Setting Our Spiritual GPS in Christ

Well, we want to welcome everybody that is here today in San Diego, as well as those that are on the streaming service and down the line as people might watch this message on YouTube at our site.

Hopefully what will be said will be a blessing not only to us today, but hopefully to those that may be listening to this in the days, weeks, months, and sometimes years ahead.

Where are we today?

I think the date is January 4th, isn't it?

And here we are on the first Sabbath of the calendar year of man.

As Christians in the 20th century, we operate on two calendars.

It's just how we are.

We have the secular calendar of man that begins in the winter.

And also as members of the body of Christ, we also observe the sacred calendar, which begins in the spring.

Both are needful in one sense, because again, as we focus towards the spring festivals and our renewal of life with God the Father and Jesus Christ, we also recognize with this transition from 2024 to 2025 that maybe we can just take a deep breath, recognize 2024 that's behind us with some blessings, with some opportunities, a lot of challenges, a lot of things coming at us in this day of communication and everything, every voice coming at us.

And it has not been a wonderful year necessarily, globally, nationally, family-wise, perhaps individually.

You can fill in the blanks.

The question is, as we move into a new calendar year, we can take a breath.

We can at this point analyze what last year was like, where we might be in this year, and move forward.

So here we go.

And the question that I have for you in this, this is going to be hopefully probing spiritually to all of us.

So here we go into 2025.

Some questions I'd like to just simply ask you, how are we going to grow and what are we going to learn moving forward and most importantly with whom?

I'm going to repeat that just for emphasis for a moment.

Even as we know that this year has been challenging, where do we go from here?

How are we going to grow?

And what are we going to learn moving forward and most importantly with whom?

Now I know I'm speaking to individuals that have been in this way of life for at times decades.

Do I dare say scores of years?

Do I dare say over half a century?

I don't think anybody's been in this way of life for, not looking at you Bob to make this point, over a century.

Let's just make Bob come awake.

Is to, no, so what are we going to learn?

Have we learned everything in this way of life?

Do we feel the intimacy with God the Father and Jesus Christ that they would want to, that they desire?

Are we ready to be taught to them in a way and in a manner, not always of our own choosing, but that when it comes to us that we can learn from it?

Well, that's what we're going to be talking about today.

It was a very learning moment, something what we call, are you with me?

A teaching moment.

There are teaching moments in life and in going through this study, I found something in the verse that I've gone over that chapter again and again and again, and all of a sudden it had the bump effect.

Oh, I stopped, got my attention and I had never seen that before.

And I'm going to share that with you today.

I'm going to share how we can build upon that.

And one thing I'd like to share with you before that to kind of set the foundation of this is we go from one year to another.

And I think I've shared it years ago here in other places.

It's actually a saying that I have underneath the glass on my office desk in my office area.

And it's always been pointing to me and moving.

And it's not just poetry because a lot of what we're going to be talking about today is going to be coming out of this, which is important.

It will add light.

I think it will add perspective.

And it's expressed by a poem by a lady named Minnie Louise Haskins.

And it's called The Gate of the Year, which was simply a preamble to a poem she called God Knows.

God knows.

And he does.

Now we've never heard of Louise Minnie Haskins probably in her lifetime, but perhaps we've heard of George VI.

George VI was the father of Queen Elizabeth II.

And he shared this in a radio broadcast in 1939 as the darkness and the evil began to spread across the continent of Europe.

And as the entire world was about to go into World War II, the United States would not join for another two and a half years.

But George VI gave this at an end of the year broadcast looking forward.

And he gave this message that was heard around the world because it was directed to the British Empire.

For those of you that were younger, there was such a thing, especially even as we were younger, called the British Empire.

So this went around the world because the sun never sat on the British Empire.

And I'd like to share it with you for a moment.

I think it speaks volumes to us today.

And then we're going to build upon it piece by piece with the rest of the message.

Again, this is called the hand of God.

It says, I said to a man who stood at the gate of the year, give me a light that I may tread softly into the unknown.

And that man, he replied, go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.

So I went forth and finding the hand of God, I trode gladly into the night.

And he led me towards the hills and the breaking of the day in the lone East.

So heart, be still.

God knows.

His will is best.

The stretch of years which winds ahead so dim to our imperfect vision is clear to God.

Our fears are premature and in him all time hath provision.

All time hath provision.

Interesting.

If you would join me over in Psalms 46 and Psalms 46 because this really expands from this Psalm of David and Psalms 46 and verse 10.

