Impossible To Ignore • Part 1 with Jake Miller

Welcome to the Southside Church Podcast.

Weekly content that inspires all of us to follow Jesus.

Join us each week for a message from one of our fantastic communicators that provide practical ways to grow our faith, challenge ourselves, and to love others more.

And now, this week's message.

Well, good morning, everybody.

I am so, so excited to be with you today as we kick off our new series called Impossible to Ignore.

You know, there are very few people throughout history that nearly everybody on the planet has heard of, right?

The list is very, very short.

Most people who are historical figures are isolated to a certain uh nation or a certain group of people, maybe a certain uh demographic, a certain period of time, a certain period in history.

They're certainly isolated to history books, but there's one name that really transcends history, that transcends time, it transcends generations, it transcends geography.

And that name is Jesus.

Jesus is just different.

Jesus is different.

In fact, when I was preparing for this message, I opened up Google because I was like, okay, I want to make sure anything that I say up here is actually true.

And I literally Googled who is the most well-known person in history, and the first result was Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.

So I'm telling you the truth.

Everyone, nearly everyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear has heard of Jesus.

And Jesus shows up everywhere.

He shows up in church, obviously, and I will tell you if you ever are a part of a church where Jesus is not the focus, you need to find a different church.

But Jesus obviously shows up in church.

He shows up in art, right?

We see him in artwork across the world, across museums, across art galleries.

We see him in music, we hear him in the songs that we sing, songs that we sang this morning, worship songs that we hear, contemporary Christian music, even pop music, he shows up.

He certainly shows up in history, historical documents.

We study about the things he did and the time period in which he lived in history.

He shows up in politics.

Whether he should or shouldn't is a debate for another day.

He certainly shows up in philosophy, shows up in literature, he shows up in movies.

There's lots of movies where Jesus is referenced or the subject of the movie.

He even shows up in swear words.

He shows up in swear words.

When's the last time you heard somebody stub their toe and yell, ah, Buddha?

It's just not something that people do.

Maybe we should.

Maybe we should make that our thing, right?

Next time you get hurt, just go, oh Buddha.

See what somebody in the office does.

And just like, what, what?

He shows up everywhere.

Jesus is impossible to ignore.

Even people who don't necessarily follow Jesus know who Jesus is.

People who don't prescribe to his teachings often quote him.

They don't realize they're quoting him, or they don't realize that they're following after his way or living in the way that he's asked us to live, but they follow him regardless.

There's a British historian, a guy named Tom Holland.

When you hear the name Tom Holland, I'm sure like me, you think Spider-Man, but this is a different Tom Holland.

This is a very famous British historian, also famously agnostic.

He does not believe in God, believes in no deity of any kind.

But throughout all of his research, what he has finally come to the conclusion of is that nearly every moral instinct that he holds, nearly everything that he believes deeply inside of him, things like human dignity, uh caring for the poor, equality, justice, compassion, he has concluded that they all came from Jesus.

All of those things that are in him that are good, that are right, that are true, he confesses they came from Jesus.

He doesn't believe that Jesus is the Son of God, he doesn't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, doesn't believe in a higher power, but he knows where all of that came from.

In fact, take a look at what he says.

His most recent book called Dominion, he said this in a West that is often doubtful of religion's claims, so many of its instincts remain for good and ill, for good and ill, thoroughly Christian.

Thoroughly Christian.

Most of the things in our life that are right, that are true, that are noble, that are good are thoroughly Christian, whether you believe in Jesus or not, whether you follow Jesus or not.

And that's exactly what Tom Holland is saying.

He's saying, I'm not suggesting that I believe in Jesus or that you need to believe in Jesus.

I'm simply saying that even the people who reject Jesus often borrow their deepest values from him.

Which begs the question that we're going to dive in today and for the next couple of weeks.

Why is Jesus impossible to ignore?

Why is Jesus impossible to ignore?

Look, you don't have to believe in Jesus to admit and recognize that history has never really been able to move on from him.

Most people are willing to say, yeah, I admire Jesus.

Most people are willing to say that they respect him, that they have heard his teachings and admire him, but very few are willing to submit to his authority.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

For instance, in a lot of ways, we we like certain parts of Jesus.

