Because He Is I Am

Hey y'all.

So if we haven't met, like you said, my name is Madison.

I'm the youth pastor here, honored and just blessed to lead the students, and thank you for trusting me.

I just want to say a big thank you to parents.

Thanks for forcing your kids to come to Youth Group.

Um Youth Group's been such a big part of my life and my journey with Jesus, and I grew up here, so I got to experience that here, and it's just such an honor to be able to kind of lead that and be part of that with y'all's kids.

So huge thank you to you guys.

Uh I know I look like I'm 14, but I I I grew the mustache to compensate for that.

And today I wanted to start with a story from when I was a much younger man.

And I know you're looking at me like, how much younger?

I can tell a story from 10 years ago and still be an adult, okay?

Like that that I'm I know I look young, but here, actually, I have a picture from one from 10 years ago.

This is me and Hannah.

Uh we we, I think, were dating and then got married soon after this.

Uh, same person.

That's exactly me today.

There's no difference except for the mustache.

If I shaved this off right now, it would just be like I look like a 19-year-old again.

So that's me around when the story happened, and I found myself mingling at Barnes and Noble.

Barnes and Noble is going the way of Blockbuster, but it still exists today.

And I was there shopping, hanging around, I love reading, and I had this awkward moment where I'm standing at those tables full of books, and across from me, there's an older gentleman who's making that eye contact thing where you know that he recognizes you.

Like you're you think you know me, but I have no idea who you could possibly be.

So he like keeps looking at me, keeps looking at me, and trying to look at, you know, great Gatsby or whatever's on the table.

And I kind of make eye contact with him, doing the like, it's okay to talk to me, eye contact.

And so he walks over to me and he says, Hey, did you work on that movie last summer?

And I said, No.

I don't think so.

Um, I was flattered that he thought that I looked like a movie star, that he was recognizing me.

Um he's like, No, you were you were with all of those extras that worked on that thing.

I said, No, definitely not me.

You've got me mistaken.

And he said something that's just such a sweet, such a sweet thing.

He said, uh, well, have you ever thought about it?

Because you definitely should.

And I was like, mmm, I you think, okay, this is nice, all right, this feels great.

And an old man at Barnes and Noble is complimenting me, saying that I have the looks and potentially chops to be in films.

This is great.

And I remember the moment just going, No, I I'm too I'm too busy.

I I just don't have time for something, something like that.

He's like, Shrugs his shoulders and moves away.

And I remember feeling in the moment very strange about answering that way because movies is that like interest for me that could be a hobby and potentially could be a career.

It's like in the back of my mind of like, my dream is to someday work on a film.

And uh guys, you you can probably relate to this, or at least hopefully.

Uh you think you can be a woodworker, right?

Like you just in the back of your mind, you're like, if I just bought a table saw and a lathe and stuck it in my garage, I could be a woodworker.

If I just had a neighbor that had a shop in his basement or whatever, I could go over there on Saturdays, he could teach me the ropes, and then I could be making tables, and people would eat their meals on the on the work that I provide.

Guys, do you guys recognize this feeling?

Okay, some of you do, okay.

Uh, ladies, I asked around because I didn't want to assume that I knew what you guys dream about and what the thing is, but all of the answers were kind of summed up in the wedding planner job.

It's just like one day I could pick out flowers, I could help with cakes, I could look at beautiful dresses.

So there's those dreams that are, you know, kind of stick in the back of your mind.

One day that hobby, that interest could turn into a hobby, that hobby could turn into a career.

And so movies is like that for me.

I'm so interested in movies.

Anytime any of you tell me that you work in the film industry, I'm like, what time do you have to get there on the set to set up the cameras?

Like, is that an hour before?

Is that like six hours before?

I texted a buddy who goes here, I said, Do they have showers on set for the extra actors?

Like, I know that Brad Pitt has a shower, of course he has a shower, but when they make like a military scene and there's like 40 people there all run through the mud, do you all get to shower?

Do you just have to go home in your muddy, muddy clothes?

And he's like, No, we do have showers.

I just love that.

So, anyways, I'm I'm getting distracted.

I could talk about movies all day.

So I was concerned.

I was like, why did I say that?

That was weird.

Um, I should have just talked to him about movies.

And then I was really disappointed because he turned around.

Again, older gentleman in a nice jean jacket, probably from the 80s.

