All right, John chapter one and verse forty five, John chapter one, verse forty five. Philip find Nathaniel and sent them to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did right. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph and Nathaniel said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said unto him, Come and see. Let's pray. Father, I pray now that tonight we'll be able to come and see the mercy of God, the goodness of God, the great grace of our God. Lord, I pray that his love would be seen so perfectly that we would allow that love to do its work in our heart and life. In Jesus Christ's name, amen. Today we again think of valentines and sweethearts. I hope you enjoyed your meal at 7-Eleven. I did. And some of you received that little candy heart that said, be mine, be kind. Some of you dads gave your daughter's boyfriend that said, be gone. But the Ballantyne card is sent to the object of your affections. I have a book from someone. Whom I am the object of their affection. And you have it too, and of course that book is the Bible. It's God's love letter to us. He breathed every word of it. And he loves you so much. He preserved. and does not allow one word of it to fall to the ground. So we look at our text and we see the question of our text and the question is, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And that was a fair question, because the Bible was very clear that Messiah would come out of Bethlehem. The men of Jerusalem were troubled the day that these wise men entered and said, Where is he that is born the king of the Jews? Herod inquired of these priests and these Pharisees and said, What about this? And they said, Oh, yeah, he'll be born in Bethlehem. Now, isn't it interesting? These men knew the word, but they did not know the God of the They knew that he would be born in Bethlehem, but they did not know the God of the words. Just like people today can tell you all about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but they're not saved. Well, that was the story with these men. Nazareth, in that day, was seen as more of a derogatory term because it wasn't really a city of nobility that you'd associate with the name David, with a king. You know, I think sometimes fundamental Christians do the same thing today. We'll hear, and we find this more among us folks, we go to, we've been in a different fundamental college. As a matter of fact, if you look at it, you look up here at the platform, you have Brother Chase, he's from Bob Jones, and Brother Matt was from Maranatha. I went to Pensacola Christian College. We graduated from those colleges. And it's easy for any of our colleges, for someone to look at the other two colleges and say, should send your kids there and you look down your nose at him, you know, because it wasn't your college and they begin to run down fundamental colleges. Now, I'm all for standing up for your college being for your your alma mater. I think it's a great thing. As a matter of fact, I think Bob Jones, you get enough people to take care of that today. The Bob Jones thing. The kids come and didn't get enough. Do that. All you got to do is put newspapers down on the floor for those kids and you'll be fine. OK, but but nonetheless, nonetheless, people get like that. And here's here's the danger of that. OK, let me tell you just a little bit of a danger. That's getting a little bit off my subject, but just let me tell you the danger of that. You get a kid fired up to go to Pensacola, go to Bob Jones, go to Maranatha, Crown College, West Coast or whatever it may be. And they go there and there's a problem. And they are out of that school. And you've already run down all the other ones. And you've been used of the devil. To attack an institution that perhaps God established to be very careful when you do that of another fundamental school. If it's another school has named fundamental, but they're teaching false doctrine. Yeah, I have no problem with whatever. But you're attacking the false doctrine. Attack the false doctrine. Now, having said that, but that's what was going on in that day. Now, the false assumption is that Jesus was born in this place called Nazareth. On the way back from Egypt, Joseph heard that the son of Herod is now king, and we're told that he does not go back to Bethlehem. There are some that would say, well, old Joseph was out of the will of God, and he went into Bethlehem. He didn't go to Bethlehem. Instead, he turned into Nazareth, and boy, that caused problems. Others say, well, the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph and told him to turn into Nazareth. Now, just understand, when Joseph left Bethlehem, he went to Egypt. He got completely away from there. God told him to go back into the land. not necessarily go back to Bethlehem to go to Nashville to go back in the land. So really, we don't know for sure either way which God wanted him to go. People have their opinions. That's fine. But the Bible doesn't say specifically that God said, go to Bethlehem or go to Nashville. We don't know. But like Nathaniel, we have a tendency to make assumptions and give our two cents on it. Unfortunately, we'll hear gossip about someone and we automatically assume that gossip is true. Now, it was true that Jesus Christ was reared in Nazareth, but because he was reared there, people assumed that he was also born there. And that assumption led to many false things, and Satan was so glad to use that false assumption. But we know, even by the Word of God, there was a prophecy that he would be called a Nazarene. Joseph moved to Nazareth. Right or wrong, he moved there. And that move will not only affect Joseph, but it will affect the life of his family. And by the way, in the will of God or out of the will of God, whatever decision you make, it does affect others. and