Where Are You Going?

You know, this is a simple church, first Thessalonians 4:11 and 12 is kind of a a life verse for me and um it says, "Aspire to lead a quiet life and to mind your own business and to work with your own hands." And it speaks to a simple life. It speaks to um just being at peace in the Lord and and uh growing in um And this is a simple church, okay? Um it's it's a beautiful church.

If If you miss a week, we miss you. Like we know you're gone, okay? I spent a year at a a certain church and and uh was involved in small groups and everything, never met the pastor. You know, it was just a mega church and you just it's just different than here.

And so, this is a simple, beautiful little church. I want to start off with a story. I want to welcome the people online. Mom, I know you're watching.

Um and uh probably my brother, too, but um and others, but my sister sent a text this week about uh my nephew, Geo. She home schools and home schooling is a tough game. Um you have to be very disciplined to to home school successfully and my sister's a marathon runner, so she has the proper discipline, but um she shared this and I share this as you know, a light-hearted um thing. So, Geo is his name.

She goes, "Geo and I were discussing during school today why Jesus told parables and how by taking it to the third person, people didn't feel personally attacked and put off off by him." So, I told him to go get his shoes on before piano lesson, but he insisted he would put them on in the car. So, I told a parable about the guy that didn't put his shoes on before he left the house and his feet got dirty and he got car sick and puked all over the place. And Geo went and put his shoes on right away.

God's ways are perfect. Isn't that hilarious? God has a plan for my nephew's life, okay? And he's got a plan for your life, too.

Jeremiah 29 11 says, "I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope." And um today's lesson is called where are you going okay? Um where are you going? Do you know God's plan for your life?

I will tell you being in the center of his will is the best place to be. It is um safe, it is growing place to be. God knows strengthen you that you don't even realize. Likely he's been growing you for a time that's coming, okay?

And you don't even know it. I didn't know it, but he's been preparing me for 20 years to be a pastor. I didn't I didn't know. Um so how do you find his will?

You must spend time with God, period. That's how it happens. You have to spend time with God. John 8:31 tells us, "If you abide The word abide means to like dwell in, all right?

To be in. If you abide in my word, okay? This Bible and my word, you are my disciples indeed." To counter that, you can almost say if you're not spending time in his word, you're not his disciple.

All right? That's the the antonym to that. Antonym? I think that's right.

Um and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. So time in this book is key to getting a grasp of what God's plan is for your life. Don't go online and hope that that's going to do it for you because online can get you distracted very quickly, okay? You go into one thing and the and the person sounds smart and he's speaking in a good tone and he he sounds like and he's he might even quote a scripture, but he might be taking it a smidgen off wrong.

But if if you're in that vein, then the algorithms are going to keep feeding you that stuff, and soon you're down a rabbit hole. I was, you know, Bible study on Friday with a a group of seasoned guys, okay? I was might have been the youngest guy there. And uh one of them was like, "My daughter has just gone down a rabbit hole with this end of the world stuff.

She's And and and you can get lost in that, okay? Where you're just you're just going down all these trails, and this person's this and this Whenever you're online with anything, take it back to this book. Test it against this book, okay? That's the safest place to be.

This book and a journal, get alone with God, and get real. Um Hand in hand with that, we need to be in prayer, okay? There's different types of prayers. There's intercessory prayer, where I'm praying for you, okay?

Um in this church, we have a lot of intercessory prayer going on. If someone does a prayer request, and and there's uh slips there for you to put prayer requests down, we'll pray for you. I'm talking about guidance prayer. You can pray for guidance, okay?

God actually likes you praying for wisdom and guidance for his life. James 1:5 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." Okay? In the Old Testament, God came to Solomon like a genie in the bottle.

What do you want? Solomon goes, "I want wisdom to lead your people." Okay? God was so happy with that that he gave him wisdom and wealth and and and, okay?

Ask God to show you his will. It must be hand in hand with time in the book, okay? Time in this Bible. The goal should be to spend more time in the Bible and on your knees praying than you do watching news, reels, sports, podcasts, even music.

