The Elephant in the Room: When Jesus Says He Is the Only Way

well today we're in a series called the elephant in the room the elephant is not only what you know but other people know it as well the elephant is a tough topic that you often want to ignore but ignoring the elephant does not mean it goes away so in this series we want to acknowledge the elephant and if the elephant shouldn't be there we want to evict the elephant and then we want to replace the elephant today's elephant in the room is religion with over 4 000 recognized religions in the world one might ask which religion is true some people will say don't all religions

just end up at the same destination the ultimate problem people have with christianity is that jesus christ can't be the only way to god so many believe there's got to be different paths and different ways to get to this ultimate destination of heaven or eternal life if it's real i still i hear some say i'm a christian but i also practice buddhism or maybe mysticism or some other religious practice some might say yes i follow jesus i i profess to be a christian but i also like crystals for healing i like tarot cards to tell me my future i like to read the horoscope so i can have some hope based on my my sign the universities today tell us that

religion is ultimately the same it's a belief system with a set of rules that lead to moralism that is philosophers of the day say ultimately it's the same that all major religions of the world just have a set of rules that ultimately people do good and today i just want you to know i'm not going to talk about the facts and foundations of religions of the world i'm going to talk about the main problem that people have with christianity that jesus is the only way to god and if this is true what does that mean for us and what does that mean for the world what is the overarching problem that people have with with believing in jesus and i want you to know right away in this message it's

okay to have questions it's okay to ask questions if you have questions about your faith i want you to know god is greater than your questions but when it comes to asking questions the most important thing is to examine your motive what's the heart behind your questions because sadly many americans come to our own conclusion of what truth is so many times when we ask questions we want the answer to fit our feelings or we want the answer to be what we already believe so sometimes when we ask questions we've got to get ready for a hard truth and jesus whom i will

turn my attention to today jesus said a lot about truth in john chapter four he's speaking about worship and he says god is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth jesus associates truth to worship in john chapter 8 jesus says and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free jesus associates truth to freedom but just a few verses later jesus acknowledges the fact that not everyone will believe him he says in john chapter 8 verse 45 but because i tell you the truth you do not believe me

probably one of the most controversial statements of everything jesus said is found in john 14 6. we'll look at this more closely at the end of today's message jesus said i am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me did jesus mean that or was it a metaphor was he just saying this symbolically or did he mean what he says in john chapter 16 jesus says nevertheless i tell you the truth it is to your advantage that i go away he was speaking about his resurrection and ascension into heaven for if i do not go away the helper will

not come to you but if i go i will send him to you jesus associates the truth with the helper the holy spirit that by believing in him the truth you get god himself as your helper you get the holy spirit jesus when he prayed in the longest recorded prayer we have in john chapter 17 is praying to the father there's one god and three persons in john 17 verse 17 jesus prayed sanctify them and the truth your word is truth the word sanctify means to be set apart to come back to its original purpose that if something's wrong you would restore it that it would be made right

and jesus prayers that we would be made right in the truth just a few verses later he says and he prays in verse 19 and for their sake i consecrate myself that they may also be sanctified in truth the word consecrate is similar to sanctify it means to be set apart but it needs to be set apart for a special purpose so jesus life was set apart for a special purpose that you would know and have the truth in the last few hours leading up to the crucifixion jesus had been turned over by religious leader he had been arrested there had been a message there's a coup to to kill jesus to put him to death and pilate is interrogating jesus trying to

get down to the the truth of the matter and pilate and asking jesus question says in john 18 37 then pilate said to jesus so you are king jesus answered you say that i'm a king. for this purpose i was born and for this purpose i have come into the world to bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice so jesus my purpose is to let the world know to manifest to testify to bear witness to the truth if you know the truth you're going to listen to me but then pilate said to jesus in verse 38 what is truth it's the ultimate question we all need to ask in our hearts

what is truth is jesus the truth or are there other truths out there is there are there multiple ways to god what is truth because what you believe will shape who you are and when it comes to truth jesus says this truth will set you free when it comes to truth jesus says it will lead you to worship when it comes to truth jesus says it will lead you to me let's start by talking about what truth is not truth is not religion religion is man's attempt to god religion doesn't mean it's all wrong or that we can't have religion but religion is not the truth jesus did not come to start a new religion jesus did not come to make a better religion jesus did not come to make religion more

