Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - The Beginners Guide to Predicting Your Future Part 3 Follow

Transcript

Andy Stanley - The Beginners Guide to Predicting Your Future Part 3 Follow · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:02
Speaker 1: So here's something that we have all said in relationship
0:05
Speaker 1: to a geographical location, something every single one of us
0:09
Speaker 1: have said on multiple occasions. I would have never gotten
0:14
Speaker 1: here without you. We've all said this, you know. Somebody said,
0:16
Speaker 1: just meet me at the top of my neighborhood. And
0:18
Speaker 1: my neighborhood's through confusing, Just meet me up there and follow,
0:20
Speaker 1: and so that you follow and twist and turn and
0:22
Speaker 1: left and right and left and right, and you get
0:24
Speaker 1: there and you get out of the car and say, wow,
0:25
Speaker 1: thanks so much for meeting me at the top of
0:27
Speaker 1: your neighborhood, because I would have never gotten here without you.
0:29
Speaker 1: They say, just meet me in the lobby. No, I'll
0:30
Speaker 1: just come to your office. No, you'll never find my office.
0:34
Speaker 1: Just meet me in the parking lot. You meet him
0:35
Speaker 1: in the parking lot, You twist and turn up and
0:37
Speaker 1: down elevators and stairs, and you go out in the
0:39
Speaker 1: back through a breezeway and you're like, wow, thanks for
0:42
Speaker 1: meeting me in the lobby. I would have never gotten
0:44
Speaker 1: here without you. At some point along the way, we
0:46
Speaker 1: have all said this to somebody. We've all followed someone
0:49
Speaker 1: we trusted when we did not know how to get
0:51
Speaker 1: to where we needed to go or where we wanted
0:54
Speaker 1: to go, and they said, at some point in the conversation, look, look,
0:56
Speaker 1: look i'll meet you. Just follow me. Just follow me,
1:00
Speaker 1: follow me. And if you were convinced they knew how
1:02
Speaker 1: to get to where you wanted to be or where
1:04
Speaker 1: you need it to be, and if you were convinced
1:06
Speaker 1: this was someone you could actually trust, you followed them.
1:10
Speaker 1: Now we're going to come back to this idea in
1:12
Speaker 1: just a minute. This entire series on the Beginner's Guide
1:15
Speaker 1: to Predicting your Future is built around a single premise,
1:18
Speaker 1: a single principle, a single prediction actually, and that's simply this,
1:23
Speaker 1: that direction, not intention, determines our destination. That direction, not intention,
1:29
Speaker 1: determines our destination. That in week one we talked about
1:32
Speaker 1: that direction determines destination. And we all know this when
1:35
Speaker 1: it comes to driving, we all know this when it
1:37
Speaker 1: comes to hiking, we all know this when it comes
1:39
Speaker 1: to biking. But when it comes to living, oftentimes we
1:42
Speaker 1: miss the connection that our direction financially determines where we
1:45
Speaker 1: end up financially, or the direction you take in your
1:48
Speaker 1: marriage and your relationships and dating determines where you end
1:50
Speaker 1: up relationally. The direction you take academically professionally that in
1:53
Speaker 1: every arena of life, the direction you choose ultimately determines
1:58
Speaker 1: your destination. But it's direction, not intention. And this was
2:02
Speaker 1: the trick, and this was the thing we talked about
2:03
Speaker 1: last week, that oftentimes there is a disconnect between what
2:07
Speaker 1: we intend to do, who we intend to become, where
2:09
Speaker 1: we intend to be, and where we actually end up
2:12
Speaker 1: because intention does not determine our destination. Direction determines destination.
2:17
Speaker 1: And everybody, every single one of us, this is what
2:19
Speaker 1: we have in common. This isn't a religious thing, This
2:22
Speaker 1: is just a thing thing. We all start out with
2:24
Speaker 1: good intentions, don't we. We all start out with good intentions. Financially,
2:28
Speaker 1: we all start out with good intentions. Relationally, we all
2:31
Speaker 1: start out with good intentions marriagely and pairingly and all
2:35
Speaker 1: the alleys. Academically, we all start out with good intentions.
2:39
Speaker 1: But the problem is intentions don't determine destinations directions. Destination
2:45
Speaker 1: is determined by the direction we're living in. Or intentions
2:48
Speaker 1: are not another way of saying it is that intentions
2:50
Speaker 1: are not good predictors. Right, our current behavior, your current behavior,
2:57
Speaker 1: your girlfriend, your boyfriend's current behavior is a better predictor
3:01
Speaker 1: than their intentions. This is why parents have a freak
3:05
Speaker 1: out mode they go into when they meet their son
3:09
Speaker 1: or their daughter, or their grandson or their granddaughters, boyfriends
3:11
Speaker 1: or girlfriends or fiances sometimes right, because when we fall
3:15
Speaker 1: in love or fall into whatever you fell into, you know,
3:19
Speaker 1: love is a fog, right, I mean, I think love
3:21
Speaker 1: is supposed to be a bit of a fog. And
3:23
Speaker 1: we are so you know, we are so tuned into
3:26
Speaker 1: what this person is in the moment and what they
3:29
Speaker 1: plan to do and what they plan to be, and
3:30
Speaker 1: what they intend to do and what they intend to be.
