Jesus: The One Thing

Huh, it's Sunday, we're celebrating today.

Are we celebrating Jesus today?

Yes, come on.

God is so good, man, and I am so grateful

for you being here.

If you're joining us on Life Stream,

thank you for being with us today.

Man, it has been a good and a rich conference.

Anybody agree with me?

It has been fabulous.

And I'm just so grateful for it.

And as we get started today,

and we're gonna ride today, okay, are you ready?

But before we do, man, I just, I wanna say thank you.

And I'm probably gonna get myself

into some sort of trouble here,

'cause when you start listing names,

somebody inevitably gets missed.

But man, I wanna thank the staff of the church,

has been working tirelessly over the last few months,

really trying to put everything together.

The worship media and loft team, my goodness, guys,

you guys are just,

and I mean, they led six sessions of worship,

including the business collective.

David Warren and F-Stop, guys,

you're capturing all of the photos for us and everything.

Yeah.

Sue, Keith, Angie, the food every night,

my goodness, cooking for us and preparing our meals.

Jonathan Beatty and Mary Merriweather,

just taking behind the scenes,

setting things up, tearing it down.

Katie and April, Katie,

you guys have been like just our front people.

Thank you so much for getting everything organized.

And in particular, not to separate,

but I am gonna separate these from the rest.

I have a special place in my heart for those who say,

I'm going to go and I'm gonna serve at that conference,

and I'm not gonna have the opportunity to participate

in the main sessions at all.

Sherry O'Dea, Doug and Jody Jones, Zach and Taylor Anderson,

thank you for loving on our kids.

Thank you for the program that you provided

for the teens and the kids.

And I just wanna show you a little bit,

since you guys didn't get to see what they were doing,

'cause they didn't just go back there and hang out,

they had a great time.

Let's watch what they did.

Can we just, yeah, show love for our children's ministry,

middle school ministry, guys, thank you.

Thank you so much for your dedication

and love for our kids.

Man, it's a good day, not because of any other reason,

but because Jesus Christ is on the throne.

He's on the throne and he rules and he reigns in our lives.

Would you stand with me?

We're gonna read from the word of God.

And somebody said this morning,

I already don't remember who it was,

how they loved the message version.

Well, guess what?

We're going to the message version this morning

of the Bible.

So the big word is gusto, so let's hear it folks, here we go.

I'm asking God for one thing, only one thing,

to live with him in his house my whole life long.

I'll contemplate his beauty, I'll study at his feet.

That's the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world,

the perfect getaway far from the buzz of traffic.

God holds me head and shoulders above all

who try to pull me down.

I'm headed for his place to offer anthems

that will raise the roof.

Already I'm singing God's songs.

I'm making music to God.

And from Colossians, we look at this sun

and we see God who cannot be seen.

We look at this sun and see God's original purpose

and everything created for everything,

absolutely everything above and below,

visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels.

Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.

He was there before any of it came into existence

and holds it all together right up to this moment.

Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you that it brings life, bring life to us today

in Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

Guys, the central theme for our conference

has been one thing.

And if there's anything I can tell you

that there has been a profound illumination

that that one thing is not you.

That one thing is not you.

Jesus is the one thing.

Let's say that.

Jesus is the one thing.

Pastor Barbie asked the question, who are we called to?

Jesus.

Justin, who do we believe in?

Jesus.

Tim, who do we need to take a step toward?

Jesus.

James, who do we see?

Who do we get when we let go of our sin?

It's Jesus.

Jesus is the one thing.

And yes, though it sounds so cliche

because it's put in songs and it's advertised

or whatever it is, put on t-shirts, bracelets,

Jesus is the answer for the world today.

And he's the answer for your life.

He's the answer for your situations.

He is the remedy, the solution, the focus, the fix,

the key, the explanation, the result, the cure, the plan,

the strategy, the breakthrough, the relief.

He is the way.

Jesus is the way.

So today briefly, just briefly,

I wanna look at some indicators.

Now I want you to notice that I did not use the word fruit.

Will you say indicator?

Fruit is what comes out of what we've sown, okay?

Fruit is for other people.

When I say love, joy, patience, peace,

you all experience that out of my life

based on what I've sown.

I wanna look at the indicators.

What's the checklist in your life that you can say,

I'm truly allowing Jesus to be the one thing.

I wanna look at some indicators today.

And this is certainly not an exhaustive list.

