Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All right, so we're going to be in the book of John this morning.
So if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to John 10.
If you're using one of the Bibles underneath the chair in front of you,
John 10 is going to be on page 952.
All right, so a few years ago, my wife and I,
we used to live in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
(00:21):
Now, I don't know how many of you are familiar with Fayetteville, North Carolina.
If you're not, don't buy your tickets.
there's nothing there. So, but, but anyways, me and my wife, we, we, we, what was exciting about
Fayetteville, North Carolina was that we, we got to rent our first house together and live together
(00:46):
and, and, and get to know each other and grow in our marriage. And our first home was just like any
other cookie cutter suburban rental that you'll see outside of a military base, but it was home
and we were building a life together.
And the first thing that we did was we got a dog.
And our dog, she was an angel.
(01:09):
But then we decided that we could handle a second.
We were mistaken.
But anyways, so we go to our vet
and there's this Belgian Malinois, right?
And this is every military man's dream dog, right?
(01:30):
And we see that this guy just not only has like two of the adults, the adult dogs, but he has like five puppies.
So I'm just like, oh, I need to talk to this guy.
I need one of those dogs in my life.
And so I did.
So naturally, I go up to him and I'm like, man, are any of these puppies for sale?
(01:52):
And he's like, yeah, I'm actually trying to get rid of one.
And I was like, okay, awesome.
So I agreed to buy the puppy for him.
He's some backyard breeder.
But I took him home that day.
This is Kuma, by the way.
And we ended up realizing that this dog is actually insane.
(02:16):
We take this puppy to our house for the first time,
and we're expecting all this joy and laughs.
And we're like, man, this is awesome.
I have my dream dog.
but nothing in my house was safe. He ate through his crate, multiple crates. He destroyed our
vinyl floor and he ate through the walls and he ran through walls like it was nothing.
(02:42):
And I think just this week, he actually, he ate like five of my socks and it wasn't like the socks
that you don't care about losing. It's the good ones, like the darn tough socks. It was very
unfortunate. But anyways, one day my wife decided to clean our house, and she decided to clean the
(03:02):
sliding glass door that led out to our backyard, and she got that door so clean that you couldn't
tell a door was there. And I get home from work, and I start riling the dogs up, because that's
what husbands do, right? And all of a sudden, I just hear, bam. I look around. What was that?
(03:29):
And it was my neurotic dog, Al Colt. He was unconscious for like a good 15 to 20 seconds,
like unresponsive too. Like I was like, oh my gosh, is he dead? And all I could think of was,
oh no, my $50 knockoff dream dog is dead. But he wasn't. He got up, thankfully.
(03:57):
But I wonder if sometimes that's us. Now stick with me. We try our hardest to run full speed
like Kuma towards doors that we think they're going to lead us into a better life, a more
abundant, happy, and joyful, stable life. But we're stopped short, sometimes abruptly,
because we're trying to walk through the wrong door. And today we're going to talk about the
(04:22):
true door that leads to the abundant and happy and joyful and stable life that we're all looking for.
Because we're all searching for that. We're searching for purpose and direction, for peace
and for joy, something real to hold on to.
And the heart of the series that we're in is this.
(04:43):
It's not a thing that gives us that kind of life.
It's a person.
His name is Jesus.
And everything that we're longing for,
the peace, the joy, the happiness,
it's all found in him.
And Jesus doesn't keep this a secret.
He's actually really clear about it.
He says that the life you're searching for is not going to come from upgrading your home
(05:07):
or booking the perfect vacations or having perfect dogs.
None of that can fully deliver what your soul is actually craving and desiring.
But Jesus can.
And that's why we're going through the I am statements of Jesus as a church
because they don't just tell us what he's done.
(05:29):
They tell us who he really is.
And so last Sunday, we saw that Jesus calls himself the light of the world,
showing us that he doesn't just symbolize light.
He is light.
He is the light that shines in the darkness.
And a lot of people, they didn't believe in what Jesus was saying.
(05:52):
More than that, they couldn't see Jesus.
They couldn't see who Jesus was.
and they had the same problem that a lot of this world has today.
They were spiritually blind.
