The Way, The Truth, The Life

Amen.

So a few weeks ago, we started this series called The Last Meal.

And what we're doing is we're looking at the very last opportunity that Jesus had before he went to the cross to get his friends, his disciples together and just teach them to help connect whatever dots still needed to be connected.

I mean, if you could kind of put yourself in Jesus' shoes, you've been with this group of people for three years, you've taught them, you've shown them amazing things, they've seen you do miracles.

At the same time, you know that they still don't really understand what it's all about.

And you know what's coming.

You know that you're about to be arrested, you're about to go to the cross, and you've got one meal with them.

How intentional would you be in that meal?

Like how how purposeful would every word that came out of your mouth be in that situation?

That's where we find Jesus.

And the cool thing about it is that we, because of scripture, we have the ability to kind of have a seat at the table and listen to what Jesus says.

Because his words were not just for them, they're for us.

This conversation that Jesus has at this last meal with his friends ends up being one of the most iconic conversations that he ever had.

So many of the things that Jesus says in this conversation are the most famous, the most defining things that ever came out of his mouth.

If you haven't been here, you can go back and catch up, listen to the podcast or whatever.

But today we're going to jump into John chapter 14, verses 1 through 11.

John 14:1–11

Jesus says, Don't let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God and trust also in me.

There's more than enough room in my father's home, if it were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you?

When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am, and you know the way to where I'm going.

No, we don't, Lord, Thomas said.

We have no idea where you're going, so how can we know the way?

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

No one can come to the Father except through me.

If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and we'll be satisfied.

And Jesus replied, Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still don't know who I am?

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

So why are you asking me to show him to you?

Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words that I speak are not my own.

But my Father who lives in me does his work through me.

Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe because of the work that you have seen me do.

Now, volumes have been written about these words.

I mean, literally thousands upon thousands of pages analyzing all of this.

We could spend weeks and months just trying to just decipher and discern everything that Jesus is saying, and we wouldn't even come close to being complete.

And so what I'm going to try to do today is, you know, just sort of tackle all of it in a few minutes.

We'll see how it goes.

You know, everything that Jesus says is so profound.

That's the amazing thing about Jesus.

He's just so profound that you could literally take every sentence and just analyze it for days.

Everything he says here is important.

But if there is one statement in this section that kind of rises to the top, at least in terms of its impact over the last several thousands of years, it would be the phrase he says in verse 6, where he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

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

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Who says something like that?

Like honestly.

Someone once said that when you look at Jesus, you really have three options.

He's either the Lord, like he said that he is.

He is who he says he is.

He's either that or he's a liar or he's a lunatic.

Right?

Because that's the only three options you have when someone says something is audacious is I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father, no one comes to God except through me.

You're either who you say you are, or you're a liar, or you're a crazy person.

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

The disciples are saying, How in the world can we know where you're going?

You're telling us that you're going to go ahead of us, that it's all going to be okay, you're going to, you know, prepare the way for us.

We don't know the way, and he says, I am the way.

It's an incredible statement.

And it's one of those statements that, like, if you're not a Jesus follower, you might you might hear that and just go, like, yeah, I'm not sure if I believe that.

And if that's where you're at, that's fine.

If you are a Jesus follower, it's probably one of those statements.

Like you hear Jesus say, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me, and there's part of you that's like, yes, yes, I believe that.

Someone said amen, and that's what that means, is like, yes, I'm I'm with you.

But then we might believe it and be like, yeah, I'm all about that, but if someone said, Can you explain that to me, we'd be like, not really.

I believe it, I agree with it, not really fully sure what it's about.

And by the way, if that's the case, that's okay.

That's part of the mystery of following Jesus, is that you can know him, you can be close to him, you can study him, and still not fully understand him.

That's how it is in a lot of our close relationships, right?

Like, I have these four kids.

They are literally as close to me as human beings can be.

Like, my DNA is in them, and daily they do things that I do not understand.

I don't get it.

I don't get how they process things, I don't get how they respond to things.

I have been married for 20 years almost now.

20 years.

And that's exactly what I was going for right there.

Um see, you clapped too early because if I said I've been married for 20 years and I figured it out, that's when you clap.

You're like, oh, but I haven't.

Like, like, I love my wife.

I've known her since she was 15 years old.

We started dating when she was 17, I was 18.

