Jesus Is The Door | John 10:1-10 | July 12th, 2026

“Jesus never said He was God” sounds confident until you slow down and read John 10 the way the original audience heard it. We walk through Jesus’ words, “I am the door,” and show why that “I am” language is a direct claim to divine identity rooted in Exodus 3:14. Once you add cultural and historical context, the passage stops feeling like a soft metaphor and starts sounding like a confrontation: false leaders climb in, the true Shepherd enters the right way, and Jesus alone defines how anyone gets safe.

We also talk honestly about modern “thieves” that don’t always look scary at first. Cultural Christianity can keep all the church language while quietly protecting comfort, control, and a self-centered version of faith. We contrast that with what Jesus actually offers: salvation, freedom to “go in and out,” and pasture that is often rocky but always provided. The promise is not that life gets easy, but that the Shepherd gives what we need today and keeps moving us toward what we most deeply need, which is Him.

The most surprising turn is the gospel logic under the door: Jesus doesn’t only die for our sins, He lives for our righteousness. We can’t walk into the presence of a holy God carrying our own resume, and God doesn’t grade on a curve. Through Christ, we’re cleansed and clothed, credited with His perfection by grace. We end with the two-sided reality of the door: gentle Savior now, righteous Judge one day, and the urgent invitation not to delay.

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Transcript

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Please turn in your Bibles to John chapter 10, which is on page 896 in the Pew Bibles, and follow along as I read God's Word. John ten, verse one. Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To he to him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but he they

Reading John 10 Aloud

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will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

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This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Amen. Good job. Thank y'all. Morning, Mit Tree. My name's Tim, um, associate pastor here. Um so, so happy to be here. Hey, my uh I call him my father-in-law, but he's actually my youngest son's father-in-law. I I introduce him as my father-in-law. He's here. Mike's here today. Do y'all welcome him today? Actually, this is wild. My youngest son is on staff at First Baptist Peach Tree City, where Mike's wife is on staff. And my son is preaching this morning at Morningside in downtown right in the middle of downtown Atlanta. And a few weeks ago, he called and said, Dad, I'm preaching at Morningside. What should I do? I said, Hey, let's let's walk through this together. So we've been studying this passage together for three weeks, and he's preaching up there this morning. So that's pretty cool. But Josiah, the um analytical mind they talked about, let me tell you what happened over here a minute ago. He's got a little twinkle in his eye sometimes too. And uh he put the right the wrong passage was up there at first, and I thought he's he's messing with me already. But then uh right as there the this wonderful worship was starting, I went to seeing and thought, is he gonna pump me and turn this mic on while we're over here? But he didn't. Thank you. That would have been awful. Um but man, I'm really happy to be here. This is a real really unique church. I don't know um if you've been to a lot of churches, but it's a really unique place, such a healthy place. Will and these elders and this staff, man, they're just wonderful. And I really appreciate the chance to serve here. It's it's a blast. And George and I are locking in on closing on our house the end of this month, and we got one down here, and she'll be here. Um, and there's a pack of people coming from my old church for the second service, and y'all welcome them when they get here, if you would. But um, it's been a while week looking for a house, studying for this sermon. My wife's down here, and it's nuts. Um, but man, we've got a good, good shepherd. We really, really do. And um, Greg's gonna talk about that next week. We're gonna stick with I Am the Door this morning. And at first I thought, 30 minutes on I Am the Door. My son and I talking through this passage, we're just talking about how this is just so rich, man. This this these 10 verses, it's crazy. Um, so we've been looking at these I am statements. Today we're looking at I Am the Door, and I'm gonna leave mostly, where's Greg? The shepherd to Greg over there. Yeah, I'm I'm gonna stay out of your territory as much as I can, but they do kind of blend together. Um, but I just want to say this one more time. It's been said up here several times in this series. When Jesus uses the phrase I am, he's claiming a title. He really is. And in 2026 in the West, some people might think I don't see that. Um, but this audience 2,000 years ago saw it and heard it. And uh so so I so I know this is low-hanging fruit for you guys at Midtree, but if this is kind of new to you, Chris, don't ever let anyone tell you that Jesus didn't say he was God. He could not have