it will directly affect your family. It's rare that a decision ever affects only yourself. On a day when we do nice things for the object of our love, we must also think of the fact that the actions that we do affect others. Seek God's will always, as said earlier, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. In John 7, 52 shows that Jesus is coming out of Galilee. And that becomes a stumbling block to the others. Others who are religious, but not really true to the word. It says in John 7, 52, they answered and said unto him, that is, they said this unto Nicodemus, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of the Galilee ariseth no prophet. So these men are spending their time undermining Jesus, trying to show that he's not a true prophet of God, that he's not a righteous man. Well, why would they do that? Well, I think John chapter 7 verse 7 gives us the reason when he's on his way to Jerusalem, he acts like he's not going. His brethren say, aren't you going? He says, no. They say you need to go up and show what you can do. No, you guys go ahead. And he says to his brethren, the world cannot hate you, but me it hated. Why did they hate him? He says, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. See, we're living in a day-to-day when men are trying to make Jesus Christ a hip Jesus instead of a holy Jesus, the holy Jesus of the Bible. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 4, calls it another Jesus. I believe that today with all the... No, you should only be positive. You should only think positive. only say positive things. And those people would have just literally hated Jesus Christ. Boy, read Matthew chapter 23 and hear how Jesus preached. He called them hypocrites, vipers, fools. I mean, why did sepulchers? He didn't spare any words. He let it rip. And if you don't like preaching against sin and you don't like what they call negative preaching today, then you would have hated the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's the way he preached. He called it as it is. But I like Philip's answer to Nathaniel's question. Come and see. Just come and see. Taste and see that the Lord is good. We also read the words of Jesus coming to me. All you that labor on the heavy laden and I will give you rest. Just like Nathaniel. You must come. And see. What is interesting? Is that Nathaniel's question? I believe is in the form of the way he says it. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? It just seems to be like Is that really good enough for me? Is something out of Nazareth good enough for me? It seems to be the attitude that is there. It reminds me of the story of Maltrodder. Maltrodder was a drunkard. Now, today they like to say alcoholic. But nonetheless, he was a drunkard. Maltrodder had a baby and that baby died. He took the shoes off the dead baby in the casket. and sold them so he could buy another drink. On his way after his drink, he was contemplating suicide. He heard some singing coming out of a mission. He stepped in there and that night was gloriously saved and become one of the great preachers in the mission work. God changed his life. Billy Sunday, a drunken baseball player. God saved him. God cleansed him. God changed him. And he became one of America's great evangelists. We could go on with those who were thieves and whatever else, who were used mightily of God. Never think of anyone of being, well, they're just not good enough to come to our church. Don't shun to bring in that tattooed person with all the piercings in their body. Don't shun to bring in that drug addict, that homosexual, that drunkard to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. They might get saved. And they might be used of God to bring a wayward person to Christ, and the wayward person they bring to Christ may be one of your own loved ones. You see, God cannot only change them. God wants to change them. He wants to. And He can do it. You see, it's not just the down and outer God wants to save. It's the up and outer as well. Just like the woman at the well, he also wants to save that Zacchaeus, that's the well-to-do man, but without Christ. The up-and-outer, the down-and-outer, God is in the business of salvation. He wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And that leads us to the next point, to come and see what God can do with you. Now, remember this. You are the object of God's affection. Isn't that great? An almighty creator. Nothing is too hard for him. Nothing is impossible with him. And you are the object of his affections. That's tremendous. You ever hear someone say, man, if I come to your church, the walls will fall in. And I usually tell, well, praise God, let me tell you where to sit when you come. I've been wanting to do some remodeling, you know, and usually that just kind of gives them a strange look at me, but sometimes they'll laugh and come. But people do wonder. When they say something like that is, can God do anything for them? It's. How could God love me? I'm a fake. I'm not what I appear. And the question becomes is how could God love me? How could God use me? Look what I've done. What have I to offer? And the devil will add to it and let you know God could never use you. No one cares about you and you mean nothing to this world. But greater than a Valentine card and greater than an engagement ring for that young lady, the Lord Jesus Christ committed himself to your life by the incarnation, the death, the burial and the resurrection. He made the commitment and he invites you to come as you are and allow him to clean you up. The Apostle Paul consented to Stephen's death. Moses killed a man and buried him in a grave to try to hide his crime. Mary Magdalene had seven devils, in other words, witchcraft, possessed of devils, but God used them. So be encouraged. In 