clear he he came to testify to his kingdom now kingdom is not something we use much today but kingdom in the days of jesus was a political way of life it's what we can acknowledge today there's great division when it comes to politics and in jesus day it was the same there was great divisions on which kingdom you associated with and when he comes in the book of mark mark writes the biography of jesus life one of four biographies matthew mark luke and john and mark tells us in chapter 1 verse 14 now after john this is john the baptist after john was arrested jesus came into galilee proclaiming the gospel of god so jesus is preaching he's proclaiming what is he proclaiming the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of god is at hand so for jesus original

hearers his listeners they would have perceived this there's there's a new politician in town we're about to do something new there's going to be a new way of life there's going to be a new set of rules there's going to be a new king but let's look at verse 15 a little bit more and jesus said this the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of god is at hand and then he says this repent and believe in the gospel this would be jesus mission to let the world know what the gospel is this would be his purpose his focus to let the world know that truth is gospel now let's just let's be clear on terms of what this means gospel equals good news this is a place that we should all be set free because if you know the gospel you're set free gospel is good news jesus said here's what he came to do

to testify this is his kingdom it's good news come on aren't you glad that gospel isn't bad news aren't you glad that gospel isn't hard news jesus didn't come to bear the burden to say it's going to be hard to get into heaven that's what gospel is the gospel is good news aren't you glad that gospel is not religious news jesus i want you to believe what is belief belief is faith it's trust now what is the gospel the good news is jesus but jesus does not just say believe have faith don't don't just trust in the gospel he says repent a repent has a bad rap today but it is the word that if you believe in jesus ought to be your life repent means to completely change your thinking that's what repent means so many of us

if you've been in a religious setting we associate repentance with being sorry repentance today has a heavy weight to it as if it's just something bad but repentance is something good it means to completely change your thinking let me put it in this perspective it means that you no longer think your way you think god's ways you're acknowledging the fact that in your mind you continue to turn to who you are are instead of who god is but repent means i want to turn to god i'm not going to do things my way i'm going to turn completely not some but entirely to god's ways and when jesus came to this world he wanted us to repent and believe in the gospel he's simply stating the reality that something naturally inside of you is not going to do this

in fact he proves to us that religion will not lead you to repentance and believing in the gospel so he wants to set the record straight and as you read about the biography of mark and he shares about the life of jesus he lets us know it what a change of thinking looks like it will change your thinking about god it will change your thinking about who you are and it will change your thinking about religion right away in mark chapter 2 jesus is getting famous already and and huge crowds come to see jesus and he's in capernaum and he's preaching inside of a house and you can't even get to jesus he's he's that popular and there's four guys that do whatever it takes to get to jesus they rip a hole in the roof of a house and they they bring down a paralytic to jesus

because they couldn't get through the door to the house so they did what needed to be done and in mark chapter 2 verse 5 we're told that when jesus saw their faith remember what faith is it's believing when he saw that they wanted gospel what is gospel good news when he saw their faith that they wanted who he is he said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiven this is gospel this is good news but people didn't rejoice they didn't say amen they did not celebrate this made the religious leaders of jesus day upset in fact mark goes on to tell us in verse six now some of the scribes these are the religious of jesus day they were sitting there questioning in their hearts

religious people are are good at doing this judging in their hearts verse 7 why does this man speaking of jesus speak like that he's blaspheming who can forgive sins but god alone so early in this biography mark is pointing out that jesus creates controversy when it comes to religion when it comes to god in fact he's doing what god alone can do now in this story jesus not only forgives the sins of this man but to prove who he is he heals the man the man walks away from church that day carrying the very math that he had sat on for so long his identity was no longer where he was sitting his identity was no longer where he was his identity was now in who jesus was

making him to be he was set free not just free from disability but set free somewhere deep in his heart where the religious people just couldn't see it and this is the beginning of many examples of jesus letting down the religious people this would be the beginning where mark points out that jesus has all authority he has all authority over religious leaders he has all authority over religion he has all authority over health and medical problems he has all authority even over sin and the demonic for jesus is no ordinary man he is god in the flesh and as you start to read about the life of jesus you start to see that what he does is he he shapes who we are he flips upside down our understanding

