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Alright, I want to ask you to turn to two passages of Scripture Jeremiah 29 if you'll open to Jeremiah 29 and then put a marker at Acts 17 So we'll start at Jeremiah 29 and then put a marker at Acts Chapter 17 and by the way, I will not get to either of these scriptures until the second point just so you know So I'll show you some other scriptures before we get to these but in a moment We'll get to Jeremiah 29. This is the last message in a three-week series called. How do I know? How do I know and I the first week was how do I know there is a God? the second week last week was how do I know the Bible is true and This week is how do I know Jesus is the only way? now the word only is The difficult word for a lot of people and I understand that it's a it's a difficult word for Unbelievers that we would say what do you mean? Jesus is the only way and it's even a difficult word for some believers because they say well What if people are sincere and sincerely seeking God, so I'm going to answer those questions today in this message But I want to show you first of all two scriptures to show you that Jesus is The only way all right John 14 verse 6 Jesus said to him this is Jesus speaking. I am the way He didn't say a way He didn't say one of the ways He said I am the way I'm the only way I'm the way The truth and the life and then he clarifies it even further and says this no one No one comes to the Father except through me Acts 4 verse 12. There is no other name and this is Peter speaking now after the day after Pentecost Referring to the name of Jesus. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved So Jesus is the only way now here's what happens is many people will throw this out and and say well Christianity is exclusive and That's why I don't believe in Christianity. Well, you've been misinformed then about other religions because every religion is exclusive. I Could actually go down the line. All you've got to do is study it. It's very simple I could go down the line and and name the exclusivity of Hinduism Buddhism Islam Even agnosticism is exclusive in that the person who's an agnostic believes that no one can know He's exclusive in that belief So don't don't say Christianity is exclusive as a matter of fact It's a plan of the enemy to get people not to come to Christ because Christianity is actually the most Inclusive of any religion in the world and I don't even like to call it a religion because religion is man's attempt to get To God Jesus is God's attempt to get to man But I understand it's classified as a religion But I want to tell you this it is the least complicated and most inclusive of any Religion there is because in Christianity you don't have to do anything. You simply have to receive someone It's not dependent upon what you do It's dependent on if you'll receive someone who did it all for you and all through the scripture This is why I say it's inclusive all through the scripture. You will see these words whoever whoever Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. So it's the most inclusive But what about the people who've never heard the name of Jesus? Or what about the people who lived before Jesus came now, these are valid questions It's it's okay If you're a believer and you're asking those questions, they're valid questions the Bible by the way answers those questions In order though to answer difficult questions you have to filter those questions Through the person who wrote the Bible in other words you have to understand the attributes of God To be able to answer those difficult questions now the word attributes If you just break it down a little bit, it would be like a tribute If you were going to give a tribute to someone You would talk about the good things that person has done and the good person that that person is in other words attributes are characteristics specific to a person or If it's used in the plural tribe for a people like that's what the root of the word is tribe a tribe That means characteristic specific to a group of people you see what I'm saying? So I you you need that before I can answer well, how do you know Jesus is the only way I Have to answer that by telling you some things I know about God. All right, so here's the number one attribute about God I want to tell you number one. God is good God is good. I know this Let me read you a few scriptures Psalm 119 verse 68 you are good and Do good It's a real simple verse but you can meditate on that for about 748 years and it would still be a good verse You are good and do good Here's one Psalm 86 verse 5 for you. Lord are good now watch this and ready to forgive an Abundant in mercy to all notice the word all those who call upon you notice the inclusivity of the word all All all your your God you're ready to forgive all who call upon you Why because he's a good God so In order to help us understand this I have some analogies in the message You remember the game we played as children hide and seek Okay, obviously God's not playing the game But let me just clarify something and use those two words to help us remember this we hide and God seeks If you remember when Adam and Eve sinned what did what did they do they hid from God and Did Adam go looking for God or did God go looking for Adam? See God is seeking people and because he is seeking people here's what the scripture tells us about him He reveals himself to every person When we talk about Jesus and God seeking people Luke 1910 says for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost so because I know God is good and I understand so I read the scripture through that lens I come across scriptures like I'm about to read to you and I find out that God actually reveals himself To every person he reveals himself to every person. Let me read you a few scriptures first Samuel 227 then a man of God came to Eli and said to him thus says the Lord did I not? clearly reveal myself To the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house Listen, God clearly revealed himself to all Israel. Listen and all of Egypt He clearly revealed himself Psalm 98 verse 2 the Lord has made known his salvation His righteousness he has revealed in the sight of the nations He's made known his salvation. He's he's not on an undercover mission He's trying to get everyone safe. He's made known his salvation and he has revealed his righteousness to all the nations Go to the New Testament here Romans 1. He's not only revealed his his goodness He's revealed his wrath also for people to understand Romans 1 verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed From heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because What may be known of God is? manifest made known revealed in them for God has Shown it to them revealed it to them For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes. That's what we're talking about. His attributes are Clearly seen They're clearly They're not seen dimly. They're seen clearly Being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse God reveals himself to any person who wants to know him He will reveal himself if you remember the New Testament acts 10. There was a man named Cornelius not a believer a Christian but believed in God prayed to God so God actually Sends Peter to him to share with him about Jesus because no one comes to God except through Jesus So because he was seeking God God sends someone to reveal his son to him. We have books right now There's one book called Persian Springs about four Iranians that Jesus revealed himself To each of them and they each got saved and they never heard the name of Jesus and never had a Bible and God revealed Himself to him There's a man that's become well-known the press named Ali who was actually about to make his trip to Mecca Had a dream about Jesus and became a Christian and canceled his trip It's there's testimonies all through the Muslim world right now about people about Muslims dreaming about Jesus Christ And coming to faith in him God's revealing himself to people who are sincere who are seeking him I told you about dr. Robbie Zacharias. He shares this testimony about he was in a country He leaves the country unnamed for safety reasons He was in this country and they said we want you to meet this man And they brought this man to him and the man told him his story He said I was in a country that that is 99% Muslim I was in the army and I was trained to do two things. I was trained to kill people without feeling That was very important without feeling kill people without feeling. That's what Isis does to this day And I was trained to make fake passports Those are the two things I was trained to do and he said my brothers are in the army, too And one of them's a general But every night for seven years He had a dream about Jesus every night so he shared this dream with his mother and his mother said you need to get out of the country and She said he said well, I'm not converting to Christianity. I'm just telling you I'm dreaming about Jesus She said yeah, but if your brother's finally out, they'll kill you So he fled the country He goes to another country in this other country He meets a Chinese businessman and it's not China the other country him But he meets a Chinese businessman who's a Christian and the Chinese businessman Shares with him about Jesus and he accepts Christ and becomes a Christian and when he met with Robbie he was actually in Seminary training to go back to his own country as a missionary and Robbie even said to me said I don't know why I asked this He said I just said to him. How are you gonna get back in your own country? He said I make fake passports God Revealed himself to him. So God is good. God's a good God. You have to know that Here's the second thing you have to know that God is just He's a just God Psalm 7 verse 11. God is a just judge You remember we talked about the game? hide and seek Well, I want to tell you about some more rules that God has set up and It's called seek and find Jesus said it in the Sermon on the Mount asking you were received seek and you will Find knock and the door will be open right? Okay. God has set it up That if you seek him He will be found by you You have to know that that's how just God is now we talked about that. He's good and that he's just so if you're Jeremiah 29 I want to read a verse about his goodness and then show you some verses about his justness But this first verse you probably know you probably heard this verse You might have even memorized this verse a lot of people do Jeremiah 29 11 God says for I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope now Here's what God is saying I'm a good God I have good thoughts toward you So you might know that verse but you might not know the next three verses look at the next three verse 12 3 14 then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you and You will seek me and find me When you search for me with all your heart I will be Found by you says the Lord. I want you to remember that is spoken by God who cannot lie If you seek for me, I will let