And we're going to see that again in today's text
because Jesus is going to respond to spiritually blind people
(06:13):
because right before this, if you take a look at John 9,
the chapter that's right before the text that we're going to be in today,
Jesus heals a man that was born blind since birth
and the Pharisees still try to discredit him.
and now in John 10 Jesus is going to communicate another important truth and reality about who he
(06:36):
is and he he does that by responding to the Pharisees in honestly a really shocking way
he calls himself the door to life so we're going to see what Jesus means by this and we're going to
see four things that the door does for us. So I want you to go ahead and look at John 10,
(06:57):
skim down to verse 7, and read along with me. Jesus said again, truly I tell you,
I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep didn't listen to them. I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved
(07:20):
and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief only comes to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
What Jesus is telling the Pharisees and all the rest of the people that would have been listening to this is that he's the door that gives access to life.
(07:49):
If you pay close attention to verse 7, that's exactly what Jesus is saying here.
He's saying, I'm the door, I'm the gate that leads to the abundant life that you're looking for.
And if you stop and think about it, at its core, what does a door do?
A door gives us access.
(08:09):
Doors led us into places that we couldn't enter otherwise.
But doors are important.
Physical doors, they allow us to go inside and outside.
They allow us to transition between rooms.
But they're also important metaphorically as well.
We all know the saying, man, if I could just find that open door.
(08:30):
And so we do that all the time.
We run numbers in our heads.
We plan for the future.
We chase milestones.
And we wait for that next open door that we think.
that if we walk through that door, if we could walk through it,
then life will finally be what we hoped for.
But here Jesus is standing in front of all of us.
(08:53):
And he's saying that I'm the door.
I'm the door that leads to life.
So what does Jesus mean by that?
If Jesus really is the door, what does that mean for us?
Let me show you four things that the door does for us.
The first is this.
Jesus is the door that saves.
(09:17):
The door saves you.
This is probably one of the most controversial things that Jesus could have said.
Because right here in one sentence, Jesus invalidates every single world's religion.
Every single world's view that claims that it can bring you life and meaning or purpose.
(09:40):
In one sentence, Jesus is communicating something really important.
He's the entry point.
He is the door that gives life.
There aren't 12 paths that all lead to the same God.
There is only one way that you can get to God, and that's through Jesus.
(10:00):
If that sounds harsh and offensive to you, you're not the only one.
Because this was a bitter pill for a lot of people to swallow even back then.
And it's offensive because we all have to come to terms with what Jesus is saying here.
He's saying that whatever category that you self-identify with, whether you're spiritual or non-spiritual,
(10:24):
whether you have a lot of money, don't have a lot of money,
whether you feel like you need Jesus or maybe you're on the opposite side
and you feel like, man, I don't need God.
Life is good.
He's saying that none of that actually matters.
None of that matters.
You need to be saved.
We were all created by God for God.
(10:50):
And what I mean by that is we were all created to have a relationship,
an actual genuine relationship, an intimate relationship with God. Everyone that you see
in here was created for that relationship. Everyone that you see in your workplace and
everyone that you see at Costco, they were all created so that they could have a relationship
(11:11):
with God. But the Bible tells us that our sin separates us from God. The Bible tells us that
we need to be saved and that there's a distance. If we need to be saved, it's because there's a
(11:31):
distance between us and God. And here's the sad part. We can't close that distance on our own.
There's no amount of moral living, wishful thinking, or praying to God
that can change our situation with God
(11:51):
if we don't have Jesus.
But the amazing news of the gospel is this.
There is a person that saves us from God's judgment.
There is a person that can bridge that gap.
There is an entry point.
It's Jesus.
And it's so important that no matter how long
you've been following Jesus for,
(12:12):
that we don't forget this simple truth.
That we are saved and that we have access to a relationship with God only because of Jesus.
And so there is nothing in this world that can offer you anything better than what we see in verse 9.
Because Jesus is not just offering access to a better life.
(12:37):
Jesus is offering access to life itself.
There are no other doors in this world that can save you and give you what you actually need,
which is life. And if you don't walk through this door or you keep trying to go around the door,
you're walking away from life. Jesus even says this. John 3.18, he says,
(13:03):
anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone that doesn't believe
it's already condemned because he has not believed in the name of the one and only son of God.
This is the word of the Lord. And we all need to be saved. And Jesus is the only way that we can
(13:27):
obtain that. I need to be saved. We all need to be saved. But the second amazing thing about this
door is that the door is wide open. And that's our second point. If you're here this morning
and you haven't entered by the door yet, the invitation is always open.
