Jesus Is: The Way | Part 5

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, welcome to Awakening.

We're in, I think, like part five of this series on Jesus Is.

And if you don't know where you're going in the old days, I guess some people use this still, it's called a compass.

And you don't know where you're going.

And it's interesting, there's a true north.

There's this magnetic thing about the whole earth that no matter where you are, this thing will tell you where north is.

Because you don't know how to get to where you need to go unless you know where you're at.

And then in the older, older days, this is actually it's a vintage thing.

It's called a map.

It is uh it was used by uh a group of people in another era uh before you said, Hey Siri, uh, how do you get to, or in my car, navigation.

And what we want to talk about is this classic passage, in fact, I think perhaps the most controversial of all the things that Jesus said.

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

No one comes to the Father except by me.

And my experience is when we hear that, it's often been in the context of maybe apologetics, or maybe it's been at a coffee shop and there's uh some believers and unbelievers.

And are you really saying that Jesus is the only way?

I mean, how narrow, how anti-intellectual, how bigoted, how can anyone say that with a straight face, et cetera, et cetera?

And it usually diminishes into either not such good conversations or squeamish kind of Christians going, I wish I could explain this a lot better.

And I want you to know that this passage, although it has a strong, clear, apologetic application, Jesus didn't share this as a theological construct.

He shared it privately with his closest friends.

And what he wanted them to know in the midst of fear and confusion and uncertainty and overwhelming anxiety.

What's the way?

The word in Greek is hadas, it means a path, or it could mean a road, or it actually refers at times to a journey.

What's the way?

What's the path?

Now, by the way, you don't use a compass probably or a map, but you have a way.

You have an internal compass, you have an unconscious or very intentional compass about this is the way I'm gonna do my life because this is how it works, and this will bring success, and this will bring right relationships, and this will bring happiness, and I think this is the way to live because it's going to bring life.

And for many of you, think you're following that path because it's true.

And so, what I'd like to do, rather than apologetics, and if we have time at the end, maybe I'll share a tiny bit of my journey because I didn't believe the scripture, I'd never opened the Bible, had a lot of philosophical questions, and I had to find the path after searching a lot.

But if you open your Bibles to John 13, I want you to get this passage in context.

And this is one where uh you may go away thinking, you know, I don't think we really had a sermon, I think we had a Bible study together.

The notes are here, they'll be important to follow along.

And in John 13, it's the context of this passage.

And what I would like to do is I would like you to understand this passage and know so, when did he say this?

Where did he say this?

And why did he say this?

And so, picking it up at the very beginning of John 13, it says, it was just before the Passover feast.

Jesus knew that his time had come for him to leave the world and to go to the Father.

Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them, this is the key, the full extent of his love.

The goal of this passage from beginning, and we'll see it at the end, Jesus is expressing the full extent of his love to people that he cares deeply about who will be on their own very shortly.

Notice the evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, that he had come from the Father, and was returning to the Father.

And then you have a little word if you look in your text.

So that.

Now notice in your notes, just by way of just Jesus knew his time had come to leave the world and return to the Father.

The goal is to show his disciples how much he loves them.

And third, he knew three vital things.

This is so interesting.

He knew where he came from, he knew exactly where he was going, and he was aware that all power had been given to him.

So he's not a victim of the cross.

And now he's going to prepare his disciples, and he wants to teach them the way and the life and the truth, and he's going to teach them that not only by what he's going to say, but he's going to help them connect all that he's done from the early time until later.

This has been his MO.

So notice what he does in this critical moment.

By the way, the context, they've just had a pretty good argument about who's the greatest.

They're sitting around a very low table to have the Passover meal.

And as they're sitting there, all their feet are dirty because each one of them walked by a big jar and there was no servant there.

And each one of them privately said, Well, I'm not going to wash everybody's feet.

And so Jesus comes in last, so that he got up from the meal and took a towel and took off his outer clothing, and he wrapped a towel around his waist.

