When God speaks reason can never answer God cannot be sought at the level of mind God must be experienced at the level of Spirit I don't know who I'm preaching to right now but you keep telling God when he shows you more you'll go more

You keep telling God that you will obey him once you understand the outcome but in matters of faith you have to follow to find out Abraham go to a land I will show you What's it going to be like You have to follow to find out

You'll find out why I called you as you follow I cannot describe to you what the next season of your life will be like if you follow God in faith You will have to follow to find out This is where most of us would have never gotten past John chapter 1 verse 43 The whole thing would have ended right there Follow me We would have waited for details and he would not have given them because Jesus does not call you to figure out

He calls you to follow Maybe that gives you relief because there's a sense in which some of you in your mind right now are trying to figure everything out for the future of your life and the next season of your life Maybe it can be an exhale for you or a sigh of relief or a surrender to the Savior to know that he never called you to figure out He just called you to follow

But how are we going to pay for it Follow But how is it going to… Follow But what's going to happen in three… Follow We might not even be here in three years Have y all watched the news I don't know about no three years I'm just following Jesus the best I can today Somebody asked me what's the 10 year plan for the church I'm doing good to have a 10 minute plan for this sermon I don't even really know what I'm going to say after this first point if you want to know the truth but I'm trying to follow As you follow you find out That's what Philip knew I've got to find out There was something in Philip that said I want to find out I believe there's somebody in here who God is calling you to follow him and it is unseasonably difficult for you to do that right now but don't you want to find out what your life can be in his hands

Don't you want to find out how freedom feels when you finally decide to forgive that person Don't you want to find out what it feels like to lay your head down on your pillow at night knowing you've confessed your sin instead of continuing to hide it Don't you want to find out what it's like to get beyond this selfish me first generation where I'm simply just following the crowd and I say goodbye to the crowd and I start following the Christ who is greater than the crowd and something in Philip I can't prove it but something in Philip I just inferred from the text and I deduce it from what is written that he said I don't know what my future is but I want to find out behind this man

You have to follow him to find out So sometimes you have to see it to believe it Here's what I want to talk about today Other times you have to believe it to see it

You have to believe it to see it Now these are the moments in life where you have no physical proof that what God spoke is true and it actually contradicts the way you feel in that moment We're going to move on from Philip for a moment and we're going to move to this character called Nathaniel This is really who I wanted to talk to you about today I was just telling you about Philip just in case you can't figure out your life right now but God is calling you to follow him anyway That's probably not anybody in here You probably all have it figured out but some of us are just trying to figure out what to do and we don't know what to do about this situation with an aging parent or this situation with a struggling child We don't know what to do about this issue in our body and we're trying to figure it out but God is just calling us to follow So

that was for some of us but for the rest of you who have got it figured out like Nathaniel… Nathaniel has got it figured out because Philip found Nathaniel and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law In other words all of these prophecies that were about Jesus After meeting Jesus he said we found him

About whom the prophets also wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph We are seeking Jesus in this season of our church As we seek him we need to pay attention to everything we can learn about him One of the things we need to learn from is the label that was associated with him as he walked the earth

They didn't call him Jesus the Savior yet He hadn't died for them yet They did not call him Jesus the Healer yet because he hadn't performed any miracles yet Not yet They would see all of that as they followed but at this point they only knew him this way Watch Jesus of Nazareth It was common to call somebody by where they came from back then

Then they call him the son of Joseph Well that one's kind of complicated isn't it Remember Mary's story She's like I promise Joseph It was the Holy Spirit He came from a questionable background When he called him Jesus of Nazareth… Watch Nathaniel's response

I was laughing at it as I read it and maybe you didn't know why He said… Verse 46 Nazareth You said you found the Messiah and he comes from Nazareth Yeah that's right Nazareth Then Nathaniel wants to know can anything good come from there

Come and see said Philip Now the reason Nathaniel had a negative perspective of Nazareth is because it was small and I studied this week Y all I studied so much this week I have no idea how I'm going to say amen at the end of this That's why I called the sermon Begin With Amen so wherever we end we'll just end and come back next week I studied so much for this sermon This is how much I studied I was waking up last night every hour on the hour 1 a m 2 a m 3 a m At 4 a m I had had this horrible nightmare that on my way to preach I got in a terrible car accident I went to the hospital and I was in the hospital They had me all hooked up but I was trying to scan my credit card to pay for the hospital visit and I was telling them I've got to go teach this series at the church I studied too much

That's how much I love y all I was my fictitious hospital bed I got out of my not really hospital bed to preach this to you I studied and found out that Nathanael came from somewhere near Nazareth but not Nazareth Nathanael came from a place called Cana

Cana was also in Galilee but Cana was north of Galilee Cana was distinguished Cana was sophisticated Cana was a wealthy place Picture the part of town where you drive through and judge the people and say It must be nice if I had all their money That was Cana

Cana was a place where if you came from there you wore the sweatshirt Straight out of Cana you would not feel like you came out of the mud You would feel like you came from privilege I'm not calling Nathanael a snob I'm just saying he looked down on where Jesus came from When he says Can anything good come from there Come and see He's giving a negative interpretation of where Jesus came from based on his background

