Dharius Daniels - It's The Truth For Me

I want to lead us into one here in John chapter 8, verse 44. This is what Jesus says. Okay, let me give you some context, and I’ll just put it this way: the audience that Jesus is articulating to in this passage is comprised of religious people, so I want to clarify that. Okay, you belong to your father, verse 44, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth. He didn’t say he didn’t have it; he said he didn’t hold it. For there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell you the truth, you don’t believe me. I want to pause right there. I want to tag a title to this text; I want to talk from this subject: it’s the truth for me. Somebody just put that in the chat; somebody just drop that in the chat. I want you to put an exclamation point behind it: but it’s the truth for me. It’s the truth for me!

Family, this weekend I was having a conversation with a friend of mine from college, and we were reminiscing and recalling some of the tomfoolery we engaged in during that four-year period of our lives. I will say, for those who want to engage in any kind of retroactive investigation, that God forgives our sins, casting them into the sea of forgetfulness to remember them no more. God doesn’t remember me, either. But anyway, we were having this conversation, and somehow we began discussing a particular period within our first couple of years of college where we had this unique interest in rapping. There was this group that was popular regionally during that time, where we were in Mississippi, a couple of hours from Louisiana, called the Hot Boys. They were incredibly popular regionally, and we were inspired by them.

Since we didn’t have recording equipment, GarageBand, Apple devices, or voice memo notes, we had to use something called a boom box. We had to put a cassette tape in the boom box, which had two cassette tape compartments. One we used to play the instrumental, and the other, we recorded ourselves with a mic we plugged into the boombox. So we started rapping in the dorm room—freestyling, flowing, dropping bars—but it didn’t take long for two of us to objectively observe what we were creating and admit that we needed to stick to studying. This might be an amazing hobby, but it would be a poor career choice. I had an interest and excitement about it, but I recognized I wasn’t good at it, so I deviated from it.

As I stand here in this sacred space communicating this sermon series to you, I want you to know that my presence here and this preaching presentation are indications of a revelation I received regarding what I should not be doing. I’m going to say that one more time: my presence here and this preaching presentation indicate that at some point I had a revelation of the truth. That’s what happened with two of us, but there was one of us—another individual—who assumed he was great at it, and he eventually left school. This individual started writing music and dropping albums, and it did not work out well for him either. When he communicated to my friend and me that he was now independently producing this music, we looked at each other, silently asking, «Who’s going to tell him?»

I have a question for you: have you ever seen someone doing something they loved but couldn’t do well, and you thought, «Who’s going to tell them?» Have you ever seen someone investing time, talent, and treasure that they did not have to waste, squander, or lose into activities they were not called, created, crafted, and commissioned to do? Have you ever wondered, «Who’s going to tell them?» Have you ever seen anyone who is amazingly, uniquely, and organically gifted in one area? It comes to them honestly—at least that’s what we would say. They have evidence of a divine deposit, what Ellen Hirsch would call an apostolic genius; it’s just something God gave you. You didn’t read a book or go to a class, and even if you did, it simply developed what God deposited.

Have you ever seen someone who just got away with words? Or someone who just has a knack for solving problems? They can handle precious situations differently, yet you’ve seen someone who has something honest, but something else captures their energy and effort, and they are not as proficient at it. Have you ever wondered, «Who’s going to tell them?» Ladies and gentlemen, what I’m attempting to share with you is the essence of what Jesus is trying to get across to the people he is addressing in this passage. Here in John, Jesus is trying to get these people to see something that everyone who wants to go beast mode has to be willing to see.