I started coming to Burnt Hickory in the seventh grade. I came with a neighbor who attended this church regularly, fell in love with it. We went to Radiate every Wednesday. We did the life groups on Sunday mornings, and then went to services, went out to lunch, did like the whole thing. It was a Sunday morning actually, when my mom came into my room and told me my dad passed away. I thought she was waking me up for church, honestly. I got up outta bed and ran into their room to see what was going on, because my mom was on the phone with nine one one operators trying to get him, you know, breathing. It was very crazy. Somebody had my brother, somebody had me, somebody was helping my mom. My neighbors, um, came to get me. They were asking me if I wanted to go to church, if I wanted to go to the hospital, what I wanted to do, and I knew I needed to be here.
After Matt gave the closing word, I just ran to him with tears just pouring down my face. And I just remember him hugging me and praying over me, and I knew that I was where I needed to be. My adopted brother, he was very fond of my dad. He had just a lot of stuff from his past life. Then things got worse because it was just him, my mom and I. And one day I came home from school. He was being taken away. He was in state custody, going to therapy sessions. Um, just living in these homes. Eventually we just lose contact. Throughout high school, I, I was pretty on fire. Um, I was coming here every Wednesdays. Every Sundays, loving it. I've had many people ask me if I wanted to be baptized, if they could baptize me, but the time just never felt right.
School did start to decline a little bit for me. I really had the attitude of, I don't care. I don't care about anyone, anything. Myself included. I had a boyfriend at the time. We had saved money. We dated for almost five years, like I thought we were gonna get married. Then he told me he no longer wanted to move and do anything, and that was the moment I really felt like my world was ending. I just felt like, here we go again. Here's another bad thing. I felt like I was owed something. I thought that either I had the power to fix it or that nobody else would fix it for me. So at that point in my life, I, I strayed. I never, you know, stopped believing in God, but I just felt more sorry for myself and kind of took control of my own life and things just got progressively worse.
I had severe anxiety and depression. My mom sent me to therapists. I was doing things to myself that I should not have been doing, and I felt lost. I didn't know what else could possibly be, you know, taken away from me at that point, um, besides myself. And so that's why, honestly, I wanted to give up. I did not want to be here anymore. I knew I needed a fresh start. Um, so that's actually when I moved and kind of restarted my life. Right after I had moved to Tuscaloosa, my mom called me on the phone and they had found my brother deceased in the street. Coming to terms with him no longer being here was something that I still feel like I have to cope with, um, because I'll never get answers. I turned 30 in February and I'm about to get married. I get married in two months.
I had started going to a church in Tuscaloosa with my fiance's brother. He got really, really on fire for God. Like I saw so much of my youth in him that I was like, I want that feeling. And then I was like, what is stopping me? And there's nothing besides myself and my willingness to do it. We actually started going to 21 days of prayer. We would wake up at five o'clock in the morning, um, and go to church and hear a message. And I just felt it in my heart. I mean, I was crying nearly every day, um, at those services because I just felt so convicted. I started having dreams. The first one was a dream about the rapture. It was like a wedding ceremony. And we are all in this city just looking out into the ocean, watching a storm roll onto shore. All of the sudden, a hole in the sky just opens up and starts taking people up into it. And I remember I was holding my fiance's hand and we got like ripped apart. He got taken away, and I was just left standing there. Between the dreams, the life lessons, and getting married, I, I felt it now that it was a good time.
I was just so sad for so long and I knew something needed to change and I knew I needed to come home to have this moment. So when I started thinking about being

Baptized and what that meant, I knew it had to be here for the longest time. I hated coming home and I knew that I could not let that control me. Tonight is about redemption and that a home wouldn't have to be a place of pain, but a place of hope, um, for the future. This is

Michelle Sipe and um, a lot of you may know her, maybe you don't, but Michelle grew up here at Burn Hickory a while ago. Hasn't actually been back home in a minute, but Michelle called me about a month ago and said, Matt, a lot has happened in my life. God has done a lot in my life since high school. I never followed through in my baptism, but I'm getting married in May and I just want to come home to be baptized, to make everything in my life pointing towards Jesus before this day. And I am excited to be able to do that with her tonight. So I want you guys in just a minute, we're gonna baptize her and I want you to celebrate her. Tell her how much this church is behind her, and how much the Lord Jesus is behind her as well. Michelle, what is your confession tonight?