None of those things are bad in moderation. None of them are bad by themselves, but mano a mano with God is the way you're going to find the plan for your life that he has for you. You start getting it in the word and in prayer. But, then as you walk down that path, you need to be in fellowship with other believers okay?

It's a key piece of it. God's plan includes the church. Paul talks about one person being a thumb, one person being a finger, okay? If you're not connected to a church body, you're not serving in there, you're not the church is God's plan for the resurrect for the for the world to be reached, okay?

Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, he looked at Peter and said, "And I also I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it, okay?" The church is how God plans to reach everyone, okay? The church is how you will grow. The church is how you will fine-tune, okay?

What that is. God said in the beginning, "It's not good for man to be alone." in Genesis 2:18. We need fellowship.

And who you choose to walk with matters, okay? If you walk with people, they can get you Bad company corrupts good character, right? If you hang out with the wrong people, you can get uh down the wrong path, so choose wisely. God's model for life includes fellowship with other believers.

Acts 2, so after Jesus went back up, we're celebrating Resurrection Day. He was risen, but then he also walked around and over 500 people saw him, okay? In a court of law, if you have two eye witnesses, case closed. Okay, there's over 500 eye witnesses to Jesus, so case closed on that one, okay?

He did come and he did get risen again. And as it was going, he he he brought the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, okay? And in Acts 2, we're watching the beginning of the church, and this was God's plan. And if you you read it, Acts 2:42, and they, the body, continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.

That's the study, okay? Of the word. And fellowship, and breaking of bread, and in prayers. And that's what we've just been talking about, okay?

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now, all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among themselves as anyone had need. They were caring for each other. They were taking care of each other, okay?

This week Donna called me all upset over something with Stephanie, you know? And we started praying. Okay, that's that's the family taking care of each other. There's eight people at least that normally come here that aren't here today, and I know where each one of them is and why they're not here.

They're out with family or whatever, okay? It's it's a fellowship. Um the church is where you'll fine-tune your mission and your vision, okay? You might start serving, and you'll understand strengths that you didn't understand you had, okay?

Um when you you other people can see things in you that you don't see, okay? And and that can help you fine-tune what that plan is. Interaction with others, both serving and being served, is where God can provide clarity on his plan for your life. If you just sit at home and just watch videos, and you're not actually in a local body of believers, you are missing a key piece of God's plan for your life.

You can't find it completely by just watching on a screen. to be a remnant in times to come. Someone prophesied that over us not too long ago. And I didn't really get it at the time.

And then God shared with me Revelation 12. Here Satan gets thrown out of heaven and he comes down to attack the Christians. And he says here in 12:17, "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Now, that word rest in the original language is loipoy, which means remnant, okay?

So, that remnant, what's what's important about them? They keep the commandments of God and they have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They're abiding in the word, they're obeying God's commandments, and they're loving on people, loving on others, okay? That is what this church is going to be in these times that are coming, these crazy times that are around.

We're going to be a remnant witnessing and talking to people. It's also going to be a place of transparency and openness. Starts with me up here, you know, admitting to all my flaws. There's almost no skeletons in my closets that I haven't um unveiled here to you guys.

Um so, it's nice. You don't have to worry about my you know, some preachers they fall. You don't have to worry about this one falling. I've I've shared everything with you.

Everyone knows it. There's no secret that's going to come out, you know, in the news. If it is, it's fake news. Just trust me.

Um but James 5:16 says, "Confess our trespasses to one another and pray for one another." Okay? It's like what we were doing this week. All right?

It's like a family. It's a place where you can be real, where you can get fed, where you can get recharged, experience love, okay, safety, get clarity on God's plan for life. You can know God's plan for your life. You can have clarity and purpose, and you can be centered and fulfilled.

I hope that when you came in today, you felt the love. You got hugged on, got loved on, unless you snuck in late. Um you know, then then I hope you you experienced that, you know? So, how do you get clarity on God's plan for your life?

