[SERMON] The Main Quest — Knowing Jesus and Making Him Known | Side Quest Life

In this concluding message of the "Side Quest" series, the speaker uses the world of video games as a lens to examine life's ultimate purpose. Drawing from John 17:3, Matthew 28, Philippians 3:8, and Ephesians 2:8–9, he challenges listeners to move beyond the busyness of everyday "side quests" — achievements, sports, entertainment, and success — and pursue the one thing that truly matters: a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The message closes with a call to action: start the main quest, walk with Jesus daily, and make Him known to the people around you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

This is the last week of a four-week series. We've started talking about video games, kind of some of the nerdy things that I'm into. And you guys realize I play different games than you. I think that's what a lot of you realize. And um it's fun to talk about games. But three weeks ago, we talked about uh video games that have maps. And in them in the game, there's a main quest on the map of these different points you can go, but there's also side quests, and that one game in particular I shared had 6,270 different side quests that were not the main quest. And we talked about how life has a lot of side quests. There's the main quest in life that we go towards Jesus, towards heaven, towards eternity, but then everything else in life is a side quest, and it can grab our attention, pull us in, take us away from the main quest. And the problem in life is not side quests are not necessarily a bad thing, but when they become the main quest or take away from the main quest, then they become a bad thing. And so a lot of us have spent way too much time in side quests and not on the main quest. And we talked about that. Uh two weeks ago, we talked about uh how some games have a little button you can press, and you press the button, and a lighted path comes up that you can follow the main quest path. And life is very similar, we talked about how you can have that path. It's called the Bible. Psalms tells us very clearly that the Bible, the Word of God, is a lamp before our feet that lights our path. And so we can actually follow the main quest path very easily just by engaging God's Word. We can choose that and to be able to follow that line. And then last week we talked about NPCs, non-playable characters. It is all the people you meet in the video games that aren't on that help propel the story forward on the main quest. And some of them can take away from the main quests and put you on side quests, and some of them can give you resources and help you in the main quest. And life has NPCs. That's all the people that you come across. I uh I was uh out and about in the neighborhood, and I was behind this black truck that said Hoddle in Spring Arbor, and so I hocked you on the horn as much as I could at a stoplight because that's fun to do. And uh Sarah Walters, I found it, was Sarah, looked around, I was like, hi! So, like that was an NPC interaction, right? Sarah was out in the world, right? But also your NPCs are your neighbors, they're the grocery store workers, the customer service agents, they're the people in your life that are not you. And some of those people propel you forward in life, and some of those people deter you from the main quest. That's just the reality of life. And so some of those relationships will help you know Christ better, and some of those will pull you away from him. So that's kind of been the journey we've been on. And so today, as we finish up, I really want to talk about the main quest. What is the main quest in and how do we understand the importance of the main quest? Because if you never complete the main quest in life, you didn't really finish the game. You just stayed busy in it. You can play games and not do the main quest. You can actually start a game and say, I don't want to follow that in line to the main quest. I want to just enjoy the world because a lot of these games have beautiful worlds and they have galaxies you can traverse and entire globes that you can you can uh cross over, and so you can actually ignore the main quest. And you can spend hours and hours, hundreds of hours, sometimes dozens of hours in these games not doing anything but side quests. And that's just the reality of it. And so if you don't actually finish the game, you're just staying busy taking care of all these different things that don't really matter. And some of us, our lives are like that. We're busy, we're productive, we're successful, but we're disconnected from the actual purpose of life. There is a purpose of life. It's not playing video games as much as sometimes I would like to say that is. Um it's ultimately not being busy, it's not achieving, you know. We we see these athletes who get statues for their accomplishments, and we see people who who who have great success financially have bigger stuff, bigger houses, bigger cars, big calls. And guess what? That none of that's the meaning of life. Because I, as a pastor, I've been doing this 30 years now. I started pastoring in 1996 while I was in college. I was a youth pastor. 