and Joseph name Yeshua, Yeshua, Jesus, which means salvation, And Matthew says this fulfills this prophecy that his name shall be called Emmanuel, and you go, wait, what?

What's the point?

What's the connection?

You have to have faith in the name.

The name is telling you what he's going to do.

In the same way A has had to believe in the name Emmanuel, we have to believe in the name Yeshua.

Who is Emmanuel?

He wasn't just called Emmanuel, he was Emmanuel.

So in Isaiah eight, God tells Isaiah the prophet to take a large tablet and write these words on it.

(speaking in foreign language) Which means speedy plunder and hastened to the spoil.

Another child, yes, that's a mouthful.

Another child whose prophetic name and purpose is to serve as a sign to tell God's people two things.

Your enemies are gonna plunder and they're gonna be swift and Judah is gonna suffer at their hands, but God has already told them, Emmanuel, God is with you.

They're not gonna remember what they wanted to do.

They wanted to get rid of the house of David.

If they get rid of the house of David, there's no Messiah.

And God's already told them to the birth of that child, it's not happening.

But look at chapter eight, verse six, explains the reason that God allows the plundering and the pillaging of Judah before he saves them.

In Isaiah chapter eight, verse five, it says, "Again the Lord spoke to me saying, "Inasmuch as these people have rejected," Now listen, listen how God frames the rejection, "The gently flowing waters of Shilohok, "and they rejoice in resin the son of Remaliah.

" If you remember from a few weeks ago, I told you, one of the things that made A has so wicked.

Here's a king of Judah from the house of David who's got, is surrounded by enemies, right?

and rather than going to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and calling on him to save them, he goes and offers sacrifices to the gods of the enemies who are attacking him.

All God's people said, "I ain't right.

"What's wrong with you, Ahaz?

" And how does God describe this rejection?

They have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shilohok.

Shiloach is really the word where we get the word apostle.

When we refer to the apostle Paul or the apostle Peter, it's a Greek word that just means the same thing as the Hebrew word that means scent.

So shiloach, the pool of Siloam, the pool of shiloach, are the scent waters.

So, a Shiloach, sometimes Israelis will sign up to come to the United States to be a Sholiach, an Israeli representative, and they'll come and they'll live in highly Jewish areas and kind of be representatives and help them if they want to make aliyah.

They still use this term.

And remember, Ahaz wanted to offer sacrifices to their gods.

But notice how God describes this act of idolatry.

You've rejected the waters.

You have rejected the scent waters.

Listen to prophecies that continues.

"Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates.

" And he's not talking about just the physical water, he's talking about the kingdoms.

Even the king of Assyria and all his glory, and it will rise up over its channels and go all over its banks.

Then it will sweep into Judah.

It will overflow and pass through it.

It will reach even to the neck and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of the land.

Oh, Emmanuel!

Huh?

Why does he end with that?

God uses the image of a river overwhelming the Kingdom of Judah because they have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shilohok.

And so he describes this army as a, okay, you reject my river, I'll send you a different kind of river.

God uses the names of two prophetic sons to make his point.

So he addresses these prophetic words to two prophetically named sons.

Isaiah is going to be told, Isaiah has a second son and his name is Mahir Shalal Hashbaz.

But in the first verse when I read that, it doesn't, a lot of your English translations don't translate this correctly.

They leave out a word.

Earlier in the verse, it doesn't just say Mahir Shalal Hashbaz, it says, "Lemmehir Shalal Hoshbaz, meaning two and four, this child.

There's something being done.

And so at the end of this sentence, suddenly God also cries out, "Oh, Emmanuel, what is happening here?

" I mean, if you go for Isaiah 7 through 9, you're going to find one consistent thing over and over again.

God keeps giving a son with a prophetic name, and you have a choice, Are you gonna believe it?

God tells Ahaz, a virgin's gonna give birth.

First a young maiden gives birth in his time and then in the future a virgin is gonna give birth and she's gonna call his name Yeshua and you're gonna have to decide whether you believe it or not.

