Rise Up From People Pleasing

“Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12:42-43)

When you do this, you make God small & of no importance.

READ JOHN 13:1-17 AND 34-35

I. The Seed-Which One Are You?

“And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings. Still other seed fell on good soil and produced a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold. He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:3-9)

Path—seed out hear—but do not receive

Rocky-hear but these are those who receive due to the excitement of the moment, no root

Thorns-but trials and issues caused to cave—not strong enough to endure—maybe these are those who do not put effort in to be fed spiritually daily

Good Soil—hear, receive, sincere, devoted to read the word, daily communication with Him, and walk it out.—It is important to them, this is the difference between the different seeds. What category are you?

II. Proof of God and Jesus

There have been a number of relics associated with Jesus, These include the infamous

Shroud of Turin

The Lord of Heaven & Earth

The Christ Quake shows Larson's crew finding in ground once covered by the Dead Sea the geologic ripples of the gigantic earthquake that split rocks at the very hour of Jesus's death.

It all proves to Larson who God is: Lord of heaven and earth. "The two documentaries show that the star of Bethlehem was real – that's the heavens. And the quake at the cross was real. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. And He chose to leave enough evidence for us to see those things are true," Larson contended. Science that Backs Up What Matthew Described

The Gospel of Matthew discussed both the star and quake. Larson asserted, "And for both star of Bethlehem and for the quake at the cross, the facts we find – hard, scientific facts we find – are consistent with the record in Matthew."

Frederick A., “Rick” Larson did a documentary on the Star of Bethlehem

DNA

In the same way, DNA is made up of four chemicals, abbreviated as letters A, T, G, and C. Much like the ones and zeros, these letters are arranged in the human cell like this: CGTGTGACTCGCTCCTGAT and so on. The order in which they are arranged instructs the cell's actions.

What is amazing is that within the tiny space in every cell in your body, this code is three billion letters long! This is too overwhelming for our minds to grasp—how it pertains to each person no MAN can create a person this way!

To grasp the amount of DNA information in one cell, "a live reading of that code at a rate of three letters per second would take thirty-one years, even if reading continued day and night."3

When looking at the DNA structure within the human body, we cannot escape the presence of intelligent (incredibly intelligent) design.—God!

Fingerprints

Sir Isaac Newton once said, “In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.”

Sir Isaac Newton contributed significantly to the field of science over his lifetime. He invented calculus and provided a clear understanding of optics. But his most significant work had to do with forces, and specifically with the development of a universal law of gravitation and his laws of motion.

What about fingerprints? If God designed the human hand, why do we have fingerprints? Do they perform a function, and if not, then why would God have created us with them?

Julien Schiebert and his colleagues at the Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris have demonstrated that our fingerprints help us to feel objects through vibrations.

As you move your fingers across a surface, you trigger vibrations that are picked up by nerves. Some of these nerves (called Pacinian corpuscles) are embedded relatively deep (about two millimeters under your skin). Yet, our sense of touch is so refined that we can feel texture differences as small as the width of a human hair, about 200 micrometers. Scientists have wondered how deeply embedded nerves could detect the subtle vibrations involved in the perception of fine differences in textures.

Using robotic fingertips designed to detect tactile information, French scientists discovered that the small ridges on the surface of our fingers (fingerprints) amplify and filter vibrations, which help transmit them to the deeply embedded nerves.

How much do fingerprints enhance our ability to detect tactile differences? Do they double it? Triple it? Scientists found that the vibrations from a patterned fingertip were 100 times stronger than vibrations from a smooth fingertip.

Thanks to fingerprints, our sense of touch is 100 times better than it would be if the surface of our fingers was smooth!

What about the fact that fingerprint patterns vary from person to person?—

No 2 people have the same fingerprint!

According to the leading researcher of the study, G. Debrégeas, “The nice thing is that pattern doesn’t matter. The distinctiveness of fingerprint patterns from one person to the next doesn’t seem to have an effect on filtering capabilities” (Science).

III. Reality Check

So what seed are you? Were you sincere? This evidence proves His existence, heaven and hell are real, the choice is yours? What are you going to do about it?

READ JOHN 13:1-17 AND 34-35--(this talks about Jesus washing the disciple's feet)

This tells about His love and how we are to love one another and follow His example that He shows.

Love, Humility, Servanthood, --He puts US first, He washed their feet as an example, and symbol of through His death and resurrection, and our truly receiving Him, He cleanses us and our path, old gone, the new has come, a new clean path, new start, a do-over. (II Corinthians 5:17)

“Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12:42-43)

So, based on this, was your confession sincere? Did you mean it?

If not, what will you do now that you know about more about the existence of God and Jesus? Does it make a difference or will you blow it off and continue to do as you please and hurt others and yourself?

Do you only worship for show, or is it real?

God is real, Jesus is real and so is His love; His love is real and sincere, the cross proves that, and the pain He endured for us is real. Is your love for Him real or superficial?