Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - The Way in a Manger Part 1 Lost

Transcript

Andy Stanley - The Way in a Manger Part 1 Lost · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:00
So today I like to begin with a ridiculous question. It's ridiculous because I
0:04
already know the answer is kind of rhetorical, so you don't need to answer
0:06
out loud or raise your hand, but you just get us all on the
0:09
same page and I know the answer. But have you have you ever?
0:14
Have you ever lost your way on your way somewhere? Yes, we all
0:20
have. I Sandri's here. She would tell you that sometimes I lose a
0:23
use because usually we lose our way on our way somewhere that we've never been
0:26
before. But she would tell you that oftentimes I lose my way on my
0:30
way to places I've been multiple times before. Maybe you can relate to that.
0:35
Now, we don't usually use our lose our way much anymore driving because
0:39
there's not much excuse because of GPS and our phones and everything. But there
0:42
are there continue to be places where you can lose your way. I'm hiking.
0:46
If you ever hike. In fact, if you hike a lot,
0:49
you don't lose your way. But if you ever if you don't hike a
0:51
lot, and you decide you're gonna hike. And one of the most terrifying
0:54
things in the world is to lose your way hiking. I've done that as
0:58
well. I'm parking garages. You can lose your way in a park Yeah,
1:02
parking garage. So a lot of you do what I do, and
1:03
I'm not too embarrassed to tell you. I get my phone out and I
1:06
take a picture of level four section whatever, it's red. Here's a picture
1:10
of the cars next, you know, there's you know, because it's easy
1:12
to get lost in a parking garage, and if you've lost your way in
1:15
like a big car parking garage, it can be it can be terrifying.
1:19
Or for those of you who go to cruise ships, you know, your
1:23
first two or three cruises, you realize, oh, you better figure this
1:26
out quick, because you can get lost on a cruise ship. You are
1:29
sure you're headed to the dining room, you know, and you end up
1:33
in the casino and then you miss dinner anyway, and you have to go
1:36
to the midnight buffet. Walking around in a new city and then maybe one
1:41
of the most unusual ones for me, and maybe you've never had this experience,
1:44
but years ago I went to a conference with my dad to a gay
1:46
Lord hotel. Okay, it's like a city under a roof, and I
1:52
was confused the entire time I was there. I was lost in a hotel.
1:56
So anyway, the point is it's we've all had that experience, and
1:59
we'll continue to experience. But here's the interesting thing about all that. The
2:02
interesting thing is we never know the precise moment when it happens, when we've
2:07
crossed over across the line from I know the way to lost my way.
2:12
You don't know exactly when you're lost. You don't know exactly when you go
2:15
from not lost to lost, and whether it's a parking garage or hiking or
2:20
whatever it might be. The truth is, by the time we realize we've
2:23
lost our way, we've been lost for quite some time, right, And
2:29
this is when generally men just start driving faster. If we're driving, there's
2:34
something in our brains. Because most guys know, and guys you can relate
2:37
to this. This is certainly me There is a direct correlation between our speed
2:40
and our sense of direction. This is not true if you faster makes us
2:45
smarter? Is this not what we believe? Know anyway, anyway, and
2:49
you can guess from going with this, what's true of losing our way when
2:52
we're going to a physical location. What's true of losing our way on our
2:54
way to a physical location is true of losing our way in life. Specifically,
3:00
we're lost before we know it. We're lost before we know we're lost.
3:06
And when I say losing your way in life, I mean like your
3:08
entire way with every part of your life, or maybe losing your way in
3:13
one area of life. You're lost before you know it. Your marriage is
3:16
kind of lost before you realize it. It's been lost. You just didn't
3:21
know it. She didn't know it, He didn't know it. But you
3:24
suddenly it dawns on you, Oh, this is not going well. This
3:30
can be true of any area of life. You realize we're living in the
3:34
wrong direction, assuming it's the right direction, and you don't know it at
3:39
the time. Your foot's on the gas, smile on your face, you
3:42
know, playing the music loud, and moving, actually moving away from the
3:47
life that you want, moving away from the relationship you want, moving in
3:52
the opposite direction of what you ultimately want, and while it's happening, because
3:57
you don't know what's happening. While it's happening, and I don't know what's
3:59
happening, these two things collide, but they can exist. They can coexist.
