Living Life | January 11 2026 (Part 1)

Well, good morning everybody. Why don't you open up your

Bibles and join me in John chapter 5, John 5, If you are

John 5 · chapter mention

not very familiar with the Bible, this is in the second

part we call the New Testament. There's a grouping of Gospels,

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and it is the last of that

grouping, John chapter 5. We're starting a new series,

John 5 · chapter mention

probably no for New Years, called Live in the Life.

Are you living the life? Are you, are you living the

life? We're talking about the

Christian life, but this series is not gonna be, we're not gonna

be talking about what we do in the Christian life.

For example, loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and

strength, loving our neighbors, ourselves, not focusing on that.

What we're focusing on is the life that is behind the

Christian life, like what is the engine?

What is, what is, what is it that brings vitality and energy

to us, as Adriana has demonstrated by her, by her

children's message? Are you feeling the life of

Christ in you? Do you feel revitalized?

Are you feeling that that sensing that energy, that

something beyond just your capabilities?

Or maybe you're feeling flat spiritually, maybe cold, maybe

distant from God, unhappy. Maybe maybe they're you're in a

season right now where you're really questioning things,

questioning God, questioning the Bible, questioning matters of

life. And these questions and doubts

that you have are really weighing heavy on you.

Maybe you're lacking motivation for the Christian life.

This series is going to address those things.

It's gonna make all the difference in the world.

You know, we've got through New Year's, so to speak, and many of

us have set New Year's resolutions.

Well, that didn't work very well.

But very often these New Year's resolutions fail not because the

resolutions themselves are bad, but because we're trying to

accomplish them in our own power, in our own strength.

All right, little wonky, but that'll do.

It's it's because we're missing something.

Today I wanna talk to you about crossing the line.

This is such a significant thing when when I see the words

crossing the line, what comes to your mind?

Maybe you're thinking of a scolding that you've got, like

you have crossed the line, Young man, young woman, you have gone

way too far. You're in trouble.

Maybe that's what that brings up for you.

Others of us, it's like I've crossed the finish line, like I

made it. I got to the end or maybe you're

thinking just in terms of a new year.

We've we've transitioned from 2025 to 2026.

We crossed the line. We're gonna talk today in this,

particularly in this series, but specifically today about

crossing line in terms of our faith, our faith journey, and

how significant this is. And This is why we're gonna be

looking at the words of Jesus and John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

And we're gonna be looking at verse 24 if you want to find

your place there. And just before we read this

very potent verse, you know, whisper a prayer to the Lord.

Father in Heaven, we thank you for the gift of today.

We thank you for this opportunity as we have gathered

with your people to hear Your voice.

So we ask Holy Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us.

Illuminate this Word and speak it to our hearts.

Awaken us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we

pray. Amen.

John Chapter 5, verse 24. Jesus is this very truly I tell

John 5:24

you, Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has

eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over

from death to life. Let me read that one more time.

Very truly, I tell you, Jesus said.

Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has

eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over

from death to life. Have you crossed over from death

to life? It's a very important question

to ask. Have you done that?

Have you crossed over from death to life?

When you get to be about my age and beyond, you're not typically

thinking of moving from death to life, you're thinking of moving

from life to death, right? But Jesus is saying he's

speaking about transitioning from death to life, and he's

speaking to everybody regardless of the age, each one of us

moving from death to life. So the question is, have you

crossed over from death to life? What's he talking about?

So some of you are thinking like, wait, wait a minute, what?

Never heard of this crossing over from from death to life.

It is just not something that that I'm really accustomed to.

Some of us who have grown up in church all of our lives and

would consider ourselves followers of Jesus Christians.

It's like I don't ever remember crossing from death to life.

Christianity is a journey. To be sure.

There is a movement, there is process, but there is a point in

which we cross over from death to life.

Jesus says listen to some of these scriptures first Peter

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 but you speaking to the church, but you the people

Christians are are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a

holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare

the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his

wonderful light called out of darkness into his wonderful

light. Also Colossians chapter one

verse 13 for he that is God has rescued us from the dominion of

darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the sun.

He loves moving us from darkness to light, giving us from death

to life. There is a moment.

There is a moment when we become alive.

Where once we were dead, we are now made alive again.

There is a moment spoken of Fusion Chapter 2.

Read through a few scriptures here.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in

mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our

transgressions. Just just get the weight of this

dead in our transgressions, our sins the way we have.

We have dismiss God failing to love God.

We're dead here and now all of a sudden, in a moment, we are made

alive in Christ. It's a beautiful image described

again Colossians chapter 2, verse 13, when you were dead in

Colossians 2:13

your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh.