And it says to be still.

And allow the word of God to speak to each of us even as it is read.

Be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in all of the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our refuge.

That sets us up now for the rest of the message.

And you'll notice some of the wording here that will come out in the scriptures and what God the Father and Jesus Christ would have us to know on this day.

The title of my message is simply this setting our spiritual GPS in Christ.

Setting our spiritual GPS in Christ.

And that will come from our basic reading today which comes out of John 14 6 through 7.

John 14 6 through 7 as we're going to explore together.

My wife knows how to work a GPS.

That's why she has a smartphone and I don't.

Remember I still have my dumb phone.

My black flip flop.

Don't need it too much in Southern California having been an insurance inspector at one time and doing all of Southern California when I was young and being a Southern Californian.

But when we go places back east where a few blocks that maybe I've never traveled in Los Angeles we use the GPS.

And remember how you go and you said how you do it.

I've never done it but kind of and you said it.

You're here.

You're going there and all of a sudden you have the voice coming at you that voice that you just want to strangle after a while especially if you're going 50 miles away.

Well that's what God does with us.

And actually that I think is what John 14 6 through 7 is all about.

So let's turn over there to John 14 and as we do let's prepare to set our spiritual GPS as we begin traveling through 2025.

In John 14 and let's understand something that what we're going to be talking about is I always like to think of the expression in the beginning in the beginning in Genesis 1 in the beginning.

I think of John the gospel thereof where in the beginning I think then of John in his epistle in 1 John going back to the beginning going back to the beginning when we that were alive then handled him.

He's real.

He's not a ghost.

He really is real.

He's not just myth.

He's not just legend in the beginning when we were with him.

Well this is part of that beginning but to recognize for you and me in 2025 our beginning every day actually begins with the last day of Jesus life.

And we find it here in John 14 and let's begin to pick up the story.

It says let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God and believe also in me.

In my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so I would have told you and I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and I will receive you to myself that where I am there you may also be.

Now notice what it says up here again that I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again and receive you myself that where I am that you may also be and where I go you know and the way you know.

Now Jesus said that very confidently.

You know where I'm going.

You know where I'm headed.

And by the way you know the way you know how to get there.

And then and this is why we need to continue to grow and read our Bibles.

The next verse which is very small I had never really focused on before and I wanted to share it with you today.

Okay.

And now notice what it says.

There's this gentleman named Didymus.

Is that how your Bible reads Didymus?

It's mentioned in other places.

Didymus was the Greek name for the disciple Thomas.

He was a twin.

That's why his name is Didymus.

Good old Thomas.

Called Doubting Thomas because of what later on transpires in the book of John.

But like I've always said don't freeze frame one person by what you read the first time about him in the scripture.

There was something in Thomas's nature.

The same guy that remember when Lazarus was dying and all the other disciples were saying no no no no no no no Jesus don't go there.

It's not time to do it.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

The managers were on Jesus.

But what did Thomas say?

Let us go up and die with him.

Thomas was all in the man for the moment backing up the rabbi.

We're going to go forward.

So always remember look at everything.

Good lesson about reading the Bible.

Don't always just keep somebody in one chapter.

Look what else he does in the Bible.

Now notice what Thomas said again.

Lord we do not know where you are going.

Now you know have you ever done that?

You know you might say you know it seems like everybody else knows where he's going.

But I don't.

And he was brave enough to ask a question.

He had an inquiry.

It's not that he didn't want to know he just didn't know it was not yet sunk into him as to the gravity and the expansiveness of who he was with and who the others were with.

And so rather than saying oh dumb dumb we should applaud him.

He asked a question.

He probed.

You know he didn't only just probe by putting his finger into Jesus body at the end of John.

He was a prober and we need probers.

We need wonderment.

We need inquiry because the only way you learn is to ask questions right.

I remember my mother many of you knew my mother one of the two or three things that I kind of take with me down through life.

She said at a very early age that Robin never be afraid to ask questions.

Never be afraid to ask questions.

All they can do is say no.

Kind of blunt kind of true.

But it's my responsibility to ask the questions.

It's your responsibility.

If you're not understanding something that we're trying to communicate something that maybe you're not reading in our literature or reading in the Bible as Bob brought out today with what's called a difficult scripture.

If there's something you don't understand ask.

And this asking on behalf of the other disciples and himself opens up one of the great scriptures that we have here.