4:03
We're both confident and clueless at the same time. Now you know this
4:09
is possible because you've met people who are confident and clueless. You watch.
4:13
In fact, when you were I didn't know you then, but when you
4:15
were sixteen, you were confident and you were clueless, but you had an
4:19
excuse. Frontal load development is a real thing. Okay, before there's frontal
4:23
load development. We were all confident and clueless. But it's not just an
4:26
adolescent thing. It's an adult thing as well, because in some area of
4:30
your life or your life in general, you can actually be moving in the
4:33
opposite direction. You should be moving in and do it with confidence, but
4:38
you're clueless. That's happening because we don't know when we've crossed that line from
4:42
know the way to not know the way. And here's the other strange thing.
4:46
And this is where maybe some of you are today, or maybe you're
4:48
there today. When we begin to suspect that something's off, when we begin
4:54
to suspect that something's not exactly right, when something that started off is magical
5:00
isn't magical anymore. In fact, it started off as magical, and now
5:02
it feels a bit medicinal, like this is something I have to do,
5:05
and then it's something you feel like you can't live without. You used to
5:10
enjoy it and now you need it. The relationship used to be so easy
5:14
and now it's taking so much work. You were absolutely sure he's the right
5:16
person, sure she was the right person. It was you know, it
5:19
was disney esque. I mean, it was happily ever after. But now
5:24
it's getting a little wobbly. There's some friction. He's not and she's not.
5:29
And when that happens, when we tend to when we realize, hey,
5:31
maybe I've lost my way. You probably wouldn't use that terminology, but
5:34
at that point you would later. But when you begin to wonder and suspect,
5:39
you know, what we do, we just look the other way.
5:42
And when we essentially we just move faster. And if we're lucky, even
5:48
though it doesn't feel like we're lucky at the time, if we're lucky,
5:50
somebody who loves us comes along and says, hey, hey, They try
5:55
to warn us. They try to point out the fact that and it's interesting.
5:58
They try to point out the fact that things are going as well as
6:00
we think they are, thinking that maybe we don't see what they can see.
6:02
They you know, we're not dialed into what they're dialed into. And
6:05
when they try to warn us, this is so interesting to me. Anyway,
6:09
when they try to warn us, they actually use directional language, They
6:13
use highway language. They say things like, hey, I don't think you're
6:16
headed in a good direction. Hey, hey, I don't think the path
6:19
you're on and that you're you and your wife and your husband are on.
6:23
I don't think the path you're on. I don't think the way you're doing
6:26
family and the way you're disciplining your kids. Hey, it's none of my
6:29
business, but hey, I don't think the path you're on is going to
6:30
get you where you want to go, or maybe they're super direct you you
6:35
just need to turn your life around. And our response is thank you so
6:43
much for not minding your own business. I'm fine. I mean, how
6:48
many times have you said that or heard that? No, no, no,
6:50
I'm fine. And you've heard I'm fine from people, and you know
6:55
they're not fine, but they think they're fine. And maybe somebody's told you
7:00
you're not fine, but you're sure you're fine. Now here's something really fascinating
7:05
at least. I think this is fascinating three thousand years ago, not two
7:11
thousand years ago, when Jesus was around three thousand years ago, King Solomon
7:17
or writes out a statement or dictates a statement that is so fascinating. And
7:21
one of the reasons that's so fascinating it obviously was true then three thousand years
7:26
ago, or he wouldn't have said it or wrote He wouldn't have written it.
7:30
It was true then, and it's so true now. And the reason
7:31
it's so fascinating to me is, you know, one of the greatest gifts
7:33
that God has given the human race, It's one of the things that I
7:36
think is part of his image, is we're able to accumulate knowledge and pass
7:42
it forward generation after generation. So for thousands of years, the human race
7:46
has accumulated knowledge, built on that knowledge, built on that knowledge, built
7:48
on that knowledge, so that I'm talking into a piece of plastic connected to
7:53
a wire on my belt and you can hear me, and people all over
7:56
the world can hear me. I mean, that's amazing. And I don't
7:58
even know how it works, but I work it right. Most of the
8:00
things that we don't know how they work, but we work them, and
8:03
if they break, we unplug them and plug them back in and they work
8:05
again. Right, We don't know how it works, but the point is
8:07
we have all this amazing accumulated knowledge. So you would think when it comes
8:11
to human nature, that human nature would have evolved along with all this extraordinary
8:18
knowledge that we have, and in some ways it hasn't. We're still the
8:24
same old girl, We're still the same old boy we used to be.