My name is Michelle. Jesus is my Lord, and I'm not ashamed.

Well, Michelle, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. You know, as last Wednesday night happened, um, man, I knew it was gonna be special, but man, you might need to gimme a minute just to get back into the mode here, because Michelle's story, what I've started to realize really represents a whole lot of people's stories in this room. You might not have walked through the exact events, you might not have had all of the tragedies. Michelle's story is the same as all of our stories in that there's moments of our lives, even those of us that have given our hearts to Jesus. There's moments in our lives where we feel like we're far away. We feel like we're lost. We feel like we have been removed from even the family of God. We feel like we're in despair.
But yet, even in those moments, the Lord is faithful and the Lord is good and the Lord is loving and the Lord is kind. And the Lord reaches down into our souls and just even nudges us a little while farther to say, I'm here. I don't know where you're at in your faith journey. For some of you man, quite frankly, you need to give your art to Jesus to have what Michelle has. Now, for some of you though, you're right where she is. Maybe you have given your life to Jesus, but you have never taken that next step of baptism. Man, I just wanna ask you this morning, what's holding you back? And the Bible tells us that baptism is a public display of what has already happened in our heart. It is a public moment displaying what Christ has done for us. And the Bible tells us that baptism is not a feeling moment.
Christ took care of that when he was baptized. And then right after it, he looked at us and said, go do likewise. Yes sir. Yes sir. I can feel the tension in the moment. Matt, what if I'm not ready? Oh, if you've given your life to Christ, you're ready. But the question is, will you be obedient this morning? Michelle's story represents so many of the I am statements, even the one that we're gonna look at in just a minute, but also in some of your lives this morning. Here's what I'm gonna pray in just a second over you. I pray that wherever the Lord has brought you from that he's brought you to the point today to say, man, I need to take that step. I want you to do something for me. I want you to take out your phones this morning. Go ahead and open up the Burn Hickory app.
Good news. The sermon notes are in there. It'll get you ahead for just a minute. And in there there's a place called next steps. Listen, today, if you've given your heart to Jesus, but yet you've never been baptized as a believer, let me ask you something today. What's holding you back? What's holding you back after that story? I can tell you that it ain't that. And I can tell you that your life will take on a whole new meaning when you step into obedience in the first act of obedience in this Christian walk. And that's baptism. If you'll take out your phones, there's on there a little button that just says Next steps. And the next steps button, there's a little button, the second one down that just says, be baptized. Here's what I want you to do today. If you, if that's where you are and you've never taken that step as a believer, man, click that button.
Let somebody call you from our team this week and talk about this with you, about what it means, about what it can look like for you and about the freedom that you can have that you've known you've been obedient in this. Lemme pray us, Lord Jesus today, thank you for Michelle's story. Thank you for staying faithful even when we're not. And thank you Lord Jesus that she had the boldness to come home to make things right and to stand for you. Lord Jesus. I pray that same prayer over many, many, many people that are hearing my voice even right now. Thank you Jesus for loving us. It's in your name we pray, amen and amen. If you have a copy of scripture today, I want you to go ahead and turn me to John chapter 14. 'cause launching out of that video, we are going to see yet another place today where Jesus takes on this I am name, this name that God claimed over himself in the Old Testament as Yahweh.
Jesus comes along in the New Testament and he claims it for himself. He claims it to meet us in our needs, but he also claims it, quite frankly, to show us that he is not just a miracle worker, he is not just a good teacher, but Jesus takes on this name to show us that he's God. So far over the last couple weeks we've walked through five of the I am statements. Jesus has said, if you feel empty, I'm the bread of life. If you feel like you're in the dark, I am the light of the world. If you feel like you're attacked and uneasy, I am the door that brings life and protection. He said, if you feel like you're alone and lost, I am the good shepherd. And then last week he said that if you are feeling disappointed, even in the shadow of death, if you feel like nobody else has your back, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.