And so here we are, and we're in our late 30s, and you'd think that by this time I would just know her so so perfectly that nothing she would ever do or say would be a mystery to me.

And no.

Like, not even close.

There are so many times where I'm like, what did I say?

What did I do?

What did I not say?

What did I not do?

I don't understand.

Like, you know, you can relate to this, those of you who have been in relationships like this, where you'll ask the person how they are and they'll tell you, like, one word, I'm fine.

They'll say, fine, but you know they're not fine.

And the real truth behind it is so much deeper than that that it's going to take like all that you have to figure out what is going on.

And it's the person you're the closest with.

That's a normal part of life.

When you're really close with someone, doesn't mean you fully understand them.

Okay, now take that and apply it to Jesus, but multiply it by some number you can't even imagine because he's God.

He's so much more and deeper and smarter and just amazing.

And so there's things that Jesus says that you just sit there and go, yeah, what?

And that's okay.

That's okay.

That's kind of why we're here.

Those of us who have given our lives to Jesus, we're here because it's not enough for us just to make a decision once and say, Yeah, I believe.

Like, I want to, I want to keep going.

I want to know him more clearly.

I want to see him more clearly.

I want to understand him in a deeper way because I understand that the closer I am with him, and the more that I see him, and the more that he makes sense to me, the closer I am to the person that I'm meant to be.

And so we just keep going a little deeper, a little bit deeper.

And that's what I hope to accomplish today.

To take this iconic statement of Jesus I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me, and just hopefully have us walk out of here in a few minutes going, I think I get it a little bit better than I did.

So let's work our way backwards.

This will be really fast.

The second thing Jesus says, the second sentence in this iconic statement is, No one comes to the Father except through me.

A lot of people have had a really hard time with that statement.

Because it doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room, right?

That's the thing about Jesus.

He doesn't do that.

Jesus doesn't really give you an out a lot of times.

He doesn't speak in these sort of vague, non-committal ways where he's like, you know, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me, unless, of course, blah, blah, blah.

Like it doesn't do that.

He just says succinctly, no one comes to the Father except through me.

And a lot of people have had a hard time with that because it feels so exclusive that the instant thought we have is like, well, what about all the other people?

And what about if someone what if someone's a really good person and they just live their life but they don't believe in you?

And what about this and that?

And it can tempt us into thinking that Jesus is somehow limiting access to God.

That statement, no one comes to the Father except through me.

It can become almost a crisis of faith for people because it doesn't seem fair.

But I have found that when we think like that, we're actually missing the point entirely.

Like we completely miss the point of that statement.

Because when we think like that, what it what it's almost like is that we're thinking that there used to be a bunch of ways to God, that there used to be like all kinds of options to really know God, and now Jesus comes along and says, now there's only one.

But there never was a way before Jesus.

That's what we often forget.

Jesus didn't come and narrow the ways that we can know God.

Jesus came and created the only way that we could know God.

See, before Jesus, and apart from Jesus, there's no hope to know God.

Like God would reveal Himself to people, but but man, read the Old Testament and the understanding that people had of the holiness of God and just how much greater, how much other than us God is?

Like just look at the Bible and look what happens when people see an angel.

Every time someone sees an angel, they fall on their face and think they're dead.

That's just an angel.

That's just a messenger.

That's nothing compared to who God really is.

And so, how in the world can we, as people who are so flawed, claim to have any right to approach the God of the universe who is perfect and above everything.

Well, we could try our best to follow all the rules and live a perfect life.

We're not good at that.

Like none of us are batting a thousand at all.

So it's not that Jesus came along and restricted access to God and said, hey, from now on there's only one way.

What you have to understand is that without Jesus, there wouldn't be a way at all.

But he came and he lived a perfect life that we could not live.

And rather than just receive the reward of that perfect life, he took our punishment, our sin upon himself on the cross.

He died as a sacrifice in our place.

That is what the gospel is, the message of Jesus.

He took our place.

He took our sin, our punishment.

He gave us his righteousness, his goodness, and now we're completely forgiven.

Now we have a way to know God, and the hard work's already been done.

All we have to do is believe and receive what God has given us.

Jesus didn't restrict the way to God.

Jesus created the only way that there could ever be.

So this is not, yeah, this is not restrictive.

This is God opening up a way.

We should get excited when we read that.

You mean there's a way?

There's a way to the Father?

Let's go back a little bit more.

He says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.

Let's start with life.