You know, we admire this part, but we kind of want to leave this part to the side.

We love a Jesus who inspires us, but we have a hard time with a Jesus who commands us.

Like I want to be inspired by Jesus.

I read the words of Jesus, I'm around other followers of Jesus, I'm inspired.

I'm inspired to do more, to do better, to give and love and serve others, but maybe you stop short with, yeah, but I don't really want you to tell me what to do.

You know, I'll do some of these things, but like let's leave that part over there.

We we love a Jesus who comforts us, right?

But maybe we have a hard time with one who corrects us.

Like I need to go to God in times of need, and when I need to be comforted, the words of Jesus, the healer, they comfort me.

But if it's me who maybe got myself into this mess, what I need to be comforted from, I don't necessarily want him to correct me.

Maybe that's you.

Maybe you're like, oh, yes, please comfort me.

I don't know that I love it when you correct me, though.

We love when Jesus forgives sinners.

We don't necessarily love it when he confronts the sin in our lives.

We love a good redemption story.

We love to see people come back from the brink.

We love it when Jesus forgives us of our sin, of which there are many for most of us.

But we have a little bit of a hard time sometimes when he actually confronts us on the sin.

We love a Jesus who blesses our lives.

We just we love it, God, you bless me with health and resources and a family and friends, but we have a hard time when that same Jesus claims authority over our lives.

We have a hard time when really anybody claims authority over our lives, don't we?

We love it when Jesus offers us grace.

And I have been a recipient of grace more times than I can count, and many of you have as well.

We have a bit of a hard time when he tells us the truth.

I would imagine we have a hard time when many people tell us the truth, especially when the truth isn't what we really want to hear.

You see, our culture is very comfortable, very comfortable customizing Jesus.

We almost treat Jesus like he's a buffet sometimes, like we're heading to the Golden Corral.

Some of you are gonna head there after church today.

It's an interesting choice.

I don't really love Golden Corral, but some of you do, and that's totally fine.

You're gonna walk through that line at Golden Corral and you're gonna pick a few things that you love.

You're gonna leave a few things there that you don't.

You're gonna sit down with some people who pick some things that you didn't pick, and you're gonna wonder why they picked it, and they're gonna wonder why you picked what you picked.

Jesus is more than just a buffet.

We can't just take the parts that we like and leave the parts that we don't at the buffet line.

He is all-encompassing, he wants to be Lord of all of our lives.

We're very comfortable with customizing Jesus.

And see, the problem isn't that people don't admire Jesus enough, the problem isn't that people don't pay attention to his teachings or even try to emulate him and live like him.

The problem is that people often admire Jesus while still reducing him.

We often admire Jesus while still reducing him.

It's as if we've gone through the buffet and we've taken the parts that we like and left the parts that we don't, and we've reduced him to what we want him to be, to what we want him to be.

And when we continue to reduce Jesus, when we do that, eventually we're no longer following Jesus.

When we continually reduce Jesus, eventually we're no longer following Jesus, we're following ourselves with Jesus' name attached to it.

We have made it about us, we've made it about what we want.

We've made it about what we want.

So what if Jesus is more than just someone to admire?

What if Jesus is more than just someone to respect, someone to listen to, maybe to borrow some of the teachings from and live certain ways that he's asked us to live while we leave some of the other parts aside?

What if he's more than just someone to admire or respect?

And how?

How do we know if he's really worthy of the term Lord?

How do we know that Jesus is really worthy of the term Lord?

Now, if you're like me, you grew up in a church that would say, well, the Bible says so.

The Bible says it, so it's true.

And that is true.

I'm not going to dispute that.

But where do those claims come from?

Where do they come from?

And where did they originate?

How do we really know if he's worthy of the term Lord?

And maybe, just maybe for some of us in the room today, is it true that we confess that he is Lord?

We believe that he is Lord?

Yes, maybe we customize him, maybe we do take the parts that we like and leave the parts that we don't, but we do confess that he is Lord, but we don't necessarily live our day-to-day lives like he is.

And there is an enormous difference in claiming him to be our God and actually living as if that's the case.

So today, as we kick off this series, we're gonna spend some time in the book of John, chapter one.

