Don't Miss the Flight: Embracing the Way, Truth, and Life

Man, thank you for that song.

That was beautiful.

It was a new song to me.

I don't think I've ever heard that before, but I really enjoyed

that.

Well, hey, if you have your Bibles, let's turn to John chapter

number 14 this morning.

John chapter number 14.

I know many of you here, but for some of you, I may be a new face

and that's because pastor's letting me preach for the first time

on Sunday morning and maybe for the last time.

We don't know yet to be seen, right?

But I have the privilege and the honor of working with the youth

department here and it's a whole lot of fun and it teaches me

almost every single week that I am no longer the 18 year old that

I think I am.

And that came a lot faster than I thought it would like, you

know, that moment where I realized I wasn't.

I'm not old, but I find myself saying that phrase a lot anymore.

By the way, when I talk to the teenagers, I'm like, I'm not old,

but back in my day, you know.

But I have the privilege of working with them and it's a joy

and an honor and I'm happy to be here this morning.

And I'm honestly just so blessed to be in a church that has

a pastor that supports and has a dedication to training and helping

me as I seek to serve the Lord with my life.

So if you're in John Chapter number 14, we'll read that and we'll

get started this morning.

Verse number one.

The Bible says, let not your heart be troubled.

Ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a

place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again

and I will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye

may be also.

And whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know.

Thomas saith unto him, lord, we know not whither thou goest.

And how can we know the way?

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.

And from henceforth ye know him and have seen him.

Let's pray this morning and then we'll jump right into the message.

Dear Lord, thank you for this day.

Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be here with your

people and in your house.

God, I pray that you would hide me behind the cross.

Lord, I pray that you would give me the words to say.

Lord, I pray that I'd only say the words you want me to say.

God, I pray that you would help me as I seek to communicate

the truth of this passage to your people here this morning.

Lord, I and I pray that we would live a changed life as a result.

In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.

I had an opening illustration for this, and it was a real life

story where I in college, some friends and I decided to go explore

an abandoned gold mine.

And as I was talking with my wife last night about the story and

I said I should probably add a disclaimer like don't do this, right?

And my wife looked me dead in the eyes and said, most people have

more common sense, you know, what message received.

So I started thinking about another way or another time in my

life where the truth of this scripture has been evident.

And then I realized the answer was sitting right across from me.

And she just told me the wrong way.

There are two different types of people whenever you go to an airport.

I am the type of person that I am happy if I'm flying out at 7 o'clock

at night, I'm happy to be there at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Get me there at lunchtime.

They have restaurants there, right?

I want to get through security and then I want to go sit down in

the little airplane seats and charge my computer and my phone.

Like I'm going out to the desert, right?

And I like to be at the airport early.

I like to be there with plenty of time to go.

And I have never missed a flight except for one.

And you may notice that the one flight that I've missed was with

my wife.

We had just started dating and at the time she lived up in New Jersey,

and we were flying in and out of Philadelphia, going back out to

the west coast for college.

And I told my wife it was getting to be probably one or two

o'clock in the afternoon.

And I was like, hey, are we going to go to the airport soon?

I don't know how far Philadelphia is, but you know, it's

Philadelphia.

I imagine there's going to be backups.

And she kept saying, no, it's fine, no, it's fine, no, it's fine.

And sure enough, we got in the car and I'm sitting there watching

my watch and my phone and I'm nervously tapping my leg and everything

else, and I'm like, man, I'm going to miss this flight.

And sure enough, I get There.

And I pull up to the gate, and I had missed my flight.

And so I asked the nice lady at the Southwest Airlines desk, I

was like, can you please help me?

I need to get back out to California.

The semester starts tomorrow.

I'm going to miss classes.

I don't want to miss classes for this.

That's for sleeping in when you're tired, right?

Like, I don't want to miss classes for this.

And she rerouted my flight all the way up through O'Hare.

I was supposed to come down to, I think, Denver or something,

but she routed my flight up through O'Hare.

And I got on the next plane out, and we flew over to O'Hare.

And that was the first time I'd ever been up in that portion

of the country.

And I'm sitting there on the middle seat, and there's a man next

to me.

And we landed in.

And he goes, so is this where you're landing, or is this your next.

Or is this a connector for you?

Are you going to jump on the next flight?