8:26
And three thousand years ago, listen to what King Solomon says. This is
8:30
amazing because it's true then, it's true now, and it's a bit harsh,
8:35
but here's what he writes. He says, there is a way which
8:39
seems right, looks right, feels right in the moment. There is a
8:45
way that seems right to a man, or to a woman, or to
8:48
a high school senior, are to newlyweds, or to hey, this is
8:54
how we think we should raise our children. There there is a way that
8:58
there's always a way that seems right, that feel that makes perfect sense to
9:01
us. And because it makes perfect sense to us, we choose it,
9:03
we embrace it, we commit ourselves to it. And we've all done this,
9:07
every single one of us. We didn't think of it in these terms.
9:09
But we've all chosen away. We've chosen a way to live. If
9:15
you're dating, you've chosen a way to date. You have chosen a way
9:18
to entertain yourself. You've chosen the schedule. You've chosen the way that you
9:22
play. You've chosen the way you spend your money. You've chosen the way
9:26
that you parent. We all choose our way, and the reason we choose
9:28
those particular ways for those particular areas of our life is because, well,
9:35
it just seems right to us. I mean, either it's because everybody else
9:39
is doing it, it's a reaction to what our parents did, or maybe
9:41
we've embraced what our parents did, but it just seems right to us.
9:46
When you if you can remember when you started dating way back, wasn't it
9:50
true you the way you dated, you assume that it was the right way
9:54
to date because it was going to lead you to something greater, or hopefully
9:56
somebody great when you got married. If you're married, you were confident you
10:01
the way that you were doing marriage was going to lead to happily ever after.
10:05
So we all choose the way, and the reason we choose the ways
10:09
we choose is because he's right. They they seem right to us. But
10:13
then, as you probably know, there's a dot dot dot because there's you
10:16
know, there's another part to this. I'm going to give you my version
10:18
because it's easier and softer and kinder than his version. So my version is
10:24
there is a way that seems right to right to a person. But just
10:26
because it seems right, does it mean that it is right. And this
10:33
is why you can beyond your way, and I can be on my way
10:37
the wrong way and think it's the right way because it seems like the right
10:41
way. There is a way that seems right to a man. Here's how
10:46
he finishes it, but its end is the way of death. Merry Christmas.
10:56
It's a it's a look what he does here. It's so interesting.
10:58
It's a death end, or we would say it's a dead end. There
11:05
is a way that seems right to us that has the potential to kill us
11:11
in some cases. Literally you've seen that play out. In fact, maybe
11:16
it was playing out in your life, and right at the last minute,
11:20
at the last moment, somebody finally got your attention and you did something to
11:22
back up. But there was a way that ultimately began as something that seemed
11:26
right to you, and it almost killed you. But for most of us,
11:31
the ways that we've chosen aren't going to kill us. But they have
11:35
the potential to kill something important to us. They have potential to kill a
11:39
relationship that's important to us. There's a way to do marriage that has the
11:45
potential to kill your marriage. There's a way that seems right to you that
11:48
could kill your career, destroy your health, destroy who you see in the
11:54
mirror. And we're all old enough that I think we all know this is
11:58
true. This isn't like, Wow, I've never thought of this. We've
12:01
all, at some point in our lives chosen a way that we thought was
12:05
the right way that turned out not to be the right way. We were
12:07
confident we chose the right way, and when we chose that it was the
12:13
right way, until it wasn't and then boom, dead end. And when
12:22
we realized it, because we've all lived long enough to have bumped into some
12:24
of these dead ends because of the ways we chose, when we bumped into
12:28
it, when we finally recognized, when it dawned on us, hey,
12:31
we chose the wrong way. You know what kind of language we used.
12:35
We used the same language that the people who tried to warn us used.