He turns around and on the back of his jean jacket, embroidered beautifully, is the logo for Paramount Pictures.

I know.

I know.

This is like my missed opportunity.

This was my missed chance.

This was definitely a casting director for Paramount, and he's like, I was his rising undiscovered star, and he's like, gonna have this story, and my story was gonna be, yeah, I'm just flipping through some book at Barnes and Noble, and he just picked me out of the crowd, and I became a famous actor or whatever it was.

I don't think I'd be very good at acting, but point being, I would have handled that conversation extremely differently had I known who I was speaking to.

Had I known who I was speaking to, I would have at least considered it or opened up my schedule a little bit more.

But me and my 19-year-old brain, I thought, you know, I've got class on Saturday or a presentation of thing, I got this thing and that thing, I've made up excuses, but had I known that he had that Paramount logo embroidered on the back of his coat, I would have handled that conversation so differently.

And I think all of us do this.

When someone walks in the room and we know them, it adjusts the way that we behave, the way we speak, the way we act.

We even adjust who we are.

If someone who's very successful walks in, maybe it's at the party or the dinner that you're having, and that successful person who low key you're just actually jealous of and you wish you had the life that they had, you hear yourself almost compulsively just listing off your accomplishments to see if you can impress this person that you look up to.

Or maybe it's the opposite.

Maybe uh someone that's a big type A type person comes into the meeting and you know they've got good ideas and they're just a little stronger, so you shrink into the corner.

And even though you might know uh what the right thing to do is or how to add input or value to the meeting, you kind of shrink away because of the people that are in the room.

Today, what I'm hoping this conversation helps us do is embrace the healthy aspect of this.

And the healthy aspect is not us turning into little chameleons anytime someone else comes in, or uh if our circumstances change, our identity changes.

But our the healthy aspect of this is to recognize that the identity of God, that Jesus' identity, can drastically shape our identity.

And if we were changing the way we behave and the way we act and who we were based off who God is when he walks in the room, what would our life look like?

It would be unshakable.

It would be unshakable.

And so that's what I'm hoping to do.

And again, to do that, we actually have to know who we're talking about when we say God, because in a room this big, lots of us could have a very different perspective, very different experiences with God.

A lot of things are said about God that uh are true, and a lot of things are said about God that are untrue, and how do we discern the difference?

Luckily, we've got scripture.

Hebrews 1, 3 says this the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.

When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

Jesus is the exact image of God.

And so today we're gonna look at who Jesus is.

And the title of this message is called Because He Is, I Am.

Because God is This, I Am This.

And uh there's a rabbit hole that I don't have time to go down.

I had this originally in my notes, and I was like, this is an entire rabbit hole.

Uh the Exodus story where uh where God reveals to Moses that his name literally is I am, go tell them that I am that I am.

Uh, there's a whole rabbit hole to go down there, but we are just gonna look at the character, the personality, and the identity of Jesus.

Who is this man, Jesus?

This is a question that gathered crowds.

This is a question that stumped Pharisees, and this is the same question that on a stormy boat in the middle of uh the Sea of Galilee, uh the disciples were asking at the same time.

So Luke chapter 8, 24 through 25.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, Master, Master, we're going to drown.

When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves.

Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm, and he asked them, Where is your faith?

The disciples were terrified and amazed.

Who is this man?

They asked each other, when he gives a command, even the wind and waves obey him.

Luckily for us, Jesus gives us that answer.

Jesus tells us who is Jesus.

He gives us plenty of names for himself that we're gonna discuss today.

Uh, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are four books in the Bible that we call the Gospels.

These are biographies of Jesus that record everything he did and said in the time that he was teaching here on this earth.

We just spent the entire year going through the book of Matthew, so you should be very familiar with Matthew.

Matthew is written by uh one of the first followers of Jesus, and so is John.

Luke is actually a writing uh companion, a ministry companion of Paul, and uh he traveled with Paul, experienced the things that Jesus did through the Spirit, and Luke went through and interviewed a whole bunch of people to just get that picture out there of who is Jesus.

Don't know a lot about Mark, we just know he knew a lot about Jesus.

And so these biographies answer that question of who is Jesus.

If we are supposed to know who God is, and Jesus is revealed as the perfect picture of God, luckily he actually gives us who he is.

And he has seven I am statements in the book of John.

John records these for us so that we can know who he is, and Jesus tells us himself, he says, I am this.

