00:00Hello, everyone. It's good to be here with you all. Love to be with people who love to hear the
00:04Word of God. Praise be unto our God. Let me just dive into the message. My name is William Chambers
00:10and today we're going to talk about how to love deeply without becoming naive. How do we love
00:19deeply without becoming naive? What am I talking about? Some of the greatest and the deepest wounds
00:24that you and I have experienced has come from not enemies, but people that we have loved.
00:34Oh, our greatest hurts have come from people that we have loved and after enough pain and after enough
00:40hurt, sometimes and oftentimes what we choose to do is close our hearts to people. We choose to harden
00:47our hearts to people because I don't want to experience that type of pain anymore, but it does
00:52not have to be that way. Jesus teaches us how to love deeply without being naive. If we're going to
01:01survive relationships while staying loving and survive leadership while staying loving, then we
01:08must learn how to love deeply without being naive. Let us look at the text. Now, when he was in
01:16Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles,
01:24which he did, but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and needed not that
01:31any
01:31should testify of man for he knew what was in man. Jesus was in Jerusalem doing many miracles and many
01:40people was believing on him. They were attracted to power and people are attracted by miracles. Crowds are
01:48attracted by miracles. Power has a way of drawing people's interest. Power has a way of drawing people's
01:55attention, but the problem is attention is not surrender. You can give attention to someone, but not
02:03surrender unto them. And Jesus wanted men to surrender unto him. The people were coming around him because of the
02:09miracles. People were being healed. The sick were being healed. The dead were being raised. He was
02:15doing all types of miracles like that. And people were drawing to him because it benefited them. Oh, he's
02:20healing us. He's, he's doing this and that for us. And people will always be around when you are doing
02:26something for them. Help us. We're talking about human nature today. Oh, they're attracted. But see, Jesus
02:32knew that this attraction was not of devotion. It was not surrender. It was not transformation. They
02:37weren't being transformed by this. It was not discipleship. They weren't being discipled because
02:42of his miracles. They weren't falling under conviction because of his miracles and they
02:45weren't being converted. None of this was happening. They had a surface level belief in him. It is possible
02:52to be impressed by Jesus, but not changed by him. Many people are impressed by Jesus. They're just not
02:57changed inwardly by him. It's possible to be amazed by Jesus, but will not yield unto him. Jesus is simply
03:04amazing. But men do not yield unto him. It's impossible to be convinced by Jesus that he is
03:11the Christ, but won't commit to him. That's what was happening in Jesus seeing that, that this
03:15convincing that you have this amazement is not leading you to commit your ways unto me. They
03:21have faith in Jesus based on what he did. Oh, and this is terrible. When faith is built on what
03:27God
03:28does, it becomes conditional. What do I mean by that? Well, Jesus, I believe on you as long as
03:35you still give me something. You know how people are. As long as you still give, okay, you heal me
03:38from that. Now what's the next healing? You know what I'm saying? What will you do next for me,
03:43Jesus? Or it's going to fade away. Oh, if you don't continue to do things, it's conditional.
03:48I believe on you while you're giving me something. What will you fix next in my life, Lord? This needs
03:53to be
03:54fixed. That needs to be fixed. What will you heal next, Lord? I need you to keep on doing what
03:59you've
03:59been doing or my belief in you is going to stop. Do we believe in God just because of what
04:03he provides?
04:04Are we just having faith in God because he protects us? Are we having faith in God because of his
04:09visible intervention? Or do we have faith in him regardless because he's worthy? Oh, because he is
04:16God. Help us today, God. So the text says, many believed in Jesus because they saw miracles.
04:23Ah, but Jesus, then it goes on and says, Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew
04:30all men. Jesus was wise and wisdom knows when to engage deeply with somebody and when to reserve
04:38yourself. Oh, gee, the Bible said he didn't commit himself unto them because he knew all men. Jesus
04:45knew when to be reserved, uh, when to pull back. Ah, don't deeply engage with everybody. Jesus understood
04:51human nature. Jesus understood that human nature has mixed motives. Yes, men have mixed motives.