12:39
This is fascinating to me. We used that same terminology now to describe our
12:43
own lives. I'm not I'm not sure where to turn. And this is
12:50
a big one. I don't know how to get back to the person I
12:54
was. And maybe this is you today and by the person I was,
12:56
because there was a time in your life where where you had peace with yourself
13:01
and you may not have used this language, but there was a time in
13:03
your past where you had peace with God, that you liked the person you
13:09
saw in the mirror. And now you realize you're not that person, and
13:13
you're not moving toward that person, and you're trying to figure out how to
13:16
get back to the person you used to be, or we use this kind
13:22
of language. I don't know how to get through this, and this is
13:26
something that you created or that I created. It's like, oh, no,
13:31
I've made a mess. It's not one hundred percent my fault, but
13:33
at least twenty percent of this is my fault. You know, the other
13:35
person would say eighty percent is my fault. Doesn't matter. I have a
13:39
mess on my hands, and I need to get through this. I don't
13:41
know how to get through this. I don't know how to get past this.
13:48
Right, I'm not said, the language is all the langue. I'm
13:50
not in a good place. Maybe today you would say that's hey, I'm
13:54
not in a good place. I need to change course. I'm willing to
14:00
knowledge I lost my way. And again, this is the kind of language
14:07
we use when we think about those moments, those times, that season of
14:09
life when we've lost our way. But again, maybe maybe this isn't a
14:13
distant memory, Maybe it's not a recent memory. Maybe for you today,
14:18
it's a current reality. Maybe you've lost your way, and you're fortunate because
14:24
you do know it, you do recognize it. You are mature enough to
14:28
recognize it, you are secure enough to acknowledge it, you're secure enough to
14:33
admit it. And if you're that kind of person, congratulations, because some
14:37
people never get there. If you're at the place where you're saying, yeah,
14:41
in this area of my life, you know, things are great at
14:43
work, but not so great at home. Things are great at home,
14:45
not so great at work. You know, things are great publicly, but
14:48
andy, if I'm honest, things are not good privately. There are things
14:52
that nobody knows but me, that I hope nobody knows but me. But
14:56
if you're at the place where you're willing to acknowledge, you know. But
15:00
even though I'm an adult, even though I should know better, even though
15:01
it's embarrassing. Yeah, Solomon's right. There is a way that seems right
15:05
to a man, and I chose one of those ways, And as it
15:07
turns out, it's not the right way, and it is a dead end,
15:11
and I'm not sure what to do. Congratulations, you've already taken the
15:15
first step required to turn your life around. You've acknowledged where you are.
15:18
Because here's a reality for all of us. This isn't religious thing or a
15:22
Christian thing. You can't get to where you want to be until you recognize
15:26
where you are. You can't even begin to move in the direction you need
15:31
to move until you realize where you are. You cannot get to where you
15:33
want to be until you recognize where you are. So this is step one,
15:35
and it's a huge step. And maybe in the next few minutes,
15:37
or maybe already you're willing to acknowledge you know what, I chose a bad
15:46
way. Now, some folks never get there you know that some folks never
15:52
get to the point where they're willing to recognize or admit that they chose the
15:54
wrong way. I think it's really hard for men. It's a pride thing,
16:00
it's an ego thing. We're supposed to have it all figured out.
16:02
Everybody's supposed to look up to us and to acknowledge to our wives, or
16:07
knowledge to a fiance, to acknowledge to our kids. Dad chose a wrong
16:12
way. It's hard. So a lot of men never do it. They
16:17
never slow down long enough to look in the mirror, They never slow down
16:19
on long enough to listen to what people are saying. They refuse to admit
16:22
that they chose a dead end way. So they just they just stay lost.
16:30
And people who are lost chose the wrong way. You know what they
16:33
do. They blame everybody else because their problems. It's not working they're not
16:37
happy, it's not working out, it's not getting better. And if it's
16:42
not working out and it's not getting any better, then somebody's to blame.
16:45
And it's very difficult to look in the mirror and say, ah, there's
16:48
the person that's to blame. So they just stay lost. They blame everybody
16:52
else and everything. If you're a person who I know, I'm kind of
16:56
meddling. If you're a person, every once in a while, somebody's close
17:00
to you says you're never wrong, and your first thought is correct, I'm
17:08
never wrong. You've chosen a way that is a dead end, and you
17:18
don't know it, but the people who love you know it. They can
17:23
see what you can't see or what you refuse to see, and they are
17:26
praying for you. And the reason they're praying for you, well, Solomon
17:30
said it. They're praying for you because there is a way that it seems
17:34
right. That's why we choose it. It seems right, it feels right,
17:40
but it's end. Well, it's a dead end. Now. The
17:47
question that some of you are asking right now, I hope you're asking,
17:49
is Andy, what in the world, What in the world does any of
17:55
this have to do with Christmas? We are depressed, Okay, I just
18:00
up all this stuff from my past or I'm having a hard time not elbowing
18:03
her or elbowing him. I'm thinking about my kids. I'm thinking, uh.