of how life works because that's kingdom kingdom changes our perspective of politics of life and even religion let's look at another story it's in mark chapter two the same chapter at the end of this chapter it says that on in verse 23 one sabbath the sabbath is incredibly important to the jewish people it's the fourth of the ten commandments if you're a good jewish person you hold to the sabbath it's a day of rest the seventh day of the week on the sabbath jesus was going through the grain fields and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain and the pharisees were saying to jesus look why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath you're not supposed to work on the sabbath you're supposed to prepare yourself the first six days of the week so on the seventh you don't have to do this

and they said to him if you excuse me jesus said to them have you never read what david did he goes on to explain his story that david did what he wasn't supposed to do but then let me just skip to the end here because they're having a deep problem and he said to them in verse 27 look at verse 27 he said to them sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath so these are religious people and not just some people this is generation after generation after generation century after century millennia after millennia believed that these rules are meant to be followed and they're meant to be followed so that you can be right with god jesus comes along as a leader not just any leader in fact he's

a rabbi the first thing jesus does in mark chapter one is he recruits some followers they're called disciples disciples are students these students follow their rabbi their teacher now when you're a disciple of a rabbi you act like your teacher you talk like your teacher you believe your teacher and you teach like your teacher ultimately the goal of a disciple is to live like their rabbi so if you choose to be a disciple of jesus you live like jesus and here we see in mark chapter 2 right away this rabbi allows his disciples to break the rules and the religious of jesus day buy into the same lie that many of us believe it's huge in the eastern religion and it goes something like this

if you break the rules you're a bad person so if we associate that to god bad people don't get into heaven so many start to believe this that if you're good you could be good enough to get into heaven now what's the measurement of good well as long as i'm better than someone else i've never murdered someone i could have i should have but i didn't do it yeah and we begin to associate what good and bad is and and this belief system and it's a lie of the enemy is somehow that life is about being good enough or following enough rules and jesus steps in as the very law giver god himself that gave the law to moses the law giver is right in front of the religious leaders and they miss it and he shares with us that the laws were

never meant to hold us back from god the laws were meant to bring us to god they were meant to bring us back to god and so jesus says this is so important that we see this in verse 27 the sabbath meaning one of many of the laws was made for man not man for the sabbath so that we'd begin to understand that god didn't create the rules so that we would just follow the rules i like how andy stanley put this god didn't create us so that there would be someone to keep his rules some of us have this view of god he's this distant deity he's the big guy in the sky he's definitely got white hair with a long beard and he's just looking out to see are you doing bad or are you doing good and the whole point of jesus is not to show us the right way to live that's not

the point of jesus the whole point of jesus is to know the way the truth and the life to experience life if somehow you think jesus is about the burden of following the rules at some point you'll let yourself down and certainly you'll let others down and certainly you'll let god down but jesus says this in mark 2 28 we're referring to himself he says the son of man is the lord even of the sabbath the lawgiver is now teaching us about the law the point is not about the law the point is about the law giver god himself and so he continues to show us what the way of this kingdom looks like if you continue to read the biography of jesus the very next chapter chapter 3 we read that jesus entered again on into the synagogue and he would enter the synagogue on the sabbath

the sabbath was a day of worship the synagogue is like a jewish church it's where they gathered to worship is where they heard the teachings of the scriptures and jesus entered the synagogue with the authority of a rabbi and a man was there with a withered hand we don't know much about this man why his hand his hand is withered but we do know there's someone disabled there and and they these are the religious people they watch jesus to see whether he would heal him on the sabbath that would be considered work to do a miracle so that they might accuse jesus and so jesus said to the man with the withered hand come here in verse 4 jesus said to them the religious people is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm to save a life or to kill but they were silent so

jesus asked me do you do god things on the sabbath or do you do evil things on the sabbath which one because clearly helping someone on the sabbath is not harming someone so what should we do good or bad but but they don't even know how to answer this question and in verse 5 jesus looked around at them and this is the real jesus right here this is not the jesus in your grandmother's kitchen with the blonde hair and blue eyes that looks more british than jewish from the middle east this is this is this is the real jesus right here right here in verse verse 5. he looked around at them with anger who's them the religious he was grieved at the hardness of heart and he said to the man stretch out your hand and he stretched out and his hand