And after that he poured water into the basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

And Jesus replied, You do not realize now what I am doing.

Later you'll understand.

No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.

And Jesus said, Unless I wash your feet, you have no part with me.

Then Lord Simon Peter replied, Not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.

And Jesus said, A person who has been bathed needs only to wash his feet.

His whole body is clean.

Don't miss this, because it keeps coming back around, this roll.

And you are clean, though not every one of you.

For he knew who was going to betray him, and that is why he said to them, Not every one of you is clean.

And then he will say to them after he finished, I being your lord and teacher, have washed your feet.

He gives them a little terrible.

Who's most important, the teacher or the student?

And they all nod.

Well, the teacher.

Who's more important, the person who sends the message or the one who receives the message?

Well, the one who sends it.

I being your lord and your teacher have washed your feet.

Wash one another's feet.

You'll be blessed if you do this.

Now we we want to jump to I'm the way, the road, the path, I'm the truth, and I'm the life.

And the first thing he models is what is the way to treat other people in horizontal relationships that is true and that brings life?

Answer.

Wash their feet.

Put their needs ahead of your own.

When everyone else is looking at rank and who's most important and comparing themselves with one another, the way is what Jesus did.

Humility, servanthood.

The truth is this is how relationships work.

And when you give your life away to others, it brings life for you and life for the relationships.

Now, after he does that, um a discussion.

And the discussion is he just said, one of us is going to betray him.

We've been with him about three, possibly three and a half years, and now they're at this table sitting around, looking at one another, going, is it him?

Is it me?

I wonder.

And so Peter, being a bit of the leader, he kind of gives a nod over to John and says, you know, find out.

And so John is next to Jesus.

It's a very low table, so you would kind of recline on some pillows.

And from the text, it would appear John is on his right, and Judas is on his left.

Or even perhaps, because we're not sure the text doesn't say, but what we know is that if you sat at the right or the left of the teacher, it was a place of honor.

And Peter says, Hey, hey.

And so he whispers, leaning back, Jesus, which which one?

Who is it?

And Jesus says, When I take this piece of bread, the person I give it to, and he gives it to Judas.

And Judas has been a deceiver and a hypocrite and stealing money all along.

And he realizes that he can make his biggest payoff by betraying him.

He doesn't fully grasp the consequences or what's going to happen, but 30 pieces of silver is 30 pieces of silver.

And so he takes the bread, he eats it.

It says Satan enters his heart.

Jesus says, Go do what you need to do quickly.

The other disciples think maybe he's on an errand, maybe he's going to go feed the poor.

And then at that moment, he says, Now, now, with a trusted group of friends, the Father is going to be glorified in the Son, and the Son in the Father.

And he begins to describe this moment in time about the resurrection.

But here's what I want you to get.

This statement that I am the way, the truth, and the life is more than a theological construct.

What has he modeled for them?

What is the way that you treat people who betray you and hurt you?

Anyone here ever been betrayed?

Lied to?

Find out your mate or boyfriend or girlfriend is cheating on you?

Had a business partner, got unfairly laid off.

Anybody in that, you know, right?

I mean, just been absolutely a really close friend and you find out they said this or that about you, and you're going, what?

You see something posted, right?

If you live, if you're breathing, A, if you haven't been betrayed, then you probably your intellect is not working because it really's happened.

But you will be.

What is the way to respond to those who betray you?

That is the truth and that'll bring life.

Jesus obviously extends forgiveness.

It's not received.

But it's not just Judas.

What we'll find just a little bit later, Jesus will say to them, because he said to the Jewish leaders, I'm leaving, but where I'm going, you can't come.

And the disciples are a little confused, and he says to them near the end of the supper, uh, I'm going to a place, but where you where I'm going, you can't come right now.

And Peter says, wait a minute, why can't I come?

Why can't we come?

And he says, Peter, you don't understand it right now, but you will understand it later.