I'm sure there are more things,

but these three things I believe are real clue

and real things we can lean into to know,

is he really the one thing?

The first thing I wanna look at is hunger for the word.

Hunger for the word of God.

Every person who talked about the one thing

from this platform this weekend came from the word of God,

came from the truth of God's word.

Let's look at what John says in chapter one.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God

and the word was God.

What's the next word?

Say it again.

He was with God.

Now, if he is right after before word was God,

that tells me Jesus is the word of God.

Are you with me?

So when we say Jesus is the one thing, his word is the one.

Guys, we learn about the Lord from his word.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him, all things were made.

Without him, nothing was made that has been made.

Jesus told them, I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me will not hunger.

He who believes in me will never thirst.

Can I ask you a question?

Do you have a hunger for the word of God?

Over in Matthew, Jesus says,

man shall not live on bread alone, but by what?

Every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Are you hungry this morning?

Yes, pastor, it's lunchtime.

No, are you hungry for more of Jesus?

Are you settling for an appetizer

when he has a feast available for you?

Yes, yes, yes.

If Jesus is the one thing,

you will naturally hunger for more of him.

You begin to crave more of him.

When was the last time

that you could not get enough of Jesus?

When was the last time you were just craving his presence,

craving to know more about him?

Or is he just an ancillary figure

that you wear on your t-shirt and on your wrist

that you just come and you entertain once a week?

Is Jesus the one thing?

Are you hungry for him?

See, we have a tendency to compartmentalize

our relationship with Jesus.

I'm going to my Jesus box,

and there I'm gonna talk about him,

I'm gonna talk to him, I'm gonna hear from him,

I'm gonna learn about him, I'm gonna grow in him.

But then I'm going to, I'm on my couch watching TV box.

And then I'm going out to the restaurant box.

I'm going to my work and my place of employment box.

I'm going to golf box, okay?

And all of a sudden, it's like Jesus gets compartmentalized.

But if Jesus is the one thing, he shows up in everything.

If Jesus is the one thing,

he's infused in everything overtly.

Man, when I'm with that person,

all they talk about is Jesus.

Well, good.

Good, that's the person you need to be hanging out with.

You know, I don't get invited to some parties.

Yeah, I don't get invited to some people's gatherings,

and you know why?

It's because they don't want me to hear the things

that they're talking about and doing in those parties.

Can I tell you, I'm absolutely nobody.

I'm nothing.

Do you know that Jesus is at that party with you?

Do you know that the God of the universe

sees and knows everything?

If you fear me, you need to get your heart in check

because there's someone much greater

that you need to fear when you're doing those parties

and having those conversations.

(congregation applauding)

You're hungry, but you're just feasting on the world

instead of feasting on the Word.

You can't have Jesus as the one thing present with you

and engage in gossip and slander and putting others down.

After all, how we treat each other is an indicator

of how holy we believe He really is.

His Word tells us how we should live our lives.

Psalm 119 says this, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet

"and a light to my path."

He shows us how to live and what to say.

Psalm 16 says, "The boundaries of my life have," what?

"Fallen in bad, horrible, destructive places."

No, the boundaries of my life have fallen in pleasant places.

Pleasant places, He wants us to reside in pleasant places.

His Word satisfies.

Guys, sometimes at school,

at the school that Sherri and I run,

I will have kids and they will have birthdays

and they will come up to me and they will run,

Mr. O'Dea, Mr. O'Dea,

and they will have in their hand a cupcake.

And then with that cupcake,

they will have their two little booger-eating fingers

smashed right into that cupcake

and they will hand that sucker to me and say,

"Do you want a cupcake?"

Give me that cupcake, sweetheart.

I promise you, I do not eat the cupcakes that the kids give me

because it won't satisfy on a multitude of levels.

It will not satisfy me

because I do believe there are some extra ingredients

when kids give you stuff into the mix that I'm not to,

but here's the thing.

Have you ever gone somewhere

and there's a spread of food offered,

like legitimately a spread of food you could eat,

but you go and you go, "I'm gonna refrain.

"I'm not really interested in eating that."

What you're really saying is,

"If I partake in this, it's not going to satisfy me."

God's Word satisfies.

God's Word satisfies.

What are you doing with God's Word?

If your relationship with the Word,

listen to this, friends.

If your relationship with the Word

is reduced to hearing me preach on Sunday morning,

let me say this to you.

