Transcription
Jesus, we come today to worship you because there is no one else that is worthy. God, because of that, because you are worthy, we put our gaze on you. There's so much going on in the world right now that can distract us from what you have for us. And then, God, it's not that we don't see it, but our focus is on you because we know if our focus is on you, you'll guide us through it. God, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you have saved us, that you loved us, that you wanna be with us, and that you are worthy of our praise. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen, yes. You may be seated. Hello, Grace Family Church. My name is Hal Mayer. I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Grace. Love to welcome all of you here this weekend, those of you that are here in this room, those of you that are watching online, of course, at all of our eight campuses, as we start a new series called Made for More.
Now, this series is purposely coming off of our series Unstuck, which, if you missed it, is this idea of getting unstuck. Unstuck in relationships, unstuck in life, u- unstuck really in our purpose that God has for us. See, one of the greatest things that God gives us in this life that maybe sometimes we don't see is freedom. It's freedom. 'Cause when we follow after God, we gain a freedom that we don't have before.
And when I'm thinking back on my life, I, want you to think about it for just a second. What was the thing that you gained in life? What was the thing that you got that was the moment you were like, "I have a little bit of freedom"? Maybe it was as a kid, it was that first time that you were handed those keys. You were like, "This is freedom," and your parents were incredibly afraid. I know for me it was a bike because back in my day you were allowed to bike places. You could leave the neighborhood. We would bike all over the place. I would go to the mall on my bike. I would go... I had to go to work on my bike. One time I did ask my dad, "Can you drive me to work?" And he goes, "Why would we waste those God-given legs that you have?" But I would go to church on my bike. I would go everywhere on my bike because it was the freedom that I got from that bike.
And then I rode my bike so much that I got pretty good at riding it, and I actually got, started to have the ability to ride with no hands. I bring that up because I thought that it was incredibly cool. I still think it's cool. Like, when we go on family bike rides, I ride with no hands, and my wife is like, "Stop, you look like a dork." I just think she's jealous of all the attention that I get. But I do, I would ride my bike with no hands, and the problem with riding your bike with no hands is you start to think, "I can do two things at once." Like in the same way that some of you think, "I can text and drive at the same time." Stop. You're going like this the entire time. Please stop.
But what I did at that point is, so I had a Walkman back s- ah, gosh, for some of you, you have no idea. We had tape cassettes and a Walkman. And, so I had that, but then while I was in high school, we got upgraded to CD players. And the big deal about CD players was Walkmans you had to fast-forward and kinda guess when the next song was. This is so crazy, 'cause now it's just so easy. But, but CD players you could skip to the next song. The problem with CD players, though, instead of Walkmans, was that they had, you had to keep 'em absolutely flat, right? And if you didn't keep it flat, it would skip or stop working. And then they came out with this thing called anti-skip technology, which was a lie. How many... We fell for it. We were like, "Oh, it's gonna work," and then you'd go walking with it and it stops, and you're like... So what I would have to do is I'd be riding my bike with this CD player in my hand trying to keep it as level as possible.
Now, here's the deal. It would cause me to do what you do when you have your focus on the wrong thing. And sometimes it would be okay, because the grass was at the same level as the sidewalk, you'd be perfectly fine, but then other times you had drop-offs, and then you had people... Let me just say this. Some of you edge your yard like you hate kids. And here's what I mean by that. I'm cool with a good, crisp line. That's good. But when you put a moat in your yard that's this thick that's just the size of a bike tire, you hate kids. Because what happens is that tire goes into that moat and you get thrown forward. And so I'm riding with this, and I remember one time riding with it and not paying attention. I go off to the side and I fall over. And I get back up and I don't pay attention again. I literally go back over to the other side and I fall over. That day I learned two things. One, you can't ride with a CD player, and two, you can throw a CD player very far.
