Amen. This is going to be one of those kind of sermons where I invite you to say hallelujah before it comes
Because it is just that kind of sermon
Very few times do I want to shout before I preach but I shouted at home before I came in here
Because it's just that kind of sermon this morning
Some of you may not have known I've had a week of behind all kind of weeks
It was a week on the move. Any of my high school class of 2006 anybody here in the house?
I think they've already left the building
But I was had a little visitation over at Memorial High School and some of the kids looked up and said
Oh, Pastor King, you didn't have to go there
So I not only preach and teach here
But there are times when I'm called in to other places
And I was actually asked to come and give a word of encouragement to the students who were taking the test
But I think they got a little bit more and some of them even got a little shook up because the bottom line
I said God has a mission for their lives
God has a preferred vision for their lives and we're not going to sit down on our children
Nor we're going to sit down on what God is calling us to do this day
So I didn't let anybody take those children instead of a tie because they didn't fit the mold of what they thought
I was going to do because the teachers and the preachers and the principals
They really didn't know what I was going to say
But God had given me a good word for those kids. Didn't I give them a good word Miss Butler? Fired them right up
I don't know how well they did on the test, but they got fired up in the name of Jesus.
I even got permission to pray and I you know
I say this publicly sometimes we know that we can pray without ceasing and just because the public school system said we can't pray
Doesn't mean you can't pray while you're standing there in front of those children
You can look at them and bleed the blood of Jesus over them and say to the devil get me behind me
Say to you won't have my children, but that was only Tuesday and today is Sunday. So a lot is going on in this week
Amen
Then I went up to Lakeview and
believe it or not
God is still in the move up at Lakeview. I stopped by and saw some of my ducks on the pond
If y'all were here that Sunday, I had a little visitation
I went out to kind of walk on the water and the ducks was there when I got there
They had already taken their post. They like to come up here every day
But I stood out there on the edge of the plank and said we're gonna share this spot because I'm gonna talk to Jesus
While I'm up here in Lakeview and they just stood there and said you come and you can go but baby
We here all the time
No, I'm not crazy I talked to dust but you know, I'm not dr.
Doolittle but the bottom line God is still a good God and
Thankful we were nominated for the small church of the year
Full-time past of the year and late person of the year
Keep it in prayer and we'll see what's gonna happen at annual conference, but God is putting us on the map
We've always been on the map, but we just letting the map be shown beyond Port Arthur, Texas. Can you say amen?
This morning
This scripture is very known to many of us the truth be told we have told folks
What Jesus said?
Because Jesus said he is the way
the truth and the life
When I was growing up I used to think they were saying the way to truth in the light
They're like DHT
But it's good to go to the word and see exactly what it says
It says the way the truth and the life
So today we're just going to simply focus on what sayeth the Lord
The sermon title is simply Jesus said
And in order for Jesus to have said something we don't have to have said something to him, but in this case
The disciples wanted to get some info from Jesus
If we look at verses six and seven and particularly nine and ten
That's where I'm going to focus this message on I'd like to read it again for your hearing
It simply said Jesus answered. I am the way
The truth and the life no one
Comes to the father except through me
if you really
Really knew me
You would know my father as well
from now on
You do know
And have seen
Nine and ten says
Jesus answered
Jesus answered again
Don't you know me
Even after I have been among you
Such a long time
Anyone who has seen me has seen the father
How can you say
See show us the father
Don't you believe that I am in the father and that the father is in me
These words I say
To you
I am in the father
Don't you believe that I am in the father
And that the father is in me
These words I say
To you
Are not just my own
Rather it is the father
Living in me
Who is doing to you
This is not a tongue twister
This is not a parable
This is not a shake it up and throw it up in the air
Somebody's trying to keep me confused
We understand God in three persons
God the father
God the son
God the Holy Spirit
God the son
Came to earth
Boy I've seen
Hung on the cross
God
Roam the game
So that you and I
And you and all
Who choose to
All who want to
Have salvation
Within the kingdom