was restored if you have your own bible i would just underline i would circle the word restored for that's what gospel is it restores this is what the gospel is it sanctifies it brings back jesus is the one that restores and he's not just concerned with your hand he's concerned with your heart he restores and he will do it on whatever day he chooses wherever he chooses with whomever he chooses he restores he did it back then and he could do it again that's why it's important to look at the life of jesus it won't look the way you think and if you start judging how you think god god should work jesus gets angry he doesn't work the way you think he should work he's god and you're not and jesus came to demonstrate who god is

and look at verse six the pharisees these are the religious elite of jesus day they went out and immediately held counsel with the herodians against him how to destroy him what could be so bad that you want to destroy somebody else when they don't do what you think they should do at the end of the day what would make you so angry that you're just dwelling on this you get bitter you get upset don't pretend you don't do that too we all want to destroy someone at some point i'm not going to name names at this point but there's somebody in your life they don't meet your expectations and what do you do you want to destroy them it could be a co-worker a spouse a kid a parent it could be any of those people

if that spirit comes in your heart it's not of god i like how the niv put this verse so that we could have the perspective of even how jesus got crucified look at verse six again in the niv which is a new international version then the pharisees went out and began to plot with the herodians how they might kill jesus they're willing to break one of the ten commandments because jesus didn't fit in their box and mark does such an amazing job showing the spiritual authority of jesus jesus does not avoid the law he fulfills it in the book of matthew chapter 5 verse 17 it's jesus that says this do not think that i've come to abolish the law or the prophets i have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

so she he shows us he demonstrates to us what it means to perfectly live out the law what it means to live without sin i'm so grateful jesus came at the time he did see today some of us think that jesus would just get on facebook and he would argue so well on comments at least that's what you would think of some christians today because if you're a disciple of jesus you live like jesus some people today that profess to know jesus think if i just lecture on instagram everyone will believe what i say on instagram because i look so good on instagram i have followers if they read what i say then it must be true aren't you glad that jesus didn't come to proclaim that message that way

but here's what jesus did come do he came in such a practical way you know why jesus is personal he loves you this this is why we've got to be careful with rel jesus loves you yes he was broad in john 3 16 for god so loved the world but every once in a while you should just put your name above world and say jesus loves me because when you understand that it shapes you and you should tell others you don't hold this back and say i'm a part of the frozen chosen i'm not telling anybody about this good news you change your thinking and you've got to profess to the world jesus loves you not because you follow the rules not because you're good enough but because of who he is and sometimes people won't get this even

his own family this makes me feel better about my family even his own family thought he was crazy really they tried to hold him back and jesus reshapes he flips upside down our thinking of family he says who is my family who's my family you're my family he says john chapter 1 reiterates that if you believe in jesus and receive him you're in the family you're adopted you're a child of god he didn't say you have to be born into the right family wear the right clothes follow enough rules if you receive jesus for who he is and what he's done you're in the kinship of god you're a kid of god you get the inheritance of god in mark

chapter 7 the religious world of jesus day it just seems to go from bad to worse anybody's life feel like that sometimes that was the life of jesus you just watch this here you've got god in the flesh love is home right there in front of you and they miss it look at mark chapter seven you can't make this stuff up when when the pharisees the religious leaders of jesus day gathered to jesus with some of the scribes so let's just get all the religious people together they came from jerusalem the holy city the religious city they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is unwashed now mark goes on to explain in verse three and four that in that day there was a proper way to wash your hands there was a religious way that if you want to know if someone's religious you could look at how they live their life we see this today in islam the women cover themselves up we see this in

different religious beliefs and practices guys will wear something on their head and there's distinction on the outside what you believe on the inside and they're simply saying if your disciples are jewish they're not doing it right they're doing it wrong they didn't wash your hands properly we saw we've been watching them they didn't wash their hands properly at this point some of us might be like what's what's the big deal i'll tell you it's a very big deal even in america there's been decades of discussion about can you wear hat in church not wear a hat in church what's the proper attire to wear at church we're just talking about in evangel christian christianity and you think it's not true but there's all sorts of things that people get caught up on that what you do on the outside matters on the inside look at verse 5 and the pharisees and the scribes asked jesus why do you disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but they