But this is what happens to us in life. We get unstuck, we're excited, we find freedom, but because we don't know which way to go, because we're focused on the wrong things, because we don't actually know where the path is, we get stuck again. We end up back in the same place again and over in our lives. We get unstuck and then we get stuck again. We find freedom, then we lose our freedom. And the entire time we're going, "I thought there was supposed to be blessings in this Christian life. I thought I was supposed to find this incredible freedom and this purpose in this Christian life."
And the reason we're not is not because God is holding something back from us. It's because we've lost sight of where we need to be. We don't realize there's an actual path for us to follow, th- there's a way for us to go. In fact, I'll say it this way. We'll never experience more until we step on the path that delivers it. See, God's got a path for our lives. He has a way for us to go about it. He has some basic things that if we just keep them in the forefront, if we just focus on these things, if we just remember these things, then we'll be on the path to something more. But if we lose sight of it, we'll end up in another ditch.
So today what we're gonna do is we're gonna pocu- focus on a passage of scripture. In John 10. And, in order to understand what Jesus is doing in John 10, you go back to John 9. See, in John 9, Jesus walks into the city and he heals this man born blind. I've talked about this guy before. Jesus goes up, he spits into the ground, he makes this mud pie, puts it on the guy's eyes. The guy washes it off and he can see. He's going around town, everybody notices that this is happening, but the religious leaders notice that this happened and it happened on the Sabbath. So nothing was supposed to happen on the Sabbath. And they bring him in and they ask him questions like, "Who did this?" and "How did they do it?" He goes, "I don't know all these things. All I know is this, I used to be blind, but now I can see."
And it says that they continue to grill him to the point where the blind man actually responds back, "Wow, you wanna know so much about him, do you wanna be one of his followers?" They're so mad about it that they're wimps. Instead of going after Jesus, they kick this man out of the temple. This man could just see for the first time in his life. He just had an incredible miracle happen in his life, and the religious elite go, "Because we don't understand it or the person that did it, we don't like him," they kicked him out of the temple. Jesus hears about this. He is incredibly mad. He's incredibly frustrated. In fact, he tells them, "Hey, in that way that man was bo- blind, you are spiritually blind. You are spiritually blind to what God is doing." And in fact, what he is going to say is, "What you're doing and how you're going about it, you're actually stealing from people. You're robbing from people what I have for them."
And Jesus goes into an illustration about a shepherd and sheep. Now, I would say this. Some of the hard things, many times, about the Bible, when Jesus uses illustrations or parables, is we can't fully relate to them. My guess is this, is you don't know anybody that's a shepherd. Probably haven't raised any sheep. I know chickens have become the craze because it's free eggs. No, it's not. But you probably don't have them. And the other thing is this, is whenever we hear this illustration about us being sheep, we don't really like it, right? Because we hear about it and we're like, "Sheep are dumb animals." It's yes and no. I actually did some research on this. Sheep are not dumb animals. They're actually just as intelligent as a lot of primates. They're not dumb, they just do dumb things. Which I don't know about you, sounds like us.
It, there's something about their ability to be discontent with where they are and their instincts which leads them into trouble. See if this makes sense. The first problem they have is this, is they have a tendency to wander. Even when they are in the best environment, you put a sheep in the best pasture with the best grass, with water that's not moving, because if they get caught up in a river, they're gonna drown. You put them in the best s- scenario possible, they still wander around going, "I want, wonder what's over there." Don't we do the same thing? We can be in a good position. We're like, "But what about that?" The very fir- guys, the very first sin, Adam and Eve, they're in the Garden of Eden. Everything's perfect and they're like, "But what about that tree?"
They have this tendency to wander, and on top of that, they have this instinct to follow. It's kinda crazy how much they will follow. There's actually a story in 2005 in Turkey where one sheep caused over 400 sheep to follow him off a cliff. He fell off the cliff, 400 sheep followed and died. Here's what's crazy, another 1,100 sheep fell off the same cliff, but they didn't die because there's It's not funny. There's so many sheep at the bottom. That's why, when your parents say, "Hey, if y- your friend were to jump off a cliff, would you?" It's actually a biblical reference here. Because what happens in our, so many times in life, we see this in culture, don't we? When there's a crowd going somewhere, our natural response is, "They must be doing something right. There must be something we should look after. The, there must be something we should pay attention to."