Like I said, I want to work backwards this morning.

Life.

I'm the life.

This isn't the only time Jesus says something like this.

In John chapter 11, Jesus has an encounter with a couple of his friends.

John 11 · chapter mention

One of his friends, Lazarus, has died, and he meets Lazarus' sister, Martha.

Martha says to Jesus, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.

Jesus told her, your brother will rise again.

Yes, Martha said, He will when everyone rises at the last day.

She thinks Jesus is just kind of talking in generalities.

And Jesus told her, I am the resurrection and the life.

Again, who says that?

Like, how audacious of a thing to say.

Unless, of course, it's true and you can back it up.

And Jesus does if you know that story.

But he says, I am the life.

Jesus is always talking about life.

In fact, he's always offering life to people.

John 10, 10, he says the thief's purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy, but my purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Why would you offer life to people who are already alive?

Jesus says, I am the life.

I'm the resurrection and the life.

I come to give you life.

And we might say, Well, I don't know if you've noticed this or not, Jesus, but um I got a pulse.

My heart's beating.

There's air in my lungs.

I'm already alive.

And that's where it gets interesting.

Because what Jesus means by life is not what we typically mean.

In fact, he says in John chapter 5, verse 24, I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life.

John 5:24

They will never be condemned for their sins, and they have already passed from death to life.

Okay, now it gets even more bizarre.

Now Jesus doesn't just offer us life, he tells us that when we believe in him, we go from being dead to alive.

And you might look at Jesus and say, hey, I don't know if you missed it, like, I am alive.

I'm confident in that, but I'm even more confident that I've never been dead.

That's like the future, not my past.

And Jesus would say, No, no, no.

We see this pop up in Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:1

Chapter 2, verse 1 says, Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins, 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.

So, weird idea, right?

That according to Jesus, we need life.

That whatever we have isn't really life as it's meant to be.

In fact, we might as well call it death.

And what's he getting at?

We actually did a whole series on this about two years ago.

And it's funny, I'm really grateful that we live in the time that we live in because we have the perfect metaphor for this, maybe the best metaphor that's ever existed, because we all have we all have one of these.

And I turned mine off so that no one would text me right now as a joke, because that's happened to me before.

So there you go.

Um I got a couple friends who like to prank me if they know I have my phone on stage.

So if you have one of these, right, you've probably described it as being dead at some point.

Like multiple times a week, I will say, ah, my phone died.

And what do I mean when I say that?

My phone is dead.

I don't mourn.

You know, I don't go, it's it's it's it's gone.

It's gone.

I don't bury it in the backyard.

Because when I say it's dead, I know that there's nothing physically wrong with it.

I'm not talking about the physical health of my phone.

Physically, it is fine.

What do I mean?

I mean it it has no spark.

It's not able to function as it's meant to function.

It's not able to be what it's meant to be.

It's just there.

Physically, it's there, but it's not what it's supposed to be.

And what needs to happen, I have to plug it into a power source that is capable of bringing it to life.

You guys are saying, amen, about plugging phones into walls.

So you gotta cool it a little bit.

I'm just joking.

All right.

So, because you know where I'm going, that's why you're saying that.

So that's what Jesus is claiming.

That without him, without connecting to him, we just we don't have the ability to be what we're meant to be.

We're not spiritually alive.

We're just sort of here.

It's not life, it's existence.

It's like motion without meaning.

It doesn't have the power, it doesn't have the purpose, it's not inspired, and it's not what we're meant for.

You were not created to exist.

Like that's what that's what inanimate objects do.

Like rocks were created to just be here.

They exist, they're here.

You were created to live.

And that doesn't just mean you breathe, that means you are created to have the capacity to connect with God, to know God, to have a life where God is in you, is with you.

And that's what Jesus describes as eternal life.

When we think of eternal life, we very often think of life after this life.

That's part of it.

But that's actually a different phrase in the Bible called everlasting life.

Eternal life is about a new kind of life that we can live now.

It's a life not where we're waiting to live with God, it's where God lives with us.

It's the kind of life that Jesus lived, right?

You look at his life, it's so clearly inspired.

It's so clearly just it's vibrant, right?

It's it's really alive.

Because everywhere Jesus goes, things happen.

Everywhere Jesus goes, things change, things get better.

And you're meant to have a life like that.

That doesn't mean it's easy, that doesn't mean it's automatic, that doesn't mean that like we don't have uh periods where it's really hard and we hit ruts.

