Life of the Party

We started a series uh a few weeks ago, and it's kind of an interesting name.

Uh it's uh it's actually something very tied to the history of our church.

So the fact that this is 20 years in is is meaningful.

It's a series called Party.

Party.

If you showed up here 20 years ago, you would have seen a banner on our building that said party on Sunday.

We had t-shirts that said I party on Sunday.

That was like our theme in our early days.

Now, some people got really bothered by that, some people got very offended.

I happen to be a strong believer in the idea that as a Jesus follower, you should be the hardest person to offend in the world.

Like if you actually believe that all of your sins have been forgiven, that despite everything you've ever done, said, or thought, God looks at you and he says, I've wiped it all away, I love you, I died for you, you're my child.

We should be the hardest people in the world to offend.

But sometimes we're not.

And some people got really offended because they thought we were being flippant about our faith or something like that, trying to be cool.

And no, not at all.

No, that was a statement, that was a declaration that we were going to be a church that understood the importance of joy and celebration, and we were going to enjoy our relationship with God.

Like, sue us.

We enjoy the fact that we are loved deeply by God.

And when we get together on Sundays, there should be a celebration of that.

That's what we did.

And so from the very beginning, when I came here, that was actually challenging for me.

Like, some of you, depending on how you were raised, maybe you were raised in a way where having fun at church isn't easy for you.

Like that's normal.

Some of us were like, that's I don't know if I'm allowed to.

Some of us were raised in such a way, if you grew up in a certain type of church, you're like, can I I can smile?

I can laugh?

You know, like, is this okay?

This was the first place that I was actually taught the discipline of joy.

And it is actually a discipline.

It's actually a fruit of the spirit.

We read this last week.

Galatians chapter 5, 22 through 23 lays out for us the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

The idea of this is these are the things that should be growing in your life if you are connected to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit's working through you through your faith in Jesus Christ.

And it starts with this love.

And then it's joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control.

Now, these are not listed in order of importance, but I also don't think the order is arbitrary either.

Like I shared last week, as Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit and wrote this, the first thing that came to his mind when he thought of the fruit of the Spirit, what is the evidence of God's work in your life?

It's love.

What comes after that?

Oh, joy.

And self-control is on there, and self-control is vital and it's important.

And we teach that.

We have to live in control of our impulses.

Otherwise, we're just a slave to our desires and our passions, and that never works out.

But I don't know about you, I grew up in churches that very much prioritize self-control over joy.

For sure.

Self-control was celebrated far more than joy or peace.

And the reality is they're they're all fruit of the Spirit.

So when Steve and Susan Craig started this church, they were like, we're gonna be a place that celebrates the love that God has for us.

And it's been like that since the beginning.

So we we party on Sunday.

And I love that.

In fact, it's amazing how often you find, if you read the scriptures, Jesus at a party.

Like so many of the big moments in his life, he's having dinner with someone, he's a guest at some at some event, he's eating with people, he's having fun with people, he's enjoying life with people.

God is actually a God who loves joy.

In fact, sometimes, you know, God, especially like Old Testament, gets this bad rap for being, you know, just harsh and hard.

And no my have you ever read Leviticus?

Show of hands, who's read Leviticus in its entirety?

Show of hands if it's your favorite book of the Bible.

Yeah, you start reading Leviticus, it's like there's a lot of every chapter sort of has a theme, and it's kind of like sin offerings, grain offerings, uh, the how to offer animals as a sacrifice, and then it's like ritualistic cleansing, you know, everyone's favorite category.

I just love me some ritualistic cleansing.

That's a blast.

Let's read about that.

You know, dietary laws.

Oh man, I mean, who has not just turned the page excited about the dietary laws?

You know what I'm saying?

Like that's what it is.

But when you get to Leviticus chapter 23, it's an entire chapter devoted to God commanding people to celebrate.

Leviticus 23 · chapter mention

I'm not going to read the entirety of Leviticus 23, but verses 1 through 4, it says, The Lord said to Moses, give the following instructions to the people of Israel.

These are the Lord's appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly.

You have six days each week for your ordinary work.

But the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly.

It is the Lord's Sabbath day and must be observed wherever you live.

In addition to the Sabbath, these are the Lord's appointed festivals, the days for holy assembly that are to be celebrated at their proper times each year.

And then, by the way, they get seven, seven festivals a year.