18:06
And the thing is this, this whole thing of choosing the right way
18:10
and the right and the wrong way. It has everything to do with Christmas.
18:12
Because here's the thing. Look here, when we when we think of
18:15
trying to figure our way forward or our way back, or or you know,
18:18
trying to find the way or figure out the right way, we think
18:22
in terms of decisions we need to make. We think in terms of habits
18:25
we need to break. We think in terms of information. We need to
18:27
get advice, we need to get goals, we need to set habits to
18:33
begin, you know, And all of that's good, and all of that's
18:34
necessary. But here's the good news of Christmas. At Christmas, we're presented
18:40
with another way. We're presented with a person who claimed this is amazing.
18:47
At Christmas, we're introduced to someone who not only claimed to know the way
18:49
we should live, but claim to be the way we should live. He
18:57
claimed to be the way forward. Now, I want to read a couple
19:03
of verses. And for many of you, these are familiar verses. And
19:06
I know I say this every once in a while, and sometimes I get
19:08
in trouble for saying this. But y'all are mature. You understand what I'm
19:11
saying. When I say what I'm about to say. When I read these
19:15
these sentences to you for just a moment, if we could. I don't
19:18
want you to hear me reading the Bible to you. I want you to
19:22
hear me expressing the thoughts of a real person who had a real, genuine
19:29
experience with Jesus of Nazareth. That John who spent three or three and a
19:34
half years walking and talking with Jesus of Nazareth. Not storybook of character,
19:40
historical character. John's an older man now, and he's probably dictating this,
19:45
not writing it himself, and he's trying to put into words. He's trying
19:48
to put into words what it was like to be with someone that he was
19:53
convinced was God in a body. And so you can imagine maybe four or
20:03
five times you're like, no, that's not, that's not it. Don't
20:06
don't, don't write that none, that's not. That's not exactly right.
20:07
And he's trying to take all of this up here and put it into words
20:11
for people who never saw Jesus, which is us. But he doesn't.
20:15
He doesn't want to. He doesn't want to dumb it down too much.
20:18
He doesn't want to shrink it down too much. It's it's too big to
20:21
do this. And so here's what he comes up with, so can you
20:23
picture it? An older man, he's probably, you know, close to
20:29
the end of his life. Most of his friends are dead. Peter's dead,
20:33
the apostle, Paul is dead. He doesn't know where the rest of
20:34
them are. He's been arrested, he's in some ways he's he's an outlaw,
20:40
but maybe by this time he's you know, he's in prison. We
20:42
don't know exactly when he wrote this, and he finally gets it right.
20:47
He says, Okay, I think I got it. Write write this down,
20:51
the logos, the word, the the everything we've been taught, everything
21:00
we'd imagined, became a person, and he camped out with us. He
21:07
pitched his tent with us, He made his dwelling among us. Try to
21:15
describe it this way. Have you ever met someone who's famous or semi famous,
21:18
somebody you'd read about or heard about, or people knew about, and
21:21
then you met him. Maybe they just signed a book, or maybe just
21:22
saw him somewhere and you introduced yourself or interrupted their dinner and you or somehow
21:27
you you just had a quick little encounter with them. For the rest of
21:32
your life. Isn't it true, for the rest of your life. Whenever
21:34
that person's name comes up. Hey, did you hear what so and so
21:37
said? Did you hear so and so starring in Did you know so and
21:38
so had a new book? You can't help yourself. What do you say?
21:42
Oh? I met them? And you say it like your best friends.