No, no, no, but you are meant to have a spark of life inside of you.

And it's the very presence of God.

It's not you mustering it in your own strength, you're not gonna get it from a self-help book, it's not about you trying really hard or finding some life hack.

It's about you having the God of the universe in you through the Holy Spirit because you believe in Jesus and you come to life.

And so, what Jesus would tell all of us is never settle for existence.

Don't just be here.

But the world wants us to do that so badly, you know, to sort of just unplug, stop thinking, stop, stop going for it, and just on to the next thing, do the next thing, exist, be here.

Jesus says, no, come to life.

And he's the one that we connect with to do that.

So we can come to life with Jesus, but only with Jesus, because he's the only one who has that power.

So let's go back again.

He says, not just on the life, he said I'm the truth.

Really quickly, how much do you value the truth?

Like, think about this for a second.

How important is the truth to you?

Another way to think about that is is how upset are you when you're lied to?

Like, does anyone hate being lied to?

Like, I I hate being lied to.

I hate it.

I remember the first time one of my kids lied to me.

And I guess it's my oldest.

It wasn't like he went four years with never told a lie, and then our second one came along and lied to us.

No, I it's some I feel bad for Liam sometimes because he ends up in a lot of stories because he was the first.

But I'll never forget it.

He was uh maybe two years old, not quite.

It's the first time I knew he had lied, and we had this sliding glass door, and he was out in our backyard, and he was playing with a shovel that he wasn't supposed to play with, and he knew it.

And the way our sliding glass door was, it was tinted so that I could see out of it, but if you were looking at it from the outside, it was just a reflection, right?

And so he's playing with the shovel, I look at him, and I yell his name, and he just like just throws the shovel in the air, right?

I haven't opened the door though, and so he he grabs it and he runs and he puts it into this little container that we had for it in the backyard, and he closes it, and I open the door.

I watched all this happen.

And I was like, hey buddy, what are you doing?

He was like, nothing.

I said, Were you playing with my shovel?

No.

Like, are you sure?

Mm-mm.

And I was like, you liar.

You but like it kind of broke my heart, right?

Because that was the first time where I realized, oh, he knows.

Like it's not just a thing that he said as a child.

He knows.

He's trying to deceive me, and oh, it was like, mm-hmm.

I hate being lied to.

We should we should all hate being lied to.

Like we should hate it, but we get lied to all the time, and it doesn't even bother us.

It just doesn't.

Like, guys, I'm this is not political.

I'm gonna say this okay.

This is not political.

Everything has become so stupid and political in our culture that you can't say anything without having to say it's not political.

Maybe it is political.

I don't even care.

Um I don't think it is.

Like, can we just stop and think for a moment about how many times we've all been lied to in the last few years alone?

Like how many things we've been told with certainty that we better do this?

Because if we don't, this is gonna happen, or this is the and and it like come to find out, like, oh no, we did that stuff wasn't really true.

And it doesn't even bother us that much because we don't really expect to be told the truth.

I'm talking about like government leaders and major corporations and like world organizations.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm not.

I'll just put it this way the one of the the head executives of one of the major pharmaceutical companies that that did the vaccine was was asked.

You may have heard about this.

Okay, this was like a month ago.

And they were they were being Grilled in some international panel, and they were asked, Did you test and know that the vaccines stopped the transmission of COVID before you released them to the public?

And they said, No.

Yeah.

Just like, no.

But do you remember being told that you should get that vaccine because it would stop the transmission?

Like, does anyone remember that?

I I remember that.

I don't know if it's just me.

I feel like that was said.

Again, not political.

I'm not trying to like, you're going, has he been vaccinated?

Has he not?

Oh no, does he know?

I won't tell you.

I got all of them the same day.

Every single one of them.

No, I didn't.

I didn't do that.

But it's just like I remember reading that and just being like, what in the world?

And I'm using this as just an example because this is like the biggest event that's happened in the last three years.

We are lied to so often by people in authority that it doesn't even phase us anymore.

Because it's like, yeah, we don't expect to be told the truth.

We expect to be lied to.

Jesus does not lie.

And he doesn't lie because if he was a liar, he would never have said half the things that he said.

Like Jesus one time said, anyone who wants to be my disciple must deny themselves.

Take up their cross and follow me.

No one would say that.

If they were a liar.