Seven.

Like, here's what this means, guys.

God, number one, God invented the day off.

Can we thank him for that?

God invented weekends.

Like, you have God to thank for that.

Because, you know, we can laugh at it.

In the ancient world, the idea of taking a day off was crazy.

Everyone is just struggling to survive.

You work to eat.

The idea of like just stop for one day every week is nuts.

But God's like, no, you're gonna rest.

I want you to rest.

And then God gives them seven.

Like he's commanding them to have a good time.

I command you to have seven parties a year, take time off work, eat good food.

You know what I'm saying?

Like he commands them to celebrate.

God loves joy.

That's why the scriptures say the joy of the Lord is our strength.

That's in Nehemiah chapter 8.

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

That's why Jesus prayed in the garden and said, Lord, I'm doing this so that they will be filled with my joy.

So it is, I'm just saying, in case you weren't here in the early days, it's okay to party on Sunday.

Now, I'm gonna test real quick our familiarity with parties.

Don't worry, I'm not gonna make any of us uh admit what we did last night.

Okay, we're good.

Um but but let's let's let's test our our our understanding of party vernacular together.

And this I'm gonna start with an easy one, okay?

This is a little bit of back and forth, okay?

So let's say someone is not invited to a party, but they show up uninvited.

We would call that person a party crasher.

Okay, you guys have got this.

You're good.

I just keep this going.

Let's say someone um okay, let's let's use it.

Let's say someone likes to party, and you know, they don't get out of control necessarily, but they just real they enjoy having a good time, and when they show up, they they're all in.

They might say, and this rhymes by the way, they might say, I like to party hardy.

Look at you guys.

Party hardy.

I love it.

Let's say someone takes that a step further, they don't just party hardy, they are like uncontrollable, and when they show up, the cops might get called.

They might be called a party animal.

Raise your hand if you know a party animal.

Raise your hand if you are a party animal.

No, it's all right.

Dude, I had a really good friend named Andy in college, and he was that.

When Andy showed up at a party, it was like there was a good chance.

Security, at the very least, was getting called.

Maybe the cops.

Ironically, after we graduated, he became a police officer.

Um, not ironically, he was fired within a month.

That's a true story.

So, do you guys want to know how he got fired?

Alright, I'll tell you.

This isn't gossip because he could listen to this and he knows that it's 20 years ago.

We're good.

Uh, he was a state patrolman and he called in as a prank a fake fatality accident.

An ambulance just showed up, and they were like, You're fired.

And he remembered he told us the story.

He's like, Can you believe they fired me for that?

We were like, Yes.

Like, this isn't super troopers, Andy.

Like, this is a real job.

Which coincidentally was his favorite movie.

And so um he learned that the hard way.

But he was a party animal.

All right, let's say someone is the opposite of a party animal.

They're the person that shows up, and they're the buzzkill, and if they're there, the whole party is just down.

We would call them a party.

Now, can we just appreciate the fact that I'm pretty sure I'm the first pastor in history to get a thousand people to say the word pooper out loud on a Sunday?

Like, I think that that matters.

This whole thing was just a setup for that moment.

Um, no.

No, one more.

There's another type of person, and and they're not a parting animal, right?

It's not even that they they party hardy.

It's when they're there, when they show up, everything is better.

Like they are the what?

Life of the party.

They are the life of the party.

John chapter 2.

John 2 · chapter mention

Jesus is at a party, a celebration.

It says, The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee.

Jesus' mother was there, and his disciples were also invited to the celebration.

The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus' mother told him, They have no more wine.

Dear woman, that is not our problem, Jesus replied.

I love the fact that Jesus has back and forth with his mom.

I think that gives all of us permission to have back and forth with our parents, but it does not give my children to have back and forth with me.

Uh, that's the way I interpret that.

No, no, that's great.

Dear woman, this is not our problem.

But his mother told the servants, this is bold.

Do whatever he tells you.

Standing nearby were six stone water jars used for Jewish ceremonial washing.

Each could hold 20 to 30 gallons.

Jesus told the servants, fill the jars with water.

And when the jars had been filled, he said, Now dip some out and take it to the master of ceremonies.

So the servants followed his instructions.

And when the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from, though of course the servants knew, he called the bridegroom over.

A host always serves the best wine first.

He said, then when everyone's had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine.

But you have kept the best until now.