And so here's the list: I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and I am the vine.

So this is gonna be one of those rare seven-point messages.

I know, I'm sorry.

And so we're gonna go quick.

I'm I'm I promise we'll get out of here on time.

This is one of those seven-point messages where we're gonna just uh take what jumps out to us.

And so if something as we talk about who Jesus is and one element of Jesus jumps out to you, I just would encourage you to go home and wrestle with that.

That might be what God is calling you to, that might be what God is comforting you with, that might be what God is revealing to you for the first time, because all of these titles of Jesus, all of these identities of Jesus, show us who we are as well.

And so we're gonna go through them one by one to hopefully get a picture, a better picture of not just who Jesus is, but who he is too.

Y'all ready for it?

Let's do it.

Okay, Jesus is the bread of life.

This is John 6, 48 through 51.

Yes, I am the bread of life.

Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died.

Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

Anyone who eats this bread will live forever, and this bread which I offer so the world may live, is my flesh.

Alright, so Jesus is the bread of life.

Because he is the bread of life, I am always secure.

This statement of Jesus comes right after he had just fed 5,000 people.

And the unfortunate thing about being fed, this is something that I've been like mad about since I was a little kid, is why can't I stuff myself with Mexican food after church on Sunday and have that last like a couple of days?

Like, Thanksgiving should at least give me a day and a half, two days, you know, like I should be able to like store some reserves in there and not have to go back to the meal, but a few hours later, uh I'm hungry again.

The next day, I'm hungry again.

God built that into our biology for a reason.

Hunger is not a result of the fall.

Uh Adam and Eve were hungry.

It's to show us that we have this consistent need to remind us that we are dependent on something.

And the question is, is what?

What is sustaining us?

What is giving us the security that we that we need?

For those of us who have gone without food, when we do have food, it's like, yeah, this is the thing that is really helping me.

Or maybe we've seen our bank account get into the lowest numbers, or maybe the negative numbers, and then we're trying to juggle that.

And it's like, wow, now that I have my bank account at a high enough point, this is the thing that is providing me some security.

We all turn to different things for security, and what Jesus is pointing out is that bread, money, spouses, family, jobs, none of that provides true security because it can be here one day and gone the next.

What provides true security is him.

What he's offering when he comes to you and offers himself to you is true security.

So you don't have to worry about what tomorrow will bring.

It's why he says, don't be anxious about your food or your clothing.

Tomorrow's gonna worry for itself.

Sufficient is the day of its own trouble.

Focus on him and he will see you through it.

And he offers ultimately his body as a living or as a dying sacrifice for each of us.

And so the spiritual reality is that we actually have someone who can sustain us, and if we choose to go to Jesus, we are secure into the future.

Alright, next one.

Number two, Jesus is the light of the world, John one, or John 9, 1 through 7.

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born who had been blind from birth.

Rabbi, his disciples asked, why was this man born blind?

Was it because of his own sins or his parents' sins?

It was not because of his sins or his parents' sins, Jesus answered.

This happened, so the power of God could be seen in him.

We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us by the one who sent us.

The night is coming, and then no one can work.

But while I'm here in the world, I am the light of the world.

Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man's eyes, and told him, Go wash yourself in the pool of Saloam.

Saloon means sent.

So the man went and washed and came back seeing.

Because he's the light of the world, I am not in the dark.

It's really easy to feel like you're in the dark.

There's like the casual way of like just being left out, being left out of the loop.

Some decision has been made that seems like it went around you or behind your back, or it might be that you just don't know how to establish your next steps.

This man that was born blind was in the dark his entire life.

People needed to help him, and if they weren't helping him, he's left out of that.

But darkness takes a whole variety of uh shapes and forms, and so we might be struggling with some really intense stuff that doesn't feel like it's conquerable, doesn't feel like we can overcome it.

And Jesus is saying to even us in the greatest of darkness that he is the light of the world, he is the thing that can help you see again.

He says, this was not because I'm punishing this man, his blindness.

This is so that God's glory would be revealed.

And so you have to ask yourself, am I being punished?

Am I in the dark because I'm being punished?

Am I being crushed for the things that I've done, the mistakes that I've made?

And we might be experiencing the consequences of our own sin.

That definitely does happen, but it is not some cosmic punishment that God wants to crush you with.