Here's another thing they do. They panic easily. They're easily frightened. And in fact, they're easily frightened along with the ability to follow. When one of them takes off, the other ones follow, having no idea why they're running. But how often in life will things be going well, then all of a sudden one bad things happen, one bad thing happens and we go, "Man, I don't think God's with me anymore. I don't think He's in my life anymore."
And the last one is this, is they have poor self-care. When they get injured, they don't lick their wounds. They don't have the ability to care for themselves. When they eat poisonous or polluted water, they, don't have the ability to, rid themselves of it. In fact, if they roll over on their backs, they don't have the ability to roll back over. You're like, "But Hal, we take care of ourselves. We have entire book sections in libraries dedicated to self-care." Yes, the reason we have that is because we're bad at it. Maybe because the only one who can care for us is not me, but it's God. Maybe because what we really need to do is not focus on myself, but to put myself in a place where God can love me, He can care for me, and He can guide me.
See, I think the idea of God being the shepherd, Jesus being the shepherd, and us being sheep is a great illustration. And, what we see Jesus doing is He's talking about this illustration, but He's talking about in the idea of two different sheep folds or, sheep enclosures. The first one is this. They would have this pen inside the city. It would be really high walls. All the different shepherds would bring their sheep in there. They wouldn't number them, they wouldn't brand them, but all the different flocks would be in there. And they would have this watchman that would walk over it, watch over it at night. And then the next morning the shepherd would come. And here's what's crazy. Just by the sound of his voice, his sheep would follow him.
See, we need to understand that as we dive into John 10. We're gonna start off with verse one. It says this. It says, "I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of the sheepfold rather than going through the gate must surely be a thief and a robber. But the one who enters the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." After he gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them and they follow him because they know his voice. Says they won't follow a stranger. They will run from him because they don't know his voice.
See, two things here. One, in Western culture, we drive sheep. In Eastern culture, they led sheep. The, shepherd would go ahead and they would listen to his voice. And, truthfully, that's one of the greatest questions that I get, is, "How do I know the voice of God?" How do I know it's God's voice or my own voice? How do I know it's God's voice or maybe the voice of the enemy trying to get me to some- do something I don't want to do? And the answer that we tend to give you is you gotta spend time with him. You gotta spend time with him. Because think about it, the people in your life that you spend the most time with, do you know their voice? I remember growing up as a kid, I knew my dad's voice. I did. We could be in a large group of people, he could call my name, and I knew exactly who was calling my name. I could be a mile away and he could step out the front door and call my name and I'm like, "I hear my father." I knew his voice.
In fact, I knew his voice so well that as we got older, I didn't even have to hear his voice, I could just see what he wrote and know that it was him. Because my dad, like a lot of fathers, likes to play the same trick on his kids. He likes to grab my mom's phone and text from her phone like he's her. A- and so what he'll do is we'll all of a sudden get these texts from Mom, and they always go the same way. It's "Wow, I am so lucky to be married to your father." "Your father is the most amazing man in the world. How did I ever get him? Man, is he good-looking." "Wow, your father is so sexy." And we're like, "Okay, Dad, please stop." Please give the phone back to Mom."
Here's why I say that. It works the opposite way with God. See, instead of starting with his voice, we start with his text. See, the same way that I know who my... it's my dad through the text, we get to know God through this, through his Word. See, as we read this, we understand more and more about God's character, the things that he would do, the things that he wouldn't do, the things that he cares about, the things that he, wants in our lives, and the things that he doesn't. And so when we hear a voice, we can quickly go, "Does that line up with this or does it not?"
