Come and See

[0:00] good morning folks nice to see you this morning uh turn with me please to the gospel of john as we continue a series of studies in this book thanks to paul to the musicians to the singers to kimmy uh for leading our worship hopefully your heart has become warmed as we've been singing some of these songs together reminding us of the great truths of the gospel we're going to read from uh this is now i think one two three this is the fourth sermon uh we will finish chapter one this morning uh so we're going to read from verse 35 john chapter one last week we heard the testimony of john the baptist regarding jesus now we are about to hear the testimony of various individuals soon to become disciples of jesus and this is their first encounter with with jesus so let's read from verse 35 of john chapter one the next day john that's john the baptist was there again with two of his disciples when he saw jesus passing by he said look the lamb of god when the two disciples heard him say this they followed jesus turning around jesus saw them following and asked what do you want they said rabbi which means teacher where are you staying come he replied and you will see so they went and saw where he was staying and they spent that day with him it was about four in the afternoon andrew simon peter's brother was one of the two who heard what john had said and who had followed jesus the first thing andrew did was to find his brother simon and tell him we have found the messiah that is the christ and he brought him to jesus jesus looked at him and said you are simon son of john you will be called cephas which when translated is peter the next day jesus decided to leave for galilee finding philip he said to him follow me philip like andrew and peter was from the town of bethseda philip found nathanael and told him we have found the one moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote jesus of nazareth the son of joseph nazareth can anything good come from there nazareth asked come and see said philip when jesus saw nathanael approaching he said of him here truly is an israelite in whom there is no deceit how do you know me nathanael asked jesus answered i saw you while you were still under the fig tree before philip called you then nathanael declared rabbi you are the son of god you are the king of israel jesus said you believe because i told you i saw you under the fig tree you will see greater things than that he then added very truly i tell you you will see heaven open and the angels of god ascending and descending on the son of man we'll end our reading at the end of chapter one let's come before god let's ask for his help to understand this together our loving heavenly father we thank you lord as we gather this morning we thank you lord for the joy that you have placed in our heart lord as we were thinking of the the children's talk we thank you father for the peace that we know and believing and walking with you through your son in the power of the holy spirit we come to you now most of us this morning here lord as you know would be your children already made alive in christ born again by your spirit and father we perhaps come to your word and perhaps some of it's very familiar to us we pray father as we encounter it again that it might come to us in a way that's fresh but we pray that this time lord would be very real in your presence as jesus knew nathaniel intimately so you and he know us as well all things are laid bare before your eyes so father speak to us encourage us and perhaps challenge us this morning as we consider these early disciples and their encounter with jesus so father be with us we pray we ask these things in jesus name amen we are continuing a series of studies in the gospel of john you remember we are studying this book for the same reason that john wrote this book i write these things that you may believe that jesus is the christ the son of god and that by believing in him you will have life in his name so his whole gospel is presenting jesus but not just for knowledge but that we might believe that we might trust in him as our savior and that by doing this we will have life in his name so what a good reason for studying the gospel of john there's no better thing we can give ourselves to to consider him and you remember we said right at the very start the first 18 verses are very much like a movie trailer of what's to come in the rest of the gospel who he is revealing more each chapter about who jesus is so that we know him more we love him even deeper john's gospel began with a bang you remember that jesus is the christ the messiah god's anointed one he is the son of god and uh it's he came to to to be the savior of the world and we saw that how he was received some people accepted him some people rejected him most of us here this morning if not every one of us have accepted him we have heard the good news we have not rejected him we've been granted repentance and faith and john you remember his whole gospel is is a witness to jesus this is who jesus is and he wants to present jesus and we are left with the decision will we believe him do we love him will we follow him and last week we looked at john's testimony like a courtroom scene as i mentioned this is who jesus is and he testified i'm not the messiah i'm not elijah i am not one of the prophets or the prophet i am just a voice i'm here to prepare people's hearts to receive jesus when he comes and we looked at that last time i've been talking about movies haven't i've been talking about uh trailers we talking about courtroom i want to introduce you to this video uh i don't know does anybody have that video uh i have this i can't remember whether it's you have to watch because some of these are imports and they don't play on your video you can't you can buy it you can go into amazon and buy it for 19 pound or whatever uh but i want to commend this to you i have the problem when you buy videos of the gospels or any life of jesus that they're fleshed out with so many other things and they miss so much flesh out you're left with you're it's just not the pure gospel what's good about that particular