Why Jesus Is More Than Self-Help

00:03:10

- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.

00:03:12

Maybe you always dream, or maybe you're watching today

00:03:15

because you got a friend with a boat,

00:03:16

because it's a Memorial Day weekend.

00:03:18

- I wish I had a friend with a boat.

00:03:20

Yeah. If you live in the US, happy Memorial Day.

00:03:22

- Hey. But wherever you're watching

00:03:24

from around the world, we are so glad that you're here.

00:03:26

Now, that song beautifully captures some of the claims

00:03:29

that Jesus makes about Himself.

00:03:30

And while there are a lot of things that Jesus said

00:03:33

that almost everybody loves and agrees with,

00:03:35

like blessed are the peacemakers, do unto others.

00:03:37

- Yeah, even people who aren't sure

00:03:38

what they believe about Jesus can usually

00:03:40

get behind that version of Jesus,

00:03:42

or the image of the man petting the Lamb.

00:03:44

- That's right.

00:03:45

- But Jesus, when He says, "I am the Way

00:03:47

and the Truth and the Life.

00:03:48

- Yeah, not a way, not my truth versus your truth;

00:03:52

the Way, the Truth, the Life.

00:03:54

- Those are big words, maybe even challenging words.

00:03:56

- Yeah. And if we were sitting across the table

00:03:58

over coffee or a beer, I'd want to ask you, like,

00:04:01

how do those words hit you?

00:04:03

Do they feel comforting?

00:04:04

Do they feel offensive or confusing?

00:04:06

Like something you maybe want to believe

00:04:07

but aren't sure that you can?

00:04:09

- But since you're on the other side of the screen,

00:04:11

we'll just say this: No matter how you feel,

00:04:13

you've picked a great week to be here today.

00:04:14

- Yeah. I'm going to start by connecting with God

00:04:16

through songs right now around those statements

00:04:18

of who Jesus truly is. Let's go.

00:04:22

- Jesus, we sing together.

00:09:47

- All right, we're going to sing a new song together.

00:09:51

With every new song, there's an opportunity

00:09:53

to fix our eyes away from the noise of the world

00:09:58

to the One who created it. Let's sing together.

00:20:33

- Yes, Lord, and your name is strong and powerful.

00:20:40

It's the reason that a bunch of us would gather into a room.

00:20:46

Because either we believe who You are,

00:20:49

or we are super curious about what people say,

00:20:54

about who You are, how You changed their life,

00:20:56

how You brought healing,

00:20:59

how You walked with them in the midst

00:21:00

of struggle and hard time.

00:21:02

God, You are real.

00:21:04

So would we encounter the real God today.

00:21:07

It's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Come on.

00:21:15

So good to sing in this room together

00:21:17

and to gather and to worship.

00:21:19

And we're one big family,

00:21:20

so maybe you don't know the person around you.

00:21:22

Why don't you turn to a couple of folks,

00:21:24

give them a high five. Tell them your name.

00:21:28

Then you can have a seat.

00:21:29

- I love getting to worship together,

00:21:31

especially heading into the summer.

00:21:33

Worship is one of those things that can really recenter us

00:21:36

because at least for me, summer is awesome.

00:21:38

But has a funny way of messing up rhythms like,

00:21:42

uh, your schedules and calendars disappear.

00:21:45

I live near an amusement park,

00:21:46

and it is a really great reminder that

00:21:48

when the fireworks go off every night at 10 p.m.,

00:21:51

that my kids should have been in bed an hour ago.

00:21:53

- Yeah. One of the easiest things to lose

00:21:56

in a full season is consistent connection,

00:21:58

both with God and with people.

00:22:00

But that's exactly why Crossroads Anywhere exists.

00:22:03

It's not just a way to watch church when you're out of town.

00:22:05

It is a real community with real people

00:22:07

who are following Jesus wherever they are.

00:22:10

- Yes, I heard a story that is just too good not to share.

00:22:13

There's a woman named Charity

00:22:14

who has been a part of Crossroads for a long time.

00:22:16

She was at a bookstore

00:22:18

back in the, like, corner religion section.

00:22:20

- The weird, weirdest section with the crystals, got it.

00:22:22

And while she was there, she noticed

00:22:24

a young woman named Shelby who was looking for a Bible.

00:22:26

She couldn't find one at her local thrift store.

00:22:28

So Charity ended up saying,

00:22:29

"Hey, I can help you pick one out."

00:22:30

- Yes. And this is where the story gets really good,

00:22:33

because Shelby felt like that little nudge,

00:22:34

that terrifying, like heartbeat,

00:22:36

I think I'm supposed to invite her to church nudge.

00:22:38

And she did.

00:22:39

She invited her to come sit with her at church.

00:22:41

- That's awesome.

00:22:42

- So Shelby said yes, and she showed up,

00:22:44

and she started experiencing Jesus

00:22:46

in a language that she could understand.

00:22:48

And then Shelby became one of the over 900 people

00:22:52

who've been baptized around Crossroads

00:22:53

just since Easter, just the last couple months.

00:22:55

- It's crazy. That's the mission:

00:22:56

Someone who knows God

00:22:59

notices someone who wants to know God,

00:23:00

and they simply just say, "Hey,

00:23:02

want to come to church with me?

00:23:03

Why not come to a watch party with me?

00:23:05

It's not complicated.

00:23:06

It's just having your eyes open

00:23:07

and it can change someone's life.

00:23:10

- So that's what we mean when we say

00:23:11

Crossroads Anywhere and not just content

00:23:13

to consume or watch, but it's a community to belong to.

00:23:16

And we want that for you too.

00:23:17

So if you've already downloaded the Crossroads Anywhere app,

00:23:20

this is your friendly nudge

00:23:22

to check it out and actually use it.

00:23:23

- Yes. Inside the app you can catch up on

00:23:25

teachings while you are traveling.

00:23:27

You can read scripture daily.

00:23:28

Stay up to date on what's happening around Crossroads.

00:23:31

And my favorite part is pray for people in our community

00:23:33

and receive prayer yourself.

00:23:35

As of this morning, we've had over 400,000 people

00:23:39

prayed for just this month. It's crazy.

00:23:42

- Yeah. And maybe some of the fastest ways to remember

00:23:46

that you're not the only one who's experiencing

00:23:48

whatever you're going through, it's a way out of isolation.

00:23:51

And so we want that for you.

00:23:52

So here's a little quick challenge for you.

00:23:55

So get the app and this week start

00:23:57

by praying for some other people.

00:23:59

Five minutes a day. Come on. You have five minutes.

00:24:02

- Try it this week and see what God does.

00:24:04

Now the next part is not for you, if you're brand new.

00:24:07

Seriously, no pressure, we're not this, like,

00:24:08

weird church asking for your money thing.

00:24:10

We're just really glad you're here.

00:24:12

- Yeah, but if you've been around Crossroads for a while,

00:24:14

or watching with us for a while, and you've thought,

00:24:17

"Maybe this is my church home,"

00:24:18

I just want to strongly encourage you

00:24:21

to maybe start trying giving.