21:45
Oh, I know, I met him, I met her, she
21:48
signed your book. Yeah, but I mean I felt like there was a
21:51
thing between us, like I felt she knows me if I see your sheet
21:53
right, there's there's just like a when you are in the presence of somebody
21:57
that you'd heard about or read a bok out, it's it's so personal for
22:02
you. Well, this is John, this is Matthew, this is this
22:07
is Peter. And here's what John is trying to describe to us. He's
22:10
like, look, I know your whole life, you've heard of God,
22:12
and as a Jewish boy, we read Torah and we heard the stories of
22:18
our ancestors and all the great things that God did for our people. But
22:23
all of that out there somewhere, all those explanations, all that information,
22:29
all that invisible immaterial. John says, I don't know any other way to
22:33
put it. He showed up in person, and we not we we him,
22:44
we and his guys, and we have literally seen his glory, the
22:52
glory of the one and the only Son. Now there was some kind of
22:56
slow down. Guys, he's writing he wants them to understand. Who wants
23:00
us to understand this? We camped with him, We ate with him,
23:04
We searched for firewood with him. We repaired our sandals together. We listened
23:11
to him, we cried with him. I mean, we saw the whole
23:15
thing. We watched him, we followed him. And when all was said
23:19
and done, after looking at those whole three and a half years and watching
23:23
him die and thinking it's over, then residents meeting the resurrected Jesus and having
23:29
lunch breakfast with him on the beach, when the whole thing is said and
23:32
done. As crazy as this sounds, he's saying to us, we are
23:37
convinced that he came from the Father to planet Earth to be with us so
23:48
we could understand the Father. And then we don't have time to unpack this.
23:51
This is like a whole series of messages that I can't even I can't
23:56
even excavate all the goodness in this and this Jesus who came from the Father
24:02
is full of grace and truth. See we think in terms of the balance
24:07
of grace and truth. Gotta have grace, got to have truth. He
24:08
says, no, no, no, that's wrong. See that's how we
24:11
think because we have like the Truth Church where you're you're very dogmatic. Here's
24:14
truth, truth, Truth. It's like, ooh, I need little grace.
24:15
Run over here to the Grace church. Grace, Grace, grace.
24:18
We just love you. Everything's fine, are a little permissive, need to
24:21
go back over to the Truth Church. And John is like, no,
24:23
no, no, he's he's one hundred percent all of it. He never
24:27
dumbs down the truth and he never dials down the grace. And when you're
24:33
in the presence of Jesus, you're aware of your sin and you're aware of
24:36
the love of God. At the same time, it's overwhelming because he's full
24:40
of grace and he's full of truth. And all I'm saying is is this
24:45
the Father in some ways showed up in a body and revealed himself to us.
24:49
This is why, sorry to go on and on and on. This
24:52
is why many of the things that Jesus said we wrestle with and they understood
25:00
because when you spend time that much time with someone, you understand the nuance,
25:07
you understand the implications, you understand when they say this that they're referring
25:11
back to, and there's context for all of that. And so in one
25:15
of the most famous narrative pieces of narrative from the life of Jesus, Jesus
25:21
makes a statement we have all heard the thousand times and we have a hard
25:26
time wrapping our minds around. But John didn't. John records it, Matthew
25:30
didn't, Peter didn't, because they were in the presence of God in a
25:36
body, God who had come to Earth to dwell with us. So,
25:41
in the night of his arrest, a conversation we talk about all the time,
25:44
Jesus lets him know I'm leaving and they're like, oh, no,
25:47
no, no, you can't leave. If you leave, we're in trouble.
25:48
You're a security blanket. He's like, no, I'm leaving, and
25:52
they're like, well, where you're going, And Jesus like, you know
25:53
where I'm going. They're like, we don't know where you're going. You
25:56
do know where I'm going, We don't know you know how to get there?
26:00
What do you mean we know how to get there? We don't even
26:02
know where you're going, so how could we possibly know the way to get
26:04
there? And finally, you know, they can't get it. They go
26:07
back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, and Jesus smiles
26:11
and he says, look, look, you you know the way. You
26:17
know the way, and Thomas finally says, Lord, no, we don't
26:19
know where you're going, so how could we possibly know the way? You're
26:22
saying we know the way to where you're going, we don't know where you're
26:25
going. This doesn't make any sense. And then Jesus smiles, and he
26:29
leverages this question to make a broader point that they understand that I think sometimes
26:37
we miss. Frenzy says, you do know the way, and he smiles.
26:41
I think he smiles, Frenzy, you do know the way. You're
26:45
looking at it, you're talking to it. You just spent three years,
26:53
you know, back and forth from Judea to Galley to the river Jordan.