Now we go into notice what it says.

Again let's lay it out.

Thomas said Lord no not really.

We don't know where you're going.

And how can we know that war.

How can we know the way.

Now I want to share a thought with you.

Now I realize that many of us like I said before not all but many of us have been in a way of life as disciples of Christ for many many many years.

And so you might say well I don't need to ask the questions that Thomas is asking.

But here's what I want to share with you.

These are the same gentlemen that had been embedded with Jesus morning noon and night for three and a half years.

They'd almost lived in a sense in one another's skin.

They knew him.

You know they probably heard Jesus.

I would suggest that Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount basically the script more than one time.

That was kind of his keynote speech as well as some others.

They didn't have recordings like we do today so he would give it again and again.

And they heard that and they were drinking that in but somewhere they were missing something.

They were skimming over something and he wanted them to go deeper.

And so he then comes back and notice what he says.

This is the show stopper.

Jesus said to him speaking to Thomas with everybody listening I am the way.

I am the truth and the life.

I am the way.

I am the truth.

And I am the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

There is so much to break down in this verse and that's why we're going to do it here as we begin to proceed.

So where to begin?

Where to begin?

We notice that he says in John 14.1 don't let your heart be troubled.

Believe in God.

Believe in me also.

Then we go to John again 14.2-3.

Got some work to do but I'll be back to receive you.

John 14.4 and where I go you cannot know the way and then we have what happened here with Thomas interruption.

The bottom line I simply want to mention to you is we're about to dissect this GPS that Jesus gave.

It's simply this.

And I'm speaking to myself I'm just talking to myself up here it's bouncing back to me and I'm trying to receive what I'm sharing with you.

Just when you think you know God.

More is coming.

Just when you think you know God.

Just when you think you've traveled with God all of your life.

Just when you think you've read the Bible all your life.

More is coming.

Is that your desire this coming year?

Are you ready to be jolted?

As was Thomas.

What did Thomas do that is a basic cardinal principle?

Join me if you would before we cover more.

Let's go to Matthew 7.

Let's pick this up.

Matthew 7.

So we don't put Thomas on the bad list.

Naughty again Thomas.

No let's notice what it says.

Matthew 7.7 ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and it shall be opened to you.

For everyone who ask receives and he who seeks finds and in him who knocks it will be opened.

That is exactly what happened here.

When Thomas knocked on Jesus in person and being honest because he was seeking.

His seeking was not wrong.

His seeking had to be full because it meant his life and giving of his life.

And he was blessed with the following.

So in John 14 and in verse 6 there are three great proclamations.

So what I'm sharing with you is this and think where I'm taking you is that these three great proclamations of John 14 six should be our spiritual GPS.

Log it in.

Make it fully loaded because this is what we're to travel by as we walk through life towards the ultimate destination of being with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the ultimate promised land.

Let me share number one.

Notice what it says.

I am the way.

I am the way.

This was the terminology the way was not new to the Jewish community or the house of Israel.

Not at all.

We look at Deuteronomy 5 just tell me real quickly we're going to do some scripture flipping for a moment in Deuteronomy 5 and verse 32.

They knew that phraseology the way.

Deuteronomy 5 and verse 32.

Notice what it says here.

When speaking about the way.

Yeah.

Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you and you shall not turn aside to the right.

Notice you shall not turn aside to the right hand or the left.

And now notice verse 33.

You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you and that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

So right here underlined in our mind is the word in all of your ways.

Join me in Proverbs 14 and Proverbs a book of wisdom.

Proverbs 14 and verse 12.

Notice what it says here.

There is a, I should almost have you all say it in unison.

There is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.

Again there is the terminology of the way but it ends in death.

So there's two ways going on here and you can't really have a third option if you're a disciple of Jesus Christ.

There's his way and there's our way.

And our way based on this analysis is not taking us to a good outcome.

It takes us to death.

Let's go to Isaiah 55.

Isaiah 55.

There's another one by Moses in there but Isaiah 55.

And Isaiah 55 and picking up the thought in verse 8.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts.

Now notice what it says here.

Nor are your ways.

My ways says the Lord.

For as the heaven are higher than the earth so are my ways.

Higher than your ways.

You see the pronoun differentiation.

It's creating a contrast and we have to decide which way we're going to go.

And my thoughts than your thoughts.

So again that whole word.

Now I want to take you to Isaiah 35.

We're almost done with our scripture search here.

Isaiah 35.