See, I, think some of the problem that we have so often is the reason we're unsure of God's voice is we've heard other people abuse the tha- the saying, "I heard God say this." And can I just say this? As a pastor, I'm asking you to do this, I rarely say, "God told me." And here's the reason why. God didn't tell me so I could use it as a trump card. God told me so I would have the faith to do it. And many times, I have to ask myself this question. I think it's God, but I gotta make sure it's not me. And many times we've heard people say, "God told me," but it goes against what God's word says. I've had people say, I had a guy say to me literally, he goes, "God told me I should cheat on my wife." I'm like, "No, he didn't." "God told me that I should leave." No, they didn't. I've had people say, "God told me that we should move in together to save money before we're married." No, he didn't. You did in a deeper voice in your head.
See, he says when we are his sheep, we know his voice. How do we know his voice? It starts by reading his word, by getting to know him. Jesus says, "You will know me because you know my character."
See, as the parable, as the illustration goes forward, he actually changes the pens. It's no longer the pen in the city, it's the pen in the pasture. And here's what's important about that, is it's just his sheep, but there's no doorway to that pen. There, there's no actual door to close it. In fact, what the shepherd would do is he would lie down in front of it to basically make sure that the sheep couldn't leave and nothing else could come in.
So in verse six we pick up, it says this. It says, "Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant, so he explained it to them." It says, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the true sheep did not listen to them. Yes, I am the gate. Those who come through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures." He says, "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life."
See, Jesus is claiming two very important things. One is this, is that he is the only way to heaven. He is the only way to eternity. And the second thing is this, is that he comes to give us a life that has freedom in it, life that has freedom in it. In fact, he actually, he says, he goes, "I'm the one that came through the door correctly." He, if you notice that in verse two. He says, "I came through the door correctly." What he's saying is this, he goes, "Hey, you wanna know whether or not I'm the savior? Go back and look at the 300 prophecies that were about me. The 300 prophecies that said about how I would show up, the way that I would be born, the lineage that I would come from, and when I die." You can even look back at that and go, "Oh my goodness, that lines up with our savior."
But he also says that he brings freedom in it. What did he say? He goes, "You're able to go into pastures." Guys, one of the biggest lies that culture accepts today is that when you follow after God, your life ends. It's like this idea that as soon as I follow after God, the fun ends. If you have fun, it's like straight to jail. You can't do it anymore. And here's the reason I say this, is I hear people say all the time, "I'm gonna start following God after college," right? Or, "I'm gonna start following God after I get married." Or, "I'm gonna start following God after I have kids 'cause my life is over anyway," right? That's the way that it's going. As if this idea that when we start following after God, we have less freedom than we did before.
See, what the enemy does is in those lies, he tries to convince you that there's less freedom in following God than understanding that it is the sin that actually shackles us. It's the sin that keeps us from the freedom that God has for us. See, he goes, "Not only am I the way to heaven, I'm the way to more in this life. I'm the way to an abundant life." And he's speaking directly to these teachers, these religious leaders. And he said, "You guys are the ones. You are the thieves and the robbers coming over the side. You're the one coming into the pen." It says the thief comes to steal and destroy, and many times we read that as Satan himself, but what he's saying is, he's saying, "You religious leaders are being used by Satan to do this. You're basically telling people it's more about rules than it is about relationship. It's more about doing the right thing than it is having the right heart. It's more about following them than finding the Savior that has been sent for you."
See, if we're ever going to be on the path to more, there's a singular truth that we must understand. It's that there is one door. There's one door, and it's Jesus. There's one door, and it is Jesus. Jesus is the door. He is the way to heaven. He is the way to eternal life. He is the shepherd that laid down his life for us. But church, I think one of the things that we forget so often is that while we chose Jesus to gain eternal life, while we chose Jesus to start that relationship with him, it's not enough to choose Jesus one time. It's something that you've gotta do daily. See, choosing Jesus is a choice that we make every day because every single day there is a thief and there is a robber trying to take away from us what God has for us. There's someone trying to steal from us. See, the rich and abundant life, it starts with and it ends with Jesus.