When we go through the dark, when we're in the dark, when we can't see what our next step is, that is a call to go turn on the light, to return to the person who can turn on the light, the light of the world.

And because he's the light of the world, we don't have to live in the darkness anymore.

So if you are walking in that darkness, what would your story be if you glorified God through it the entire way?

What would your story be on the other side if if you could point to him and say, it to him be the glory, because I was at the lowest low, I was in the darkest dark, and he turned on the light.

This will happen sometimes so that we can bring glory to God.

So in those moments, turn on the light.

Go to the person who can turn on the light, and it's a very simple thing.

It's it's returning to him, maybe it's repenting of the things we've done, it's saying that to him be the glory, and he is the light of the world that gets us out of the dark.

Next one, Jesus is the door.

This comes from John 10.

Jesus uh again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them.

I am the door.

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Because he's the door, I am safe.

Uh earlier this week I woke up in the middle of the night.

Uh, do you ever do this where you kind of wake up with a like I don't know why, just like something's going on, and you're like, I woke up like that, something was up.

There was no noise, there's nothing.

It was just my body told me something's up, you gotta wake up.

I woke up in the middle of the night and I instantly knew what the problem was.

So I get out of bed, I walk to my back door and I turn the lock.

It was just the lock, the door was unlocked, and at one o'clock in the morning, someone's like, Yeah, just go deal with that.

And then I groggily walked back to the bed and instantly fell asleep and slept soundly for the entire night.

We look to our doors to keep us safe.

And for some reason, that just unlocked that little motion, this and this, was the difference between me getting a restful night's sleep and being up uh all night wondering what I'm forgetting what's possibly going on.

And now we have like the ring doorbell, which kind of like adds the extra element of safety where you're like, Yeah, I've locked that door, and I'll see who's at that door, Amazon driver.

Yeah, right.

You just bought a coat online, sure.

And so I don't think Jesus saying, I'm the ring doorbell would make much sense.

And so he says, I'm the door.

The door is the difference between that full and um peaceful rest that we can experience in the pasture being protected by the good shepherd.

He's the one that's standing between what's outside and wants to harm us and what's inside, giving us pure peace and freedom from total anxiety.

And so when we think about Jesus being the door, that's our opportunity to embrace the fact that while we're while the hand's off the wheel, God's got us.

We don't need to constantly worry, we don't need to be constantly threatened, because Jesus is standing between what is out there and what is in here, and he offers us peace through that.

I know a lot of us, uh, myself included, have just dealt with anxiety for a long time.

And it can be so hard to deal with that anxiety because a lot of the time it's not even rational.

I spin up things that I should be worried about, things that I should be frustrated about, things that I'm concerned will happen.

I spin them up in my own mind until they become emergencies.

And Jesus being the door is just that reminder to say, no, no, no, he's got it.

There is evil, there is darkness, there is someone who wants to steal from us, there is someone who wants to destroy us and kill us, but Jesus is powerful enough to stand between me and that enemy.

You have an enemy, but Jesus stands and gives you the opportunity to truly rest in him.

Again, because he is, I am, because he's the door, you're safe.

Embrace that safety.

Enter into some rest.

It's okay to say, you know, that's in the Lord's hands, and as the door, he'll protect me.

Number four, Jesus is the good shepherd.

This is John 10 again.

He says, I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.

And the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd.

I know my own, and my own know me.

Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

There's a lot there, but because Jesus is the good shepherd, I am valued.

I am known and I am fought for.

You fight for the things that you value.

Sometimes I'll be working at Starbucks and I'll ask somebody, hey, could you watch my stuff while I go to the bathroom?

And then as I'm walking away, I think, would that person actually do anything?

If someone showed up and was like starting to take my stuff and pack it up, they'd be like, no, no, no, this is mine.

They're like, no, it's not.

Would they actually stand up and fight for my laptop or would they fight for my notebook or whatever it is?

I don't think so, honestly.

I think they'd be like, I'd get back out of the bathroom, my stuff would be gone, and they'd be like, someone took it.

It's like, that's why I asked you to watch it, so someone wouldn't take it.

Like, fight for me, please.

But we don't know each other super well.

They don't value my things the same way that I value my things.

They don't know what projects live on that computer and that computer alone.

But the things that we value, the things that we know and the people that we know, we fight for.

We fight for our kids.

We fight for our marriages.

These are the things that are definitely worth going to bat for.