And Isaiah 35 and picking up the thought in verse 8.

Speaking of the future.

Giving a hope to Israel.

And frankly giving hope to the spiritual Israel of God today and the world at large one day.

A highway shall be there and a road.

And it shall be called the highway of holiness.

And the unclean shall not pass over but it shall be for others whoever walks the road.

And even although a fool shall not go astray.

I'd like to read that in the old King James English here for a moment.

My eyes can fall on it.

It says this in the old King James.

And a highway shall be there and a way.

And it shall be called the way of holiness.

The unclean shall not pass over but it shall be for those wayfaring men though fools they shall enter there in God is old only in the future going to offer the ability to travel towards him on his way.

The way the road the highway that's being talked about here even the ancient time it's not talking about a Roman road the Appian way made of stone.

It's not talking about it's not talking about our modern day highways made with asphalt.

This is a way of living.

This is a way of worshiping God.

This is a way of honoring and loving your fellow man.

This is all in all it is it is this concept of the way now with that thought and Joel will enjoy this because this is what we're going to sing at the end of services today.

Let's go to Psalm 27 and verse 11 Psalms 27 verse 11 where it says this.

Teach me your way O Lord and lead me in a smooth path because of notice because of mine enemies teach me thy way to use old King James and teach me your way.

Now there's one other that I'd like to share with you Isaiah 13 21 just bought that one.

We're going way down into the ways of ways so you'll know the importance of way here in Isaiah 30 verse 21 Isaiah 30 verse 21 your ears shall hear a word behind you saying this is the way walk in it and whatever you turn to the right hand or whatever you turn to the left hand you will also just follow that way.

It speaks of a voice coming to those in the future same voice that comes to us today.

This is the way I see our young family out here with Haley and her sisters and grandpa and grandpa never underestimate what children are hearing when they're in services at that age or a little bit older.

I remember coming into this way and this way yes in 11 or 12 years old started going to the feast and what would we read every feast you would hear something about the wonderful world tomorrow and you would hear Isaiah 30 21 right.

How many of you remember it always be you know as you're going to work we're training to help to be helpers of Jesus Christ and to help people along and there's going to be a voice and the voice is going to say what this is the way walk you in it.

I was 12 years old the first time I heard that at a feast site about 30 years later I started writing a column called this is the way the impact was there years ago preparing way and I wrote that column for what 14 years 10 issues a year and to be able to share with people that this is the way so just a thought when I saw that and I see the young people here that as you're listening never underestimate what is going into them.

The bottom line then is simply this okay we've covered the way what is the impact here because the Jewish community would be familiar with these words but notice now as we go back to John 14 and verse 6 underline they knew about the way and they knew of a Moses that had been brought up and trained in Egypt and then went out into the wilderness and then was going to be used to deliver the people of Israel.