dvd is it's word for word there is nothing added it's just the gospel of john word for word it's just literally the whole of the text of the gospel of john worked out nothing added nothing taken away and it's just it's a first class video well you don't have to buy it here's the next slide you can actually get it on youtube uh free of charge if you're scottish that'll appeal to you we like that free of charge if you just go on and put gospel of john in youtube and christopher plumber uh he's a narrator in it so if you put plumber in missing out the b uh it's a different plumber uh you will find this and it's free of charge and it's very good i really commend this to you because it's just the text of the gospel of john so that's something for you you can watch it your phone you can sit on the bus and you can soak yourself in the gospel of john it's a very good uh movie in that sense so i commend that to you so last week we consider john's gospel uh john's testimony john the baptist testimony and that's where we left it he has said that jesus is the son of god he's a lamb of god who comes to take away the sin of the world he baptizes people with the holy spirit now that john's given as a taster up until this point of who jesus is he now begins to present jesus and his encounter with people jesus and as he meets certain individuals who will soon become his disciples not not all of them numbering among the 12 nathaniel wasn't one of the 12 disciples and so forth but now it's the turn of the disciples to testify to who jesus is not just an official representative of god in that sense in john the baptist but now an ordinary follower of god their encounter with jesus and how they came to know or their own opinion of jesus now i want you to note and john presents the material in a particular way here john's encounter with jesus and the disciples is very different from the synoptic gospels you remember his gospel is quite different from the other three 92 percent is unique to john in the synoptic jesus encounter with the disciples has jesus calling them he comes and he says come follow me matthew mark and look that is the call of jesus to the 12 but in john's gospel it's the other way around it's not so much that jesus calls them but that they decide to follow jesus they come to a conclusion in and of themselves in that way this is who jesus is and they get excited by this now why the difference now it's probably probably the case that this is jesus first encounter with these men and later on we don't know how soon or whatever afterwards he will then call them to leave the fishing nets and to follow they have previously met him but this is that their first encounter with jesus before he issues that call for them to come and to follow so the only in this account the only one that's actually called by jesus to follow is philip the rest of them uh follow jesus of their own accord in that way but jesus seeks out philip and he tells him to follow me mentions that in verse 43 so that is what we're looking at jesus will later call the other ones uh to leave and to follow him there's a lot of activity in this passage it's hard to get your head around a lot of coming and going and toing and throwing people meeting each other's andrew and possibly john go and find jesus andrew finds his brother peter jesus finds philip nathaniel goes to philip goes to nathaniel nathaniel comes to jesus they're all running around here there and everywhere so there's a lot of activity but along with the activity there's a lot of discovery in this this rushing to and fro going to see this one and that one they are coming to a conclusion about who jesus is so that's what we're going to look at now in presenting this material john john the the apostle wants us to come and see as they came and saw jesus he wants us to come and see who jesus is and that we might consider him for ourselves it's a very challenging passage so let's look at this together i have four things i want to say this morning that you see from this passage i've called this come and see this is an invitation in that sense to come and see so first of all there is an invitation to come there's an invitation to come and discover who jesus is up to this point john has just presented cold facts about jesus he is the word he is god he is light he is life he is full of grace and truth he is christ he is the messiah he is the son of god and john the baptist rubber stamps all of that uh as john began his gospel but now it's getting personal now john gets personal and he says here are ordinary individuals and their encounter with jesus it's it's a personal thing so uh that's what's happening here jesus now begins to interact with individuals up to now in john's gospel it's only been john the baptist but now he begins to move among people and their interaction with him it begins with andrew and possibly john himself we are told here the next day john the baptist was there with two of his disciples we know that that that one of them is andrew and the other one is possibly his his brother uh that's possibly john as well uh verse 38 turning around jesus saw them following they decide after hearing luke the lamb of god they start to follow jesus what do you want they said rabbi which means teacher where are you staying come he replied and you will see here's an invitation therefore to come an invitation to come and they spend the day with jesus so that's the first point invitation to come and they based on this day from four in the afternoon we're told the time to whatever time they are changed and uh and that's what happens here that he is the messiah we have found the messiah andrew says uh says to finds peter and tells him and therefore there's this personal aspect jesus didn't call them they came spent a day with jesus andrew possibly john andrew comes to the conclusion we have found the messiah jesus this one that we spent the day with we believe he is the messiah and john wants us to consider this personal aspect of uh jesus interaction with them for andrew john and philip as we'll see in a moment it was a theological encounter uh they make a professional faith but for