2020 04 21 Coffee with Chris The truth doesn’t need meatball sauce

In John chapter 7, Jesus shows that he is not concerned with making himself famous or appealing. He says that those who want to do God's will will know if his teaching is from God or his own. Jesus emphasizes that those who seek to honor the one who sent them speak truth, not lies. The truth itself is enough and doesn't need to be made flashy or interesting. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and the Holy Spirit helps people understand and believe. We should model Christ-like behavior and pray for others, but ultimately it's up to God to communicate the message. We need to have calm confidence in what we believe and be a loving example to others. Good morning and welcome to Coffee with Chris. Yesterday I was reading through John chapter 7 and I love that chapter because I love the opening part when Jesus is there with his brothers and his brothers are like, you know, you should go up to the feast. You should kind of like show yourself off, you know, if anybody wants to become famous, you know, they're not going to sit in hiding and he's kind of like, eh, it's not my time yet. He wasn't concerned with making himself famous and here he was, Jesus, part of the Godhead, a part of the Trinity, and he wasn't concerned with these things. And this is what stuck out to me yesterday as I was reading, was John chapter 7 verses 17 and 18. So Jesus said, anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies. And I found this just really interesting because it really goes to show that God, that Jesus was not concerned with making the truth appealing. He was not concerned with making himself famous and promoting himself so that people would believe the truth. You know, we would think we have to do everything in our power to make sure people hear this message and that they understand that it's really good, that we spruce it up, that we put some icing on it. You know, the other day I made some meatballs. And I made some meatballs and I kind of, you know, figured out some of the recipe as I went. You know, I've made it before, so, you know, but things like the spices and, you know, you feel that out. And so I made the meatballs and Hannah tried them and she thought they were just absolutely delicious. And I thought, well, maybe they need some sauce. And she said, no, it's seasoned well enough by itself. It doesn't need that sauce. And it reminded me of this. The truth has enough to it. We don't need to add all that sauce on there to make it appealing to people. Those who wish to find the truth will find it. Jesus said, if you seek, you will find. Right? Knock and the door will be opened, you know. And so sometimes I think we feel like we have to make it interesting. We have to make it with lots of pizzazz. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with delivering a message in a way that people can understand, that they can relate to, that's exciting, that's fun. There's nothing wrong with that. But when we lose the substance by just trying to make it interesting and flashy and fun, and then we're going like, man, people still aren't buying into the message. I need to make it even more flashy. We lose the point that the truth itself speaks for itself. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and he speaks for himself. And it's the Holy Spirit that is going to get people to believe the truth, that is going to help them understand. All we're here to do is to point people to Jesus, and Jesus takes it from there. And when people don't come to Jesus and develop that relationship with Jesus, that's not on you. That is their own choice because they're a free will human being. We just do our best. And I think it's important that we model Christ-like behavior. And part of Christ-like behavior is, he didn't beg anyone to believe the gospel. He presented it to them. And so I think it's important that we pray for people in this time. We look for ways to spread that message beyond our own four walls, whether it's quarantine time or not. And I'm not saying don't practice social distancing, you should, but there's ways to still reach the message out through prayer, through talking to people. But we have to remember not to have a desperacy. Jesus was calm. He had a mission and a message, and he delivered that to people, but he didn't panic when people didn't believe it. He just kept on going. And I think that sometimes what we as Christians, we worry, we're concerned for people, but we have to be careful that our concern is actually for the person and that we have more faith that God, through the Holy Spirit, can communicate it to them, even if we can't. We're like, I just can't get through to this person. Maybe you've said that about someone in your life, I just can't get through to this person, but God can. If he doesn't need you or me to be able to do that, he can get to that person. And that's a relief. That just means we need to be a loving example to that person and show them how a Christian functions and how we have that calm confidence in what we believe, where we don't need to prove it to ourselves by getting everyone else to believe. But we still, because we love them, want to share it with them, and we hope and pray that they will believe it. But we leave that between God and the person as well. Anyway, those are some of my thoughts today. I'd love to hear your thoughts about it too, and I hope you have a great day and read John chapter 7 if you have a chance. Great chapter. God bless.