And then Peter with bravado goes, I will die.

I'm with you.

I'm coming with you no matter what.

And of course, many of you know the passage where he says, Peter, before the rooster crows, you will have denied me three times tonight.

Knowing that, how did Jesus treat Peter?

See, the way of forgiveness over resentment and bitterness.

You do realize in the world that we live in, you did this to me, I do this to you.

It's about payback.

You posted this, I'll post that.

You said this about me, this is what I'm gonna say.

I will retaliate.

And what's it produce?

It's like pouring gasoline on a fire.

It's like eating poison and thinking it's gonna kill the other person.

See, what he's going to say is, I am the way, and he's leading up to the final way.

I am the way to the Father.

I'm the way to the Father because the issue of mankind, the big issue is their sin.

It's the human heart.

It's not external environment, it's not philosophical systems left to themselves, whether it's capitalism, socialism, communism, whatever ism and whatever model people they talk about, in the human heart, you will find people rise to power, rise to influence, use one another regardless of what they say or what they say will work.

And because the human heart is the issue, forgiveness is the solution.

Love is more powerful than evil.

And he's going to say and model, this is the way you treat those who've hurt you.

You release them, you forgive them.

Doesn't mean there's not consequences, doesn't mean that under control there aren't some things you need to do to address the situation.

For your soul, the way to treat the people who hurt you, who betray you, who wound you, is to treat them the way Jesus has treated you.

Why?

Because it's true.

And when you walk in the truth, you're free, and it brings life to your soul.

Now he gets to the not only the what and the when and the where, but as chapter 14 opens up, he's gonna address the why.

Why did he say, I'm the way, the truth, and the life?

And you'll notice in your notes I said, because the disciples are distraught.

Circle the word distraught.

I chose that carefully.

You can be troubled, you can be confused, you can be anxious.

There's times in life where you're uncertain, you're not sure what to do.

Distraught is where they're at.

They're anxious, fearful, confused.

Their leader is telling them, I'm leaving.

Rome is after them.

They've already been kicked out of the synagogue.

Peter has left his wife and family for significant seasons.

The disciples have left their jobs, they're full-time in the ministry.

They've put all their hopes on you're the Messiah, and you're leaving?

You're what?

They're anxious, they're fearful, confused.

Everything is uncertain, and they're deeply troubled.

And so, what Jesus is about to say is to address their emotions, to calm their fears, and to show them the way and the truth and the life when you are anxious and fearful and confused, and when you have no idea what's around the corner.

Does that sound anything like the world today?

Does that sound anything like what some of you are living in right now?

I mean, some of you got laid off recently.

Some of you, you should have seen the heads bob when I said, Have you ever been betrayed?

Apparently, there's been a lot of hard stuff in this group.

And so this is what Jesus says to them.

Notice in your notes, Jesus confronts their emotions and their emotional trauma with a command.

And with a commands don't always have to be harsh.

Literally, as they're feeling all of this, and and and Peter's made this big deal about I'll be with you.

I'll never desert you.

He reminds us that none of us know what our faith or how strong our faith is until it's tested.

I believe it was, I think he was sincere as he could be.

And I think many of us are as sincere as we can be.

This is what I really believe.

This is what really matters.

You don't know what you believe until it's tested.

And when Peter is tested, he fails miserably.

And he meets a God who models forgiveness and restoration.

But he commands them this you believe in God, right?

All these all these young disciples, they were followers of Yahweh.

I mean, these are good Jewish boys.

You believe in God, yes, believe also in me.

You trust God, yes, trust me.

And then he gives them six promises about why they can trust him.

Notice what the text says.

He says, In my father's house are many rooms, and if it were not so, I would have told you.

I'm going there to prepare a place for you.

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

You know, here's our word, the way to the place where I'm going.

And I love Thomas.

He said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?

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

If, this is the part we don't read, if you really knew me, you would know my father as well.