If you've got a Bible, I'd love to invite you to follow along.

You've got a device with a Bible app on it, please feel free.

We'll also have the scripture on the screens beside me.

And then as always, we have Bibles in the back.

If you want to just follow along while I'm preaching, you certainly can.

If you need a Bible, don't own a Bible, just need a new Bible.

Please feel free to take one.

We would love nothing more than to put the Word of God in your hands today.

So please feel free.

It's our gift to you.

But we're gonna be in the book of John, chapter one, verse one.

It says this in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Now, this is John's way of kind of taking his Jewish audience, these first people who are actually reading this letter that he wrote.

This is his way of taking them kind of back to some scripture that they would be familiar with.

You see, for the Jewish audience that he's writing to, this original intended audience, their scriptures were what we know as the Old Testament.

And what would they know in the Old Testament?

Well, they would know what we now refer to as the book of Genesis.

And what are the first three words of the book of Genesis in the beginning?

And so John starts his gospel in that way.

He says, in the beginning was the Word.

Now, John is one of the four Gospels.

The four Gospels are the books, uh, the first four books of the New Testament.

These are the accountings of the life and the teachings of Jesus from those who were with Jesus and those who were with those with Jesus.

They essentially tell us everything about his life and his ministry from beginning to end.

The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are what we refer to as Synoptic Gospels.

And the Synoptic Gospels are essentially gospels that have a very similar feel, a very similar tone, very similar order.

They look and feel very similar to one another.

You get a lot of the same narratives in a lot of the same order.

But John is a little bit different.

While Matthew, Mark, and Luke are beginning with Jesus entering our world, what we know is the Christmas story with the manger and the wise men and the shepherds.

John's a little different.

John starts before Bethlehem.

John starts before Mary, before Joseph.

John goes all the way back and starts before creation.

And he says and he tells us that Jesus was there from the start, in the beginning, when God was creating the heavens and the earth.

Who was right by his side?

Jesus.

The word was with God, and the word was God.

So what John is telling us is a huge theological claim and has huge theological implications.

What he is telling us and what he's instructing us to do is that we cannot begin with Jesus as merely a man.

We have to begin with Jesus as God.

We have to begin with Jesus as God.

And rest assured, John is one of Jesus' most adored disciples.

He's one of his closest followers, one of his closest friends.

This is not somebody who was sitting in a room somewhere generations later writing this story and this narrative about Jesus.

This is someone who was there.

This is someone who witnessed it, who watched it.

He watched Jesus.

He saw Jesus forgive sins.

He saw Jesus receive worship.

He watched Jesus heal the sick.

He saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.

Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine walking along with someone you've been following for several years, seeing all of the miracles, and then seeing that.

Your friend, by the way, Lazarus, who's been dead for several days, and Jesus stands in front of his tomb and says, Lazarus, come out.

And he raises him from the dead.

John saw that.

He witnessed it.

He witnessed his crucifixion.

He witnessed the empty tomb.

He saw all of it.

And there's a word that he says, and we're going to skip ahead a little bit to verse 14.

He says this in John chapter 1, verse 14, second part of verse 14, we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

That word seen is the hinge of all of this.

Everything rises and falls on the fact that this is an eyewitness account.

He's saying, I saw it.

I was there.

I witnessed it.

The earliest Christians worshiped Jesus.

They prayed in his name.

They baptized in his name.

They proclaimed truth in his name.

They proclaimed him as risen Lord.

And they were willing, and in many cases did, suffer for those confessions that they made.

They saw it.

They were there.

This is not some myth that has been passed down from generation to generation.

This is not some rumor.

This is not hearsay.

What we have in the book of John is straight from people who were there.

They watched it.

They saw it.

And what John is implying here, what John is telling us, is that Jesus is not merely sent by God, that Jesus is God.

He's not merely sent by God.

He's not someone that just entered into our story.

He is God.

And so the question that that raises for all of us, regardless of where we are on the spectrum of faith, is can we trust John?

Right?

Like, can we trust this?

I mean, this is an eyewitness account.

It's in the Bible.

Can we actually trust that this account is true, that it's real?

Because John is making some extraordinary claims, especially in the current culture that he was in.

He's telling us that Jesus is not just a good teacher.

