This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. This is day two of our
look together through John chapter seven. I'd like to start today by reading,
beginning back in verse 10 and through verse 19 of John chapter seven.

However, after his brothers had left for the feast, he, Jesus, went also, not
publicly, but in secret. Now, at the feast, the Jews were watching for him and
asking, "Where is that man? " Among the crowd, there was also a widespread
whispering about him.

Some said, "He is a good man. " Others replied, "No, he deceives the people. "
But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.

Not until halfway through the feast did Jesus go to the temple courts and begin
to teach. The Jews were amazed. And they asked, "How did this man get such
learning without having studied?

" Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. " It comes from him who sent me.
If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes
from God or whether I speak on my own.

He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself. But he who works for
the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth. There's nothing false about
him.

Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you
trying to kill me?

Quite a beginning to Jesus' speech to the crowd that day. Remember yesterday we
left Jesus and his brothers had said, "Jesus, why don't you come up with us to
this feast of the Tabernacles and at this we can sort of unveil you. " And Jesus
said, "No, the timing is not yet right for me.

" Now some people think Jesus told a white lie because you see in these verses
he actually does go up to the feast. No, he just said, "The timing is not yet
right for me. " Few days later, it was right.

There's an example here that Jesus shows us that sometimes it's not a lie not to
say everything that's in your mind. He probably knew he was going to go up in a
couple days, but he didn't want to get involved in a big argument with his
brothers about it. So he just said, "You guys go ahead, not yet time for me.

" And then in a few days he showed up. And when Jesus shows up, he begins to
speak to the crowd. And as he speaks to the crowd, you see emerge in what he
says and their responses, a second way of trying to settle, to satisfy our
thirst that just does not work.

Yesterday we talked about the fact that our human strategies don't work. Today
we notice the fact that our human speculations can't satisfy our thirst.
Yesterday we talked about what I call the political solution.

I call this the philosophical solution. You notice even as I read that people
had all kinds of ideas about who Jesus is, Jesus, what he was supposed to do and
why he was there. Some of those ideas were right.

Many of them were wrong. We're going to find out as we go through these verses.
And the problem that people had was ignorance.

These people, they weren't stupid. They were just uninformed. The rabbis
couldn't understand how Jesus knew so much.

He hadn't been to their universities, to their study places. But these people
that listened to Jesus that day realized he knew some things that they never
would have known. They were trying to figure life out through speculation, but
Jesus knew the truth.

And Jesus said to them, let's just sort of cut through all of this and make it
simple. You're speculating about who I am and what I'm here for. Jesus' first
answer to this problem of speculation was do God's will.

If anyone chooses to do God's will, he says in verse 17, he's going to find out
whether my teaching comes from God or not. You're speculating, is this man from
God? Is this man not from God?

Choose to do God's will. His answer is very simple and basic. Are you thirsty?

Come and get a drink. And then you'll see. The picture here of the philosophical
kind of solution is two guys in a desert that finally come upon an oasis and
they're dying of thirst.

And when they come upon that oasis, they say, well, let's talk about this before
we have a drink. Is this a mirage or an oasis? We don't really know.

And even if it is an oasis, how did we come to get here? Do we really deserve to
be here? Why us?

And if we drink of this water, what is it going to mean for our future? You go
down all these thought patterns. Truly thirsty people aren't going to do that.

They're not going to speculate about the water. They're going to drink the
water. And Jesus said, if you do God's will, you're going to know.

If you want to do what God wants, you're going to know that I'm the one who sent
from God. Now, if you take a look at what Jesus is saying in verse 17 from a
different perspective, it's saying to us that the way that you and I respond to
the words of Jesus is the most powerful indication of our heart toward God.
Jesus is God in human flesh.

God has come into this world. And the way that you respond to God who has come
into this world tells you your heart towards God. Jesus is God.

The way you respond to Jesus is the way that you respond to God. You could say
anything you want, but the way you respond, Jesus says, indicates who you really
are. Jesus says, do God's will.