You would say, anyone who wants to be my disciple, you will enrich yourself.

You will never suffer.

Now come on, let's do this.

Make your down, make your down payment now, right?

It would have been something like that.

But Jesus actually promised his disciples that they would be persecuted.

He actually tells us that the world will hate us just because we follow him.

Like the worst job you could have had would be to have been Jesus' publicist, because you would have been like, don't say that.

Stop.

It was going so well until you said that.

You know, I mean, honestly, because he would do amazing things, miraculous things, blow people's minds, then he would say something hard and true, and people would turn away.

Because he doesn't lie.

He is the truth.

And we need truth.

Like we all, we all, yeah, we alright.

Time of clap.

We're gonna have a class on clapping at his hands.

We're gonna do it next year.

Because we have not figured this out.

No, no, I don't care if you ever clap.

It's just funny because there's this dynamic where it's like someone claps.

We need to have some like authorized clap leaders.

That's what we need.

We need to organize this, structure it.

So if you see that person clapping, like, well, I guess we're clapping now, right?

Because I'm just joking.

We would never do that.

So one of my favorite things about this church is how we just don't take ourselves very seriously.

So I like to goof around.

But listen, um we need truth.

Like we all need a North Star really badly in our lives.

I don't know if you've ever seen like a time-lapse photo of how the stars move at night.

It's pretty cool.

I think we have a picture that we can show you.

Um this is what it this is what it would look like if you took a time-lapse photo of the night sky as all the stars move as the earth rotates.

But in the middle there, right, there's that that one dot.

That's the North Star.

And in the ancient world, when you would sail, you would rely on that one star, because it's the only star that, from our perspective, it just doesn't move.

You can rely on it, you can count on it, you can chart a course by it.

Any of the other stars, if you would have any of them, chart a course by one of those, and you're gonna be way off track.

But it's the one thing that was consistent in the night sky.

We need truth.

We need we need a North Star.

We need something so consistent, so reliable, that we can build our lives on it.

Because it doesn't change with the wind, it doesn't change based on the opinions of the day.

Scripture tells us that Jesus in Hebrews 13 8, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Jesus is our North Star.

What he says is true, it was true when he said it, it's true today, it will be true tomorrow.

And if you build your life on his teachings, on his truth, your life will be able to handle the weight.

He even says this in Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

He says, Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys it is like a person who builds their house on the solid rock.

And when the winds come and when the storms come, and they will come, and many of you are in storms right now, or you've recently gone through one, or or one is on the horizon and you know it, you don't have to be afraid of the storms because you've built your house on something that can take the weight.

And it's Jesus, he is the truth.

Everything he says is true, he's your North Star.

And Jesus also said that he's the way.

And this might be my favorite one.

Jesus is the way.

Religion, what religion typically does, what whatever religion you're talking about, is it tries to tell you what the way is, and then it's your job to navigate, to go that way.

I have a lot of memories growing up of traveling with my parents, and I've joked about this a lot.

My parents, I'm sure, love it when I do.

Um, we we moved a lot growing up, and so I'm from Springfield, Missouri.

Anyone else from southern Missouri in the room?

I'm just curious.

Any other southern?

Hey, a hand.

Awesome.

Cool connection.

So I'm from southern Missouri, and when I was in seventh grade, we moved to Wisconsin, and then we moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and then we moved here, and and we would always travel back to southern Missouri because that's where all our family was.

So that was just a constant journey every holiday, every summer, like every time there was a week off of school, spring break, we weren't going to Florida, we weren't going to places like that.

I think we did once or twice, but we were always going back home to Springfield.

And so spent a lot of time in the car.

And it was always about a 12-hour drive.

That was our norm in the places that we lived.

And what that meant, and this is what I've joked about, is that for me as a kid, you know, 13, 14 years old, it was just me in the backseat with my little brother, and my parents would always buy the greatest hits album of some band that they loved when they were younger, and that would be like the theme music for our trip.

They would just go buy a new Greatest Hits CD, put it in the disc thing, and just let that thing play.

And it, you know, I mean, CDs are what?

An hour?

Maybe an hour and 20 minutes if it's a long one.

And like sometimes, you know, when you've heard Fleetwood Max Rumors album like six consecutive times, it you just it drives you crazy when you're 13 years old and you weren't born in 1965, right?

It just drives you crazy.