And I did say we fight for our marriages and for our kids, not with our kids and with our spouses.

But I recently did have uh some conflict with my kids, not major conflicts.

He's a three-year-old, so I'm not gonna bash him too much.

But I made the dad move of purchasing clippers because I was sick of going to the little kid barber shop that's basically a gift shop trying to sell you a bunch of crap, and you're like, no, don't buy all of this stuff.

Sit here quietly and stop screaming so that you can get your hair cut.

And so I was I was done with that.

So I bought clippers and I shaved my kids' heads.

I just shaved it right off.

I actually have a video of uh me shaving Luke's head.

It's uh it's semi-traumatic, I'm sorry.

You don't like it.

You're gonna like your new haircut, though.

Lukey.

He's asking for his.

Can you look at mama?

Look at your funny haircut.

He hated it.

And there's his brother trying to be nice, give him a little transformer.

But he absolutely hated the process of getting his haircut.

They ended up liking the haircuts.

I have a picture of Simon and Luke.

There's there, we did treasure box if you were good while you got a haircut.

And Hannah, my wife, was like, don't give Luke any any treasure.

I was like, it was a traumatic event for Luke.

So they both got ring pops, they're both excited.

And I I bring this up because the next day, my five-year-old Simon, I go to drop him off where he's being watched, and one of his friends just instant, instantaneously and without thinking, and with zero malice in his heart, but another four-year-old or five-year-old just went, Whoa, you look weird when he saw him.

And dad's in the room, you knew how you felt.

You're like, my heart kind of broke a little bit, and then I had to tell myself, do not fight this four-year-old.

Don't attack him.

It's okay.

He does look a little weird.

His hair will grow out, okay?

And so I wanted to fight for Simon because I love him.

Um, but I ended up resisting and just like, you know what, God will take care of that.

We fight for those we love because we know them.

We know how different things like that will like hit them emotionally.

We know that um those things that we value are actually worth fighting for.

And because Jesus is the good shepherd, he knows you, he values you, and he will fight for you.

It is so easy to discount our own value, to say, because I don't make X amount over uh the year, then I'm not valuable.

Because I failed in that really public situation, I'm not valuable.

Because I made that mistake, I'm not valuable.

But despite all of that, again, God knows us and he still values us.

He knows the mistakes, he knows what we think of ourselves, and he still chooses to fight for us.

And he fights the wolf so intensely that he lays down his own life for us.

You are that worth it.

You are that worth it.

So, regardless of what your parent told you when you were young, or maybe what they told you by not telling you, or by the way they acted, what a spouse or ex-spouse has said, what your kids have or haven't done, know that you are valued by the God of this universe.

He sees you and he fights for you, and he's given his life for you.

Seriously.

And all you have to do to experience just a fraction of feeling that way about yourself is to realize that he's walked in the room, that he's here right now.

There's someone who will go to the death, who would fight you to you, fight for you to the death that's in this room right now, because he loves you and he knows you.

Alright, up next, Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

John 11, 22 through 26.

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live.

And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this?

Because he's the resurrection and the life, I have hope.

I have hope.

Do you believe this?

That's the question that he asks one of his grieving friends.

Do you believe that I'm the resurrection and the life?

Whoever believes in me will not perish, but will have life.

I want to show you a picture of somebody on the screen that some of you might recognize.

Oh, yeah, we could show it.

Does anybody know who that is?

What's her name?

Debbie Downer.

Yeah, I heard someone say it.

That's Debbie Downer.

This is Debbie Downer, she's an SNL character.

The SNL skit isn't really that funny, but because uh she's saying the most like depressing things during this birthday party, everyone starts cracking up, so it's kind of fun to watch because everyone starts cracking up.

But Debbie Downer is the person who finds the absolute worst take to just share with the group as people are celebrating.

She wants to bring everything everything down and doesn't necessarily do it intentionally, it's just the way she behaves, it's just the way that she works.

She thinks of the worst case scenario, the worst possible outcome, the worst thing to bring up while people are enjoying themselves, and she she makes it happen.

And it's pretty funny.

I find, uh, having grown up in the church, having grown up around believers, I also went to Christian school, I find that Christians, believers, can be very quick to be the Debbie Downer.

We can be very quick to be the most offended and most outraged and most disappointed.

And some of those things are valid.

Some of those things, it's like when we look at the world and they are just doing things that are absolutely crazy.