And that later on God through Moses would share the way but now there's a difference because now think about this Jesus Christ now comes the second Moses now comes the greater Moses now comes another differential between the story of Moses and the story of the second Moses the greater Moses Yeshua Jesus the Christ the deliverer the lawgiver when Moses was saying I'm going to go back there and I'm going to be talking to Pharaoh and who am I going to say sent me and you know the story out of Exodus say that I am that I am I hear the real Ten Commandments book that sees the movie I am that I am is sending you but now here's the vast difference Jesus is not saying the I am is saying he is saying that rather than saying that the I am has sent me he is saying I am that I am I am the way this is a major dynamic differential between the prophets between the judges between Moses they would always speak on the authority of another individual and that's what made when people heard Jesus they said he comes as one speaking with authority what was the authority a Jewish rabbi back in the first century AD would speak of what the prophets said of what Moses said but what is that famous line in scripture where it says Jesus would say most assuredly I say unto you he put his personal stamp on that so what we're recognizing here is that there is a way that is important to understand now a couple things I want to share with you on that let me just find my notes here a second yeah a couple things we want to say he is the way he is the way and what does that bring to us that we can go into 2025 why can he describe that I'd like to share a story there was a man that was a pilot and the plane crashed he was in the the jungle of Africa lost surrounded by dense foliage couldn't go anywhere didn't know where he was thought it's going to be over and out all of a sudden he could hear a rustling in the bushes and a native individual came out and he said do you know how to get out of here and the native said I know the way I'll get you out he says good the native said follow me so they're going through the jungle and the native you know think of the old Tarzan movies and jungle gym movies we used to watch his kids some of us that are older and he's slashing away and slashing away and pretty soon after hours doesn't seem like they're going anywhere making me you know they're not seeing any roads they're they're not seeing a way out of here and he said you he said as he's yelling at the guys he's slashing say excuse me you you said you knew the way you knew you knew the path to get out of here and the native just turned around and said I am the path I am the path follow me and that's exactly why God the father sent Jesus Christ to this earth in this jungle called humanity and that Jesus Christ is and that Jesus Christ is that path he is the one that moves through the congestion of human nature and sin that has wrapped itself around this world there's another unique thing about Jesus being the way and or the path it is simply this and I want you to think about this as whatever you're going through whatever you're going through that are watching this that that things are going to come at us and we're going to need direction and we're going to need help when he says that he's the way have you not yet you ever forget our friend in the jungle okay that defines Jesus as the path in that sense I am the path but another thing is to recognize that when we do follow Jesus unlike the rich men that you know they've got their issues Bob you know okay you know but that have you ever talked to somebody you know you're from out of town you go to a smaller city maybe even a big little city whatever and you're lost you don't have a GPS like me and you say hey can you tell me how to get over to here here wherever here is you put a dot on that oh yeah it's easy here's what I want you to do I want you to go down main street and then I want you to take a right on third street you'll come to church street you'll see a 7-eleven not on the corner but about halfway down the block you're going to kind of know you're in the right way and then you're going to stop there because the police in this town are always out there that's how they make their money waiting for people like you and then you're going to take one more left one more right and you're there that's not how Jesus operates as the way Jesus starts with us and he finishes with us that's what God the Father has granted him to do as it says in Hebrews it says I will never leave you nor forsake you it says at the end of the book of Matthew low I am with you always even unto the end and he will be there with us in those roundabouts of life where it seems like we're going around in circles he will be there in the traffic jams of our life when there's no movement it doesn't seem like anything good is coming our way he will be there when perhaps there's a light shortage in our life and it is dark and he is the light and he is the way and he will create revision that is the spiritual gps that we need to have and know because that's how Jesus identified himself on that night of nights before he was going to die the next afternoon he said I am the way now what is interesting in all of that is to recognize that oh I'm going to share that one for later so now let's go to the truth oh one thing that maybe some of you are not familiar with the way early on there the church was basically you can go to the book of acts and you go and give you this is an assembly just go to the book of acts and look up how often the body of Christ was known as simply those that are in the way that is what the early church went by you go to the book of acts the way and there are about 10 to 11 different occasions where that is used I don't have time to share that so this is a heartwork homework assignment that I'm sending out to you notice the way and that goes right back to directly to john 14 and verse 6 he is the one that cuts through the jams of life and just doesn't send you forth but will accompany us as David would describe in Psalm 23 he is that good shepherd and a shepherd never leaves the flock and when just one is missing he will leave the 90 and nine behind to go after that one let's talk about the truth for a moment then he says I am the way he says I am the truth in Psalms 86 and verse 11 join me if you would there for a moment Psalms 86 and verse 11 notice what it says here it says again which is interesting in Psalms 86 and verse 11 teach me oh your way oh lord and I will walk in your truth and and unite excuse me my heart to fear your name and I will praise you oh lord my god with all of my heart and I will glorify your name forever it's very interesting let's let's center on verse 11 there are two big things and they they bump into one another or it's a better term they're connected verse 11 is the verse teach me let's pray this