And and notice these six promises.

Look, look at your notes.

He says, In my father's house, literally, there's many residents.

It's a picture of the sort of the patriarch, and and they would often, as the you know, multiple children, they would get married in their families, they they might make sort of a you or even a circle, and then the father's house, he's saying, just like how you all do life, you're going to have a place that's specifically made for you so you can have intimacy with the father.

He says, I've come so that you, the way to the Father, is me.

And then notice he goes on.

He says, I go to prepare a place for you.

In the ancient Near East, uh, remember, these are these are Jewish boys.

And Jesus will make clearly he's the groom, right?

And the church is the bridegroom.

Well, the groom in the ancient Near East, in preparing for a wedding, he would propose there would be a season of betrothal, often six months or maybe even a year, and then the groom's job was to go prepare a home for he and his wife.

So Jesus, and these Jewish boys are starting to pick up.

So you're actually preparing a special place for us.

And if you were preparing a place for your wife, you wouldn't prepare it for some woman, you would prepare it for your wife.

What they would need, what she would like, what's made special.

And he's beginning to help them see your anxiety and your fear and your confusion and your uncertainty.

What he's he's driving a stake and saying, there's hope.

I will come back again for you, third promise.

I will receive you to myself.

I'm not going away forever, because here's the goal.

Where I am, you're going to be.

But it's future.

And by the way, you do know the way where I'm going.

Everything I've taught, all everything, my life.

I came to explain the Father.

I'm the path, I'm the road.

And so then we get this great line where Thomas says, We don't know the way.

And Jesus explains, the Father and I are one essence.

Let me pick up the text and just listen to what he says and the flow of the text.

And what I want you to get is he takes them from the fear to the future hope.

And then he begins to talk about, well, how is life going to work now that I'm physically going to be gone?

Someday, some way, their minds are spinning.

Okay, you're coming back, you love us, you're not going to forsake us.

But how is life going to work?

What is the way that life's going to work when you're not here?

Because the way it works now is you, and the truth is you.

And what we all have experienced is the peace and the joy and the life.

We have believed you're the Messiah, and now you're throwing all these curveballs, and we don't really know how it's going to play.

And so he goes on and says to them, From now on, right?

You do know him and you have seen him.

And so Philip says, Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.

And Jesus answered, Don't you know, Philip, that even after I've been among you for such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, show us the Father?

Do not you believe that I'm in the Father and the Father is in me.

And then notice this: this is so key to Jesus.

His relationship with the Father is the model for our relationship with him and the Father.

It always comes back to his word.

He says, The words I say to you are not my own.

Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work.

Believe me when I say I am in the Father, and the Father is In me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works of the miracles themselves.

And then he talks about the future.

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do even greater works than I have done.

I am going to the Father, and whatever you ask in my name, I will give to you, so the Son may bring glory to the Father.

You can ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Do you see the hope?

I'm going to be gone.

I'm a conduit.

You have access directly to the Father, and it's going to be through me.

And then he says, here's the key.

Here's the condition.

In uh grammatically, you know, for you Bible students, in Greek it's called a third-class condition.

In other words, it's a condition that is uncertain.

In other words, if you do this, here's the results.

And if you do this, these will be other results.

If you love me, you will obey my commandments.

And don't think love is a feeling.

Love in the New Testament, love largely in the Bible, is a matter of loyalty.

It's not a matter of my experiential feelings, although I sure love those and we want good ones.

But he says, if you love me, if you're loyal to me, not loyal to yourself, not loyal to others, not loyal to the world system, you obey my commandments, result, and I will ask the Father, and he'll give you another counselor to be with you how long?

Look at your Bible.

Another counselor, the Holy Spirit.

He'll be with you forever.

And who is he?

The Spirit of truth.

The world cannot accept him because it neither has seen him nor knows him.

But you know him, for he lives.

Notice the difference now.

He lives with you.

Remember when he sent them out?