But they don't operate within
By themselves
They are one within each other
Yet there are priestly responsibilities
There are things that when you think of
This associates with God the father
And this associates with God the son
And this associates with the Holy Spirit
The bottom line is don't get confused
Because here he's simply
Saying look
If you've seen me
And you've experienced me
You have experienced the father
This is time, this passage was written
There was a waiting for the Holy Spirit
That is what Pentecost is about
We are coming upon the season
Where the Holy Spirit the comforter comes
But we already know
Because many of us
Have experienced
Jesus the way
The truth
And the light
Think about when you were young
And when your mom and daddy
Fired something
And then they left the house
Anybody here have siblings
If one sibling did something wrong
And the other sibling thought they
Were in charge
They would simply say I'm a tell
You know mom and daddy said
You know what they told us to do
You know mom and daddy said
Don't jump on the furniture
Don't turn the tv on
Don't get no attention
Don't turn the tv on
Don't get no more food
After refrigerator
You know mom and daddy said that
In my house
I wasn't real sure
All the time
About Jesus being the way
The truth and the light
But I was clear that my parents
Were because they put enough
Fear of God in me early that said
I'm not going to be ashamed
To take you into a new level
I know I'm authority here
So I mean my parents had that thing down
If they weren't Jesus
They definitely were junior Jesus
And they had been appointed and anointed
By God to let me know
They were the representation
Right here on earth of the way
The truth and the light
And if I was going to come through
Their house I needed to recognize
The way, the truth and the light
At the Thomas House Hall
Because I was going to be in trouble
If I went another way
Well that's kind of what
Jesus was letting Thomas know
Look Thomas don't
Be doubting at this moment
I'm answering these questions
For you and I'm specifically
Letting you know who I am
Whose I am, how I work
And you need to understand
That I'm not going to be ashamed
Of my name
But their name couldn't seem to
Kind of hook into that
They said well if you say
You're the way, the truth and the light
Then who's the father
So this scripture is really
To help us break down the fact
That don't get confused
God is giving us
Some very direct instruction
Telling us who he is
Telling us what's critical in life
Look, look to me
Look to me
In the Acts passage
Stephen got stoned
Somebody say Stephen got stoned
Stephen got stoned because
He was following the way
The truth and the light
But what does Stephen do
Taking just about his last breath
He basically says
To the people who were hurting him
And abusing him
One of which was
Saul before he became
Paul
He said forgive them
For they don't know what they did
Does that sound familiar?
That ought to ring
Chains and bells in your eyes
They won't hurt at the floor
That's what Jesus said on the cross
He not only wanted them to understand
That he was the way, the truth and the light
But in order to live
The life you got to forgive
Let's say forgive
There's some folk in here
That you don't even know why you still mad at Mamie
And Janie and Freddie
And Bobby and Sally and Jimmy
And whoever's name is on the list
They got on your nerves 42 years ago
And quiet as it gets
You ain't talking to their kids
And their kids and their kids and kids
And you have just to say
What you mean the way, the truth and the light
Forgiveness is part of that
We come every first Sunday
Bowing on our knees
Asking for repentance
Saying unto God forgive
But sometimes we got to forgive beyond family
Sometimes we got to come enclosed
And forgive right in the house
Every now and then I'll lose my mind in the house
And this other one I'll never forget
And this other woman will take over my body
And down there will say
Could you send my wife back?
Send her back
And when I arrive back on the scene
I always have to say honey forgive me
For I know not what I do
I lost my mind up in here
Up in here
And I'm thankful to God
That I'm not a cussing woman
I don't, you know, my grandmother said
Cursed words was because you were short on English
And if you learned all the English
You needed to learn
You wouldn't need to curse nobody
And that's not godly and that's not christian
So we didn't learn that, you know
And I'm thankful, you know, for all the things
They taught me but they didn't teach me that
And they definitely said
If you bring it up in here your life will be short
In this house
So, you know, again
The way, the truth and the light in the time of household
Was kind of tight so I never learned bad words
To the point where I just want to really
Give it to you
But I'm glad I'm a praying woman
Because that's the only way
Jackie returns
When the other woman comes to the house
Down there I'll be looking at her like, did you send her away?
