Way, Truth, & Life | Pastor Jeremy Saylor | Sunday Service

You guys recognize the presence of the Lord in the house this morning.

Everything that has been sung, everything that has been said, even the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit through Pastor Hobbes this morning is exactly in line with my message today.

I love how the Holy Spirit orchestrates things to put us in the right direction that he wants us to go.

And I'm going to tell you right now, get ready for an encounter with Jesus this morning.

Get ready for an encounter with him.

Maybe like you haven't had in maybe ever, maybe in a long time, but I believe in the depths of my being this morning is that Jesus wants to visit us today.

Touch us.

The depths of our being, an invitation, I believe, in the spirit realm has been released, and if we will respond, he will meet with us in a powerful way.

Pastor Hobb doesn't even know it, but my invitation scripture was basically the message that he gave.

We'll get there in just a minute.

If you have your Bibles, grab those this morning, and we're gonna go directly to the Word of God together.

John chapter 14 is where we're gonna be.

John 14 · chapter mention

We're in a series entitled The Seven Images of Jesus in the book of John.

Jesus makes seven I am statements that were intended to show us who he is and what he's about.

There are actually seven invitations for us to trust him more in our lives.

And the I am statement that we're going to look at together this morning is where Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

How many of you know that Jesus is the way?

He's the truth and he's the life.

Stand with me this morning as we honor the reading of God's word together today.

John chapter 14, starting in verse 1.

John 14 · chapter mention

Jesus says to his disciples, this is at the Last Supper in the upper room.

Some of his final words to his disciples before he is betrayed, crucified, dies, and rises from the grave.

He says this in John chapter 14, verse 1 Do not let your hearts be troubled.

John 14:1

You believe in God, believe also in me.

In my father's house are many rooms.

If that were not so, would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you may also be where I am.

Anybody looking forward to the day that you are where he is, you know the way to the place where I'm going.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going.

So how can we know the way?

And Jesus answered him, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.

If you really know me, you will know my father as well.

For now on, you do know him, and and you have seen him.

And then Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.

That Jesus answered, Don't you know me, Philip?

Even after I've been among you such a long time, are you not getting it?

Anybody ever been around somebody that just doesn't seem to get it?

Don't look to the left or the right?

Jesus is somewhat exasperated here and like, you've been with me for three and a half years.

Don't you know that I and am him, and him is in me?

And if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

We are one.

Don't you believe that I'm in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work.

Believe me when I say that I'm in the Father, the Father is in me.

And I love this little addition at the end, Jesus makes as a consolation.

If nothing else, at least believe in the works that I've been doing.

Church, this is God's word, and the title of my message this morning is simply this more than a roadmap.

Say that after me this morning, more than a roadmap.

Turn to your neighbor and say, Jesus is more than a roadmap.

Turn to your other neighbor and say, Jesus is more than a roadmap.

Turn around to the person behind you and say, Jesus is more than a roadmap.

Father, we thank you for your word this morning.

Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

It shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.

I pray this morning that we wouldn't just be hearers of your word, but that we'd be doers of it.

In Jesus' mighty name.

Everybody said, Amen.

You may be seated.

Thank you, Caleb.

Have you ever?

Anyone here this morning ever tried to fix something?

Anyone here like me this morning that's tried to fix something, maybe something at your home, only to discover that it would have been a lot less costly, that you would have spent a lot less time and money and a whole lot less frustration if you just called somebody to help.

Anybody, anybody know what I'm talking about this morning?

That you've with the best of intentions, that you've said, oh, I can fix that, oh, I can do that, I can solve that problem.

And and it would have just been a lot better not to over-exaggerate your abilities.

A few years ago, Meg and I added a covered porch on the back of our patio.

Something that we'd been wanting to do for some time, and we got it done, and we we loved it, and we're beginning to sit outside and enjoy it.

And then the first rain comes in, and we're sitting under it and just listening to the pitter-patter of the rain on the roof.