Um, it's it's worth pointing out and saying that that's not right to do.

But I've noticed it with uh pointing at the world, pointing at the church, we just find things to be negative about.

And what God is saying to his one of his best friends, Martha, is he's saying, hey, the end of this story, the end of this story is hopeful.

The end of this story is good.

As believers, we know the ending, and we know that the what did MLK say?

The ark of history is long and bends toward justice.

The ark of history is long and bends toward Jesus.

We know where the story is going.

It's going to Jesus.

Our lives, if we belong to him, end in Jesus.

Our world belongs to Jesus already, and the world is moving toward Jesus as it gets closer and closer to him.

We are moving toward Jesus, and Jesus is the best possible ending that we could possibly hope for.

And so your situation, as dark as it might be, as frustrating as it might be, as as lost and hopeless as it might seem, the end of your situation is in Christ.

It's in Jesus, and He's the resurrection and the life.

And because of that, we can have hope in that.

That means the outcome, the end result of your diagnosis is Jesus.

There is hope in that.

That means the end result of your struggle against sin is in Jesus.

The end result of your relationship with your family is in Jesus.

If you've put your faith in him, he's in the room, you belong to him, there is hope for those diagnoses, there's hope for those addictions, there is hope for your family, and if you belong to Jesus, the end is good.

Surrender that to him and embrace that fact because he brings so much hope.

Jesus also says that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

This is John 14, 6, which says exactly that.

Jesus told him, I am the way, I am the truth and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

Because he's the way and the truth and the life, I'm exclusive.

I'm exclusive.

Young people in the room, I'm so sorry that you have to date in this modern mess of dating world.

I'm so sorry.

And if you are single, come to the single stick around in a few weeks.

Like it'll be a great opportunity to meet people who have their heads screwed on straight.

But it's hard to figure out.

Like, am I dating this person?

Am I talking to them?

Are we exclusive?

Is this a thing?

Like, exclusivity really matters when you're trying to figure out those early stages of a relationship, but it definitely matters in marriage.

Marriage is a perfect example that illustrates this.

When you say yes to your spouse, you are saying, I'm leaving all other options behind.

I'm not gonna pull any parachute, I'm not gonna keep someone else rattling around in my brain.

Like maybe one day if that person would be possibly interested.

No.

When I said yes to Hannah, I had to do something that uh a marriage book actually gave me some pretty solid advice.

I had to burn the boats.

Burning the boats is basically a term where this military has shown up from sailing across the world and they face almost impossible odds at conquering this land.

And the leader, to make them go fight instead of being fearful, burns the boats so that there's no retreat plan.

They scuttle the ships, there's no option of turning back here.

When I said yes to Hannah, I burned the boats.

There's no option, there's no plan B.

God expects the same for us.

He does.

He says to the people of Israel, I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.

That means Jesus is demanding the top number one rank in our heart.

He's expecting our worship, he's expecting our affection, he's expecting our heart.

And it is so easy for our heart, our heart to wander, to find a new way to feel validated, and the things that used to rank below Jesus start to inch their way toward the top.

This is why I think uh I become so like hyper-obsessed with different hobbies, is because I can look at a different hobby and be like, feel like I'm being fully successful or accomplishing something meaningful, and my uh affection and my heart grows and grows and grows toward that hobby.

And it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

Or it's why people can be obsessed with certain other people.

This is as a teenager, as a as a youth pastor that works with teenagers, I see this happen in those like early stages of the dating relationships for the teenagers.

They become obsessed, and you can't even talk to them anymore without them like floating off into boy land or floating off into girl land and being like, he's just so perfect.

I'm like, he's not.

No.

He's got a nose ring.

No, I'm just kidding.

Uh if you have a nose ring, I'm sorry.

I'm not trying to be offensive, I'm sorry.

For that girl, the nose ring guy was wrong, is what I mean, okay?

Um first it's hats, now it's nose rings.

All right.

But point being, it's it's easy for our hearts to drift, and Jesus is saying that you need to belong to me.

I expect your worship.

And anytime that we get away from that, we're actually not choosing the way.

We're not choosing the truth, and we're not choosing the life.

And so we experience a very dulled-out version of our faith.

We experience constant struggle, we experience constant strife, we experience almost this supernatural resistance to what we're doing.

