Are You The One Series

“Are You The One?”

Jesus, His Encounters (5)

I Am Jesus – Message 33

To a people who didn’t know why things were going so bad in their nation. To a people who wondered why everything seemed to be falling a part all around them. To a people who were not experiencing the life they had expected. To a people who when they looked at where they were had a hard time adding things up. God sends His prophet Isaiah with these words;

”For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8,9

AND – 3,000 years ago a king, a writer and really wise guy who had a lot of trouble living and figuring out life wrote…

God’s ways are as hard to discern as the pathways of the wind, and as mysterious as a tiny baby being formed in a mother’s womb. – Ecclesiastes 11:5

SINCE – August the 14th we have been taking a look at some of the people that God the Son encountered when He put on flesh and walked this earth 2,000 years ago. AS – I said when we began these talks I have always loved watching what happens when ordinary men and women like you and me, met Jesus.

AND LISTEN – through these encounters with Jesus I get to; stand in the presence of, hear the voice of, look into the eyes of and fall at the feet of the Lion of Judah. AND – when I do I get to hear Him tell me, like he told the woman at the well… “Steve, if you only knew who I am and the gift of God I have for you, you would not simply ask me to fix this or straighten out that… NO – you would ask me for living water so that you would NEVER thirst again…”

I get to be lowered before Jesus on my 3ft by 6 ft world just like the guy in Luke 5… AND – have Jesus remove ALL; my fears, regrets and ALL my doubts about being someone different… I get to kneel at the feet of Jesus like Mary in John 12 and pour out my lifebefore Him declaring his infinite worth… AND – like the cripple guy in John 5 I get have the King of glory not only restore my body but restore my soul…

THIS – morning we are going to take a look at another encounter… IT’S – found in Matthew 11… THE – title for today’s message is, “Are You The One…”

Prayer…

After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" - Matthew 11:1-3

QUESTION…

• Have you ever been disappointed?

• Have you ever been confused?

• Have you ever been discouraged? Disillusioned?

• Have you ever wondered (after you have traveled down the road a pretty good piece) if the choice you made was really the right one?

• Have you ever pulled out the calculator of your life… started punching numbers and found out that things were not even close to adding up?

• Have you ever wanted something really bad. So bad that you launched an all out pursuit just to get to it. YOU – expended all kinds of energy, made all kinds of sacrifices just to have it… AND – now you have (that job, that relationship, that new home, that promotion…) YOU - are on that new path, you are living that new life, experiencing those new things… and it is not all what you expected.

• Do you ever have doubts? ABOUT; your choices, your decisions, about your life?

• Do you ever have questions about God? (Like… Why does He move & act in some lives and in other lives ‘seem’ to be detached and indifferent).

• Have you ever sat in your own prison… AND - thought, “Father, I don’t get it… I don’t understand, this is not at all what I expected…are you the one?”

NOW – this encounter that John has with Jesus from his prison cell has always intrigued me. BUT – this is the first time I have ever shared a message on it… AND – all week long I struggled with it… I had a hard time getting my brain around it. I had a hard time getting words down on paper. Early Thursday morning I wrote 2 questions on a blank piece of paper – 2 questions that helped me begin to figure this thing out…