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Church. Are we doing good? Oh, you can do better than that. You got some rest. It's 11. Let's go. How we doing? Hey. Anyone grateful for songs like that that we just sang? Make some noise. I. I don't know about you, but I. I think I need a reminder that I don't have the highest name and do not sit on the highest throne that I serve a God who does, and so I can take to him the things that I'm feeling stressed. Stressed and anxious and worried about. No, that, like, he's not bothered by it one bit. There is a higher throne. Amen. Amen. All right. Hey, would you help me make some noise for any visitors that we might have? Just real quick, make some noise. I'm so glad you're here. So glad you're here. Oh, real quick. I want to just say Happy 4th of July to you. Happy 4th. You made it. I hope. I hope that. I hope that you ate all the food and you saw some responsible fireworks, right? It's a bit dry out there. I hope you stayed up a little too late and then made at least one questionable decision regarding grilled meat. Just one. Right. I think that's how you know you're doing your Fourth of July. Right? And I think. I think that's what our founding fathers would have wanted for us. Okay. That's what. Okay. Make some noise for our guests real quick. Come on. We're. What? We're glad you're here. Andrew said it. My name's Jordan. I'm one of the executive pastors here, and I just want to say thank you for being here. It's a big deal. I know it can feel strange and odd walking into a place for the first time, and that's not something we take lightly. And so just know it's a big deal to us. You're gonna be loved here, and you're gonna be. You can feel welcomed here and you've been prayed for, and you can believe that it's not an accident you find yourself here. Right? So regardless of why you think UK God has a purpose for you, and I hope that doesn't feel like a little bit too much too soon, but you can just sit back and believe that he has something for you here today, even as a guest. Amen. Amen. All right. Give your neighbor a high five. Grab a seat. We go. Heard some good contact there. All right. If you've got your Bibles, we're going to be in the Book of John, chapter 10, and we're going to be in verses one through 15, which is. It's a lot. I know that. You just have to bear with me. Okay? And if you don't have your Bibles, we're going to follow along on the screens right here. John, chapter 10, verse 1. We pick it up. Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. He says, very truly, I tell you, Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has brought all of his own, he goes on ahead of him. And his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger. In fact, they will run from a stranger because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling him. And he said, I will try again. Therefore, Jesus said, very truly, I tell you, I'm the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. And then he says, the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. And then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd again. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, just as the father knows me. And I know the father, and I lay down my life for my sheep. Do you ever wonder why we love stories where an ordinary person discovers that the reality they're living in is a little bit bigger than they thought? Like, do you ever wonder a kid finds that there's a whole world of magic hidden behind a. A world that he's always known? A person discovers that there's a war happening that not many people are aware of or can see? Someone wakes up and realizes that reality is deeper, stranger, or more alive than they could have ever imagined. See, I think those stories grab us because deep down, something in us believes that these stories are telling us something true now. Not that there's a secret school of magic somewhere or that there's a planet somewhere out there with blue people and there's a war going on, or that you're going to find a vampire in your biology class. That's not what I'm talking about. I think what they're speaking to us, though, is a part of us that knows that life as we have made it is not quite as flat as we have made it. Like there's more going on than we can measure, more at stake than we can see, more available than what we may have currently settled for. And what I love about John 10 is Jesus is telling us exactly that. It's like the Bible's version of that. He says, hey, there's more going on than meets the eye. He's like, look, there's a shepherd and there's sheep and there's voices. There's a thief, there's danger, there's rescue. But then, most importantly, he says, but there's also a life to receive kind of life so much bigger than survival that Jesus calls abundant. And so we're going to dig into that a little bit. Heavenly Father, we love you so much. And we're really, really grateful that we can gather as your people. My prayer right now, Lord, is that you open the eyes of our hearts today. No one in here needs a better message. No one in here needs more compelling worship. They need a revelation from you. They need to hear from you. So God, reveal to us the things that we do not know, we do not know open our eyes that we would walk out of here a little bit different. We love you, and it's in your name we pray. Amen. All right, another question. You ready? Has anyone ever