And yes, we do have an enemy, but it's because we've misplaced our worship, and our worship belongs to him alone.

That's why Paul says to make our lives as a living sacrifice, to give everything to him.

Our true act of worship is to offer our lives as a living sacrifice each and every day, and that's how we worship him.

So if he's the way, the truth, and the life, we've got to be, got to be exclusive.

Alright, and finally, we've got Jesus is the true vine.

John 15, 1 through 5.

I am the true grapevine, and my father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit, so they'll produce even more.

You have already been pruned and purified by the message that I have given you.

Remain in me, and I will remain in you.

For a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine.

Excuse me.

And you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

Yes, I am the vine and you are the branches.

Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing.

This is probably the most devastating and the most joyful aspect of belonging to Jesus.

Because he is the true vine, because he's the vine, I am helpless without him.

I am helpless without him.

We all want to see our lives produce fruit.

We want to see our kids grow up to be successful, we want to see our job making meaningful difference in the world.

We want to see our marriages growing and the things that we do outside of all of those things to be successful.

We want to produce fruit.

And Jesus is saying here that outside of him, what we can do is nothing.

That we might have skills, we might have ideas, we might have opportunities and whatnot, and what we're essentially building is a sand castle that will very easily be washed away.

That's the the bummer part of that.

But with him, with him, empowered by him, receiving his spirit, we can produce much fruit.

Just like a branch connected to the vine.

We can produce the fruit.

We can see the difference that we want to see in our life, and it's not by our own strength, it's by his strength working in and through us.

That's what we get when we surrender to Jesus.

This is how Paul puts it in Philippians, and we're going to go through Philippians, so spoiler alert, Philippians chapter 3, and whenever we get there, says this.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared to the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.

Paul has his head screwed on straight.

Paul sees it like it is.

With Jesus, the things that we can do, the impact that we can make, the value that our own life contributes, not just to our own personal kingdom, but to his kingdom on earth.

Built by your family, built by your church, this church, built by the church, because of you participating in it, you will bear much fruit if you belong to him and see where he takes you.

So he's walked in the room, and it's time for us to be like, oh, God's here.

What do we do?

Choose him.

Choose him because with that you inherit an unshakable identity.

You don't have to change.

This is not a message that says, be like this, be like that, be like this, be like that, so that God will approve of you.

This is because he is we are.

You inherit that identity.

And that identity is unshakable because he's unshakable.

So all you have to do is choose him.

Do you want to get out of the dark?

Do you want to be valued?

Do you wish someone would fight for you?

Do you wish you would be seen and known?

Do you just want to feel safe?

Choose him.

Choose him.

Choose him.

That's how I could spend my best amount of time up here if I only had one thing to say is choose him.

All the other stuff will fall into place if you would just choose Jesus.

And I think it's fitting that this list that John records in his biography of Jesus starts with bread and ends with grapes.

It's this picture of who Jesus is.

And that's why every single week we come together and take Lord's Supper, and we're gonna do that in just a second.

So if you have your Lord's Supper cups, I have mine.

He says he's the bread of life.

And what he offers is his flesh to eat, which some people were pretty sketched out by.

It's kind of an uncomfortable statement.

But he surrenders his body for us, and it's broken on our behalf because we deserved the punishment for our wrongdoing.

We deserved the punishment for our sin.

And Jesus stood in our place, and he gave us his body.

And the blood that was spilled washes us completely clean.

It washes us clean.

So that there's not this big record and long list of all the wrong things that we've done.

It is a fresh start today.

So as we take this together, if you haven't chosen Jesus, I would encourage you to choose him and let this be the symbol of that choice.

Let this be the symbol saying, I belong to him.

I eat the bread, and he joins his spirit with my spirit.

I drink the juice, and I'm cleansed from all of my sins.

So if you would, let's open up the bread and hold it up.

Pray with me.

Lord, thank you for this bread and what it represents.

Thank you for standing in my place.

For overcoming the temptation to sin that you experienced as a human, just like every human experiences, but for being perfect and blameless and taking my place.

We thank you for it.

Let's eat the bread.

Let's open up the juice.

Hold up the juice and pray with me.

Lord, thank you for your blood spilled to represent a new way of relating to you.

That there's no continuing sacrifices that need to happen.

There's no big long list of all of my wrongs, but in you I've been forgiven and washed clean.

Thank you for your blood.

Let's drink the juice.