Stop eating my lousy breadcrumbs

and get at the table for your main course.

He has a feast for you in His Word.

You cannot sustain your life off of little breadcrumbs

that are thrown from somebody else.

The Word of God, are you hungry for it?

Number two indicator.

Do you have tears for the lost?

Do you legitimately have tears and a heart and compassion

for the people out there who have not understood or know

or have learned about this great, glorious, extraordinary God

that you've encountered?

It's like God radically transformed my life,

and I don't want anybody to know about it.

God radically changed my life.

They're heading to death and destruction.

I got a secret, I got a secret I'm not gonna share.

Why?

Why?

Going back to Justin's message,

do you believe what you say you believe?

Because there's coming a day the Word says

that He's gonna split the sky.

And if you believe what you say you believe,

and Jesus is the one thing,

your heart should be broken on a daily basis

because you are passing people every day.

It's the reason why He hasn't split the sky yet.

The reason He's not split the sky,

there is still someone out there

who needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ

and to render their life to Him.

And you have been given the tools,

you have been given everything you need

to convey the gospel, the love, the heart of Jesus Christ.

What are you doing with it?

Do you have tears for the lost?

Let's look at a couple of passages of Scripture.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

He came to do two things.

He didn't just come to save them, He came to seek them.

And if I, if Jesus is the one thing,

and I wanna be like Jesus,

I should be also proactively seeking out those

who need to know this radical gift of redemption.

Jesus, He's on a donkey heading into

what's going to be His death.

And He says, it says,

"As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city,

He wept over it."

See, Jesus wept over Lazarus,

wasn't the only time He cried.

Says, He wept over it and said,

"If you had known on this day what would bring you peace,

but now it's hidden from your eyes,

why would we withhold life giving information,

life giving truth to a dying world?

Why would we be ashamed?"

You know, I believe the word says, Jesus says,

"If you acknowledge me before God, I will acknowledge you."

I'm sorry, "If you acknowledge me Jesus before man,

I will acknowledge you before my Father."

Are you ashamed of Jesus?

He's the one thing in my prayer closet.

He's the one thing when I'm around my friends

who talk about Jesus.

No, is He the one thing and do you have tears for the lost?

Suppose one of you, we know this story.

This is the heart of Christ right here.

Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and loses one of them.

Doesn't He leave the 99 in the open country

and go after the lost sheep until He finds it?

And when He finds it, He joyfully puts it on His shoulder,

goes home, then He calls His friends.

Listen to this, He calls His friends and neighbors together

and says, "Rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep."

I tell you that in the same way,

there will be more rejoicing.

Say that, more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner

who repents than over 99 righteous persons

who do not need to repent.

Not only are we to have tears for the lost,

but we should be rejoicing.

We should be rejoicing and celebrating when one comes home.

When one receives salvation.

There are people around us who need to hear the message

of the gospel.

If Jesus is the one thing, then we grieve

when we see people who are without hope.

We have the answer, you have the answer.

There is a difference, listen please,

there is a difference between Jesus being the one thing

and Jesus being our one thing.

Both can coexist, but if He is only our one thing,

then we revel only in what He's done for us

and we can forget that He wants to do the same for others.

John 14, six, Jesus doesn't say, "I am a way,

"I am your way."

He says, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life."

That's why we don't have to question what the word says.

Because of that little article, the, it means it's true.

I mean, you got a question about what is a sin

and not a sin, go to the word, it's clear.

The word, He is the way, the truth,

Jesus isn't dancing around.

Listen, Jesus did not die on a cross,

brutally die on a cross, so that we could dance around

the topic of sin and be separated from a God

who breathes stars.

No, He died on the cross for the sins

so that we could be liberated,

so that we could liberate it from our sins,

so we can let it go and cling to Him.

Do you have tears for the lost?

Do you have tears for those who are headed

to an eternity separated from the star breather?

God, I'm so glad I'm here in your presence, I made it.

Why didn't you tell them about me?

I gave you all the opportunities,

put you right in front of people, were you ashamed?

Do we have tears for the lost?

An indicator on whether or not Jesus is the one thing.

Lastly, an indicator of whether Jesus is the one thing

is that we have testimonies to share.

God Almighty is working in our lives,

all of the time, all of the time.

There's an old Fred Hammond to me, he says this,

he says, "If you don't have a reason to praise Him,

"let me give you one."

Are you breathing this morning?