And I said, well, I'm going to jump on a connector flight.

And he said, okay, which one?

And I looked out the window and I said, that one.

And it was pulling out and leaving.

And he said, well, you better go.

And I said, I don't think it really matters anymore, Right.

I'm sure we've all been there.

The dread, the moment of panic when you realize you've missed your

connecting flight, right?

As a Christian, this passage teaches us Jesus is the only way.

In fact, he's the only way back home.

And if you've been in an airplane, especially if you're getting

a connecting flight, that plane is your only way back home,

right?

As I was studying this, I opened up the John 14, and I realized

the verse right before it, John 13:38.

John 13:38

The Bible says Jesus answered him, wilt thou lay down thy life

for my sake?

Very verily I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till thou

hast denied me thrice.

This is, of course, Peter, Jesus talking to Peter about Peter

denying Christ.

And I thought, wow, that's a really interesting passage to form

the backdrop of this very famous passage in John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

And so I went through some commentaries, and I kind of looked

around, and to the best of my knowledge, I can tell this is one

whole conversation between Jesus and his disciples.

And so, as we open up this passage and we begin talking about

this morning, I want you to have in your mind the context of

a disciple who was just told that he was going to deny Christ.

Jesus looks at Peter in his face and he says, peter, you are

going to deny me.

And then we open right up to John, chapter 14, verse 1.

John 14:1

Let not your heart be troubled.

Aren't you thankful we serve a God that doesn't want your heart

to be troubled?

See, I want you to notice first off this morning, there's peace

in the promise.

Peace in the promise.

Let not your heart be troubled.

Ye believe in God, believe also in me.

You see, Jesus looks at Peter and the other disciples, but I believe

primarily Peter here, and he says, hey, don't let your heart be

troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me.

There's no problem here.

Look, it's fine.

You trust in God, you're trusting in me.

I'm glad Jesus tells us not to be concerned.

First Peter 5, 7 says, cast all your care upon him, for he careth

for you.

Aren't you glad we serve a savior that cares for you?

Not just in this, like, you know, fake top level, yes, I love

you too, brother.

But like Jesus, deeply and truly cares for each and every one

of us.

And that's seen and written all over in the passage here.

Jesus could have looked at Peter and been like, yeah, Peter,

you're gonna be the one who denies me.

Bye.

Go do your thing.

But instead, Jesus decided to keep him near to him and say, hey,

let not your heart be troubled.

Don't be concerned, Peter.

We're just human.

Everyone makes mistakes, Peter, it's okay.

Let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me.

You see, this verse tells me that even in the roughest of times,

in the darkest of times in our own life, we can be calm in the crisis.

You ever had a point in your life where you were just in full

blown crisis mode?

I've been there a few times in my life already and I imagine I'm

probably not done with those moments.

But I can tell you times in my life, I can tell you story after

story where there was a crisis moment and I started to panic, to

lose my mind, and I just felt like God's in control.

Whatever happens, happens.

We tell stories all the time from Bible college because that's

primarily and really just college in general is a time in life

where you're broke and you have no money and God can make himself

very, very real and evident to you.

Especially in America when you don't have money.

See, we're blessed as a nation.

We don't typically go hungry.

We don't typically have many of the other afflictions that many

other people in other nations have.

But we can start to feel some of those pressures whenever our money

is gone.

And I remember times in college where I would go up to the

gas station pump, I think I told the teenagers about this a few

weeks ago, where I went to the gas station pump with a dollar in

my bank account.

And you have to go up to the cash register and with a sincere

face, say, $0.75 on pump three, please.

Right?

And the gas, the register guy, he always looks at you like, are

you trying to go to pump four?

Like, where are you trying to go with that?

Right?

Especially with California, with California gas prices, which

is where I went to school.

And you have those moments where you're living in crisis mode,

man.

There's no gas in the car, there's no money in the bank account,

the bills are due.

But we can remain calm even in the thickest of crisis because God

is with us.

God is the one ultimately who is in control of everything in our

life.

We can be calm in the crisis.

But verse number two, we can be confident in the coming place.

Look at verse number two.

In my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you.

What an interesting passage.

What an interesting way that Jesus decided to comfort the hearts

of their disciples.

Of his disciples.