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 through 11, we read, No, you're not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, he said the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And that he gets specific, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, that covers the homosexual, nor the abusers of themselves with mankind. That pretty well covers your predators, your pornographers and everything else. nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revelers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Those people don't get saved and go in that same life. He says, "...and such were some of you." were is past tense. They're no longer that way. Why aren't they that way? He says, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God. How were they cleansed? By the blood of Jesus Christ. My friend, it happened in that day, but Jesus' blood has not lost its power, and it can still save the most wicked of souls. He can make a difference. And he will make a difference. We just need to share that gospel. And yes, such were. There was repentance and there was faith. There was trust in Christ to change them. As the object of his affections, see his promises to you. In John 6, 37, he says, He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's a promise. Romans 10, 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a promise. And taking him up on that promise, after that, if you take him on those promises, the next promise is this, Hebrews 13, 5, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Matthew 28, 20, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And for that whole earthly sojourn. He promises in 1 John 3, 22, And whatsoever ye ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. Now don't expect to pray and get answers if you're not keeping his commandments. You're not doing those things that are pleasing in his sight. You say, I'm not going to keep his commandments. That's legalistic. That's fine. Don't keep them. But just understand, don't expect answered prayer. Well, I've got liberty. I don't have to do those things that are pleasing in his sight. That's alright. Just don't expect answered prayer. God doesn't make you obey his commandments. He doesn't force you to. You've got to choose to because you love him. And if you don't do it, that's fine, but don't expect answered prayer. And when it's your loved one laid up in the hospital, don't expect answered prayer. Just don't expect it. Our next point is, come and see, nothing is too hard for him. You know Jesus Christ can do something for you even if you're from a broken home. He created heaven and earth, a virgin birth. Perhaps, as in our men's Bible study that we've been studying about Abraham and Sarah, a hundred-year-old man and a ninety-year-old lady and they have a child. And in Genesis 18 and verse 14, when they doubt that this is going to come about as God said it would, God said to them, is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for him? You see, God is still God, and He always will be God. Jesus Christ is saying yesterday, today, and forever. The problem isn't with Him. The problem is with our faith. That's where the problem comes in. My friend, my life, your life, even our life, is not too hard for Him. Our life is not too hard for God. He can take that addictive sin from you. If you let him. If you really wanted to. He'll do it. Is there any proof of God using a troubled home and making something out of it in the scripture? Oh yes, there's the Prophet Hosea. His wife leaves him. She plays the harlot. and she becomes a lust slave to another man's harem. Now he's a prophet of God. And his wife does these things. And obviously, publicly humiliated and embarrassed. Heartbroken and betrayed. And so what does God do? He says, OK, Hosea, she's gotten to the bottom. She hit bottom. She's at the bottom of her rope. She's at the bottom of the pit. Now, you go in and you buy her back. Well, who wants her? But this man is obedient to God and he buys her back and he keeps her. And he continues to preach the truth of God's Word. You see, God can take a broken life and he can restore it. All that trouble in Hosea's home life and God used him. As a matter of fact, in a 6,000-year history of man, only 40 men were used in the writing of the Word of God. Hosea is one of the 40. One of the 40 men that are chosen to take the dictation of the Holy Spirit to place in holy writ. There's the widow. Boy, she is dirt poor. But she has a room in that old piece of a thing she calls her house. And she keeps Elijah for three years. Now, there were other ladies and other people who were of higher society and rank. But God chose her. Does Jesus care? Oh, yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. And when the days are dreary and the long nights weary, I know my Savior cares. God's resources are much greater than all our need. God can use a filthy mouth sinner. Isaiah said that he was a man of unclean lips, but he submitted to the cleansing of the Lord and God used him. I remember right after I was first married, and I was working at Sears and Roebuck in the warehouse. And the warehouse manager, the man I worked for, had to see him every day, with him throughout the day. I think every other word out of his mouth was a cuss word. And I'd given him cracks, and I tried to witness to him. One day I had witnessed to him, and he'd come back up to me. I mean, not that moment, but hours later. And he said, I'm getting ready to leave for a couple weeks. As far as I'm concerned, you can take your God, and he told me where to stick my God. But you know what? God saved his soul. He became a deacon in his church, and today he's with the Lord. God can take a wreck of a life and change it into a trophy of his grace. What about the introvert? Can God use him? Come