Beauty in Unexpected Places – John 1 – Encounter Houston – Brent Phillips

“You cannot judge others and be free.”

We are all guilty of prejudging people, places, or situations before we ever truly have any information on which we can base it on. How many times have we missed the opportunities to receive from God because we prejudged something or someone because they didn’t come packaged the way we thought they should?

We need to realize that more times than not God is going to come shaped in a box that we are not expecting. We see it all throughout The Bible, God showing up in the most unexpected ways – He even did it through His son Jesus Christ.

John 1:43-46 “The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Prejudice is defined as the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

We are all guilty of prejudging and forming an opinion based off of what other people have experienced or what one person might have done to us. And if we are not careful we can prejudge a whole group of people based on our experience or the experience that someone else had with one person. Don’t let one person determine how you will choose to love and see others that are similar to them.

“Judgment prevents us from seeing the good that lies beyond the appearances.”

–Wayne Dyer

Jesus came to raise up a body of believers and not a denomination. We must realize that Jesus isn’t coming back for just the Charismatics, or the Baptist, or the Presbyterians, or Catholics. He is coming back for all people that call upon His name.

“When we judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa

God is always refining us and teaching us new things and there are going to be times when you are going to experience God in a way that others have never experienced Him. And there are going to be times when they experience Him in a way that you never have.

Take the opportunity to love one another and learn from each other instead of judging each other!

The video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video

Pastor Brent Phillips, Encounter God Houston, Brent Phillips, Encounter God Bible study, Beauty in Unexpected Places, John 1:43-46, Prejudgment, freedom, unexpected ways, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Beauty, Mother Teresa, Experience God, love, accept others, learn from others, love one another