This miraculous sign in Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

Now, you want to talk about being the life of the party.

Okay?

And I'm not just being facetious and look, alcohol is involved.

I know that there's a lot of us that have come through recovery, and we can have great respect for that, but the reality is Jesus' first miracle.

First miracle ever.

First public miracle was not at a church service, it wasn't at a funeral, and it wasn't to heal a hurting person, which he did over and over again.

Blind people, people who couldn't walk, people who couldn't hear, he healed them.

He raised people from the dead.

But his first miracle, the very first time he went public, he was at a party.

And the party was about to hit a snag.

And Jesus used his faith and his miraculous power, however you want to describe it, to make a hundred and fifty.

I did the math in my head, probably wrong.

That is the equivalent, by the way.

I did this last night, some research.

It's about 700 bottles of wine.

Yeah.

That's the guy you invite to the party, right?

That's the one you're like.

After after that, everyone's like, I'm getting missed.

Jesus, is he coming to this?

You know, no, I'm just joking.

But no, think about that.

And here's the there's so many things we could examine there.

I mean, we could have a whole series on this and the dialogue he has with his mother, it's not my time yet, but then he sort of obeys his mom.

He recognizes, he honors her in that way.

He shows tremendous compassion because for this couple it would have been unbelievably embarrassing to run out of wine at your wedding.

I mean, this was something you were supposed to be prepared for this, and they clearly were not, and so there's all kinds of layers to this.

I love the fact that the wine he made was really good.

There's a lot of it, 700 bottles.

That's a lot, 150 gallons of wine.

I don't know how many people were there, but it wasn't like he just went and topped everyone's glass off one time.

There's plenty.

But it's also amazing.

Like the guy in charge of the party is like, this is the best wine I've ever tasted.

And oftentimes in life we are left with a choice, and the choice is either quantity or quality, and with Jesus, you get both.

And I love that.

With Jesus, it's not just one or the other, it is quantity and quality.

There's so many layers to this, but at the end of the day, Jesus used his power to bless a group of people as they were celebrating one of the best parts of life.

Jesus is the life of the party.

That is not an understatement, that's not just a clever use of words.

He is the life of the party.

In fact, Jesus is just life itself.

John chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

John 14:6

No one can come to the Father except through me.

John 10, 10.

The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.

My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Some translations you may be more familiar with say to give them life and life to the full, or some translations say life and life abundant, but it's both.

It's just it's life and then more life.

A different type of life.

John 6.35, Jesus says, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.

Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

John chapter 4, verse 10.

John 4:10

If you only knew the gift that God has for you, and who you're speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.

And a few verses later he says, Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.

It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.

John 3 6, Jesus says to Nicodemus, humans can produce only human life.

But the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

John 3.16, for this is how God loved the world.

He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.

Eternal life.

I'm the bread of life, I'm the resurrection and the life is another thing that he said to a dear friend of his named Martha.

He says, I have the keys to life itself.

I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life.

I offer you eternal life.

He claims to be life, he claims to offer life.

And that's a strange concept, right?

Like, if you walked up to someone today and said, Hey, I offer you life, what would they say in response?

How would you like some life today?

I feel like I already have it.

Last time I checked, I'm very much alive.

But Jesus, he's offering something unique.

It's not just more of the same.

In fact, uh scripture will give different language to it later on.

You have the Apostle Paul in Ephesians wrote, Once you were dead, because of your disobedience and your many sins.

Once you were dead.

But God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

It is only by God's grace that you've been saved.

What's going on?

Jesus claims to be life itself.

He claims to offer us life.

And Paul would go on to say that apparently, and this might be a news flash for some of us, we used to be dead.

And now Jesus has brought us to life.

There's a really well-known Bible commentator, and I don't have this in my notes, but it's on the screen.

And this is something that he actually described.

This is how he he put it, talking about the life that Jesus offers us.

He said, Eternal life is life which knows something of the serenity and power of the life of God Himself.

There is in Jesus that which gives security in this life and in the life to come.

And he goes on to say this until we accept Jesus and take him as our Savior and enthrone him as our King, we cannot be said to live at all.

Those who live Christless lives exist, but they do not know what life is.

Jesus is the one person who can make life worth living, and in whose company death is only the prelude to fuller life.

There is a kind of life, there is a quality of life that Jesus offers us, and it's wholly different from what most people call life.