He believes a certain thing about a certain place and because he believes a certain thing about a certain place he cannot accept a certain person that came from a certain place Only problem is John chapter 1 verse 1 John chapter 1 verse 1 says In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God He was with God in the beginning Through him all things were made Through him Jesus all things were made Without him nothing was made that has been made The Lord stopped me and showed me something Nathanael thought Jesus came from Nazareth but Jesus

didn't really come from Nazareth If John chapter 1 verse 1 3 is correct and through Jesus everything that was made that means Jesus didn't come from Nazareth Nazareth came from Jesus and I came to preach about Jesus today Oh I preached that better than y all responded

Through him all things were created He is not subject to what he made He is not subject to a human label He is not a baby that was born in a barn He is the preexisting God who in John chapter 1 verse 14 became flesh…that's incarnation…and dwelt among us We beheld his glory the glory as of the one who came from the Father They said he came from Nazareth He said he came from the Father They said he came from a small place He said I came from a place you've never seen because in the beginning was… the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and nothing exists without him And so all I'm saying is God is bigger than your background

God is bigger than your background God is bigger than what you think about him God is bigger than your little tradition about him God is bigger than what you were taught about him God will come to places that you were taught He'd stay away from God will use people that you were taught he hated God will do things that you were taught were impossible God will do things… Now I'm not saying I've seen all of it but sometimes you have to believe it to see it So if the Enemy can keep you from believing it because you've never seen it he can keep you from ever seeing it and experiencing it and he can keep you from

seeing it if he can keep you from believing it Not Nazareth Nothing good can come from Nazareth Somebody say not Nazareth

Not Nazareth Now for Nazareth just put whatever in the blank you don't think God can use Not heartbreak Not Nazareth No no no Nothing good can come from a broken heart The Bible says a broken and a contrite heart he will not despise He will dwell in what you despise Not Nazareth

I know you didn't want to get a divorce and now you're saying Not after a divorce God can't use me I got a word for you Follow him and find out One man said Fool around and find out but this is the church version Follow him and find out I don't care what they called you I don't care what they said about you I'm going to come over on this side I always come down that wrong side of the steps

God is looking for somebody today who will follow him and find out No God can't use me I'm an alcoholic Follow him and find out What if God gives you that same passion for his presence that you used to have for a substance Follow him and find out I speak to somebody who's a drug dealer right now You're about to be a disciple and you're about to turn the chain of supply and demand on his head because when you get hooked into this vine there's an unlimited supply I don't care what they said about you and I don't care what you've said about yourself I don't even know what you've been labeling your kids I don't even know what the doctor told you to say but follow him and find out He's a healer He's

a waymaker He's a chain breaker He's a stone roller Yes he is And he came from Nazareth So if you're going to seek Jesus you might have to look in Nazareth You might have to look in a dirty place You might have to get honest about what you're going through You might have to get authentic and quit pretending like you have it together and stop saying Praise the Lord We're fine and pick up the phone and call a counselor and say I need help because the help might come from Nazareth

I kept saying it wrong all week Nazareth Like I was saying Lazarus and Nazareth The Lord said Well what do the two things have in common I said Both were situations where everybody thought it was over and both were places where God displayed his glory You'd better follow him and find out

I know when the Lord is speaking I'm not moving I am not moving to my next point It would be a shame for you to let the shame of where you came from stop you from seeing the glory of who you came from Verse 14 says The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we have seen

his glory the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father Can anything good come from Nazareth Can anything good come from that Well it depends because before he came from Nazareth he came from the Father

Everything God allowed to happen in your life passed through his hands and it has to go back through his hands We have seen his glory Now they say you have to see it to believe it but back up to John 1 verse 12 Yet to all who did receive him to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God See it Circled the Word believed in his name and the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us We have seen his

glory Circle the word seen Sometimes you have to see it to believe it I get that but sometimes you have to believe it to see it See if I don't believe that God is my provider I won't see the provision

You get it It's a complete inversion That's why Jesus kingdom is upside down but it's actually right side up because it's a complete inversion The gospel of John is not just about miracles The gospel of John is not just happy meals being fed to a crowd of 5 000 The gospel of John is not just water walking in storms The gospel of John is not just unique conversations The gospel of John is themed around belief belief in the Son of God belief in Jesus not just what he did but who he is It is the theme of the gospel Believe believe believe He said to those who believe you see the glory So when you believe God is a provider it opens your eyes to see provision you were walking past just the day before

If I remind you today that he's a provider and if I force you by faith to follow him and find out in your next step of your life you may see that he has already made the plan to provide for the thing you're praying about He may have already worked out the situation you are so worried about I have found it to be true that if I do not believe that he's my provider I won't see the provision Old Testament example Let's do this class real quick In 2 Kings 4 a woman came to Elisha He was the prophet My husband is dead I need you to help I need you to provide for me The prophet said back What do you have in your house How can I help you She said Nothing except

a jar of oil What happened The moment she believed because the prophet said You have something in your house she could see what she was unable to see before she believed So when I believe God is my provider it opens my mind and opens my eyes to begin to consider some of the things he has given me in my life that may be in seed form right now but just because it's a seed doesn't mean it's not supply