been in a season where you find yourself somewhere you don't really want to be, only to discover that God is using that season to reveal to you something about your life that you did not know. Wheelchair. There you go. Something about you, something that you don't want, a place that you do not want to be that reveals something to you about your life that you did not know you needed. So in 2006, there was a young rising star on his way to the biggest moment of his career when tragedy struck. He had everything going for him. He had talent, confidence, ambition, the unwavering belief that the world was just waiting for him to arrive. He had one goal. He's going to win the race. He's going to win the trophy, he's going to win the sponsorship, win the life that he believed that he was made for. But somewhere on that journey, things went sideways, literally. And he got separated from the people who were supposed to be helping him. He ended up in the middle of nowhere. Made a terrible first impression, damaged some public property, got sentenced to community service in a tiny, forgotten town that he never wanted to visit. Some of you might know where this is going. And see, at first you could imagine he was miserable, right? Like, in his mind, this place is not part of the plan. These people are not important. This is not useful. He's got places to be and trophies to win and fame and future to secure. But then, slowly but surely, something strange started to happen in the place that he was so desperate to escape. Became the place where he started to actually wake up. See, he met people there who didn't care about how impressive he was. They were not dazzled by his talent. They were not impressed by his resume. They did not need him to perform. They just treated him like a normal person. And he found friendship, and he found some humility, and he found some rest. And he found love and ultimately found the kind of life that he wasn't aware existed. A life that he could not measure by his metrics of achievement and speed and success. And by the end of the story, Lightning McQueen. Yes, a fictitious race car, realizes that maybe the worst thing that ever happened to him was actually the thing that woke him up to a life that he did not know he was missing. Tell me you have kids without telling me you have kids, right? See, he thought life was about winning, okay? And there was a voice that told him that was true. And it took an interruption for him to hear a different voice and to discover a different kind of life. He didn't know what he didn't know. And so here's the big idea today, because Jesus just told us in John 10, there's a life that he offers that's far bigger than what we settle for. A life that's so big and so vast and so colorful and so. So full. Like, the only word that can begin to describe it is. Is abundant. But I think for a lot of us, somewhere along the way, we kind of lost sight of this abundance. Or maybe we never really saw it and we've just kind of settled for functional, right? Like, if we're honest, like, we know how to work, we know how to keep going, we know how to pay bills, we know how to raise kids sometimes, right? We know how to attend church, and we certainly know how to look like we're okay. And I think we've a lot of us, myself included, have settled into this kind of like spiritual low power mode. Like when your battery gets 20%, goes into low power mode, like it's on, screen's a little dim, some of the functionality is not there. It's really just conserving energy. But the problem is, is that Jesus didn't come and say, I have come that they may survive, but, but I came that they may just keep going. No, he says, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So I think that raises the question, if Jesus came to give us abundant life, why does so many of us settle for something smaller, even if we don't realize that we are? And I don't think it's because we hate God or we don't care. I don't think it's because we're trying to waste our life. I think in a lot of ways we don't really have a clear vision of what Jesus is actually offering. Right. Like that C.S. lewis quote that everybody uses and I will use because it's great. We are far too easily pleased. I think like a child content to make mud pies in the slum because he has no idea what is being offered by an invitation of a holiday at the sea. See, I think that's what happens when our imagined, our imagination for life gets too small. We just settle for mud pies in the slum because we can't see the sea. So for the rest of the day, I want to take a look at John 10 and the picture that Jesus paints. And I think there's a couple things that jump out to me immediately. There's a lot more, so study it on your own. But for today's purposes, three will be plenty. It'll give us a good start. And he starts with this. I'll start with this. John 10:10a. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. So before Jesus starts talking about the life that he has to offer us, he finds it important to paint a picture of reality. And so the first point is that there's a thief. Like there's a thief. And I don't know if you know that, but there's one. The Bible calls our adversary, or the enemy of our soul, the Father of lies. I think the greatest trick that he has perpetrated in this world is that he's not that bad that he doesn't exist, right? But man, the reality is, guys, there's a thief, the adversary, the enemy of our souls. And make no mistake, he hates you like he hates you, he wants nothing good for you. And he will stop at almost anything to kill, steal, and destroy every good thing that God has for your life. There's a thief, not forget that. But I think in this passage, it's interesting, though, because the thief doesn't show up with a name tag. He shows up as a voice. And I think the reason that matters is because every single one of us in this room is being discipled by voices, whether we realize it or not, Right? Like, culture has a voice, and shame has a voice, and fear has a voice, and pain has a voice, and money has a voice, and. And your story has a voice, and your past has a voice, and your phone. My gosh, right, your phone. Everything has a voice. And whether we realize it or not, that voice, what we choose to trust or listen to, will shape the way that we view our lives and will shape the way we live it. The voice that you choose to listen to or trust will shape the way you live your life and the way that you see it. See, culture says achieve, and fear says control, and shame says prove yourself. Pain says protect yourself. Comparison tells us you better keep up. Comfort will tell you, hey, you need to avoid hard things. Think about, like, the navigation app on your phone. Like, if you just blindly listen to the verbal instructions, that voice, you could find yourself at a destination that you never intended to be. And here's why. The wrong voice can give you very confident directions to the wrong destination, can it not? Very confident directions to the wrong destination. And I think that's kind of part of it. Some of us feel a little bit lost or feel like we've settled because. Not because we've stopped moving, but it's because we've listened to the wrong voice. And the thief's strategy, it's not usually to destroy you outright. That'll happen, but it's not usually the plan. It's to get you to settle. It's to get. To steal your vision for what life could be, to kill your belief that more is actually possible for you, to destroy your relationship with the shepherd that makes all of it work. And this is where identity comes in. Identity lies are the primary weapon the thief will use against you. Like lies about who you are. That's his primary weapon that he will use against you. Because if he can get you to believe that you are unwanted, well, then you will chase approval all of your days. And if he can get you to believe that you are unsafe, then you will try to control every single scenario in your life. If he can get you to believe that you are a failure, you're gonna just chase achievement. And if he can get you to believe that you're alone, then you might settle for survival. And then listen to this one Christian. If he can get you to believe that you are only valuable when you are useful, then you might find yourself mistaking exhaustion for faithfulness. See, the thief doesn't have to destroy your life. He just has to get you to settle for a smaller one. And I think we do, right? We settle for comfort, and we settle for control and achievement and approval. We settle for busyness, right? Like, if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. We. We settle for distraction, religious routine. We settle for a life that looks okay on the outside, but man, on the inside, it feels eerily thin. And I think the tragedy is that some of this stuff looks like life, doesn't it? Doesn't busyness sometimes look like life? Doesn't comfort, like, oh, man, that's living. Doesn't success sometimes look like life? But just because something keeps you occupied does not mean it makes you alive, right? And we know that just like there's a difference between being busy and being alive. And so he says, look, there's a. There's a thief. Can't see him all the time, but he is actively working, prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour, wanting to kill, steal and destroy every good thing God has for you. But the good news is that he doesn't stop there. In the next verse, John 10, 11, he says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. See, we see that there's a thief, but then we also see that there's a shepherd. And I think it's cool that Jesus points this out. He's not like, well, I'm not just any shepherd, though. I'm a good shepherd. And here's how you can tell I will willingly die for my sheep. Now, despite what it may seem in this verse from Jesus and other verses where we read about shepherds, let's not romanticize what shepherding was in the ancient shepherding was a dirty, dangerous business. Like, you lived out in the element, you slept with the flock, and you were the person between your sheep and whatever went bump in the night. And Jesus paints that picture and he goes, you see that? You see that hard work and the protection and the dirt and the ground? That's me. That's me for you. I'm your shepherd. See, there's a thief. But you also Have a good shepherd on your side. And he's not the hired hand. Bible's really clear. He's not the manager. He's not the one that shows up when things are convenient and then leaves when things get hard. He says, the shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And John 10 tells us that the hired hand runs when the wolf comes, but the shepherd stays. And here's what's important. I think what Jesus is trying to get at with that picture is the hired hand isn't the villain, okay? He just isn't personally