So knowing that and understanding that, for those of us in the room that have already made that decision, when you look at your life right now, I want you to ask this question: Am I choosing more of Jesus or more of the world? In every area. 'Cause here's what we tend to do as Christians. We section off parts of our life and we're like, "That's gonna follow Jesus, and parts of our life is gonna follow the world." A- am I following him with every part of my life? Am I looking to him in every part of my life? 'Cause here's the incredible thing about him. Not only did Jesus come to be our Savior, but he came to be our Lord. The way Jesus describes it as a shepherd, but it's the same idea. See, the sheep follow the shepherd. They look to the shepherd. They rely on the shepherd. In the same way, when we say Jesus is Lord, we look to Jesus. We rely on Jesus. We follow Jesus.
And why is he the good shepherd? It starts off with the way that he sacrificed for us. In verse 11, Jesus says this. He says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. He says, a hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he is working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep. He says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me just as my father knows me. And I know the father, so I sacrifice my life for the sheep."
See, a sheep without a shepherd is a sheep that is lost or a sheep that's heading towards death. Whenever we choose the wrong shepherd, whenever we choose to go away from Jesus, we are just that. We're lost or allowing parts of our life to die, relationships to die, purpose to die, things in our life that we need, but Jesus is the only one that can give it to us.
See, what Jesus, he uses himself against the idea of a hired hand. He says it's the hired hand is very different. The hired hand is the one that runs when wolves show up. The hired hand is the one that's only there for the money. The hired hand in our lives is the one that wants us to follow them, but only for their purpose, for what they can gain from us, from what we bring to them. But the moment it comes down to whether or not they will protect us, they run away. The moment we don't do what we ask them to do, what they ask us to do, they run away.
See, what Jesus is saying in this moment is, "Hey, I'm there no matter what. You do the wrong thing, I'm still there. You run away, I'm still there. You are lost, I'm still there. You run away from everything that I have for you, I'm still there. There's nothing that you can do to change that." He says the reason you want to follow me is no matter what happens, I'm still there because I love you differently. Even when we choose the momentary happiness over the legacy that he has for us, Jesus never leaves. He never abandons us. In fact, he sacrificed for us knowing what we would do.
See, if we're going to head down this path, if we're going to go towards more, we've got to understand in our life and make the decision that there is one shepherd. There's one shepherd. There's one shepherd we follow and his name is Jesus. I think one of the great ways to show the difference between Jesus and the people that we follow, the hired hand, it's the difference between a parent and a babysitter. Like a babysitter only will deal with so much, right? Babysitters are great. Here's what's interesting is sometimes we'll have babysitters over. Our kids are like, "You should leave more often. They're awesome." I'm like, "Good, we will." But here's the deal with a babysitter. A babysitter will only deal with so much vomit before they call the parents, right? A babysitter will only deal with so much backtalk or so many issues. They'll deal with only so much happening in the house, then they're going, "Hey, come get your kid." Even grandparents will only deal with so much before they do that. He's going...
That's the difference between the two of us. See, the parent is the one that's up at 3:00 AM dealing with the vomit, dealing with the sick kid, dealing with all the situations. The parent is the one, when you've got a teenager that does something dumb, you're just sitting with them in that moment saying, "Hey, there's gonna be consequences, but I still love you." See, it's the difference between those things, and so often what we tend to do is we go after the new thing or the new person or the new thing in our lives that says, "This will bring you happiness. This will bring you joy." And Jesus is sitting there going, "I'll never leave you. I promise you more, and I promise that I'll be there for you. I, promise you more, but I also promise that I can give you more."
See, one of the reasons we look to Jesus as the shepherd is he's not just a man, he is God. I- in fact, Jesus, in the Book of John, there's seven "I am" statements that he makes, and the reason it's so important for these "I am" statements is, he's referring back to when Moses asked God, he says, "Hey, when the p- when I, when the people ask me, 'Who told you this?'" He's trying to look for a name for a god. "When the people ask me, 'Who told you this?' What should I say your name is?" And God just says, "I am." It's like in the biggest movies, "I am." You're what? I am. Everything. And so when Jesus says, "I am," these things, he's referring back to both He is God, but also this is what he brings.