and see. Just come and see. We think of David who parted giant, Daniel who said take me into the king and I'll tell him. Or Peter standing before the Sanhedrin and said whether we should obey you or God, you decide, but I'm going to serve God. Those men weren't introverts. Not at all. But then there is Moses. The Bible says that he is the meekest man on the face of the earth. Now, if the Bible says that a person is the meekest on the face of the earth, you chalk it up, they're the meekest on the face of the earth. That just wasn't a statement, a generalization. That was a truth, because God said it. The meekest man on the face of the earth. And he says, I'm slow of speech. Although he'd been taught in the learning of Egypt, probably in our day to day, he would have been equal to a PhD. And see what Acts chapter 7 verse 22 says of him before he kills the Egyptian and flees to the desert for 40 years from Pharaoh. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds. In his first 40 years he obtained this great education and he was mighty in words. He could really speak. But then he fled for his life into the wilderness and was there for 40 years. At eighty years of age, God appears to him. And now Moses, he's stuttering, he's stammering. I can't speak plainly. God, can you use me? We've had Evangelist Jerry Savinsky here for revival meetings on several occasions. Jerry Savinsky was born to Russian-born parents. So, they spoke a lot of Russian around their house growing up. And when he went to college to study for the ministry, and he came out of a rough home, he stuttered and stammered. How in the world could he be called to preach? He couldn't speak a sentence. And yet, we've seen God use him in this place. God can do something. Moses was an introvert. Jerry Savinsky is an introvert. But they come out of that closet. They trust God to give them the words they need to carry out his call. That's what you have to do is step out, come and see what God can do for you. If I might even say he's your Valentine. But what about the untalented? Again, let the Word of God be our testimony. Come and see. Amos, the prophet, another man used as one of those who write the Word of God, who take dictation from the Holy Spirit and put it in holy writ for it to be preserved for us. He says, I am neither prophet nor the son of a prophet. He was just uneducated sheep farmer. Today's society likes to look at the beautiful people, the athlete, the rich, the successful, the academic achiever, the people of power and achievement in society and in politics and business and entertainment. But they don't want the thief on the cross. They don't want the blind beggar. They don't want the lunatic that is dwelling among the tombs, crying and cutting himself and breaking all the chains they try to chain him with. We do not read the sermons, the great sermons of Andrew, of Cornelius, or Thaddeus. But God took those ordinary men and he used them. Although they may not have seemed to have had talent to be used of God. God used. You don't have to be somebody in this world to be a vehicle of God's use. As a matter of fact, if you read 1 Corinthians, the first chapter, you'll find it's not the mighty. It's not the powerful that he often uses for his work. See, the need may be that you just surrender all to Jesus in order to be used of him. Surrender the sin, the weight that so easily besets you and be separate from this world. Be dedicated unto the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to understand. We're not citizens of this world. On our way to heaven. We are citizens of heaven. as Christ's ambassadors in this world. So come out of the closet, get out of the box of fear, get out of the box of doubt, get out of the box of saying, well, I just can't do it. And realize that the one you're doubting is the same one who said, is there anything too hard for me? Get out of the comfort zone. Get out of wondering, well, what will my family think? What will my neighbors think? What will my friends think? Will they like me? Get out of that. Instead, get out of that box of the world. Get in the box of God's will. And my friend, if you get in the book of God's will, in the box of God's will, you'll also get in the local church. You'll get in the way of holiness. You'll get in the way of righteousness. You'll get in the way of standards. You'll get in that way that wants to be pleasing and acceptable unto Him. And you'll be in that way that includes the Great Commission, to be a witness and to teach them to observe all that He's commanded us. You'll be daily in God's Word. You'll be daily in prayer. It's God's way. So the point is that you come. and you surrender all to Jesus, and you come and you see that the Jesus Christ from this Bible of which we speak, this is the same Jesus of whom all the prophets spoke. You just come trusting His promises and His love. He is who He says He is. Come and see. God can use you. in his way and in his time to bring glory to his blessed name. Will you let him? Will you let him? Let's bow our heads, please. Now, dear Lord, I pray that as we get ready to sing this hymn of invitation, Hymn 337, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. I pray that each Christian would realize Jesus does not want to pass them, but if they're unwilling to surrender, then he may pass them by. And a blessing that he wanted them to have, an eternal reward, eternal joy, may be for someone else. Lord, I pray that we'd die to self Whether it's being an introvert, just thinking, I have no talent, maybe we just get off that me, me, me, and say, I will trust Jesus. There's nothing too hard for Him. And I pray that tonight they'll believe that very phrase from the lips of our Lord. There is nothing too hard for God. And they'll take Him up on that promise in Jesus' name. Amen.