3:33
Speaker 1: But parents have this intuition about them. Your parents do,
3:37
Speaker 1: and when you become a parent, you will as well
3:39
Speaker 1: that parents have an intuition where you don't just look
3:42
Speaker 1: at where the person is now, you are very dialed
3:44
Speaker 1: into where is this person heading with their life Because
3:46
Speaker 1: every parent knows that their son or daughter's boyfriend, girlfriend,
3:49
Speaker 1: or fiance, it's ultimately the direction they're moving in that
3:52
Speaker 1: will determine their destination, not their intention. Behavior indicates a
3:58
Speaker 1: direction and direction we said this last time. Direction Trump's
4:03
Speaker 1: intention every single time. So last week we spent a
4:07
Speaker 1: lot of time talking about the disconnect between what we
4:10
Speaker 1: intend to do, who we intend to become, and the
4:13
Speaker 1: direction we're actually moving in. If there is a disconnect
4:17
Speaker 1: between what you intend to do, where you intend to
4:20
Speaker 1: end up, and the direction you're currently on, you will
4:23
Speaker 1: always end up with. The direction will always determine your destination,
4:27
Speaker 1: not your intention. Now, today, what we're going to focus
4:31
Speaker 1: on is this word. We're going to focus on direction
4:35
Speaker 1: and specifically, and I know this is a big ask,
4:38
Speaker 1: and I know this is a bit bold, and I
4:39
Speaker 1: hope you'll stay you know, dialed in and tuned in
4:42
Speaker 1: when I tell you what I want to do today.
4:43
Speaker 1: But specifically, I want to invite those of you who
4:47
Speaker 1: aren't already to become followers of Jesus Christ. I would
4:53
Speaker 1: like for you to surrender your entire life and everything
4:58
Speaker 1: about your entire life life to Jesus and to decide
5:01
Speaker 1: to follow Jesus, to surrender to his direction and trust
5:08
Speaker 1: him with your destination. And by destination, I'm not talking
5:12
Speaker 1: about the after life. I'm talking about in this life
5:15
Speaker 1: as we're going to see for just a few minutes.
5:17
Speaker 1: But my challenge today is to ask all of you
5:20
Speaker 1: who haven't already to make the decision because it's your
5:22
Speaker 1: decision to decide to follow Jesus with your entire life. Now,
5:28
Speaker 1: I realize that's a bold ask because I don't know you,
5:31
Speaker 1: and I don't know your circumstances. I don't know your
5:33
Speaker 1: church background, your lack of church background. Your dad was
5:36
Speaker 1: a pastor and kind of flaked out, or your mom
5:38
Speaker 1: led the choir and flaked out, or you just don't
5:41
Speaker 1: have any religious background at all, or you don't have
5:43
Speaker 1: any faith at all, or God didn't answer your prayer
5:45
Speaker 1: as a teenager and you haven't been back since. I
5:47
Speaker 1: don't know your story, but I do know this that
5:50
Speaker 1: in the first century, Jesus invited people just like us
5:54
Speaker 1: to trust him and to follow him. And the reason
5:57
Speaker 1: I want to make this bold invitation in the twenty
6:00
Speaker 1: first century is because I have heard so many people
6:03
Speaker 1: say in relationship to Jesus, I would have never gotten
6:08
Speaker 1: here without you. Every time we watch a baptism video
6:12
Speaker 1: in one of our churches, that's the story is I
6:16
Speaker 1: was here Now I'm where I need to be. Things
6:18
Speaker 1: have changed. Things have changed relationally, things have changed my marriage,
6:20
Speaker 1: things have changed my sense of purpose and destiny. You know,
6:24
Speaker 1: my you know just about every area of my life.
6:27
Speaker 1: And they don't use these words, but essentially they're saying,
6:29
Speaker 1: you know what, apart from deciding to follow Jesus, I
6:32
Speaker 1: would not be where I am today. I would not
6:36
Speaker 1: have gotten here wherever here is, and here is always
6:39
Speaker 1: a better place apart from Jesus. Thursday this week, I'm
6:42
Speaker 1: holding a plate of food and I meet a guy
6:44
Speaker 1: and he says, hey, Andy, I go to Brownsbridge Church,
6:47
Speaker 1: which is one of our churches in our network of churches.
6:49
Speaker 1: And I said, how did you find Brownsbridge? And he
6:51
Speaker 1: told me this amazing story that I'll shrink down to
6:54
Speaker 1: forty five seconds. He went like this, He said, well,
6:56
Speaker 1: I hated church and church people. My wife hated church
6:59
Speaker 1: and church people. We were doing very well, we didn't
7:02
Speaker 1: need church. But suddenly our marriage took a turn for
7:03
Speaker 1: the worst and she left and she came back, and
7:05
Speaker 1: when she came back, she said, we need to find
7:07
Speaker 1: a church. And I thought, I'm not going to church.
7:09
Speaker 1: I hate church, and so does she. Why does she
7:10
Speaker 1: want to go to church? And I knew she grew
7:12
Speaker 1: up in a small conservative church, so I thought, we're
7:15
Speaker 1: not going to go to one of those. She might
7:16
Speaker 1: like it, so Andy, I hate to tell you, I
7:18
Speaker 1: chose one of yours because I hate big churches. And
7:21
Speaker 1: I knew she would hate it. And I knew she
7:23
Speaker 1: would hate it, and I already hated it. So it
7:25
Speaker 1: was perfect, true story of holding my plate of food,
7:30
Speaker 1: you know. He said. I hated your church because there's
7:34
Speaker 1: so much to cast, so much traffic on Sundays when
7:36
Speaker 1: I was trying to get around and you know, do
7:38
Speaker 1: my things out at Forsyth County, you know. And he said,
7:41
Speaker 1: So it was perfect. So I told her we're going
7:43
Speaker 1: to this big church. She said, I'm going to hate it,
7:44
Speaker 1: and he thought, that's the point. I wanted us to
7:46
Speaker 1: hate it, because this isn't going to become part of
7:48
Speaker 1: our Sunday routine. We showed up, we pulled in, he said,
7:51
Speaker 1: and I'm a business guy, and he was successful. He said,
7:53
Speaker 1: I'm a business guy, and I recognized immediately somebody has
7:55
Speaker 1: put some thought into this, he said. Then we got
7:58
Speaker 1: in the building, and somebody has put some thought into this.
8:01
Speaker 1: He said. The music was great. I even knew the
8:03
Speaker 1: opening song. He told me the opening song. He said.