But it was during that time that we realized we we should have done something that we didn't do.

We should have added a gutter system to it, but we didn't do it.

Anybody ever done something and after the fact realized, yeah, I didn't do that as well as I thought that I had done it?

And Meg says, you know, it would be really, really good to have a gutter on this porch to get the water away.

And like Superman, I stepped forward, said, I can do it.

I'm gonna be the man of my house.

Come on, somebody.

I can fix this problem, I can install this system.

This isn't that complicated.

Surely I can do it.

So I did what probably many of you would do.

I got on YouTube.

How do you install a a gutter system?

So I YouTube'd it, then I went to the store and bought all the supplies, then I began the assembly process of the supplies, then I then I installed it, and I stood back at it and marveled the work of my hands.

And then the first rain came.

I run outside in anticipation at marveling at the the work of my hands, only to discover that nothing worked.

Nothing worked, and I was just so demoralized, I was so frustrated, and I'm and I'm like, I am gonna be victorious, I am gonna overcome.

So I went back to YouTube again.

And I and I YouTube, okay, what I may have have done wrong, and so I went to YouTube, then to the store, then back to YouTube, then back to the store, then then back to YouTube, and and back to the store.

Anybody know where I'm going with the story?

Weeks go by.

Attempts over and over to fix the solution.

And and after, and I don't even know how much money I have spent at this time.

I don't want to calculate it.

The brain comes in again, and one of the fifteenth bazillionth time that I've tried to fix it, man comes out afterwards and says, How's it going?

only to find me in.

She finds me ripping it all off the house in just utter frustration.

And and she says, What are you gonna do?

I said, Give me a phone so I can call somebody.

I called Sean Barton.

Many of you know Sean, Sean's very handy.

I called Sean, he comes over the next week, he comes with supplies, none of which I purchased, and in a day had it done.

I felt like a winner.

I felt like I'm glad that it's done, but from now on, Jeremy, just call somebody.

Just just just call somebody.

I got to thinking about that story this this week because I read that the how-to culture, the the the the fix it culture, the the do-it-yourself fad that has taken over our society.

Do you know that today that one of the largest and fastest growing categories of books and content is personal growth, self-help, and do it yourself.

Ten million books are now sold annually in that category.

Its growth since 2025 has been over 25%, that we live in a culture that is obsessed with how to do life.

How do we fix it?

How do we do it ourselves?

We've really been conditioned to believe that the secret of life and success is just one five-step process away.

We love to do it ourselves.

It's not anything that that's really new to humanity, it's something that that has marked us since the beginning of time.

Even if you go back to the Old Testament, the the ancient Jews had come up with 613 different how-to's to follow the word of God.

And hundreds of other interpretations of those how-to's.

The early church struggled with this so much that the apostle Paul had to write the book of Galatians to take off of people what people kept trying to put on us for how to live the godly life.

So when Thomas in the upper room at the last supper says, How can we know the way?

What's the path?

What's the point?

What's the plan?

How do I figure my way through life?

And Jesus answers in an astounding way.

Jesus doesn't point them to another how-to plan.

He points them to a who.

He says, I am.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

What what's what's he telling us?

He's telling us that that the way isn't a plan.

The way isn't a path, it's it's a person.

The truth isn't a point, it's a person.

Life isn't a plan, it's a person that Jesus, he himself, is the totality of everything that we're looking for in our lives and don't realize we need.

I am the truth.

I am the life.

I am everything you need in your life.

I am in.

Anybody know that today?

That Jesus is all you need.

That's what he is saying here.

I want to, I want to break down this statement in three parts this morning and explain what Jesus is saying when he's saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

The first thing that Jesus is saying is the way isn't a a path to navigate.

The way is a person to follow.

It's not a path to navigate.

When I think of the way, I think of a path.

And when I think of a path, I think of how do I navigate this path?

And Jesus said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, you're asking for the way, and you don't understand there isn't a path.