And so, like, I have all these, I have a a knowledge of music that someone my age should not have.

Like, someone my age should not have an encyclopedic knowledge of the band Three Dog Night.

It just shouldn't be the way that it is.

Some of you know who that is, and you're like, yeah, that's my music.

It wasn't my music.

It wasn't mine.

And and it was that, gosh, it was James Taylor, the worst.

He's uh he's terrible.

If you're like James Taylor, I don't even care.

I don't even care.

You need to re-listen to James Taylor with new ears.

It's every song is the exact same song.

Test it.

It's true.

And James Taylor, I think, even knows that.

I think if he was here, he would say amen.

He would be like, it's true.

I just had this one thing that I did and I just did it over and over again, and it was Jim Crouchy, that was even worse.

Um.

All right.

Listen.

Some of you don't know who Jim Jim Croce is, but the people who just moaned do, I'm guessing.

If you've been in the car for seven hours with your parents, and you hear a song that goes, If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing it's like that's the s that like that's every Jim Croce song.

See, you all are who are saying, Oh, you're remembering like fast-paced Jim Croce, you know?

Um, but there's like two songs that are like that.

That's it.

I've listened to the Greatest Hits album many times, I know.

In Chicago, I've talked about that.

Chicago.

I talked about this a few months ago.

Someone bought me a Chicago album and put it on my desk.

I have not listened to it, and I won't.

I appreciate the joke.

Did any anybody like a fan of Chicago?

You're wrong.

You're just wrong.

Because Peter Satera, the lead singer, sings higher than any man should be able to sing.

And you can't sing along with it and have any shred of dignity as a man.

I know, because I watched my dad try from the back seat, and it was just not good.

I love you, dad.

I know you're gonna listen up later.

Okay.

Alright, I'll stop.

So I've dogged, I've dogged on my parents so many times for playing their music and these long drives.

But here's the here's the the interesting thing.

This has a point, I promise.

When Megan and I got married, we were down here, and but we lived in Missouri.

I I'd moved to Kansas City, and so we actually had to make pretty much the same drive from our honeymoon back to where we lived, and I had to I had to drive that for the first time.

And it made me really nostalgic and appreciative of the fact that back in the day I just had to sit in the back seat.

And I may have not liked the music, but I didn't have to do any of the work.

You know, my parents didn't just know the way, they were the way.

I just rode.

But the first time I had to drive, and it was, man, it was 2005, and this was like pre-GPS, but you didn't use a map anymore because you had map quests.

You would print off the directions.

You know what I'm talking about?

And so Megan was sitting in the passenger seat and she's like, okay, in two miles, you're gonna make a turn on this exit, and you had to be really focused.

And I think we got in our first major fight as a couple because of I wanted the directions given to me in a different way, and she was like, no, and the fact that she knew but wouldn't tell me really drove me nuts.

And so we had a big fight.

But I was like, oh man, this it's harder having to make my own way.

Made me more appreciative of the fact that when I was a kid, I just had to hang in the back seat.

And see, when Jesus says he's the way, he's not telling you, I know the way, and I'll tell you what it is, and then you go do it.

That's what religion says.

He's not a road sign instructing us on what we should do.

He's saying, I am the way.

Follow me.

I'm the one that's gonna do the work.

I'm the one that's gonna accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

I'm the one that's gonna win the battles, I'm the one that's gonna deal with sin, I'm the one that's gonna deal with death.

You don't have to do that.

I'm the way, just come with me.

And you'll get there.

There's a famous story in Mark chapter 10 of a man, often called the rich young ruler.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And I'll just say this in worship team, you guys can make your way out.

It says as Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Why do you call me good?

Jesus asked.

Only God is truly good.

But to answer your question, you know the commandments.

You must not murder, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not testify falsely, you must not cheat anyone, honor your father and mother, teacher, the man replied, I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young.

Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him.

There's one thing you haven't done.

Go and sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come, follow me.

And at this the man's face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Now, when this story is usually read, the thing that's focused on is that Jesus says, Sell all your possessions.

But that that's that's not what we should focus on at all.

Jesus often does this.

When the disciples who were fishermen who were fishermen, when he called them, he said, Drop your nets, follow me.

Jesus is just recognizing that in order to follow him, there's things that have to be let go of.

And for this man, all his possessions and and all the things that he did financially, that was keeping him from following Jesus.

That had to be let go of.