You spend time in the Bible first, okay? Spend time here. Spend time in prayer, okay? And then spend time in fellowship with other journey men on this thing called life, and you can get to the center of God's will.

And if you do, James says, "You'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Now that is dealing with this life. Where you going now? Okay?

There's a really important question, though, that has to be asked this day, which is, "Where are you going when you die?" Okay? There's only two places where you can go when you die. All right?

It's heaven and it's hell. All right? There's not lots of ways. I heard something and I don't know if she's still this way, but I I I heard of Oprah at one time talking on her show that her vision is God's on top of a mountain and there's many ways up the mountain, you know?

Um that's not true. All right? Today, many people have beliefs, okay? And those beliefs, we have to get to the truth, okay?

The belief doesn't matter. The truth is what matters, okay? Lots of people can believe what they want, but Jesus Christ in John 14:6 said, "I am the way, the truth the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Okay? People will say, "Well, that's exclusive." Truth is exclusive. By default.

2 + 2 is 4. Every other answer is false. It's exclusive. Okay?

Truth is not inclusive. There's not relative truth. Truth is truth, okay? If Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father, then all other ways are false.

Okay? Do you see that? Truth by default is is exclusive, okay? Some people think, "Well, I'm going to get to heaven uh because I'm good, you know?"

I do mortgages for a living, okay? And so, when I ask someone, "How's their credit?" and they say good, I've seen it be 600, which isn't good. And I've seen it be almost 800, which is excellent, okay?

People's perception of good is whatever their perception of good is. Who should be the judge and the jury of what is good, okay? The Father, right? God the Father should be the judge of how you get in.

All right? And in the Old Testament, he threw down some laws. They're called the Ten Commandments, okay? We're going to walk through a couple of them just to see how good we're doing as a as a as a group of people, okay?

Very first one, you shall have no other gods before me. Okay? When you wake up in the morning, is God the first thing you think about? How much time do you spend in the day worrying about money versus worrying about what God wants you to do, okay?

How much time do you spend? I I made the mistake of making my second wife kind of an idol, okay? No, God was first intellectually, but the way I spent time showed what was really most important to me. Where you spend your time and your money is what's most important to you.

And so, the person who says they love Jesus, but they spend 6 hours a day watching TV and sports and stuff, where's the idol? So, right there. First one right out of the gate, failed, okay? Failed, deserving of hell because I failed.

How about we'll skip down to I think the fifth one, honor your father and mother. Has anyone ever talked back to their parents? Yes, you have. Um uh Okay, so boom, guilty, guilty as charged, okay?

How about thou shalt not steal? Has anyone ever take a pen like from a hotel lobby or or maybe a towel from, you know, or some people have some really nice robes that they got from some of those things, okay? So, guilty again, all right? Thou shalt not bear false witness.

That's lying. Has anyone ever tell a little white lie? Right? So, right now, we're all liars, thieves, idolaters, okay?

We're we're a happy mess right here, all right? But let's go New Testament cuz Jesus really amped it up, okay? God took it easy on them in the Old Testament. Jesus in Matthew 5:21-22, again, this is one of the 10 Commandments, but Jesus puts a whole 'nother level to it.

Matthew 5:21 through 22, he says, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Anyone who's just angry in your mind, judgment. Okay?

And whoever says to his brother, "Raca!" shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, "You fool!" shall be in danger of hell fire.

Jesus spoke about hell 33 times. More than probably almost anybody else. Okay? Why?

He's been on the other side. He knows what's there. There's heaven and there's hell. He knows it.

Okay? So he shares it. But according to him, if someone cuts you off in traffic and you're like, "Oh, you blah blah blah blah!" you've murdered on Jesus's standard that person.

Okay? Once you start getting to even our thoughts, I don't think there's a person in here who can stand up to it. Like Matthew 5:27-29. This is the last one.

You've heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not commit adultery." But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Is he saying go pluck out your eyes?

No. What he's saying is hell is so bad, you would be better off plucking out your eye than ending up there. Okay? You don't want to end up there.