(13:52):
What's different about this door from all the other doors in the world is that it doesn't close.
It's always open. God will never look at you and reject you and tell you that you're not good enough
to enter because none of us are good enough to enter. We enter on the basis that Jesus is good
enough. Jesus is the one door in this world that you don't have to be good enough to gain access.
(14:21):
You don't have to struggle or strain. All other doors in this world, they require something of you.
To land a good job, you need an awesome resume. Maybe you need some education and some experience
to go to another country, you need a visa and a passport.
To get into Costco, you need a membership card.
(14:43):
But not with Jesus.
You don't need any of that.
Because he's allowing you to enter for free
because he paid the entry price on the cross.
And so if this is you, if you haven't walked through the door,
then please come back.
The door is always open.
And there are so many of us here that would love to pray for you and to talk to you about the love of God, to talk to you about Jesus.
(15:13):
And the third amazing thing that we see when we walk through the door and we walk through Jesus is that the door actually protects us.
Jesus is the door that protects us.
Now, I'm not just talking in the general and abstract sense that Jesus saves us from God's
judgment, even though that is part of it. Jesus is the door that saves us from all the wrong things in
(15:38):
life. Jesus is the door that protects us from chasing all the wrong things. He protects us
from the thieves and the robbers of this world that are trying to convince us otherwise. So if you
have Jesus, you have protection from all the other doors in this world that are going to lead you
(15:59):
away from God, lead you away from relationship with God. Look at verse 10. A thief comes only
to steal and kill and destroy, but I've come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
In the immediate context of this passage, Jesus is talking about the Pharisees,
(16:23):
the religious leaders that were leading people away from God with their oppressive legalism
and their morality and all the different ways that they believed that if they could just do these things,
if they could just live better, then they could get access to God.
And see what they were doing.
They were actually stealing from God.
(16:45):
That's why Jesus calls them thieves and robbers.
the Pharisees, they were, they were given, sorry, they were crushing people's hope
instead of giving them hope.
And so if you've ever questioned the door, whether you should walk through this door,
(17:08):
man, Jesus is inviting you in.
Because we need that hope that he's good enough to give us access to God.
And what the Pharisees were doing is that they were trying to go around Jesus.
They were trying to bypass the door.
(17:30):
And family, there are so many things in this world that function as thieves and robbers.
And they try to rob us of trying to experience the joy that we get from being in Christ.
They try to convince us that there are better doors and better ways of living that we can walk through.
(17:51):
Let me tell you a quick story.
So I used to go to this therapist earlier this year.
And I went to this therapist in Wahiwa and went to a few of the initial sessions.
And he started learning more about me.
He didn't tell me anything about himself, but I guess that's how therapy works.
(18:12):
But I tell him that I'm a Christian.
And he gives me one of those, oh, that's awesome, man.
You know what I'm talking about.
The type of responses that people give when they're uncomfortable.
And so they tell you, oh, yeah, that's awesome, bro.
Moving on.
And so we're talking about my elevated stress levels.
(18:33):
And he told me that I needed to get out in nature more.
I was like, that is true.
But his piece of advice was great.
But what he followed up with was a lie.
He said, Tyler, I know you're married.
(18:54):
But sometimes in a healthy marriage, you need to be completely selfish towards your spouse.
You need to place yourself above your wife.
And I was just thinking, I was like, I left that therapy session thinking,
man, thank God that I had God's word stored in my heart,
(19:16):
that I had Ephesians 5 stored in my heart.
Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church,
and he gave himself for her.
And I thank God that he gave me the discernment to realize that my own therapist
was trying to have me bypass God's command for husbands
to give themselves and love their wives sacrificially.
(19:39):
And the point of this story is that
I think we all need to start identifying the things in our lives
that are functioning like thieves and robbers.
And we need to do two things.
The first thing we need to do is we need to bring them to the light.
Last Sunday, we talked that Jesus is the light of the world.
And so what that means for us is that
there is nothing that we can hide from him.
(20:02):
all the things that we bury deep down and we try our best to hide from others
Jesus exposes that
but that's the first step that you can take to to get protection from the door
is just bringing it to Jesus's feet and the second thing that we need to do
(20:26):
is that we need to allow Jesus to be the door that protects us.