eat with defiled hands this is really important does your tradition match your belief system and they're saying this tradition just does not align we've been doing this for generations they can't come in and just just wreck this but jesus said to them and jesus begins to preach he goes to the bible he goes the word of god he preaches out of isaiah he said well did isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written these people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me what does jesus care about hearts in vain do they worship me teaching as the doctrines the commandments of men you leave the commandment of god and hold to the tradition of men then jesus exegetes the text he looks directly at them

and he says in verse 9 he said he said to them you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of god in order to establish your tradition so let me just pause right there so that we understand what jesus said you're taking the bible and you're misinterpreting it so you have the right scripture but you've missed the heart of the scripture it's the same thing that the devil did with jesus do you know the devil no scripture so you should really know the scripture because the devil's going to use it and twist it and pervert it against you we hear people say that all the time they make up their own bible verses they take what jesus oh the truth will set you but you know what the truth is jesus said if you abide in my word that's what the truth is it's jesus word

so we can't take part of what jesus say and twist it on our own and so jesus is saying what you've done is you've twisted these scriptures and you've made it your own look at verse 14 of mark 7. and jesus he he called the people to him again and said to them this shows the heart of jesus and he calls all the people and he said hear me all of you do you hear the heart of jesus not some of you not the religious people not the jewish people hear me all of you understand this there's nothing on the outside a person that by going into him can defile him and the things that come out of a person are what defile him jesus said in verse 20 if you skip down verse 20 and jesus said what comes out of a person is what defiles him for from within out of the heart of man comes evil thought

sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolish jesus just covers it all because he knew who would be at church today and then verse 23 he said all these evil things come from within and they defile a person jesus gets to the heart of the matter your heart matters most what you put in your heart is who you are you read the sermon on the mount jesus wanted to make sure that we understood the law properly he says you've heard that it was said but i say to you you miss the heart of the law you think that on the outside you're not having an affair having sex with someone you're thinking about it you're just as bad you think because i didn't murder somebody but on the inside you're thinking about murder no it's

what's in the heart that defiles you god doesn't care if you look so good on the outside because you might look good you might look all like white and perfect on the outside but here's the inside you're like a corpse you're rotting there's something gross in there god's not pleased with that he'd rather the inside be good and that come out on the outside and when we allow tradition to take the place of relationship we miss the heart of god and tradition comes in many forms some of you know it i speak to many of you and you have such different backgrounds and i love it i didn't grow up in the church that was bittersweet i didn't learn all those cute kids songs until i was older but i had to catch up i had to go back to those songs that some of you learned in sunday school

but i'll tell you it was sweet in the sense that i had a clean slate when i came to jesus i got the real jesus i didn't get religion growing up and i was confused like why is everyone like arguing about what color the carpet should be in church i didn't get that that's why i started journey church i'm like i want to start a church for unchurched people people like me you know just so you know you're accepted into this family it's all about jesus but i know some of you you grew up catholic and we joke about that here at journey church we've got a lot of recovering catholics here and a a part of that and joking with it is not the tradition of catholicism but it's the reality that there's there's just some some guilt that's associated with tradition and some of these traditions were started in a really good way they were even started with with scripture so they weren't meant to be bad but it becomes bad when it's a burden and

you feel like a bad person when you're not following the rules jesus didn't come to establish rules that it would be a burden i just can't bear he said come to me and i'm going to give you rest you see jesus is greater than religion he's he's greater than your suffering he's greater than any health problem he's greater than your grief when you're hurting oh my friends he's even greater than your questions so you should ask questions just be ready for the truth in john chapter 9 i love it jesus one of my favorite stories jesus passed by in chapter 9 verse 1 he passed by and he saw a man blind from birth and his disciples saw that jesus saw him and and said rabbi teacher who sent this man or his parents that he was born blind they're asking the age-old question

they're coming back to this this lie of karma clearly this man did wrong that he's cursed by god the universe is against him either he did it or his parents did it somebody did this they they want to get down to this quote and we we all in some way do do this we we ask the question in the wrong way our motive is wrong we want to judge other people i'll tell you why you're poor i'll tell you why you're going through the suffering i'll tell you why you have this health problem you must have done something but jesus he really sets the record straight listen some evil people get really good things that's not karma and some really righteous people go through some really evil things just look at the life of jesus so jesus sets the record straight they ask the question all of us are asking why did this bad thing happen to this