invested. That's the point he's trying to make. He's just doing a job. And when the cost gets too high, he calculates the risk and he bails. Because it's not his flock and they are not his sheep. Jesus says, those are my sheep, though. Those are mine. He says, I know them. I know their names. I know where they've been, and I know what they've done. And I know the ones that have been hurt, and I know the ones that have had pain. And I know the ones that have been running for so long that they don't know or feel what rest looks like. I know them. I know them. They're my sheep. And I'm not leaving. It's not a transaction with Jesus. It's a relationship. And the thief, he will always speak to your fear. But the good shepherd, he will call you by name, because here's why. The shepherd knows it. And I don't know who in here needs to know that today, but the good shepherd, he knows your name. He knows where you've been. He knows what you've done. And he wants you. And think about what it means to be called by your name. Like your real name. Okay? So not your title, not your performance, not your ambition, like your real name. Something shifts, right? You stop performing. You stop pretending. You just are. And that's what Jesus is describing here. He's not calling you by your job. He's not calling you by your worst moment. He's not calling you by the version of yourself that you show to everybody else. He's calling you by name. And because of that, we get to live a completely different identity and build our lives on that. And make no mistake, again, identity is the root structure for all of this. Because listen to this. You cannot live the life that Jesus provides for us while simultaneously believing lies about who you are. You can't. You can't fully walk in the life abundant while still believing lies about who you are. See, the thief told you that you need to achieve. And the thief said, you always and you never. And the thief said, you are what you make of yourself and you are what you've done. But the shepherd, he says, no. You are what I call you. You are what I call you. And I call you mine. And I call you known, and I call you loved, and I call you seen. And I remind you that you have a good shepherd and that you know his voice. And you don't have to build your life without him. You don't have to prove your worth. See, in this pulled back reality, there is a thief. But man do we have a good shepherd. We have a good shepherd. And then lastly, John 10:10b says this, I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly. So the third thing that jumps out to me when I'm reading this passage is a, there's a thief, there's a shepherd, but there's also a life to receive. See, I think the whole passage comes down to this one idea. What? Which voices or which voice is shaping your life? And here's what's sobering about that. Both voices are giving you directions, are they not? Both voices are telling you what to do, telling you what to chase, telling you what matters, telling you where to go, what you're worth. And make no mistake, the thief, he has a plan for your life as well. But the good shepherd also has a plan for your life. And they lead to completely different places. And Jesus is not subtle, where the thief's road will lead you. Kill, steal, destroy. And I don't think that's dramatic language. I think that's just the logical conclusion, that you will arrive when you build a life on the wrong voice. And I think the scariest part is, at least for me, for most of us, we won't see it coming. Like, it's probably not going to be some catastrophic moment. It's going to be like this slow burn, this slow shift, this slow, like shrinking smaller, smaller and more and more bland until you wake up one day in the completely wrong destination, going, how? How did I get here? But Jesus finishes with, I came. That they may have life and have it abundantly. See, different voice, different road, completely different destination. And the only thing that determines which road you're on is which voice you are listening to and trusting. He says, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me, because that's where the life is. So the question isn't complicated today, church, it's just honest. Whose voice are you following? Because the life Jesus is talking about, it's not just handed to you while you stand still. It's not just a package that's going to be dropped off on your front porch. Jesus says this, my sheep listen to my voice and they do what I tell them to do. No, he says, my sheep listen to my voice and they follow me. See, the life he promises flows from the relationship, not from our effort. And the life is in the following. Now, at this point, I think the predictable churchy answer to this would be like, spend more time with Jesus, brother. Right, sister, you feeling stressed? Get in the word, spend more time with Jesus, knowing more. And I to that would say, what a lazy, cheap slap in the face to the exhausted mom who only hears there's one more religious thing I'm not very good at. What a cheap, lazy slap in the face to the person who's the only believer at their job and they just hear there's just one more religious spiritual thing I gotta add to a stressed, full, busy plate. Now, don't hear me say that prayer doesn't matter or that scripture doesn't matter, or that spending time with God doesn't matter. But let me remind you that Jesus did not come to be another appointment on your