Jesus Is... | 12 Lines | Pastor James Powell

We're in a series called 12 lines. How many? Oh, man. I need y' all to know. I don't know if y' all know this.

Tell the early year services y' all are already better than they are. My goodness. I'm appreciate y'. All. They told me in this Service I had 72 minutes, but I'll go shorter than that, so don't worry.

I'm just kidding.

I want to say I love this series. I love this series because it's important for us to understand not just what we believe, but why we believe it. And I understand. Please hear me. There is something about experiencing God.

We're going to talk about it later in this service. I'm not going to bury the lead. I want you to experience a real, living, breathing God. I believe that. But I need you to also know this, that God is not defined or confined to your experience.

See, I got to be careful what I claim about following Jesus. I can't claim to follow Jesus, still follow my own way. It is very clear in the scriptures what is true. My truth and your truth cannot be different. This must be the truth.

So I recently heard a guy I really respect, like, I like him, I like him a lot, love him, good dude. But was wrong. I saw him, he got online, he's like, I just think, you know, you need da, da, da, da. He's doing all this stuff and you just follow your truth. And I went, eh, wrong, wrong.

You don't have a truth. You don't know truth. Can I just tell you don't know truth? Yes, I do. You don't.

No, no, no. This is truth. And unless you know this, you don't know truth. But if I build my life on thousands of years of trusted, tried, verified truth, then I can know truth. So I want us to know what we're really talking about.

I love this series. It's ironic, except we are connected in the spirit. And so, opening preview weekend at Green Valley High School, which they're getting ready to start service here in just a little bit. But opening weekend at Green Valley High School. For our preview times.

We started with this belief. We wanted to start with this one God. We believe in one God, one Jesus. There are not many gods. There is only one God.

And every other God will bow its knee to the one true God. He's been doing it all through this book and he's still doing it today. He will not be bound to the gods of greed, to the gods of your priorities, the gods of your personality. He is defined by, by Himself. That's.

When asked, they go, who are you? He said, I am. Okay, so I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. If you missed last week's message and you're watching online. Stop.

Pause this message. You missed the most critical episode in this entire season. You need to go back and watch episode two before you get to episode three. If you're here, you're stuck. You got to listen anyways.

Okay, but you should go back and watch it. And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. But on the third day. Oh, some of y' all live too far from Easter.

Some of y' all think Easter is a day on the calendar. I told my church, you want to know what I'm going to preach next week? Jesus. The week after that. Jesus.

The week after that. Jesus. One rule we have. Don't leave him on the cross. Him on the cross.

He's a good man. He got out of the borrowed tomb. He's the God man. On the third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven.

We could just have church right there. If that's old news to you, everything else today will be boring. That's the greatest miracle in the scriptures. Everything is defined by this one moment in human history. If we preach Easter every weekend, then we've done the gospel justice.

Why? Because it is the middle that gives meaning to the beginning and the end of our book. He seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. There he will come to judge both the living and the dead. It says, and in Jesus, would you say his name?

Jesus, one more time? Jesus. Now, it's interesting that the world's major religions, almost every one of the world's major religions, will point to a man named Jesus in some context, in some fashion, in some form. But don't get it twisted. Just because they know his name doesn't mean they know what it means.

See, a word is a bucket. Our definitions fill the bucket and give weight to the meaning. But what you put in the bucket matters. So for someone to claim that Muslims love Jesus. No, no, no.

They love their version of Jesus. They love a prophet named Isa. If they love my Jesus, they would know. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. One day, Muhammad will come out of a grave and bow his knee to the one and only true God.

He is Yahweh. He sent his one and only son, J To live, to die, and to be resurrected. For you and I see, there are not many paths. There are not many ways. You know, James, you're just, like, really passionate about this.

Oh, I am. Because I don't want you to live with the lie that you need to somehow be accepting of every other belief system. No, no, no. I can love you, but I don't believe what you believe. I need to have a confidence as a Christ follower.

No. I'm building my life on this truth. We have lived in an unholy hesitation and pretended it's humility in the church.

Where are you going when you die? Heaven should be our answer. You go. But, James, I'm not sure if I'm good enough. Then you read the book wrong.

You'll never be good enough. You never were, you never will be. There are dead people and alive people. And the only way to be alive is to be alive in Christ Jesus. Believe in your heart.