30 years I've been a pastor. And when I think about it, I have been at the I've been in a deathbed dozens of times in my life watching people pass on from this world. None of those people have statues there of them in the room. None of them have houses, cars, boats, whatever. None of them have their degrees with them. No one's clutching their University of Michigan degree. Although they should. No, I'm just kidding. None of them do that. You know what they do? They have three to five people who they deeply love and love them sitting there with them as they pass from this world. The only thing that really matters is the people. And so you can win at life and still lose your soul. You can be successful, you can get statues, you can have degrees, you can have bigger houses and stuff. You can get all that stuff and still lose. And you can lose your soul. And see, the meaning of life, it's not achievement, it really is relationship. Relationship with God and relationship with each other. That's the meaning of life, really. It's relationships. How do we live out that relationship? And what does it, how does it change us and change our eternity? John 17, 3 says this. And this is eternal life. That they know you. Oh, the yellow part's yours. The only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you sent. This is eternity. Not that you have statues in your honor, that's you have a number, you know. Uh, you know, that they retired your football number or your volleyball number or whatever number in your high school or college or professionally. This is eternal life, that the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you sent, that you know. Know them and they know you. That's important. See, life is really about relationship with God and relationship with others. And I when we've talked about in this series, we've we've said this over and over again the last four weeks the real purpose of life isn't money, isn't success, isn't achievement. It's knowing him, Jesus, and making him known. That is the meaning of life. And I can tell you, if you live that purpose, you're a much happier person. So, you know, if you're depressed, frustrated, anxious, alone, or any one of those things, it's because you're you're you're focusing on the wrong purpose in life. The real purpose of life is knowing Jesus Christ and making him known. That's it. We know this from scripture. It's very clearly communicated from Jesus to his best friends when he's about to ascend into heaven to go prepare eternity for us. He says in the Bible, he says in Matthew 28, we call this the Great Commission. It says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. That means go to all the NPCs, right? Go to every NPC you can come across and make them disciples. And the better translation of the Greek is not go therefore. That word that gets translated as go therefore in English is actually would be better translated as as you are going and interacting with NPCs. It doesn't say NPCs, though. Um all those nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. So Jesus tells his closest friends, as you're going through life, make sure you teach people, you baptize people, you make disciples. Like that is that's the work of my followers. Now we aren't those 12 people, but like them, we can say, this is what Jesus told the closest people to him. And if that was their mission, guess what? Our job, our purpose is to know him and make him known. So the way that he told his closest friends to know him and make him known is anything you're doing in life, go and make disciples and teach them. That's the same charge for us. That's the purpose. We like to summarize this by love God, love people. Now, love God, love people is not a heart of the lakes thing. Those other churches didn't steal it from us, right? Every other church in town probably has some iteration of that on their wall because it comes from the great commandment where Jesus tells them the purpose is to love me and love each other. That's life. That's what that's so when you love God and love people, you know him and make him known in the world. That's what we do. And you can know Jesus and still not know Jesus. That's the scary thing. You can know Jesus and still not know Jesus. And here's how we know James 2.19 says this. It says, but someone will say, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? See, even the demons believe in Jesus. Like when I was in I was in university and I was studying, like all of my professors, whether they were Christians or not, or they believed in Christianity, they all agreed Jesus was real. Not one of them challenged that concept. What they disagree on is that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. That's the disagreement, but the the historical person of Jesus, they don't deny. And so you can believe in Jesus. Those professors believed in Jesus, but they missed Jesus. The actual person of Jesus. And the danger is for a lot of us Christians, we