When Good shows up!
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When Good shows up!
When Good shows up!
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Intro:
Intro:
Background:
This pericope or passage of scripture today deals with the Invitation that Jesus gives to Philip and Nathaniel to follow him......
Question:
I wonder how many Invitations to follow something “Good” that we have turned down
because of our perspective that it was too insignificant……to be a God idea?
(pause)
And.....
....I believe that there is a “Good” that only God can bring!
(pause and expound)
Now when we talk about something being Good we are determining that the same way it is being used in Nathaniel’s question in verse 46.
And that is to say that when something is beneficial or has value......
........that it is determined to be Good!
(pause)
And so.....
How does God see good?
In the creation story God sees some things and calls them good.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.
God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Finally.......
God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Now.....
The powerful thing about this is the fact that........
To do all of this.....
God takes a whole lot of what we would call insignificance
......or an entire handful of chaotic nothingness
.....and creates!
(slight pause)
...........and when God is done dealing with this nothingness
God calls it GOOD!
(pause)
And.......
As a matter of fact when God creates humanity
God reaches into the dirt......... (Adamah in the Hebrew)
......and creates Adam from the dust of the earth
(pause)
Meaning.......
God reached into an insignificant place and created someone in His own image!!!
(pause and expound)
And even here in today’s text......
Jesus is going north towards Galilee and finds Philip who goes and finds his friend Nathaniel.....
And when he finds Nathaniel he tells him.....
“We have found the One!”
And to me that says,
Everything we have been taught to search for from God for our lives just showed up!
(pause)
In other words.....
Phillip says,
We have found the Messiah........
The deliverer that Moses wrote in the law......
.....and the prophets spoke of
Jesus the son of Joseph, the man from Nazareth!
(pause)
Now.......
for Nathaniel this is difficult for him to understand.....
Because.......
.....he is trying to configure in his mind.......
.........how it is that the greatest good can originate from a place that is so insignificant?
(pause)
I believe that one of the greatest challenges we face in our lives today looks just like what Nathaniel is dealing with....
God how can something so good.....
......show up in areas of my life that feel so insignificant!
(pause)
And if you don’t believe me......
Do some research on where you look for greatness to show up in your life.......
Because most of us look for “good” to come from places that look significant to us
But the real INDICATORS of where good shows up has nothing to do with where we EXPECT them to show up!
Because......
We can’t hold God to our EXPECTATIONS!
Some of us are losing our minds in Insignificant places.....
......because we refuse to allow God to be God sized!
Because.....
.......good does not come from the ordinary
.....it has to come from the extraordinary so that it can speak significantly
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
And that’s how God is.....
God steps into everything less than God and speaks significantly!
light symbolizes God
“And the darkness did not overcome it!”
And I come to speak into somebody’s life and tell you.....
Nothing Insignificant will ever be able to overcome
.......there aint a darkness great enough to overcome our GOD!
(pause and expound)
Barrel:
I got a call yesterday from a gentleman that I met who is retired from working on WALL STREET in New York....
........and he called me because when we met I shared my interest to become more versed in Investments
....and what he shared with me was that,
......he called me because he wanted to make sure I was aware that now is the best time to buy some shares!
Now on last week I was just talking to someone else about how because of this Caronavirus the market has corrected because of this global health scare....
......so when he called me
.....I said I can’t talk right now.......but make sure you call me back because I already know something “good” is getting ready to show up!
And the more I thought about it, the more amazed I became.....
........that everybody is so focused on getting sick
.........that a majority of us are going to miss an opportunity to increase our financial capacity with something good!
(pause and expound)
Freedom......
........never allow a dark season to change your expectation about God!
(pause)
And church family........
God does not rely on public opinion in order to deliver God’s significant presence.......
But instead.......
God will allow “good” to show up absolutely anywhere!
(pause)
........when God prepared our victory and packaged it in his only begotten Son Jesus Christ
God didn’t look for a Four Seasons, or a Ritz Carlton
........he found a spot in a barn where they keep the cows, and the chickens
and in an INSIGNIFICANT PLACE (expound)
Jesus was born in a manger
And I dont’ know who this is for......
.......but some of us will look at what God is calling “good”...............and rename it as Insignificant
But don’t be suprised when what you RE-named OUTGROWS your expectation
(pause and expound)
And so I started thinking.......
What are the things or the places that we are calling Nazareth in our lives?
The first area that comes to mind is the responsibility and opportunity to vote in our upcoming elections from a sociopolitical perspective.
......but many of us fail to see the benefit or value of our voice to bring good.
But if Otis Moss Sr., the father of Rev. Otis Moss Jr. could speak he would share his story of how......
He got up in the morning and put on his ONLY suit and his best tie....
Walked 6 miles to the voting poll location he was told to go to in Lagrange, Ga.....
When he got there after walking 6 miles in his good suit and tie, they said,
“Boy, you at the wrong place. you need to go to Mountville.”
So he walked another 6 miles to Mountville, and when he got there they said,
“Boy, you in the wrong place. You need to go to the Rosemont School.”
And when he got to the Rosemont School as the dusk of the evening begin to set in......
Feet tired......suit soiled from sweat of sincere determination.....
they said,
“Boy, you too late. The polls are closed.”
And he never had a chance to vote....
By the time the next election came around, he had died.....
Oprah Winfrey said,
“When I go to the polls and cast my ballot, I cast it for a man I never knew,”
“I cast it for Otis Moss Sr., who walked 18 miles one day just for the chance to vote!”
(pause and expound)
I kept thinking.......
What are the things or the places that we are calling Nazareth in our lives?
And the next area that came to my mind was our prayer life from a spiritual perspective.
.......because many of us fail to see the benefit or value of communicating with the God that not only created us, but consistently waits to hear our hearts cry out to God.
Charles Spurgeon said,
“He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal.”
Dr. Howard Thurman prayed these powerful words to God when he prayed,
Lord, open unto me
Open unto me - light for my darkness
Open unto me - courage for my fear
Open unto me - hope for my despair
Open unto me - peace for my turmoil
Open unto me - joy for my sorrow
Open unto me - strength for my weakness
Open unto me - wisdom for my confusion
Open unto me - forgiveness for my sins
Open unto me - love for my hates
Open unto me - thy Self for my self
Lord, Lord, open unto me!
(pause)
And what I realized Freedom family,
Is that sometimes we are not capable of seeing “good” because we are too busy praising the insignificance that we have used to define our Nazareths....
And so we miss the entrance of “good” into our lives, unless we have a Phillip in our lives that says to us,
“Come and See!”
(pause)
And I believe that this is the necessary shift......
.......that moves our mindset
.....just like Phillip is moving the focus of Nathaniel
(pause)
(pause)
And in my spiritual imagination I hear Phillip telling Nathaniel,
When Good shows up my friend.....
.....It’s going to come out of nowhere.
(pause)
But if all we can see is “Insignificance”.....
....we will miss the fact that,
Our proverbial Nazareth is pregnant.......
.....with something “GOOD”
(pause)
And Phillip was such a good friend that when Nathaniel asked this question......
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
That Phillip responded,
If you shift your attention to the JESUS that I just met.......
I know you have low expectations..........
But Come and SEE for yourself!!!!
And I promise you.....
....that
.......everything that you thought could not show up in your life
.......is going to be dramatically changed!
And so you may be saying......
Pastor,
My life is my Nazareth.......
.....and can any good thing come out of my life?
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
And so just in case you did not know it........
even if you find yourself in an insignificant place.........
God is going to send something good to show up!
and just in case you need encouragement.......
Your PHILLIP is on standby like a good friend shouting!
“Come and SEE!”