That's why Jesus walked around and told living people that he was there to give them life.

If someone tells you that they offer you life when you're alive, either they're crazy or they mean something different than what you might think life is.

That there are there are levels to life, and what Jesus is offering us is the best kind of life that we could have.

Now, I'm gonna uh I'm gonna use a whiteboard for the rest of this because I want to lay out for us, I think, some different levels of life that we all uh have the opportunity to experience, but only one is possible with Jesus.

And so, Steve, if you wouldn't mind bringing that out for me, buddy, that would be a huge help.

Let's hear it for Steve.

Steve, uh Steve confessed that he was nervous he was gonna trip on his way out this morning.

And so far, Steve, so far so good.

I mean, many of us would like to see you trip, but no, we're good.

Hey man, love you.

All right.

All right, so full disclosure, I'm left-handed, my handwriting is terrible, but we're gonna do our best.

We're gonna do our best here.

All right.

Let's talk about let's talk about life for a second and the types of life that we can all have.

We're gonna go with the first one, level one.

We're just gonna call this basic life.

Again, left how many of you are left-handed, by the way?

It's hard, right?

We grew up in a right-handed world.

This is tough.

So the handwriting, before you judge me, just know that every teacher taught me backwards.

Um, all right, basic life, and I think there's another word we could call, and this is just existence.

It is possible to be alive and not live.

Is that track?

It's possible to just be here.

And that's actually kind of how we start.

I mean, let's be honest.

No, no baby is living their best life.

Right?

I mean, I love children, they're cute and they're adorable.

I'm not knocking kids, but they're just kind of there.

That's why, as a parent, those of you who have young children, like if you have newborns, I know you're not getting much sleep, but trust me, it's gonna get a lot harder.

Because, like, like right now, you can just kind of put them there and they're just there.

You can put them on the ground, you can go make yourself a sandwich.

When you get back, they're there.

It's when you put them down and they're not where you left them that life gets really, really hard.

Like that first moment as a parent where you turn your head and you're like, what where is the baby?

You know?

And maybe the dads, maybe we do that more, I don't know.

Um, but there's a way to live life, and it's just it's just existence.

You're just you're just there.

And actually, what's crazy about our world is it's possible to live this kind of life as an adult.

It's possible just to be here.

And sometimes this sort of life even gets celebrated, like I'm just surviving, I'm just hanging on, I'm just trying to get by.

Like, no, that's not what you're meant for.

We're never told in scripture that we are survivors, that what God offers us is the chance just to hang on.

In fact, in Romans, we are told that we are more than what?

Some of you guys know this.

More than conquerors.

That whatever life throws at us, we conquer that kind of life.

So that's what the author that I just referenced was saying, that a life without Jesus, it's existence.

You can exist for a century and never really live.

And Jesus is not offering us existence, he's offering us a different type of life.

Now, let's go the second category.

Um, we'll call this like a busy life.

Okay?

This is a life where we're be we're being productive.

How many of you would describe your life right now as busy?

Yeah, that's what we mean when someone asks us how we're doing and we say good, we mean busy.

How are you doing?

Good.

That's when I say good, I mean I have I have no idea what day it is.

I don't even know what's going on.

Um I guess just living life.

I'm driving one kid here, another kid there, and I'm forgetting appointments all the time, and I'm just like, oh, my bad, okay.

You know, you know you're living that life when you go to like, at least for me, when you're really busy, and you have children, and you just you take them to the dentist and the doctor, and they all you just feel judged.

Because they say things like, Oh, you haven't been here in a while.

I'm like, Yeah, that's true.

What if we don't do that at our church?

What if we walked up to you and guys, oh, you're here, huh?

Well, it's been a minute.

You know what I mean?

We don't do that to you.

But I've had I've had dentists be like, oh, we've seen, it's been it's been a year and a half.

Yeah, their teeth are all there, the ones that are supposed to be, okay?

They're brushing them mostly.

Like, we're good, okay?

Just do the thing.

But sometimes our lives are so busy.

We have so much going on.

Hey, this is better than just existing, because at least we're doing something.

We're productive.

That's a good thing.

We want to be Productive in life.

But you also have to be careful because it's easy to stop at this season of life and just be busy.

But in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus is telling a parable about those who receive his word.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

And he uses these different types of soil to represent how fruitful someone's life is in terms of their ability to live the life that God has for them, to receive his message, his gospel, his truth, and produce fruit in their lives.