you find me Let me read you a few more verses and we'll get to act 17 here in just a moment Deuteronomy 4 29 you will seek the Lord your God and you will Find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul Proverbs 8 17. I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently will Find me Act 17. This is a comes from a sermon that Paul preached in Athens verses 26 and 27 says that he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and Has determined now watch this their Pre-appointed times that means the time that you'll live on the earth and The boundaries of their dwellings that means where you will live on the earth so this is why he's done it so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and Find him though. He is not far from each of us God says if you seek me you'll find me listen Let me make a very clear statement God would not be a just God if he sent someone to hell who never had a chance But I know God's a just God So when I find something Bible that I think well, I don't understand this. How could Jesus be the only way What about people who've never heard what about and you what you do is you go back to the Bible and you find Out God says if you seek me, you'll find me and I'm gonna reveal myself to everyone God is a just God and listen to me. It is not the the volume of knowledge that you acquire It is the intensity of your search and if you search for him with all your heart You will find it. You will find you. That's what the Bible says. It's extremely clear You There was a young man who was born as a prince in Liberia in Africa, and he was born to the Crew tribe. His father was chief of the kru tribe. His name was Prince kabu you can you can look this up and when he was 14 years old, he was kidnapped by another tribe and They every month that his father would bring gifts to the chief of that tribe so he could visit with his son But after a while the chief quit quit accepting the gifts and so they begin to beat this young 14 year old every day every day and one day He cried out to God And he said God I don't even know if you exist But I want to know you and he said his testimony was that I liked shown from heaven He heard a voice and the voice said run and he looked down and his ropes had fallen off of him And so he ran into the jungle. He lived for several days on snails and mango So it's not what we would consider escargot and fruit. Okay, it was difficult Hmm But he then came into a found a cotton Plantation that was owned actually by a former slave and the former slave shared with him about Christ and he accepted Christ And he then said I want to know more about Christ and the former slave said well a man from New York In America came and shared with us about Christ So he went down to the shipping docks and he found a ship going to New York and he said I want to I Want to hire on to be part of the crew I want to go to New York and the captain said I have a full crew I don't need you and right while he's talking two of his crew came up and quit And so he said you're hired. So he gets on the ship. He goes to New York What's the the Providence of God in this all he has is the name but when he gets to New York He actually finds the man who shared with the former slave about Christ The man takes him into his home and begins discipling him But this young man Prince kabu began to win more people to Christ than even the man that was discipling him And he began to win hundreds of people to Christ because of his testimony So they raised funds for him to go to Taylor University in Indiana So he could train for the ministry because he wanted to go back to Africa then as a missionary He was only there two years though. He died at the age of 20 of pneumonia But he inspired so many people and won so many people to Christ That many people actually from that University and other universities became missionaries because of his testimony He took an American name and the American name that he took was Samuel Morris And if you go to Taylor University today There's a dormitory there called Samuel Morris Hall that was built entirely By the proceeds of a biography that was written about this young man's life. Listen to me a young African man cried out to God and God revealed himself and brought him to Christ God's a good God and he's a just God and here's the third thing. I want to tell you God is love God is love John 3 16 probably the most famous verse in the Bible for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever Believes in him. Do you see the inclusivity of that? whoever Whoever don't ever say Christianity is exclusive again. It's not exclusive. It's inclusive. It includes the whole world Whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life CS Lewis makes a brilliant statement. He says there are two types of people in the world the person who bows his knee to God and says your will be done and The person who does not bow his knee to God and God says all right, then your will be done Listen this is as fair as it gets folks. This is as fair as it can be It can't be any more fair than this God gave you a free will and He reveals himself to every person and he gave you the ability to choose every person will end up in his eternal Destiny Exactly where he or she chooses to be that's fair to give you the dignity of freedom and then to violate your free will that would be unjust and That would be unfair But God gives you the ability to choose where you're gonna spend eternity and to choose whether you love him or not now I want to give you a Linguistic