00:24:23

Now, why would I say that first?

00:24:24

It's the way we fuel things like Go Day

00:24:26

where thousands of people are served

00:24:28

across hundreds of projects around the world.

00:24:30

- Yeah, there wasn't some outside organization

00:24:32

that bankrolled that.

00:24:33

It was normal people who call Crossroads home.

00:24:35

It's also what fuels our ability to connect with people.

00:24:38

And we get stories like Shelby's story.

00:24:40

- But those are the surface reasons,

00:24:42

the real reason that I'm most interested

00:24:43

in you starting a journey with generosity

00:24:45

is because those of us who know God

00:24:47

have seen a side of Him we just wouldn't have otherwise.

00:24:50

And it came through trusting God with our money.

00:24:52

- Yeah, for me, it started when I was single

00:24:54

and I realized that there was a part of my heart

00:24:56

that was not fully free.

00:24:58

But now I have found freedom in learning

00:25:00

to trust God with my finances.

00:25:02

- That's what our family does, Rachel and I.

00:25:04

Every paycheck, our first and our best goes,

00:25:06

not just to Crossroads as an organization,

00:25:08

but to our local church so that God can multiply it

00:25:11

and send it out for His purposes and His Kingdom.

00:25:13

So you're looking to continue to grow as part of this place,

00:25:15

I just wonder what it would look like for you

00:25:17

to take an experiment with giving

00:25:19

and do it at Crossroads.net/give.

00:25:21

- All right, in just a minute Chuck Mingo

00:25:23

is going to help us kick off

00:25:24

a brand new series called I am, where we are looking at

00:25:27

the statements Jesus made about Himself.

00:25:29

These aren't just inspirational quotes.

00:25:31

They're moments where Jesus reveals who He truly is.

00:25:34

And it's important because those statements matter

00:25:36

because their promises about who He is to us.

00:25:39

- Yeah. So today we're starting with

00:25:41

one of Jesus's biggest claims,

00:25:43

one of the biggest claims He ever made:

00:25:44

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

00:25:47

Let's jump into it right now.

00:25:48

- This is a firsthand biography of Jesus

00:25:50

by one of his closest friends.

00:25:52

In it, John records seven iconic I am statements

00:25:55

that Jesus made, seven metaphors,

00:25:58

seven self portraits of the living God.

00:26:01

This week Jesus says: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

00:26:06

Here's how it goes in the book of John 14:

00:26:09

Jesus said, "Let not your hearts be troubled.

00:26:12

Believe in God; believe also in me.

00:26:15

In my Father's house are many rooms.

00:26:17

If it were not so, would I have told you

00:26:19

that I go to prepare a place for you?

00:26:21

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

00:26:24

I will come again and will take you to myself.

00:26:26

That where I am you may be also.

00:26:30

And you know the way to where I'm going."

00:26:32

And Thomas said to him, "Lord,

00:26:34

we do not know where you're going.

00:26:36

How can we know the way?"

00:26:37

And Jesus said to him,

00:26:39

"I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.

00:26:43

No one comes to the Father except through me.

00:26:46

If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.

00:26:49

From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him."

00:27:03

- Well, hello. Hello. Happy Memorial Day weekend.

00:27:07

I am, uh, I gotta tell you, I'm really excited

00:27:10

to get into what we're going to talk about today.

00:27:12

But I have to start with the story

00:27:14

that is really a confession. And it is this.

00:27:17

If you get to know me, you'll know this.

00:27:19

I am deathly afraid of heights.

00:27:21

Not like a little bit.

00:27:23

I mean, like genuinely, embarrassingly,

00:27:26

mercilessly teased by my wife and kids,

00:27:28

afraid of heights.

00:27:29

And because of that, I want to take you to a place

00:27:32

that is always a powerful place of prayer for me.

00:27:35

It's at the top of this thing.

00:27:38

So if you're not in the Cincinnati area,

00:27:40

this is known as the Drop Tower.

00:27:42

It's at the Kings Island amusement park in Cincinnati.

00:27:45

And even though I hate heights,

00:27:48

I've been on this ride probably five times,

00:27:51

and every time it's a little kid's fault.

00:27:54

Whether it was my nephews and nieces

00:27:56

when they were younger and would visit us in Cincinnati

00:27:59

or my own kids.

00:28:00

Some kid eventually when we take them to Kings Island,

00:28:02

it's like, "Uncle Chuck, I want to go on the Drop Tower."

00:28:05

And Maria looks at me and says,

00:28:06

"Uncle Chuck will go on that with you."

00:28:10

And so I wind up in this ride.

00:28:11

And here's the thing, every time I'm on this ride,

00:28:13

it's the same experience.

00:28:14

They've got that pull down bar that they give you.

00:28:17

And I am gripping that pull down bar so tight

00:28:21

that my black knuckles turn white.

00:28:22

I mean, if that's possible, then that's what's happening.

00:28:25

I am death dripping as if, if it all were to go bad

00:28:29

on Drop Tower, the news story is going to be

00:28:31

34 people lost their lives on Drop Tower today,

00:28:34

but one guy named Chuck Mingo survived

00:28:37

because he was gripping to the bar

00:28:39

tight enough to save himself.

00:28:41

Like it's not gonna matter. It's not going to matter.

00:28:44

And the reason that I was thinking about that story is

00:28:47

there is something that you and I have a death grip on.

00:28:51

We're gripping something in our lives.

00:28:53

I'm not talking to the person next to you.

00:28:55

I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you.

00:28:57

You have something that you're gripping.

00:28:59

Maybe you're gripping a relationship.

00:29:00

Maybe you're gripping a career.

00:29:02

Maybe you're gripping a number in a bank account.

00:29:04

But there is something in our lives that we are

00:29:06

white knuckled, gripping, hoping that

00:29:08

it can hold the weight of our lives.

00:29:10

Spoiler alert: it won't.

00:29:14

It was never designed to.

00:29:15

There's only one way, only one person

00:29:18

who can hold the weight of your life,

00:29:20

and His name is Jesus.

00:29:22

And that's what we're looking at in this series.

00:29:24

This is week one of our series the Jesus Exhibit.

00:29:28

Jesus describes Himself through

00:29:29

these seven self-portraits that we see written down

00:29:32

in the Gospel of John. Who was John?

00:29:34

John was actually one of Jesus's 12 disciples.

00:29:37

But more than that,

00:29:38

he was one of Jesus's closest three disciples.

00:29:41

John was really close to Jesus.

00:29:43

And so John is writing these down for us

00:29:45

to help us understand who Jesus is.

00:29:47

And what I find interesting is that

00:29:49

all throughout John's gospel, he's in the stories,

00:29:51

he's right there.

00:29:52

So he's telling the stories

00:29:53

that he was firsthand witness to,

00:29:55

but he never refers to himself by name.

00:29:59

Throughout the entire Gospel of John,

00:30:01

he always refers to himself by this title,

00:30:04

the disciple whom Jesus loved.

00:30:08

And I think the reason for that is John had learned

00:30:11

to release his grip on any other identity.