Why I Am Means Jesus Is God

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more clearly said it than he did right here in this context. And uh Jesus was claiming to be creator, eternal, holy God. Um, and this is directly linked to Exodus 3, 14, when Moses um asked God, when they ask me your name, what shall I say to them? And God answered, Tell them, say it with me, I am has sent you to them. So um here's what this I am claim would have been communicating to his audience in this context. Jesus was claiming that he possessed life within himself. It's a big claim. Today, uh totally self-sufficient and doesn't depend on anyone else for his existence. He was claiming eminence right here in front of these Jewish leaders and these Pharisees. In other words, the God of the Old Testament is standing right in front of you. This is wild. Um, hard for you and I to appreciate the hand grenade that this language was in front of these people. But I've got a friend. Um, my Eagles Landing buddies that'll be here later have heard me talk about him a lot. Um, his name is Bob. That's not his real name, but this is being videotaped, and I don't want to get in trouble. But uh cannot get Bob off my heart. Can't um picture uh long hair, leather breeches, session musician in Los Angeles, rock and roll guy. Been known him for a long, long time. Um, but he is an angry, rabid atheist. And um, he thinks we've all checked our brains at the door. That's what Joey or Bob thinks. Sorry, I just gave his name away. So we talk about once every couple of weeks, Bob and I talk. I knew that I put Bob and capital letters in here, and I knew that was gonna happen. But uh we talk once every couple of weeks, and all of his arguments are are really old. Bless his heart. He thinks he's the first person that's ever thought of these these questions, you know, and we're back and forth. It's not a it's not an argument. I'm I'm just he just wants to talk about this stuff. He wants to argue. I want to talk about it. But one of his main hang-ups um with Christianity is that he claims Jesus never said he was God. Um, Bob claims he's read the Bible, searched and searched, can't find it anywhere. Um, but I'm telling you, Jesus could not have more emphatically said than he did right here, I am, I am God. Um, so I've been talking to Bob about context. That's what we've been spending a lot of time talking about. When studying the Bible, you have to apply context. You have to apply literary context, you have to apply historical context, and you have to apply cultural context. Listen, the Bible is a weird book if you don't apply context. I mean, I'm telling you, um we don't have a file for these cultural mores that we're reading about, this uh Judaism clashing with this Roman secular culture. But when you consider who's who Jesus is talking to here in John, everything changes. Everything changes. This agrarian culture, livestock, sheep, fishermen, and Judaism, you know, all right there together. And in that context, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and the religious leaders, the Jewish religious leaders, all right? And I told I told Bob, I said, you know, the people listening to Jesus knew that he just said he was their creator, God, because they wanted to kill him for it. All right. Doesn't work. Pray for him, Bob. God knows who he is. You use the name Bob. God knows who he is, all right? So um, this was radical incendiary language. So I've started to realize actually that Bob can't acknowledge that Jesus claimed to be God because then somebody's gonna get to tell him what to do. And that's what's really going on. Um, he says things at times that he thinks are gonna make me stop talking to him. I know I'm going on a lot about Bob, but here's what I wanted to get to. The only reason I haven't ruined my witness with him, and I've been close, I've typed things and deleted them, I've said things on the phone, and he'll say, What? No, no, no, that's not what I meant because my flesh just goes berserk when I'm talking to this guy, you know. But um the reason why I haven't done it is I know that I have a shepherd, and I know he has patience with Bob, at least for now. He has patience for him. Uh he's been far, uh been through far worse than Bob being mean to him. You know, Jesus took a lot, and I'm a dumb sheep, but I have a shepherd. I have a shepherd, and he's gone before me, and we're gonna look at that real quick. I'm not gonna rob Greg of all of this, but um, let's cheat a little bit and look at verse 4. John 10, 4. When he we're gonna get to the other stuff in a minute, but when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. He goes before them. Our shepherd has been maligned, he's been scoffed at, he's been shouted at, he's been laughed at, they pulled his beard out, he's even been tempted. Um, he's gone before us. He's experienced stress that caused him to sweat drops of blood. That's a real medical condition. This is low-hanging fruit for you guys at Mitri. I know that. But not to mention the death that he experienced. It's unbelievable. He conquered all of it. He knows what we're walking into, you and me. He knows what we face every day. And that helps me a lot to know that when I'm talking to guys like Bob or worse. And so he's fully man, but also fully God. And speaking of Jesus, Paul said in Colossians 15, I may not read all of this, he's the invisible, he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things, he's talking about Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. It's wild. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. So this is not a just an awesome dude that Paul's talking about. Um this is the one who was standing in front of these religious leaders. Paul just described him right in front of him. Jesus was telling these religious leaders, I'm creator God, I'm your creator. I created you. They knew what he was saying. All right, I know I've beat that to death. Thomas talked last week about the man that Jesus healed who had been blind from birth. Y'all remember that? Chapter 9. What we're going to look at today is directly connected to that. This is the same day, the same crowd, the same context. All right, they're very closely linked. Um, these same religious leaders who are trying to corner Jesus, the same religious leaders that cast that blind man out after he had testified about Jesus. This is all this is the context. So look at John 10, 1 through 2 and 7 through 10. That's where we're going to concentrate today. Verse 1, truly, truly, listen, listen. I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. We'll just read the rest of it now. So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and find in out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So let's break this down. What is a sheepfold? Get that up on the screen. It's this pen right here. Um when shepherds would bring their flocks in from the countryside into a city or a town, they would corral them up in a pen, um, like this one at night to keep them safe. These were uh there were these sort of uh more crude sorts of these pens out in the countryside. But when they would bring them into town, the shepherds would come into a village, and sometimes there would be other shepherds with other sheep, and they'd mix all this sheep together in one pen. You guys know this. And by the way, the sheep would enter through one door. All right, this is our day. And as they would enter, the shepherd would would lower his rod and stop each sheep,