two of them it was more personal peter peter's encounter with jesus was very personal uh peter was obviously looking for the messiah uh the christ but when he meets jesus jesus doesn't come and say i am the messiah the one you're looking for he doesn't come theologically jesus comes and he basically says to him you are simon son of john you will be called cephas which is translated peter jesus has personal knowledge of peter he says this is who you are he doesn't say it because peter doesn't know who his dad is he's doing it to to show that i know who you are i know everything about you i don't know it's great if you've ever been introduced to somebody and they know you especially if it's somebody that's quite important and go i've heard about you uh you are such and such and your chest puffs out and you think that's great somebody knows me as long as your reputation is not a bad reputation you really don't mind it but if it's something good or it's just something i've heard about you you just feel good about yourself jesus and there's nobody more important than jesus knows peter you are peter son of john he doesn't quite get a lot about jesus but jesus knows peter but not only knows him his history his and he doesn't know this this yet but you will be called peter peter was to be a rock leader in the church perhaps jesus sees his potential and his weaknesses but will use peter knew jesus jesus knew peter before you knew jesus jesus this morning as well he knows everything about you jesus could say to me you are john after my dad you will be pastor here pastor there you will marry lucille about us that is quite special he is alive today he knows you even before you became a christian well you were in the womb the bible tells us god knows us and this is is very exciting he knew peter and he had a specific plan for peter peter doesn't know it yet but he will along with james and john have intimate fellowship with uh he never he would he didn't spend the day like his brother with jesus but he will spend quality time with jesus as jesus will will take james and john and peter and the mount of transfiguration or whatever where jesus is transfigured they will he will take them into his confidence and so forth he will have a deep walk with with the lord peter doesn't know this yet the lord knows you he knows maybe he has a a plan a specific plan for you i have no doubt about this as he leads and guides he knows everything about you he knew peter it was a personal knowledge so this is how peter encountered jesus jesus knows me it was quite special but nathaniel's the same nathaniel's encounter with jesus is quite similar he was told come and hear about jesus he comes from nazareth can anything good come from nazareth think of a place uh that you think dodgy when you want to be seen driving through there on a dark night uh can anything good jesus from that it's not impressive it's just not an impressive thing to say but come and see so nathaniel comes he comes to jesus and uh jesus once again not only knows peter but he knows nathaniel and he mentions the fact that he knows him here truly is an israelite and him whom there is no deceit verse 47 how do you know me nathaniel said or asked jesus answered i saw you while you were still under the fig tree before philip called you the dvd if you if you watch this shows nathaniel under this tree basically having his devotions before the lord he's there he's praying and so forth we don't know if it's it's it's that but it's the very fact of the supernatural knowledge that jesus has that impresses nathaniel there's no other way he would have known however uh this sitting under the fig tree was was was done and where and when the very knowledge of that impresses nathaniel then nathaniel declared rabbi which is means teacher you are the son of god he he was blown away by this this knowledge it's a bit similar to the woman at the well you remember come see a man who told me everything i ever did could this be the christ nathaniel like like peter is so impressed the fact that jesus knows him but nathaniel his his statement of faith is you are the son of god how could you possibly know that maybe he's praying and the very fact that some of the commentators say is because he's praying in jesus who's with the father sees his devotions was there during his devotions he hears the prayers it was at this such intimate lesson many people walk by street preachers standing there with sandwich boards turn or burn repent the time is nigh and they ignore them and one of the reasons why they ignore them is not necessarily it's probably because they think i've heard it all before i know what you're going to say i'm not interested but one of the reasons why they don't stop and give this person any time and attention is basically because they come to the conclusion you're not interested in me you don't know anything about me so they just walk past you're just bellowing things that's all you're doing but when these disciples encounter jesus jesus didn't just preach at them he came to them in an intimacy i know you i know who you are you are john son of john you will be this john i saw you when you were praying i know your thoughts i know your heart i know your worship i know the the things that you hold dear he was a nathaniel was a true israelite one in whom there was no deceit a genuine believer he was in that sense he was impressive he was a godly man and jesus knew this and he knew his devotions the lord knows you this morning not just the historical facts family consists of he knows whether you're a true israelite whether you're a true believer whether you really or whether you're half-hearted in in that way he knows all about us and here is this nationalist meeting the king and uh the king of israel he says you're the son of god you're the king of israel the promise that was made to david uh that somebody would sit on his throne it's very impressive if you were i'm looking around i'm trying to think if there's any non-believers here i really don't know but if that was the case the lord knows you come to him come he invites you to come come to me look at me discover me