know Jesus, but we don't really know Jesus. We believe in him, we believe he's real, but our lives haven't really been changed by him, so we don't really know Jesus. See, Christianity isn't about completing tasks, it's really about knowing a person. You can go through life checking off all these tasks, trying to do it, trying to be successful at being a Christian, all this stuff. But if you don't actually know Jesus, it doesn't matter. If you don't live that relationship, it doesn't matter. That's the reality of it. See, Philippians 3.8 says this. It says, indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. All the stuff that we do in life, it is considered to be rubbish if it's not the main quest. The main quest is knowing Jesus so that we can gain Christ, knowing our Lord. The stuff that we do, those side quests, they're rubbish. They are. Mother's Day goes up a little bit because moms come. But in general, in spring, it goes down. And here's why. All the rubbish in life. All the rubbish. Sports, kids' sports, right? Hobbies, musicals, going out and doing entertainment, hanging out in the lake, all that stuff. Oh, it's nice out. Let's go do this. It's rubbish. And the purpose is it takes us away from the main thing that should be the important thing. There's side quests. And side quests aren't necessarily bad, but life, cheerleading, football, t ball, whatever, you name the list. I mean, I can do a herky better than a lot of you. So cheerleading's not bad. Not today. But uh all I need is put my pants on video. That's that'd be terrible. Maybe third service, and we don't record it, I'll do a herky for you, all of you. So but ultimately all that stuff is rubbish, and we're teaching our kids that rubbish is more important than Jesus. We are as a community. We're doing it as church, we do it as parents, we do it. And listen, I don't think any of those things are bad. I'm a guy that went and played football at the University of Michigan. It was great. But it was just a side quest, and it wasn't the main quest. And that's how you have to understand the difference. While I was on that side quest, I started being a pastor as another purpose in life because I knew there was more than that. So ultimately, we want to live in a way that we gain Christ. Because side quests, they they can't save you. They can't save your kids, they can't save your grandkids. And we spend so much time teaching the importance of side quests that we miss out on the main quest, and our kids and our grandkids miss out on the main quest. See, in games, you can complete everything. You can complete 100% of the map, you can max out your character. I like to do that. Get your character to the max level, and then it's easier to beat the main quest. Or some people are completionists, they like to get everything done, all 6,270 side quests done, so they can get 100% completion of the game. You can finish every side mission, you can do all that, you can do all of that and still not complete the main quest. Because you have to actually go through the main quest and get to the end of the game. Ephesians 2, 8 through 9 says this for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. In life? The main quest is Jesus. But the only way to get there is by accepting the free gift from God. There's nothing you can do or try to make happen on your own, except accept that gift. Now, a lot of video games, I love video games these days, like a game like Fortnite. Fortnite, if I want a cool skin and I don't have the money for it, my friends can just buy it and send it to me as a gift. And you receive it, and then you get this beautiful thing. Like there's all kinds of gifting now in video games. In the same way in life, we get gifts. God gave us the greatest gift is his son Jesus. That was the gift. Not because what you do matters, but because what he did matters. But if you don't complete the main quest, none of it counts in life. All the side quests or not. Doesn't matter how rich, how famous you are, you won't take it when you leave this world. Friday, I got to go to a funeral and I did a funeral for a person. I didn't know him. Uh I knew uh her son, and so he asked me if I would do the funeral. I was like, Yeah, I'll do the funeral. Um, one of the things I found out in the course of doing it is that she deeply loved the Lord. And so Friday, I got dressed up in a suit and I was having meetings beforehand because it was in the afternoon, and people always like see me in the suit, like, oh, why are you in a suit? What does that mean? Well, if I'm in a suit, it's typically a funeral. So just so you know, I don't wear suits on a regular basis. So and so I'm like, well, I'm doing a funeral, and then people were instantly, Well, I'm so sorry. And like, don't be, I'm not sad, right? I didn't know her personally, and she deeply loved the Lord, so I'm not going to a sad thing. I'm going to a celebration of her life because she's with Jesus. She completed the main quest and she had victory in the game, right? And so, even at her funeral, like her kids knew that it was a celebration. Yeah, it was sad. But they know, they know where mom is. She lived 88 good years, Nancy Jean Patterson. 