Each one of these I am statements attaches to a incredibly big need in our life. And this morning's even more so attaches to not only just the ones that we've walked through, but this morning statement is so clear, it is so powerful that it attaches itself to the biggest human need on this planet. And it is the need for us to submit our hearts to Jesus as our savior and as our Lord. Today in John chapter 14, the promise of Jesus, the claim of Jesus actually comes outta one of the most famous verses in all of John's gospel. It is outta John 14 verse six. So this is what I wanna do. Just like every week I've read the claim over us and then we've worked our way back through the claim to see exactly what it is that Jesus does and his offering for us.
So here's the claim this morning, John 14, verse six. Lemme read it to you. Here's what Jesus says, Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Now I want you to circle, I want you to highlight that phrase, highlight that verse or those two sentences because in that verse, listen to me. This is not hyperbole. In that verse is the most life giving phrase that we can ever read because Jesus steps onto the scene and he tells us what it means to have life in him. But in order to see it clearly, I gotta give you some context. All right? We skipped a couple of chapters from last week in this message today where Jesus is talking to these guys in 14 six, Jesus is actually meeting with his disciples, these guys that have been following him for the last three years, right?
He's in the upper room. It is the night before he is betrayed. It's the night before the cross. And Jesus in the upper room discourse, if you wanna sound really smart at lunch today, use those words right in this moment, in these chapters surrounding chapter 14, Jesus is looking at his disciples in the upper room. He's speaking clearly and passionately, and Jesus is leaning in to the last pep talk, right? The last moments before he goes back to the Father. Now, the more Jesus talks though, the more the disciples get confused, the more they kind of get scared, the more they actually get frightened. And rightfully so because when we read it, we kind of know the end of the story. But these guys have been living with Jesus the Messiah for these last three years. They've given their life to 'em. They've given all of their promise to 'em, they've left their families, they've left their vocations.
And now Jesus is saying to them these words that they never thought they would hear Jesus say. You say, Matt, what is he saying to 'em? Jesus in this moment is looking into these guys' hearts, looking into their lives and he's looking at 'em and telling them what is going to happen? Get ready for this when he goes away. Now this blew their minds. Why? Because in this very moment, Jesus the Messiah, the one that they thought was gonna do all the things that the Messiah was gonna do, right? He's looking at him and saying, Hey, hey, wait a minute, I'm going away. Just, just to kind of give you the gravity of the moment. Lemme go back and read a couple verses outta John chapter 13. Watch what Jesus says. Here's the gravity of the moment. Look at verse 33. Jesus says this, my children, he's talking to his disciples.
I will be with you only a little longer. You'll look for me. And just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now where I'm going, you cannot come a new command. I give you love one another as I've loved you. So you must love one another. And by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Now, this love command right here is an incredible command, right? They've been hearing this. We actually preach a lot of messages on it, but that's not the command that they have the problem with, right? It's the one that we have the problem with. Amen. We have a little bit of a love problem, but for these guys, it wasn't the love command that threw them into disarray. It was the fact that Jesus is now looking at them, their savior, their Messiah, and saying, I'm going away.
That's what was shocking to them. I mean, after all, they had been jockeying for positions in this new kingdom that God was gonna, that Jesus was gonna set up. But then Jesus right here in this moment, he gives them this love command and watch what Peter says in verse 36. He breezes right past the love command. Simon Peter asked him in verse 36, Lord, where are you going? Jesus replied, where I'm going, you cannot follow now, but you'll follow Later. Peter asked, Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay my life down for you. Then Jesus answered, will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you before the rooster crows Peter, right? You will disown me three times. Now we look at that a whole lot, but I want you to see this talk of Jesus going away.
This is what's really thrown them off. And now if the leader of the group, Peter is struggling with this, if he is gonna crack, if he is gonna lose his faith, they're all looking at this moment and they're saying, man, what is happening? We are sunk. Now, they don't say this out loud, but at this moment, if you get into the disciple's minds just for a minute, they're thinking with each other. They're going, man, did we make a mistake? Did we follow the wrong guy? Did we bet on the wrong horse? Right? Have we given these last three years of our life for nothing? Is Jesus not gonna deliver us? Is Jesus really going to just desert us, right? Is he really just gonna leave us with this little command? Just go love people. Now that's what they're thinking. And here's the thing about Jesus.