00:30:14

He learned to release his grip on anything else

00:30:16

that he would trust or put the weight of his life on.

00:30:19

And he knew the only thing that matters

00:30:21

is that I am a disciple who Jesus loves.

00:30:24

And John wants you and I to be able to release our grip

00:30:27

and receive the same thing.

00:30:28

We know this because he tells us why he wrote his gospel.

00:30:31

He says this in John 20:31:

00:30:33

These are written so that you may believe

00:30:35

that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,

00:30:37

and that by believing you may have life in His name.

00:30:42

And there's two words for life in the Greek language.

00:30:44

One is the word bios, which means biology.

00:30:47

It's where we get kind of the basic functions of life.

00:30:49

The other is Zoe, and that's the word he's using here.

00:30:51

It means abundant life, a fullness of life.

00:30:54

John wanted you and I to know that

00:30:56

in Jesus we can find abundant life.

00:31:00

You know, you may not know this, but today is

00:31:02

considered the birthday of the Church of Jesus.

00:31:05

It's Pentecost Sunday, and Pentecost means 50th,

00:31:09

and it celebrates that 50 days after Jesus rose,

00:31:11

the disciples and all His followers were empowered

00:31:14

by the very Holy Spirit of God,

00:31:16

the Spirit that gives us Zoe life.

00:31:19

So as we go through this series today,

00:31:21

whether you're a skeptic, whether you are a seeker

00:31:24

seeking genuine truth, or maybe you're like me,

00:31:26

a follower of Jesus, who, when I'm honest,

00:31:28

I can death grip some things that aren't Jesus.

00:31:30

I pray that every week in this series you would see

00:31:33

Jesus with fresh lenses, and when you do,

00:31:36

it would give you Zoe life.

00:31:38

Let me pray for that as we get started today.

00:31:40

God, thank You for this series.

00:31:42

Thank You for this weekend, the opportunity to be together.

00:31:46

God, I am praying for our eyes, not our physical eyes.

00:31:48

I'm praying for our spiritual eyes

00:31:50

every week in this series to be opened

00:31:53

to another aspect of who You are, Jesus,

00:31:55

and what it means for our life.

00:31:56

I just pray, God, that we would see

00:31:58

with spiritual eyes today, and that You would honor

00:32:01

every person who chose to be here on a holiday weekend

00:32:03

by meeting them with a powerful word

00:32:06

that can give them Zoe life.

00:32:07

I pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.

00:32:10

So we're starting with probably the most controversial

00:32:14

of the seven statements that Jesus makes in the book of John.

00:32:16

John 14:6. You saw it on the screen.

00:32:19

I want to read it to you again.

00:32:20

Jesus said, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.

00:32:25

No one comes to the Father except through me.

00:32:29

It's an exclusive claim.

00:32:31

And I was thinking about you, and I was like,

00:32:33

you know what? If you dragged yourself out of bed

00:32:35

to be here on Memorial Day weekend,

00:32:37

you're probably not just asking is Jesus the only way?

00:32:42

You're probably asking a way more foundational question.

00:32:45

You're probably asking is Jesus the better way?

00:32:49

Like, does this Jesus stuff work for somebody like me?

00:32:52

I think that's what made you show up today.

00:32:53

You're here because you want to know that.

00:32:55

And hear this: I believe Jesus is going to answer you today.

00:32:59

I believe you're going to get an answer today from Jesus,

00:33:01

that he is, in fact the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

00:33:04

These are controversial words, so it would help

00:33:06

to understand the context in which

00:33:08

Jesus said them to his disciples.

00:33:10

It's 24 hours, less than 24 hours

00:33:13

before Jesus is going to be brutally murdered

00:33:16

and killed on a cross.

00:33:17

And He's been telling His disciples over and over again,

00:33:19

"Guys, I'm about to die. Guys, I'm about to suffer."

00:33:22

And His 12 closest followers, His disciples,

00:33:25

they don't know what to make of this.

00:33:26

They are not just merely confused,

00:33:29

their hearts are deeply, deeply troubled.

00:33:32

Go back to Drop Tower for a minute.

00:33:34

You know, when I'm on that ride with

00:33:35

my younger nephews, nieces, whatever,

00:33:38

I've learned to have a poker face about

00:33:40

how I really feel about being 400 feet up in the air.

00:33:44

But this is what inside Chuck

00:33:45

is really feeling at that time, right?

00:33:47

And there's a dead giveaway.

00:33:49

There's a dead giveaway, if you were looking for it,

00:33:52

of how I really feel, which is while I'm seated

00:33:55

in a chair 400 feet up, my phone starts buzzing,

00:33:58

my watch starts buzzing me and saying,

00:33:59

"Are we working out right now?"

00:34:02

Why? Because my heart rate is elevated, right?

00:34:05

My heart is troubled.

00:34:07

The disciples' hearts were troubled.

00:34:09

And I think our hearts can be troubled.

00:34:12

I want to talk to Christians for a minute.

00:34:14

People who would say intellectually, yes,

00:34:16

I believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

00:34:19

And my question is, when your heart is troubled,

00:34:22

is He really the first place you turn?

00:34:25

Here's some reflection questions that I know

00:34:28

for me can be really, really eye opening.

00:34:30

First question:

00:34:31

what do you check first thing in the morning?

00:34:35

Somebody said, oh man.

00:34:36

Like what do you check first thing in the morning?

00:34:39

Here's one: What would devastate you if you lost it?

00:34:44

Here's another one: What do you find yourself

00:34:46

calculating and recalculating over and over again?

00:34:50

Or how about this one: What do you never talk about

00:34:54

to another person, but it's either eating you inside

00:34:59

or it's this secret thing that you keep going to

00:35:02

trying to find life that

00:35:03

you never talk about to another person?

00:35:06

I want to submit to you, again I'm talking to Christians,

00:35:08

that's the thing you're white knuckle gripping

00:35:12

and hoping it holds the weight of your life.

00:35:14

But trusting that is like trusting a glass staircase

00:35:18

to be the thing that's going to support you.

00:35:19

Glass staircases will shatter.

00:35:21

We've got this piece of art here,

00:35:23

and it's all these glass arrows, right?

00:35:25

And these glass arrows are kind of symbolic

00:35:27

of all the places we look to life,

00:35:29

all the places we look to try to support us

00:35:32

when our hearts are troubled,

00:35:33

when we think we're kind of doing well,

00:35:34

where are the places that we go?

00:35:36

And you'll notice that these arrows kind of go

00:35:38

in all kinds of different directions,

00:35:40

but none of that can support the weight of our life.

00:35:44

All of those arrows are going to shatter at some point,

00:35:49

but we keep putting the weight of our life

00:35:50

on things that are bound to crack.

00:35:53

And so I want you to know that in love,

00:35:56

Jesus says these words today, in love,

00:35:59

because He sees your troubled heart.

00:36:00

He sees my troubled heart.

00:36:01

And that's why He starts with these words in John 14:1:

00:36:04

Let not your hearts be troubled.