8:05
Speaker 1: Then you started preaching, and he said, I can quote
8:07
Speaker 1: back to the introduction of your sermon. It was the
8:09
Speaker 1: beginning of a series. And you got up there and
8:12
Speaker 1: I won't quote what he said, because he quoted it perfectly.
8:14
Speaker 1: You stated that this is the common opinion and the
8:17
Speaker 1: common perspective about Christians and the local church. He said,
8:20
Speaker 1: you nailed it, he said. I wanted to stand up
8:23
Speaker 1: and say, yes, that's exactly why I hate church because
8:27
Speaker 1: of what you just said. You nailed it, he said.
8:31
Speaker 1: And then you went from there, he said. When we
8:32
Speaker 1: finished the TI he went by so quickly. I said,
8:34
Speaker 1: we're coming back. My wife said, I'm not coming back.
8:36
Speaker 1: He said, here, we're going to come back. They're both
8:39
Speaker 1: mentors at our church. They're both super involved and went
8:42
Speaker 1: through starting point even a small group. They were new mentors.
8:45
Speaker 1: And you know what, This was his way of saying,
8:47
Speaker 1: I could not have gotten to where I am today.
8:50
Speaker 1: We would never be where we are today if it
8:53
Speaker 1: had not been for Jesus. We did not even know
8:56
Speaker 1: how to get to where we needed to be apart
8:59
Speaker 1: for Jesus. That Jesus made our lives better and Jesus
9:04
Speaker 1: made us better at life. And that's the promise, and
9:09
Speaker 1: that's the promise that Jesus has been made two thousand
9:12
Speaker 1: years ago and continues to make today. So I'm not
9:14
Speaker 1: shy about saying to you I want would I want
9:17
Speaker 1: to ask you to consider surrendering your life to Jesus
9:20
Speaker 1: and following Jesus with every component of your life now
9:24
Speaker 1: to help you make that decision and hopefully motivate and
9:28
Speaker 1: inspire you to at least consider it, because maybe it's
9:30
Speaker 1: a long shot as you sit here today, maybe not is.
9:32
Speaker 1: I want to tell you a story from the life
9:35
Speaker 1: of Jesus' most famous followers, his first century followers. This
9:39
Speaker 1: is found in the Gospel of John. John, by the way,
9:41
Speaker 1: is an eyewitness to all this stuff. John outlived Peter
9:45
Speaker 1: and Paul and all the other famous guys, and John
9:47
Speaker 1: wrote the Gospel of John a few letters John. This
9:50
Speaker 1: is super important. If you're not a Christian necessarily, you
9:53
Speaker 1: should know this. John is the person that introduced to
9:55
Speaker 1: the world the idea that God is love. If you
9:59
Speaker 1: believe God is love and you're not, you know, you're
10:01
Speaker 1: not really a religious person. You just sort of think
10:03
Speaker 1: there's a God in God is love. You should know
10:04
Speaker 1: that as a distinctly and uniquely Christian idea. And John
10:08
Speaker 1: did not say God is love because life was lovely.
10:12
Speaker 1: John said God is love because he had stared love
10:14
Speaker 1: in the face, he had watched love die, and he
10:17
Speaker 1: had eaten breakfast with love after he was resurrected from
10:20
Speaker 1: the dead. And John concluded that Jesus was God in
10:23
Speaker 1: a god, and if Jesus was God in a body
10:27
Speaker 1: and Jesus was love, then God must be Love. John
10:33
Speaker 1: brings this this story said, basically, here's what happened. Here's
10:36
Speaker 1: some context. Jesus had just done a five k. He
10:40
Speaker 1: had fed five thousand people all by himself. That was
10:44
Speaker 1: his five K, and then he cooled down by walking
10:47
Speaker 1: across a portion of the Sea of Galilee. So he's tired,
10:51
Speaker 1: but he's cooling down his disciples that we're going to
10:53
Speaker 1: call him the Apostles because of the way the stories
10:55
Speaker 1: go to the twelve Apostles. They are amazed, and the
10:58
Speaker 1: people are impressed, and the peace people that he fed.
11:00
Speaker 1: They want to make Jesus the king because that's what
11:03
Speaker 1: kings did in the first century. In an ancient times,
11:05
Speaker 1: kings always provided food for people, and mostly bread because
11:08
Speaker 1: bread was portable and bread could be preserved. Everything else
11:11
Speaker 1: spoiled so quickly. So if you provided bread for the people,
11:14
Speaker 1: they would make you king. They didn't even have to
11:16
Speaker 1: do campaign speeches. Whoever provided the most bread, they got
11:19
Speaker 1: the most followers. That's just the way the ancient world were.
11:21
Speaker 1: And Jesus had just fed them with bread. So they
11:25
Speaker 1: find out where Jesus went, and so they can't do
11:28
Speaker 1: the shortcut. So they make their way around that little
11:30
Speaker 1: peninsula around the edge of the Sea of Galley, and
11:32
Speaker 1: they find Jesus. And when they find Jesus, they want something.
11:36
Speaker 1: They're like us, they want something, and they want something now.
11:39
Speaker 1: But they realize you just can't walk up the Jesus
11:42
Speaker 1: and say, hey, you know, do me a favor, give
11:44
Speaker 1: me something. We do when we pray, we say, dear
11:47
Speaker 1: heavenly fol let's get the small talk out of the way,
11:49
Speaker 1: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day now. But
11:52
Speaker 1: when you're in the presence of Jesus, you don't do that.
11:55
Speaker 1: So here's how the story unfolds. When they found him
11:59
Speaker 1: Jesus on the other side of the lake, because he'd
12:01
Speaker 1: walked and they had to walk around, they ask him
12:04
Speaker 1: and again they want something, but first a little small talk.