They did miracles, they cast out demons.

God used them to heal.

They've seen him anything saying.

The Spirit has been with you, and now future will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

And before long, you will not see me anymore, but then you will see me, speaking of the resurrection.

Because I live, you also will live.

On that day, you'll realize that I'm in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

And whoever has my commandments and obeys them, he is the one that really loves me.

He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him, and I love this line, will show myself.

We get our word manifest.

In other words, I'll make myself known.

Jesus loves all of us all the time.

But there are certain Christians that experientially have him reveal himself or manifest himself or make himself real in your experience.

I had that experience this morning.

And it's when we obey.

It's when we obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit fundamentally, obeying his word, obeying, you know, the wisdom that God gives us through other believers.

And so I was sitting all the way in the back, and um I was praying as we were singing and the service was starting.

And as I sat there, God prompted me.

There was a um a young man that I just saw, and I had a deep sense in my spirit that he was troubled deeply.

And so as we sang, I began to pray for him, and I asked the Lord to speak to him very, very powerfully uh during the service, and especially during the message.

I had no idea why.

I don't know him.

I think I may have bumped into him once.

And then when we got done, um, again, this is, and for me, like all of you, right?

So did God answer that prayer?

I wonder what happened.

I don't know.

And so when I got done, uh we were singing the very last song, and I kind of needed to clear my mind.

And when we got to the second song, I went outside.

I put my feet up in the sun and I prayed, Lord, um, you know, I could chit-chat with lots of people, but I really want my mind, my heart to be clear.

If there's anyone you want to talk with me, would you have them walk over and sit down in front of me?

Guess who came?

That young man.

Guess what?

He was deeply troubled.

Guess what?

We have some really common personal challenges that we shared with one another.

That's not because I'm special.

Jesus promised when you obey him, when you trust him, when you hear his voice, he's the way for relationships to work.

Other centeredness, sacrifice, servant.

He's the way in a fallen world when you forgive those who betray and hurt you.

He's the way to experience the manifestation of the Holy Spirit's work inside you as you obey and as you listen and as you.

Jesus says, you may have a road, you may have a compass, you may have a map.

Social media has a map for you, the culture has a map for you, the university has a map for you, other isms and philosophies have a map for you.

Jesus says, I have a map.

It's me.

It's personal, intimate relationship.

The way you follow the map is obedience.

Not rules, not principles, obedience to me, the person.

I'll be with you.

I've got to anchor your hope.

You don't have to be afraid in the future.

Not only that, but as I as I do this, I'm going to give you a spirit of truth that's not just going to be available, he'll live in you.

Notice it goes on.

Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?

He said, Anyone who loves me, he will obey my teaching.

It's like it just gets from good to better to best.

My father will love him, and we, plural, will come to him and make our home with him.

Now, when you walked in this morning, were you at least intellectually aware that when you turned from your sin and in the empty hands of faith, turned away from your sin and asked Christ to forgive you based on what he did on the cross?

And the moment that you received Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit entered your life and sealed you with the Spirit, deposited spiritual gifts, took you out of the kingdom of darkness, placed you in the kingdom of light, and now the Holy Spirit's role is to actually manifest the actual dwelling of the Father and the Son in your physical body?

Like you knew that, right?

And when you pray, that's how you think about it, right?

Or is God way off there somewhere?

He is completely transcendent and simultaneously eminent and personal.

And what's the conduit?

The conduit of experiential relationship is obedience.

These words you hear, even Jesus, he keeps modeling.

He keeps modeling.

These aren't my own.

See, I'm walking in dependence on the Father and the power of the Spirit.

These words here are not my own.

They belong to the Father who sent me.

All these things I've spoken while I was with you, but the comforter, the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he'll teach you things and he'll remind you of everything that I've said to you.

Now do you remember what he said, how he started this?

Peace.

Relax.

Take a step back.