Confess with your mouth, and you will be saved. I am saved by grace. I am saved by his mercy. I am not saved by my works so that no man could boast. So we got to know what we're putting in the bucket.

Now. I'm learning this in my older age. I don't know if I told you this already, but Pastor Derek is much older than I am. God has not gifted him with the gray that has been showing up in my beard. Full testimony.

I went to Sally's Beauty Supply in Martinsburg yesterday because Pastor Derek looks younger than me, but he's older than me. And so I was going to go get some beard tint. I tried it on. My wife said, don't you do that. You put that away.

But I'm learning in my older age, there's certain things I can't keep up with in culture. For instance, I don't know if it's baggy jeans or skinny jeans or if it's like, short shirts or boxy shirts or long shirts. I can't keep up with it. My wife and my kids, they pick up my clothes. So if you think I look like a child, you take it up with them.

All right? But I can't keep up with all of it. But the terminology is some of the hardest stuff. Like, right. Somebody's like, that's mid.

I'm like, middle of what?

Like, I'm used to words like cool, dude, bro, right? Those are. Those are normal words to me. So the other day, my two boys, Braxton and Grayson. Braxton's 12, Grayson's nine.

They're fighting they're scrapping. I mean, they're going at it. And I've had enough. Any parent know when you've had enough, you say, enough is. And you're on my last.

Yeah. I felt healing wash over me right there. Feeling not alone. Amazing boys. They had had enough of each other.

And so I did what any loving, wise parent does. I just started taking things away. But I don't know if any of y' all do this sometimes. I get really excited and ramped up in it. I started with, you're gonna.

You don't have your DS the rest of the day. And I didn't get a good enough reaction. Or your Xbox or your fan in your room or a TV or your light switch. I was ready to take stuff out the wall. Right?

Any parent, just admit. You just think. Let me just talk to you guys real quick. Best thing you can do is when we say, you're losing anything. Go, no.

We'll be like, okay, that was enough. Anyways, okay. So I told them we were taking all the way. I said, guys, we're going for a walk. They said, how long?

I go, I don't know, until you guys work it out. They've never loved each other so fast in their life. But my son Grayson, he's talking about something. I'm like, tell me three things you love about your brother. Ask his other brother.

Tell me three things you like about your brother. Now give each other one area that you can work on at being a better brother. And that got a little dicey for a minute. Well, one thing I think you could work on, right? Maybe I took that too far.

And at some point, my younger son Grayson goes, dad, sometimes that's just toxic. And you don't know what that means because you're a boomer. I said, well, to the boomers in the room, I love you, but I'm not one of you.

I'm millennial by age and I'm Gen Z by love. You know what I mean? But I go, what are you talking about? But it was funny because I was like, I know what toxic means. Come on.

I know what toxic means.

You know, I'm like, I get it as a concept. Like, it's bad. It's not good. That's as far as I could go with it. But I realized I didn't know the meaning.

When I tell you that we believe in Jesus. What Jesus? You in love with Republican Jesus? That's not Jesus. You in love with Democrat Jesus, not Jesus.

You in love with Blank G? No. Jesus stands all by himself. So it is important for us to ask ourselves, what does Jesus say that he is? In the Old Testament, God reveals himself to Moses in a burning bush, says, I am.

Then in John, there would be seven statements that Jesus would proclaim, I am blank. These I AMs were seven complete statements to complete the identity of Jesus. So you might know the complete identity of the Father. So when Jesus is breaking this down, most people love it. He says, I am the bread of life.

Any carboholics say, amen, Come on. I am the light of the world. Come on. There's dark places. I love light.

Right? I am the door. Come on. I've had to walk through one of those before. I'm thankful he's that.

But there's one claim that causes the most division for most people, and it is the claim that we're going to look at today. John, chapter 14, verse 1 is this. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Oh, that feels good. Jesus speaking.

You believe in God, believe also in me. I love how some of you read the Scriptures. Panting Pro V. Jesus, little baby lamb on his shoulders. My Father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you where I'm going?

To prepare a place for you. And I go to prepare a place for you. And I will come back to take you there with me. So you may also be where I am. You know the way.

The place where I'm going. Heaven, Hope forever. You guys feel that? Matt Phillips. And then Thomas says the quiet thing out loud in verse five.

Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?