I am the way.

And all you have to do is not try to figure out how to navigate it.

All you have to do is follow me.

Follow me.

Say that after me this morning.

Follow me.

See, when the disciples ask Jesus, how can we know the way?

Three times in John 13 and John 14, leading up to this statement by Jesus, Jesus tells them, I'm getting ready to go away.

And every time they're asked, Well, what's the way?

How do how do we get the way?

And and they're trying to find a description.

They're trying to find a way that they can get their hands around.

Really, what they're looking for is directions, but Jesus doesn't offer them directions.

He offers them himself.

He says, I am the way.

They're looking for a roadmap to follow, but the roadmap isn't a roadmap, it's a relationship.

Jesus is turning their attention really away from themselves to him.

He's saying, I am the roadmap.

You don't have to figure it out.

You don't need another how-to.

What you need is another who.

You need me.

I am all that you need.

Church, many of us approach God just like they did.

We're looking, we're we're looking for directions.

We're looking for a plan.

We're looking for an equation to follow so that we feel good about ourselves.

Jesus, just tell me what I need to do.

Give me the A, B, and C's so that I can get to where I need to go.

Give me the calculation that I can figure so that I can get to where I'm trying to get to.

And all along, Jesus is saying you're missing the point.

Can I tell you, faith is an equation we work out?

You need to get this.

Faith is a person we follow.

It's not an equation.

We we want an equation.

Give us the strategy, give us the instructions, give us the description, give us everything that we need to do so that we can follow it.

Because when we follow those things, we feel good about ourselves because we feel self-justified.

And what Jesus is saying is stop with all of that.

Stop trying to calculate your way forward, just follow me.

Stop calculating your way forward and just follow me.

I'm gonna say that again because some of you are starting to get it because you're resonating with it.

Stop trying to calculate.

How many of you guys like to calculate your way forward?

We we do because we feel like we're in control and we feel proud that we figured it out.

If I can calculate how I get from where I am to where I want to be, when I get there, I can look at myself and say, look what I have done.

The problem is when we do that, we end up just like I did when I tried to fix my gutter.

You wind up frustrated because you realize that your best efforts aren't enough.

Stop trying to calculate your way forward and just follow Jesus.

That's the invitation that He is putting before us.

You know, even the idea.

I mean, I we all struggle with this.

We like to calculate it, figure it, well, how we work out a budget or we work out a life plan or we work out a career plan.

Well, it's this, and I do this, and I do that, and I do that, then I'll get here, and man, won't I have arrived.

Do you know the idea that we can calculate our way forward is absurd?

There's two absurdities about that.

Number one is the absurdity that we know all the variables, and number two is that we know how all the variables apply so that they can fit together to get us where we want to be.

Church, that's absurd, that's pride, run amok.

That we think we can figure it all out, that we can calculate our way forward.

Can I give you a better plan?

Just follow Jesus, just do what he says to do.

Be in relationship with him when he says go, go.

When he says stop, stop, just follow Jesus.

Jesus.

That's what he's telling his disciples, and that's what he's telling us today.

Listen, if you're if faith, if you think faith is about checking all of the boxes and calculating your way forward, you're going to be severely disappointed.

Because following Jesus doesn't calculate.

It doesn't add up.

The numbers don't work.

Abraham, I want you to leave all that you know, and I want you to go to a place that you've never been, and I'm not even going to tell you where it is until you get there.

Church, that don't calculate.

We call Abraham the father of faith.

Can I tell you who I think had more faith in Abraham?

It's Sarah, because she followed him.

Ladies, y'all ought to be shouting right now.

I think Sarah had more faith in Abraham because she followed a man that didn't know where he was going.

Some of y'all can relate to that.

That doesn't calculate, church.

Moses.

You committed murder and you fled from Egypt and you've been gone 40 years.

You're nobody.

You're nothing.

There's a warrant out for your arrest when you get back there.