We don't usually use that kind of terminology, but it's

essentially meaning my lack of devotion to God, lack of being

set apart for God. When we were dead in your sins,

when you were dead in your sins, and in the uncircumcision of

your heart, God made you alive with Christ.

One second we were dead, the next one we are made alive.

There is a point in which that happens.

Now you, if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, if

you believe yourself to be a Christian, you may not.

As you look back on your life, you may not even be aware of

when that happened. And that's OK.

The the, the, the important thing is that it has happened.

And that's why we're talking about this in this series.

We need to be made alive in Christ in order to live the life

of Christ. We cannot go about trying to

live the Christian life without being made alive in Christ.

Those two things are absolutely intertwined.

So the question is, where is that line?

Like where is that? How do I crossover that line?

What happens after I've crossed over that line?

And how do I know that I have crossed over that line?

These are some of the questions that we're going to deal with in

this series. And in order to do that, we

gotta look at the context to begin with of this one verse.

You know, whenever we look at one verse, we never ever just

look at one verse because it's so tempting to RIP it out of its

context. But what is the context here of

this verse? Well, in chapter 5, Jesus heals

somebody. He heals A paralytic, and he

happens to do it on the Sabbath, on the one day of the week where

you're not supposed to do any work.

And so he gets some Flack from the religious authorities.

It's very interesting. They're angry at Jesus.

They even want to kill Jesus because he's actually healing

people on the Sabbath. I mean it sounds ridiculous at

this point, but to them it was like breaking the law, this guy,

but Jesus listen to how Jesus responds to this back up in

verse 17 in his defence. Jesus said to them, My Father is

always at his work to this very day, and I too, I'm working for

this reason. They tried all the more to kill

him. Not only was he breaking the

Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making

himself equal with God. See that Jesus?

Jesus is essentially saying, You know, the God who's sustaining

the universe. I'm one with him, I'm always at

my work. He's making himself equal with

God, so much so that, you know, if you drop down to verse 26

just past our verse, he says for as the Father has life in

himself, so he has granted the Son that is Jesus also to have

life in himself. In other words, we think of God

as the source of life. Jesus says I am to because I and

the Father are one. Now we've got this kickback

that's happening among the religious leaders here, and they

are looking for life, but they're looking for it in terms

of their own religious practices.

They're looking in the wrong place.

And so Jesus is confronting them.

And so later on in the argument, chapter 5, verse 39, Jesus says

this, love this. You study the scriptures

diligently because you think that in them you have eternal

life. You see religious leaders, very

spiritual, very committed, very devoted.

You're studying the scriptures diligently because you think in

them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures

that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have

life. The Word of God is powerful in

the sense that it leads us to the God who is powerful we This

book is absolutely potent because it speaks of the one who

has is his is omnipotent, who has all power.

And Jesus says you're missing the very one that all of these

scriptures are speaking about and I'm standing before you now.

They're totally missed it where the source of life is coming

from. And that's why Jesus said, and

Adriana spoke about that in the children's message in John

John 14:6

chapter 14 verse 6. Jesus says I am the way and the

truth and the life. You are looking for a way to

live. You're what you're looking for a

path to follow. I'm that path, he says.

You think you're, you're searching for truth.

You're looking for a concept. You're looking for an idea.

You're not gonna find it, because the truth is what I am.

I am the truth. The truth is a person, it's not

this impersonal concept and I am holding the whole world together

and This is why I am the life. Don't miss me, don't miss me,

Jesus says. So back to these questions.

Where is the line we're talking about that crossing over from

death into life? Where is that line?

That line is at the point of your relationship with Jesus

Christ. That's the line, that point of

relationship where God himself is his.

Revealing his Christ is more than just an idea, is more than

a concept to us. He becomes personal.

We enter into a personal relation.

We talk about that language, but it's so critical, personal

friendship, personal connection, that all of a sudden I'm

experiencing you. That's the point.

That's where life begins, John 17 verse three.

We come back to this periodically because it's, it's

just a game changer, friends. It's it's, it's actually blowing

up strongholds in the way that we think about eternal life.

But Jesus says this now this is eternal life gives us his

definition. The they know you, the only true

God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

We think of eternal life. There's a lot of things we think

about eternal life, but at its core, eternal life is knowing

God, Dunzo, it's knowing God. It's it's, it's having that

connection. So that knowing is not just

knowing about, it's experiencing God.

That's the the, the, the, the Hebrew word that it comes from.

It's in Greek here, but the background is Hebrew.

Is it? It's an experiential knowledge

of God experiencing that friendship with the Creator of

the universe. Where's the line?

It's at that point of that relationship.

How do you cross that line? How do you cross it?

How does that actually even happen?

Jesus says it's here, there's 24, he says.

Very truly. I tell you, whoever hears my

word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

First of all, he hears. He hears Remember as a kid.