See, the reason Jesus is a good shepherd is because this is what he brings into our life. The first one is this. He says, "I am the bread of life." What does that mean? It says that Jesus is the spiritual nourishment that we need. He's the only one that can fill the hole in our heart that we all have, the only one that can bring purpose and legacy that we are all going after, and the eternal satisfaction that we need. Second to this thing is he says, "I am the light of the world." Guys, we need this because our world is becoming darker and darker. See, what Jesus says is, "It doesn't matter how dark the world is, I can bring light and guidance and deliverance from it. I am the only one that can show you the true way." He says, "I am the door," which we just talked about. He goes, "I am the only way to salvation." He says, "I am the good shepherd," saying, "I am the only one that will care for you, protect you, and I'm willing to lay down my life for you." He says, "I am the resurrection and the life." See, when Jesus died on the cross and he rose again, he defeated sin and death, and because of that, he has the ability to resurrect us to a new life. So when he says, "You will spend eternity with me," he has the power to do it. And number six, he says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." It's always interesting to me when people say, "Jesus didn't really say he was the way." He literally said it. "Jesus really didn't say he was the only..." No, he literally said, he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the way to heaven. I am the truth, the only truth, the real truth, a truth that will never change. And I am the life. I am the only one to bring you the life that you absolutely desire." He says, "And I am the true vine," which means this, every moment we stay close to him, every moment we are attached to him, we will experience a fruitfulness that we would have, that we wouldn't have in any other way, because I will grow from you something that you didn't expect. I will do things in your heart that you never thought was possible.
See, when Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd," he's not just saying, "I will treat you better," he says, "I am more. Not only do I care for you more, but I can give you more. I, can give you what you truly need." See, no other shepherd is as sacrificial, is as loving, as is personal. No other shepherd just wants to guide you, to care for you, and to know you. So the question we should ask is simply this: Who am I following? In every area of life, who am I following? Or here's another way of saying it, whose voice is the loudest in my life? Whose opinion matters the most? Is it what God wants? Is it r- so what somebody else wants? Because when we look at Jesus, he's the only one that sacrificed for us. He's the only one that stays. He's the only one that loves this way.
See, and the credible thing about Jesus is this, is not only does he do these things for us, but he gave us a system of care. He knew that we would need a lot of care, and he gave us a system of care, and in John 10:16, he talks about it. He says, "I have other sheep too. They are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd."
Now what he's ultimately talking about here is he's talking about the church, all those that follow after him. Now he's saying there's another sh- group of sheep somewhere else. He's actually referring to how he came first for the Jewish people and then for the Gentiles. Basically, for the Jewish people, then anybody that wasn't Jewish. And he's saying, "There's no longer Jew or Gentile. We are all together in one flock or one church." Now here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying Grace Family Church is the only church. Please don't hear that. Any church that believes the same thing we do about Jesus is in the same flock. But what he is referring to and what we need to understand is it's something that we need. We need a church family. We need people around us. We need other people talking and speaking into our lives. And here's the greatest reason why 'cause the right people around you make the Christian life easier, not harder. Wouldn't it be great to hang out with people where you don't have to think, "Should I listen to that? Should I say that? Should I watch that?" Wouldn't it be great to hang out with people that when you look at their lives, you go, "That should be something I should be doing, because that's actually what God would want us to do."
See, one of the things that Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11, he said, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." What he's not saying is that, "I am Christ," he's saying, "Imitate me because, look, I'm going a little bit ahead of you." Wouldn't it be great to have people in your life that are imitating Christ? So that when you happen to sound like them, you sound more like Jesus.
See, one of the things that this does is this helps us in our natural reactions. Earlier in the service, I talked about how we are like sheep, and like sheep, we wander. Wouldn't it be great to have people around you that bring you back? Like sheep, we follow. Wouldn't it be great if the people that we followed actually led us to something better? Like sheep, we panic. Wouldn't it be great to have other people around you that when you panic, they go, "No, but this is the truth." And like sheep, we have poor self-care. Guys, God created the church to care for us. God created the church so that we could be a part of a body that cares for us and that loves us, in the same way we could love and care for other people.