Sheepfolds Thieves And False Gospels

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and then just check them out to see if they were diseased or wounded or their their wool was getting all matted up because that could that could actually kill them. And uh, and all through this one door. So Kay Arthur, she's the co-founder of Precept Ministry, said this if sheep do not have the constant care of a shepherd, they will go the wrong way, unaware of the dangers at hand. They have been known to nibble themselves right off the side of a mountain. And so, because sheep are sheep, they need shepherds to care for them, the welfare of the sheep depends solely upon the care they get from their shepherd. Therefore, the better the shepherd, the healthier the sheep. So I got a friend Nick Westbrook. How many Chick-fil-A people we got in here? Yeah, how many, anybody know Nick? I know Josiah knows Nick. Nick uh freaked me out the other day. He called me and said, Hey, I got a publishing deal with John Maxwell Publishing. I'm writing a book on shepherd leadership, and you're in my book. I was like, huh? Like I'm thinking of stories, you know, like what is he putting in this book? But he sent me a draft to read so I could give him kind of the thumbs up on the section that I that I'm a part of. Um but this is he said something pretty profound. He said, But a true biblical framework for leadership is ultimately measured by the condition of those being led. It's pretty good. And that's free for all you leaders in the room. The health and safety of the sheep is uh kind of the shepherd's responsibility, and then and the shepherd knew his sheep, top to bottom, front to back. So, verse one, we see this door. There's the sheepfold again on the screen. So this shepherd is laying down in front of this door. Um, he who does not enter through the door but climbs in another way is a thief and a robber. So he just called these Pharisees and religious leaders what? Thieves and robbers. Um, why did he use two words here? This is kind of interesting to me. So, thief, the group, the Greek word cleptes refers to somebody who steals secretly or deceptively, you know, trickery, fraud, all that stuff. This is the word from which we get the English word kleptomaniac. This is actually the word that was used for the thief on the cross next to Jesus. It's 15 times in the New Testament. A robber refers to somebody who takes openly by force or violence. So think of that word thief. This reminds me of those goobers that call you on the phone. You've gotten these calls. I got this call. I got this call not too long ago. It's usually a Middle Eastern accent, which is weird. It's the IRS calling, and the sheriff is after me. He's got a warrant out for my arrest, and if I don't send them a gift card, I don't know how that works, they're I'm gonna get arrested. And I I try to play with these guys for a little while. Um, you probably do too, but that that that would be the kind of stuff a thief would pull. Um the robber is the person that breaks into your house, knocks you over the head, and leaves you bleeding and takes your stuff or worse. So that's the difference. Remember the audience here. They're leading people astray from the door, and they'll they'll eventually have Jesus killed. So he calls them thieves and robbers. They deceive. Now think about this. Um what would be the context for you and I now? This is Judaism, we're talking about. These are Jewish leaders, but we've got some thieves out there, don't we? Um at least in the American church, they deceive usually for personal gain, and the personal gain doesn't have to be money, it can be uh social equity or power or control or I just want to be on TV or whatever it is. They twist scripture and they say things that aren't true, they teach things that aren't true for gain to take from their flock. All right. I