Because following Jesus in that time meant like literally with your feet, leave your stuff, come follow me.

It's different for us.

We follow him in our day-to-day lives.

But the the thing we should focus on isn't that he asked this man to sell his possessions, it's the simple, he said, This man comes to him and says, How do I get eternal life?

That kind of life that we're talking about.

How do I get a life that is so filled with purpose?

Because he had lots of money, but something was missing.

And we've all been there, we've all been in that position where we have what we thought we wanted, but we're not happy.

We have what we thought we we dreamed of, but there's still no joy, and that's a scary place to be, and that's where this man is.

And he goes to Jesus and he says, How can I have eternal life?

And Jesus says, Follow me.

How can I have eternal life?

Follow me.

If you're sitting here today and you're you're asking, How can I have more?

How can I experience more of what this life is supposed to be?

Something is missing, something is off, something is not the way that it should be, and how can I have that?

The answer is really simple.

Follow Jesus.

Because he's the way.

See, if you follow Jesus, you'll have eternal life because that's where he's going, that's what he is, that's what he gives.

He doesn't tell us the way and then watch us as we try our best to make it.

That's what religion does.

It says, try harder, do more, do better.

That's why Jesus kind of teased the man, said, Well, you you know the commandments.

The guy's like, Yes, I've lived my whole life trying to follow them.

It's exhausting, and I don't think I'm any closer.

And Jesus says, You're right.

Follow me.

And that other stuff's keeping you from that, so let go of it.

If you want to have real life, eternal life, I'm not talking about just a seat in heaven.

I'm talking about life right now, like a kind of life that you wake up in the morning and you know you have purpose, you know you have something important to accomplish.

And that important thing may not be important to anyone else in the world because that important thing might just simply to show love to the people around you, to be an encourager, to practice humility and grace, to walk with God.

All you have to do to have that is follow Jesus because that's who Jesus is, that's what he does.

He is the way, he does the heavy lifting.

We just get to ride in the back seat.

Hope he picks good music.

That's what we do.

But how beautiful is that that you don't have to be the one that has to make up for your mistakes.

Some of us have long lists of mistakes that we've made, some of us are in denial.

And you don't have to be the one that makes up for that.

You don't have to be the one that makes your own way, you don't have to be the one that cuts the path, that climbs the mountain, whatever other metaphor you want to use.

Jesus has already done it.

Path cut, mountain climbed.

Except it's not really a path cut, it's like a path paved, and the mountain was just torn down.

Because he's already defeated your sin and he's already defeated death.

So just ride with him, follow him, and you will have eternal life.

Jesus got his disciples together.

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

No one comes to the Father except through me, but anyone who comes to me, anyone who comes to me, regardless of past, regardless of status, regardless of current condition of the heart, anyone who comes to me, believes in me, will have eternal life.

If you're a Jesus follower, treasure that.

There's no one like Jesus, there's nothing like following him.

Because he will do for you what you can never do for yourself.

And it's time for you to rest, to stop trying to earn it, and just let him be who he is and ride with Jesus.

Let him be your way.

We're gonna pray, and we've got a bunch of people getting baptized today.

Like it's exciting, it's a lot.

So, I want to ask.

Our baptism team does a great job, and it'll be it'll be quick.

I do want to ask that we stick around for these baptisms.

It's not 20.

I said a bunch, like, what is a bunch?

Um, it's several people, but this is really important.

These are members of our family, and they've made the decision that we're talking about right now.

They've said, okay, Jesus, you're gonna be my way.

I believe you're the truth.

I want my life to be through you.

I'm coming to the Father through you.

We need to celebrate this together.

So after everyone gets baptized, you guys are free to cheer and get as excited as could be because this is definitely the exclamation point of our morning.

And so please pray with me.

Father, thank you so much for being who you are.

Jesus, thank you for being the way.

Thank you for being the truth, thank you for being the life, thank you for giving us a path to know our Father in heaven, to have a relationship with our God, to have real life, eternal life.

Lord, we couldn't have this without you.

There would be no way.

No one else could have died on the cross and had it meant what it meant when you died.

Or no one else's blood would have washed our sins away.

No one else's forgiveness would have meant that much, but yours does.

So we thank you.

We love you.

Help us keep following you, Lord.

Help us keep following you with all the passion we can muster.

And Lord, when we can't muster it, give us what we don't have.

We love you so much.

We pray all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.