88 good years following the Lord. And it was fun to just hear her story. And I gotta honor her life because she completed the main quest. And you know what didn't matter in her eulogy? All the other stuff in life, all those other side quest achievements, none of it mattered. What mattered is the people that loved her and that she followed the Lord. That's it. That was the purpose. That's what really counts. You can be a good person and still be lost. I've done funerals for good people who didn't know Jesus and they're miserable. They're hard. I don't want to do them. Because what do you say? Right? They're not, they didn't live for the Lord, they didn't have a relationship with Him. They they failed the game. They didn't complete the quest. That's hard. You can still be a good person. You can live a good life and not actually know Jesus and follow him. See, completion is not the same as salvation. That's what we have to understand. Just getting to the end of your life doesn't mean you're gonna go to eternity. Some people like to say that because it feels good when you're at someone's funeral, they're like, oh, you know, they're gonna be with Jesus. The truth is they're not with Jesus unless they had a personal relationship with him. That's the reality. Completion is definitely not the same as salvation. For you and for your loved ones. And there aren't multiple endings, there's only one way. The Bible makes that clear in John 14, 6. Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. There is no other way. Living a good life does not get you eternity. I promise you. It does not. I've seen people pass, and the people that pass, people that pass with grace are the people that follow the Lord. They know, they know where they're going. The people that don't, they're scared. Because what's left? The way? The way to the end of the game, it's okay through Jesus. It's a relationship with Him. And Jesus isn't part of your life, he is the point of your life. That's the hard part. There's a lot of Christians in this room right now and in churches all over America where Jesus is part of your life. He's just not the point of your life. And that's the scary thing. And I would say in most of those churches, it's more than 50%. When I talk to pastors, they all believe it's about 20% that are people that really Jesus is the point of their life. The rest, he's a part of their life. We know Jesus. We believe in Jesus. We just don't make our lives about Jesus. Right? He's kind of like this guy that we we know, but we're not always proud of him, right? And when it when it comes down to it, like I was thinking about my my wife told me twice yesterday. Um I know. So I yeah, I so I'll tell you the story. Uh she was in the first service, she got a good laugh about this. Um, so I have a collection of games. So, and they spill over into my hallway. So now I have a bunch of stuff in the hallway that's from my gaming room. And so she told me yesterday, she goes, hey, before, because it's been there for months, let's be honest. Uh she said, before people come over again, like tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. Um, I have some, I have a pre pre-work gaming session tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. That's how much I love games. Um, so ultimately she said, before people come over again, could you move the stuff that's in the hallway out of the hallway? Because she's a little embarrassed by all this stuff just sitting in the hallway because it's right by our bathroom, so everybody sees it. And so I thought about it. I was like, yeah, she said it twice. It's Mother's Day, I probably should move it today. That would be a good day to do it. Like, hey, I heard you for these last few months, got you on Mother's Day. So uh yeah. It's gonna, I'm gonna it's gonna be a win for me. I've been waiting, saving up. Um but here's the thing some of you, that that kind of rubbish that you've collected from your side quest, that's how you treat Jesus. You take Jesus and you move him out of the way, you hide him until you want to put him on display. That's the same way some of you live your life with Jesus. Jesus is part of your life, he's there, but you go, I gotta move him out the way because I want to do something else. I got a side quest I want to do. And Jesus is in the way. Some that's a lot of Christians, so it's how a lot of us live our lives. Jesus is in the house. He's just not to be on display at all times because I gotta do all these other things I want to do in life. Jesus is supposed to be the point of our life. See, moms, I think, understand this sermon better than most. And here's why. Because moms know this. Life gets cluttered. Calendars fill up and activities multiply. If you think about my life, I think about my life and my calendar, my calendar is full. I know people don't realize, like, my family never has a free moment. If you don't get on the calendar, you just you really can't call me last second and say, hey, you