think get some get ready to get some feelings hurt. All right, we we got to talk about this. Um personally, I think one of the primary messages of thieves in the Bible belt is what is referred to as cultural Christianity. All right, it's not it's not Judaism, it's not the law, and a form of what they they're now calling the personal gospel. Now, the gospel is personal, but it's not just personal, right? So this is this is the message, cultural Christianity, or the gospel, personal gospel is this message that uh God is all about me. It's self-help. I want to become the best version of myself I can be. He's really up there just to do that for me. That's a per don't go there. That's that's not what the Bible is teaching really at all. Um, Jesus in that form in that gospel um becomes a means to get what we really want, which is that stuff. And man, Pat talked about it up here when he read Revelations. This band was talking about it. Jesus is what we want and what we need. All right. So this other stuff is trash compared to him. But that's the message of a thief. The prosperity gospel, that's easy. That's easy, low-hanging. We know we all know what that is. Cultural Christianity hides in the church. It really does. Um, on the surface, it sounds like Christianity, but man, something's not right. And I've been around it my whole life, and in my brain, something is saying, this sounds similar, but it's not the same thing. It drives me crazy. So um one day I'm getting ready to do this podcast with this guy, and I we're really excited to have this guy on our podcast, and I was listening to every word he said, and um, his name's Brian Houseman, and I and I asked, I heard him say that phrase, cultural Christianity. I said, Brian, what tell me what you mean when you're talking about that? This is what he said. He said, Cultural Christians are the church attenders, the moral people, the pillars of the community. All of those are good things, all right, by the way. But when you talk to them about living their life for the sake of the gospel, they would say, Man, come on, settle down. Just settle down a little bit. I love Jesus too, but don't take this so seriously. I like my comfort. I like things the way they are. Don't push me too hard. Don't ask me to sacrifice too much. I mean, that obviously they wouldn't say those things aloud, but um, one pastor said it like this in my context, everyone thinks they're already a believer, even if that's just a label and not reality. When sharing the gospel, sometimes you have to get them lost before they can get saved. It's good, man. Everyone has to go through the door. Everyone. And they have to first discover that they're outside before they know they need, they know they got to get inside. You know, um, you guys know this. I'm preaching to the choir, but you can't just adopt a language and join a church and go to heaven. You know, this is real simple stuff. You have to go through the door. And there's a real reason for this. And that's I want to make sure we get to that today. Jesus is the door. My wife's family has two different family reunions every single year. Big, close family. They love each other. When I first met all of them, it scared me to death. Loud. I scared my wife too, but it just scared me to death. Um, but really tight, and one of the things I love about her family is what they pass down to my little family, is my wife's gonna make sure we get together and hang out and have family dinners and all that stuff. My version of a family reunion on my side is I accidentally run into like a nephew in the grocery store. That's as far as it goes. That's it. So I didn't have what Georgia had growing up. I raised myself when I was growing up. If I wanted to go to school, I went to school. If I didn't, I didn't. My family was in shambles. Um 12, 14-year-old boy raising himself. That does