But never mind, I want you to go and to tell Pharaoh, the most powerful man on the planet, to let my people go.

That don't calculate.

That don't add up.

That don't work.

David, David, you're a nothing, nobody overlooked and forgotten.

And when the family had a meeting, they left you out in the cold.

But you're gonna be king over my people, Israel.

Church, that don't calculate.

That that that that don't add up.

Can I I'll give you a sidebar here?

This is so good.

You know the difference between Saul and David?

Saul followed prescriptions.

David followed a person.

You read the story of David, and what you find is he never lost battles.

Why?

Because he always went to the Lord and asked for a strategy, and God gave him a different strategy for every battle.

What we want is an equation that we can calculate for every situation that we're in, rather than a relationship to follow.

And you're wondering why.

Well, it worked then, it don't work now.

Because the variables are different.

And you think they're the same, and we want something that simplifies our life.

You know what you really want?

You just want an equation, you don't want a God.

Jesus, do you know when you studied the gospels?

He never healed the same way twice.

Why?

Because he knew that if we read his story and we found a repetitive nature in it, we would develop a healing equation rather than turning to the healer.

Stop trying to calculate your way forward.

My whole life doesn't calculate.

I could tell you story after story when God's told Megan to do something that did not add up.

It does not make sense.

Our church has a history.

You can't calculate where we are today.

It's just by God, it's just walking by faith.

We want to be in a relationship with God, not in a relationship with an equation.

Tithing church, it don't make sense.

Let's be honest, it doesn't make sense.

Give me the first 10% of your income?

That don't make sense.

It doesn't calculate.

But what I have found in my life, that if I give him the 10% first, then he'll bless the 90 to be more than what it was before.

Then don't calculate.

Are you following me this morning?

Stop trying to work an equation and start following a savior.

I would even venture to say this morning, if all of your life makes sense, you're not following God, you're leading yourself.

If everything calculates and everything works out, you better be careful of what God you're serving.

You might be serving yourself rather than the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Because following Him don't calculate.

It doesn't add up.

It doesn't make sense.

And that's what He's trying to tell Thomas.

Stop trying to ask me for directions.

Just follow me.

Just follow me.

Just follow me.

Just follow me.

His invitation from the very beginning was this.

Come, what?

Follow me.

Follow me.

It's not an equation to work out, it's a person to follow.

And his name is Jesus.

Second thing that Jesus says here.

Is this all right this morning?

Second thing Jesus says here is the truth isn't a position to defend, but a person to know.

Jesus says, I am the truth.

What is he saying?

He's saying that truth isn't a position we defend, it's a person we know.

Church, we here's the bottom line.

Each of us love, not like love to be right.

Anybody love to be right?

There's a few honest people that are going to heaven.

Rest of y'all liars going to hell.

We all love to be right.

Am I right?

We love.

I mean love, love, love to be right.

And we live in a culture of competing narratives about what is right.

We I mean it's your truth, my truth, the truth, their truth.

Everybody's got a truth.

And into that culture, Jesus says, truth isn't a position to defend, it's a person to know.

I am the truth.

I am the truth.

I who's the truth?

Jesus, what's the truth?

I am the truth.

I want you to know me.

See, knowing him is the truth.

Can I give you one of the most unsettling things about the gospel narrative to me?

Like it, I saw this a couple years ago, and I've talked with the staff about it on a couple of different occasions when I've done some devotionals with them.

One of the most unsettling things about the gospel account, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is that the Pharisees of Jesus' day had really, really, really good doctrine and practice.

They had really good theology.

The Pharisees of Jesus' day believed much like what we believe today.

They believed in the supernatural.

They believed in a Messiah that was coming.

They believed in the resurrection of the body at the end of the days.

They believed a lot of the things that we believe today.

And not only believed it, they tried to practice it.

They set themselves apart to live lives that were holy unto the Lord.

Yet when the Lord stood right in front of them, they could not recognize him.

It's one of the most unsettling things about the gospel narrative.