year that god gives us grants us by his abundant mercy and goodness a number of teaching moments even if we have been embedded with god the father in christ over years even though we think that we've read every scripture in the bible three times over ask him to allow us to go deeper notice what it says teach me your way oh lord and I will walk in your truth what do we have here we have the way and we have truth all in one set of verses and it's Jesus that says I am the truth psalm 26 and verse 3 join me over there please for a second in psalms 26 verse 3 for your love and kindness is before my eyes and notice what it says and I have walked in your truth I have walked in your truth there again is walking the way in a sense and truth but Jesus says I'm not just here to teach truth he says I am truth and we're going to discuss that in a moment join me if I get what again in psalms 119 and verse 30 psalms 119 and verse 30 psalms 119 and verse 30 I have chosen the way of truth now they're but they're combined again I have chosen the way of truth let's put it this way when we were baptized into the body of Christ we chose to render our lives to God the Father through the one the Son that says I am the way I am no less than God I am the way this is the way walk you in it and he says and the truth and your judgments I have laid before you in psalms I want to go to second Peter 2 2 now under the New Testament speaking about the end times and many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed the way of truth now let me share something with you and stay with me for a second is Jesus Christ the only one that can impart truth you say Weber now where are you going there are many truths that can be imparted absolutely then there are many teachers many teachers that are mortal men and perhaps immoral men they can teach geometry they can teach in public school Richard skip but you are moral men they can teach history they can teach philosophy some of them can teach woodshop many individuals can speak to truths to teach others but not or ever embodying truth itself moral truth cannot be pervade by words and knowledge alone it must be by example I want to share a thought with you for a second if I can find my readings here yeah here it is I shared this many years ago and it's always impacted me and study philosophy study history I think it's interesting and this is by a gentleman named Michael Green minister over in England wrote a book called acts for today I'm gonna it's a little it's gonna take about two minutes to read so I'll let you breathe out there but stay with us this is extremely important about moral truth please listen to this very carefully some of the philosophers it is true spoke of an awakening and that was to stoicism or cynicism in terms reminiscent of a Christian Christ excuse me of a Christian conversion but the parallel but the parallel is more apparent than real now we're going to get into history here these noble pagans like Cicero, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius have left us detailed reflections on their life and beliefs their struggles and attainments and all of them end up in agnosticism confessing that they have no compelling reasons for believing that the gods even exist moreover now for all their claims to transformation of life through adherence to adherence to the new philosophy the gap between precept and practice in these men was enormous men with intellect men with capacity men with quote unquote good tidings their own human gospel but there was a gap Marcus Aurelius came out with some of the most Christ-like talk that would be in meditation says his book but was the most bitter persecutor of Christians during the first two centuries after Nero and after Domician so this would be a hundred years later Seneca claimed that he was not only being improved but being transformed but his life showed no sign of it he claimed to be totally unarrested in whether he was rich or poor yet hung assiduously onto his vast wealth after acquiring much of it through questionable means his ruthlessness to his creditors was one of the economic reasons behind the Boa Desièn revolt around 60 70 AD in Britain which cost the empire one of its best legions he proclaimed noble truths about the equality of slaves and freemen as human beings which was very rich in that time because they basically had taken the model of Aristotle that that those that were slaves were basically animate tools just living tools on two feet they were not human thus so much slavery in the Roman Empire thus so many people going into the arena being killed in the gladiator fights but did nothing to set his own slaves free now listen to this men came to philosophers like those for advice but not for example the separation between belief and behavior was one of the most fundamental differences between the best of philosophical religion and christian conversion and the one that we follow the one that we follow Jesus Christ who is the way who is that way and who is that truth when he spoke he practiced what he preached he came through this life perfectly you can jot down first john 2 where it talks about in first john 2 16 where it talks about the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life the test was put upon Adam and Eve and they failed and they failed the test in our time has been placed on all of us won't go into it you can fill in the blanks but all of us have fallen short of God's glory in the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life of sin there is only one in human form in fleshly framework that walked this earth that in the wilderness as he faced the adversary as he was tempted thrice times over thrice times over and the third time would not be a charm for satan to make an impact on the one that is the way and that is the truth that practiced what he preached that moral concept was what he was when he was tempted three times and he won he did not fail and when he said no man hath greater love than to lay down his life for his brother speaking to us in our relationships today he said it he practiced it and he died for you and for me the way the truth let's just finish up shortly with the life in the life join me if you would in john 736 the gospel thereof john 736 Jesus is about life he said I am the life on the last day that great day of the feast and Jesus stood and cried out saying if any man thirst let him come to me and drink he who believes in me as the scriptures has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water living water right now in california like I said earlier in the announcements for the we talked about it we're in a drought hasn't rained since summer when susan I used to pastor the bakersfield congregation which we thoroughly enjoyed for years and enjoyed it so much we did twice over the years is that you go into the central valley and you're going up the 