Why There Is Only One Door

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not go well. You know. Um, so that that was bound to bloom one day, and we'll do that another time. It certainly did. But then I started dating George, and I meet this big loud family, and and after we dated for a good long while, I decided I wanted to ask her to marry me. Well, I know I I knew I had to go through Pop. Chief Gibbs, chief of the Clayton County Sheriff's Department. Big dude, gun in a badge. You know, I had to go through this guy. Um, so that's that's my wife and her dad. He just died a couple of years ago. Love this dude. It's tough. Pop was the only way to get to Georgia. Why am I doing this? The only way. Pop or Chief had four beautiful girls and a son, and they all love their dad. Like love their dad. Um, and there were a couple of stories, man, that I would hear about Chief, like sheriffy stories. You know, like he did what? He did what to that, you know. Just, I mean, he was a tough dude and loved his daughters, and and there was no way around him. I had to go through pop to get to Georgia. There was no slipping in at night in the basement, no climbing in the window. No, not with that man right there in the house. And I kind of wanted to, but that wasn't gonna happen. So I asked for her hand in marriage, and literally, this is what he said. You can have both of them. That's what he told me. Um, and and the obvious point is there's no way around what Jesus said about himself. No way. There is no access to God except through Jesus, and there's a really deep theological reason why he says you have to come to me. He's not being needy, he's not being mean, he's not, you know, doesn't hate people in other parts of the world. There's a theological reason why he says you have to come this way. And it's beautiful and it's really good for us, and we'll get back to that. Here's one we all know: John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and life. No man comes to the Father except through me. We all know that one. But this idea was unbelievably offensive to a lot of people. It still is. It's not fair. What if I want to go another way, or like my buddy Bob would say, nobody's gonna tell me what to do, you know? Um, it it's uh it's offensive. Jesus makes it clear though I am the door, not a door. I am the door. What's going on in verse two? He who enters The sheepfold by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Thieves and robbers might sneak in to get into your house, but the shepherd walks through the door because he's legitimate. Right? He's not sneaking around. He actually cares for the sheep. He's not there to take from them, to rob them. Thieves and robbers sneak in. The good shepherd comes through the door. Look at verse 7 through 10. So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Here we see the saved will go in and out. In verse 4, we saw when he has brought out all his own. What's he bringing them out of? Bringing them out of dead religion, out of the old covenant into the new covenant. That's what Jesus came to do, one of the primary things. So we will be saved. Saved to heaven, yep. Saved from condemnation, absolutely. In heaven, there's going to be no more danger, no more thieves or robbers. We won't even have the capacity to sin anymore. That's going to be unbelievable. Like I'm going to be out of out of this skin, you know? But why do we get to heaven? A place where a holy God dwells, where there's no sin, a place where sin doesn't exist. I'm going to go there. You're going to go there to that place. I listen, here's what I want to tell y'all, man. I was 40 years old before I realized this. I heard my whole life in church that Jesus died for my sins. That's really good news. Another part of that is that he lived for my righteousness. I'm telling, I know that probably didn't land in here. Y'all knew that. I'm 40 years old. I've been doing this fear-motivated behavioral modification, religious nonsense my whole life. And then somebody looked at me and said that to me, and the lights came on. Oh, I get to go be with God because He clothed me in his righteousness. Didn't just die for my sin. He gave it to me because I went through the door and he's checking his sheep and he gave it to me. That's wild. So that's why those other forms of Christianity don't work. So we have to go through this door. You don't just get cleaned off when you go through the door, you also get clothed in his righteousness. That's why we get to be with him forever. When we go through that door, he gives me his resume. You're either going to stand before God with your resume in your hand one day, not good. All right. Or you're going to stand before God one day with his resume, with Jesus' resume. And the standard is perfection. It's not I'm better than the other sheep. The standard is absolute pristine perfection in your deeds and in your thought life. Jesus made that clear in the Sermon on the Mount. So I need something besides my performance to be with this God. So if you climb in another way, or you just don't worry about the sheepfold at all, you're going to stand before him with your resume in your hand. And this church is full of theologically rich people that get it. And I know this may not be for you, but we don't get judged based on a curve. You got to make a hundred. You got to make a 100. And I'm not making that up. James said if you keep, if you if you keep all the law except one, you're guilty of breaking it all. That's what James said. In Galatians, Paul said, and this is a paraphrase, if you choose to try to get in by keeping the rules, you're obligated to keep every single one of them. That's what he said. That's not the way. The door is the way. All right. That's actually trying to sneak in and climb over the over the fence. So we go through the door. He literally changes our identity. Perfection is credited to us when we go through the door. We stand before God with Jesus' resume in our hands. Then he starts to care for us. This clock's flipping me out. All right. Ray Vanderland. So Mike Malone's right here just scared him half to death. Mike and I went to lunch the other day and he said, Hey, our MCG's studying this Ray Vanderland videos for MCG. And and man, I went to uh Panam or Honduras on a mission trip one time, and our team, and we were trying to reach these Tolapan people, the indigenous people of, and they're the they're rattling us every day. So we're meeting as a team at night and we watch these Ray Vanderland videos. And Ray Vanderland um stands in the place where it happened on these videos and shares and teaches with and it's just mind-blowing. One of the best teachers I've ever heard. You gotta you gotta go check him out if you haven't already. But he's taught, he's standing in a pasture in outside of Jerusalem, and don't think a field of grass. It's rocks.