He said, hey, let now your hearts be troubled and you don't

have to have troubled hearts because there is a place and I'm

going to prepare a place for you.

I really like the wording here.

In my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

It's past tense.

He goes, it is so.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

But it is so.

So it's there.

It's present tense.

There is a place that God has prepared for us.

A place with many mansions.

The Bible says many mansions.

I looked up that word.

Have you guys ever heard all the discrepancy between people and

their beliefs with this word?

Sometimes you'll hear people like, settle in.

They'll be like, it says mansion and I want a mansion.

It's awesome.

You hear some people be like, well, it means that it's just a room

or an abiding place.

And really, if you look at the biblical outline, both of those are

used in the Bible.

However, in this passage, it really is talking about a separated

dwelling place.

So mansion, right?

But I saw on the little third outline there a place where one can

abide.

I Kind of like that.

A place where one can abide.

In my Father's house are many mansions.

Places where we can abide as Christians.

There's no concern, there's no worry.

We can abide with Christ forever.

Isn't that the end goal?

Anyways, now, as the song says, I sure would like one silver

lined, right?

I would like one with the biggest golden television of all

time so I could rewatch live replays of stuff happening on earth

and heaven.

I really hope that is the case because you read some of these Bible

stories and I want to rewatch it right?

We told we were in the Old Testament a few weeks ago and.

And we read the story about the angel that defended Jerusalem

and killed 185,000 soldiers.

One angel.

I kinda wanna see that.

I hope it's available to me to watch, right?

But I hope I have this really cool thing.

But at the end of the day, I can rest assured that my end goal

isn't the wealth of heaven per se.

The end goal isn't living in comfort.

The goal is being near Christ, the one who saved me.

In my Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

By the way, Hebrews chapter 13 says, for we have no continuing city,

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

but we seek one to come.

You know, as Christians, we are here and we're really just here

for just a moment.

What is your life but even just a vapor, it's here for a moment

and it vanisheth away.

We ought to be living in light of the city that's coming.

So not only is there peace in the promise, but I want you to notice

number two this morning.

There's path to the place.

There's a path to the place.

There is a very noticeable shift in the passage.

If you look at verse number three, the Bible says, and if I go

and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto

myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.

Wow.

So we can rest assured, Christ has prepared a place for us.

But that's not just it.

There's not just a place where Christ is there.

By the way, that's my kid, by the way.

So sorry everyone.

There is a place that God has prepared for us.

And then he gives us this promise.

He says, and if I go and prepare a place for you, by the way,

he has.

He did.

There is a place, there are mansions.

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again.

It's a promise.

Have you ever met someone who has promises that you can't rely

on, right?

You ever had people that said things and they said, I promise this

time it'll be different, or, I promise this time I will, whatever.

And you kind of look at them and you say, sure, right?

You know what I'm talking about.

Sometimes you put on a good face and you're like, of course.

Yeah, I know.

You're going to be on time this time, right?

Jesus is someone that we can rely with his promises.

He looks at it and he says, I will come again.

You may say, well, when's it going to happen?

This happened a long time ago.

I don't know.

But I know that I can rest assured in the promises that Jesus

will come again.

I want you to notice this path to the place.

There is a assurance of arrival.

Jesus said it, that means he'll do it.

And that is all there is to it.

You see, Jesus makes a promise.

And it's reiterated over and over and over again in scriptures.

Paul says in First Thessalonians, chapter 4, verse 16,

1 Thessalonians 4:16

he says, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a

shout and with the voice of an archangel, with the trump of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together

with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

So shall we ever be with the Lord.

You see, Jesus makes a promise that's reiterated over and over again.

He says, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again

and receive you unto myself.

And Paul says, yes, he is coming again.

And we which are alive and remain, we're going to be caught

up together with him in the clouds.

And that's where the word rapture comes from.

It literally means caught up.

The only thing I can think of is, like, whenever you're fishing

and you get the fish close to the boat and you put the net in and

you catch them up, snag them right out of the water, right?

That's how I imagine one day I'm just going to be swimming along

in my life, doing what I can, and God's going to say, it's time,

boom.

And I'm going to be in heaven, caught up together with him in the

clouds.

The Bible says this is our blessed hope as Christians.

It's where we can rely and where we can settle down and be at

ease because God is coming again.

What happens with America, I don't care.