i know you you find out about me read my word read the gospel of john come to me all you who are weary and burdened i will give you rest this is the savior who calls us and jesus and the invitation is to us to come but before he says to these people who he is he asks them a question and if you came to jesus even as a christian this morning and you and you come to him and you say lord i'm so thrilled that you know me and monday you will pray he will ask you a question if you wanted to do business with the living god and it's the question he asked them what do you want they decide to follow jesus and jesus turns around and says what do you want it's quite a deep personal question they simply say where are you staying we want to spend more time with you we want to find out more about you we've just heard you're the lamb of god but we don't know much else jesus is alive today and he would ask you the same question believer or unbeliever what is it you really want from life from him is it just answers to prayer or is it service and so forth jesus can meet us at our felt needs he can meet us at our spiritual needs as well and we just need to come and talk so what do you want nathaniel was skeptical can anything come from there unbelievers are often skeptical they just don't believe believer are you a true israelite a devoted follower of the lord the lord knows your heart he sees your devotions in the morning or an evening on the bus in the workplace he sees what you are like not only who you were born to your family consists of what your life has been to this point he knows your heart and that is the invitation to come to come to him secondly it's not just an invitation to come it's an invitation to believe these men came they came they follow jesus come and see spend the day with me but they it changed them theologically this wasn't just a good guy they it really had a powerful impact on them andrew and possibly john uh we have found the messiah that is the christ whatever jesus said to them however the day was spent that was the conclusion they came to he is the son of god he is god's anointed from four in the afternoon till whenever probably let's just say 10 o'clock i don't know maybe they're scottish and they go to bed at one in the morning uh nine hours six hours whatever it could only have been three or four perhaps we don't know but during that time they came to that conclusion philip also was changed jesus found him he comes and he says follow me then philip after that runs and goes finds nathaniel we have found the one moses wrote about in the law about whom the prophets also wrote jesus of nazareth the son of joseph philip philip knows his old testament he is the one prophesied who would come the one moses wrote about that all the prophets wrote about that was his theological conclusion he is the promised one he is the prophet nathaniel after meeting jesus and jesus personal encounter with him you are the son of god the king of israel this king of israel is the eternal king it's quite something isn't it when you encounter jesus he's bigger than you first imagined bigger than you think he is each of them mentions it differently they don't all say the same thing they pick up an aspect of jesus and they're all true but they focus on different things something that means something to them somebody's waiting for the king of israel they like the promise that someone will sit on the throne of david they meet jesus he is that one he is the son of god peter at this point is uncharacteristically quiet he doesn't really he'll make up for this later on but at this point he's not really saying very much but when he is asked who do you say i am we've heard from nathaniel and andrew and john and these other guys but who do you he will say you are the christ the son of the living god he will come to that conclusion and also you see there's another description of jesus in john's gospel here the last verse he is the son of man that's jesus favorite expression of himself if jesus could take one title that was the title that that he claimed the most that's used 83 times in the gospels when jesus described himself he described himself as the son of man it speaks of his deity and his humanity but it's also ambiguous as well if he went about saying he is the son of god it would have resulted in an early death instead he says i am the son of man and he mentions us it speaks of a power and authority as well daniel the book of daniel i saw one like the son of man power glory authority was given to him but he's also man fully man it speaks of his deity also has to do with suffering he will say the son of man must be lifted up so here we see so much knowledge in this that these disciples encountering jesus so here jesus has met them an invitation to come invitation to believe and thirdly an invitation to follow an invitation to follow jesus at this point doesn't ask them to forsake all and follow him but he will he'll come to andrew and peter in matthew 4 simon called peter brother andrew they were casting a net and jesus will say come follow me and i will make you fishers of men he will say to james and john the same profession they're they're in there they're preparing their nets jesus called them immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him matthew he will come to matthew sitting at his tax booth earning a fortune having a good life he will say follow me matthew gets up and follows him they were growing in the knowledge of jesus and in this knowledge they were now ready they were convinced that this is who he is when he comes and calls them they forsake all and they decide to follow him it is one thing to be a believer it is another thing to be a disciple the task of the church is to make disciples not converts not just get somebody to pray the prayer but to walk to follow jesus to obey him to serve him and it's basically accepting jesus not just as savior he is lord i wonder if you can really say that and if i can really say that this morning i'm sure every one of us would quickly say he's my savior he is the savior the son of god you might have your favorite phrase as to who jesus is the