He's not just a prophet.

He's not just a man that was sent here by God.

He is telling us that he is God in human form.

And look, I understand that for some of you in the room, that may be hard to swallow.

Maybe it's something you never considered.

Maybe it's something you considered long ago and haven't thought about it in a very long time.

Maybe you're wrestling a little bit with this right now.

This idea that, yes, I mean, I believe he's Lord, and I don't know that I necessarily live like, but do I really, do I really believe this?

I know it's in the Bible, but but tell me more.

I need more proof.

I need more evidence.

I understand.

If you're skeptical, I get it.

You have every right to be skeptical.

In fact, if you're here today and you are skeptical, regardless of whether you subscribe to the teachings of Jesus or not, I am so, so glad you're here.

I'm so glad you're here.

Our church exists with you in mind.

Our hope is to inspire you and encourage you and equip you to follow Jesus and to follow him more closely, to have a deep, meaningful, growing relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord.

And so I'm not asking you to believe what the Bible says.

I'm asking you to believe what was seen.

See, over the last couple of days, we have we have marked a really sobering anniversary in our country.

Most of us have been watching memorials and tributes and videos and reliving the moments of that horrible day 25 years ago.

Gosh, it's hard to believe it's been 25 years.

It's crazy.

We certainly remember where we were.

We remember what we were doing.

Remember who we were with.

We remember the first person we called.

We remember what we felt, the emotions that we felt in the days and the weeks and months that followed.

We know and relive those emotions every time we see footage, every time we hear stories, every time we hear testimonies and accountings, every time we mark that anniversary, we feel it, don't we?

And we feel it because we lived it.

We feel it because we were there.

We feel it because even though we weren't on the ground, we have eyewitness accounts of it.

We watched it through their eyes.

The power of technology allowed us to feel like we were there in the moment as we were living it out in our own lives.

But for my kids, they're 19, 16, they don't remember that.

What they know of 9-11 has been learned in history class or on the news or what we've shared with them.

For some of you in the room who were under the age of 25, you don't remember that day.

It doesn't feel the same way to you that it felt to those of us who were there.

But you don't believe it any less.

And why don't you?

Why don't my kids?

Because we were there, because we have eyewitness accounts, because we have media footage, because we can talk about it.

So I'm not asking you.

John's not asking you to believe something just because it's in the Bible.

He's asking you to believe because they saw it.

I don't want you just to believe it because I'm saying it, because the Bible says it.

I want you to wrestle with the testimony of people who were actually there.

John, these early Christians, were actually there.

They saw it, they lived it.

Remember John's words.

We have seen, what did he say?

We have seen his glory.

We saw it, we lived it, we watched him, we heard him, we walked with him, we studied under him, we saw what he did, and we concluded that Jesus is not merely from God.

Jesus is God with us.

He's God with us.

That's the conclusion that they came to.

John's not asking us to believe a rumor, he's asking us to consider his witness.

So I want us to go back to verse one.

We're gonna dive in a little bit more to this chapter.

Verse one once again says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

And then the rest of chapter one, verse two says, He was with God in the beginning.

We said this a moment ago that John is calling back to the book of Genesis, something that would have been very familiar to his readers.

What Genesis says is this Genesis says, in the beginning God created.

John is saying, in the beginning, the word already was.

So, yes, while the earth was being created, Jesus was right there.

We often think about Jesus as someone who came into the picture a little bit later.

If you're familiar with the Bible, Jesus is not the person that shows up in the Old Testament.

He shows up later.

He's prophesied in the Old Testament, he's referred to in the Old Testament, they're waiting on him in the Old Testament, but he doesn't show up until the New Testament.

And John is telling us that is absolutely not the case.

John is telling us that Jesus didn't simply enter history.

History exists because of Jesus.

He was with God in the beginning, right by his side, a part of the story.

Verse 3 and 4 says, Through him all things were made.

Without him, nothing was made that has been made.

In him was life.

I love that.

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

This means Jesus was not just a part of creation.

Jesus is an agent of creation.

He wasn't simply part of the story.

He's not just part of our story, he is the reason that the story exists in the first place.

You see, that's why Christianity can't be reduced to simply Jesus is a good.