99 or you're going up the five there's always a sign where water flows who can fill in the blanks skip that's it where and after all we're human beings remember that one from elementary school we're vegetable matter human beings and to recognize what Jesus was saying what he had and when you think of the picture of Eden of old and what the the heavenly eden is depicted as in the new jerusalem with the water where water flows plants grow he his life and to drink of him and to drink of his example and by god's grace try our best to walk in his footsteps as we follow him there is life in john 1 4 join me if you were there the gospel thereof john 1 4 it says this in him speaking of Jesus was life and the life was the light of men he nourishes he brightens things up we notice again in hebrews 10 and verse 20 let's go over there for a second hebrews 10 and verse 20 and we often use this verse but we're sinking in it we're drinking it in with with this context therefore verse 19 brethren having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new notice by a new and notice a living way a living way which he concentrated for us through the veil that is his flesh he of the i am of the way of the truth and the life gave his life died for three days and three nights that you and i might live with god the father and him of where he's going and preparing for eternity revelation 116 this will be my almost last verse revelation 116 revelation 116 that first chapter very important if i can make a comment as we're going through this year and something i brought out in the prophecy class when you're studying revelation whatever chapter you want to go to two and three quote unquote get into the exciting stuff and 16 17 and 18 with Christ coming back to earth conquering the beast getting rid of the false prophet and all that kind of stuff but some of the challenges that are going to face the body of Christ down these last 2000 years to whenever Jesus comes back always start with revelation one use revelation one as an intro into the rest that is so important when he said let's capture this because we're reading out of the gospel of john john 14 i'm the way the truth and the life john heard that in 31 ad but now years had gone by years had gone by almost 55 to 60 years when the vision comes to him at patmos and this is what is so exciting it says here he's speaking about Jesus and what he is seeing of the heavenly Jesus in this vision and it talks about in verse 16 about he has the power he has a two-edged sword and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength remember Jesus is light he was the creator and when he said out of his mouth in the beginning there was light it's still going and when i saw him speaking of Jesus i fell at his feet as dead but he laid his right hand on me saying to me do not be afraid i am the first i am the last i am he who lives and was dead and behold i am alive forever amen and i have the keys both to the grave and to death write these things write these things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place two and a half human generations had gone by since the early church was it myth was it legend did Jesus somehow get lost over these last 50 or 60 years that was why the vision came to John that the one that they knew had been nailed to the cross and buried and then what they heard about the aftermath you know the disciples going to the grave and the doom the boom and all of that was it true was it real or had maybe Jesus forgotten them the one who is the way the truth and the life that we can live by and there's a bolt of inspiration and the panorama of the heavenly throne to a man that had been his beloved the man that had rested his head on his shoulder i am the life first john 5 verse 20 last verse let's start in verse 19 we know that we are of God and the whole world live excuse me and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one now notice this and we know that the son of God that's Jesus has come the same one that was in that loft that night saying i am the way the i am the way and i'm the truth and i am the life has given excuse me has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true who is true and we are in him who is true in his son Jesus Christ this is the true God this is eternal life and what God does we're talking about a GPS in the physical sense as we travel through the megalopolis of San Diego up to Ventura and everybody in between what God has done is it's something they don't even have to reach for like your smartphone the indwelling of God the indwelling of Jesus Christ the giving of the Holy Spirit is embedded in us it's in our responsibility for safe keeping and the thing i just kind of want to share with you it does have batteries too if you don't use it if you don't use that lifeline to God and seek him out and ask the big questions like Thomas did well that's a dumb question no it's a important question when Thomas mentioned that one question in like two lines in the Bible it opened up Jesus Christ on the last night of his life to get the full compass of why God the Father can say my beloved son I need to find himself that spirit showing us the way this is the way walk you in it that spirit is alive and well and will act it'll come have you ever been to done a GPS I haven't Susan is my little GPSer sounds like an old Jen and Dean car song doesn't it my little GPS or go go go but have you ever not gone the right way you're not listening to the instructions you are in the way then you get that noise and you go no bust it again and the little person says go up to the next turn make a left turn and get back on this road Susan I don't I think we're the only ones that have missed the calling of that GPS I'm just are we the only ones now I know Joel is a very intelligent person but have you ever had that happen you that's why he's so intelligent okay you can still come up and play the piano after church okay God has called the weak of the world and I'm living proof sometimes but we've had that oh moment many times in all seriousness that's how God's holy spirit works it will prompt us it will not control us but it will alert us it will guide us and between that moment between that moment and stimulus the spirit speaking to us and what we do is when we make a decision we make the decision that do we truly believe that when Jesus revealed himself I'm the way I'm that proverbial example of the guy with the machete going through the jungle and sometimes we're looking for every other path than the one that God has set before us and sometimes we're looking for every other path than the one that God has set before us remember this as we go through 2025 when in doubt recognize who the pathfinder is and to recognize at the end of the day it's not just finding the path he is the path and as the spirit of God guides you remember what he said follow me