Oh, come on. If you don't love Thomas, Thomas, we are Thomas, okay? Truthfully, on our best days, we're Judas. But I love to think I'm Thomas, right? But Thomas, Thomas says, we don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way? That's a legitimate question. When you and I read it, synthesized and sedated by the Scriptures, as if it's like Jesus going. And let me tell you this allegory. We go and everybody went, yeah, that's great.

No, Thomas goes, excuse me, Actually, I don't know where you're going or the way. Could you imagine? Judas is over there. Like, I for sure know the way. Give me some money.

You got Peter. He's like, I've been there before, Jesus, like, chill out, bro. No, you haven't. You're really going to struggle in a little bit, right?

And then Jesus responds. And when Jesus Responds, it's like, watch this. Jesus goes, verse 6. I am the way, the truth and the life. Oh, Jesus drops a boar.

There's this whole group of people. I jumped down here, but I'm so sure I don't think I'd get back up. But. But Jesus is the middle of this crowd of people, right? And.

And Thomas, excuse me, we don't know where you're going or the way. And Jesus goes, please allow me to reintroduce myself. I am the way. I am the truth, I am the life. Right?

He's like. He's like, knees weak, arms are heavy, okay? He's like, Jesus drops a bar on him. I. He goes, we don't know the way.

And Jesus goes, I'm the way. Do you feel that? No. See, we gotta have a confidence as believers, because you keep asking, which way to God, you keep asking, which way to heaven? And he's going, I am the way.

Like, we. If I ask you today, where are you going? Your immediate answer, heaven forever. Why should you have that confidence? Because you understand it's not based on your works.

Well, how do you know you're going there? Because I know the way. Well, what's the way? Not what's the way. Who's the way?

Oh, it's Jesus. Jesus, the way? What do you mean? Yeah, yeah. Because Jesus is both the road and the destination.

He's both the the path and he's the plan. He's both of these wrapped up into one. Why? Because as I pursue Him, I find true life. He said, I am the way.

Are you tracking your Jesus correctly? Are you allowing him to be God, or is he still just guide? See, some of us, we claim to have a Christian worldview and a true definition of Jesus, but you treat Jesus more like alternate face, which means he's teacher or prophet. But if he's actually sovereign and he's Savior, it should transform the way I live my life. That means I deny my flesh and I pick up my cross daily.

See, before it's ever come and live, it's first go and die. Have you died to your old life? I think we got to reclaim that born again phrase for a little bit because we got too many people who. You want to bring your old identity and ask Jesus to bless that. And he said, no, you die so that you might live again.

Oh, I mean, listen, it's not amen teaching, but it is, oh, me teaching, right? It's like, well, I don't. Can I do this and still go to heaven? Can I do this and still love Jesus. You haven't died yet.

You haven't died yet. If we talk about giving and you get stingy, you haven't died yet. Like, oh, no, he no. You believe Jesus is going to save your eternal soul. But, man, $2 breaks the bank.

Come on. You don't believe it. You don't. No, but, but, but I love Jesus, but I should still get to do what I want sexually. You don't.

You gotta die. What do you mean? Well, he's the way he clearly laid out for us what it is to follow and pursue, the way it is to take up our cross or to die daily. So are you tracking Jesus? If I'm tracking Jesus, I know the way.

I know what I have access to. My 12 year old, he is setting himself up. For those of you who are teenagers, let me tell you what he's doing. He uses this app called Find My to track me all the time. I go on a date with his mom and he's like, tracking us.

He knows where we are at all times, right? And so then he convinces mom to put this app on her phone called Life360. You guys know what? Okay. Yeah.

It's horrible. All right. Okay. It's supposed to be so I can track him. He tracks us, knows how fast we drove, how long we were somewhere.

I'm like, dude. I told him, like, dude, when I go on a date with your mom, I want to hold her hand. I want to kiss her. I do not want you to text me. Don't call me unless the house is burning down and you are dying.

First call 91 1. Then if they tell you, then you call me, right? I'm hanging out with Mama. But we will pull back in the driveway, and as we're pulling in the driveway, the garage door will open and he'll go. I said, bro, when you're 16, just wait.

I'm tracking you everywhere, buster. But the other day, the other day, I met Cane's Fried Chicken. Cane's Chicken. Come on, man. This is close enough to lunch.

I just. I feel that right there. Hey, Cane's Chicken, right? Some people think that Chick fil A's the Christian chicken and it's blessed. But they closed on Sunday.