calendar. He came to inhabit all of it. See, the goal isn't to escape your ordinary life to find Jesus. It's to stop living your ordinary life as if Jesus is absent. Like the life, abundance is not found by just escaping and running away and finding something different. It's learning to live your life like Jesus is there and wants to be a part of it and wants to know you and wants to inhabit every space that you allow him. Abundant life's not found somewhere beyond Monday. It's a, it's a different way of inhabiting Monday. So when I, when I prepare a message, one of the things that helps me is to picture somebody or a group of people. So not just like a general audience, but I know there are people sitting in these rooms or watching online that they're carrying something. And so how do I. How do we speak to them? And as I was going through this week, I felt like God put a few people specifically on my heart. And as we talk about what this, like this abundant life inhabiting our life might look like, I thought, man, I want to write some stuff to try to cast a little bit of vision for some people that may be feeling a little discouraged or a little low. So just remember, you have a good shepherd that sees you and knows you. And if any of these land, it's not a coincidence okay. And so, to the only Christian at your job, you have a good shepherd. An abundant life for you means doing excellent work without work, needing to tell you who you are. It means refusing to be formed by anxiety, ambition, gossip, or comparison. You stop needing your boss's approval to validate your worth, which actually makes you a better employee. Abundant life means becoming someone whose presence brings honesty, courage, peace, and dignity into the room, even when the room feels chaotic. To the exhausted mom, you have a good shepherd. See, abundant life may not look like adding another perfect, quiet time to a silent house. It may mean receiving your limitations as a mom without shame. It means asking for help when you're drowning. It means noticing that one moment of delight with your children and recognizing that repetitive, unseen acts of love are actually sacred work. You don't have to escape your life to find abundance. Exhausted mom, abundance will find you in your kitchen. To the spiritually mismatched marriage, you have a good shepherd, and it means your abundant life for you means your spiritual life is not held hostage by your spouse's participation. You can grieve what you wish you shared without punishing them, controlling them, or making their response the gatekeeper of your aliveness. You can love them well because you are being loved well by the good Shepherd. Your joy does not require their agreement to the person who just can't seem to change. You have a good shepherd. You've tried, you've prayed. You read the book, you went to the conference, you made the commitment, and still you find yourself stuck in the exact same patterns. See, for you, abundant life doesn't look like trying harder. Abundant life looks like letting the shepherd lead instead of you sprinting ahead of him. It means surrendering the illusion that you can fix yourself and letting him do the slow, deep work of transformation to the person who is successful, but maybe a little bit empty. You have a good shepherd. See, you built the life you were told to want. You got the degree, you got the job, you got the house, you got the status. And there was really no crisis. There was no strategy. Just there was just a quiet, unsettling realization that the winning didn't feel quite like you thought it would. And at the end of this, you got to the top of the ladder and realized that maybe it was leaning against a different wall or the wrong wall. And what Jesus is offering you is the life that you wanted when you started climbing that ladder. We have a good shepherd, you guys. And I think while it's important to remember, abundant life can be found wherever we find ourselves. Like, that's the point. It's not somewhere out there someday. It's right here, right now. The abundant life that's available. But don't hear me say that our circumstances never need to change, right? And if you're in here, you know that you will always find Jesus healing and confronting and leading and sometimes calling us to make courageous changes to our life. But I just want you to know that this life, abundant is not held hostage until everything in your life becomes ideal. And I think that's. I think that's why church matters so much. And I know that that sounds terribly predictable that the pastor would be on stage going, church matters. Get here. I get it. But here's the thing. Here's the beautiful and frustrating thing about grace, okay? You don't have to believe that. You don't have to do it. In fact, nobody's making you. And I can promise you God is not withholding his love for you until you get back here on a Sunday. This is not. You could walk out of these doors today and never come back. And the good shepherd will still love you and seek you, track you down. But for the person willing to try it on, for the person willing to actually jump in, not just show up, I can promise you it will change some things about your life. See, the church is not abundant life. Okay, let's be clear. Jesus is abundant life. But the church is one of the primary places where Jesus forms us to live ordinary life differently. And so remember when we tell you that showing up on