We're all familiar that doors are important in our houses
because when we lock them, they can't steal what's inside.
And so we need to allow Jesus to be that for us.
For example, TV and movies, we know for a lot of them,
(20:51):
they contain excessive amounts of nudity
and they place unnecessary strain and temptations on marriage.
So why do we keep letting our eyes watch these things
when Jesus tells us that the eye is the lamp of the body?
And if your eye is healthy, the rest of your body is healthy.
(21:11):
Why do we spend excessive amounts of money,
which all that does is cause us to even have to work harder
to replenish those funds
and cause us to prioritize work over spending time in the presence of God,
in the presence of God's people.
Jesus says, no one can serve two masters.
You either hate the one or you either love the one or you hate the other.
(21:34):
And so having Jesus's words stored in your heart and obeying them
is how you continue to walk through the door
and continue to gain protection from what the door is trying to give you.
Because all other voices, they try to steal the life that you have in Christ.
They try to steal your joy and your peace.
(21:57):
And that's a daily choice that we all have to make.
But it's the best choice that we can.
Because when you wake up in the morning and you make the deliberate decision to wake up and to go through Jesus,
to start your morning off with Jesus,
(22:18):
you actually will find that you aren't walking
into a restrictive way of life.
You're walking into freedom.
And that's the fourth point.
The fourth thing that we see about the door
is that the door gives you freedom.
And when Jesus saves you,
there will be times where you have to ignore
(22:40):
the voices of all the other doors in this world
that are trying to lead you away from him.
There are times where you will have to remove things from your life.
But Jesus is trying to lead you into freedom.
Your life doesn't end when you follow Jesus.
(23:00):
It begins.
Look at verse 9 and verse 10 again.
Jesus says,
If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.
I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
(23:21):
And see, family, this is what Jesus is offering.
He's offering freedom and abundance to go in and go out and find pasture.
Means that from the minute that we wake up in the morning, Jesus is with us.
When we go to work and we're going through the monotony of our weeks,
(23:42):
Jesus is with us.
And when our heart breaks
and we're just going through unspeakable tragedy,
Jesus is with us.
And that's amazing because that means
that we can find pasture
and we can find that rest and peace and joy
in whatever situation that God has us in
because through it all,
(24:04):
he doesn't leave us alone.
He's walking with us.
And so what Jesus is saying is that only he can give abundance.
And so I know a lot of you must be thinking, what does abundance mean?
(24:25):
And don't mistake what Jesus is saying here.
He's not saying that by entering through him, that life is going to be easy
and that you're automatically going to receive health, wealth, and happiness
because we all know that life sometimes doesn't work that way.
there's some seriously heavy things that we all wrestle with and struggle with.
(24:47):
As do I.
But what's amazing about Jesus is that whatever storm is in your life,
he's promising to supply you with the abundance of peace and hope and joy
when you can't even make sense of life.
He's talking about feeling like you have everything that you need because you have him.
(25:11):
and there is no limit to this type of abundance
and that means that you can come today as you are
and because Jesus is yours,
you can cry out and receive more of Jesus.
What he offers, it's inexhaustible.
It cannot physically run out.
(25:35):
And so if you haven't experienced this type of abundance before
or it's been a while and you've forgotten that you have access to this.
I have Psalm 23 on the screen.
David was an imperfect man.
He lived in a chaotic world just like we do right now.
(26:01):
But he knew that even if life was falling apart,
he knew that his God was with him
and that he could find everything that he was looking for in him.
And so I'm going to read this out because this is true for us too.
The Lord is my shepherd.
(26:22):
I have what I need.
He lets me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He renews my life.
he leads me along the right paths for his namesake.
(26:44):
And family, we have that. We have Jesus. He's the shepherd that came into this world,
not to condemn this world, but to save the world. He's the solution. He's the door that we're
looking for. He's inviting us to lay down in green pastures, even in our chaos. And he brings us to
(27:06):
those quiet waters and he renews our life. He's inviting all of us into this right now.
He is the door that saves us.
His door is wide open.
He's waiting on the other side to lead you into the safety and protection of his presence.
(27:32):
He's offering you abundance.
Are you going to walk through his door today so that you can experience what David experienced in Psalm 23?