got anything going on? I always have something going on. It's just life. I've got three teenagers, right, and a and a busy gaming scene, right? So it's the truth. Moms get this because they have kids, they have schedules full of taking care of kids and making sure kids are loved and cared for, and they go to all this stuff. And then it doesn't get that much easier when your kids grow up because you have a few years before your kids start having kids, and then you multiply. Kathy maybe was in first service. She has three children. I said, Kathy, how many grandchildren do you have? She has nine. So she times her calendar by three. Because now it's activities for nine grandkids, not just three kids, and it fills up. Many of you, you grandparents, you understand. You are busier now than you were when you had kids because now your calendar fills up with all the grandkids' stuff. I think moms truly understand this. Life is has all these side quests that can pull you away from the main quest. And if you're not careful, you're no longer walking the main quest path. You're side quest, side quest, side quest, side, side quest, side quest. And before long, families can spend all of their time on side quests. That's the problem. And some of you families, that's what you're doing. You just bounce from side quest to side quest to side quest. And life tells you it's important, and the community tells you it's important, and everybody tells you it's important, but the reality is it's not important. Do you let me just say this do you know that you don't have to watch shows on Netflix? Right? You don't have to be able to go to work tomorrow and say, I watched that episode, right? No, I'm guilty of that too, at times. But that becomes a side quest, completing the show, and so I can talk about it with my friends. Well, what about reading John 3? Right? See, I think but great moms understand something powerful. A successful life means nothing if you miss the main quest. I think moms do a great job of trying to keep their kids on a path. The problem is not all moms keep them on the path that leads to Christ. The greatest moms aren't just successful at raising kids, they are successful at raising disciples of Jesus, worshippers of Jesus, and people who know Jesus. That's the key. And I really think that should be a testament, not only to moms, but it should be a challenge for the rest of us. Are we doing that in our own lives? Are we pushing for that in our own family and friends? So, what does this mean for you? Why are we talking about this? I think when we talk about side quests versus main quests, the real question is I think we need to ask at the end of the series is have you started the main quest? You really started the main quest? Or are you just playing around at life, going from side quest to side quest to side quest? Yeah, I'll start the main quest eventually. I believe in Jesus. I mean believing in Jesus just gets you in the game. That's it. You're in the game. Or believing that Jesus lived, died, rose again, yeah, that just gets you in the game. That doesn't mean you're on the main quest. Some people think that's just enough. That just opens the map up. And then the unit of the game, and oh, look at all these side quests that could be on in life. Are you just busy going from side quests to side quest? Are you really living the main quest in your life? And then I think the question you got asked after that is are you walking with him daily? Alright, did you hit the button? Is the light showing you the way? Are you really walking with Jesus? Are you reading your word? Are you praying? Are you spending time with his people? Are you really walking that path? Or do you just believe in like you're still doing your side quests? And like I said, side quests aren't always a bad thing. It's when they take away from the main quest or they become the main quest that that becomes a problem. And then you gotta ask after that, are you making him known? If you believe in Jesus and you've entered the game, then are you making him known? Are you telling people about Jesus? Do they know Jesus better because you're in their life? That's the hard thing. I was having a conversation this week with a young guy, and I and uh he was talking about church at school. And uh he said, Yeah, I was like doing this thing at church, and like, and then one of the other kids was like, Did you invite him to church? Well, no, no, I didn't do that. So, why didn't you do that part, right? You you mentioned church, why didn't you just take the extra step? Well, because they probably make fun of me or something. Do you take the extra step to make him known? Right? See, Romans 10, 9 says this. I love this passage. I love we use this a lot here because it's it's so powerful. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him the dead, you will be saved. This is important. And I love how the English translation does this it puts confess with your mouth first. And then it says, believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead. You'll be saved. If we don't actually do something with our faith, it's just a belief. The demons believe and shudder. They're scared of Jesus. They don't confess Jesus is Lord, but the demons believe he was raised from the dead because they know it. So the difference is they just don't confess that Jesus is Lord. Have you actually confessed that Jesus is Lord to somebody? Have you told somebody I believe? Some of you here, you're here because you're questioning, you're investigating, and you you believe in Jesus. That's why you're here. Hey, I believe God's real, Jesus is real. I don't really know what I believe about it. I don't know really if it's for me. Maybe it's the main quest that I'm just side questing through life right at the moment, but I know that that's the main quest that eventually I'll do. I think you really start on the main quest the moment you say, I believe that Jesus is Lord. Now, are you gonna stay on the main quest? Are you gonna live it? And I think you get it. Not spend your life completing everything except the one thing that matters. Some of you just try to complete everything in life. I want every experience for my kids, I want my kids to not miss out on anything, I don't want to miss any show, I want to make sure I do everything in life, and guess what? You're never gonna do everything. That's one thing I've learned. I've done a lot of fun, crazy things, but you just can't do everything. There's not enough time to do everything. Sometimes you just gotta say, I don't need to watch that show. I get asked all the time, have you seen the show? No. Well, you should watch the show. No, and it's not because I'm being a jerk, it's because I know if I do that, it's gonna take away. I'm a binge watcher. So, like, if I watch a show, I'm like it. I'm gonna watch every single episode until it's done. Same with books. So the the best way for me not to engage in that is just to say, no, no, not gonna watch that. I'm glad you really enjoy that. So maybe one day, if life slows down, I have time. But sometimes you just have to say, if I keep the main quest, the main quest, I gotta cut out all these distractions, or at least enough of the distractions that allow me to stay on the main quest. I have things I enjoy doing, but you just can't do everything. Some of you, you're trying to do everything, you're trying to be everything for everyone, and it's killing you, it's killing your soul. We gotta focus on the one thing that matters. At the end of your life, the only question that will matter is this. And I promise you this, I've been there a lot with people. Did you know Jesus and did you make him known? Did you know Jesus? Did you make him known? I've never seen anybody take anything out of this world when they take their last breath. I've only seen the people sitting there with them. That's what really matters. And the legacy that you leave when you know Jesus and you made him known to those people that you love, it matters. It matters. When I'm talking to a brother and sister the morning of their mother's funeral, and they're telling me how much their mother loved the Lord and how comforting that was, and how much their father knew the Lord who passed years ago, and how excited they were for their reunion with Jesus in heaven, and how excited they are that in just a short time they'll be able to see them again. That is so powerful. And these are people with money and means. Do you know what matters? Do you know Jesus and do you make him known? That's that's the meaning of life. And if you get that, your life changes. Everything changes about your perspective because that's the main quest. That's the main quest. And so if you're struggling and you know you're one of those Christians who's accepted that Jesus is real, but you're not really living the main quest, you're just kind of swerving to and fro as we talked about last week or a couple weeks ago. The best way forward is the main quest. To just choose, I'm gonna know Jesus, I'm gonna make him known, I'm gonna make that the purpose of my life. And here's the great thing sometimes Jesus puts you on the side quest because he wants you to accomplish something for him through that. And you'll have great outcomes from it. I believe that's that's my life in a nutshell. Crazy things happen to me, God makes them happen, I don't make them happen, and I just keep focused on him, and whatever those things happen, happen. It just is what it is. But if you're not keeping the main quest of the main quest, you miss out on what God has for you because you're trying to make it happen yourself. Stop living for you and start living for him, and then watch what he does and will do through you. You gotta know him, make him known. If you're struggling, you know that today, like you're like, I'm not on the main quest. I know we've been talking about this for a few weeks, but I'm not on the main quest. Get back on the main quest. You make that decision. Get on the main quest. Just say, I'm done, I'm done with the busyness of life. Some of you need to make hard decisions about what you do and what you allow your kids to do.