weekends matters, that being in Christian community matters, that serving, giving, that those things matter. These are not Christian chores or religious chores. These are formation, pathways and vehicles that God's given us to know him more. This isn't God trying to take something from you. It's tools God is using to try to shape something in you. So worship like what we're doing here. We come and we listen to a message and we sing. It's. It's recentering us around the voice of the Good shepherd, reminding our souls what's true when. When the thief has been really loud this week. Worship community helps us return when we lose our way. See, isolation is safer. But you cannot be formed in isolation. You need people to know your name, to remind you who you are and to call you back when you wander. Serving it teaches us to bring life into every space that we occupy. You do not find your life by protecting it. Jesus tells us we find our life by giving it away. And giving and generosity. It's teaching us to refuse a lesser life. Generosity is Not God trying to get something from you. It is God trying to form freedom in you from the voice of money. It's all generosity. This is not about guilt today too. I think that's really, really important. I feel that. And in fact, in the name of Jesus, any spirit of shame, guilt, fear, condemnation, you have no place here. This is not about shame or guilt. Lightning McQueen didn't find life by trying harder. He found life by stopping by being known and by following a different voice. And so the invitation today is not to feel bad about your mud pies. I got some mud pies that I really like. They make me feel happy and busy and valuable sometimes, right? It's not to feel bad about your mud pies. It's to lift your eyes and to realize that there's a sea. And this isn't a fix your whole life in one day. This is a lift your eyes. There is more. Take a step invitation. And so for some of us, taking a step is going to be coming back to Jesus. And for some of us, taking a step is going to be saying yes to Jesus for the very first time. I think for some of us, taking a step is going to start making, make church attendance regular again. That's going to be your step. For some of us, it's joining community. For some of us it's, it's serving it's generosity. Some, it'll be surrendering the voice that they've been following. And I think for all of us, that step is going to be somewhere around daring to believe. Believe that Jesus really does have more for us than just surviving. See, tomorrow most of us are going to wake up in the same life, right? Get the same job, same family, same responsibilities, same unfinished problems. And Jesus is not waiting for you to. Jesus is not asking you to wait for another life before you begin living. He's offering you a life inside the one you already have. He says, I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly. Not someday, not when everything's perfect, not when everyone around you changes. Not when you become impressive enough or disciplined enough or healed enough or spiritual enough. Today, like the shepherd is still speaking. Shepherd's still leading. He's still calling your name and he knows exactly where you are. And so. So lift your eyes. There's more to life than mud pies. There's a see available to us. The shepherd intends to lead you into it, beginning with the ordinary life you will wake up to tomorrow. See, Jesus didn't die to make your life more comfortable. He died to invite you into a bigger life than you knew how to want. An abundant life is not a program or a set of principles. Abundant life is the shepherd. The life of the shepherd becoming the life of the sheep. And the sheep follow him because they know his voice. That's it. It's not because they have it all figured out. It's not because they're the most disciplined sheep in the pen. It's not because they've earned the right to be led. They follow the shepherd because they know his voice and they trust it. See, abundant life means being known by God, living secure in his care, becoming free from fear and striving and receiving the identity instead of trying to achieve it. Amen. If you guys are able, would you stand to your feet? I'm going to pray. Father, we. We love you so much. And God, I'm really grateful today that you are a God that loves us and knows us. Not a God that just lets us gravel at your feet, but a God that actually wants a relationship with us, that pursues us. The good, the good shepherd. Thank you for the truth of your word. There's a lot of voices, a lot of different opinions, a lot of people out there telling us where to go and what to do and what matters. And we can turn to you and refocus and recenter ourselves. Thank you for that. With everybody's heads bowed. Nice, closed. I want to just give you a couple opportunities to respond. First, if you're in this space today and you go, you know, my life has. It's not really bad, but really train wrecked it. I just feels kind of flat normal and I'm for sure not living that life abundant, I would say, hey, welcome to the club first and foremost. But if there's something in there you wants to make, hey, like today, this is, this is the line in the sand for me. And I'm gonna start. I'm gonna start like knowing the good shepherd and walking with him and following him and trusting his voice so that I can live a different life. That's you. Would you just raise your hand? Yeah, a whole bunch