We have the same choice Ahaz had.

He puts a prophetically son name in front of him to emphasize it.

Then in chapter eight, Isaiah has another son and God tells him to name him another prophetic name.

The plunder will be swift, but to remind Judah that God's not done with him.

Sounds terrible.

But remember the meaning of that child's name.

O Emmanuel, God with us.

God has not abandoned Judah.

He's just getting started.

And their failure will not stop his good pleasure to fulfill his purpose in them.

And my friends, that's what God is doing in us.

Anybody dropped the ball this week?

I've heard of people who do that.

You know that fixing that may just be the platform you need to show God's love to somebody, to show the sincerity of your faith, that sometimes people don't need to hear us say how right we are.

Sometimes the most important testimony is someone being willing to say, "Hey, I was wrong.

Forgive me.

" And to literally live out what we were called to live out.

Throughout the Gospel of John Jesus repeatedly refers to himself as the one whom God has sent.

He is Shilohok, no wonder he says to that woman, "If you knew who you were talking to, you would ask him to give you water because he is the sent one and he would give you the living water.

" Remember the prophecy over Shiloh?

The prophecy over Shiloh said that the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the nations.

Why are you all here today?

I know there's some people in here with Jewish descent.

I also know that the vast majority of us don't.

And yet we worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Why?

Because God made a promise to save the nations.

When we look at the rejection of Yeshua by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the rulers and Judah, we are seeing something that we have, it's not like we're seeing something we've never seen before.

actually seen history repeating itself.

And that's the amazing thing about God's grace.

Because every time Israel messed up and God punished him, he always brought him back.

In fact, you know, the Israel that exists today, you know, people say, well, that's not the kingdom of God.

Well, no, it's not the kingdom of God, but God specifically prophesies, I'm not going to bring you back into the land because of your righteousness.

I'm going to bring you back in the land because of my righteousness, because I made a promise.

I'm not doing this because I looked into the nations and you were so perfect.

You were hanging around with a bunch of us.

Trust me, you weren't perfect.

I'm gonna bring you back because I made a promise and I perfect my promise.

God fulfills what He starts.

So what do we learn about discipleship from this passage.

Well there's one final moment we need to look at.

She asked the question about which mountain they should worship on and Jesus says the following.

Woman believe me an hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor the one in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

Remember the Samaritans thought they should worship on Mount Garazine.

The Jews were correct that it was Mount Mariah and Jerusalem, but Jesus says, an hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers.

She then goes on, she goes into the city and tells them all that he has told her because he exposes how many husbands she's had.

Remember the last week when we talked about Nathaniel the God knowledge, I saw you under the fig tree, I know who you are.

He does the same thing with this woman and she goes into the city and she starts telling everybody.

My friend's discipleship is a life of knowing that we are known and choosing to live according to that.

The best part about being known is the realization that he knows me better than than anybody, and yet he still loves me.

And he knows when I failed yesterday, and he knows when I'm gonna fail today.

He knows when I'm gonna succeed tomorrow.

He knows.

But discipleship is following the one who God sent.

While the woman is away in the city, Jesus interacts with his disciples, and they're worried that he is not eating any food, and they encourage him to do so.

But this is what he tells them.

My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.

He lives on letting God's purpose fuel His life.

That's discipleship.

That's what we're called to do.

He gives us the dugma, the example.

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Just a few final thoughts.

Sometimes believing the Word, sometimes His good pleasure involves believing the words of the prophets about His plan to redeem the world, even though it doesn't look like it makes any sense.

The Jewish people rejecting the Messiah doesn't make any sense.

However, I can promise you, if you go back into the ancient documents of the sages, the earliest documents, they also knew that the prophets talked about the fact that the Messiah would be rejected.

Modern Jewish religious writers don't want you to know that, but that's the truth.

The rejection of the Messiah was a known thing in the prophets.

So sometimes being a disciple means you have to believe that the word of God is going to do something in ways that you don't understand, but you have to trust that God is doing it the way he wants.