You believe and trust in God, trust also in me, and now, peace, I leave you with the peace that I give.

I do not give you the peace that the world gives that's temporary, that rises and falls with the relationship's going well, or circumstances change, or I get a good job, or we just had a baby, or remodeled the kitchen.

Nothing wrong with those things.

He says, I give you a peace that transcends those.

Don't let your heart be troubled.

Do not be afraid.

The context of I am the way and the truth and the life is to a group of intimate friends in a private dinner where he wants them to know I really get your anxious.

I really understand your fear.

I can certainly identify that confusion is raining.

And I know that the future seems completely uncertain.

Here's the solution in horizontal relationships.

Here's the solution when you're betrayed, and here's the solution when you don't know what the future is going to hold.

I'm the way, my person.

I'm the way to do horizontal relationships.

I'm the way to forgive others the way I've forgiven you.

I'm the way because, like the groom has gone and prepared a place, your future is absolutely secured.

You may not know what is around the corner, or which person is going to be a friend or a future mate or a roommate, or where you're going to work, or how things are going to work out, or whether a health issue is going to take you to heaven, or whether something he's going to take you through.

But here's what you can know: the final destination.

And here's what you can know.

I won't leave you as orphans.

The call of Jesus isn't that he makes our life out wonderful if we just believe in him like some sort of magical guru.

And if we, you know, I believe in Jesus and I pray to prayer and I read the Bible sometimes, and I try really hard to be nice.

And boy, when we worship sometimes, I have some really ooey-gooey experiences, and wow, wow, wow.

I'm all for that.

But your experience will not sustain you when you get wounded or when you get cancer or lose your job.

Or someone you love dies.

Jesus will.

And as you obey him, he will allow your experience to get richer and deeper.

And according to Jesus, he didn't trust his emotions, he trusted the Father, but he trusted the Father's word.

And so he anchored his life in the word and the Holy Spirit.

And so what this text is really teaching us, I put a little summary.

It was really all about God expressing his love to his closest friends.

Is there a theological construct?

Of course.

But because God loves me, you might get your pen out.

I think there's a couple fill-ins here.

And I know that some of you will be very mad if I go too fast, you don't get to fill them in.

But uh but by way of summary, uh I I just I wanted you to know that uh Jesus really I mean, it's such a generic word.

He loves you.

Well what does that mean in real life?

Because God loves me, Jesus is preparing a place for me.

Underline me.

And that me is you.

Because God loves me, he sent Jesus to make a way for me to be with the Father.

In the midst of their confusion and anxiety, there's a way, there's a door, there's access, there's certainty.

Because God loves me, he sent Jesus to reveal to me what God is really like.

You don't have to wonder.

If you've seen Jesus, the reason this whole year at this church, the focus is on Jesus, is because if you get to know Jesus, you'll know exactly what God is like.

You'll know exactly how he responds.

When you fail and when you sin, and when you're resentful, and when you feel far from God and you want nothing to do with him, and at in a moment the little light says, turn, and you said, I don't want to turn, you'll know exactly how he feels.

He feels like you just like he did the woman who was caught in adultery.

He feels the way about you just like he did Jesus, where he offers forgiveness and offers the bread.

He feels the way about you that he thought about Peter afterwards, where after he failed him after his big bravado, he met with him privately and loved him and restored him.

Doesn't mean there aren't consequences.

Jesus is not the genie in the bottle, but he is your loving, faithful, all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful Savior.

Because God loves us, he will use you and use me greatly, even more than what he did.

He says, Greater works you'll do.

Why?

Because he was confined to a body.

And Jesus' hands touched this person, and a leper was healed.

Now we're his body, and he has millions of hands, over two billion people.

I think it's 2.3 is the estimate, of the 8 billion people in the world.

Claim some level allegiance to Jesus Christ, would call themselves Christians.