Teacher.

He's somebody that we should just listen to from time to time.

He's somebody that we should take the parts that we like and leave the parts that we don't.

You see, if Jesus is only a good teacher, if he's just a good philosopher or a prophet or somebody to maybe quote from time to time, then Christianity becomes optional, doesn't it?

It becomes optional.

And take it or leave it.

Yeah, it sounds good.

And I mean, I might live a little bit like that, but I don't really like that part.

Christianity becomes optional.

But if we confess with our mouth and we believe with our lives and live it like we mean it, like we believe it.

If Jesus is God in human form, Christianity becomes the most important truth in the world.

It's the most important truth in the world.

Do you believe that?

Do you feel that?

And then in verse five, he tells us one of the most quoted scriptures in all of the Bible.

Verse 5 says, This, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And I want to land here on this verse for a minute.

I think it makes so much sense.

Do we have that verse that we can put up there?

Maybe we don't, and that's okay.

Verse 5 says, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Notice what he says there.

He says the light shines.

It shines in the darkness.

It didn't shone in the dark.

It's not past tense.

He's not looking at it and say, back then the light was there.

No, the light shines in the darkness.

And the darkness what?

Did not overcome it?

No.

He says the darkness has not overcome it.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

That is an extraordinary truth.

In fact, that's a message in and of itself.

Think about what John is saying.

That Jesus is the light of the world.

It doesn't matter what darkness you find yourself in.

It doesn't matter what darkness you're walking through, what darkness you came out of, or what darkness you might be walking into.

There is no amount of darkness that the light of the world cannot overcome.

It has not.

It is not.

It will not.

There is no amount.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome.

And again, the same way that John was referencing Genesis within the beginning.

Remember, in the beginning God created, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.

He's also calling back to Genesis yet again.

Because if you continue in Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

What was the next thing that he said?

That the world was covered in darkness.

It was without form.

And his first command was what?

In verse 3, let there be what?

Light.

Let there be light.

The light of the world.

At creation, it shone in the darkness.

And that light of the world in Jesus shines in our darkness.

And that is good news for all of us.

And you notice that with all that we've read so far, everything that we've talked about so far, John is telling us all of this before he has ever told us about what Jesus did.

For his readers and for all of us, he hasn't even told us about the teachings and the healings and the miracles.

Certainly hasn't told us about his death and burial and resurrection.

He's telling us all of this before he ever tells us what Jesus did for us.

But now he's about to get to it.

I want to go back to verse 14.

He says this, the first part of verse 14.

This verse is so important.

This is where we begin to get into what we have in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

That story where Jesus enters our world and comes into our lives.

God came near, Emmanuel, God with us.

This is so important.

The light of the world stepped into our darkness.

The one who spoke creation into existence had to learn how to speak.

Have you ever thought about that?

It's amazing to think about Jesus as an infant.

Those of us who have kids and we've walked through those stages of life with our kids.

The one who created life had to learn how to walk.

You know, I picture Christy and I, you know, on opposite ends of the room with our kids, and come on, buddy, you can do it.

You know, just get there.

I'm like, Joseph and Mary, you know, looking at Jesus, come on, buddy.

You can like it's it's mind-blowing.

That's Jesus.

He stepped into our world, the God who created our lungs, everything that you do, everything you're breathing right now, he breathed our air.

He felt it, he lived it.

He stepped into our world.

What other king has done that?

No other king, no other king has ever stepped down off of their throne in glory to live amongst the people that they lead.

Jesus, our Lord, our Savior.

And then the rest of verse 14, he says, We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth, the perfect embodiment of grace and truth.

That is Jesus, something we all aspire to.

None of us will ever get that high.

We all aspire to be the perfect embodiment of both grace and truth.

Only Jesus has ever done it perfectly.

None of us ever will, but he was the full embodiment, which tells us he is the point of Christianity.

The reason that we are here is because of him.

He's not just somebody to pay attention to, to think about, to quote from time to time, to sing about from time to time.

Jesus is the point because Jesus is God.

Jesus is the point because Jesus is God.

That's the bottom line.

Do you believe that?

Do you live as if you believe those words?

And then John wraps up his first chapter with this, verses 17 and 18.