Let's pray.
All right, so we're going to be in the book of John this morning.
So if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to John 10.
If you're using one of the Bibles underneath the chair in front of you,
John 10 is going to be on page 952.
All right, so a few years ago, my wife and I,
we used to live in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
(00:21):
Now, I don't know how many of you are familiar with Fayetteville, North Carolina.
If you're not, don't buy your tickets.
there's nothing there. So, but, but anyways, me and my wife, we, we, we, what was exciting about
Fayetteville, North Carolina was that we, we got to rent our first house together and live together
(00:46):
and, and, and get to know each other and grow in our marriage. And our first home was just like any
other cookie cutter suburban rental that you'll see outside of a military base, but it was home
and we were building a life together.
And the first thing that we did was we got a dog.
And our dog, she was an angel.
(01:09):
But then we decided that we could handle a second.
We were mistaken.
But anyways, so we go to our vet
and there's this Belgian Malinois, right?
And this is every military man's dream dog, right?
(01:30):
And we see that this guy just not only has like two of the adults, the adult dogs, but he has like five puppies.
So I'm just like, oh, I need to talk to this guy.
I need one of those dogs in my life.
And so I did.
So naturally, I go up to him and I'm like, man, are any of these puppies for sale?
(01:52):
And he's like, yeah, I'm actually trying to get rid of one.
And I was like, okay, awesome.
So I agreed to buy the puppy for him.
He's some backyard breeder.
But I took him home that day.
This is Kuma, by the way.
And we ended up realizing that this dog is actually insane.
(02:16):
We take this puppy to our house for the first time,
and we're expecting all this joy and laughs.
And we're like, man, this is awesome.
I have my dream dog.
but nothing in my house was safe. He ate through his crate, multiple crates. He destroyed our
vinyl floor and he ate through the walls and he ran through walls like it was nothing.
(02:42):
And I think just this week, he actually, he ate like five of my socks and it wasn't like the socks
that you don't care about losing. It's the good ones, like the darn tough socks. It was very
unfortunate. But anyways, one day my wife decided to clean our house, and she decided to clean the
(03:02):
sliding glass door that led out to our backyard, and she got that door so clean that you couldn't
tell a door was there. And I get home from work, and I start riling the dogs up, because that's
what husbands do, right? And all of a sudden, I just hear, bam. I look around. What was that?
(03:29):
And it was my neurotic dog, Al Colt. He was unconscious for like a good 15 to 20 seconds,
like unresponsive too. Like I was like, oh my gosh, is he dead? And all I could think of was,
oh no, my $50 knockoff dream dog is dead. But he wasn't. He got up, thankfully.
(03:57):
But I wonder if sometimes that's us. Now stick with me. We try our hardest to run full speed
like Kuma towards doors that we think they're going to lead us into a better life, a more
abundant, happy, and joyful, stable life. But we're stopped short, sometimes abruptly,
because we're trying to walk through the wrong door. And today we're going to talk about the
(04:22):
true door that leads to the abundant and happy and joyful and stable life that we're all looking for.
Because we're all searching for that. We're searching for purpose and direction, for peace
and for joy, something real to hold on to.
And the heart of the series that we're in is this.
(04:43):
It's not a thing that gives us that kind of life.
It's a person.
His name is Jesus.
And everything that we're longing for,
the peace, the joy, the happiness,
it's all found in him.
And Jesus doesn't keep this a secret.
He's actually really clear about it.
He says that the life you're searching for is not going to come from upgrading your home
(05:07):
or booking the perfect vacations or having perfect dogs.
None of that can fully deliver what your soul is actually craving and desiring.
But Jesus can.
And that's why we're going through the I am statements of Jesus as a church
because they don't just tell us what he's done.
(05:29):
They tell us who he really is.
And so last Sunday, we saw that Jesus calls himself the light of the world,
showing us that he doesn't just symbolize light.
He is light.
He is the light that shines in the darkness.
And a lot of people, they didn't believe in what Jesus was saying.
(05:52):
More than that, they couldn't see Jesus.
They couldn't see who Jesus was.
and they had the same problem that a lot of this world has today.
They were spiritually blind.
