SPEAKER_00: Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan, and thank you for downloading the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: In today's message, we consider the words of Jesus found in John chapter 14, verse 6, when he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: With this verse in mind, we learn that only one way leads to God, and that way is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Jonathan Kelly, and I'm the senior pastor here at First Baptist Church of El Dorado.
SPEAKER_00: And talk speaking to you this morning, one word really describes how I feel.
SPEAKER_00: I am grateful.
SPEAKER_00: I am grateful for all the children who attended BBS and led us in worship this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Again, let's give them a round of applause.
SPEAKER_00: I am grateful for all of the volunteers who uh led throughout the week, who built sets in the weeks prior to help our week be such a great success.
SPEAKER_00: Let's give our volunteers a round of applause.
SPEAKER_00: And I am grateful for every parent and grandparent who brought their children to VBS last week at First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: We love children and we especially love telling children about Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Vacation Bible School is one of the highlights of our summer.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm curious this morning, um, if you were to look at your summer family calendar, what is the highlight that you are most looking forward to?
SPEAKER_00: And it's my guess that for most of us in the room, the highlight of the summer that we are looking forward to the most is the V in VBS.
SPEAKER_00: We are looking forward uh to vacation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh our family, we went on vacation uh soon after the final school bill ranged this year.
SPEAKER_00: Our minivan was checked out and gassed up and loaded up.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the family was in the car.
SPEAKER_00: We are ready to back out of our uh driveway and hit the road.
SPEAKER_00: But but before we uh put the car into reverse, do you know what I do?
SPEAKER_00: I take out my phone and I tap on Google Maps and I enter in the address of our destination.
SPEAKER_00: Um funny thing is this, we go to the beach every single year, and we stay at the same place every single year, and every single year I pull out Google Maps to find out the way I'm supposed to go and how I'm going to arrive at the goal.
SPEAKER_00: And so this year, much like every year prior, I entered in the address where we're staying, and Google Maps responds this way: it gives me three possible routes, three possible ways that our family can drive on the way to the beach.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the first way was one that is 431 miles long.
SPEAKER_00: It said it would take seven hours and 35 minutes of drive time.
SPEAKER_00: It was the shortest by mileage and by distance.
SPEAKER_00: But it also offered an alternate route, route number two, 506 miles, eight hours and 13 minutes of drive time.
SPEAKER_00: And route number three, the third way that we could have chosen, well, it really wasn't an option because we don't hanger a plane out at the airfield.
SPEAKER_00: But if you wanted to, it said that you could fly to kind of very close an airport near our destination, knock off a couple hours of travel time, five hours and 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Now, like every family that I know, um, we chose the fastest way.
SPEAKER_00: But as you know, if you've ever gone on a road trip and used Google Maps, there are ways within the way.
SPEAKER_00: There are routes within the route.
SPEAKER_00: Um, those additional ways, those additional questions the app asks you.
SPEAKER_00: It occurs when um it says construction up ahead.
SPEAKER_00: There is a faster way.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to choose that way?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is what?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: I have hungry children, tired children who do not want to get stuck in traffic.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know any child that wants to get stuck in traffic, nor do I know any adult that wants to get stuck in traffic, and so even on this uh beach trip this year, it felt like we were going way out of our way, like back roads of Mississippi, uh, to avoid some construction.
SPEAKER_00: But they said it was the fastest way, so we went.
SPEAKER_00: But even if we had stayed the course, listen, even if we had stayed the course and we had gotten stuck in traffic, do you know what would have occurred?
SPEAKER_00: We would have eventually arrived at our goal.
SPEAKER_00: Or if um at our driveway we had chosen the longer route, that eight-hour route.
SPEAKER_00: If we had stayed the course, it would have taken a little bit longer, but we would have arrived at our goal.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that uh the three possibilities offered to us by Google Maps, it actually uh gives credence to that familiar saying: there's more than one way to skin a cat.
SPEAKER_00: Apologies to all the felines in the room and all the cat lovers in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Um that saying reminds us of something that's generally true in life.
SPEAKER_00: There is more than one way that leads to a goal.