And the fourth soil is what you want.

Like it's so it's fertile soil.

And the seed takes root and it grows and it produced a huge harvest.

But the third soil is like the most tragic because it's almost there.

But in Matthew 13, Jesus describes this.

He says, the seed that fell among the thorns, that's the third soil in this analogy.

He says it represents those who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth.

So no fruit is produced.

In other words, these are people who hear the truth about God and they receive it gladly and they believe in it, but they're so busy.

And even with good things.

Life is so dominated by the worries of life, the cares of this world, all the things that have to get done, and all the goals that you have to meet.

And he actually says the lure of wealth.

Just the obsession with, do I have enough and how do I get more?

And all of that kind of stuff, that that stuff can choke out the kind of life that God wants us to have.

Can anyone relate to that, by the way?

Can any of us just admit that, like, yeah, I've been so busy that I haven't even, I mean, okay, it's just me.

It's me and five other people.

Okay, yeah.

You know, it's it's easy.

I remember when I was like in my college days, I felt like I would look at this and be like, man, I'll never be that person.

You know, because when you're, I don't know, when you're broke, it's a lot easier to not worry about money in some ways.

Especially when you're broke and you live on a college campus and food just shows up in the cafeteria, you're like, you know, you're not really broke in that scenario.

But then you get married or or you get a real job and you gotta produce, you gotta, you gotta work hard, and there's setbacks and there's challenges, and and then you know, if you're like me and you have four kids and they have dreams and you have to try to fund that, you know.

It's like I'm kind of we raised ambitious children, and I'm mad about that.

Like, I wish I could have read, just just settle.

Just I read kids who are just cool.

No, no, I'm teasing.

But like, you know, your kids, they have desires, and as a parent, you're like, yes, let's do it.

And then how much does that cost?

Oh, sure, we're fine.

We'll we'll figure it out.

And pretty soon you find yourself so busy, so preoccupied with all the stuff.

And it's not the most important stuff, but it's the stuff that's right now, it's urgent, it's right here.

And if you're not careful, the God stuff goes out of the equation pretty fast.

And I'm just telling you, I know I've said this before, it's one of the reasons I'm very grateful that I work here.

Because I have to be here every week.

I have no option.

I'm here, and I think that's a grace for my life because I know that in certain seasons of life I have been so busy and so preoccupied that I wonder, like, man, where would I have been there?

I'd love to say, oh, I would have never missed.

I would have been, you know, I don't know.

I have tremendous compassion for people who are here because I'm here a lot and it's hard.

And I think we can all admit this is not the pinnacle of life, right?

Like, what's the greatest life you can live?

Busy.

I guess it's better than being bored.

But this can't be it.

There's there's another level that we can get to, and I'm gonna call this the good life.

When you're living the good life.

And we might say on this one, this is like the hashtag blessed, you know, when you see this online.

Like it what it means is that you know, you're you're busy, you're doing stuff, you're productive, but it's working.

It's going well.

And a lot of you, you're here right now.

You're like, life's pretty good.

It's going great.

I'm working hard and I'm I'm doing the things that I'm meant to do, and it's it's working out for me, and I'm I've got enough in the bank account, and I've got friends, and I've got, you know, everything's going pretty well.

I enjoy what I do, all those kind of things.

It's working.

You're living the good life, and that's a good thing.

I don't know anyone who aspires to a mediocre life.

I don't know anyone who's like, what kind of life do you want to have?

Yeah, you're just one of those mid-level lives.

No one wants that.

In fact, there was a really famous commercial, one of the most famous and successful commercials that's ever been produced.

It was during the Super Bowl around the year 2000.

It was for a website called monster.com.

I don't even know if that website's still around.

And I don't know why they chose that as their website name.

I really don't.

Uh my kids are starting to ask me those questions.

My kids saw a commercial for GoDaddy the other day, and they were like, What's GoDaddy?

It's like, what's where you buy website domains?

Like, why is it named GoDaddy?

I don't, I don't know.

But you'll never forget that name.

So maybe that's what it was.

Monster.com was about finding a new job, and they had this commercial, and it was children.

And it was children looking at the camera and saying, When I grow up, I want to eke my way to middle management.

You know, as this kid is like, when I grow up, I'm gonna be a brown noser.

Like there were all these kind of things.