For the law was given through Moses.

That's this early scripture that we refer to.

The Old Testament, the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth, where did they come from?

They came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God, and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

He has made him known.

Jesus makes it very clear when he's talking with his disciples that if you've seen him, you've seen the Father.

We have seen Jesus.

John saw Jesus.

If you've seen him, you've seen the Father.

Jesus made God known.

So back to our question that we asked a moment ago.

Can we trust John?

Do you trust John?

I mean, rest assured, John has nothing to gain from this conclusion that he's come to.

He has nothing to gain.

In fact, he had everything to lose.

And later we find that John lost his life because of this conclusion and this confession that he made.

So while he had nothing to gain from this, you can rest assured that he absolutely had an agenda.

John had an agenda.

It's the same agenda that we have here at Southside.

We want everyone to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

That's the point.

He's not asking you to simply believe the words that are on a page.

He's asking you to believe his eyewitness account.

His agenda is so that everyone will know and confess that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.

In fact, a little bit later in the book of John, toward the end of the book, chapter 20, he says this in verse 31 but these are written, these scriptures, these things I've written, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life.

You may have life in his name.

John is saying, I'm writing so you will believe, but I'm not asking you to simply believe these words.

I'm asking you to believe what we have seen.

John's answer to who is Jesus is God who came near.

Who is Jesus?

He's God who came near.

John's not asking us to admire Jesus from a distance.

He wants us to come close.

The same way that Jesus came close to us.

He's asking us to deal with and wrestle with a testimony of someone who was with him.

It's built on witness.

Look, the entire Christian faith.

Everything that you say you believe as a follower of Jesus is predicated on the reality that Jesus is God in the flesh.

Everything.

It rises and falls on Jesus being God in the flesh.

Do you believe that?

Do you believe that today?

Look, if you're here this morning and you're like, I'm not, I don't know.

I'm not sure if I believe that.

It's been a long time, Jake.

I heard this as a kid, but I I really haven't come back to it in a long time.

I don't really know.

Or maybe you're here today and you've never heard the gospel, you've never heard the message of Jesus.

I want you to wrestle with it.

I'm so glad you're here.

I'm so glad you're here.

It's important for you to wrestle with that.

And we would love nothing more than to come alongside you and walk through some of these questions that you have with you.

We would love to walk through this with you.

That's why we're here.

It's what we do.

But for those of us who do confess that Jesus is Lord, we believe it with our words.

I wonder if we always live it out with our lives.

And so if that's you this morning, and maybe you think to yourself, yeah, I mean, I'm pretty sure I do.

I think I do.

I'm fairly certain.

I want to offer up a couple of suggestions.

Some things that I would just say is maybe a stopdoing list.

Doesn't mean that anybody in the room is doing any of these.

Certainly doesn't mean that anybody in the room is doing all of these, but maybe, just maybe, one or two of these will resonate with you.

The first thing that if we truly believe and live as if Jesus is our Lord, we've got to stop reducing Jesus to an emergency contact.

We've got to stop reducing him to an emergency contact.

Somebody that we just hear about, know a little bit about, and we call on when we have a problem.

Now, rest assured, does Jesus want to hear from you when you're going through a crisis?

Absolutely.

Absolutely, but he wants more than that.

He doesn't want to just be the person on speed dial when you're going through a crisis.

He wants to be the Lord of your entire life, good and bad.

There is no amount of distance that you and your kids could have from one another that when they called you in need of help that you wouldn't answer.

Absolutely, and God does every single time, but he wants more than that.

We've also got to stop reducing Jesus to a consultant, somebody that we just sit down with and like, you know what, I've got some thoughts.

Uh I'm I'm making a decision here.

I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do, but I'm gonna sit down with somebody and I'm gonna have a couple of conversations.

I'm gonna ask a mentor and maybe a coworker, and I'll you know, dabble some Jesus in there, maybe a little bit of scripture.

Jesus should be the first.

We shouldn't look for scripture to authenticate what we want to do.

We should look to scripture to inform what we do.

That's who Jesus is, and that's what Jesus wants from us.

We've got to stop reducing Jesus to a therapist.

Sometimes we think we just need to lay down on the sofa and just give him all of our grievances.