It means that sometimes we'll need to surrender our lives and go to those who have not heard and share the good news of how much God has has shown his love for them in sending his own son, Emmanuel, into the world.

It means to fulfill God's pleasure, I may have to set some of my pleasure aside.

I might have to get out of my comfort zone.

And sometimes to fulfill his good pleasure in us means that we might have to go through some things that don't feel pleasurable at all.

Did Jesus want his kinsmen and Judah to reject him?

Of course not.

Did Joseph, the son of Jacob, want his brothers to betray him?

Of course not, but what did he tell his brothers?

What you meant for evil, God meant for good.

Same, same, same.

When Jesus was turned over by the Jewish people to the Romans to be crucified, what they meant for evil, God meant for good.

God's purpose came to pass.

Sometimes we have to go to people.

we don't want to be around.

Sometimes we have to believe prophecies, and we don't like the plan.

And sometimes we have to decide that there is no other thing that we can do with our lives but the gospel.

When the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, this rising star in Judaism, He said, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

I'm not ashamed to be this Jewish, high exalted rabbi who's now going to Gentiles.

" You know why?

Because he was bringing about what Genesis 49.

10 said, "And to him shall be the obedience of the nations.

" Paul wasn't the least bit ashamed because he knew by bringing the gospel to the nations he was presenting us as a gift to the Father.

Wow.

Well, I could go on all day and you know that.

The people came out of the city and they said something amazing.

They said it is no longer because of what you said talking to the Samaritan woman that we believe.

For now we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world.

Church, please hear me.

There comes a moment in discipleship when it has to stop being about reading somebody else's encounter and experience with God through Jesus.

Do you ever get tired of that?

I mean is it enough in your life just to read or listen to somebody else's testimony of how God answered a prayer or how God moved?

You know those can be very stirring moments and they can cause some emotional tears to flow in the context of a service when they're shared but let me tell you it's not somebody else's encounter and experience with Yeshua that changes the course of your life forever.

It's yours.

It's when you come to experience this one who knows you best, who could come and say, I saw you this week here and here and here and I still love you anyway.

And not only did I see where you were, I know who you are.

And I'm still working in you.

I feel sorry for people who treat Christianity and following Jesus like a burden of just trying to get better.

God has an adventure of fulfilling His purpose in us.

Taking us to the nations, taking some of us crazy Gentiles back to the Jews.

I mean just doing all kinds of crazy stuff.

I want to be a part of that.

I want to fulfill his good pleasure by making his purpose mine.

Even if it means talking to Samaritans or Jews or Gentiles, I want to fulfill his purpose in my life.

And that can be scary, but I I promise you this, it is an adventure like no other.

Amen.

Worship team, we all come on back.

I'm gonna pray.

Father, as the worship team comes back, I just wanna thank you for loving us so much that you sent your son, Emmanuel Yeshua, to die for us.

But because he was perfect and rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand, has poured out the Holy Spirit within us so that we can learn to walk in this adventure with you.

For you have said, I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.

Father, I pray for those who are in here today who have been just, I don't know, with the burdens of life, their walk with you has become mundane.

Father, I pray that you will just transfer and convert their mundane into marvelous this week.

as they decide to trust you, as they decide to begin to believe that you're not done working your will in them.

And for any heartfather that's in here that has lost hope, that has stopped believing, that you love them enough to keep working in their life.

Father, I want to speak against that darkness in Jesus' name.

That is a lie from the pit of hell.

And I want them to know that they are loved and that you will fulfill your purpose in their life if they will trust you.

If they will believe in the meaning of your name.

You are salvation.

You are victory.

You are deliverance.

And we can trust you.

Help us not to look for refreshments from the world.

Help us to drink from the living water that you pour out and then Father well up within us that river to flow out of us to bless the lives of others.

To the glory of the Father in the name that is above all names in the mighty name of Yeshua.

I pray these things.

Amen and Amen.

And invite you to stand, sit, pray, sing as we worship and consider these things before the Lord today.

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