12:06
Speaker 1: So apparently there's a representative of these people. So the
12:09
Speaker 1: representative walks up. There's this crowd of people. Everywhere Jesus went,
12:12
Speaker 1: and there's a crowd, and he walks up and he says, rabbi. Now,
12:15
Speaker 1: this is because they just think he's a rabbi. He's
12:18
Speaker 1: a powerful rabbi. But he's a rabbi. Rabbi, hey, when
12:23
Speaker 1: did you get here? Small talk? Now, they don't care
12:26
Speaker 1: about it. This is life. But you just can't come
12:27
Speaker 1: right out and say gimme, gimme, gimme. So Jesus knows
12:30
Speaker 1: the heart of everyone, and so he smiles and maybe
12:34
Speaker 1: he sighs, and he says, look, let's just cut through
12:38
Speaker 1: all the small talk. You are looking for me, not
12:42
Speaker 1: because you saw the signs I performed, but because you
12:45
Speaker 1: ate the loaves and had your fill. I know why
12:47
Speaker 1: you're here. Let's just get to it. You want to
12:50
Speaker 1: be fed again, you want some more bread. You weren't
12:53
Speaker 1: impressed or moved by the signs. Now, this is very
12:55
Speaker 1: important for when you read the New Testament. Jesus did
12:59
Speaker 1: not perform random miracles just to show off. He didn't
13:02
Speaker 1: perform random miracles like okay, today, everybody whose name starts
13:06
Speaker 1: with R, we're gonna heal you today. Tomorrow we'll have
13:09
Speaker 1: all the You know his sign his miracles were signs. Now,
13:13
Speaker 1: what does a sign do? A sign points to something.
13:16
Speaker 1: Every single one of jesus miracles were a sign that
13:19
Speaker 1: pointed to something, something big, something new. Nobody loves the sign.
13:25
Speaker 1: Nobody's looking to go stand by the sign. Signs point somewhere,
13:29
Speaker 1: and Jesus miracles weren't the point. Jesus miracles were signs.
13:33
Speaker 1: Jesus miracles weren't the thing he wanted people to rally around.
13:37
Speaker 1: Jesus miracles were to get people to ask questions like, Wow,
13:41
Speaker 1: what is going on? It's a sign, look right over there.
13:45
Speaker 1: And all of jesus miracles, all of his signs, pointed
13:47
Speaker 1: to something brand new, something bigger than ever, something spectacular.
13:52
Speaker 1: The Kingdom of God was coming and had come to earth.
13:58
Speaker 1: This was bigger than the Temple, he said, this is
14:00
Speaker 1: bigger than the Sabbath, This is bigger than the law.
14:03
Speaker 1: This is bigger than anything that has ever happened before.
14:06
Speaker 1: And so he's pointing people toward this big, great thing.
14:09
Speaker 1: This wasn't about food, this wasn't about immediate, This was
14:14
Speaker 1: about ultimate. Then they ask him, hey, listen. You know,
14:22
Speaker 1: we saw that thing you did, and you prayed, and
14:24
Speaker 1: little boy handed you the food. We couldn't really see
14:26
Speaker 1: through the crowd that was about. But then your disciples
14:28
Speaker 1: they were out handing out food and it multiplied, and hey,
14:31
Speaker 1: would you teach us to do that? Then they ask
14:35
Speaker 1: him what must we do to do the works that
14:38
Speaker 1: God requires? Because that was amazing? Can you teach us
14:42
Speaker 1: to do some of those tricks? And Jesus answered, the
14:45
Speaker 1: work of good this is so powerful. In fact, this
14:48
Speaker 1: may be why you're watching or listening or why you're here.
14:51
Speaker 1: Jesus answered, the work of God is this ready. The
14:55
Speaker 1: work of God is to believe in the one he
15:00
Speaker 1: has sent. It's that simple, it's that profound that the
15:06
Speaker 1: work of God is gonna tease this out in just
15:08
Speaker 1: a minute. The work of God, the thing that God
15:10
Speaker 1: wants you to do. The starting point, the beginning point,
15:13
Speaker 1: step one, baby steps. You know what's the first thing
15:16
Speaker 1: is to simply believe, and he's talking about himself. Believe
15:19
Speaker 1: in the one that he God has sent. In other words,
15:23
Speaker 1: Jesus says, okay, look, I know you were impressed by
15:26
Speaker 1: the sign, by the miracle, and I'm glad you're here.
15:28
Speaker 1: But here's the point of the sign. Here's the point
15:30
Speaker 1: of the miracle. Here's what all that points to. Here's
15:33
Speaker 1: what all of this points to. Trust me, follow me,
15:38
Speaker 1: trust me, follow me, trust me, follow me, I Jesus
15:44
Speaker 1: will say, I know how to get you there, and
15:47
Speaker 1: I know where there is, and I know who you
15:50
Speaker 1: need to be, what you need to be, and where
15:52
Speaker 1: you need to be. Would you trust me and would
15:55
Speaker 1: you follow me? Now this was not working and this
15:58
Speaker 1: was not what they came for, so changed tactics, they said.
16:01
Speaker 1: Oh so another guy kind of pushes through the crowd.
16:03
Speaker 1: Apparently he says, okay, hey, you mentioned signs that you
16:07
Speaker 1: know that was a sign Jesus. What sign? Well, then
16:11
Speaker 1: you will you then give us that we may see
16:13
Speaker 1: it the sign and then believe you because you said,
16:15
Speaker 1: we're supposed that somehow the work of God is to believe,
16:18
Speaker 1: and we want to believe. Don't you want to believe that?
16:20
Speaker 1: Don't you want to believe? Give me a bee? You
16:22
Speaker 1: know we all want to believe. But in order for
16:24
Speaker 1: us to believe, I think we need another sign. Don't
16:27
Speaker 1: we all need another sign? So what sign? Will you do? Pause?