26:57
I mean, come on, you you know the way. You're in the
27:02
presence of the way, you've been camping with the way. Come on,
27:04
after all this time, Thomas, you're still asking show us the way you
27:11
know? By now, come on, guys, here it is famous verse
27:17
Alert I and the Way. So here's where we get lost when we've lost
27:30
our way as parents, in our marriage, with our career, with just
27:34
our life in general. You know what we want. We want to fix,
27:41
we want to plan, give me a plan, and we want to
27:45
list. We want a self help book. So we all do this.
27:49
So you just google it and there's fifty million resources you know to help you,
27:57
and you're heavenly found. Has offered you something so much better and me
28:04
something so much better. Do you know what he's offered us. He's offered
28:07
us himself. He sent himself, he became one of us to show all
28:14
of us the way back, the way back to that place in your life
28:19
you used to be where you were at peace with yourself and you are at
28:22
peace with God, and you're thinking, I'll never get back there, and
28:25
Jesus says, I am the way back, the way through the way through
28:30
the mess you have made. You're at the point where you're transparent and honest
28:34
enough and secure enough and mature enough to go, Okay, I'm not just
28:37
part of the problem. I'm a big part of the problem. But you
28:41
know what, Okay, it's a mess. And I don't. I don't
28:44
know if there is a way through this. And Jesus would say to you
28:47
this. They understood this. He's like, I am the way through this,
28:52
and I'm the way forward to the life that you dreamed of, that
28:59
you you undermined yourself because you saw a way that seemed right to you and
29:07
you bought it. And here's the great news. His way this way.
29:12
We talk about it all the time. It has a it requires a different
29:17
starting point. We don't start with Google the starting point that Jesus offers us.
29:22
It's a different way. It begins with a different question. Instead of
29:25
asking the question that we all ask, I ask it to I'm not being
29:27
critical. Instead of asking the question what should I do? What should I
29:30
do? I've made a mess of my life. I need to get back
29:32
to where I was. I need to go forward. I need to fix
29:33
this, I need to repair this. What should I do? What should
29:36
I do? Here's the better question. And this is the question they understood.
29:41
And this is why his language made perfect sense to them, because they
29:45
could all remember the day when Jesus extended this invitation to them personally. The
29:56
question is not what am I gonna to do. The better question is who
30:03
will I follow? Who will I follow? The reason that the angels could
30:17
say, good news of great joy for all people, implication of every generation,
30:26
of every Bible language, tribe, and tongue, for everyone who will
30:30
ever live. The reason this was good news of great joy for the whole
30:34
world is because Jesus' way is the way we were all created to live.
30:41
Think about this. If King Solomon three thousand years ago could point to a
30:49
dynamic that was true, then that is still true now. Then we can
30:53
certainly have confidence that when Jesus shows up, it says I can show you
30:57
the way forward, and I will lead you forward, and I can lead
31:02
you through back and around and wherever you need to be led, I've got
31:06
it covered. Because you know what, You've learned a lot, You've accumulated
31:08
a lot of knowledge. But you're still the same old girl. You're still
31:14
the same old boy you used to be. And if you will trust me,
31:18
and if you will ask the question, who should I follow it,
31:22
and if you will choose to follow me, I will lead you through forward
31:27
and back. And here's the amazing thing. It's a standing invitation to you
31:32
today and to me today, and you can begin today. You can begin
31:34
this journey before anything changes. And I suggest you begin this journey before you
31:41
make another decision based on it seems right to me. How many times have
31:45
you seen someone I'm not gonna pick on you, we'll pick on those other
31:48
people. How many times have you seen somebody whose life was a mess and
31:52
they decided they were gonna fix their mess And you're like, no, no,
31:53
no, no, no, that's gonna make it what worse? Oh,
31:59
but it seems right to me. Yeah, but that seemed right to
32:00
you too. You haven't learned a thing. You keep making decisions based on
32:04
what seems right to you, seems right to you, But you're gonna keep
32:07
hitting dead end after dead end after dead end. Yeah, but I've met
32:10
her and she's the one. Well, you haven't even why you're still with
32:13
the other one. No, you can't do this. It's so clear to
32:16
you, and it's so clear to your heavenly father. So he says,
32:23
just stop, don't just pick away, don't try to work your way out
32:29
or work your way through until you've answered the more fundamental question, not what
32:32
are you gonna do or what are you gonna do? Different who are you
32:37
gonna follow and decide before you make things worse by attempting to change things by
32:44
choosing yet another way that seems right to you. And here's the other amazing
32:51
thing. His way doesn't begin with a commitment to turn your life around.