I'm going to tell you what, church, we got to be very careful about reading scripture 2,000 years removed from the reality of the story.

And we can look at the Pharisees and say, How dare they?

But I'm going to tell you right now, that's not how dare they, it's how dare us.

Because I would argue that the Pharisees very well may be the best church people today.

And they missed him when he was standing right in front of them.

Why?

Why did they miss him?

Because they had turned the word of God into a truth to defend rather than a person to know.

They had turned this book into prescriptions, they had turned it into positions and propositions and principles.

They had turned it into a rule book rather than a relationship book.

Can I tell you right now, this book, you'll read this book for rules, you read this book for relationship.

Everything in this book points to one thing, and it's a person named Jesus.

From Genesis to Revelation, it's Jesus first, it's Jesus in the middle, it's Jesus at the end, it's the story of Jesus, it's the story of how God is redeeming a fallen world through a man named Jesus.

That's what this book is about.

And we need to stop reading it to find rules to defend our points and to defend our positions, and we need to consume it because we want to know him.

It's about Jesus.

I want to know Jesus.

Oh, I want, I want to, I want to pour over the pages of this book, not to win an argument, but to know a person.

I want to pour over these pages of the book to come into a relationship with the one who was and the one who is and the one who is to come.

I I want to know him who was willing to divest himself of heaven's garments and take up the flesh of humanity to die the death that we deserve to give us a life that we could never earn.

Oh, I want to know that man.

That's why I want to consume this book.

It's not about positions and points and prescriptions, it's about a person.

It's about a person named Jesus.

Can I even I'll tell you, if there, if there is one rule in this book, it's that relationship trumps rules.

Relationship trumps rules.

Those of you that play cards understand that analogy.

Relationship.

Jesus was asked, Lord, what's the greatest commandment?

What's the greatest rule?

It's to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

The chief rule is a relationships win.

Relationships.

Jesus illustrated this with a woman caught in adultery.

Pharisees bring her in and throw her at the feet of Jesus.

And they say, the rules say, the law says she has to die.

What do you say?

Jesus bent down and began to write in the sand.

I think he began to write all of the rules they were breaking.

One by one, they left.

Jesus turned to her and says, Where have your accusers gone?

She says they're left.

And he says, Neither do I condemn you.

Go and sin no more.

Rules Trump relationship.

I don't want to read this to win an argument.

I want to read this to know the Son of God.

It's a person to follow.

It's a person to know.

I want to challenge you this morning.

I've said it twice.

I want to say it one more time.

Read Scripture to meet with Jesus, not to win arguments.

Jesus says, I am the way.

It's not a path that you've got to navigate.

It's a person to follow.

I am the truth.

It's not a point to defend.

It's a person to know.

And number three, the life isn't a plan to execute, but a person to receive.

That's what Jesus is saying here.

He's saying, stop trying to plan your life.

Stop trying to calculate it out.

Stop trying to figure it out.

And church, this is so appropriate for us today because we live in a day, in a time, in a culture where everybody's got a life plan.

Got a place that they're trying to get to, a destination that they're trying to arrive at.

And I've got to have a one-year, three-year, five-year, ten-year plan.

We do it with our lives, we do it with our families, we do it with business.

And here, Jesus says, you don't need a plan, you need a person.

You need me.

I am your plan for life.

And if you'll follow me and if you'll know me, I'll lead you to the life that I have for you.

Stop trying to calculate it forward.

The prophet Isaiah, Pastor Hobbes, Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 55, verse 1 was prophesying about the coming Savior.

Isaiah 55:1

And under the unction of the Holy Spirit, seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus.

He says, Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, come and drink, and you who have no money, buy and eat.

Come by wine and milk without money and without cost.

Listen to what he says.

Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy?

What is he saying?

He's saying you've got a plan to get to where you want to, and you're trying to figure it out, but you've excluded me from the plan, and all of your best efforts are gonna wear you out and not satisfy you.