16:32
Speaker 1: And then the same guy. Apparently, He's like, hey, I
16:34
Speaker 1: just thought of one. I mean, this just popped in
16:36
Speaker 1: my head. I mean I didn't you know, I didn't
16:38
Speaker 1: know think about this before. This just kind of popped
16:40
Speaker 1: in my head. Jesus, you know the story of our ancestors,
16:44
Speaker 1: you know, Moses and let my people go and then
16:46
Speaker 1: they get to the Promised land doesn't work out, and
16:49
Speaker 1: they wander around the wilderness all those years. And during
16:51
Speaker 1: those wandering years, you remember how God fed them? You
16:54
Speaker 1: remember that story, Jesus, our ancestors, if you'll remember, ate
16:58
Speaker 1: the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he
17:01
Speaker 1: God gave them bread from heaven to eat. You remember
17:04
Speaker 1: how God provided bread from heaven and they all ate.
17:08
Speaker 1: Remember that one. That was a good one. Do that
17:12
Speaker 1: one again. And everybody's like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's
17:15
Speaker 1: already in precedence for that. We've seen you kind of
17:17
Speaker 1: multiply it, mate, you know, Jesus said to them, he's
17:19
Speaker 1: so patient, very truly. I tell you, it is not Moses.
17:25
Speaker 1: It is not Moses who has given you the bread
17:27
Speaker 1: from heaven, but it is my Father. It's like, come on.
17:31
Speaker 1: That was a sign pointing to something else as well.
17:33
Speaker 1: And God, not Moses, provided for bread for those people,
17:36
Speaker 1: and my Father in Heaven wants to provide for you
17:39
Speaker 1: as well. He continues, for the bread of God, the
17:42
Speaker 1: bread that comes from God. That's what that means. The
17:45
Speaker 1: bread that comes from God is the bread that comes
17:47
Speaker 1: down from Heaven. You're right about the you know, the
17:49
Speaker 1: whole man of thing and gives life to the world.
17:54
Speaker 1: And now Jesus is trying to get them to see. Look,
17:56
Speaker 1: when I talk about bread, I'm not talking about physical
17:58
Speaker 1: bread that comes and goes. You've had that before. I'm
18:01
Speaker 1: talking about something bigger. I've come to offer you life.
18:05
Speaker 1: I've come to offer you something that will sustain you
18:07
Speaker 1: beyond filling your stomach with something. The bread was just
18:10
Speaker 1: a sign that was appointing to something bigger and greater
18:14
Speaker 1: and newer. Well, finally they just can't follow. They're just
18:17
Speaker 1: they just can't do it. So somebody else pushes their
18:20
Speaker 1: way through the crowd, and they say, sir. He went
18:22
Speaker 1: from rabbi to sir. It's like we're our patience is
18:25
Speaker 1: running out, Sir, Always give us this bread we want.
18:30
Speaker 1: Come on, let's just get right to it. We want
18:31
Speaker 1: an endless supply. Spoil us. Make it rain bread, make
18:36
Speaker 1: our lives better so that we don't have to bake it.
18:39
Speaker 1: We don't have to grow it, we don't have to
18:41
Speaker 1: harvest it. That we would have bread the rest of
18:43
Speaker 1: our life. Just give it to us. Jesus. Again, he's
18:49
Speaker 1: so patient. He says, Look, I understand, but here's why.
18:55
Speaker 1: Here's what I want you to understand. I I am
19:01
Speaker 1: the bread of life. You've eaten bread that will sustain
19:07
Speaker 1: you in life. But I me my body. You are
19:12
Speaker 1: looking at the bread of life. The signs all point
19:18
Speaker 1: to who I am, and I have come for you
19:21
Speaker 1: because I know how to get you to where you
19:24
Speaker 1: need to be. Now Jesus stays on this track and
19:29
Speaker 1: the sermon goes on and on and on. You can
19:30
Speaker 1: read it for yourself. And John six and it gets
19:32
Speaker 1: a little odd. He says, I'm the bread of life.
19:34
Speaker 1: You need to eat my body. They're like, no, we're
19:37
Speaker 1: not gonna do that. We're not gonna eat your body.
19:39
Speaker 1: And again, Jesus life, no, no, no, not literally. And
19:41
Speaker 1: you need to drink my blood. We are really not
19:44
Speaker 1: gonna drink it, not literally. And they just they just
19:46
Speaker 1: they just can't follow. And besides, they didn't come for
19:49
Speaker 1: a sermon anyway, and so the whole thing, just the
19:52
Speaker 1: whole day just kind of goes south. It's not like
19:54
Speaker 1: his best sermon. Okay. I don't want to criticize jesus
19:56
Speaker 1: sermons being a preacher, but it just nobody understood until later.
20:02
Speaker 1: And do you know why we understand it later because
20:04
Speaker 1: it was a sign pointing till later. But in the moment,
20:09
Speaker 1: it's so confusing. I think it's so confusing. At some point,
20:13
Speaker 1: you know, Peter and John probably wanted to come up
20:15
Speaker 1: and put their arm around Jesus and say to the crowd, Hey,
20:17
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break. We're gonna be right
20:21
Speaker 1: back in a minute. Matthew's gonna come share a few
20:23
Speaker 1: tax gatherer jokes, come tell some tax collector jokes, and
20:26
Speaker 1: we're gonna be right back. And pull Jesus off to
20:28
Speaker 1: the side and say, Jesus, I mean, come on, you
20:31
Speaker 1: are losing the crowd. We don't even know what you're
20:33
Speaker 1: talking about. So go back out there and do something
20:36
Speaker 1: on prayer or tell the story about the guy that
20:38
Speaker 1: got beat up. And they love that. When I said,
20:40
Speaker 1: if you would leave the Samaritan part out, make a
20:41
Speaker 1: Jewish person, the hero that would go over a lot better,
20:44
Speaker 1: or the one about the suns or the coins, I mean,
20:47
Speaker 1: any of the mountains a blessed Why anything would be
20:50
Speaker 1: better than this? We are losing the crowd, But they
20:54
Speaker 1: didn't do that. And John tells us because he was
20:57
Speaker 1: there on hearing this, many of this disciples, not the twelve.