I'm going to heaven.

Who wins the next election in 2028?

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter.

God's in control.

Well, what about my 30 year mortgage?

Hey, it's mine to pay until I'm not in the house no more.

Once I'm in the clouds, it's not mine to pay no more.

After that, I don't really care.

Someone else can move in and take care of my chickens.

You see, we can rest assured in the promise.

Jesus is coming again.

So not only is there assurance of arrival, but there is an awareness

of the way.

Look at verse number four and whither I go ye know and the way

ye know.

Now this is so interesting because the disciples are sitting

there and they're listening to Jesus teach.

And Jesus is like, and you know where I'm going and you know

the way.

And the disciples are sitting there surely mouth agape like me.

No, I don't know where you're going.

I don't know the way.

But Jesus looks at it and I just can't help but think maybe that

was written just for us.

That was written for the Christians who have hindsight.

We can look back and read the scriptures as a whole.

We already believe Jesus.

We already know the truth of God's word and we can look at him

and be like, and the way he, where he goes.

Yeah, we know where he went and the way.

We do know the way.

Jesus is the way.

So not only do we see that, but we see the awareness of the way

by the way God leads and guides us in every step of our life.

Psalm 119, verse 105 says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a

Psalms 119:105

light into my path.

You know, if there's ever a time in your life where you're unsure

about what you should do, you're ever unsure about which way

or which path you should go, I encourage you to seek the Scriptures

and look in God's word because everything that he needs is right

here.

Everything that he meant to tell you is right here.

I had a friend at one point in my life, he took my Bible.

We were at maybe a college or a conference or sometime and he took

my Bible on the way there and he wrote inside the COVID he said

Bible and he wrote it down.

And he said basic instructions before leaving earth.

I don't know where he got that, but I like that.

See, anything or everything we could ever want to know about God's

world is right here in our hands.

Anything we could ever need to know about our own life, about our

own directioning is right here.

It's been said reading the Bible is the two way conversation

that we have Between God.

If you feel like God is not talking to you.

Have you read the Bible lately?

Have you read His Word?

One thing that always stuck out in my mind is my youth pastor

growing up had a Bible, and he used the same Bible forever.

And on the COVID he had engraved on it, it said, God's love

letter to Jesse Latta.

And that always stuck out in my mind.

I've never seen another Bible with it.

And I've always wondered, like, is it weird for me to steal

that and, like, put it on my Bible now?

Because I kind of like that.

But everything that you could want in God's life, anything that

God wants to tell you is right here in His Word.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.

So there's an awareness of the way.

By the way, as Christians today, we ought to know and we ought

to be assured of and know that the way that we ought to seek is

right here in God's Word.

I can't tell you how many times in my own life I've hit an

impasse or I've hit a split decision, and I'm like, ah, I just

don't know what I'm gonna do.

I don't know where I'm gonna go.

And I kind of sit there and I go to everybody else except for God's

Word, right?

Maybe I'm the only one here this morning that's done that.

But I sit there and I look and I go to my friends, I go to the Internet,

I go to the Facebooks, I go everywhere else trying to see what

I should do with my life.

But God's Word gives us the answer.

So there's an awareness of the way.

So this morning, not only do we see promise, we can have peace

in the promise.

Excuse me.

Not only do we see that there is a path to the place, but there

is a person as a path.

Look at verse number five.

Then Thomas saith unto him, lord, we know not whither thou goest.

And how can we know the way Thomas looks at Jesus and he goes,

hey, actually, time out real quick.

Nope, don't know what you're talking about.

Don't know where you're going, and I don't know the way.

Please explain.

It's easy to kind of sit here and harp on the disciples for the

way they talked and the way they didn't believe, right?

But if Thomas hadn't have said that, we probably wouldn't have maybe

one of the best verses in all of Scripture.

Look at verse number six.

When Jesus answered, he saith unto him.

I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

In our Sunday school, our teenagers are working through the

Book of Esther.

And the series is entitled God's Got this.

And we're looking and talking about how all throughout the Book

of Esther, even though the name of God is not specifically mentioned,

we can see God is the director, guiding and leading and

putting in place each and every little event and orchestrating

the whole story to a completion.

I just can't help but think maybe God's at play a little bit

here.