Jesus knows that they're thinking this, but in our minds, you gotta think that Jesus is getting frustrated at this point, right? You gotta think that the Bible doesn't say that he's frustrated, but if this is the best of the best, right? If this is the cream of the crop of Christians on the planet at the moment, and now they're looking at Jesus with the this, he's going away comments with this idea that we followed the wrong guy. You've gotta think in Jesus's mind that he's getting so frustrated at this moment, not to mention he's about to go to the cross, not to mention it's the most stressful moment of any person in eternity's life on this planet. And now his disciples are looking at him going, you're gonna desert us. That's what's happening right here. But Jesus, thank goodness, right? Jesus doesn't get frustrated with him just like he doesn't get frustrated at us when we have questions.
Jesus doesn't get mad at him. Jesus pauses in the moment. He clarifies who he is, he speaks his love over these guys and he actually speaks his love over us in this incredible command. So, so really quickly, for the rest of the time I have left, here's what I wanna do. I just wanna give us a few reminders from Jesus about Jesus for this incredibly, incredibly important claim that we just read. Lemme, lemme read you the verses here. Add to John chapter 14 and just watch what Jesus says. John 14, verse one through 10 says this. It says, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. If it were not so would high have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and I will take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am.
Can I get an amen, right? Amen. Look at verse four. Jesus says, you know the place where I'm going, verse five, Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way Jesus answered in contact? Here's the claim. I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. Now that's where we normally stop, but we're overachievers. So let me read you these rest of these verses, all right? He says, if you really know me, you will know my father as well. From now on, you do know him and you have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and that'll be enough for us. Jesus answered, don't you know me, Philip, even after I've been with you for such a long time, anyone that has seen the anyone that has seen me, has seen the Father, and how can you say, show us the Father?
Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? These words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work. Now, all this language, particularly in the backside of this passage, we're gonna get to the front side in a minute. All this language here is this whole father's in me and I am in the Father. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father, right? Jesus is pointing to the idea again that he and the Father are one, that they are one, they are not two, they are of the same substance. And so what Jesus does multiple times from different angles, from different approaches is he's looking at his disciples over and over and over again and he is saying, I am God. It's almost like in this passage that Jesus is like, really?
I can't say it anymore clearly. Listen, believer, never let anybody challenge you that Jesus is not God. Never let anybody look at you and say that he was just a good teacher. He was just a good person, he was a sage, he was a prophet. He might've been all of those things. But all of those come under the banner that Jesus is God. God is Jesus. They are not separate beings. They're of the same essence. It's what he's saying in this passage, and I love how he says it. He looks at them and he is like, I am the Father. The Father is in me. We are one together. The writer of Hebrews says it like this, the son is the radiance. Hebrews one three of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. That word, exact representation in the Greek is the word caricature.
It's where we get our word carer. Don't think Disney. It's this idea of the the tool or the inscription on a stone of what someone wants you to know. In other words, what God is saying is that Jesus is the 100% inscribed nature of who he is in flesh. He's God. He's God. So Jesus is making this point from all of these different angles in this whole different series, but he goes one step farther in verse 11 that he hasn't gone to yet. In fact, let me read verse 11. It says this, John 1411. Jesus says, believe me when I say that I'm in the Father and the Father is in me or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Now, I want you to notice what Jesus does here. 'cause he actually frees you up. He gives you an apologetic here that you can grab hold of.
Jesus looks at them and he looks at us and he says, look, if you don't believe me for my words, in other words, if you don't believe me for what I've said, for what I've been saying to you over these last three years, Jesus looks at him and says, at least believe me, for my works, for what I have done, I don't know if you've ever thought about this before, but write this principle down. I'll put it in your notes. Here it is. Jesus has given us his words and his works to lead us to him as God and Savior, his words and his works. Here's what that means. Both Jesus' words and his works always operate in unison. They never dispute each other. They never oppose each other. They always paint a perfect picture of who Jesus is. And actually Jesus is the only human being on this planet that can say that 100% of the time.
His words and his works are always congruent. They're always in a line. You can always trust both. So listen to this apologetic. Listen to this defense of who Jesus is. Jesus looks at them and he says, listen, believe me for what I say, believe me, for what I say, what I say carries a lot of work. And he also says to them, but if you don't believe that, believe me, for what I do, believe me for the miracles that I have, because you've got both of those to hold onto. So listen, if Satan ever tries to get you to believe that Jesus didn't do what he said, do what he did, just remind Satan of what he said he did. If, if Satan never tries to get you to believe that He didn't say that reminds Satan of what he did. God has given us both of these to hold onto on top of the fact that in three weeks from now, he rose from the grave, for goodness sakes, he's given us all of these.