00:36:08

Believe in God; believe also in me.

00:36:12

See, Jesus wants us to know right away what he's after.

00:36:14

And what He's after is trust.

00:36:17

Because friends, you know what the opposite

00:36:19

of a troubled heart is, a trusting heart.

00:36:23

And Jesus wants you to have a trusting heart in Him.

00:36:27

So He goes on to say these words:

00:36:28

In my father's house are many rooms.

00:36:30

If it were not so, would I have told you

00:36:32

that I go to prepare a place for you?

00:36:34


00:36:36

I will come again, and will take you to myself,

00:36:39

that where I am you may be also.

00:36:43

And you know the way to where I am going.

00:36:46

Jesus is saying to His disciples

00:36:49

in their moment of trouble, "Guys,

00:36:50

I am the safest person for you.

00:36:54

I am the safest place for you

00:36:56

to rest the troubles that you have in your heart.

00:36:58

You can trust me. Believe in God; believe also in me."

00:37:02

And you know, you can imagine that like

00:37:04

Jesus says those words and all the disciples

00:37:07

just kind of kick back and say, "Ah, okay,

00:37:10

We can relax. It's all good."

00:37:13

And, you know, they start to see puppy dogs and rainbows.

00:37:15

And in fact, this is the moment when they get

00:37:17

those yellow halos that we often see

00:37:19

around their heads in pieces of art.

00:37:21

But as Lee Corso used to say to all of us

00:37:24

every Saturday morning on college game day,

00:37:26

"Not so fast, my friend. Not so fast."

00:37:30

Enter Thomas. I love Thomas.

00:37:34

I think Thomas is one of my favorite followers of Jesus,

00:37:37

one of my favorite disciples.

00:37:39

Thomas is the guy in your crew

00:37:41

who says the quiet part out loud.

00:37:44

And we need Thomases in our lives.

00:37:47

We need Thomases like that.

00:37:48

And Thomas is willing to break up this moment

00:37:51

with an honest question for Jesus.

00:37:53

You know, you might have heard of Thomas,

00:37:55

but you might have heard him attached to

00:37:57

his unfortunate nickname, Doubting Thomas.

00:38:01

That's like, man, can you imagine if the worst thing

00:38:03

you ever did becomes the moniker

00:38:05

that people know you for forever?

00:38:08

How bad would that be?

00:38:09

You forget one wedding anniversary

00:38:11

and your wife calls you Forgetful Frank

00:38:13

for the rest of your marriage.

00:38:14

Like, man, that would be a bummer.

00:38:15

That would be a bummer. You know what?

00:38:17

You're in a small group, you ask one awkward question,

00:38:20

then you're Awkward Annie for the rest of the time.

00:38:22

Like that would be really, really bad.

00:38:24

It'd be like if you woke up

00:38:25

and you missed a group assignment in school,

00:38:28

in college, in high school, and then all of a sudden

00:38:31

all your friends started calling you Lazy Susan.

00:38:33

Oh, wait, man, Lazy Susan stuck.

00:38:36

I don't know who Susan did it to,

00:38:37

but somebody -- she hurt somebody with her laziness.

00:38:40

I don't know who that was. I don't know who that was.

00:38:42

But you might have heard Thomas called Doubting Thomas.

00:38:44

I think that's really unfortunate.

00:38:46

I call him Honest Thomas because Thomas is willing

00:38:50

to break in the puppy dog, rainbow moment

00:38:52

that is not happening and say out loud,

00:38:54

what all the disciples were already thinking.

00:38:58

He says this in verse 5: Lord,

00:39:00

we don't know where You are going.

00:39:03

So how can we know the way?

00:39:06

Don't you have times in your life where that's your question?

00:39:09

Don't things come up, and you're like, "Lord,

00:39:11

I don't know what You're doing.

00:39:13

I don't know where You're going.

00:39:16

How can I know the way?"

00:39:18

I love Thomas honesty here.

00:39:21

Thomas might be the patron saint of Crossroads.

00:39:24

We call ourselves a real place for real people.

00:39:26

Like I said, I call him Honest Thomas.

00:39:28

You can call him keep it a buck Thomas.

00:39:29

I love Thomas, and Thomas asked the question,

00:39:33

and because he asked an honest question,

00:39:34

we get this honest answer from Jesus.

00:39:37

Again, I'm going to read this multiple times

00:39:38

because I want these words of Jesus

00:39:40

to sink into your spirit today.

00:39:41

Jesus said to him, and to us,

00:39:44

"I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.

00:39:48

No one comes to the Father except through me."

00:39:53

Now, I have to admit that for many of you,

00:39:56

that's not the first time you've heard those words,

00:39:58

and that maybe those words were used as a bludgeon

00:40:01

or a Billy club when you asked legitimate questions.

00:40:05

I've got lots of friends in my life

00:40:07

who don't follow Jesus.

00:40:08

I've got friends in my life who are Jewish.

00:40:10

I've got friends in my life who are Hindu.

00:40:12

I've got friends in my life who are Muslim.

00:40:14

And we get into these conversations

00:40:15

and there's an honest question they ask me,

00:40:17

"Chuck, are you saying that even though I love

00:40:20

and am pursuing a path that I think is the path of God,

00:40:23

because I don't say 'Jesus is God, '

00:40:25

you're saying I'm going to hell?"

00:40:28

That's a legitimate wrestle and question.

00:40:31

And I want you to know, I'm sorry if someone

00:40:33

returned this verse to you as a slap in the face

00:40:36

to say, just shut up and get with the program.

00:40:39

Because that's not how Jesus is using these words.

00:40:41

He's using these words to comfort His disciples

00:40:44

in their troubled heart, times of need.

00:40:47

This is not so much a truth claim to defend

00:40:49

as much as it's a promise to grasp hold of.

00:40:54

Jesus is being what Brene Brown called kind in his clarity.

00:41:00

She says, to be clear is to be kind.

00:41:01

Jesus is being exclusive.

00:41:03

He is saying there is no other way

00:41:06

to the life with the Father that you want.

00:41:08

There is no other way to what you might want to call

00:41:11

heaven or eternal life.

00:41:12

He is absolutely saying that,

00:41:13

but Jesus isn't saying that as a power grab.

00:41:17

He's saying it because He's making a promise,

00:41:20

a promise that only He can keep.

00:41:24

You know, every one of these seven I am statements

00:41:27

has inherent in them an invitation and a challenge.

00:41:32

The invitation with Jesus saying,

00:41:34

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

00:41:36

is actually the invitation

00:41:38

to find the life you really are looking for,

00:41:41

to find the life that you really are longing for.

00:41:44

The challenge is to believe Him, to trust Him,

00:41:49

to trust Him, if you will, exclusively.

00:41:53

One of the things my family is going to do tomorrow

00:41:55

is we're going to go see the new Mandalorian Grogu movie,

00:41:58

because we love The Mandalorian in our house.

00:42:00

We're big Star Wars fans.

00:42:02

The thing, if you know anything about The Mandalorian,

00:42:04

one of the big things they say over and over again

00:42:06

is this is the way.