messiah the christ the chosen one of god but can we honestly say at all times he is our lord he says and we obey and we do this jesus will if he is really the son of god it compels us to follow him we cannot give jesus these big titles and say we believe them and not follow him and not obey him jesus will later say to his disciples if anyone would come after me he must deny himself take up his cross and follow me it is not easy to follow jesus jesus never made it easy i wonder if we can say this that we are really good followers of jesus we we might agree with the first two we've come to we've been impressed by his knowledge of us we've come to him we love him we believe in him but how good do we follow the early church in acts 2 42 devoted themselves i like that word devoted it means that you love something you give yourself to it to the apostles teaching fellowship breaking of bread and prayer and sold their goods and every day they met together jesus would say to us again this morning what do you want i'm your savior but what do you want is it me just serving you jesus came not to be served but to serve he expects us to do the same we follow in his footsteps it's a very searching question do you want salvation only but not service the church i think at this time really needs people to serve really needs to to get behind we need more workers it's become i've only been here for a year and a half and uh i'm aware people are beginning to creak they're uh they're getting older they've been holding down ministries for a long time uh one or two are mentioning this to us as elders what we could do with new blood can i challenge you if you're not i would challenge anybody you believe join a church join a church somewhere do not just attend this church uh join go somewhere else if that's the church you want to join but join a church but don't just join a church the lord has given you gifts and abilities to be used in his service give those gifts and abilities into his hands devote yourselves to teaching to hearing god's word midweek meetings as an opportunity to devote yourself to teaching we're looking at jonah devote yourself to prayer wednesday nights give yourself to this we can always find time for the things that we like we will bust a gut we will reschedule things because this is important but when it comes to serving the lord sometimes we're slovenly and he's either our lord or he's not lord at all in our life and this is what's here so the lord would say to us john what do you want is it just salvation but not service is it just for me to serve you and for not you to serve me we need to be honest and answer that question the call goes out in in this church i'd be i must confirm i've been a pastor for 30 years if it continues in the same trajectory it will hit the buffers we need more workers and it might be that you're here and you may have to rejig things or do things but say lord here am i use me whatever that is an invitation to follow and jesus will challenge you more than i will i'm not asking you to hate your father and mother jesus saying if you love your father and mother more than me you're not worthy to be my disciple following is far more difficult than we think the invitation to follow he's alive to do lastly an invitation to witness a lot of witnessing going on here a lot of people discovering who jesus isn't going to find somebody else and this is the great commission that we all have acts two you will be my witnesses i i preached through the book of acts it was one of the last series i did in london that was as this series is called uh that you may believe that series in acts is called you will be my witnesses we are not secret disciples we are to witness to jesus we are to evangelize we cannot say jesus is great and keep him to ourself it doesn't make any sense it's it just doesn't but how did they go about witnessing look very quickly andrew tells peter he starts at home he goes to his brother he peter's not there andrew's there possibly john they spend the day was the first thing goes to tell his nearest and dearest he goes to tell peter evangelism is often the hardest done in home but it has to begin there the people that that are members of our family seek opportunities lord open hearts i might have the opportunity to to say something about the lord uh we have found the messiah philip on the other hand tells nathaniel a friend not a relative he's just a friend in some ways it should be easy to to reach our friends because they usually have the same interests as us if you're a ranger supporter and your mates are ranger supporter you can say i can show you somebody better than glasgow rangers that wouldn't be hard actually uh but you usually have the same interests so if jesus is is ticking all your boxes chances are he will tick their boxes so share your faith it's not easily done but we really need to to be excited by jesus we have help in the holy spirit but you don't get the impression that none of these well before philip found nathaniel he had to go through a course for 12 weeks and then he was given the words to say and he went says you're going to have to tell him about jesus that's the way we do evangelism there's something seriously wrong with us seriously wrong if you're excited about something i remember george berwer saying that there's no such a thing as somebody who's shy get them talking on their favorite subject and they will talk your ears off if you make an apple dumpling we heard of a it was an apple was it crumble if apple crumble is your thing and i happen to have a conversation with you and i mentioned the word apple crumble you're not going to be stuck for stuff to say it let me tell you about apple crumble how do you do your apple crumble do you put cinnamon in it do you do this do you put it for 180 degrees at two hours or whatever there's no such a thing as somebody who's shy get them talking about their favorite subject and they will talk your ears off the problem is christians jesus has ceased to be impressive to us it's as simple as that we can make excuses we are saved and that is all what is the remedy for this i challenge myself with this