32:53
You already tried that. It begins with the decision to follow. It begins
32:58
with we talk about it all the time. It begins with surrender. Practically
33:05
speaking, I think it begins with a prayer, either the prayer my parents
33:10
taught me as a kid, or a prayer similar to this prayer. And
33:13
my parents taught me to pray this so long ago, I mean so early.
33:15
I don't remember when we started. And you know, true, true
33:20
confession or a confession. I pray this prayer every day. Still, it's
33:25
partly just habit. I pray this prayer usually more than one time a Day's
33:35
it's this prayer. Heavenly Father, show me your will for my life,
33:42
Heavenly Father, I'm not asking for a solution. I don't need a list.
33:46
I don't need new goals, I don't need new disciplines. Maybe all
33:50
that will come. But Heavenly Father, show me your will for my marriage,
33:59
and show me your will for my kids because I'm not connecting with them.
34:02
And show me your will for my money, because I keep thinking it's
34:07
mine or or you can change the word. Heavenly Father, show me your
34:13
way for my life, because there is a way that seems right to me,
34:16
and I keep choosing it and it's just a dead end. Heavenly Father,
34:22
show me your will for my life. I've tried the way that seemed
34:29
right to me. Show me your way. Let's compare, and we're almost
34:32
done. At Christmas, we celebrate God becoming one of us to show us
34:37
the way forward, to show us the ways of the Father. How many
34:40
times have I told you, I'm going to keep telling you. If you
34:43
want to know what God is like, you just follow Jesus through the Gospels.
34:46
If you let me put a different way, If you want to know
34:49
what your creator is like, who created you, who knows what you're created
34:52
for and knows how you work best, you follow Jesus through the Gospels.
34:57
So at Christmas you are invited to follow the one who demonstrated and illustrated for
35:04
us the ways of God, the ways of the Father, and the way
35:07
to the Father. Because God became flesh and he dwelt and lived in history
35:21
among us. And that's what makes the Christmas story astounding unpredictable. There's no
35:35
way that the Way came into the world the way we're told he came into
35:42
the world. But here's how it happened. In those days. Caesar Augustus,
35:52
the first Emperor of Rome. Forget the Republic, I'm taken over.
35:55
Caesar Augustus, the most powerful man in the world, issued a decree that
36:00
census should be taken of the entire Roman world and everyone because the emperor declared
36:06
it, and everyone went to their own town to register. So you know,
36:08
the stories of Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee,
36:13
to Judea, to Bethlehem, to the town of David. So much
36:15
detail, because Luke wants us to know, Hey, this isn't once upon
36:19
a timer in a landor and you know, in someplace far far away.
36:22
I want you to know when this happened and where this happened. To Bethlehem,
36:25
to the town of David, because he belonged Joseph belonged to the house
36:28
in the line of David, and he went there to register with Mary,
36:35
who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting the child. And
36:37
while they were there, and that amazing. While they were there, the
36:40
time came and debate for the baby to be born, and she gave birth
36:45
to her first born, a son. And then we can all quote this
36:47
part. And she wrapped him in cloths imagine this, and placed him and
36:59
a manger. The way fragile, the way, your way forward, your
37:09
way to your heavenly Father. The way came into the world in the usual
37:15
way, the way so vulnerable and to mean your God, as one of
37:22
us, God, for us to show us the way back, to show
37:27
us the way through, to show us the way forward. So as we
37:30
wrap up, if you've lost your way, if you've lost your way,
37:36
maybe you've not admitted it, maybe you've never even admitted it to yourself.
37:39
If you've lost your way, I want to encourage you to pray multiple times
37:44
a day. Just start here, Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father, just show
37:51
me your way for my life. Heavenly Father. There is a way that
37:54
seems right to me. I have tried that dead end. Heavenly Father.
38:01
There is a way that seems right here. But I want your way,
38:05
Heavenly Father, show me your will for my life. Show me your will
38:09
for my family. Show me your will for my career. Show me your
38:15
will for my thinking. Show me your will for my marriage. Heavenly Father,
38:20
show me your will for my life. I want to follow the way,
38:30
and we'll pick it up right there next time in part two. Imagine
38:36
it the way in a manger.