21:01
Speaker 1: The disciples in the book of John are always the
21:03
Speaker 1: big crowd of people that follow Jesus. Some of them
21:06
Speaker 1: had been with him since the River Jordan, the Jordan
21:08
Speaker 1: River when John the Baptist was baptized on this day.
21:12
Speaker 1: On hearing this, many of his disciples said, this is
21:15
Speaker 1: too hard, This is so harsh. Just what that word means?
21:20
Speaker 1: Who can accept it? Or literally, who can listen to this?
21:23
Speaker 1: Who can even stay and hear this? And aware that
21:28
Speaker 1: his disciples, his followers, the crowd, were grumbling about this,
21:32
Speaker 1: he said to them, does this offend you? Does this
21:37
Speaker 1: kind of trip you up? It is what I'm saying.
21:40
Speaker 1: Does it cause you? Is it causing you to have
21:42
Speaker 1: second thoughts about me? And the text says John tells
21:48
Speaker 1: us from this time on. From this time on, many
21:52
Speaker 1: of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him,
21:57
Speaker 1: and they won't follow him for the same reason that
21:59
Speaker 1: some of you him. He will not give them what
22:04
Speaker 1: they want when they wanted, because he had come for
22:08
Speaker 1: something much bigger than that. So when you were a
22:14
Speaker 1: senior in high school, you prayed and prayed and prayed
22:16
Speaker 1: and prayed and prayed, and your cousin passed away anyway,
22:20
Speaker 1: your father passed away anyway, and you thought, I'm done.
22:24
Speaker 1: When you were in college, you prayed and prayed and
22:26
Speaker 1: prayed and prayed and prayed, and you did not weren't
22:28
Speaker 1: able to get into the school you wanted to get into.
22:30
Speaker 1: You finally had to draw it. You prayed and prayed,
22:32
Speaker 1: and the money wasn't there. You went to church and
22:35
Speaker 1: went to church, and they made all these promises in
22:36
Speaker 1: the pastor flaked out and did something just weird, and
22:39
Speaker 1: you're like, I'm just done with this. I mean, this
22:41
Speaker 1: isn't working out the way I envisioned it would work out.
22:44
Speaker 1: I understand that. Do you know who else understands that
22:46
Speaker 1: your heavenly father understands that Jesus faced a crowd just
22:50
Speaker 1: like us. We wanted our way now, and Jesus would
22:55
Speaker 1: say to them and would say to us, I understand that,
22:59
Speaker 1: but I've come to give you something so much bigger.
23:03
Speaker 1: I've come to give you life that is truly life.
23:09
Speaker 1: They wanted something temporary and perishable, something that wouldn't last,
23:14
Speaker 1: something that would satisfy their stomachs for a few hours.
23:17
Speaker 1: Jesus is offering something so much better, something that was
23:21
Speaker 1: less filling, but ultimately more full filling. So back to
23:28
Speaker 1: the story. So the twelve, you know, they're listening to
23:31
Speaker 1: Jesus watching the crowd, listening to Jesus watching the crowd,
23:33
Speaker 1: listening to Jesus watching the crowd, kind of looking at
23:35
Speaker 1: each other like, Eh, this is not going well. And
23:38
Speaker 1: they're worried because, as I've told you before, if they
23:41
Speaker 1: lose the crowd, they lose their protection. The reason it
23:43
Speaker 1: was so hard to arrest Jesus, he was always surrounded
23:45
Speaker 1: by people. It's why they arrested Jesus at night. It's
23:48
Speaker 1: why Nicodemus came to talk to Jesus at night. During
23:51
Speaker 1: the day, there were crowds everywhere. The reason he would
23:53
Speaker 1: get on boats and cross the Sea of Galley. It's
23:55
Speaker 1: the only way to get away from the people. There
23:57
Speaker 1: were no tricked out you know, escalates he could hop
23:59
Speaker 1: into him, you know, take off. You know, his best
24:02
Speaker 1: hope was a donkey. All right, let's go, you know,
24:07
Speaker 1: so you just it's hard to escape the crowds. And
24:10
Speaker 1: not only that, I don't want to be gross, but
24:13
Speaker 1: you know, sick people, we're all trying to touch him
24:15
Speaker 1: at the same time. Imagine that day. It's kind of
24:18
Speaker 1: like the Walking Dead. Every day of his life, It's like, okay, okay, okay,
24:21
Speaker 1: they're off, because when you're sick and you're desperate, when
24:24
Speaker 1: you're sick and you're desperate, and you know, I just
24:25
Speaker 1: need to touch him, or touch somebody that touched him,
24:28
Speaker 1: or maybe try to get in his shadow. You'll do anything,
24:30
Speaker 1: especially when it's your child or your husband or someone
24:32
Speaker 1: you love. This was every day of jesus life, and
24:36
Speaker 1: it is chaotic and as wonderfully chaotic as it was
24:39
Speaker 1: read the Gospels. The Disciples, the twelve, they knew, if
24:43
Speaker 1: we lose the crowd, we lose our protection from the
24:46
Speaker 1: temple henchman, and we may lose our life. And there
24:49
Speaker 1: goes Justin. Oh Justin has been with us since the
24:52
Speaker 1: Jordan River that goes Licinius. Oh. No, he's been one
24:55
Speaker 1: of the most devout followers and he's leaving. So Jesus
25:00
Speaker 1: pauses his sermon. He's watching the crowd sort of begin
25:04
Speaker 1: to disband, looks at the twelve and he knows they
25:07
Speaker 1: would like to disband as well. They'd like to stand, stretch,
25:12
Speaker 1: step back. That's good, Jesus, that's write that down. John,
25:16
Speaker 1: that's good. That's Matthew, you're getting this. That's good, and
25:19
Speaker 1: disappear to the crowd. And Jesus turns to the twelve
25:22
Speaker 1: and they know he knows the heart of men and women,
25:25
Speaker 1: and he says, you talking about the twelve, you what?