there's i've printed out some leaflets here and i've only done six because i thought there might only be six folk if you get six folk that's interested in this that would be great i thought most of them would prefer a day down the boozer i don't know how to spend a day in prayer uh i came across this many years ago i photocopied this i i did this a lot when i was at nidrae i did it a few times in derbyshire i didn't do it at all in london and i haven't done it since i've come here so i'm not preaching as somebody who has this sorted what do you what do you mean by a day of prayer is they spent a day with jesus it's as simple as that jesus is alive he is a he's more alive than the person sitting next to you and you can talk to him that's what i mean by a day of prayer this will tell you how to go about it i used to take hymn books i used to take my bible obviously i take a notebook whatever the lord shows me i'd maybe scribble it down uh i'd take a christian book to read a devotional type book whatever i felt would help me draw close to god i drive away it's very hard to spend a day in prayer uh you can take food or not food you can decide you're going to fast that time but you you rock up somewhere you find a space i found a space down the coast somewhere try to find it during my time here since i've come back cannot find it it was so obscure it's so hidden i can't find a place again uh but find a place of quiet solitude and what i mean is is not heavenly father i come to you today can you please help me with da da da da da it's not mechanical just come and say lord it's me i'm here i'm really struggling with this help me today just just to draw close to you pour out your heart tell them your joys tell them your fears just talk to him you know the the thing it says just was it try praying we say that for non-christians i think christians need to hear try talking it's as simple as that our prayer life can be so mechanical that it's become a wee bit sterile uh lord help us praying for the list we get up off our knees and we're away but our heart is not knit to him we should leave a quiet time thinking jesus is great i'm excited by him excited are you and i challenge myself with this i really do how excited am i by jesus do i really love him do i just rejoice i'm saved and that's all but do i really love him that is that is what's meant by this ladder and the first i'm finished he says to nathaniel uh he believes he says jesus basically says to him you ain't seen nothing yet you believe heaven is going to be opened and it's taken from the old testament remember jacob and he says this place is awesome this is the son of god a ladder and these angels are going up and down and you think wow that would be good if you got that on monday morning you might be excited but getting to know jesus is more exciting than that exciting things can happen between heaven and you jesus is that ladder between you and the father and and it might be jesus says to you this morning what do you want if you want me you've not seen anything yet there is still more of me that you do not know follow me love me talk to me just spend half a day don't kill yourself we try to spend 24 hours i don't have to come and have to hoover up the pieces maybe too much but put the effort in and if you're married free up your spouse to go don't say you're not leaving me with the kids are you especially if you're a man if your wife wants to spend half a day in prayer you encourage her to spend your job is to perfect her in christ you you look after the wames and the mess and all that's involved in that for once let her be free to do what she wants to do let him be free in the busyness of work maybe a saturday morning from from say nine o'clock to one o'clock i'm going to just really get away and draw clothes when was the last time you really did that you drew clothes you spent a day with god or with jesus these men spent a day with jesus they were changed this relief that will help you maybe the lord will change you and he will change me i believe he will it's not just a prayer list it's just talk to him just talk to him tell him what's in your heart sing to him then read a wee book and then sing to him again then pray then look at another book in devotion and does that make sense does it make sense this is jesus he's alive this is not just for then this this should really pump us up charges up that's what will make the difference in every one of our lives in the church in our families in our nation internationally as we encounter a risen lord what do you want will you spend the day with me that you might come to me i know you i know you already there's nothing you can say but come and talk to me come to me you believe in me follow me and then after you've met me you might want to then witness to others you cannot help but saying jesus is great let's stand and we'll sing our closing song loved before the dawn of time let's stand and we'll sing together world before the dawn of time chosen by my vigor in my savior i am blessed and he is a world before the dawn of time chosen by my savior i am blessed and he is a every friend that i am given i will sing love it's about service let's close in prayer our loving heavenly father we thank you lord for this passage lord a very real passage where your son lord began his ministry by simply moving among people and that they had a desire to find out more about him to spend time with him and as a result lord they were changed lord may it be said of us that we are like a true israelite a true believer a true christian a true follower of jesus lord may that be the case lord we challenge yourself with us and lord we pray that as jesus is alive today we don't need to see where he's staying he knows where we stay but father we can come to him he can come to you through the holy spirit father help us to have that desire first of all to get to know him better and in knowing him lord we will serve him we will witness to him lord help us in this we pray we ask all these things in jesus name for his glory and for our good amen amen thank you folks i'll leave this here please feel free to take them if you want