But Cane's is open every day. And I have a God that is accessible 24 7. Hey. And if you ever had their toast from there, you know, he's the bread of life, a little bit of flesh. I apologize, okay?

But I'm in Cain's Drive Thru and I get a text from my son, Braxton. Dad, can you pick me up a Kaynac combo? How do you know where I am?

That's all.

Some of us, all we got to do. Wait. I know where he is, so I know what I have access to. So because I was in the drive through, Braxton knew he could have chicken. But you need to understand, I. I know where Jesus has been.

I know where he will be. I know what he's always been doing. So if he's with the Father, I have access to heaven. I don't have to wait on it, worry about it, pray about it, discuss it, consult anybody else I already know because I can track him.

Have you tracked Jesus? Do you believe that he's the way? You've got all these people arguing about resurrection, Pharisees and Sadducees, and you've got Gnostics and mystics and philosophers, Greek philosophers. You've got all these people talking about all this stuff. And if I was as smart as Pastor Derek and I had a doctorate, then I'd tell you who they were and what they did.

But come back next week and he will. Right, But I'm from Alabama. This is bottom shelf preaching right here, okay? You got all these people arguing about all this stuff. And Jesus starts with Thomas question, but then he answers the question of the human condition.

He starts with, I am the way, and then he proclaims, I am the truth. Point number two, is Jesus the truth? Oh, if Jesus was a Hooper back in the day, don't you know, he stepped on the court and they'd be like, the truth. Where you at? That's my guy.

The truth, right? Now, this is interesting. He didn't say, I have the truth. He didn't say, I'll teach the truth. He didn't say, I know a truth.

He said, I am the truth. That means he is the measuring stick by which every other truth claim must be judged. When I know him, I know what's true. That's why I can boldly profess to you today it's not Jesus and crystals. If you're a Jesus person, get that crap out of your house.

Sorry, I'm a guest. I apologize. Like, hey, I would just encourage you to not invite demonic activity into your house. You're not sleeping well, you're fighting with your family. You're rubbing rocks thinking they're going to help you.

Listen, you don't need a crystal for peace. You need Jehovah Shalom. And he needs to enter your house. And the Holy Spirit reign in that place.

Man, you're just judgmental. No, I know truth. And so I gotta illuminate where the lie has been. Yeah, but what do you think about tarot cards or zodiac signs? Some of y'.

All. Some of y' all got excuses for the way you're acting and what you've been doing based on a misrepresentation of where the stars were at one point in human history. You're like, I'm a Scorpio. No, I'm a child of God. That's what I am.

I'm free from my past. My present is secure, and my future is determined. I'm not bound by. Oh, are you a Scorpio or a Libra? No, I'm liberated.

I'm liberated from all that mess. Some of y' all be reading your horror scopes. Come on. I want to change. Get in this book and it will tell you the numbers.

Your days have been numbered every moment. He's laid out a path and a plan. It's for our good, for our hope, and for our future. An expected end. I want to lean into Jeremiah instead of zodiac signs.

I gotta go so much quicker. But I need you to know the other thing. You gotta get rid of tarot cards. Quit playing with that mess. Listen, I won't do a show of hands because I don't want to shame you.

But I need you to know my wife's from Lafayette, Louisiana. Anytime we go back or we go through New Orleans, they be on the street messing with that stuff. I just go by and praying. I'll be praying. God, just.

I thank you. Right now, we cancel the assignment of the enemy. James, why do you do that? Like something in there must be true? Because I did it one time and it told me something about my life.

Well, yeah. If angels are real and heaven is real and Jesus is real, then the devil is real. Hell is real and demons are real. And demons have been following some of you around. And they know just enough about you to tell you where you've been.

But you think because they told you where you've been, they can define where you're going. You're looking for love in all the wrong places. You need to start looking in the right place. There's only one spirit by which you can know your future. It's the Holy Spirit.

Because you said, I know where I've been and I know where I'm going. If you want to know where you're going, then you need to lean on the Holy Spirit. Spirit, I'm the way and the truth. The way and the Truth. You don't spot counterfeit money by studying counterfeit money.

You spot it by studying true, real. I grew up in church, walked away from faith. When I first moved to Ecuador and I was living in the Amsler's home, I was studying the world's major religions. I was trying to figure out if I was going to be Muslim, if I was going to be Buddhist or was going to be a universalist. What I kept coming to discover was this, is that Jesus was the only God who ever died and came back for me and promised to come back for me again.