unknown 30:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

I know parents get mad at them. I say you shouldn't be doing this stuff at this time or Sunday sports, whatever. I don't think you should. Like if you really live in the main quest, or at least I think you should prioritize. You can go to that early service to get to that 11 o'clock practice. You don't have to miss all three services, isn't it? Right? This isn't just about coming here, it's about where God's priority in your life. I remember running, I remember running from my car, putting football pants on as I'm running to practice, to football games at 1 o'clock p.m. Because back in my day, they didn't let you have anything before noon on a Sunday in the school district. I remember running with putting my pants on as fast as I could because we had 10:30 service. I had to get there. And we would leave in that last song. My parents like, you're going to church no matter what. That's our priority, and everything else has to fit into it. Now you can miss everything for stuff. If you're lost, distracted from the main quest, here's how we can help you. We can pray for you. Like we've been there, I've been there. There's been times in life that I have to realize, well, I need to get back on the main quest. If you're there, don't be beat yourself up. Just say, all right, I need to refocus on Jesus. That's that's the way it is. And if you need help with it, we can pray for you. On the back of your connection card, make sure you put your name in the front. On the back, just write main quest. We'll pray for you as a church. Some of you, I would say, pastors, pastors that I work with, we talk about this stuff. Pastors that I talk to, we believe less than 50% of people are in a church on a Sunday morning are following the main quest. They believe in Jesus. They know there's a main quest. They're just not living out. Actually, I think the last time we graded out, most of us were about 20% is what the number was. About 20 to 30% of people that in a church are following the main quest. Or they're really knowing Jesus and making him known. The rest are side questing. Sometimes they hit the main quest as they swerve back and forth. Who are you? Where are you at? Do those statistics make you mad, frustrated, or is it like, oh, I think that's me. If you're lost, time to get back to the main quest. For some of you here, maybe you're here because you're investigating Jesus and you're trying to figure this whole thing out. That's awesome. And you believe that he's real. You just haven't got to the point where you're confessing with your mouth. You haven't made that commitment to really, you know, there's a main quest, you just haven't started it. My challenge to you today is start. Just start. Just believe. And the way you can do that is grab your connection card on the bell. Oh no, just write confess. You just write the word confess. That means when I see it, you're acknowledging that Jesus is Lord. And you believe in your heart that He was raised from the dead. That's just right that. Then start living for Him. Start living the main quest. And we need help. We'll help you as a church. You can come to Bible Studies, you can come to Life Group, you can get plugged in. We will help get you plugged in. Pastor Matt will call you this week and say, how can we help you? How can we help you on that journey? Because that is what life is about. It's about the main quest, knowing Jesus and making him known the world. We want to be a church where we are doing that, and we're encouraging people to do that in their lives. So as we pray together, let's pray that we are Christians who live a main quest and not Christians who side quest. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just pray that, Lord, we can accept that free gift of salvation that only comes through your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we acknowledge that. Many of us have been living it out in our lives. But at times, Lord, we get lost, we get stuck in the side quest life. And we forget that the main quest is what we're to live, of knowing your son Jesus and making him known in the world. Lord, we pray we can do better and be better as we choose priorities for our families, for ourselves, and as we share what we value with the world. And that thing that should be most important of all should be Jesus. Lord, we pray if anyone here just knows they're they're not on the main quest right now. They're on the map, they're playing the game, but they're not on the main quest. Let pray that, Lord, your Holy Spirit directs them back. Gets them out of the side quest that pulled them away, pulls their priority, and helps them know you and make you known. Lord, if there's someone here who's just acknowledges that you're real, Lord, they believe, but they just haven't given their heart to you. They haven't decided to confess that they believe that you're Lord. I pray, Lord, that they do that now. They just make that confession today. However, they tell someone that came with or write it on the connection card, Lord, and just start the journey of the main quest of knowing you, making you known the world. Lord, we just pray we can be a church that values Jesus above all things. Lord, we pray this in his name. Amen.