illustration to close. Okay I love English. I love grammar. I love language. I love words I was sharing this illustration with Debbie this last week when I thought of it and She dozed a little bit, but so I want you to stay with me. All right When we speak when we use words We use words three ways You never call II equivocally and analogically now I asked them to put these words up because you probably last week did not say well I wasn't speaking you never clear. I was speaking equivocally. So you probably did not say that I understand that But we use these three words when you use words you use them one of these three ways Univocally equivocally or analogically, let me explain it to you If you see the word you never clear there you look right in the middle You'll see the word vocal Okay, that's how you speak. So you're speaking you then you see the prefix uni Which is like a unicycle. I remember Debbie woke up at that part said I got that I understand that So it means that you're using a word and you're using it with one meaning Although it could be used differently equivocally means you're using a word with different meanings Analogically means you're using a word to show us another meaning Alright, so every time you speak and I know you probably don't think about this, but you use words Univocally to with a word that you're saying I mean it this way only one way Equivocally it may I'm using the same word, but I mean it in a different way or analogically I'm using this word, but I'm trying to show you that it has a higher or deeper meaning than the way I'm using it All right. Now I know that wasn't exciting. But let me explain to you why I shared that with you. Okay Let me let me use the word you never clean. All right, I If I say to you, I love you and Debbie loves you Okay, I'm using the same word and it's the same meaning Love I'm using the word love. We're talking about God is love. Okay. I love you and Debbie loves you Okay, well we that means we both love you and it's the same I'm using this one word and I'm using it with one Meaning do you follow I'm saying but I can use that word the same word equivocally for instance if I say to you, I love you and I love Debbie Now I don't want you to get your feelings hurt But I don't love you the way that I love Debbie I Love Debbie I love her I love her And I don't love you But I love you You follow me some of your thinking right now, huh? I'm glad fast Robert. You don't love me the way you love Debbie, okay But I use the same word I Use the same word, right? Different meanings I just give you one more example because we all saw my God is good Okay, if you said to me pastor Robert, are you a good golfer? I Would say yeah, I'm a good golfer and I'm not a great golfer, but I'm a good golfer I'm a good golfer and then a few weeks from now Let's say you get on an airplane and you set beside someone and you're introducing yourself and he introduces himself and he says I'm Phil Mickelson and You might say if you don't know so Phil, what do you do for a living? And Phil says well I play golf and so you say are you a good golfer and he says yo Yeah, I'd say I'm a good golfer. Okay, you'd make a huge mistake if you said to him Well, then you ought to play pastor Robert cuz he said he's a good golfer, too Those are two two two types of good, okay, they're not even close you follow what I'm saying, but it's the same word God's goodness Is so much better than ours His justice is so much higher than ours and his love is so much deeper than ours But the only way I can actually talk about it is analogically I can only give you an analogy Because I cannot tell you how much God love really loves you. I cannot express it enough with the language. I'm limited to But let me try If I say I want to show you the difference between my love and God's love for you okay, if I say I love you and You refuse my love I Hurt because I've lost something When God says he loves you and You refuse his love He hurts but he hurts because you've lost something It's a completely unselfish love We're told twice that Jesus wept the only times we're told what two times in the New Testament we're told Jesus wept John 11 very famous verse it's the shortest verse in the Bible John 11 35 I remember telling a new of God just won the Lord. I said you need to remember a verse in the Bible He came back a week later said I remember John 11 35. Jesus wept. It's only got two words in it But here's the reason Jesus wept it was when Lazarus died you remember he didn't weep because he had lost something Because He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead as a matter of fact He did not weep you go out and read it. He didn't weep when Lazarus died He wept when he saw the grief of Martha and Mary. He saw they had lost something. That's why he wept Here's the other time he wept He wept the last time he entered the city of Jerusalem And The reason that he wept was because he knew that Jerusalem had lost something That generation was going to reject him as their Messiah and He wept because they lost something listen to me very carefully. It's your choice But if you reject his love You will lose everything You will lose everything and he knows that See don't get hung up on the fact that there is only one way get excited that there is a way There is a way and get excited that God has revealed that way to you and That his name is Jesus Christ Jesus is the only way But you have a complete free will You can accept God's love or not. No person no person can truthfully say to God you're