person and jesus said in verse 3 he answered it was not that this man sinned or his parents but the works of god might be displayed in him he came to show us his kingdom this is gospel good news if you're disabled your limitation is an opportunity to give glory to god god doesn't make mistakes oh my friends 2 000 years later we still have a problem with this there's a problem with that child abort the child i don't want the child i want to get rid of the child but jesus says that child is an opportunity to display the glory of god what you see as a disability god sees as an opportunity what you see as a fault or a mistake or something holding you back god says that's a great opportunity because you're not meant to live for

this world you're meant to live for another world you're not meant to get so comfortable you think this is the end you're on a journey to something greater you think this is it no no one day you believe in me i'm going to give you a glorified body so don't get comfortable in this tent because it's going to wear out it's going to get broken this is not the end so jesus says you're asking the question the wrong way you can ask the question but just get ready for the answer because jesus is the way and the truth and the life but you you keep reading this story the religious people didn't celebrate this they bring this guy in wait wait who did this how did he do it tell us what he did tell us what they really they missed it they missed the miracle worker right in front of him oh my friends i just wonder how many times do i miss jesus i'm looking for him one way but he comes in a different way

oh jesus tells us so often when this happens it's simply what's in our hearts and he doesn't do it to condemn us do you remember the story of peter walking on water it's incredible jesus sends his disciples ahead and don't you know when jesus sometimes sends you on a mission sometimes it gets harder jesus is off praying and they're in the middle of the storm and they're freaking out they think they're going to die jesus shows up and what do they do they bring out their wac theology they say it's a ghost oh so many of us watch horror stories as teenagers and young kids and that comes out in our theology later right have these guys clearly they watch too many it's and and freddy's and jason's and you know they're freaking out in the middle of the storm they're not praying or right theology to god it's a ghost and jesus comes and sets the record i'm not a ghost it's me jesus and all of a sudden peter's like jesus if it's you call me to come

and jesus says come and he's like oh man shouldn't have asked that question you ask questions just get ready for the answer peter he steps out of the boat and he does with never in history been done before he walks on water come on you follow jesus there will be miracles but when peter gets to jesus he experiences a miracle has never been experienced before he looks around and he sees that in the miracle there's still a storm how do you know that god works in your life and you look around and say wait there's still a storm sometimes we celebrate too soon and this is what happens to peter he sinks and he prays the prayer all of us should pray he says save me and matthew 14 31 jesus immediately reached out his hand and took a hold of

peter and saying to him oh you of little faith you believed in the bad news not the good news why did you doubt see some of us we want god to work and we think that in the miracle there's going to be no storm so what happens is in the storm we start doubting jesus well you can't be jesus wait he just let you walk on water yeah but he can't be jesus there's wind and waves but he just let you get out of the boat and walk on water but he can't be jesus wouldn't he just get rid of all the pain all the suffering wouldn't he just get rid of the storm nope he's going to show you he's greater than the storm and he'll calm it at just the right time but sometimes we doubt even after the resurrection you think after the resurrection everybody would believe right but some missed it and they're like i don't believe until i touch him i'm not

going to believe jesus shows up right there in the flesh glorified body he kept the holes to prove who he is and in luke chapter 24 verse 38 after the resurrection jesus said to them why are you troubled why do doubts arise in your hearts this is not a condemnation it's a reality of the kingdom of god you turn your attention to jesus now i realize at this point i don't have time to go into all the details of who jesus is some might still say was why are there so many religions in the world why why wouldn't god just make it more simple and that's a that's a great question in many different areas why wouldn't god make your life more simple and i'm going to give you a really simple answer and for those that do not believe in jesus it's probably an answer that will

offend but i'm going to say it and just ask that the holy spirit would speak to your heart and i'll tell you why there's so many religions in the world because there's a real enemy of god and he wants to do everything he can to distract you from the truth of god it's the greatest lie of the enemy and i'm referring specifically to satan that somehow he would conjure up another way and you think i thought satan was evil and would do evil things actually satan originally was an angel but he's a fallen angel he wanted to get the glory instead of giving glory to god and so here's what he does he disguises himself as truth even people that supposedly worship satan are some of the kindest people because they disguise satan disguises himself as truth but it's not the truth it's not the way it's not the life so sometimes things sound good it doesn't mean it is good this is where you got to go to god and