Imagine God the Father in heaven, watching this story unfold

between Jesus and his disciples.

And Jesus says, and I, you know the way and you know where I'm

going.

And God says, okay, Thomas, your turn.

And Thomas looks at him and goes, yeah, no I don't.

And then in a beautiful moment, God allows and God tells

Jesus.

And they say this phrase here, this beautiful phrase.

I am the way, the truth and the life.

It's a phrase that means infinite importance to Christians.

And really, if we had the time, we could sit down and we could

talk about this verse for days.

The phraseology, the exact phrases he used.

I am.

Hey, that's a name of God, isn't it?

I am the way.

I am the truth.

I am the life.

Wow, that's interesting.

You almost can make a three point sermon right out of it.

The way, the truth and the life.

Here we go.

There's some outlining for us.

We have this passage here that conveys this deep spiritual truth.

I want you to notice letter A.

There's an exclusivity to the way.

Jesus didn't say I am a way.

He didn't say I'm the best way.

He said, I am the way.

I love the word, the way.

There's so much illustrated and communicated in just those two

little words.

The way.

What is he?

Well, that means he is the path.

He is the way that we are supposed to go, the direction in

way we are supposed to travel, the place in which we are supposed

to put our trust in.

He's all of it.

He's the way.

A little fun fact for you.

Before they were called Christians, a lot of times they referred

to the early church people, the early Christians.

They called them followers of the way.

I kind of like that.

Are we followers of the way this morning?

Do we look at Jesus Christ?

Are we seeking to emulate everything about him?

Are we followers of the way?

Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man Cometh unto the Father, but by me.

I want you to know this morning, Acts chapter 4, verse 12

Acts 4:12

says, neither is there salvation in any other.

You see, primarily up to this point, I've been talking to those

of us that know Jesus Christ as our personal savior, how we can

have peace in the promises and in the tribulations of life.

But now the passage really does take a turn and it looks at

it and says, I am the way.

There's not multiple ways.

He's not kind of the way.

He is the only way.

And it presents us with a challenge in our life, a challenge

for ourselves personally.

Where is your faith and trust?

What are you trusting in?

Are you trusting in yourself?

Are you trusting in your good works?

Are you trusting in maybe a prayer you said at one point?

Maybe you're being trusting in a baptism.

What are you trusting in?

Are you trusting in the way, or are you trusting on yourself?

Not only do we have this exclusivity here, but I want you

guys to notice there's revelation through the relationship.

Look at verse number seven.

If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father.

Also interesting.

Have you ever met someone who said Jesus never claimed to be equal

with God the Father?

I've heard people say that, and not in a mean way, but I genuinely

want to ask him, have you ever read the New Testament?

This sounds a whole lot like being equal with the Father right

there.

If ye had known me, ye should have also known my Father.

That sounds a whole lot like it to me.

See, Jesus looks at it and he adds this little conditional statement.

He says, if you know me, then you know my Father.

I've heard people say before, well, I'm just.

I like Jesus.

I'm a Jesus guy that say, awesome.

And you ask them to say, well, what about church?

I'm not a church guy.

Okay, well, how about God the Father and God the Holy Spirit?

I believe in Jesus.

Well, it's the same thing you're saying.

If you know Jesus, you should know God the Father.

And by the way, if you're here this morning and you know Jesus Christ

as your personal savior, you know God the Father.

The Bible says that there is one mediator between God and man.

The man Christ Jesus.

He is the way, the intermediate, the mediator, the interceder

between us and God the Father, we can have direct access to God

the Father because of the man Christ Jesus that's offered to us

through the way.

If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father.

It's an interesting wording.

There isn't it?

If you known me, ye should have known my Father.

I wonder how many people kind of live this surface level Christianity.

When I said a prayer at church camp one time, I came forward in

a service one time, but it never dug to the next level where

you have a real relationship with God the Father.

I wonder how many of us here are like that.

I can tell you there was a time in my life where absolutely

I fit the bill of the phrase.

A nominal Christian, someone who is a Christian in name and by

the world's standards, even a Christian, indeed.

Coming to church, being a part of a youth group, going to church

camp, doing all the things that a Christian ought to do.

And I can't explain it, but one day I was sitting there and it

was like I woke up and heard the first message I'd ever heard

in my whole entire life.