04:58Jesus knew that, uh, human nature has hidden interest, hidden self-interest. Oh, you interested
05:03in something, it's hidden, but we don't know quite what it is. Human nature does that. Jesus knew that,
05:09uh, human nature has fear-driven loyalty. It'll be driven to you by fear, but that's not real loyalty.
05:15Jesus knew that human nature has praise that fades when costs appear. Oh, they will praise you,
05:23Jesus. But let's start talking about, uh, them needing to repent. Start talking about them needing
05:27to get their life right. Start talking about hell and how there's going to be a judgment. Oh,
05:31it will fade when there's a cost. Jesus knew that crowds can turn on you. So the Bible said that
05:38he did
05:38not commit himself unto them. He did, I'm not committing myself under unstable hearts. I'm not
05:44going to commit myself to people with shallow faith in me. No, no, no. And we need to know not
05:50to commit
05:50ourselves to anything of this world. I will put my faith in nothing less than Jesus' blood and
05:55righteousness and Christ the solid rock. I stand all other ground and seek and stand. Men can change on
06:02you instantly, quickly. It'd be the same hands that saying, Hosanna, Hosanna will be the next day
06:08saying, crucify him. It'd be the same hands that'd be clapping for you. That'll turn that them hands
06:14into a fist and strike you. It'd be the same hands of those who say they love you. Oh, I
06:20put my trust
06:21in God for a reason. What are we talking about today? We're talking about how to love deeply without
06:27becoming naive because Jesus knew the people. He knew that people could change on him. He knew
06:33that, that, that, uh, he knew all that, but still he taught the people still. He was healing the people
06:40still. He invited the people to follow him. Ultimately he was going to still go to the cross
06:45for these people. He still loved them. But what he did not do, he did not build his identity
06:52on people, on people's applause, on human approval. He did not build his mission on that. I'm not
06:58going on. No, no, no, no, no. That's unstable. I'm going to have my mission built on God himself.
07:03I'm not going to build my hope and put my hope that you will always stay the same way with
07:07me.
07:08You can change. If you invest in people, all your, your hope in their approval and you're hoping who
07:15they are, when they change on you, it will devastate you. You better put your hope in God.
07:21And work for him. Meaning I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this for you because of him. It's not
07:26because of you. You can clap for me. I'm going to still do this. You can not like me. I'm
07:30going to
07:30still do this because I'm not doing it for you at all. Ah, praise be under God. The Bible said
07:36that
07:36he knew all men, no exceptions, meaning that he didn't say that he knew some men. It didn't say
07:44that he knew problematic men. It didn't say that he knew bad men. It didn't say he knew those people.
07:49It said all men, which includes the enthusiastic follower, which includes the quiet observer. He
07:58knew them, which includes the religious leaders, which includes church people, which includes the
08:04sincere seeker. He knew all men. And then he knew that in every human heart, there's a mixture.
08:09There's nobody that's a hundred percent faith, trust, belief, and persistence in God. No, no,
08:14no. We are a mixture of faith and fear. There's some faith and some fear in my heart. We are
08:20a
08:21mixture of devotion and self-interest. Oh Lord, help me. I'm not a hundred percent devoted to God.
08:28There's some things that I have that I'm thinking about myself in. Oh God, I wish it weren't true.
08:33I'm a mixture. We are a mixture of truth and self-preservation. I believe in the truth,
08:40but I might shy away from it when I'm thinking about preserving myself. I might not do all that
08:44God said when I'm trying to do my own thing. I might try to preserve myself and disobey it.
08:48He knew that inside of all men, I'm talking about the little old kind lady that you know down the
08:53street. I'm talking about the minister, the pastor, the preacher, all. I'm talking about all of them.
08:57All of us are a mixture. I don't care what they say. They are a mixture. That's why we need
09:01Christ.
09:02They are not the rock. Jesus Christ is the rock. Every foundation of this world is unstable.
09:08That's why it needs Christ because Christ is the rock to hold us stable. See, Jesus knew all men
09:14and he did not stop loving them. He just loved them wisely. He loved them keeping an account
09:22that there is human nature that can betray me one day. And we're going to have to stop right there
09:26because this segment has ran too far. We will pick this back up in part two. I hope that you
09:31guys are
09:32here for part two. Amen and amen.
09:39Amen.
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