If you'll just come to me, the living water, I'll give you what you need.

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the riches of fair.

Give ear and come to me.

Come to me.

Listen, that you may live.

Listen, he has a life that is abundantly above all that we could think or ask or imagine, but we don't get to it by following a prescription, we get to it by following a savior.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love, promised to David, verse 6.

Seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call on him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts.

Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them.

Thank you, Jesus, for mercy.

And he will freely pardon.

Then he says this, verse 8 and 9.

Verses that we quote in church all the time.

Neither are my ways your ways.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

So we use that and and we we we we just throw it out.

But you know what the context of that verse is stop trying to figure it out on your own and come to the one who already knows it all.

The invitation is stop striving, start trusting.

Stop trying to work it all out.

Calculate your way forward.

Just follow Jesus.

Make Jesus the plan of your life.

And he will lead you, Isaiah says, To the fairest of fair.

You stand with me where you are this morning.

Jesus is here this morning to meet with you.

There's an invitation that has gone out from the heart of the Father to every person here.

And the invitation is come to Jesus.

You who are thirsty, come and drink.

You who are hungry, come and eat.

You who want to experience the fairest affair, come to him.

You don't have to bring money, you don't have to bring anything.

Life from Jesus is a gift.

If every head bowed and every eye closed this morning, if you're here today and you've never given your life to Jesus and you hear the Spirit of the Lord stirring your heart today, and you want to give your life to him, I want to pray for you this morning.

So, right where you stand, if that's you, you say, I want to give my life to Jesus, would you just raise your hand right where you stand?

Because I want to pray for you.

Is there anyone this morning?

I want to begin there.

Is there anyone today that would like to?

Okay.

Here's my second question.

If you're here today and you're following Jesus, but you're focused more on rules than relationships, you're focused more on a checkbox than a person.

And you recognize the call of the Lord to you today is to come and lay down your efforts and just to follow Jesus.

And you want to make a commitment this morning to follow him.

Would you just raise your hand right where you stand?

I want to pray for you this morning.

Yeah, I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand.

Thank you, Jesus.

I see that hand, I see that hand.

Hallelujah, Lord.

We thank you for that this morning.

If you're here today.

And you're just weary.

You're tired.

You've been trying to earn it.

Trying to do your best to deserve it.

And you want to be free from that so that you can move into a relationship with Jesus.

Would you raise your hand right where you stand?

I want to pray for you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I see that hand.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jesus.

Hallelujah, Lord.

We receive your invitation.

You can look at me this morning, church.

I've asked the worship team to lead us in worship here at the end of our service.

Many of you raise your hands across the congregation today.

You feel the tug in your heart to follow, to know Jesus.

If you raise your hand this morning as the worship team leads us, I want to ask you to get out of your seat.

Come to one of our prayer team members because we want to pray for you.

The Bible says there's power in agreement.

Something happens in the spirit realm when believers come together in prayer and agree.

I believe that when you will res if you'll respond today to one of our prayer team members, there will be an agreement that will shift things in your life in a dramatic way that will propel you towards the future that God has for you.

A life with Jesus.

Any need that you have in your life this morning, don't leave here holding on to it.

Bring it forward.

Lay it at the feet of Jesus.

He gave everything, church.

He held nothing back.

People are already responding.

I want to encourage you, church, just respond.

Get out of your seat.

Go ahead and move right now.

Don't hold on to it.

Let it go.

Let's move into a new realm with Jesus.

Will you just stretch your hands towards heaven right now, wherever you are, and say, Jesus, I give you my life.

I give oh, I want you, Jesus.

Oh Jesus, we want you, Lord.

We want you, Lord Jesus.

Give me Jesus.

Take the world and give me Jesus.

Jesus, you're our hope.

You're our desire.

You're our focus.

You're our need.

Come on, Pastor Meg, lead us this morning.

Don't stay in your seat.

Respond this morning and meet Jesus.

The Savior of all.