And it struck this chord with the entire nation because all of a sudden it was like the juxtaposition of children who are supposed to have dreams and hopes.

Like, I want to be an astronaut.

You know, kids have stupid dreams like that sometimes.

I was at my one of my children's, no joke, I was at one of my children's preschool graduation, which let's just think about that concept.

Preschool graduation, and six kids said they were gonna be astronauts, and I promise you, none of them are gonna be astronauts.

Not one of them.

I look I looked at them.

There's a certain type of kid an astronaut is that was not one of those kids.

Okay?

I'm just being honest.

I'm just being honest.

I know people who are almost astronauts, not those kids.

All right, so I'm just being silly.

I really am just being silly.

They're great kids, but kids want to do they have big dreams, big goals.

Like, they'll they'll my my oldest once told me that when he retires from the NBA, he might like to do my job.

Now just imagine, imagine that for a second.

You know, I think when I'm done with my main thing, I might be a pastor.

Like, okay.

Kids have dreams, and so when that commercial came out and it was the children who were supposed to say, When I grew up, I want to be an astronaut, I want to play in the NBA, and instead it's I want to be a middle manager, it's like it stirred something inside of people because they're like, I'm not living the good life.

And just the number of visits to that website skyrocketed because something inside of us is like, ah, so it's good to be here, but you have to be careful.

Because it's very easy to settle for this, and this is not the highest level of life.

In fact, this can in some ways be a trap.

There's a very famous parable that Jesus tells about a wealthy man in Luke chapter 12, verse 16.

Luke 12:16

It says, Then he told him a story, a rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops.

He said to himself, What should I do?

I don't have room for all my crops.

Then he said, I know.

I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and then I'll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods.

And I'll sit back and say to myself, My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come.

Now take it easy, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said to him, You fool, you will die this very night, and then who will get everything you worked for?

Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth, but not have a rich relationship with God.

It is possible to be lulled into sort of a false sense of security by the good life.

Because in a moment, this can change.

And I know many of us have experienced that.

Many of us have been living the good life, everything is going great, and then what can happen, right?

In a moment.

A tragedy, a diagnosis, a setback, you lose your job, something in your personal life just sort of blows up, and you go from the good life to something very different, very, very fast.

This is great, but it is fragile and it is fleeting.

All of us will experience pain.

All of us will experience heartache and challenge.

And so this is great, and we want this, and I hope I hope you guys are here.

I really do, or close or working toward it, great.

But you can't stop here because there's another level.

And we would call this the God life.

And Jesus calls this eternal life.

Now, there you go.

Yeah, I spelled that right.

It just looks, it looks weird.

That looks like etemel, but that's an R and an N.

Don't worry about it.

Left-handed.

Okay.

Eternal life.

And this is something so much more than just life that goes on forever.

That's how we tend to think of it, right?

When we think of eternal life, we're sort of programmed to think eternal life.

That's I live forever with God in heaven.

And yes, absolutely.

But remember, with Jesus, you don't have to choose between quantity and quality.

Okay?

You get both with Jesus.

Eternal life is not just life that lasts forever, it's not just an enhanced quantity of life.

Eternal life is a whole different kind of life.

It is the God life in your life right now.

In fact, in Scripture, that word eternal, that adjective, is very often used to describe God Himself.

God is described as the eternal God.

And it's not just describing the quantity of years that he exists.

It's not just describing his infinite nature, it's describing the fact that he is completely different, set apart.

He is eternal.

It is a, it's an adjective that really does mean the quality of God.

And that we are meant to have eternal life inside of us.

Jesus, right, he said to the woman at the well, a rich bubbling spring within you, a different type of life, a different quality of life, a kind of life that makes you see everything differently, a kind of life that allows you to handle situations that would break most people, but you're able to work through it, to get through it, and not just to survive and hang on, but to actually flourish and have hope.

And I will tell you that as a pastor, I get to see the God life on display all the time.

I got to see it this week when Arthur called me.

I just mentioned earlier as we prayed.

I'm talking to a man, a friend of mine.

I've known Arthur for 15 years.

In fact, I'll never forget the first time I met Arthur, he was sitting back there in that section of you guys right back there, and I thought he was a guy new named Chip.

He's not Chip.

But I walked up to him, I was like, Chip! Chip! And he looked at me, and then I realized that's not Chip.

And I said, You're not Chip.

