Our theme this weekend is "Follow Me" and last night Scott started out by talking about how sometimes we think we can just kind of "follow" Jesus like we would follow Him on Twitter. I like Twitter, I follow a few people and it's fun to check it every once in a while. But Twitter's got nothing on Instagram!
If you don't know Instagram, I'll give you a little crash course. Instagram is a lot like Twitter and similar to Facebook, but it's all pictures. I love photography and, therefore, I LOVE Instagram! Just like Twitter, you join Instagram and then you can "Follow" people and see their pictures and they can "Follow" you and see yours.
The BEST thing about Instagram is that even if you're not the best photographer or you don't have the latest greatest 42-megapixel phone, Instagram makes your pictures look REALLY GOOD! You can choose from all these cool filters and effects and they make it super easy.
So, if I was to show someone who wasn't actually on Instagram my photos, they might think, "Wow! You're such a great photographer!" But what they don't know is that underneath those beautiful, seemingly "perfect" shots are just some boring old cell phone pictures. Instagrammed photos are NOT always what they seem!
I want you to think about this idea tonight: Things aren't always what they seem.
In the book of John in the Bible, Jesus says seven "I AM" statements. Tonight we're going to talk about two of them.
"Therefore Jesus said again, 'Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.'" John 10:7 & 9
Scott was saying this morning that since most of us have not grown up around sheep, this whole picture Jesus uses about sheep is a little "out there" to us.
BUT one thing we can actually relate to is this idea of a gate. How many of you have ever seen a fence? How many of you have ever seen a fence of some sort with a gate? Gates are everywhere! We see gates on houses or property, gates to airplanes, gates that you have to go through to get into a stadium to see your favorite team play (E-A-G-L-E-S!).
Those are all different "kinds" of gates, but they all have one thing in common. Gates keep people out who don't belong in that area. And only those who meet certain requirements - with some sort of ticket or key or permission - are allowed "IN".
So when Jesus says that HE is the gate and whoever ENTERS through that gate will be saved, He's saying the goal is to come IN here, to come through and be saved. Being saved just means having personal relationship with God now and eternal life with Him in Heaven. So whoever enters through the gate will have that.
And just like all gates, there's a requirement to get IN through this gate.
The problem is that it SEEMS to many people in our world, and it might even SEEM to you, that the requirement to meet or the "ticket" to get in is that you must get yourself together and start following all the rules and being a really good person. Then you can be a Christian, then you can be "IN".
But, like I said before: Things aren't always what they seem.
I grew up going to church EVERY Sunday. I'm not exaggerating - I had a whole chain of "perfect attendance" award pins. I was a Bible trivia champion and on top of all that I was just a really good kid. I can list for you the one time each year from Kindergarten through 8th grade that I got in trouble or even got spoken to in school. Like in Kindergarten when someone spilled their juice on my sandwich and my teacher yelled at me, or in 4th grade when I put an assignment in the wrong place on my teacher's desk. I remember those moments because it really was that traumatizing for me to be spoken to because I worked really hard to be really good.
And I thought that was how God worked, too. I thought that because I went to church, knew lots about the Bible, and followed the rules, that I was already "IN" through that gate.
But one night when I was 16, I was sitting around a campfire at the camp I worked at and I heard for the first time that being saved - having that true relationship with God now and eternal life with Him in heaven - was not just something that "happened" by "default" to people who went to church and did good things. I learned that I could truly and for sure enter through that gate right then by praying and asking Jesus to come into my life. And so of course I did that that night. August 10, 1994 was the night I entered through the gate and started a true relationship with God. That decision that night literally changed my life forever!
The thing that really hit me hard during that time of my life was this verse:
"We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved? We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind." Isaiah 64:5b-6
How many of you have ever gotten really dirty? Like really dirty? Anyone ever gotten totally covered in mud or been in a really big food fight or jumped or fallen or gotten pushed (yes, this happened to me) into a disgusting goose-poop filled pond? YUCK! When you get that dirty, you try to clean yourself up and three days later you are still finding dirt like in your ear lobes and between your toes - it's just nasty!
This verse tells us that every single person - not even the most moral, good, rule-following person in the whole world is actually "GOOD". And it's not just like we have a little sin here and a little sin there. This verse says that we are INFECTED with sin. It's not just like the mud you got all over you at that rainy soccer practice that you can just wash off, this sin is deep and it's infected us, it's inside of us.
I thought my whole life that I was "good", not just that I was a good person, but that I was "IN" with God BECAUSE I was being good and doing the right things. Don't get me wrong, it was great that I was doing those things and being a good person, but the problem was that I thought that was the requirement, I thought that was my "ticket" to get in. It was like I was walking up to the gate with my pile of good deeds and showing them to God, but all I was actually doing was taking a rag, wiping some of the dirt off me and handing it to Him. "They are nothing but filthy rags."
One of the things Scott mentioned this morning about sheep is that they are dirty and have no way of cleaning themselves.
Unlike most of you, I did grow up - not having my own sheep - but I did spend quite a bit of time around sheep. I grew up in a state called Vermont, about 7 hours north of here and what Scott said is totally true! Sheep are really dirty!