00:42:09

Jesus is saying to His disciples

00:42:11

in their troubled hearts, "I am the way."

00:42:14

This is the way.

00:42:17

So can I just level with you for a few minutes?

00:42:20

Because my name is Chuck and I'm your friend.

00:42:23

I just want to tell you

00:42:25

self actualization is not the way.

00:42:28

Our culture tells us that if you can

00:42:30

just focus on yourself, if you can just manifest it,

00:42:32

if you can just find your inner self and fix yourself,

00:42:35

you're going to be able to achieve

00:42:36

this life that you always wanted.

00:42:38

And I'm here to tell you that is not the way.

00:42:40

You cannot fix yourself with more of yourself.

00:42:43

It's not the way. It's not the way.

00:42:48

Therapy alone is not the way.

00:42:51

I believe in therapy.

00:42:53

I'm in therapy, so I'm not anti therapy.

00:42:56

What therapy can do really well is it can

00:42:59

help you expose and understand your brokenness.

00:43:02

But we need God to heal our brokenness.

00:43:05

So therapy alone is not the way.

00:43:10

Following religious rules is not the way.

00:43:12

You can get really, really good at doing

00:43:16

the dutiful things that you think

00:43:17

make you a good Christian.

00:43:19

And you can have a prideful heart.

00:43:20

You can have a jealous heart.

00:43:22

It does not change your heart.

00:43:23

Following religious rules alone is not the way.

00:43:26

It's not the way.

00:43:28

Money is not the way.

00:43:30

Money can buy you a lot of things.

00:43:32

I'll take some more money.

00:43:34

But you talk to anybody who has way more money than you

00:43:37

and they will tell you money cannot buy you peace.

00:43:40

Money is not the way.

00:43:41

Success, achievement is not the way.

00:43:44

Boy, did I think that was the way.

00:43:45

Boy was that my story.

00:43:46

But I'm here to tell you that once you climb

00:43:49

the mountain that you thought was the thing,

00:43:51

you'll get to the top and realize

00:43:52

either it was the wrong mountain to begin with,

00:43:55

or there's a whole other mountain to climb.

00:43:57

When does it ever stop?

00:43:58

Success is not the way.

00:44:02

Jesus is the only way, and here's why.

00:44:06

Because Jesus offers a better way.

00:44:10

He offers a better way.

00:44:11

Tim Keller is a pastor who has been really impactful

00:44:14

in my spiritual journey.

00:44:15

He passed away about a year ago.

00:44:16

And I'm always struck by what he says about this.

00:44:19

He said this, he said:

00:44:20

These are Christianity's unsurpassed offers,

00:44:22

meaning this is why Jesus is the Way,

00:44:25

the Truth, and the Life that we're all seeking.

00:44:28

He says: Christianity's unsurpassed offers are

00:44:30

a meaning that suffering cannot remove,

00:44:33

a satisfaction not based on circumstances,

00:44:36

a freedom that does not hurt, but rather enhances love,

00:44:39

an identity that doesn't crush you or exclude others,

00:44:41

a moral compass (justice)

00:44:44

that does not turn you into an oppressor,

00:44:47

and a hope that can face anything, even death.

00:44:50

Because to be clear, meaning, purpose, hope,

00:44:54

justice, those are good ends,

00:44:55

those are things we are created to desire and long for.

00:45:00

It's just that there's only one means to those ends,

00:45:03

and His name is Jesus.

00:45:04

And I want to help you understand this

00:45:05

by walking through these one by one in more specifics.

00:45:08

So let's start by talking about freedom.

00:45:11

Why is Jesus the better way to experience

00:45:14

the freedom you long for?

00:45:15

It's because every other way that promises you freedom

00:45:18

says this: The way that you get free

00:45:20

is you remove all constraints.

00:45:22

We just got to admit, this is part of

00:45:23

how we think about freedom in American terms, right?

00:45:26

My freedom is I get to do what I want to do

00:45:29

on the terms that I want to do it.

00:45:30

Nobody can tell me what to do.

00:45:32

I get to be independent.

00:45:34

And my question is, have you ever tried to live that way?

00:45:37

Have you? I'm serious.

00:45:38

Have you ever tried to spend

00:45:40

on whatever you want to spend for?

00:45:42

Sex, whoever you want to sex,

00:45:44

drink and party however you want to drink and party,

00:45:47

pursue greed and stuff as much as you want to?

00:45:50

If you've ever tried that, and oh, by the way,

00:45:52

I have tried those things.

00:45:53

You know where they lead you?

00:45:55

They lead you to a place where you are exhausted

00:45:57

and empty, it just doesn't work.

00:46:01

Andy Crouch is a great thinker, and he says this

00:46:03

about any addiction, anything that would want to be

00:46:06

a thing that grips our life.

00:46:07

He says this: Every addiction makes the same promise,

00:46:11

which is, this is how you can be like God.

00:46:14

This is how you can escape your vulnerability.

00:46:16

This is how you can have control over your life.

00:46:18

This is how you can get all the pleasure,

00:46:20

all the things that you want.

00:46:22

And he says, the problem is every addiction works

00:46:25

the first time, but it doesn't keep working.

00:46:29

And over time, it demands more and more of you

00:46:32

while delivering less and less of the promise.

00:46:35

There's an early church father, his name was Augustine,

00:46:39

African man and Saint Augustine,

00:46:41

you may have heard him by that name.

00:46:43

He wrote a book called Confessions.

00:46:45

And in Confessions he's honest.

00:46:47

I love how raw and honest he is.

00:46:48

He's like, guys, before Jesus, I tried everything,

00:46:51

I tried everything.

00:46:52

He talks about his sexual conquests.

00:46:54

He talks about his career pursuit.

00:46:56

He talks about how he even joined a cult.

00:46:57

All of those things, trying to find the way,

00:47:00

trying to find the life he was looking for,

00:47:02

trying to be free, only to come to this conclusion.

00:47:05

I love these words, he says:

00:47:06

You have made us for Yourself, O Lord,

00:47:10

and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in You.

00:47:15

Only the way of Jesus leads to true freedom.

00:47:17

Because here's the plot twist,

00:47:19

when it comes to being free,

00:47:20

your freedom is not based on independence.

00:47:24

You think that independence is the way to freedom

00:47:27

and it's not.

00:47:28

Your freedom comes from being in dependance,

00:47:32

in dependence with the Creator who knows you,

00:47:36

with the Creator who understands you,

00:47:38

with the Creator who through His sacrifice

00:47:40

has offered you the only thing

00:47:42

that can really deliver the freedom

00:47:44

that you and I are longing for.

00:47:46

Jesus is a better way to freedom.

00:47:48

Let's talk about meaning.

00:47:49

When it comes to meaning, we wind up pouring

00:47:54

our life's meaning into things that

00:47:56

can almost hold the weight, until they don't.

00:48:01

Anybody in here thought that a career,

00:48:02

a specific job was going to be the thing

00:48:04

that got you meaning.