So he's looking at these guys, he's getting them ready for the next moment of their lives and he's saying, listen, nobody else can make this claim. Nobody else can ever back this claim up. How many miracles did Gandhi do, Buddha do, Muhammad do Confucius do none. Right? They didn't do any but Jesus, his words plus his works, plus who he was, plus the fact that he rose from the grave gave us the significance of John 14, six. Lemme read the claim again. When he says this, Jesus answered, here's how you know you can trust him. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. Next time somebody pushes back at you and says, how could Jesus make that claim? It's so exclusive. Go. Yeah, you're right. And his words and his works and his resurrection and the fact that he is God backs all of it up and then watch 'em go, yeah, you're right.
Alright. That's all they're gonna do, right? Because you got nothing else. So Jesus makes this claim in an incredible way. Now, let's drill down into how he makes the claim. 'cause remember, Jesus is talking to his disciples. He's looking at them and he's saying, listen, I'm, I'm going away. This thing's about to end. My ministry's about to end my mission. I'm about to hand it off to you. It's about to end. Uh, Jesus is telling them, I'm about to be crucified. I'm about to raise from the grave. I'm about to go back to the Father and and Jesus knows all this. He knows this is coming. And so now Jesus looks at them and says, Hey, I am going back. I'm going back to heaven. You can't come now, but you can come later, right? You can come later. But Jesus looks at them and says, but trust me, in this relationship that we have, trust me, because of where we've been these last three years, he looks at them and says that I will come back for you.
I'll come back for you. But even in the middle of that, Peter pushes back and Philip pushes back and Thomas pushes back to which Jesus, he keeps going back to this fact that this whole walk with him is not about all this peripheral things. It's just about an intimate relationship with him. Listen, let me just remind you that, that the longer you walk with Jesus and the longer you're in this thing called Christianity, the more you're gonna begin to realize that this whole life is about one thing and that is about just snuggling up beside the Savior that can save you. That's what it's about. So many of us try to put Christianity in this little box that's just some rules or some regulations or some principles and listen, yeah, Christianity has principles, but that's not what it's about. Christianity at its core, Jesus is saying is the fact that we have a savior that is going to prepare a place for us and that he is the way and he is the truth and he is the life and no one comes to the Father except through him.
That's what Jesus is saying here. But he says it in an incredible way. He actually goes back, Jesus does in these first verses and he pulls up what I would just kind of call some Jewish wedding language. Now in verse two through six, you might not have seen it 'cause it's kind of hard to grab hold to if you're not Jewish. Jesus pulls this life-giving intimate relationship with him. Message into the context of a wedding into a Jewish wedding. You say, Matt, I'm not following you. Lemme tell you a little bit about the Jewish weddings. All right? I know we've talked about this in the past, actually talked about it in the series. If you are a Jew during this time, if you and a, let's say girl caught each other's eyes, decided that y'all were the ones, you would have to go to your respective fathers and ask them to have a meeting, you would have a meeting the fathers to determine if this thing could work.
You say, Matt, why would that happen? Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just telling you how it worked, right? The fathers would get together, they would strike up a contract. I know it sounds weird. They would, they would decide a price for the bride, all right? A dowry if you would. All right? They would decide a price, and if the price was right, everybody agreed you would come together. You would sign an agreement as a couple. I'm not kidding you, this is how it worked. You would sign that agreement. You would stand before a priest or a a person at this point and you would actually say your vows. You would have a wedding ceremony on the front end, and then you didn't kinda get the bird seed and the sendoff at that point, and then you actually had to go back to your respective family's houses for the next year or so.
You're like, what? Yeah. That's how it worked. All right? During that time, during that year under contract, the lady would get herself ready, right? The bride, she would go on a uh, on a diet. She would get all the beauty treatments. She would do all this. I don't know about that, but you, you're following it, right? She would get ready and the groom would actually go back to his family's compound and actually build a place for you guys to live. He would build a place onto the father's house. He would build and build and build. And then here's the interesting part. The groom wasn't the one that decided when the time was right. When the groom went to go get his bride, it was the father of the groom who did say, Matt, why is that? Well, cus listen, if I'm a dude and I know my wife's waiting on me, I mean I can do a cardboard box and a poster on the wall, right?