SPEAKER_00: That's true when we go on our family vacation, it's true when we're working on a puzzle at home, it's true when we're uh working on a project at work.
SPEAKER_00: It's generally true.
SPEAKER_00: It's true in most areas of life that there is more than one way that leads to a goal.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you in one area where it's never true.
SPEAKER_00: It's not true.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually in the most important area of life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not true when your goal is God.
SPEAKER_00: When your goal is God, you have to remember this.
SPEAKER_00: Only one way leads to God.
SPEAKER_00: Like a Google map, you can think of your life this way.
SPEAKER_00: Your life has a starting point, and your life has a goal.
SPEAKER_00: The starting point of your life is when God and his goodness knit you together in your mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: And as evidence of his goodness and love to you, he says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
SPEAKER_00: That is your starting point.
SPEAKER_00: That's where you began.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of us have the same goal as well.
SPEAKER_00: The goal expressed in John 17, that this is eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: That they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_00: That's the starting point that you're knit in your mother's womb, and that's the goal to know God, that's eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: listen, what's the way that connects the knit to the no?
SPEAKER_00: How do you get from the knit to the no, from being knit informed in your mother's womb to knowing God?
SPEAKER_00: You know, some people to connect the knit to the no, they travel the way of know thyself.
SPEAKER_00: They look within themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They believe that if they discover who they truly are, then they will meet God.
SPEAKER_00: It's the way of kind of self-help and pop psychology.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture, however, reminds us that that way of self-help, of know thyself, is a dead end of self-delusion.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jeremiah 17, 9 says that the heart is deceitful above all things.
SPEAKER_00: Others of us, we we travel the way of effort and earning.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we kind of envision that God sits at the top of this ladder, um, and so we try to climb the ladder to God rung by rung.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way of good moral people.
SPEAKER_00: People who hope at the end of their life that the good deeds they have performed will outweigh the bad.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture, it too reminds us again that that is a way that is a way of a dead end.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 64, that all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
SPEAKER_00: We all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our sins sweep us away.
SPEAKER_00: Still, others of us we travel the way of ritual and religion.
SPEAKER_00: It's an actually kind of an exit off of that way of effort and earning.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is the way of good church folk.
SPEAKER_00: Folks who make it a priority to go to church and to even volunteer within the church.
SPEAKER_00: They know answers about the Bible, but here's the problem they don't know the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: That's why that way it too is a dead end.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 29 13 puts it this way: it says, These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
SPEAKER_00: Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
SPEAKER_00: Those are just three of the dead-end ways that people travel in an effort to connect the knit to the know.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe there's people here this morning that are traveling one of those three dead-end ways.
SPEAKER_00: And you're actually tired of walking towards the dead end, you're tired of not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: You you know yourself and you don't like what you see.
SPEAKER_00: You are moral, but you haven't found peace.
SPEAKER_00: You are religious, but you lack joy.
SPEAKER_00: Possibly you've even come to the point where you don't know if there actually is a way.
SPEAKER_00: Is there a way that connects the starting point of my life to the goal of my life?
SPEAKER_00: A way that connects me, the one who was knit within my mother's womb to the God who knit me in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, if that's you this morning, don't be discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: There is a way, but there is only one way that leads to God, and that way is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the words of Jesus found in John chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says this: I am the way and the truth and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_00: With those words, Jesus makes this definitive claim.
SPEAKER_00: Only one way leads to God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, he is that way.
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus can connect the starting point of your life to the goal of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus can bring you into a relationship with the God who created you because only Jesus paid the debt of your sin and defeated sin.
SPEAKER_00: You see, sin is that roadblock on the way of everyone's life.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is the roadblock that keeps us from having a relationship with God out of our own strength and power.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is the reason we find ourselves walking down dead-end routes.
SPEAKER_00: And we see evidence of sin in our life on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00: It could be a failed relationship, it could be an outburst of anger or an unfair criticism you offer towards someone, or just a cynical attitude, or an evil thought.
SPEAKER_00: All of us have sinned.
SPEAKER_00: Which means that if it were not for Jesus, we would be eternally separated from God.