of us. And then the second crew, you've actually never made the decision to say yes to the good shepherd, to Jesus. And you've been coming here for a little bit, maybe kicking the tires of faith for a little bit, and at this point you go, man, I just need to make a decision. And so today you've been feeling your heart pounding a little bit, maybe feels like someone's tapping you on the shoulder. Can I just tell you that's not a good message from the preacher. That's the Holy Spirit. I want to brought you here for a reason. I'm here. And so if you're in this room today and you would like to make a decision to follow Jesus, would you just really boldly lift your hand up? No shame, no condemnation, really, simply just lift your hand up. Don't let the simplicity of you raising your hand take away from the significance of what you did. You just made the best decision of your life. So, Father, I just pray. I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice that's going, look, I've been living a little bit flat. I've been living a little bit stale, and I want that life abundant. Would you just meet them where they're at? Would you give them a vision of you and a vision of the life that you have for them? Them? No. No matter how scary it may feel, would today be a moment that marks us as we look back and go, man, that. That changed that day. God started taking the driver's seat and I started walking differently and making decisions differently and caring about different things. God, I pray that over every single person in this room that wants that life abundant. And then, Father, for every single person in this room that made the decision to follow you today, that's a miracle. And you get all the credit for that. Meet them where they're at, guard their hearts as they start this journey. Will we be able to as their families circle around them, give them resources, be a part of them. But ultimately, God, I just pray that you would just continue to draw them closer to yourself. But we love you. We're so thankful that we get to be in your presence today. Hear our words as we worship. Be glorified by what happens. And it is in your name we pray. Church, we love you. Let's worship.
Podcast: Red Rocks Church Weekend Messages
Episode Date: July 5, 2026
Speaker: Jordan, Executive Pastor, Red Rocks Church
In this special post–Fourth of July message, Pastor Jordan explores Jesus’ promise of "life abundant" as found in John 10:1–15. Using the metaphor of shepherd and sheep, he challenges listeners to recognize the everyday voices that shape their reality, identifies the subtle work of the "thief," and urges the church to discover a deeper, more vibrant life with Christ beyond mere survival or religious routine.
“The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” — Jesus (John 10:10) [09:32]
“He thought life was about winning ... and it took an interruption for him to hear a different voice and to discover a different kind of life.” — Jordan [17:50]
1. There’s a Thief:
“The wrong voice can give you very confident directions to the wrong destination.” — Jordan [31:45]
2. There’s a Good Shepherd:
“He’s not calling you by your job ... He’s calling you by name. And because of that, we get to live a completely different identity.” — Jordan [39:30]
3. There’s a Life to Receive:
“Abundant life means being known by God, living secure in his care, becoming free from fear and striving and receiving the identity instead of trying to achieve it. Amen.” — Jordan [1:09:30]
“Abundant life may not look like adding another perfect, quiet time to a silent house … abundance will find you in your kitchen.” — Jordan [54:35]
“This isn't God trying to take something from you. It's tools God is using to try to shape something in you.” — Jordan [1:01:00]
On “Spiritual Low Power Mode”:
“I think we’ve ... settled into this kind of like spiritual low power mode. Like when your battery gets to 20%, goes into low power mode ... it’s really just conserving energy.” [18:16]
On Identity Lies:
“Identity lies are the primary weapon the thief will use against you. ... You cannot live the life that Jesus provides for us while simultaneously believing lies about who you are.” [35:20]
On Following the Shepherd:
“The life he promises flows from the relationship, not from our effort. And the life is in the following.” [46:10]
On the Role of Church:
“The church is not abundant life. Okay, let's be clear. Jesus is abundant life. But the church is one of the primary places where Jesus forms us to live ordinary life differently.” [1:00:30]
On Grace and Participation:
“You could walk out of these doors today and never come back. And the good shepherd will still love you and seek you, track you down.” [1:02:35]
Invitation to Lift Your Eyes:
“It’s not to feel bad about your mud pies. It’s to lift your eyes and to realize that there’s a sea.” [1:06:00]
“Jesus didn’t die to make your life more comfortable. He died to invite you into a bigger life than you knew how to want. ... The sheep follow him because they know his voice and they trust it.” — Jordan [1:08:30]
This message challenges the listener to move beyond survival, routine, or performance-based faith and to respond to the deeply personal call of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Listeners are urged to intentionally choose which voice to follow, to reject identity lies, and to allow God’s abundance to permeate their everyday existence—right where they are today.