Truth is, you might be thirsty right now because you're speculating when you
should be doing. You're playing games in your mind with God's will instead of
doing God's will. But that's true of you.

Don't worry. You're not the first to do that. We've all done that.

We get to thinking about it so much that we don't take a step of faith. I've
always said to people, God works better with moving objects. If I can decide
what I believe to be God's will in that moment, I can take a step in that
direction, listening all the time.

If I'm moving in the wrong direction, God will tell me. If I'm going in the
right direction, I'll get confirmation. But as long as I just sit in my seat and
think about it, that I'm going to miss out on God's will in my life.

Choosing God's will for Jesus meant Jesus didn't have to worry about promoting
himself, glorifying himself, because he knew he was living his life to glorify
God. Listen to what the crowd thought of what Jesus said, beginning in verse 20.
You are demon possessed, the crowd answered.

You're crazy. Who's trying to kill you? Jesus just said somebody's trying to
kill me.

Jesus said to them, I did one miracle and you are all astonished. Yet because
Moses gave you circumcision, though actually it did not come from Moses, but
from the patriarchs, you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. Now, if a child can
be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why
are you angry with me for healing a whole man on the Sabbath?

Stop judging by mere appearances and make the right judgment. And this miracle
that Jesus was talking about here was his healing in Jerusalem on the Sabbath
day. They all knew about this.

And Jesus, as he talks through the law here, he's not saying that the law was
wrong. He's just showing them there's a huge loophole in their thinking about
the law. And he talks about circumcision.

Circumcision, which was given to Abraham as a sign of the covenant between God
and the Jewish people, including in that giving of this covenant, the direction
from God, that every boy was to be circumcised on the eighth day. So they did
this on the eighth day, even if it was a Sabbath. And Jesus says, you do this
work to honor God, but you're angry at me for honoring God by healing someone?

Here's Jesus' second answer to this problem of speculation. He's saying to them,
verse 24, "Stop judging by mere appearances. " That's why you're speculating so
much.

You're judging by mere appearances. You're not asking for the heart of God. The
problem with our speculation is we never get the entire picture.

It's that old story of the four blind men trying to describe the elephant, each
of them feeling one the tail, one the trunk, one the leg. They think it's an
entirely different animal because they're judging by mere appearances. We need
to put the parts of the story together when it comes to God in our lives.

And the only person who can do that is Jesus Christ. And when it comes to this
thing of judging, I like the honesty of one of the people on our research team.
They wrote, "My mind is a judging machine.

I can't turn it off. I am constantly comparing, evaluating, critiquing, and yes,
sometimes even criticizing. " I appreciate that honesty because the truth is we
all face this.

How do you stop? Jesus said, "Stop judging by mere appearances. " How do you
stop judging by mere appearances?

The only way I know is to ask for God's wisdom, to recognize, God, I don't see
the whole picture myself. That's what human philosophy believes, that we can see
the whole picture ourselves. God, I can't figure it all out myself.

I need you. I ask for your wisdom. Now, when you do that, when you ask for God's
wisdom, God reminds you of his truth, he humbles you in the fact that you're
depending on him, and he gives you insight from him.

That simple act of saying, "God, instead of trying to figure this out myself, I
need your wisdom," has incredible impact on our daily lives. Stop judging by
mere appearances. Ask for God's wisdom.

And before that, determine to do God's will. As we pray today, let's pray for
those specific things. As you pray, simply pray, God, I ask for your wisdom.

I ask for your wisdom. You may want to be more specific about that. You might need
his wisdom in a specific area of life.

God, would you give me your wisdom in this area? It might be a decision you
think you have figured out. God, I need your wisdom here, even though I think I
have it figured out.

Or it might be a place where you have total confusion. You don't know what to do
next. God, I need your wisdom here.

And as you ask for God's wisdom, ask for it determined to do God's will. Not,
"God, show me your will and then I'll figure out if I'll do it. " But, "God, I
trust you.

I am determined to do your will. Give me the strength to do it. " God, I ask for
your wisdom.

God, I am determined to do your will. In Jesus' name, amen.