00:48:05

And you achieved it, and maybe it worked,

00:48:09

until you lost that job.

00:48:12

Maybe it worked, until you realized,

00:48:13

"Oh my gosh, I don't even like this career."

00:48:16

You know, for others of us,

00:48:17

we thought that the approval of others,

00:48:19

if I could just get this person to approve me,

00:48:21

if I could just get this affirmation,

00:48:22

then that was going to do it for me,

00:48:24

until the affirmation goes away.

00:48:26

You know, for some of us,

00:48:27

we thought it was body beautiful.

00:48:29

We thought if we could just take care of ourselves

00:48:31

and be beautiful or be strong,

00:48:32

kind of have control of our physical domain,

00:48:34

that was going to be the thing that satisfied us,

00:48:36

until the diagnosis took that away from me.

00:48:39

For others of us, we're like, man,

00:48:40

if we just find the right soulmate,

00:48:42

if I can just marry the right person.

00:48:44

Man, I'm going to be so happy if I can just find my boo.

00:48:47

If I can get boo'd up, I'm going to be great,

00:48:51

until you get boo'd up and one day you wake up

00:48:54

and realize, I don't really like this person.

00:48:59

And either you leave them or they leave you.

00:49:01

But it doesn't give you the meaning that you sought for.

00:49:05

See, every other basis of finding meaning

00:49:08

is based on circumstances.

00:49:10

And that means when those circumstances change,

00:49:13

your meaning will collapse.

00:49:15

And your circumstances will change.

00:49:18

It's called human suffering,

00:49:19

and none of us get to avoid it.

00:49:22

But only the way of Jesus offers us a basis of meaning

00:49:26

that actually isn't only not collapsed through suffering,

00:49:29

it's actually strengthened through suffering.

00:49:31

We just went through this as a church.

00:49:33

We did this thing called the Run Journey.

00:49:35

It was based on the life of Paul

00:49:36

and we were kind of talking about

00:49:37

how do we get to the hope that we want?

00:49:39

And you guys might remember this verse.

00:49:41

We talked about it every week, Romans 5:3-4 says:

00:49:43

Suffering, in the way of Jesus,

00:49:45

suffering produces endurance,

00:49:48

which produces character, which produces hope. Hope.

00:49:53

Only the way of Jesus suffering is actually metabolized

00:49:56

not to take away from your meaning,

00:49:59

but actually to strengthen your meaning,

00:50:01

because Jesus is a better way to meaning.

00:50:04

Let's talk about identity.

00:50:06

We live in a context right now where we view

00:50:09

everything through the lens of

00:50:11

whatever our primary identity is.

00:50:12

We view everything.

00:50:14

Here's what the world teaches us.

00:50:15

The world basically says, "Here's how you find life.

00:50:19

You look inside yourself,

00:50:21

find the thing that feels most true to you,

00:50:23

and then build your whole life identity around that thing

00:50:26

and build a tribe of other people

00:50:28

who share that identity with you.

00:50:30

And anybody who doesn't agree with that identity,

00:50:32

well, that's your enemy,"

00:50:33

and that's how you live your life.

00:50:35

And I want to tell you, every other source of identity

00:50:38

is a performance trap and a lie,

00:50:41

because every other form of identity asks you to do this.

00:50:44

It says, "Hey, before you get the label,

00:50:46

you got to agree with the doctrine.

00:50:48

You gotta, you gotta line up with what we say."

00:50:50

And we do this all the time.

00:50:52

We do this with our national identities.

00:50:53

We do this with our racial identities.

00:50:55

We do this with our sexual identities.

00:50:56

We do this with our political identities.

00:50:58

And all of those identities forced you to prove it,

00:51:01

to say that you're down, to make the right statements,

00:51:03

to have the right lifestyle.

00:51:05

And if you don't, if you do anything out of step

00:51:08

with what the tribe has spoken,

00:51:10

you will get canceled faster than a New York Minute.

00:51:15

It's because every other identity is a performance trap.

00:51:19

Only in Jesus do we have an identity

00:51:22

that is given and not earned.

00:51:25

Which means it doesn't crush you

00:51:27

because you don't have to feel like you got to

00:51:29

maintain it by doing all the things

00:51:30

that the tribe says is right,

00:51:32

but it also doesn't exclude other people,

00:51:35

and it enables you to have a wider circle of love.

00:51:38

The good news of the Gospel of Jesus is that

00:51:41

your worth was already decided

00:51:43

before you even believed in Jesus.

00:51:46

I'll put it to you even better.

00:51:47

Bible says it this way in Romans:

00:51:49

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

00:51:53

I have an uncle who's a great preacher, Uncle Otis.

00:51:56

And I love his translation of that verse.

00:51:57

He says, "Chuck, while we were busy hating God,

00:52:00

He was busy loving us."

00:52:02

Not just before you believed Jesus,

00:52:04

but when you hated Jesus,

00:52:06

when you didn't want anything to do with Jesus,

00:52:08

He already had proven how much your life is worth

00:52:11

by dying on a cross in your place.

00:52:15

So before you ever accepted the identity of beloved,

00:52:19

the disciple who Jesus loves, like John talks about,

00:52:21

before you ever accepted that title,

00:52:23

Jesus had already proclaimed over your life

00:52:25

that you are worthy, that you are worth it,

00:52:28

that you are loved, that you are forgiven,

00:52:31

that you will never be alone.

00:52:34

And so when we step into this identity with Jesus,

00:52:36

what a relief it is.

00:52:39

And it enables me to love myself

00:52:43

and it enables me to love you.

00:52:46

And oh, by the way, it even enables me to love my enemies.

00:52:51

We talk about justice, a moral compass.

00:52:55

Most justice movements eventually eat their own.

00:52:58

This is true on the left and on the right.

00:53:00

If you look at any time there's been something like that,

00:53:02

oftentimes, not all the time, but oftentimes

00:53:04

they wind up eating their own, because here's the thing.

00:53:07

If your moral compass is based on us being right

00:53:10

and them being wrong, all you're doing

00:53:13

is replacing one oppressor with another

00:53:15

when you get to power, that's all you're doing.

00:53:18

And we see this is what's going on in our country right now.

00:53:21

This is what's been going on in our country

00:53:23

for all this time, is that once they're in power,

00:53:26

they say, "Okay, now we got power,

00:53:28

now we're going to oppress them."

00:53:29

And then when it switches, they're like,

00:53:31

"Okay, now we're in power. We're going to oppress them."

00:53:34

Because when it's about you being right,

00:53:37

you have to have an enemy on the other side of that.

00:53:40

But only the identity and the justice of Jesus

00:53:44

helps us understand two things at the very same time:

00:53:47

Every person, me included, is more broken

00:53:50

and fallen than I can imagine;

00:53:53

and every person, me included, is more valuable

00:53:58

and loved than we could ever dream.

00:54:01

That's the beauty of the justice of Jesus.

00:54:05

And that's why I can fiercely fight for justice

00:54:08

and still extend grace.

00:54:11

It's why I can tell the truth and love my enemies, too.

00:54:15

Because Jesus offers a better way to justice.