rejecting me but God Can truthfully say to a person? You are rejecting me I Want you to bow your heads and close your eyes And Like we do every weekend. I want you to just take a moment and just say God What are you saying to me through this message? And there are some of you here That you need to give your life to Jesus Christ. You bet you you you've been straddling the fence you you call yourself Well, I'm a believer, but you know, I'm not you know, Jesus is my Savior, but he's not my Lord You got one foot in the world one foot in the church Listen to me You've got a free will I want to know have you submitted your will? to the lordship of Jesus Christ And if you have it, I want you to understand something God is a just God He knows what you're seeking him with all your Heart, he said it very very clearly you'll find me if you seek me with all your heart not half-heartedly And I know I'm being strong right now. The only reason I'm being strong is I hope I can stand between you and hell and eternal separation from God This is not a game. This is real. This is life You have a free will you choose where you're going to spend eternity? You choose whether you're going to serve God or not on this earth I'm asking you to choose today I'm asking you to make a choice right now The Jesus Christ is going to be your Lord And your God and you're gonna bow your knee and say to him your will be done. Not my will So if that's you and you need to give your life to Jesus I just simply want to lead you in a prayer right now Just in your heart I'll pray out loud you pray this in your heart to God if that's you and some of you You know, you're being drawn right now. Listen, this is your pre appointed time This is your pre appointed time God Determined your boundary and he led you here today to reveal himself to you because he loves you But you have a choice So if you'd like to give your life to Jesus right now, would you just pray this in your heart? Just in your heart. Just pray right now. Just say dear God tell him that dear God. I ask you to forgive me For all of my sin telling that please I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin and I receive Jesus Christ Your son as My Lord and as my Savior Thank you Jesus for saving me today Now no one's looking around I'm the only one looking around But I'm asking you how many of you will be honest with me and with God and say pastor I prayed that prayer right now in my heart and I really mean it Would you just put your hand up right sit? You ought to be proud to put it up you don't ever be ashamed of this put it way up high Way up high many many hands many hands. God bless you. God bless you can put your hands down now There were many hands now listen to me carefully. I'm gonna ask you to do one more thing and it's very Important it's very important. Please believe me. Please believe God's Word. I'll quote you the scripture Jesus said if you'll confess me before men, I'll confess you before my father in heaven The Bible says if you believe in your heart and confess it with your mouth, you'll be saved I think God set that up because we are vocal. He made us speaking spirits He gave us the ability to speak our will so it's very important. There were many many hands that went up I'm very excited But here's what I'm gonna ask you to do just like we do every week in just a minute We're gonna have one more worship song We're gonna have our leaders here at the front if you gave your life to Jesus you put your hand up So that's me in just a moment. We're gonna all stand. We're gonna sing a worship song They're gonna be leads at the front if you're on the altar ministry team I need everybody on the altar ministry team today, and I need you to come as quickly as you can So you'll be ready to minister But if you prayed that prayer and gave your life to the Lord as soon as we stand up You just stand up step out and come come to one of these people front and tell them I gave my life to Jesus They I'm not asking you to confess to everybody not not not to get a crowd this size I'm just asking you to do it to one person to just say to them I gave my life Jesus and listen, you ought to be proud to do that Don't you let anything stop you from seeking God with all your heart going all the way with him So if you prayed that prayer and you gave your life for it as soon as we stand up You just stand up step out and come to one of our leaves at the front and you tell them I gave my life to Lord today Holy Spirit, I pray that you will draw every person at this campus right now that I'm speaking to the Lord Every person that raised his or her hand and said I gave my life for it I pray you'll draw them and give them courage to come right now in Jesus name Amen, I Was 19 years old when I gave my life to the Lord and everything changed I didn't have any desire to go back to that old life I wanted to walk with the Lord and learn more about him and some people helped me to learn the Bible and to learn How to pray and to learn about my new life in Christ, and that's what we want to do for you I am so excited that you've given your life to the Lord He's forgiven all of your sins and you're on your way to heaven But we need to learn some things now about the Bible about prayer about some basics of the Christian life So that you can be victorious and live for the Lord like I know you want to So we've designed a class called fresh start and I want to encourage you to sign up for this class Because we want to help you grow in your walk with the Lord now. I love you, and I'm so proud of you