SPEAKER_00: But God was not content for you and I to be separated from Him.
SPEAKER_00: When we couldn't make our own way, God made a way for us.
SPEAKER_00: The Father sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, into this world.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus came, because only one way leads to God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the way because he can remove the roadblock of sin.
SPEAKER_00: He paid the debt of that sin when he died on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus, listen, only Jesus could pay that debt because only he lived a sinless life.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus then he defeated death and sin because it's not in the tomb anymore.
SPEAKER_00: On the third day He rose again.
SPEAKER_00: He said, sin and death no longer have to have power over you.
SPEAKER_00: Sin and death no longer have to be a roadblock in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I did something no one else could ever do.
SPEAKER_00: I've made the way.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: when Jesus makes the way, then you can know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: You know the truth about God when you look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know that it is true that God is love and that he cares for his creation.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God loves all sorts of people when you read the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And when we see that love displayed through the life of Jesus, God loves liars like that man Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: God loves people who can't get their relationships straightened out like the woman at the well.
SPEAKER_00: And God loves people who consistently stick their foot in their mouth and don't do a good job listening like that apostle named Peter.
SPEAKER_00: The truth of the matter is that God loves people who are broken and messed up.
SPEAKER_00: He loves people like you and me.
SPEAKER_00: Like so often in life we think that if my life is a mess, there's no way God could love me.
SPEAKER_00: And so we ignore our mess or we act like it's not a big deal, or we just tell ourselves the lies that I've got it all together.
SPEAKER_00: But when we look to Jesus, we just see if we'll be honest about that mess, God loves me.
SPEAKER_00: God has made a way for people like me.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus came.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: when you walk in the way of Jesus, when you put your faith in him and trust him, not only do you see the truth about who God is, you also receive something in return.
SPEAKER_00: You receive this life that Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: Um as going somewhere for this endless duration of time.
SPEAKER_00: And that's part of it.
SPEAKER_00: Those who receive the gift of eternal life, they will be with God forever.
SPEAKER_00: But in the New Testament, the focus, the primary theme underneath eternal life, it is something for the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a quantity of time, it's a quality of life.
SPEAKER_00: It is someone who lives with the knowledge of God every single day that they are in a relationship with the Father who knit them in their womb, in their mother's womb, and now they're living in a relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus is the one because he is the way and the truth and the life.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one, the only one who can connect the knit to the no.
SPEAKER_00: And you can have that life today.
SPEAKER_00: You can start a relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You can get out of your own way, you can stop walking uh dead-end roads.
SPEAKER_00: And put your faith in Jesus Christ because only one way leads to God.
SPEAKER_00: To put your faith in Jesus, it begins when you just admit, you admit that you're a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: God, I have sinned against you.
SPEAKER_00: God, I am separated from you.
SPEAKER_00: You believe that Jesus is God's Son.
SPEAKER_00: You believe that He is the Savior of the world and the Lord of all creation.
SPEAKER_00: And then you confess.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Jesus, I confess that you are Savior.
SPEAKER_00: I confess that you are Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Will you come into my life?
SPEAKER_00: Will you save me?
SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone here this morning who is tired of walking the dead end ways?
SPEAKER_00: And you're ready to walk away that leads to life?
SPEAKER_00: To put your faith in Jesus Christ for the very first time.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand together and pray.
SPEAKER_00: Almighty God and everlasting Father.
SPEAKER_00: I ask that your Holy Spirit would work among us as we sing.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for the person who is far from you, who is walking in their own way right now, who's going a dead-end way.
SPEAKER_00: Call them out of darkness into the marvelous light of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Call them to put their trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To find the one who is the way, the truth, and the life, to hear the voice of Jesus this morning and to respond to the voice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is our heart's desire.
SPEAKER_00: To see people know you and to come into this life-giving relationship with the one who knit them together in their mother's womb and wants to know them, to live in relationship with them.
SPEAKER_00: Father, have your way in this place.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: As Dustin leads us in song, the invitation is simply are you hearing the voice of Jesus this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to respond and to receive him as your Lord and Savior?
SPEAKER_00: Let us sing.