00:54:17

One more hope.

00:54:19

Every other way gives you hope with an expiration date.

00:54:21

Only Jesus gives us a hope that even death can't destroy.

00:54:25

Let me share an example with you of this.

00:54:27

This is why Jesus says I am --

00:54:29

This is why Jesus doesn't say I am a way

00:54:32

I am a truth, I am a life.

00:54:34

He says, "I am the Way, the Truth, the Life."

00:54:38

Why is Jesus cutting off other options?

00:54:40

Because He's the only way

00:54:41

that can make these promises and keep them.

00:54:44

That's why He's so exclusive with this claim

00:54:47

because you know what we're really longing for

00:54:49

underneath all this stuff, underneath our quest

00:54:51

for meaning and satisfaction and freedom and identity,

00:54:56

underneath our desire for justice and hope,

00:54:59

underneath all of that is we're longing for home.

00:55:02

That's what we're really longing for.

00:55:05

But what is your home?

00:55:07

C.S. Lewis, great writer, hHe wrote a book

00:55:08

called Mere Christianity, and he has a powerful metaphor

00:55:11

about what we're really longing for.

00:55:14

And he puts it this way, he says that

00:55:16

younger people haven't lived long enough

00:55:18

to understand this, but older people

00:55:20

inherently understand this.

00:55:22

And now that I'm in the older people category,

00:55:23

I get it. I get it more.

00:55:26

He says if you live long enough, you'll learn that

00:55:28

whatever it is that you thought

00:55:29

was going to satisfy you won't.

00:55:32

And he's not talking about bad stuff.

00:55:34

He's talking about the best stuff.

00:55:35

So if you thought it was going to be marriage,

00:55:37

you can have the best marriage in the world,

00:55:39

and you'll still have a longing that marriage can't fill.

00:55:41

If you thought it was travel and different experiences,

00:55:44

you can have all the experiences in the world,

00:55:45

and at the end of them, you'll still be longing

00:55:47

for something else.

00:55:49

You can have an utterly successful career

00:55:51

that you love and are highly successful with,

00:55:53

and at the end of that, there will still be

00:55:55

something in you that's longing for more.

00:55:58

And he says when you get to that point

00:56:00

where you realize that your desires

00:56:02

will never be satisfied by anything in this world,

00:56:05

you have three choices.

00:56:06

Choice number one, you can keep hunting.

00:56:10

I'm going to leave this wife and find a different wife.

00:56:12

I'm going to leave this career and find another career.

00:56:14

I'm going to have these set of experiences

00:56:16

because maybe those set of experiences

00:56:17

will get me what I'm looking for.

00:56:19

He says, and if you do that,

00:56:20

you're going to end up where every addict end ups.

00:56:22

You're going to end up exhausted and empty,

00:56:23

and it will not work.

00:56:25

You have a second choice,

00:56:27

and that's just to close yourself off

00:56:29

to joy altogether and just resign yourself

00:56:31

that this life's going to suck,

00:56:33

there's going to be pain and I will never be satisfied.

00:56:37

He says if you do that, you basically

00:56:39

begin to die from the inside out.

00:56:41

He says but you have a third choice.

00:56:45

Third choice is when you begin to understand

00:56:49

that you have desires this world can never meet,

00:56:51

maybe it's time to come to the conclusion

00:56:55

that you were made for another world.

00:56:59

You're made for another world.

00:57:04

He puts it this way, he says,

00:57:05

ducklings desire water because water exists.

00:57:10

Babies desire to suckle their mother's milk

00:57:12

because there's such a thing as milk.

00:57:15

And he says, you and I long for home

00:57:18

because there's such a place as home.

00:57:21

But maybe our home is beyond this world.

00:57:24

That's why Jesus says this in John 14:3,

00:57:26

after He says all this about way, truth, and life,

00:57:29

or before it, he says:

00:57:30


00:57:32

I will come again and take you to myself,

00:57:34

that where I am you may be also.

00:57:38

Jesus is saying He is the way home,

00:57:42

He is the true way home. He's the only way home.

00:57:46

And he's the way home that leads to life.

00:57:51

We're going to finish in a different place today,

00:57:54

and that is, we're going to admire

00:57:56

a work of art together.

00:57:57

We're going to particularly look at

00:57:59

this painting right here.

00:58:00

This is called The Incredulity of Thomas.

00:58:02

Here's Thomas again, and later in the story of Thomas,

00:58:05

after Jesus was raised from the dead,

00:58:07

all the disciples had seen Him. Thomas hadn't.

00:58:09

And Thomas is like, "Look, unless I put

00:58:11

my finger in his wounds myself,

00:58:12

I'm not going to believe He rose from the dead."

00:58:14

And this is the moment when Jesus comes to Thomas

00:58:17

and says, "Hey, put your finger in my side."

00:58:19

And I want to use this to do something

00:58:22

that has been a practice that the church has had

00:58:24

for centuries called Visio Divina.

00:58:26

It means divine seeing.

00:58:28

And what it is, is you look at a piece of art prayerfully

00:58:32

and allow God to use that piece of art

00:58:34

to help show you something about Himself.

00:58:36

So that's what we're going to do together.

00:58:38

Before we do, I just want to give you

00:58:41

a little bit of help on this.

00:58:43

I feel like an art teacher right now.

00:58:45

Don't trip over the fact that these are old white guys

00:58:48

in this photo, because I know some of us

00:58:50

are tripping over that.

00:58:51

Let me let me help you understand.

00:58:52

Caravaggio, the author, the artist here

00:58:56

wanted to bring Jesus to the people of his day.

00:58:58

He wanted them to see Jesus as one of them.

00:59:01

So the models for these men are actually

00:59:04

street workers in Italy.

00:59:05

Like that's where this came from.

00:59:07

So if it helps you think about these folks

00:59:10

as wearing Bengals jerseys or wearing Reds gear

00:59:15

or living in your neighborhood, whatever that does

00:59:18

to help you not trip over that.

00:59:20

The point is, Jesus comes to us in our real world.

00:59:24

So let's reflect on this piece of art

00:59:26

together a little bit.

00:59:28

First thing I want to ask you is

00:59:31

what do you notice first?

00:59:35

Where are your eyes drawn first?

00:59:43

Most people go straight to Thomas's finger in Jesus's side.

00:59:49

Caravaggio drew this in a way

00:59:51

that you really can't avoid seeing that.

00:59:55

And it it feels a bit uncomfortable, right?

00:59:57

It almost feels like, am I supposed

00:59:59

to be seeing this intimate moment?

01:00:05

The answer is absolutely.

01:00:08

So I want to encourage you to take a look again,

01:00:12

and particularly to notice Jesus.

01:00:17

I didn't realize this the first time

01:00:18

I looked at this painting.

01:00:21

It's actually Jesus's hand guiding Thomas's finger

01:00:25

into his side.

01:00:31

And Jesus is the least clothed person in the painting.

01:00:35

You know why?

01:00:37

Because Jesus comes to us in full intimacy.