I need her back
The way, the truth and the light
And then there's two other passages
That were brought up but they weren't
Preached or read
I just wanted to write them down
They were part of electionary
Scriptures for the day and one is
First Peter 2, 9, and 10
And I know many of you
Are familiar with this
But I want to just bring it
To your attention now
In the midst of these
This group of scriptures
Definitely because
Sometimes we get
Pretty good with
Recognizing what it means
To be the way
And
We understand what it means
To be the truth even when we don't
Want to follow it completely
But committing our life to God
Sometimes we say
Can I just commit
Seven tenths of it
Let me hold on to this
Three tenths please
I want to control that Lord
I just want to share with you what it says
In First Peter 2, 9, and 10
It says
And this is the reason why we have to give it all to God
One of my favorite scriptures
And it says, but you are a chosen people
A royal priesthood, a holy nation
A people belonging
To God
That you may declare
The phrases of Him who called you
Out of the darkness
Into the wonderful light
And then it says once you were not a people
But now you are
The people of God
Once you had
Not received
Mercy
But now
You have received
Mercy
So to be the people of life
It says that
You are going to accept your royal priesthood
You are going to be a 100 percent
Sold out, stomp down
All committed unto God
You are not going to be trying to hold out
Some part of your life that you want to control
On your own
And this is especially for my teenagers
I love teenagers
You know there are a few people
That will publicly announce that they love teenagers
And when I was in that assembly, somebody
Looked at me like, this woman is either
On something
Or she hadn't figured out that these
People are really seven, sixteen, seventeen
Years old. She's really in a special place
But teenage is a time of
Great creativity
But you need a mentor
At sixteen I thought I knew it all
Ooh, I knew it all
I was so full of knowledge I was crazy
Because I knew it all
And I was sixteen and I was a senior
In high school
So I really thought I had it going on
I was real smart of the smart
Didn't know that that would mean I was a nerd
But you know
I was a cool nerd
What could I say?
My line is, teenage lifetime
Is the beginning
But don't rush life
Let somebody help you
And the greatest person to help you
Is Jesus Christ
Because he said
I am the way, the truth
And the life
That means he already knows
The plans he has for it
He has vision, your preferred life
He already sees you
He sees your bumps and your bruises
And your ups and your downs and your challenges
He sees it all
But he said, walk with me
I need a whisper on your ear
Let's talk with me everyday
Don't put me on speakerphone
Come and get close to me
But more importantly
He said
If you want to come to me
You got to come to his office
That means you have to
Conceal and arrive with him
You have to say, Lord I'm grateful
That you have forgiven me
I want to repent
And repent doesn't mean
Take in and keep him going back and forth
Making 360 degree turns
Repent is, bam
It's a 180 degree turn
It's saying, I know that's wrong
Bam!
Forgive me Lord, I'm going to do something different
I'm going to look at it here and say
No, God you've given me a way out
Because you are the way
The truth
And the light
God is a good God
He's a mighty, mighty God
John Wesley said it one way
Because he said it, we are to come
To know God
Understand salvation
Read the Lord of God
Experience God
Think with your mind
Reason about what actions you want to take
Talk to God first
Not your friends
And then look at your tradition
What does your momma bring to the table?
What does your daddy bring to the table?
What does your grandmother and your grandfather
And your uncles and your aunts
And big momma and daddy and scooby
What do they all bring to the table?
Because we come
With a family
But we grow up
By faith
So the last thing I say to you
Recognize
The Jesus
He had a lot of things
But if you don't remember anything
Now
Remember that he spoke of you
That he spoke of forgiveness
And he set the tone
By declaring
That he is the grand
The truth
And the light
If you don't know him today
Then you won't see him
There's a baby back there Mr. Conner
I'm glad to see that
Your grandbaby
Hey granddaddy
You got it going on
That's a future fisherman?
Oh that's good
That's good
From that level
All the way
To Mr.
Harrington and beyond
The story
Is the same
Jesus was the way
The truth
And the light
Come and find
As we stand and sing
Our hymn on page 140
Great is not safe for me