Greater works, hospitals and orphanages and children, and people rescued from the sex trade and jobs offered and clean water and the hands and the feet and the eyes and the love and the heart of Jesus all over the world and all over the Bay Area and all over Silicon Valley as we get our focus off of ourselves and off of our anxiety and off of getting our little phones out to find out what everyone else thinks about us.

And into the word to say, as I obey and saturate my mind with God's word, the Father and the Son are going to come and they're going to manifest their presence.

And I will have experiences where I'll learn to hear his voice.

Just like little babies learn to hear their mom's voice.

And the moment they walk in the room and say something, they calm down.

As you spend time with God, then you can sit in the back of a room and just be a normal regular person like me and have the Spirit of God say, I'm concerned about that young man.

Pray for him.

And that will be normal.

God wants you to have many, many experiences with him that are other centered, sacrificial relationships.

And then the weird thing will be, right?

As you give your life away, you experience a joy that you couldn't comprehend.

Finally, he says, because God loves me, he sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of me to manifest the presence, the personality, and the power of Jesus.

24-7.

You know what?

That's a great sentence.

I mean, not because I wrote it.

It's because it's true.

I mean, that you understand that is the Holy Spirit isn't like the force.

The Holy Spirit is the third part of the triune God.

And he dwells inside of you.

He's a person.

You know he's a person because he can be grieved, see?

In other words, you can hurt the Holy Spirit's feelings.

When I'm prompted and I say, I don't want to leave me alone right now.

This movie's too interesting, or leave me alone right now, I'd rather eat, or leave me alone right now, I don't feel like it.

I can hurt the Holy Spirit's feelings.

So it says, grieve not the Spirit.

When I don't forgive someone, I grieve the Holy Spirit, I make him sad.

He lives inside of you to manifest the person and the personality and the power of the Lord Jesus.

Well, how do we respond?

Because I love God, I will not fear because my future is secure.

Some of you are gonna have to really renew your mind on that one.

You don't have to fear because He's preparing a place for you.

Second, because I love God, I will trust in Jesus as the only way to eternal life.

We can talk about that as a theological construct and the intellectual basis for that.

Because I love God, I will make knowing God the number one priority in my life of all the things.

We talked about that last week, and Ryan's talked about that through this series.

There is such a difference of believing in Jesus as a portion or a part of your life and making the number one priority.

It's what I do first, it's what matters most.

It's I evaluate where my time goes, where my money goes, who my friends are, what I do, what I don't do, where I'm gonna work, where I'm gonna relocate or not relocate, who I'm gonna marry, who I'm not gonna marry.

The number one priority is I'm gonna passionately, intentionally, diligently discipline my life to know God and then make him known.

Not as a rule, not as rigid, not as relation, but as a relationship.

Because I love God, I'll use my time, talent, and treasure and platform to make Jesus love known by my mind and by my deeds.

And finally, because I love God, I will submit my heart and mind and obey the Holy Spirit's direction through his word, his people, and his promptings.

So, kind of all I want to say is um Jesus is the way to life.

Jesus is the truth.

Jesus, if you've seen him, you've seen the Father.

Now, by way of a just a quick ending on the theology, because this has come up with Izzy the only way, um, two or three really quick stories because I just want you to sort of get the ground level as we think about this.

I was coming back from Singapore and had a stop from Singapore to Cree, about four hours.

I'm sitting next to about a 35-year-old.

Um great conversation, super interesting guy.

I really liked him.

And finally, it was such a rich conversation.

I said, Well, tell me, what do you believe?

It's kind of what's your spiritual journey?

And he goes, Well, I'm a Buddhist.

I said, a practicing Buddhist.

He said, Yes, absolutely.

I said, you know, that's very rare.

He goes, I know.

He said, Everyone just piecemeals it.

And I said, Well, what's the goal?

What what is your way?

He said, it's the it's I'm just I just it it helps me maintain or or experience peace in the midst of all that's coming at me.

I said, Yes, but what's the goal?

He said, What do you mean?