But God, 2,000 years ago, made a way. Okay? To where all of us, you know, by God's righteous standard standard, none of us pass the test. We all deserve hell.

Okay? Every single one of us. But God made a way. On that cross, all of our sins were nailed to that cross.

Okay? What we celebrate today is that after he took all of that and died, he rose again proving that he is God and and affirming that he can take care of all of that. So, anyone now who wants to be saved just has to repent and ask Jesus in as their Lord. Okay, it's the fairest thing in the world.

Right? It's I mean, it doesn't matter what your nationality is, color, anything. You can You can do it. You'll have to bow your knee.

But, you're bowing your knee to the God of the universe, man. On that cross, as he was about to breathe his last, he said, "It is finished." John 19:30, okay? The word for that is tetelestai, okay?

It's a word they used to stamp on more debts that were forgiven, okay? Or debts were forgiven. Bam, it was finished on the cross. Tetelestai.

They used to claim victory in battle. Tetelestai. Okay, he he he won the victory over sin, over Satan, okay? In the garden, God promised that Jesus would bruise the head of the of the serpent, okay?

And he did at the cross. The redemption of mankind was complete. Religion won't get you It's an empty tomb. as the head of the religion, okay?

Only one. And that's Christianity. All right? There is only one way to heaven and it's a relationship with Jesus.

It's not religion. It's Jesus, okay? If you're sitting there counting on your religion, whatever it is, to get you in there, and there's no relationship, Jesus says that he'll say to many in that day, "Get away from me. I never knew you."

Okay? Don't be in that crowd, okay? There is a judgment day. On that time, there's the sheep on one hand, on the right hand, okay?

They're all the people that asked Jesus into his into their heart. They're people that are in the Lamb's Book of Life. And then there's the goats. There's going to be a lot of good people in the goats because they didn't bow their knee to Jesus, okay?

If Oprah doesn't change, Oprah might be there. Okay? Um So and that's hell for all eternity, man. It's It's It's this 70 years that we're so consumed with is a blip.

It's a dash. You've got all eternity, all right? To be in one place or the other. Don't let that be you, okay?

If you're not sure this day if you're saved, okay? I beg you to come up here, all right? We'll nail that down today. And as the band comes up, okay?

This is serious business. We're dealing with serious business right now. All right? This is eternity.

There's a real place, okay? Of heaven, and there's a real place called hell. And you're going to end up in one of those two places based on whether you asked Jesus into your heart, okay? And you may think that maybe your sins are too bad and nothing and you don't you can't get there because your sins are so bad.

There's nothing that you can do that can't be forgiven by Jesus. Even murder. You can repent and he'll forgive you, and that sin will be as far as the east is from the west. It'll be forgotten, okay?

There's nothing you can do. So nail it down today, all right? Let's nail it down today. You don't know when your last day is.

You could die tomorrow. You could die this week, all right? Don't let an opportunity to be saved pass you by cuz you don't know what tomorrow brings, okay? Nail it down.

I don't know when's your last day, but I say don't wait, okay? Let's nail it down today. We pray over you guys. Heavenly Father, Lord, in this time, I just ask if anyone in this room isn't sure that they're sure that they're sure that they'll come down, I'll be right here.

And uh come down and let's nail that down today. Lord, I pray don't let fear hold you back from coming forward. Lord, I pray that if anyone was pricked by any of these things we talked about today, that they'll come forward, lay it down. If there's something you've been abiding in in sin for a while, you don't know, but but even if you're doing it in quiet, it's hurting you because sin separates you from God.

So, repent, come down, clean that up, get that out of there so you can restore that relationship, so you can get into God's plan for your life. Lord, I just pray your hand over everyone in this room. I pray that your glory will be magnified today. Lord, I pray that your spirit will be present in here and anyone anyone that's out of my voice, even online, um I ask that they come down, repent of their sins, turn it over to you, Lord, and accept you as the savior.

And I pray that now in Jesus' name. Amen.