Did He wake you up this morning?

Are you sitting next to somebody you care about this morning?

If the answer's no, you need to work that out later,

we'll have an ultra service.

No, seriously, listen, there's tons of reasons to praise Him.

He's given us everything, every reason to praise Him,

and if it wasn't enough, He brought us from death to life,

and that is reason enough.

Let me tell you something.

If my child, if my child was in a situation

where they were headed toward death,

and somebody came along and saved their life,

that is a matter to rejoice,

and I rejoice for the rest of my life.

What is it that we bring in here

with our little petty problems, our little petty things,

and forget about the star-breathing God

who has created you and given you a purpose and a plan

for your life and says, "I wanna be with you."

You have a test, every single person,

you have a story in this room.

You have a story of God's faithfulness in this room.

He is so good, He is so kind to us,

even when it doesn't feel like it.

Our feelings, James said it earlier,

our feelings are fickle, they change.

Guess what, I've been angry with God before.

I've been upset with God before.

Doesn't change one thing about who He is

or who He says He is.

But guess what He graces me in, He says,

"Come to me angry, come to me sad, come to me upset,

"come to me screaming, just come to me,

"because when you get in my presence,

"I'll change everything, I'll change everything."

Guys, do we have testimonies to,

that's not even a question, you have a testimony,

the question is, are you sharing your testimony?

Are you sharing the story of your life,

the story God has given to you,

not the story that you have given to yourself,

but the story that He's given to you.

If Jesus is the one thing, then you can't help

but tell everyone about Him.

The Word tells us we overcome by two things.

What are the two things?

The blood of the Lamb and what?

The Word.

Word of our testimony.

Am I staring at a bunch of overcomers?

I asked the question,

am I staring at a bunch of overcomers?

The Word says we overcome by the blood of the Lamb.

We didn't have anything to do with that.

Jesus, Jesus, He said, here's the gift.

You say, okay, but the Word of our testimony,

the Word of where He worked in my life,

the Word, the Word where James said earlier,

He liberated me from smoking marijuana,

where He liberated me from the jail cell,

where He liberated all of these things,

He has liberated you, you have a testimony,

you have a story to share.

And that is how you overcome.

And guess what?

There's somebody out there who also needs to overcome

and they need to hear your story.

Point them to the blood, share your story.

Point them to the blood, share your story.

When someone is in front and center of your life,

you can't help but celebrate them.

Now, I remember when I shot a buck for the first time.

That was a moment, okay?

Now, I'm sorry, some of you are upset that I shot a buck.

I get it, okay?

Walked into the church that Sunday, this one down here,

I ran into him no fewer than three times telling the story.

Now, do you know there were lots of people that day

that probably shot bucks in Tennessee?

But he was telling the story because it was me.

We were in relationship, right?

When you're in relationship with your king,

you can't help but get excited about what has happened,

what he's doing, where he's going,

and you just want to share it over and over.

But I've already told that story, share it again.

I've already told it, share it again.

The fish got this big this time, it was this big.

(congregation laughing)

Right, okay, now, you can't out share the testimony

and the goodness of God.

I mean, he is just that good.

But you don't have a story to share

if you're not spending time with him,

if you're not paying attention to what he is doing.

Guys, I'm just fixated on my problem,

I'm fixated on that person,

I'm fixated on that silly thing,

I'm fixated on my mind and my process and my insecurity,

I'm fixated on that and God is moving all around it,

all around, just moving and moving and moving.

And you're saying, "God, where are you?

"God, where are you?

"I'm here."

Come back next Sunday,

next Sunday is gonna be a great Sunday.

God is, I promise you, come, be here next Sunday,

tell your friends next Sunday,

we're gonna have some real freedom happening next Sunday.

All right, I just realized that as I'm connecting this,

I'm gonna back up though

'cause we have something to do today.

All right, here we go.

God is incredible, he's doing things all of the time

and we ought to be sharing what God is doing.

This is what Psalm 145 says,

"I will exalt you, my God the King,

"I will praise your name forever and ever."

Every day, I will praise you and exalt you,

install your name forever and ever.

Great is the Lord

and most worthy of praise,

his greatness no one can fathom.

One generation commend your works to the other,

they tell of your mighty acts.

They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty

and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

They tell of the power of your awesome works

and I will proclaim, say it,

I will proclaim your great deeds.

Is that true in your life?

Is that true in your life?