And we're going to see that again in today's text
because Jesus is going to respond to spiritually blind people
(06:13):
because right before this, if you take a look at John 9,
the chapter that's right before the text that we're going to be in today,
Jesus heals a man that was born blind since birth
and the Pharisees still try to discredit him.
and now in John 10 Jesus is going to communicate another important truth and reality about who he
(06:36):
is and he he does that by responding to the Pharisees in honestly a really shocking way
he calls himself the door to life so we're going to see what Jesus means by this and we're going to
see four things that the door does for us. So I want you to go ahead and look at John 10,
(06:57):
skim down to verse 7, and read along with me. Jesus said again, truly I tell you,
I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep didn't listen to them. I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved
(07:20):
and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief only comes to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
What Jesus is telling the Pharisees and all the rest of the people that would have been listening to this is that he's the door that gives access to life.
(07:49):
If you pay close attention to verse 7, that's exactly what Jesus is saying here.
He's saying, I'm the door, I'm the gate that leads to the abundant life that you're looking for.
And if you stop and think about it, at its core, what does a door do?
A door gives us access.
(08:09):
Doors led us into places that we couldn't enter otherwise.
But doors are important.
Physical doors, they allow us to go inside and outside.
They allow us to transition between rooms.
But they're also important metaphorically as well.
We all know the saying, man, if I could just find that open door.
(08:30):
And so we do that all the time.
We run numbers in our heads.
We plan for the future.
We chase milestones.
And we wait for that next open door that we think.
that if we walk through that door, if we could walk through it,
then life will finally be what we hoped for.
But here Jesus is standing in front of all of us.
(08:53):
And he's saying that I'm the door.
I'm the door that leads to life.
So what does Jesus mean by that?
If Jesus really is the door, what does that mean for us?
Let me show you four things that the door does for us.
The first is this.
Jesus is the door that saves.
(09:17):
The door saves you.
This is probably one of the most controversial things that Jesus could have said.
Because right here in one sentence, Jesus invalidates every single world's religion.
Every single world's view that claims that it can bring you life and meaning or purpose.
(09:40):
In one sentence, Jesus is communicating something really important.
He's the entry point.
He is the door that gives life.
There aren't 12 paths that all lead to the same God.
There is only one way that you can get to God, and that's through Jesus.
(10:00):
If that sounds harsh and offensive to you, you're not the only one.
Because this was a bitter pill for a lot of people to swallow even back then.
And it's offensive because we all have to come to terms with what Jesus is saying here.
He's saying that whatever category that you self-identify with, whether you're spiritual or non-spiritual,
(10:24):
whether you have a lot of money, don't have a lot of money,
whether you feel like you need Jesus or maybe you're on the opposite side
and you feel like, man, I don't need God.
Life is good.
He's saying that none of that actually matters.
None of that matters.
You need to be saved.
We were all created by God for God.
(10:50):
And what I mean by that is we were all created to have a relationship,
an actual genuine relationship, an intimate relationship with God. Everyone that you see
in here was created for that relationship. Everyone that you see in your workplace and
everyone that you see at Costco, they were all created so that they could have a relationship
(11:11):
with God. But the Bible tells us that our sin separates us from God. The Bible tells us that
we need to be saved and that there's a distance. If we need to be saved, it's because there's a
(11:31):
distance between us and God. And here's the sad part. We can't close that distance on our own.
There's no amount of moral living, wishful thinking, or praying to God
that can change our situation with God
(11:51):
if we don't have Jesus.
But the amazing news of the gospel is this.
There is a person that saves us from God's judgment.
There is a person that can bridge that gap.
There is an entry point.
It's Jesus.
And it's so important that no matter how long
you've been following Jesus for,
(12:12):
that we don't forget this simple truth.
That we are saved and that we have access to a relationship with God only because of Jesus.
And so there is nothing in this world that can offer you anything better than what we see in verse 9.
Because Jesus is not just offering access to a better life.
(12:37):
Jesus is offering access to life itself.
There are no other doors in this world that can save you and give you what you actually need,
which is life. And if you don't walk through this door or you keep trying to go around the door,
you're walking away from life. Jesus even says this. John 3.18, he says,
(13:03):
anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone that doesn't believe
it's already condemned because he has not believed in the name of the one and only son of God.