There was no denying the fact that it was true. The reason other world's major religions point to him is because they can't deny him. You got historians, Tacitus, Antonius, Josephus. I think that's what Pastor Derek told me. And they will all confirm that he was real and that he did miracles.

What some of them left out was he wasn't just a good man, he was the God man. And because he was the God man, all truth hinges and hangs on him. So for you and I, we don't need to study a mess. Listen, if you think you need to mess with that other stuff, you have lived in the lie. It's Jesus plus Jesus plus anything's a lie.

I'm a blank. Christian. I'm a Christian. Blank. I'm a Christian.

That's it. Anything you add to it becomes a lie. You know the old game, two truths and a lie. I like to say it this way, two truths equal a lie. No, no, no.

You can't have a truth and me have a truth. I need to lean in on the ultimate truth of who Jesus said he was. We're going to get on our way. John 14:6 says, I am the way, the truth and the life. The third claim of Jesus is I am the life.

That is Zoe. That is eternal life. That is God originated life. That is never beginning and never ending. It has always been and will always be.

I can understand that. In the beginning was God. That's Genesis. In John it said, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. And Word was with God.

That means Jesus has always been and will always be. He did not start in Bethlehem. He started in the halls of heaven when God said, let there be light. Jesus also claimed, I am the light of the world. This is an understanding and proof that he not only knew the way because he would go there, but he had already been there.

So when he says, I am the light, it means I always was, I always will be. When you live in me, though your body die, your spirit never will. There's an understanding and a hope that I don't wonder about tomorrow. When I faced cancer in 2024, I boldly told our church I may not be back next week. But I need you to know my faith is not flinched if I die.

He's still Jehovah Rapha, my healer. And you don't need to feel sorry for me because I'm sitting with my Savior. I know where I'm going because I know where he's been. That's the kind of life and the kind of hope that you can lean in on.

If I had an organ right now, I need y' all to know we would be cutting a rug. Jesus not only claimed it, he completed it. I love that. Jesus was always showing us reality. You go, James.

How can we know it? Because a faith is tested, can be trusted. Jesus would test his own claim against himself on the way the truth and the life of God. How do you test life against death? So on Good Friday, Jesus would be beaten, whipped, betrayed, spat upon a crown of thorns pierced his skull and put pressure on his brain.

His sweat would turn to blood. He would be beaten until his skin would pull back and you would see the very veins in his body. He would carry a 120 plus pound crossbeam up a hill called Golgotha, a place of the skull, a place that represented death. And there he would say, it is finished. And some thought that meant he was finished, but he wasn't finished.

It was finished. And so after he took that breath, he descended into hell. He took the keys to death, hell and the grave. He resurrected on the third day. And when he resurrected, he began the completion of the claim.

I'm the way, I'm the truth. I'm the life. The first appearance we see in John as he appears to mary in John 20, verse 15, thinking he was the gardener. Would you say gardener? Gardener.

She said, sir, if you have carried him away, tell us where you put him and I'll get him. Why? Because they didn't have a body for Jesus. See, as Christians, we can't go to a place where the body of our God lies. No, no, no.

You can only go to two assumed places where it was once laid. Because there is an understanding and a belief that he got up, that there is no body to recover. If you want to go to the tomb of Muhammad, you can go there. Because he was a man, he was not God. And because I, I serve God.

I've been to two Tombs, both are empty, both have no body in it. Because he got up on the third day and he beat death.

Ben, you can come. Keys, you can come. I got to land this plane quick. I know y' all stomachs is turning for some cane's chicken.

I'm going to walk heavy for a minute. We, my wife and I got the chance a couple years ago to travel to the Arab world. And we went to Egypt. We went into Egypt, we met with some of the community of the underground church. The underground church there is very unique because you're assigned a religion on birth.

There it goes on your government id. It's based on the religion of your parents. And while it's not illegal to be Christian, it's illegal to convert others to Christianity. So if you're part of a Muslim family and you're born, you're assigned Muslim Christian family, Christian. But as we went to this underground church, we began to hear the story from a man who had had this encounter.

He had an encounter with what he would describe as the man in white said, every night several weeks, he had this dream. A man in white appeared to him and began to tell him, hey, I'm him that you're searching for. Write down my words. And so he would get out a journal and he would write down these words. He did this night after night after night after night.