I'd love to leave the house and go out and play with my friends

and I'd be all over the place, you know, several houses down on

either side. But I could always hear a voice

calling. And it was whenever my mom

called me for dinner, John, dinner time, right?

Her voice just rang through the neighborhood.

I could always hear it. And it was always responsive to

that because I was usually hungry by that time in all my

play, and I would run back and I would experience it.

Crossing from death to life is dependent on hearing the Word of

Christ, not just with our ears, but but with our heart fully

dependent on that, that we need to hear His word.

And notice that He doesn't say hearing the word, my words, but

He says hearing my word. They hear my word.

It's referring to the whole message, his whole message,

which isn't just the things that he said, but the things that he

did, His whole purpose for coming, who he is and what he's

done. He hasn't just come to help us,

but He's come to literally save us, to rescue us from ourselves,

rescue us from death and bring us into life, restoring us,

healing us for all eternity. And this is connected to

whoever, so whoever hears my voice or whoever hears my word

and believes him who sent me, referring to God the Father.

Now, this is so very important. It's not.

He's not saying believing in God in general.

Lots of people say they believe in God.

Now we're talking about specifically the one God who has

sent Jesus Christ, sent his Son into the world to save sinners,

of whom I am. What big, big difference when we

hear that word and we believe it, Meaning I need his saving

help, that's how. That's when we cross the line.

I know that I need Christ, and apart from Him I'm dead.

I'm a dead man without Him and This is why John and one of his

letters, first John chapter 5 verses that verse 12, he says

1 John 5 · chapter mention

whoever has the son, referring to Jesus the Son of God.

Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of

God does not have life. It's just that simple.

It's only through the Son of the living God hearing His Word,

believing it. Are we given life?

So what happens when we get that life?

What happens when we crossover from death to life?

Well, it's important for us to realize that something happens

to us. It's not something that we do

when we crossover. God has done something.

It's all God. And notice the tents here.

Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has

eternal life. It's done.

They will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life.

It's it's a, it's a current experience.

As soon as that happens, we're given life, we're given eternal

life. We think of eternal life as

something that's, you know, something that's that's still

coming, and it's coming in its fullness, but it's something

that we're meant to experience even now.

It's the beauty of it all and we will not be judged.

That's good news, right? That is such good news.

Listen to how it's put in. We're gonna go back to

Colossians chapter 2 and finish this this little section.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

He says when you were dead in your sins and in uncircumcision

of your heart, God made you alive with Christ.

You know, I was going to describe it.

He forgave us all our sins. Having cancelled the charge of

our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned

us, He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

All the weight of sin and death that bears down on us has now

been swept away. I love so, so all that

condemnation, it's gone. We're we're completely free of

any condemnation. The message label the way Eugene

Peterson puts Romans 8 verse one and two.

He says this the Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind,

has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a faded

lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

The Holy Spirit is just swept it all away and given us absolute

freedom. It's such a such a beautiful,

beautiful picture and we see that contrast.

So let's just talk about this contrast def in life.

That's not to say that you people are representing death

and you people represent lives. Just on the platform here, death

and life. Let's talk about death.

What is death? What are we talking about?

It's not that I'm physically dead, but I'm spiritually dead.

I'm cut off from God. I I have no real relationship to

God. I am a Walking Dead man

essentially and sadly even when I get religious I'm no more

alive. I'm still dead.

It's so sad. There are many religious people,

and I know this because I was 1, who are still dead spiritually,

trying so desperately hard to do the right thing, to be good, to

honor God even. But there's no relationship.

They're completely cut off. And so we're doing all this

religious stuff on our own. We're alone in it, and so at

what point am I going to be good enough?

I'm doing all this stuff in order to reach a line so that I

can maybe please God, maybe enter heaven or whatever it is.

How good is good enough? You can never be good enough,

never be good enough. And so we need a gift.

We need to be brought from death to life by God by hearing the

word Jesus and believing it. That's the only way.

So what is life? Life is living in the favor of

God that I've got His approval already.

No matter how hard or not hard I'm working.

I've been given a gift of salvation.

I've been given the gift of eternal life.

Now, if that doesn't motivate you to work hard to love God and

to serve others, we've totally missed the mark.

Pulse point through Romans is is that before you do anything good

or bad like you're you're saved if you put your trust in Jesus

Christ and then the attitude will if I'm saved already, then

was this partied up and forget about God.

No, we totally missed it right. If if we've entered into that

relationship already been given life, we will respond.

But it's it's living in the favor of God that he loves me

because he's chosen me and he's given me life and my sins have

been completely forgiven. I have a new orientation, a new

relationship with him. It's like going way back to the

garden before Genesis chapter 3, you know, everything was just

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

perfect. You know, God walking Adam and

Eve in the cool of the day and they're just enjoying

relationship. Alright, cool.