Do you have a hunger for the word?

Do you have tears for the lost?

Do you have testimony to share?

Are you sharing your testimony?

Listen, I've always wanted this to be a place, Springhouse,

where we gather to share the goodness of God,

the goodness of God.

What would it look like if your alarm went off

on Sunday morning and the first thing you thought about is,

I gotta get my story together

because when I go into the house, I've gotta share.

Imagine, Pastor Barbie, what it would look like

if we had 300 people sharing their story,

not off the cuff because we came prepared

to share about the goodness of God.

You couldn't keep, you wanna talk about somebody up here,

Justin is like, his veins are popping out of his side

trying to get people to come forward and worship.

You wouldn't be able to stop people

because we're talking about the goodness.

I tell you what, let's do that today.

All right, if you are a leader in this house,

if you are a Springhouse leader,

you lead a ministry or an elder or a staff pastor,

if you are a leader, I want you to stand with your spouse.

Quickly, we gotta do this quickly.

Okay, okay, if you're a wanna-be leader, stand up, okay?

All right, any of those?

Okay, all right, I'm gonna call some of you guys out here

in a second, this is what I need leaders to do.

I need you to spread out across the room

with you and your spouse, spread out across the room.

I need a couple right here in this aisle.

I need you to be spread out though.

Just move, move, move.

Everybody moving?

Worship team, I'd like you to just stand

on the stage for me, okay?

Are we good?

Okay.

I think this is gonna work, okay.

Here's what we're gonna do.

My teacher's coming out of me, Ms. Coble, okay?

Here we go.

I'm gonna count to 20.

And in silence, you are going to find a leader

you don't like and you're gonna go to that leader, okay?

You're gonna go to that leader.

There's going to be no more than 12 people in a group.

Leaders, your job is to make sure

there's no more than 12 people in your group, okay?

12 people in a group, you're gonna go to a leader.

I'm gonna give you the count of 20

and we're gonna do it in silence.

Don't push, don't shove, okay?

All right?

Find a leader.

I'm gonna count starting now, go.

One, two, quiet, three, four, five,

six, seven, eight, nine,

10, 11,

12, okay, there's some grace.

I'll give you 15 people if you need it.

13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 12.

Okay, eyeballs right here.

Everybody's eyeballs right here.

All right, I love this type of stuff.

I need this group to slide down quickly.

Come on, quickly, quickly.

I need that middle group just slide down a little bit

to give a little bit of space, okay?

Make sense of what's going on over here.

If somebody needs to get,

somebody can get inside the aisle there, okay?

That middle group, you can go inside the seats

and just sit right there, okay?

Just stay together with your group.

Okay, is that one group back there?

Okay, that's like 28, it's fine, okay.

All right, here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna spend 10 minutes,

10 minutes sharing the goodness of God in these circles.

Here's leaders, here's your job.

You're not gonna let anybody share more than 45 seconds.

Get your phone out if you need.

45 second testimonies of the goodness.

What did God do for you?

What has he done for you?

How can you praise him today?

Okay, ready, go, share.

Okay.

Who needs more time?

Okay, look at me.

Let me have your eyeballs.

I'll come back in a second.

Look up here.

Look up here, please.

(congregation murmuring)

I know that you're not finished,

but can I tell you something?

You just had church.

(congregation cheering)

You just had church.

And as we say, has he given you a reason to praise him?

You got a circle of people,

and if you can't find something for yourself,

then praise him for what somebody else has gone through,

what the Lord's done in somebody else's life.

Now here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna end this in the right way

by proclaiming the king.

Guys, we don't sing these songs for us to feel good.

We sing these songs to enthrone him, to lift him up.

And so I just wanna encourage you.

Now here's the thing.

We talk about hunger for the word, tears for the lost,

sharing testimonies.

I don't know where you are in that paradigm,

but the question really is, is he the one thing?

And if you're questioning that,

what better place to go than to a place of worship

and get before him and say, God, clean me out

so that you are the one thing.

So we're gonna worship.

Are you ready to worship?

And if you've got a reason to praise him,

this altar space is plenty big.

We'll even move some rows of chairs

if we don't have enough room, whatever we gotta do.

But man, if you'll begin to play,

we're gonna sing these last two songs,

and we're gonna dismiss.

I'll give us a blessing at the very end, okay?

Let's worship.

(gentle music)

(guitar music)

(guitar strumming)