And it's like for the first time ever, I was actually hearing

what the preacher was saying, and I was hearing what the Bible

was saying, and I was understanding.

And I came to this realization I didn't have any real relationship

with God.

I had fabricated this phony front, if you would, for what my

life looked like as a Christian.

And beneath it was nothing.

I didn't have the relationship that followed and gave depth to what

I said.

I believed.

Jesus says, if you know me, ye should have known my Father also.

I love the way this passage ends.

And from henceforth, ye know him and have seen him.

Jesus says, from this point forward, know him and you have seen

him.

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

No man cometh to the Father but by me.

You see, just as I sat at that plane and I sat in the middle seat

and I looked out through the window and I saw my connecting flight

pulling out to leave, I realized I missed it.

I have to go back to the counter and beg again.

I have to go back to the lady and be like, hey, you may have heard

from a colleague back in Philadelphia.

I was at her table earlier.

Now I'm here with yours.

Need to go to California.

Don't want to waste time, don't want to miss classes.

That's for whenever you're tired and want to sleep in, right?

So I had to go back to the counter again and beg again.

Only this time, I'm sorry, there are no more flights leaving

today.

What are you talking about?

This is O'Hare Chicago.

This is the busiest airport in the world, and you're telling me

you can't get me on a flight to California to lax, probably the

Fourth busiest airport in the world.

Nope, we're done for the day.

Okay, what are my options?

I was young and naive.

I didn't know that they actually like had to provide amenities

for you if you asked.

So I said, what do I do?

She said, come back tomorrow.

I said, really?

She goes, yep, come back tomorrow.

And I took that and I took my bag, I had a duffel bag and I went

outside the airport and they had the benches sitting outside in

the drop off and pick off.

And I took my duffel bag and I put it around my neck so someone

couldn't take it.

And I went like this and I slept on the bench.

It was actually quite an interesting experience.

The airport gets very scary after night.

I wish I had like tied myself to the bench.

I was scared I was going to get like just, you know, taken with

the bench somewhere else.

I was scared for my life.

But I missed the connecting flight.

Don't miss it this morning.

If you're here today and you don't know for a fact that Jesus

Christ is your personal savior, don't miss it.

We can all relate to the feeling of missing a flight.

The pit in your stomach, the concern, the worry, the, oh, no,

I gotta figure out something else.

Chicago's 30 hours from Los Angeles by car, right?

You gotta figure out something else.

We all understand that feeling.

My question for you today is how much more so when we look at

eternity, when we look forward at forever, how much more so can

you imagine the dread one day when you realize, I've missed it.

I missed the way I was too concerned with my day to day, I was

too concerned with my job.

I was too concerned with whatever.

And we miss it.

Don't miss it.

It's right here, laid out right in front of us.

I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

You see, that's the good news this morning, isn't it?

But there is bad news.

The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory

of God, due to that sin, we are separated from God.

The illustration I love to use is the Grand Canyon.

How many of you have ever seen the Grand Canyon before?

It's genuinely the only place that I've ever been in my whole entire

life where I felt true awe and wonder at the creation of earth.

You know, you see the mountains and they're all pretty.

But I'm telling you, you walk up to the Grand Canyon for the first

time and you look over and you see just the.

And it's just.

Wow.

I love the illustration of the Grand Canyon because if we were to

sit out and me and Brother Kushel, the man who prayed earlier,

if we were to set out on a competition to jump across the Grand

Canyon, we would both fail.

And I'm just being honest with you, he would jump further than I

would.

If we were to sit there, we were to run as fast as we can, and

we were to.

And we jumped as far as we could.

He would go further than I would, but we both would not be able

to clear the Grand Canyon.

You see, sin has separated us from God at a Grand Canyon type of

way.

And no matter what we can do in our own lives, we can never bridge

that gap on our own.

We are never, ever.

The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory

of God.

But there is good news this morning.

There is a way, a truth and a life.

And his name is Jesus.

And you can know him with heads bowed and eyes closed.

Let's all stand as the musicians make their way.

We're going to pray and then we'll jump into a moment of invitation,

a moment of response.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, thank you for this day.

Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Lord, thank you for this passage.

Thank you for this promise of your word.

Lord, I pray if there's someone here today and they don't

know you as your personal.