25:31
Speaker 1: You don't want to leave two? Do you? And they
25:36
Speaker 1: were so busted, But you don't lie to the son
25:40
Speaker 1: of man. You don't lie to someone who gave sight
25:44
Speaker 1: to the blind. You don't want to leave too, do you?
25:48
Speaker 1: I mean, I know this is hard, but do you?
25:51
Speaker 1: I mean, really, you guys just want to just because
25:54
Speaker 1: this is hard and this is confusing. You just want
25:57
Speaker 1: to give up everything you've heard and seen and just leave.
26:00
Speaker 1: You don't want to leave too, do you? And in
26:02
Speaker 1: this moment, this is the reason I hope that you're
26:05
Speaker 1: here or watching or listening in this moment. Peter sees
26:09
Speaker 1: what everybody else missed, and Peter sees what perhaps you've missed.
26:12
Speaker 1: And Peter sees what I hope you see today. Simon
26:17
Speaker 1: Peter looking around, feeling that same fear. And he's no
26:20
Speaker 1: courageous person. We know, he's just average Simon Peter size.
26:26
Speaker 1: And he says, Lord, Yes, we would like to go,
26:35
Speaker 1: but I've done the math, and I've rehearsed our recent past.
26:40
Speaker 1: To whom would we go? I mean, to whom would
26:44
Speaker 1: we go? We don't know how to get there, and
26:49
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like you're leading us there whatever there is.
26:51
Speaker 1: But I know we don't know how to get there,
26:53
Speaker 1: and we've never met anybody else that knows how to
26:55
Speaker 1: get us there. And so to walk away from you
26:57
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily gonna you know, it doesn't necessarily take us
27:00
Speaker 1: to a better destination, right, I mean, yeah, it's about
27:03
Speaker 1: to get difficult, but moving in a different direction does
27:06
Speaker 1: not guarantee a better destination. So yeah, we're scared. Yeah,
27:10
Speaker 1: we suddenly the you know, we were rock stars before
27:12
Speaker 1: yesterday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon was amazing. They want to make
27:15
Speaker 1: you king, And if you're king, do you realize what
27:18
Speaker 1: that means for us. Today is a different day. But seriously,
27:26
Speaker 1: to whom would we go? You're the only one that
27:31
Speaker 1: knows how to get us there? And the reason I
27:32
Speaker 1: say that is because you have something no one else has.
27:35
Speaker 1: You have the words of eternal life. You have given
27:38
Speaker 1: us a bigger picture of the world. You've given us
27:41
Speaker 1: a different picture of God. You have reframed our little
27:45
Speaker 1: itty bitty nothing lives within the context of eternity. And
27:50
Speaker 1: something has risen up in us and I don't think
27:54
Speaker 1: we can go back to normal. And we've seen enough
28:01
Speaker 1: to know we have we have come to believe, and
28:03
Speaker 1: we've come to know that you are the Holy One
28:07
Speaker 1: of God, Jesus. Before you, there was just fishing and
28:12
Speaker 1: wifing and children and illness and then die. And you
28:19
Speaker 1: have invited us into something with purpose and meaning. To
28:25
Speaker 1: Whom shall we go? To? Whom shall we go? My friends?
28:30
Speaker 1: That is the question I want you to ask, because
28:34
Speaker 1: if you refuse to follow Jesus, you're following something, or
28:37
Speaker 1: you're following someone, and they may not have any better
28:41
Speaker 1: idea than you do of how to get to where
28:43
Speaker 1: you need to be. Now, when I read this passage
28:47
Speaker 1: or teach this passage. My mind one hundred percent of
28:50
Speaker 1: the time goes back to a moment in my life
28:53
Speaker 1: where I almost hit the unfollowed button when it came
28:55
Speaker 1: to Jesus. And I know this is going to sound strange.
28:57
Speaker 1: I went to Georgia State University majored in journalism. Christianity
29:01
Speaker 1: had always served me well, and so when I graduated
29:05
Speaker 1: from college, I decided to go into ministry. I never
29:07
Speaker 1: really felt called to ministry. I just decided to volunteer.
29:10
Speaker 1: And that's what I told my dad. I said, you
29:11
Speaker 1: have to be called, or can you just volunteer? He said,
29:13
Speaker 1: I think you can volunteer. I said, I'd like to volunteer.
29:16
Speaker 1: That's a big dramatic moment, you know. Woo. You know.
29:20
Speaker 1: So I go to Dallas, I sign up, I get
29:22
Speaker 1: my classes, I write my check, you know. Then I
29:24
Speaker 1: go back to my efficiency apartment. You know, the class
29:26
Speaker 1: starts the next day. Have you ever lived in an
29:28
Speaker 1: efficiency apartment? You can sit in one spot and do
29:30
Speaker 1: everything all at the same time, you know. And I'm
29:33
Speaker 1: overwhelmed with doubt, and I'm overwhelmed with a sense of
29:38
Speaker 1: anxiety of oh no, what am I about to do? Okay,
29:43
Speaker 1: I am about. I mean, you know, Christianity has been
29:45
Speaker 1: good for me. It kept me out of trouble. All
29:47
Speaker 1: my friends were at church. I love church. Okay, that's
29:50
Speaker 1: one thing to grow up in Sunday School. You know,
29:52
Speaker 1: my dad taught me to memorize David's speech to Goliath
29:55
Speaker 1: whenever I face temptation. So I memorized that speech. You know.
29:58
Speaker 1: The great thing about it, by the time you finished
30:00
Speaker 1: quoting the speech, you forgot what you're even being tempted about.
30:03
Speaker 1: It's awesome, you know. So Christianity had been great for me,
30:07
Speaker 1: it had served me, and now I'm considering giving my
30:10
Speaker 1: whole life to this thing, like as a job and
30:12
Speaker 1: a career. It meant that I would have to find
30:15
Speaker 1: a woman who wanted to marry a preacher. Suddenly, my
30:17
Speaker 1: you know, options went ooh, you know right, my kids
30:21
Speaker 1: would be preachers kids. There was no way around it.