This kind of cool is is a whole other level, right?

No fig leaves are going to be able to keep you warm in here.

But we're just talking about just chilling with Jesus and

chilling, chilling with the Lord.

This is just such a beauty to that enjoying relationship with

God, experiencing that peace regardless of what's going on.

It is the quality of that relationship, eternal life

that's being spoken about, and it's something that is mediated

by the Holy Spirit. When a when someone hears the

word of Jesus and believes it, we're given the gift of eternal

life. But that eternal life is not

just something you know, it's actually something that happens

inside, that the Holy Spirit enters into us.

And so that the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is

now living in you if you're someone who's received Jesus

Christ. And that Holy Spirit is a

deposit guarantee in your heritage.

And it's it's guaranteeing that what you're beginning to

experience now you're gonna experience in its fullness when

it comes. And Holy Spirit is our hope of

the hope of glory. It's a little piece of heaven

that's living inside of you. That is the eternal life.

That's how close it is to us. So my whole goal in this series,

just a three-part series, I hope you won't miss any part of it.

My whole goal is that every single one of us here is gonna

cross that line. We'll have crossed that line

now. That's not something that I can

make happen. This is only something that God

does between something between you and God.

But I can lead you up to that moment in which it happens.

Some of us here are sure that we have crossed the line.

And I say praise the living God. We were meant to be sure.

You know, John is in his first letter, he says, you know, I'm

writing to you that you will know that you have eternal life

like we were meant to know it. But maybe we're not experiencing

the fullness of that life. And to some extent, we're never

going to experience the full fullness of it, but we know that

we have Jesus. We know that we're that we're

beginning to experience eternal life.

But there are some days when we really begin to doubt.

Like we feel completely flat. We feel like we have no

motivation. It's like, I wanna take a break

from church. I wanna take a break from you

know what, you know, we, we kind of pull back and that sense is

completely natural. That's what the human nature

does. And there's always a bit of

attention going on there. In this series, we're going to

be looking at how we, what can we do to restore the joy of our

salvation? We're going to do to enjoy Jesus

all the more. So this, I think, is going to be

a great series. Maybe you're here.

Let me know you're here, but you're here and you're and

you're unsure whether you've crossed the line.

I'm just not sure. I'm not confident.

I, I don't know. That's OK.

It's OK. You're in a good place.

This is what what this series is about.

We're gonna talk about this next week, particularly going to meet

Miss next week. Next week we're going to do a

little bit of a spiritual assessment and look at some of

the signs of spiritual death and spiritual life and what we can

do about it. Very important.

Now maybe you are thinking in your mind.

I'm sure that I have not crossed the line.

It's not that I'm sure and that I'm unsure.

I am very sure that I haven't crossed that line yet.

That's OK. All of us were there at one

point. Every single one of us.

No one is born into this world. Cross having crossed that line

just does not happen that way, but just recognizing the fact

that I have not crossed that line that is vital.

It's so important. That's that's the beginning

right there. That's where where it all

starts, recognizing that I need, there's something that I need.

So I have two words for you. 2 words that Jesus spoke of in

verse 24 and that is here and belief.

Hear and believe. Hear this.

Hear the Word of Christ. The most gracious, kind,

compassionate, strong, wise, tender, rich, generous being in

the universe wants to establish a personal friendship with you.

And he's inviting you into that, into that friendship.

And what he has done is he has clothed himself in flesh.

He has entered human history. He's lived the life and done so

perfectly, and then he gave. His life is an offering, a

sacrificial offering that would cover all of our imperfections

and cleanse us from all of our sins, all of our wrongdoing, all

gone. And it's brought us, is inviting

us. He wants to bring us into life.

He's provided everything for us. He just says, believe me,

believe me, here's the invitation.

Come to me, Come to me. Open up your heart to me.

Receive me into your life. Are you hearing the word?

Is Jesus speaking to you right now?

If so, you just turned him and say that's me, Lord, that's me.

I want you. I do want that.

I do wanna have that relationship with you.

If that's you, you just say that in your spirit and you're gonna

be crossing over from death to life.

Let's pray. Let's pray, Father in Heaven, as

we embark in this series, Your desire.

You want more than anything for us to experience the life that

you gave your life for, that we could experience.

And so I pray that none would be lost, that not one would be left

out, that every single one of us would experience your life and

enjoy it to the full. Thank you though.

The evil one has come to steal, kill and destroy.

You have come to give us life, and that's that.

We would have it abundantly. Pour out that abundant life on

us. Lord, move us, shake us, awaken

us and fill us with your life. We pray in Jesus name, hey?