john says in 1st john 4 verse 1 beloved he's speaking like a father do not believe every spirit so just because it sounds like it's a god doesn't mean you have to believe it but test the spirits to see whether they are from god for many false prophets have gone out in the world he calls him antichrist anti means against christ this is satan and he's going to work his way in through religion and belief systems by this he says in verse 2 here's how you know the spirit of god here's how you know god himself the helper every spirit lowercase s that confesses that jesus christ has come in the flesh is from god so when someone tells you jesus is god in the flesh that's how you know it's a true message and every spirit verse three that does not confess jesus is not from god now this is really

important here because all the major religions of the world say jesus existed they don't deny jesus existence they just say he was a good guy and they fit him into the belief system but they do not say he's god in the flesh and that's how you know if it's of god or not of god then he says in verse four little children do you hear the heart like a grandfather you are from god you don't have to worry about all these other religions world you're from god and you've overcome them for he who is in you is he is greater than he who is in the world speaking of satan so you don't have to worry about satan god is greater remember what jesus said in in the book of john he said in this world you will have tribulation but take heart i have overcome the world see the kingdom of jesus is not to establish a religion

establish good news and so john says this beloved let us love one another for love is from god and whoever loves has been born of god and knows god anyone who does not love does not know god because god is love in this the love of god was made manifest among us here's how you know love that god sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him now i i know i know there have been many people through history who in the name of jesus have done evil things i know that some people who profess to follow jesus have done bad things but john says here's how you know if it's from god it's love that's how you know jesus is love and we start living like it a.w tozer the late

preacher some called him a prophet he said this in one of his final sermons god has set eternity in our hearts but unfortunately we have chosen time instead we choose the things of this world instead of the things of god and when we get off focus we miss jesus because jesus came to establish his kingdom and that his kingdom would come now and he said will we be done now that we wouldn't wait until someday that you would know you're on mission i want to conclude today's message with john 14 6 when jesus made that statement jesus said this is after he explains you know what i'm going to a place i'm going to prepare for you it's got many rooms and then he said this you guys know right now you can't go there but you know the way and then they said this they thomas pipes up and said hey jesus real

quick uh i didn't get the text i don't know the way i love thomas he's honest we call him doubting thomas but i'll tell you this he's honest thomas because that's when jesus said to him in john 14 6 i am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me let me just break this down so you would see the seriousness of what jesus saying in the hebrew the phrase i am is where we get the word lord and the hebrew i am is yahweh it's i am who i am it's the way god revealed himself to yah to moses moses said hey who do i tell them sent me i am i am who i am yahweh in the greek if we were to look at this particular uh statement in the original greek language it would it be translated this way i myself and only i am that's what he said only me

i am no one else no other in fact we break it down it's a a definite article when he says i am the way it means there's no other way there's no other path there's not many religions there's not many ways that you can come to this conclusion the conclusion of what the truth it's once again in the original greek language it's a definite article there's only one truth this is it and in the jewish law the mosaic law it says that the law is true well jesus is the fulfillment of the law that john describes in john chapter 1 he says jesus is the fullness of grace and truth i am the way and the truth and then jesus says and i'm the life this is so important that we see this on

a very personal level in john chapter 10 jesus says i am the good shepherd the good shepherd knows his sheep and then he goes on and makes a statement the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep then later in john 14 when he explains us he he says in me you will find life he he wanted to make sure that we understand that his life is found in him and him alone because i live you also will live so if you see me die don't worry on the resurrection and the life and just like those early disciples who were students of jesus we have to determine today do i want to be a disciple of jesus because if you're a follower of jesus you're a student of jesus and it doesn't mean it's in some things it's in all things jesus will say things that are really hard to understand jesus will say things that are contrary to your

feelings jesus will actually challenge your tradition in your life but he will always lead you to the way the truth and the life see today there are so many people i don't know there's some that are listening to me right now you've sought the ways of this world just just hoping for a better life that crystals would heal or the tarot cards would tell you something you want to know or that somehow you would seek a horoscope and you find some truth in there so you're going to keep coming back to but let me just tell you this they're going to let you down [Music] you see jesus didn't come to establish a better life he came to give you new life he came to let you know that the ways of this world aren't his ways there's a prince of this world called satan he's a deceiver there was a man named saul that was against christianity he tried to stop