And he fills this journal with these words. And then the man in white says, go and ask them who I am. So he goes to this Coptic church and he tries to go in, but because of his government id, can't go in. It's in order to keep places of worship sacred and safe. So he waited outside and he kept asking people, and nobody would give him the time of day.

They didn't know if he was trying to infiltrate the community, if he was trying to do something nefarious. And so. And so instead, one elderly lady one week stops and says, son, what are you going on about? He says, I saw this man in white and he gave me these words. I'm trying to figure out, what do these words mean.

She held his journal in one hand and her Bible in the next. She opened to the Gospel of John. And this man had had, word for word, written the entire Gospel of John. The man in white was Jesus and had told him everything about him.

Imagine that, Jesus still appearing to people to marry the gardener. He shows up, no scars, no beating. He's there. And for some of you, your life, your testimony of provision in your business, the success of your marriage, like you've Had a life that is just built through the success of our Savior. Like it's been so holy and set apart.

And it's beautiful. The man in white doesn't need to show up in Martin's bird. He needs the man in the red hoodie. He needs the gentleman in the pink polo. He needs the young man in the blue hoodie.

He needs the young man right here in the blue polo. Why? He needs you to show up and be the physical representation that he was resurrected through the glory on your life, your glory in your story is a testament not to your good works, but to your good God. He shows up one way to marry, but he shows up to another man. He shows up to another man named Thomas.

Let me give you just a little bit about Thomas. Says in verse 24. Now, Thomas, also known as Didymus, different, did he, One of the 12 was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we've seen the Lord. Isn't that exciting?

We saw him. But he said to them, unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe you saw his resurrected body. I want to see his scars. I saw what he went through. Nobody comes back from that.

I asked him, where are you going? He said, he's the way, the truth, and the life. If he's really the life, I'll see what he's been through and I'll trust where he wants to go to.

Verse 26. A week later, the disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, wait, hold on. You see what happened? We just read stuff so fast in the American church.

Like, yeah, get to the point. No, no, no. The point was Jesus walked through a locked door.

Like, right now, it's like all of a sudden, here comes Spencer right through the wall.

We'd all be like, what?

Jesus appears because he is the door. He didn't need a door. He was the door. And so he appears. And I love what happens next.

First he says, peace be with you. Of course, he had to say that. They're all like, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here. See my hands?

No question. Couldn't. He just said, hey, Thomas, see that door? I walked through it. Boom.

No, he knew Thomas needed to see the scar. Your doubts, your doubts did not make God run from you. That thing you've been saying, I need a sign. Scars, scars, scars. Tell a deeper story than we could ever imagine.

Just put your finger here. See my hands? Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.

Because of our cultural independence, we here. Stop doubting. We go. That just feels so boxed in. Like, why?

Why would Jesus be so harsh? Stop doubting. Like, what if we need to give him room to doubt? That's what Thomas wants to do. No, because Jesus said, you no longer have a reason to doubt.

Now believe. And if the story ends there, it sounds confrontational, but it's confrontational because Thomas returns in verse 28 and said, My Lord and my God. If you're a skeptic and you need to see scars, I got them for you. I got scars. I can't show you the nail marks in his hands because he's been resurrected.

But I can tell you that I tried to take my own life three times before I was the age of 19. And he proved that he's the way, the truth and life. I could tell you that I was an addict and homeless. And he proved he's the way, the truth and life. I tell you that I never thought I'd be a father because I never thought I'd be good enough.

I thought I'd be broken. I don't think God would even trust us with kids. We struggle with infertility for years. I was on the verge of giving up, and he gave us two boys. You say, why do I tell you all that?

I need you to see my scars so you see his strength. And some of us have been hiding the very thing that gives God glory in our story.

Remember I said, some of you are so successful and you're awesome and you're educated. Yeah, you're great. Okay, that's awesome. That's your story. How many of you be bold enough, eyes are up, everybody's looking around, Be like, dude, that's not my story.

But I'm thankful Jesus found me. And the beauty is we get to show our scars to the people around us. And our scars prove that he's strong enough. Because why? You can't be life unless you conquer death.

You can't be truth unless you cancel lies. And you can't be the way if you don't help lost people become found. But he was, he is, and he will be. May he be the way, the truth, and the life to you and I today. May he not be a good guide, but a sovereign God.