And absolutely, does God want us to bring our burdens to him?

Yes.

Jesus tells us, bring your burdens to me.

My burden is easy, my yoke is light.

He wants us to lay them down at his feet, but he's also gonna confront us on the things that we're dealing with.

He's also gonna tell us the truth about the things that we're dealing with.

He's also going to tell us to take up our cross daily and follow him.

We've also got to stop treating Jesus as a mascot for our ideologies, our personal preferences, draping Jesus and whatever preference we have or whatever ideology we have.

Jesus is not a poster boy, he's not a billboard, he's not somebody that we treat as a mascot, he is the Lord of our lives.

We've got to stop reducing Jesus to Sunday.

It's so easy to do.

It's so easy to do.

Reduce him to a Sunday.

You're here this morning.

Check, check that box, I'm good.

He deserves more than just one hour on your calendar or a couple of hours on your calendar every Sunday.

He wants to be the Lord of every aspect of your life, of every hour, of every moment of your calendar.

So where?

Where have you reduced Jesus?

Maybe something I didn't mention.

Where is it?

Something is coming to mind.

Where is it in your life that you've reduced Jesus?

Have you reduced him to somebody that you admire but that you don't necessarily obey?

Have you reduced him to somebody that you pray to?

And I'll talk to you, but I don't necessarily follow?

Have you reduced him to somebody that you sing to or sing about, maybe even this morning, but you don't necessarily surrender your life to?

Is Jesus somebody that you include in your life, but don't necessarily center your life around?

He's so much more.

He's so much more than that, y'all.

He's bigger.

He's bigger.

Jesus is impossible to ignore because of who he is.

He is the word.

He is the word who was with God.

He is the word who was God.

He was there in the beginning, the author of our story.

He is life.

We find life and find it to the full in him.

He is the light of the world.

We sang this a moment ago.

We know him by a thousand names.

And he deserves every single one of them.

We know him by a thousand names, but the most important one is Lord, Lord of our lives.

So for you today, maybe the most important question is not, do I respect Jesus?

Maybe it's not, do I like Jesus?

Maybe it's not even do I agree with some of Jesus' teachings?

Maybe the most important question for you today as you leave this place and go back to wherever it is you're going today.

Is who is the Jesus you've actually been following?

Who is the Jesus you've actually been following?

I don't know if that came, there it is.

Who is the Jesus you've actually been following?

It is so easy.

It's so easy for us to follow a Jesus that we've constructed ourselves while still reducing the Jesus that John introduced us to.

Don't treat Jesus like a buffet.

Don't treat your faith like a buffet.

You pull these parts and leave these parts.

He deserves more.

He deserves to be the Lord of your life, every aspect.

Jesus is impossible to ignore.

And so with that truth in mind, there is only one appropriate response.

And that response is to worship him.

And so that's what we're going to do.

We're going to wrap up our time together worshiping our Heavenly Father.

Because maybe, maybe, just maybe for all of us, Jesus, God, our Lord, is just a little bit bigger than we've given him credit for.

Maybe he's a little bit bigger than we thought that he was.

Our band's going to come out, they're going to lead us through one more song.

I'm going to invite you to stand.

I'd love for you to stand.

I'm going to pray for us, and then we're going to sing together.

Let's bow our heads and pray to our Lord.

Heavenly Father, God, we just thank you so much for Jesus.

Thank you.

Father, there's really nothing else that we need to say, nothing else we can say.

Nothing we could say will ever express the gratitude that we have for you sending your Son into our lives to die for us.

Our only response to that today, God, is to confess that He is Lord, to confess it with our lips and live it out.

To live our lives in a manner that is worthy of what you've called us to.

So, Father, wherever this lands for us today, whether it's the first time we've ever heard it or we've heard it all of our lives, God, I pray that we would be different, that we would be changed, that we would be encouraged and inspired to not just believe you are God, but to live as if we believe it.

Thank you for your love.

Thank you for the intentional way in which you enter into our lives.

You care about every intimate detail and you love us in spite of it.

Forgive us where we've fallen short.

And may we leave today changed, living fully for you as our Lord.

Thank you for being so much bigger than we thought you were, Father.

And we pray all of this in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus.

Amen.