I no, no, I mean the the goal, the end result.

You see, in Buddhism, it's it's it's cyclical.

It's he said, Well, it's really there's none.

There's, you know, various, I guess I want to be that drop of water that gets in harmony with the big ocean of life and return back.

And so that's your way.

It's my way.

It's how I man it's how I manage my life.

I remember being on the um plane uh a little time ago with a I call it a moderate Muslim, and we had a great conversation.

One of those two or three hour congregations, you know, this is by the way, this is what we need to do in the Silicon Valley.

Stop telling people stuff and just ask questions and listen.

And you know, I listen, and you know, he's a he's a moderate Muslim.

And um I said, well, like, do you believe the Quran?

He goes, Yeah, some of it.

And I said, Well, do you practice it?

I mean, like, I mean, like Ramadan and this, and you know, I knew enough about it.

He goes, nah.

He goes, you know, I skip a few meals, and you know, he was like a Christian that goes, you know, I I do Easter and I do Christmas, and you know, I I think I got baptized when I was 12, and I believe in Jesus intellectually.

And so I said, Well, how do you know what parts are true, what's not?

And so what what you find is his way, his way is materialism.

His way was, you know what, just be nice to people.

And the way is what I'm really hoping to do, he talked about his business, and you know, we talked about the tech world because where I was from and some of my friends, and his way was, I really want to have enough money to get rich enough to be at peace and control my life.

Okay.

Now, third conversation with a uh a radical Muslim who's come to know Jesus, and he was on his way, actually on his way, and he'd um blown up a number of other things on his way to um to kill a number of people.

And as I got talking to him, I said, Well, tell me what what do you believe?

Because I believe the Quran.

I said, I mean, like all of it?

He goes, all of it.

And he said, if you believe all of it, it says that you're an infidel if you don't believe.

You talk about narrow.

And if you don't believe, you're an infidel, and I'm responsible to please Allah by killing you.

And he said, I was on my way to do that, and on my journey there, Jesus showed up at the foot of my bed in the middle of the night and told me who he was.

And since that time, I've been rescuing people that I used to kill.

And I'll tell you what, you get with a born-again radical Muslim or or or people from other parts of the world that I'm hanging out with, when they read the Bible, they don't read it like you know, good, autonomous, independent Americans.

We read it like this.

Wow, this is really interesting stuff.

That was pretty cool.

Ryan really liked the message, tacos relator, sounds cool.

Um, you know, I I I love Jesus.

And uh, oh yeah, you know, the Jesus about love, I'm there, Jesus about heaven, I'm there.

I'm not really sure about all that moral stuff.

You know, I can sort of take it or leave it, or do you know what I'm I'm gonna know how they read the Bible?

Each day, they read a section, and then it's what do you want me to do?

Radical, costly, immediate obedience.

And they get promptings and they act.

And guess what?

All that stuff about Jesus manifesting the Father and the Son in supernatural ways, and choosing to heal people, and choosing to rescue people, and choosing people who we would think who are literally out to kill us infidels, are coming to Jesus in ways the fastest growing church in the world is in Iran.

You know what Jesus is looking for here?

He's looking for an awakening among God's people, especially the next generation, who would get off of how everyone else thinks, and not be sort of Jesus people that really the way is secularism and prosperity and happiness is the map.

But who would read the scriptures and do life and community in a way that your response would be immediate, radical, costly obedience that might alienate you even from other Christians, but would make you one of God's favorite sons or daughters, and you would see him work like never before.

And that is the need in our day.

So, Father, will you please by your grace help us to know that your way to you, your word, and your spirit is accessible to each one of us.

Would you show us where in any way our life is not aligned?

Not for some way to make us feel bad, but to show us so we can realign, so we can receive the kind of forgiveness that Peter got.

That we would grasp how good and kind and loyal and loving and just and fair and powerful you are.

Lord, we would pray, have your way in our lives.

Amen.

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