And he goes, No, I'm Arthur.

And that's how our relationship started.

So Arthur and I, we've we've spent a lot of time together, we've had a lot of meals together, we've prayed together.

He loves his kids, he's a phenomenal father.

And I know right now he's going through something incredibly hard, but on the phone, this was not a broken man.

This was not an angry man.

And none of us would blame him, by the way, for that.

I'm sure there's moments.

But I was not on the phone with a man who was living the good life and had it crashed and ruined by tragedy.

I was talking to a man who's living the God life.

And even in the midst of so much hurt and challenge, he has hope and he has this quality of joy and peace, and it doesn't make sense.

That's why the Bible says that God gives us a peace that surpasses all understanding.

It's not the good life, it's the God life.

That's eternal life.

It's just that in my role I get to see it all the time, and it's challenging and inspiring at the same time.

It's Matt who led us in worship this morning.

We have two Matt's that lead us in worship.

Um we'll go with Matt number two because he got here after Matt number one.

So Matt number two led us today.

Matt number one was with the youth.

No, Matt, Matt Whitlow, and he's married to Eliza, who's also on our worship team.

And Matt and Eliza, I've known Eliza since she was in the sixth grade.

I was her youth pastor, and I love just being led in worship by her.

It's so much fun.

And I've shared this story before, but Matt and Eliza, they recently had a baby.

We actually did a baby dedication for him just a few weeks back.

It was wonderful.

Their baby Merrick, he's awesome.

But in the year before Merrick was born, before they had Merrick, they had three miscarriages.

Three.

And the entire time they they never took a Sunday off of worship.

And we asked them to, our worship team, they're all volunteers.

And so we were like, hey guys, just no, like you're going through so much.

You know, it's especially number two, number three, you're going through, come on, like just, and I'll never forget what it was like to listen to them say, no, no, no, no, no.

We need to worship God through this.

I remember a Sunday, and I'm just making this up.

I remember a Sunday where I was sitting next to an amazing woman here that goes to his hands named Ida, and she had lost her husband.

I'd done her husband's funeral a short time before, like the week before, and she came to church.

And I'm standing next to her.

We're singing a song that is saying, You are good, over and over again.

You are good, you are good, you are good.

And it's Eliza that's leading it.

And so here's this girl who's gone through three miscarriages, singing out, God is good, you are good, you are good.

And I'm standing next to a woman who just lost her husband and she's singing, You are good.

And I'm like, this is different.

That is not the good life.

That's the God life.

The ability to worship God and cling to God and have hope, even in the midst of personal loss and tragedy.

That's that's the God life.

That's eternal life.

That's living is more than a conquer.

That's why Paul said, you know what?

We are pressed, but we are not crushed.

We are persecuted, we are not abandoned, right?

We are not destroyed through Christ.

We are more than conquerors because we have the God life inside of us.

We have eternal life, and nothing can change that.

Nothing can stop that.

Jesus did not come to give us more of the same.

He came to give us a whole different kind of life.

And that's what we're supposed to live with.

And I will tell you, if you're a believer, you have that, by the way.

Now there's a difference between having something and using it.

Like you can have something and not use it at all.

I know, because I have a calendar app on my phone.

It's there.

My wife, we have an app called Skylight.

Some of you might use Skylight.

My wife has programmed our entire life into that.

And I will still come to her and go, hey babe, what time is that thing tomorrow?

And she's like, You have the Skylight app.

It's on your phone.

I've put it all in there.

And I'm like, Yeah, I know, but what time do we need to be there tomorrow?

I've never opened it.

I don't even know what the app looks like.

I don't even know what it looks like.

And it's not me being a jerk.

I just it doesn't cross my mind.

You can have something and not use it.

I do it all the time.

You can have intelligence and not use it.

You can have wisdom and not use it.

You can have the eternal life because it's been given to you, it's a gift.

You can have it and not use it.

You can settle for existence.

You can settle for busy, you can settle for good, or you can have the God life.

And Jesus came to people left and right.

He said, I come to give you eternal life, something totally different.

And if we accept it, and if we live it, life is, I'm not just trying to be facetious, it is a party.

It is a celebration.

Life is a joy, even when it's hard.

Even when it's hard, it's a joy.

It's a gift.

It's beautiful.

It's good, but like really, really good.

And so when Jesus says, I offer you life, it's not just quantity.