I still think back to my time in college. That I really think it helps me understand this the most. My freshman year of college, I'm a pastor's kid. I grew up in church, and when I went off to college, it wasn't like I left church or anything like that. I just wanted to see what parties were like. I was like, "I wonder what these are like." That's a bad idea. I'm like, "I wonder." Now, I'm also a really stubborn person, so it's not like I did all the wrong things, but I'm sitting there in this place, and what's interesting i- is while I'm not doing the wrong things, I'm seeing the wrong things, I'm listening to the wrong things, and I'm being asked to do the wrong things. The one thing that I did learn, at parties is drunk people are really bad at cards, and you can take advantage of that. But that's not... a good thing. And what I realized was if I stay in that environment too long, who am I gonna naturally become?
One of the greatest things that happened to me is a couple weeks into my freshman year of college, I found good friends. Great friends that loved Jesus. And when I hung out with them, I didn't have to worry about what was being said. I didn't have to worry about what they were doing. I didn't have to worry about what I would see. I, didn't have to worry about ending up in the wrong place. I didn't have to worry about sin. Now, we did do stupid things, but not sinful things. There's this one time that we were on campus, and we were like, "Hey, let's play tag with, things of flour." And to us, it looked like tag w- with things of flour. To the campus police, it looked like assault. I remember them going, "This is still not the dumbest thing we've seen tonight." We're like, "Oh, thank you." He was like, "Go back."
But here's what I understood as I'm at the University of Florida, which is not a place you go to go closer to God. Is that if the closest people to me were going towards God, it was much easier for me to. 'Cause why is it that we believe that for our kids but we don't believe that for ourselves? It could be the reason we struggle so much with following after God is because we've surrounded ourselves with people that are leading us in the opposite direction. That's why we care about community so much. That's why we want you to be in a group so much. And I know groups just ended, but we're about to start new ones. Every summer we have summer groups. We're gonna be walking through the Book of Acts. On the weekend we're gonna be speaking on Acts. In the groups we're gonna be talking about Acts, and we'd love for you to be a part of that. And at the end of the service our pastors at every location will tell you more about that at your location. But I'd love for you to be a part of it. Why? Because you need those people in your life. You need those people in your life.
But here's the question I want you to ask when it comes along to that, is what family am I deciding to belong to? I'm not talking about the family that, that you were born into, but what family are you belonging to? See, when we accept Christ, he says, "I give you a new family." Are you with a family that brings you closer to him or pushes you away from him?
See, the questions to this message are simple. Am I choosing more of Jesus or more of the world? Who am I following? What family am I deciding to belong to? See, I want you to sit down with these questions during the week because the answer to those questions will show you whether or not you're even on the path to what God has for you. God wants more for you, but so does our enemy. Except what he's offering is something different. See, whose more will shape your life, the world's or Jesus? Whose more do we believe in? Who's offering that more? Is it someone that loves you and cares for you and sacrifices for you, or is it somebody that wants to use you? See, it's the questions that we ask.
See, the first step that we take to more was really the first point that I talked about. It's believing that Jesus is the door to eternity. See, we sinned, we messed up. God didn't wait for us to fix it. He sent Jesus down to this earth. He lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, rose three days later defeating sin and death and he says this: if we admit that we've sinned, if we believe that he is the Son of God and we commit to living our lives for him, we get to spend eternity with him, but not only that, he'll guide us here on this earth.
So today if that's you, if that, your first decision is that decision to, to recognize him as the door to what is more, I'm gonna say a prayer in just a moment out loud that you can say quietly right where you're sitting. So if you could right now, if everybody could bow their heads and close their eyes. If you wanna start that relationship with God today, I'm gonna say a prayer out loud. You can say it quietly right where you're sitting.
Dear God, I know that I've sinned. Please forgive me. I believe in your Son, Jesus, that He lived, that He died, and that He rose again. Today, I'm committing my life to you. God, thank you for loving me so much. Thank you for giving me a new family, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Hey, can we give it up for those that made that decision today?