As their personal savior, God, I pray that today would be the day

they get that right.

Lord, I pray that today would be the day they come to know the

way, the truth and the life.

Lord, thank you for what you've done for us.

Thank you for being that for us.

In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.

As we all sing in verse of invitation.

The cross upon which Jesus died is a shelter in which we can

hide and its grace so free is sufficient for me.

Are you trusting in the Lord this morning as wide as the sea there's

room.

Do you know where you spend eternity?

There's room at the cross for you.

Though millions have come, there's still room for one.

Yes, there's room at the cross for you.

Thank you so much.

You may be seated.

This morning, as brother Kushel comes and reads announcements,

let's prepare for the morning offering.

Thank you, brother King.

That was a blessing.

Isn't it encouraging to know that the Lord has a place prepared

for you if you know him as Savior?

That's good.

Just a few things.

Here we have Master Club's crazy night, and that is this Wednesday

on the 20th and it's going to be Zoo night.

Zoo night.

So you can dress up.

They can dress up as an animal, they could dress up as a

zookeeper or anything else that would have to do with zoos.

And some of you parents are thinking they don't have to dress

up as anything.

They already act like animals.

They'll get the picture.

And so I might just send my kids just like they are.

You'll know.

But anyhow, Zoo night is this Wednesday.

Also, we have our midweek service on the week of Thanksgiving

will be moved from Wednesday to Tuesday and that service will

begin at 7pm no Wednesday service during Thanksgiving week.

Also, just to know, we have a Christmas party for heritage adults

and that is going to be Wednesday, December 11th.

It'll start a little earlier.

It'll start at 6:15pm and there's a small cost for that.

It's $10 a person.

And that's gonna basically cover the catering, the cater dinner

that's gonna be from on the border.

So it's gonna be great.

I hope that you can come.

You'll enjoy the meal and there'll be some games and fun things

that will go on that evening.

So please do this though, if you would go to the back information

table and sign yourself up for that.

If you plan on attending, that will help us to know how to prepare

for it.

Also, the Walk Through Bethlehem event will be here very

soon.

That's December 14th and 15th.

That's a Saturday and a Sunday night and we need all hands on deck

for this.

We have probably four, maybe four events during the year where

we say all hands on deck.

This is definitely one of those four.

If you would please go to the back table and see the opportunities

that are there where you can sign up to be a helper for that event.

We need all the help we can get.

So it's each night 14th and 15th from 6pm to 8:30.

Please sign up.

Also, if you're interested in helping fund this, we're trying to

put some Christmas lights up and decor in the entrances of our

building.

And if you're interested in helping to pay for that, you're welcome

to during the.

During the offering time just to slip in an envelope that says

Christmas decor or Christmas lights or you can write that in the

memo on a check and that would be very helpful.

Also please just continue to remember to pray for the team that's

in Honduras.

We're praying for them.

Tonight is the final opportunity to drop off any Operation

Christmas Child boxes.

And so if you Please would remember that if you have one at

your home, maybe you grabbed one a month ago and you intended

on getting it here last week.

Tonight's the last opportunity, so please get those

here.

We want to be a blessing to children and we want to get the gospel

in their homes and some toys and so please have those boxes prepared

and dropped off this evening.

Latest also we have choir at 4:30 for children's choir and then

also for the adult choir.

4:30 and then visitation Church wide visitation will not be

observed on November 23, the 26th or the 30th.

Our Missionaries of the week this week is Chris and Bonnie Matthews

and then also David and Emmy Merlot.

So remember them in prayer.

Thank you very much.

The Bible says in Luke chapter 6, verse 38, give and it shall be

Luke 6:38

given unto you.

Good measure, pressed down and shaken together.

Well, as the guys come forward for the morning offering this morning

again, our missionaries of this week are Chris and Bonnie Matthews

and David and Emmy Merlo in Argentina.

By the way, I saw a graphic this past weekend from the Bible

translator, the Baptist Bible translators.

There are 7,000 languages in the world and only 741 of them have

scripture in their language.

What a worthy cause, right brother?

Me.

Let's pray for our offering this morning.

Dear Lord, thank you for this day, Lord.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here with your house this morning.

Lord.

I pray that you'll take this offering.

I pray that you would bless it and use it to fulfill your needs,

Lord.

In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.

Sa.