But it was actually the father that said, Hey son, you're ready for your bride. He would tap him on the shoulder and he'd say, go get your bride. And he would. So the father determined it, right? The bride would get ready, the bride would wait. The groom works until the nod from the father. And if you're going wait a minute, matter of that kind of sounds like the New Testament, you're right. Didn't Jesus say, I don't know when the time is the Father does. And in fact, let me, let me read these verses to you again and now in that context, listen to 'em. It says, do not let your hearts be troubled. John 14, one, you believe in God also believe in me. My father's house has many rooms. If it were not so, I would not have told you that. I'm going there to prepare a place for you.
Why? Because Jesus is the groom, right? We are the bride. The church, watch this and if I go to prepare a place for you, I'll come back and I will take you to be with me so that you may also be where I am. You know the way to where I'm going, church, listen to this couple things. Number one, heaven is real. It is the father's compound with a new family. What an incredible picture there. But secondly, look at this. Jesus is saying that we are now living in the moment that he has gone to prepare a place for us. We don't know when Jesus is gonna return, right? We don't know that. But nothing else has to happen for that. At some point, God, the Father is going to tap God the Son, right? The groom on the shoulder to say, go get your bride the church.
You have prepared a place and now it is time for this to happen. Jesus here relates his relationship with his disciples and with us to a marriage relationship between us and him and the intimate ness of knowing him. And thank goodness he does. Why? 'cause one day we will have the marriage ceremony in heaven. I love this. In fact, write this principle down. 'cause here's what he's showing us from our first breath of faith to our final earthly moment. Christianity is all about knowing and growing and walking closer with Jesus, our eternal savior. That's what Jesus is telling these guys, right? He's going, listen, this is gonna end, but it's not an end. This is gonna end, but it's not the final. This is gonna end. I'm going to prepare a place for you and I am the way. I'm the way. And here's why it's so important.
You can write this second principle down. It's so important because Jesus doesn't just offer them answers. Jesus is the complete solution for not only disciples, but watch this for all of humanity's search for direction, reality, and purpose. That's what Jesus in this upper room is saying. And I know we've kind of come a long way around to describe it, but now you can see what Jesus is offering. He's looking at these guys that are confused just like we're confused half of our lives. He's looking at these guys that have walked with him for a long time, just like a lot of us have walked with him for a long time and he's looking at them going, Hey, there's a whole lot of other things in life. There's a whole lot of other messages in life. There's a whole lot of other direction in life. But I Jesus says I am.
Look at John 14, six, I am the way. I am the truth and I am the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. That's what Jesus is saying. In fact, write these three things down. Here's the Jesus promise. Number one, Jesus promises us that He is the way. He's the way. You know why that makes such a big difference? Because that means that Jesus is the one that actually gives us direction. You know what that does for us? It takes it off of me to have to know every step for the rest of my life. Why? Because my job is not to know the rest of the steps of my life. My job is to know the next step following the direction of the Savior that is already there making my path straight. He is the way. This is the Thomas question that Thomas asked us in a text, right?
How can I live my life in a way that it points to the right direction? How can I live my life in a way that I can be happy and safe and successful and at peace? The problem with that question is that not the question. The problem is, is that when most people ask that question, they assume that the way, the way is some location on the map and at the thomasville, give us a map. Give a map. Show me how to get there. But Jesus looks at him and says, it's not a location, it's a me. You see, Jesus is the way, he's the way. He's not the way to something. He is the something. Does that make sense? I think so many of us have so many things in our lives that is all about this, where Jesus is standing there going, listen, I am the this.
I am the way. Just like I've said, said every other week though he's not just a way, he is the way. It's the directional decision in our lives. Listen, the whole point of the whole Bible is to tell us that we can't get there on our own, that only Jesus can get us there. Only Jesus, he is the way. That's the first one. Here's the second one. Number two, Jesus looks at him and says, I am the truth. I'm the truth. Now listen, if you have the way, that is incredible. But the truth represents the idea that he is the foundation on which we stand. He is the truth. And I love this why? Because knowing Jesus is the only way to know truth. Every other truth that is ever presented to you is only an opinion. Jesus says, I am the truth. And look, Jesus doesn't just speak the truth.