This isn't just heaven one day.

This is right now.

It's a whole different type of life.

It is quality, it is good, and it is yours.

The question is, will you choose it?

Will you refuse to settle for anything less?

Will you have the ability to look within yourself and do some honest self-reflection and recognize, oh, I'm living this life.

That's not what God has for me.

I'm living this life.

Maybe it's it, I don't know which one it is, but if it's anything less than this, just be like, I will not settle for that.

And you go to God and you say, Lord, you can't do this on your own, by the way.

This is not by your own effort.

It's a gift.

This is through the power of the Holy Spirit.

You say, Lord, I recognize I'm not living this life, and I'm obviously supposed to.

That's what you promised me.

So help me.

Lord, change my views.

Show me a different way to think.

Lord, come into my heart, do some work, move things around, mess with me, rearrange everything.

I belong to you.

It's all open to you.

Do what you have to do, God, inside of me so that I can live this right now.

And I promise you, if that is the prayer of your heart, God will be faithful and He will do that in your life.

I promise you that.

He will.

So, with that in mind, and because I looked at the clock, we're gonna take Lord's supper.

You know, life is expensive.

I don't know if you guys know that.

Maybe you sense a little cynicism in me because I'm at this stage of life where uh, like I joked about my kids having dreams, you know, and it's like, well, they're dreams, they have expensive dreams.

That's just great.

I'm actually don't, I'm good.

It's all good.

We're good.

But the reality is life is expensive.

And I think the higher you go, the more expensive it is, right?

The basic life, it's you know, not that expensive to just be here.

Busier life gets, the more expensive it gets.

Good life that costs a lot, not just finances, it costs time, energy.

How much does the God life cost?

And the answer is everything.

That's what Jesus paid.

Everything.

The Apostle Paul would say in 1 Corinthians, don't forget that you were bought with a price.

And the price was the life in the blood of Jesus.

This life that we have, this is the beautiful part of it, we don't earn it.

We don't win it, we don't achieve it.

The God life you do not get by setting goals and reaching them.

I'm not saying that discipline and drive and effort aren't there and a part of that, sure.

But it doesn't come from your own ambition.

It doesn't come from seeing things that you want more of and going for it, going after it.

This is a life that is produced within you by the power of the Holy Spirit, is a life that has been purchased for you.

Which is amazing because it means if you want it, you got it.

It's yours.

This was the price.

This was the price, and he did it for us.

So we're gonna take Lord's Supper together.

If you're new, we do this every Sunday.

And if you miss these coming in, um, you can always grab one at the back four columns.

You're never gonna bother anybody by getting up and grabbing one, so feel free if you need to.

But it's a meal that Jesus took with his followers, and Jesus' followers like us have been doing it ever since.

And this bread, it represents the body of Jesus.

He said, This is my body.

And his body was given up as a sacrifice.

And then the juice represents represents blood, his blood.

And he took wine, he said, This is my blood.

And their understanding of blood was blood was was holy and pure, and and blood always represented life.

That's why even in the Old Testament, when God gave the priests instructions on how to make their garments, these beautiful garments, garments that were linen, and they even had like gold thread, when it was all made, they were supposed to sprinkle blood on it.

And we would look at that and go, You just ruined your shirt.

It's a stain, it's not.

That was consecrated, it was holy.

Blood was seen as life.

This is not death, it's connected to death.

But when we take this meal, we are not, we're reflecting on what Jesus did, but this is not a celebration of death.

This is a celebration of life, of eternal life, of a kind of life that death does not have authority over.

This is eternal life won for us, paid for us.

And the cost was great, so is the reward.

And so, with that said, let's take this bread and let's pray.

Father God, we thank you for this bread.

This is life, this is your life, Jesus, given for us, given to us, and through faith in you and the power of your spirit lived through us.

And as we take this, Lord, we want to thank you for giving us the God life, for offering us a whole new quality that we can never have apart from you, Lord.

Thank you.

Let's take the breath.

And now the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this cup.

This is your blood.

You paid an unimaginable price.

And we are grateful.

There's nothing else we can say, Lord, other than thank you.

Thank you, Jesus, and give within each of us the conviction and a commitment to never settle for anything less than eternal life.

To go way beyond existence and busyness and even blessings.

And to settle for nothing less than you.

We pray this in your name.

We love you, Jesus.

Amen.