Pasture For Today Abundant Life

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That's all it is, with little tufts of grass poking up every now and then. And this shepherd would walk them across these hills, and here's the point, and he would provide for those sheep what they need for today. That's it. Just today. They didn't get to lay down and get fat and chew on grass all day, and he had to move them to another hillside eventually. But um that hill of rocks, that's the pasture in this con in this context. So he gives it so if if if you don't know that, that he's gonna give you what you need today, and and that's probably it. He's gonna confound you. You're gonna get disillusioned and wonder what in the world we're doing. He's gonna give you what you need today. That's that's a big deal. And then the shepherd moves him. Obviously, in heaven we get what we need forever. But here's what we get when we get to heaven that we really don't realize it. We get him face to face. They sang about it. Pat talked about this beautiful God. We get him. And I counsel people all the time, man, when storms hit. That's what I do up here a lot is counsel. And we want to know how long it's gonna last. When's this gonna be over and how's it gonna get resolved? That's what we want to know. And man, I've been to my share of dark places. I remember picking this Bible up and reading it and going, God, see, see, see, see, I'm reading again, I'm reading again. I'm sorry, I forgot to read and this thing happened. Will you please make the stop? Make this stop now. Man, that's not what's going on. Um, and by the way, God isn't mad at you when you do that, but I'm doing the kind of stuff that I drifted away from. Are we okay now? God, I had no idea what God was doing. And I had a mentor, Scott Britton, who looked me in the face. I'm spitting out Sunday school language to him. He's asking me questions. He looked right at me and said, Tim, Jesus is not enough for you. And it ticked me off. I'd been a deacon, you know, at the time. Jesus is not enough for you. He's a thousand percent right. I wanted what he could give me, but he was not enough for me. And I don't know if if that's where you're living or where you've lived, but I wanted God when he acted like I thought he should act. And I now know the point of that whole season was for him to begin to free me from dead religion and help me see that he's the desire of my heart. Like he, the person, not what he does, the person. Um, and by the way, it hurt somebody's feelings again. If you just look, none of us believe he's all we need, that he's everything, or we'd never sin again. We'd never reach for anything contrary to him ever again. So he died because he knows that about us. He's becoming more and more everything that we need, but we're not there yet. Um, so we reach for things, and you can fill in the blank for yourself, whatever it is that you reach for. Um, but he came and died because he knew that we'd do that. All right. So, man, we gotta wrap this up. Look at verse 10. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and the story. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. What is that? Are you do you have an abundant life? You got to know what it is to know if you have it. What is it? All kinds of ideas out there. And do I have it? Am I getting closer to it? Why is this so hard? I wish I had time to read this C. S. Lewis quote, but C.S. Lewis talks about how God comes inside and starts moving all the furniture and building new wings, and you thought he was just gonna give you a cute little cottage. And no, he's building you a palace and he's coming to live in it. That's what's going on. And so if you're in turmoil and struggling and all that, you're not weird. Um, but joy, joy and contentment, that's the abundant life. Contentment comes from God who never changes, never wants, never needs, and never stops shaping us. Um contentment drives high capacity people nuts. Like, that's not what we're supposed to be doing. We're Americans, man. We're supposed to be high achievers. But the reality is if you put your hope in those things, you'll never have the abundant life. You put your hope in him, you can go get all that you want. But your life has to come from him. Your life has to come from him. Um, so do you believe that fully that Jesus is the desire of your heart? No. I I'm standing on the pulpit. I don't believe it fully. I'm believing it more and more, but he came and died because I don't. So that's the abundant life. And my Brian, you can come up. I'm over. Um so there's one door, and that's Jesus. Look, every everything we've talked about so far is our perspective from our side of the door, the Jesus that children love to be around, the gentle and lowly Savior, the good shepherd. Doors have two sides, don't they? Pat read about the door from the heavenly view, this warrior king, this judge. You know, he's there too. And listen, one day this door's gonna be locked. And um, that's clear in scripture. Don't count on your goodness or your morality. Please don't do that. Don't measure how well you're doing compared to other sheep. That we're measuring ourselves against a holy, perfect God, right? And he came to give us his righteousness. So come to the door, who is Jesus, and let him make you clean and let him clothe you in his righteousness. Love y'all. Thanks.