This is the word of the Lord. And we all need to be saved. And Jesus is the only way that we can
(13:27):
obtain that. I need to be saved. We all need to be saved. But the second amazing thing about this
door is that the door is wide open. And that's our second point. If you're here this morning
and you haven't entered by the door yet, the invitation is always open.
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What's different about this door from all the other doors in the world is that it doesn't close.
It's always open. God will never look at you and reject you and tell you that you're not good enough
to enter because none of us are good enough to enter. We enter on the basis that Jesus is good
enough. Jesus is the one door in this world that you don't have to be good enough to gain access.
(14:21):
You don't have to struggle or strain. All other doors in this world, they require something of you.
To land a good job, you need an awesome resume. Maybe you need some education and some experience
to go to another country, you need a visa and a passport.
To get into Costco, you need a membership card.
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But not with Jesus.
You don't need any of that.
Because he's allowing you to enter for free
because he paid the entry price on the cross.
And so if this is you, if you haven't walked through the door,
then please come back.
The door is always open.
And there are so many of us here that would love to pray for you and to talk to you about the love of God, to talk to you about Jesus.
(15:13):
And the third amazing thing that we see when we walk through the door and we walk through Jesus is that the door actually protects us.
Jesus is the door that protects us.
Now, I'm not just talking in the general and abstract sense that Jesus saves us from God's
judgment, even though that is part of it. Jesus is the door that saves us from all the wrong things in
(15:38):
life. Jesus is the door that protects us from chasing all the wrong things. He protects us
from the thieves and the robbers of this world that are trying to convince us otherwise. So if you
have Jesus, you have protection from all the other doors in this world that are going to lead you
(15:59):
away from God, lead you away from relationship with God. Look at verse 10. A thief comes only
to steal and kill and destroy, but I've come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
In the immediate context of this passage, Jesus is talking about the Pharisees,
(16:23):
the religious leaders that were leading people away from God with their oppressive legalism
and their morality and all the different ways that they believed that if they could just do these things,
if they could just live better, then they could get access to God.
And see what they were doing.
They were actually stealing from God.
(16:45):
That's why Jesus calls them thieves and robbers.
the Pharisees, they were, they were given, sorry, they were crushing people's hope
instead of giving them hope.
And so if you've ever questioned the door, whether you should walk through this door,
(17:08):
man, Jesus is inviting you in.
Because we need that hope that he's good enough to give us access to God.
And what the Pharisees were doing is that they were trying to go around Jesus.
They were trying to bypass the door.
(17:30):
And family, there are so many things in this world that function as thieves and robbers.
And they try to rob us of trying to experience the joy that we get from being in Christ.
They try to convince us that there are better doors and better ways of living that we can walk through.
(17:51):
Let me tell you a quick story.
So I used to go to this therapist earlier this year.
And I went to this therapist in Wahiwa and went to a few of the initial sessions.
And he started learning more about me.
He didn't tell me anything about himself, but I guess that's how therapy works.
(18:12):
But I tell him that I'm a Christian.
And he gives me one of those, oh, that's awesome, man.
You know what I'm talking about.
The type of responses that people give when they're uncomfortable.
And so they tell you, oh, yeah, that's awesome, bro.
Moving on.
And so we're talking about my elevated stress levels.
(18:33):
And he told me that I needed to get out in nature more.
I was like, that is true.
But his piece of advice was great.
But what he followed up with was a lie.
He said, Tyler, I know you're married.
(18:54):
But sometimes in a healthy marriage, you need to be completely selfish towards your spouse.
You need to place yourself above your wife.
And I was just thinking, I was like, I left that therapy session thinking,
man, thank God that I had God's word stored in my heart,
(19:16):
that I had Ephesians 5 stored in my heart.
Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church,
and he gave himself for her.
And I thank God that he gave me the discernment to realize that my own therapist
was trying to have me bypass God's command for husbands
to give themselves and love their wives sacrificially.
(19:39):
And the point of this story is that
I think we all need to start identifying the things in our lives
that are functioning like thieves and robbers.
And we need to do two things.
The first thing we need to do is we need to bring them to the light.
Last Sunday, we talked that Jesus is the light of the world.
And so what that means for us is that
there is nothing that we can hide from him.
(20:02):
all the things that we bury deep down and we try our best to hide from others
Jesus exposes that
but that's the first step that you can take to to get protection from the door
is just bringing it to Jesus's feet and the second thing that we need to do
(20:26):
is that we need to allow Jesus to be the door that protects us.