01:00:42

That's what He's looking for from us,

01:00:44

and that's what He offers to us.

01:00:45

Jesus is like, "Thomas, if it takes you

01:00:48

literally putting your finger in my side,

01:00:50

I will open myself up so that you can trust me.

01:00:54

I will open myself up so that you will know

01:00:56

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

01:00:58

Jesus comes to you because He wants intimacy with you.

01:01:05

If you just break down that word in to me see,

01:01:08

Jesus is saying into me see. See my heart for you.

01:01:16

So let me ask you another question

01:01:19

who are you in the painting? Are you Thomas?

01:01:29

Are you a I've gotta see it for myself kind of person?

01:01:33

Because if you are, I want you to know

01:01:35

Jesus is open to that, He welcomes your questions.

01:01:40

Or maybe are you one of the other two disciples?

01:01:44

You're around this moment, but you're kind of curious.

01:01:47

You're a little bit removed. You're not quite sure.

01:01:50

Maybe that's where you are in your journey with Jesus

01:01:53

or just where you are in your relationship with Jesus.

01:01:56

It's like, I'm not sure, things feel a little unsteady.

01:02:02

Or are you just an outsider looking at the painting

01:02:04

like all of us are,

01:02:08

maybe not knowing if this is an offer for you.

01:02:13

Or maybe you're not ready to receive it

01:02:15

so there's a part of you that's looking away.

01:02:23

Here's where I want us to see in this piece of art.

01:02:27

Jesus comes to you and to me, not with rules to follow.

01:02:33

He comes to us with the offer of relationship.

01:02:38

You know, after Thomas had this moment with Jesus,

01:02:42

he says, "My Lord and my God."

01:02:45

He's basically saying, "You are the Way, the Truth,

01:02:48

and the Life, I receive it."

01:02:52

And that's what Jesus is after with you and I,

01:02:55

that we would say, "My Lord and my God,

01:02:57

Jesus, I trust You with my life.

01:02:59

I've been putting the weight of my life

01:03:00

on things that will ultimately crack.

01:03:02

I want to put my life in Your hands."

01:03:06

And so if you want to respond to that invitation today,

01:03:09

I want to give you a chance to do something physical,

01:03:11

to represent a spiritual response.

01:03:13

And maybe you're doing this for the first time.

01:03:15

Maybe a penny has dropped as we've been talking,

01:03:17

you're like, "Man, I do understand how

01:03:19

the way of Jesus is different.

01:03:20

I do understand why He's the only way

01:03:22

and I want to receive Him today that way."

01:03:24

Maybe this is the first time receiving for you,

01:03:26

or maybe you're a Christian and you're like,

01:03:30

"Oh gosh, but I've been white knuckling this thing.

01:03:32

I've been going here and not to Jesus.

01:03:34

And I want to -- I want to return.

01:03:35

I want to repent and say, Jesus,

01:03:37

I want to just trust You."

01:03:38

I'll give you a physical opportunity to do that.

01:03:40

Just make a fist with whatever your dominant hand is.

01:03:44

And when you put that fist over your heart.

01:03:48

And this is just a symbol that there are things

01:03:50

we white knuckle when our hearts are troubled.

01:03:55

I don't know what it would be for you,

01:03:57

but that's what this fist represents.

01:03:59

But maybe today you want to release that.

01:04:02

And if you do, I just want to invite you

01:04:04

to open that hand as a sign of release

01:04:07

and put that hand back over your heart saying,

01:04:09

"Jesus, I don't want anything between You and me.

01:04:13

You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

01:04:17

And with every eye closed, if your hand is open

01:04:20

and you want to receive, I just want to invite you

01:04:22

to say this simple prayer after me.

01:04:24

You can just say: Jesus, I'm done finding my own way.

01:04:30

I believe You are who You say You are.

01:04:33

You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Amen.

01:04:41

We invite you to stand, all of our sites.

01:04:43

We're going to sing those words

01:04:45

because I want this to be an ear worm

01:04:47

that we can go back to when we are struggling

01:04:49

to white knuckle in a way that we can release

01:04:52

ourselves to trust. Let's sing these words together.

01:06:23

- If I'm honest, I'm singing that song for me.

01:06:26

And I hope you're singing that song for you.

01:06:29

I don't know what it looks like for Jesus to be

01:06:31

the Way, the Truth, and the Life in your life right now,

01:06:33

or what questions this sort of brings up for you,

01:06:36

but I'd encourage you to lean in.

01:06:38

Jesus isn't afraid of your questions or your doubts.

01:06:40

- Yeah, I think one of the things that hits me

01:06:42

the most of that from that painting, honestly,

01:06:46

and the whole teaching, is that Jesus doesn't back away.

01:06:48

He's not afraid of what we're wrestling with,

01:06:50

with our doubt, with our fear and our questions.

01:06:53

Instead, He actually invites us closer to Him.

01:06:57

- Yeah. So whatever you're going through

01:07:00

and whether you need prayer for the thousandth time

01:07:02

or you prayed for the first time,

01:07:04

hey, we would love to connect with you.

01:07:05

We'd love to encourage you,

01:07:07

help you process and pray with you.

01:07:08

Especially if you prayed for the first time,

01:07:10

I'd love to connect with you personally.

01:07:12

Shoot me an email at Andy.Reider@crossroads.net.

01:07:15

- Yeah, and we have a whole team of people

01:07:17

ready to pray for you online too at Crossroads.net.

01:07:20

So hopefully we'll be back here next weekend.

01:07:24

But before that, we wanted to tell you

01:07:26

about a new community starting.

01:07:28

- Yeah. That's right.

01:07:29

Now we have something coming up,

01:07:30

I know a lot of the conversations I have

01:07:32

is people wanting to experience more of God's hope

01:07:34

and their faith for them in their marriage.

01:07:36

And so we are actually kicking off something

01:07:38

called the Marriage Community.

01:07:39

We'd love for you to join in.

01:07:40

We haven't fully announced it yet.

01:07:42

We already have over 600 people who've signed up.

01:07:44

We'd love for you to join us.

01:07:45

It's a low key way to invest in your marriage.

01:07:48

There'll be weekly challenges.

01:07:49

There'll be monthly interviews with marriage experts

01:07:52

on topics like communication, conflict and sex,

01:07:55

and even pre-planned date nights.

01:07:57

It's all free, and it's all online

01:07:58

so that you can participate when you have time

01:08:00

and not feel stressed out when you don't have time.

01:08:02

- Yes, we talked about this summer being crazy time.

01:08:04

The website gives you all the information

01:08:06

that you need to know how you can fit this

01:08:08

in to your life. And who is hosting that?

01:08:10

- That's right. My wife Rachel and I

01:08:12

will be hosting the online marriage community.

01:08:14

We'd love to see you in there.

01:08:15

But however you experience Crossroads this summer,

01:08:18

we hope that you find ways to engage

01:08:20

and continue to grow with God,

01:08:22

no matter what season of life

01:08:23

or season of the year you're in.

01:08:25

Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next week.

01:08:27

- See ya.

Recent Series