every single person that followed jesus till one day this guy saul met jesus oh god can use anyone see if you're the person saying no he's not going to use me i promise you he's going to get a hold of your heart at just the right time it's never too late with god and and saul in his greek form of the name paul ends up becoming a christian and telling the whole world about jesus and these these are his words he says in galatians 6 7 do not be deceived see when you're deceived you don't know it and there are many many many many many people billions who are deceived but he says god is not mocked he's god no matter what for whatever one sows that will he also reap for the one who sows to his own flesh this is talking about what you want so

you want a little bit of this world and you want a little bit of jesus you can't do that you're going to reap corruption that's going to be your fruit but the one who sows to the spirit you surrender your whole life to god you're going to get the spirit which is eternal life and let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap and we if we do not give up my friends it's time for the church to not give up it's time for the church to start living like jesus it's time for the church to start loving like jesus it's time for you to start letting jesus restore you and love you so that you would live more like him it's time for us to choose this day who will i serve when i wake up where do i turn when i wake up where do i look where do i trust what do i believe in because

in jesus you believe in the gospel you may not see it you might be walking on water as a miracle right now and all you see is the storm you are a miracle of god god does not make mistakes you wonder why did my dad walk out of me why did my spouse divorce me why did i get beaten why did i get that disease why does god allow me to go through what he's going through i'm telling you to give glory to god to testify what only god can do he can restore he can redeem he can even resurrect the dead if that's you today spend some time with jesus this is all or nothing all or nothing don't follow jesus if you don't want it all you got to take jesus at his full word or no word at all

you can't come to your own conclusion you've got to test it does it align with who jesus is he's the fullness of god friends i'm going to just ask a response here if you've never done that it's the greatest decision you can make today at one point i gave my life to jesus and it changed everything [Music] he took a punk kid that never grew up in the church that thought he would be some 80s rocker with long hair one day with a mansion a fast car and all the ladies instead i got something much greater he gave me jesus that could be you today whether you're a teenager like i was whether you're a child whether you're at the end of your life and you think i've lived for the wrong things it's never too late with god never ever ever ever if you want jesus i want to ask you right now to respond i'm going to ask you right now if you just close your eyes that's when you take this serious it's the most serious thing you could do in your life to surrender your life to

jesus that's you would you slip up your hands like i pray with you i just want to know if you want to give your life to jesus right now be bold with your life would you surrender your life on the outside reflect what's happening in your heart you want to give your life to jesus this is the invitation from jesus this is not the preacher right now praise god anybody else you want to give your life to jesus you're tired of living on your own you've tried the things of this world you've tried your flesh which means you've tried it your own anybody else want to accept jesus today amen praise god amen yes tell you god's gonna use you [Music] jesus said there's greater rejoicing in heaven when someone repents so the fact that you came home today there's a party in

heaven right now just pray this prayer with me in your heart right now be sincere lord jesus i trust in you forgive me of my sins i receive you the helper the holy spirit in jesus name my friends as we continue to pray i want to i'm going to speak to the christians for a moment some of you need to repent you've tried so hard to live life your way without jesus in your heart would you repent and run to god right now lord would you receive your children right now i pray for a great revival in our hearts that we would take you more seriously that we would experience your kingdom come and your will to be done god move in the hearts of your kids today that we would surrender everything to you today all of our feelings all of our traditions all of who we are i pray over marriages that look like they're over they are healed they're restored in jesus name

because we surrender our lives to you i pray over hearts that are bitter over over damage that was done decades ago i take today per day today healing in jesus name lord i pray today that you would do what you do best you're a almighty god lord forgive us that we forget that you walked on water because you created water lord forgive us that you give us life because you're the creator of life lord forgive us for having a small view of you almighty god you are the living resurrected king of all kings and you're not finished yet we believe in you jesus we believe in you lord we want more of you lord we want more of you we want more of you we want more of you if you want more of jesus if you're able stand to your feet let's celebrate him let's sing to him let's not forget who our god is let's not forget he's the way and the truth and the life

this is not a burden this is not a religion this is a relationship with a living king we love you lord we love you lord we love you yes