I used my Vermont connections this week and actually have here to show you some REAL sheep's wool. Scott said this morning that this stuff is like literally a magnet for dirt and dust and pieces of hay and leaves and poop. Gross!
So now that I'm a mom, it really bothers me that in every kids book we read about sheep, they look all perfect and bright white and fluffy and you just want to pick one up and snuggle with it. And if you never grew up around a farm or just spent any time around REAL sheep, you might actually think sheep looked like this!
A lot of people, and maybe this is even true of you, think that if you want "IN" with God, you have to be one of those perfect sheep. So many of us think we're already in because we try really hard to do what's right and we put on our church clothes and our church smiles and do lots of good things and, just like my Instagram pictures, we make ourselves look really good.
For some of you, it's the opposite, though. Some of us look around at someone like Scott on stage or your youth pastor or some other kids in your youth group and you think, "I could never be like that. I'm too bad and I've made too many mistakes!" Or maybe you just don't even care because you know it would be close to impossible for you to live up to that. So you come to stuff like this because it's fun and you think, "Well, that's all nice and good - all that Jesus stuff - but it doesn't really apply to me because I'll never be 'good enough' to be 'IN'."
And if you keep believing that, that Jesus is kind of "out of our reach", eventually you'll probably just walk away from Him altogether. Just like Moses, as Scott told us about him last night, he screwed up big time and he took off because it SEEMED to him that God was surely done with a murderer like him.
BUT PRAISE GOD that things aren't always what they SEEM!
The REALITY is that no matter how "good" or how "bad" or how "somewhere in the middle of the two" you are, The Great "I AM", the God of the universe is pursuing you. He wants to have that true relationship with you from this point on and for eternity.
The REALITY is that just like sheep, we can't clean ourselves. No matter how hard you try to clean your "wool", you can't do it. No matter how hard you try to earn or make it look like you've earned a place in Heaven or a relationship with God, it's not possible.
The REALITY is that when God sees you, no matter where you are on that good/bad spectrum, He sees the dirty wool. You were born infected and dirty.
But the most amazing and crazy REALITY of all is this:
Isaiah 1:18 says:
“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool."
The REALITY is that we can go from this dirty wool to this pure white wool not by trying really hard to make it look clean, but simply by allowing God to do it for us. The gate to a true relationship with God here on earth and eternity in heaven with Him is not ANYTHING else except Jesus Himself!
Jesus was God on earth as a person. He was born, He grew up, He showed us what God is like. He spoke powerful words about God, He did crazy miracles to prove that He was God, but He also died. He was killed. He was executed like a criminal, on an execution device called a cross, but His death was not failure. His death was very much the exact reason He came.
Before His death, Jesus said this, the second "I AM" statement we're talking about tonight. John 10:11 says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." It was all part of the plan. We're the sheep - we're defenseless and dirty - but He is the Shepherd. And by willingly and literally laying down His life, by dying, HE made us white as snow - white as pure, clean wool.
"For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood." Romans 3:23-24
The sin inside of you is deeper and darker than you will ever know and no matter how you a hard you try to clean it you will never even make a dent. But the passionate and pursuing love that God has for you runs infinitely deeper than the deepest of all that sin.
You can't fix it, BUT GOD CAN. When you choose to receive Jesus into your life, you meet the requirement at 100% because He is the requirement. He Himself is the gate. When we have Him in our lives, God DECLARES that in His eyes the dirty wool is gone and when He looks at us, He just sees perfect, clean wool. We don't automatically become perfect and stop sinning, but when God looks at us from that point on, He sees Jesus in us!
“Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool."
Maybe you have already done that. Just like I was talking about on me on August 10, 1994. If you have already made this decision, you don't have to make it again!
But maybe you need a reminder that you are IN because of Jesus and not because you are doing lots of good things. Maybe you need a reminder that no matter how much you've screwed up since then, God still and will always see you like this pure, clean wool!
Maybe this is the first time you're hearing or really "getting" this. Maybe you've even grown up going to church like me and you just thought you were "IN" and inside the gate because you were doing the right things or because your family is "Christian".
The verse we read in Isaiah 1 says, "Come now, let's settle this". Let's get this straight right now! If this is you, why not make right now the moment you settle this once and for all with God. Stop "Instagram editing" the picture of your life and handing Him your pile of good deeds and get real with Him!
Maybe you know you've been on the outside of the gate. Maybe you just have never heard this before and something is just stirring up inside of you that says, "I want that! I know that God is pursuing me and I want to go through that gate, I want Jesus to be in my life!"
Or maybe you just didn't think it was ever going to be possible that RIGHT NOW, even though you know the sin in your life is real, that YOU, even YOU, in all of your dirt and your mess, could be "IN".
If you are ready to make Jesus REAL in your life, you can settle things up with God right now and truly walk through that gate freely. If you can feel God tugging on your heart right now, talk to Him!
"God, I know that You love me and You are pursuing me. I fully admit to You that I have sin in my life and no matter how hard I try, I'll never make myself clean. Jesus, I believe in You pray that You would come into my life right now. I pray that You would make me completely clean in Your eyes. Thank you for being such a GOOD shepherd. Thank you for saving me. Amen."
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