30:25
Speaker 1: And I was a preacher's kid, and I knew what
30:27
Speaker 1: that meant. And I'd seen my dad mistreated because he's
30:31
Speaker 1: a pastor. One time he was standing behind with the pulpit.
30:33
Speaker 1: I saw a guy literally walk up and slug my
30:36
Speaker 1: dad in the jaw in church. So I know this
30:40
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be an easy road. Now, I didn't know
30:43
Speaker 1: about all this. If I'd known about all of you,
30:46
Speaker 1: It's like I'm in look up here. When you decide
30:52
Speaker 1: to follow Jesus, there is no guarantee other than Jesus
30:56
Speaker 1: will lead you, and that he knows better where you
30:58
Speaker 1: need to be than you know. It's not the promise
31:01
Speaker 1: of a happy ending. It's the promise of a promising
31:05
Speaker 1: and purposeful life and ending. And as I sat there
31:10
Speaker 1: with all these doubts and all this, Oh my goodness,
31:13
Speaker 1: I'm about to commit my career to a god I've
31:16
Speaker 1: never seen in a book, no one even believes is true. Andy,
31:20
Speaker 1: Really you're one shot at life. But I just remember,
31:24
Speaker 1: you know, sort of coming to my senses and going, okay, well,
31:27
Speaker 1: if not him, who you're going to follow? Something? You're
31:32
Speaker 1: going to follow someone. Besides, I'd seen too much. I
31:35
Speaker 1: knew too much. I'd seen God's faithfulness in my life.
31:38
Speaker 1: I'd seen God's faithfulness in other people's lives. And you
31:40
Speaker 1: know what, outside seen something all of you have seen.
31:43
Speaker 1: I'd seen life without God, I'd seen life without the
31:49
Speaker 1: context of eternity, and I'd seen rich people and not
31:52
Speaker 1: so rich people live lives without God. And I had
31:56
Speaker 1: enough sense of where that ended up on the inside
31:59
Speaker 1: of a person in the outset to know that's not it.
32:04
Speaker 1: And so I decided to pick up my fear and
32:06
Speaker 1: my doubt and to follow to whom shall I go?
32:12
Speaker 1: To Whom shall I go? I would like for all
32:13
Speaker 1: of us to read this together out loud, And if
32:16
Speaker 1: you're not a religious person, I know this may be
32:18
Speaker 1: a little bit uncomfortable, but this is the question I'd
32:21
Speaker 1: love you to wrestle with. Let's say it together, ready,
32:24
Speaker 1: to whom shall I go? One more time? To whom
32:29
Speaker 1: shall I go? Isn't it comforting to know that the
32:32
Speaker 1: men who knew Jesus personally wrestled like we do. Isn't
32:37
Speaker 1: it comforting to know that John didn't leave this out?
32:40
Speaker 1: This really makes us look bad. Guys, I'm not going
32:42
Speaker 1: to include this in the account. Do you know why
32:45
Speaker 1: it's in there? Because it happened, and everybody has concerns,
32:51
Speaker 1: and everybody has doubts. But blessed are those and blessed
32:56
Speaker 1: are you When we come to the conclusion, if not Jesus, who,
33:01
Speaker 1: If not Jesus, what to whom shall I go? I'm
33:06
Speaker 1: so glad. I picked up my fear and my doubt
33:08
Speaker 1: and followed, and you will be glad. Two. He will
33:14
Speaker 1: make your life better, and he will make you better
33:17
Speaker 1: at life. And he offers eternal life now. And do
33:19
Speaker 1: you know what eternal life is. Eternal life isn't after
33:21
Speaker 1: you die you go somewhere. Eternal life is living this
33:26
Speaker 1: life and light of eternity. Suddenly the bookends are kicked off.
33:30
Speaker 1: Suddenly the end is not the end. Suddenly the end
33:34
Speaker 1: is within the context of eternity. Suddenly money is different,
33:38
Speaker 1: Relationships are different, Sacrifice is different. What looks like a
33:42
Speaker 1: sacrifice without eternity, without eternity within the context of eternity
33:46
Speaker 1: doesn't look like a sacrifice anymore. It looks like an investment.
33:49
Speaker 1: Everything looks different. Everything is different when you're invited into
33:53
Speaker 1: a life that's lived within the context of eternity. And
33:57
Speaker 1: Jesus offers eternal life, a quality of life, life that
34:00
Speaker 1: is life right now for those who will receive it
34:05
Speaker 1: following Jesus. It's not easy, but so what life isn't
34:11
Speaker 1: always easy? Following Jesus is better because he knows where
34:17
Speaker 1: he's going and he knows how to get you there,
34:20
Speaker 1: and he has words of eternal life, and nobody else
34:22
Speaker 1: is offering you that. You say, well, why should I
34:27
Speaker 1: believe an offer of eternal life is real? Simple? Because
34:30
Speaker 1: don't miss this. Because Matthew, Mark Luke, and John, Peter
34:38
Speaker 1: James and Paul all told us in the first century
34:42
Speaker 1: that Jesus rose from the dead to punctuate his claim
34:47
Speaker 1: and to validate his offer to you. So, if you
34:54
Speaker 1: haven't already, would you please choose to follow Jesus today?
35:00
Speaker 1: Would you be willing to surrender to his direction? And
35:04
Speaker 1: would you be willing to trust him with your destination
35:08
Speaker 1: in marriage, with your money, with your time, with your relationships,
35:14
Speaker 1: with your academics, with every single part of your life?
35:16
Speaker 1: Would you be willing to surrender to say unconditionally yes,
35:23
Speaker 1: because I believe and I trust you. Would you be
35:27
Speaker 1: willing today today, because it's your decision to trust Jesus
35:32
Speaker 1: with your entire life. You will be glad that you did.