He is the truth. He is the true nature of God. He's the representation of God. He's the true human purpose. He is the universe, meaning of all moral absolutes. He is the source of all truth. He is the, he is the origin of the universe and he is not just one truth. Lemme say it again, just like I did. In the way He is not just a way, he's the way. He's not just a truth. Here it is. He's the truth. And thank God he is. You know why? Because if Jesus is not the truth, then there is no truth because every one of us gets to determine in the truth. And if we're all determining the truth, then we're all going to hell. That's what he says. He's looking at us going, Hey, lemme take this off of you because you can't hold this.
Lemme take this off of you because it's too big of a burden. Let me take this off of you because I know you don't fully understand this, but I am the way. I am the way and I am the truth. Let me ask you this. Is he the foundation that your life is built on? That's the question. Here's the last one. He looks at these disciples and he looks at us and he also says that, Hey, I'm the way, I'm the truth. And then lastly, he looks at him and says, I am the life. Now. Look, look, look, there's two sides to this. Why? Because the first one is the one we talked about this whole time. What has he gone to do for us? He has gone to prepare a place for us. Hallelujah. Right? Hallelujah. That we have a savior that has been for 2000 years, he has been preparing an eternal home for us.
What has he been doing? He's building onto the family compound. He's building onto the father's house. He's building on to the gates of heaven to give us a home one day. It is in a courtyard. It is surrounded. It is around the presence of Jesus. It is with Jesus in the kingdom of God, in the father's house one day 'cause we are his bride. But on top of that, secondly, it is not just an eternal promise here that Jesus said he's the life. What Jesus does here is he looked at these guys and he is like, listen, it's about to get hard. It's about to get tough. There's about to be persecution. There's about to be just a very few slim of you guys that are gonna follow after me. But remember, I am the way. I am the truth. And I am the only one that can give you life right now.
Listen, Christianity is not just a future based faith. It is a fulfillment of life right now, faith, remember John 10, 10, a couple weeks ago where Jesus looked at us and said, I may come that they may have life and they may have it. What? Abundantly. Listen, I know this is blowing the disciples mind at this moment, but Jesus is, look, he, he's going, listen you, you can try everything else. You can run after everything else that you want, but I and I alone are the only one that can give you life. Listen to me real close for a second. Listen, you can try whatever you want to to stand on, but nothing will give you life like the one that has already given you life. Jesus, he was the one that that gave you life to exist. He was the one that picked you up out of the Meyer and set your feet on a rock at your salvation point.
And he is the one that can give you life even in this moment. That's why I love Michelle's story earlier. Why? 'cause this is all what she has realized in the last couple months of her life. She's realized that so many things have tried to tear her down and get her off the way She's released so many times, so many things that she desperately sought in her life was not filling her. But the one thing that could give her life is Jesus is Jesus. And here's the cool part about this whole story. This story's not just for the disciples, it's for all of us. So the question today is, do you believe it? The question today is, will you give your life to the one whose works? And words always match to the one who gave his life and rose it back up to the one that is ascended to the Father, that is preparing a place that promises you that he is the way He is. What your soul is looking for, that he is the truth. He is the thing that you are desperately seeing that your life needs to stand on. And he is the life. He is the one that you have been created to have a relationship with. And until you do, you will never feel whole.
He is God. And here's the offer today, just like a groom that offers the rest of his life to the bride. The question is this. Will the bride say yes? Let me ask you something. Have you given your life to Jesus? Has there been a moment in your life where you have said, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm far from you, but I know you're the way, you're the truth and you're the life and Lord Jesus today, all I can say is yes to your offer of yourself matter. Are you saying, have I gone to church? That's not what I'm saying matter. Are you saying, have I memorized the Bible? Have I read the Bible? That's not what I'm saying. What I'm asking you today is there, has there been a moment in your life where you have confessed with your mouth, Jesus' Lord believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead and walked into a personal relationship with him. You see, man, I'm not sure that's happened to me. Well, listen, here's the great part of the offer of today. It's here for you. It's here for you. He's paid the price. Now the question is, will we submit our lives to him?