We're all familiar that doors are important in our houses
because when we lock them, they can't steal what's inside.
And so we need to allow Jesus to be that for us.
For example, TV and movies, we know for a lot of them,
(20:51):
they contain excessive amounts of nudity
and they place unnecessary strain and temptations on marriage.
So why do we keep letting our eyes watch these things
when Jesus tells us that the eye is the lamp of the body?
And if your eye is healthy, the rest of your body is healthy.
(21:11):
Why do we spend excessive amounts of money,
which all that does is cause us to even have to work harder
to replenish those funds
and cause us to prioritize work over spending time in the presence of God,
in the presence of God's people.
Jesus says, no one can serve two masters.
You either hate the one or you either love the one or you hate the other.
(21:34):
And so having Jesus's words stored in your heart and obeying them
is how you continue to walk through the door
and continue to gain protection from what the door is trying to give you.
Because all other voices, they try to steal the life that you have in Christ.
They try to steal your joy and your peace.
(21:57):
And that's a daily choice that we all have to make.
But it's the best choice that we can.
Because when you wake up in the morning and you make the deliberate decision to wake up and to go through Jesus,
to start your morning off with Jesus,
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you actually will find that you aren't walking
into a restrictive way of life.
You're walking into freedom.
And that's the fourth point.
The fourth thing that we see about the door
is that the door gives you freedom.
And when Jesus saves you,
there will be times where you have to ignore
(22:40):
the voices of all the other doors in this world
that are trying to lead you away from him.
There are times where you will have to remove things from your life.
But Jesus is trying to lead you into freedom.
Your life doesn't end when you follow Jesus.
(23:00):
It begins.
Look at verse 9 and verse 10 again.
Jesus says,
If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.
I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
(23:21):
And see, family, this is what Jesus is offering.
He's offering freedom and abundance to go in and go out and find pasture.
Means that from the minute that we wake up in the morning, Jesus is with us.
When we go to work and we're going through the monotony of our weeks,
(23:42):
Jesus is with us.
And when our heart breaks
and we're just going through unspeakable tragedy,
Jesus is with us.
And that's amazing because that means
that we can find pasture
and we can find that rest and peace and joy
in whatever situation that God has us in
because through it all,
(24:04):
he doesn't leave us alone.
He's walking with us.
And so what Jesus is saying is that only he can give abundance.
And so I know a lot of you must be thinking, what does abundance mean?
(24:25):
And don't mistake what Jesus is saying here.
He's not saying that by entering through him, that life is going to be easy
and that you're automatically going to receive health, wealth, and happiness
because we all know that life sometimes doesn't work that way.
there's some seriously heavy things that we all wrestle with and struggle with.
(24:47):
As do I.
But what's amazing about Jesus is that whatever storm is in your life,
he's promising to supply you with the abundance of peace and hope and joy
when you can't even make sense of life.
He's talking about feeling like you have everything that you need because you have him.
(25:11):
and there is no limit to this type of abundance
and that means that you can come today as you are
and because Jesus is yours,
you can cry out and receive more of Jesus.
What he offers, it's inexhaustible.
It cannot physically run out.
(25:35):
And so if you haven't experienced this type of abundance before
or it's been a while and you've forgotten that you have access to this.
I have Psalm 23 on the screen.
David was an imperfect man.
He lived in a chaotic world just like we do right now.
(26:01):
But he knew that even if life was falling apart,
he knew that his God was with him
and that he could find everything that he was looking for in him.
And so I'm going to read this out because this is true for us too.
The Lord is my shepherd.
(26:22):
I have what I need.
He lets me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He renews my life.
he leads me along the right paths for his namesake.
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And family, we have that. We have Jesus. He's the shepherd that came into this world,
not to condemn this world, but to save the world. He's the solution. He's the door that we're
looking for. He's inviting us to lay down in green pastures, even in our chaos. And he brings us to
(27:06):
those quiet waters and he renews our life. He's inviting all of us into this right now.
He is the door that saves us.
His door is wide open.
He's waiting on the other side to lead you into the safety and protection of his presence.
(27:32):
He's offering you abundance.
Are you going to walk through his door today so that you can experience what David experienced in Psalm 23?
Let's pray.
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