How Do You Make Your Life Matter?

Hey, good morning Summit Church, or good afternoon, or whatever time it is right there. Here it's evening.

I'm in South Africa. I'm on the kind of the beginning of the second week here of this couple month extended mission trip that I'm taking to visit some of our church planters. Right now I'm with Kurt and Janike Holliday overlooking the city of Johannesburg where they are a church planting strategist leading the church planting work here.

It's been an awesome time. We're getting to share the gospel, getting to visit with church leaders. That's what I'm doing all weekend and just see the power of the gospel multiple out here. I'm here with my family and I keep praying for us.

God is answering the prayers and has opened up lots of doors. I heard that last weekend Trevor Atwood preached a killer message on fatherlessness and on what the gospel means for our spiritual adoption and what it means for our ministry of adoption. This weekend we got a really special guest, one of our summit favorites, Derwin Gray, ex football player, played for the Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts before that. God brought him to faith in Christ during that career and he has a real ministry down in Charlotte now at a church down there that is just growing like crazy. He is one of the national leaders in the multi-ethnic church conversation. We've learned a great deal from him and he's been very influential on us.

He authored a book called The High Definition Leader, which I would highly commend to you because it's just a part of the great conversation. So I wish I could be there with you. I'm thinking about the summit church every day, but I'm very excited to be here with our teams like Curt and Jana Kay Holliday here, just lifting up their hands as they see the work multiply throughout the world. Love you summit church. God bless you. Put your hands together and let's welcome Derwin Gray.

Hello. Hey, I love coming to summit church. So JD and I go back way back.

Like I remember when he didn't have any gray hair. Like it was like back in the day at Clayton King's crossroad camps and we would discuss theology all night and laugh and it's awesome. Also summit church, you guys are partly responsible for the church that I get to serve and was a part of planning called transformation church. So back in 2005 I'd been a Christian not very long and JD asked me to come and speak to summit church and I was like, well, where is it? He goes, well, it said a school and I'm like a school. And so I remember when summit church met in the school and I know that some of the campuses still are in schools.

That's awesome. And I just remember preaching and I heard a voice and I don't know if it was my voice or God's voice, but the voice said, you can do this. And I'm like, start a church and a school. And so that was kind of like the seed of church planning that has mushroomed and grown and in six years we now have several thousand members and campuses and prisons and just all types of stuff and helping to plant churches as well. So I want to say thank you for your faithfulness and example. So thank you guys. You're making a bigger impact than you realize. And I want to welcome all of your campuses, particularly your two new campuses on Saturn and Neptune.

I remember back in the early 2000s, JD was like, we're going to, we're going to plant a thousand churches. I was like, good luck with that. And you guys are. You're doing it. A God-sized dream requires God-sized power and you're an example of that.

So thank you all so much. So we're in a series, the whole story. And so when JD and the team asked me to be a part of it and preach it, I was like, well, well, yeah, the whole story. Because the Bible is one big story about one big person and the person's name is Jesus. Just as Jesus says in John chapter five and also Luke 24, all of scripture testifies to Jesus. When you read Genesis, he's a greater Adam. When you read Exodus, he's a greater Moses. When you read about the flood, he's the great art that saves us. All of scripture testifies to Jesus that, that he is the big story. And here's what's beautiful. When you and I and our micro stories get lost in his big story, that's when we truly find who we are to be.

Our story doesn't make sense unless it is located and locked into his story, which is history. We all have a question, whether if we know it or not. We all have a question, whether if you are four years old or whether if you're 94 years old or somewhere in between male or female, rich, poor, whatever your ethnicity may be, it is hardwired into us. And the question is this, does my life matter?

And how can I make my life matter? So I'm 45 now. I know you're totally shocked.

I say that to make myself feel good. I got a daughter that's 20. She's like, she's adulting now.

It's amazing. Like you're an adult. What does that mean for me? And so I got a son that's 15.

He's a rising sophomore. And I remember in my thirties, just how arrogant I was because I would hear about these people in their forties and like midlife crisis. I'm like, they just need to love Jesus. What's wrong with these people? It ain't going to happen to me.

It's true. Seriously, man, things were cruising good to about 42 and a half. In the last two years, I've been feeling like I'm on a surfboard and brother up here don't swim.

So man, I've been feeling like I'm on a surfboard. Like everything I thought I knew, I didn't know. All I know is I love Jesus and He loves me and He's sovereign.

He's awesome. Other than that, I have no clue anymore. And so you begin to ask like, does my life really matter?

Am I really making a difference? And so the book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon and the book of Ecclesiastes is a part of what's called the genre of Jewish wisdom literature. Wisdom for the Jews is the skill to live life.

And so Solomon writes this book at the end of his life about 931 BC. Now listen, if you're a teenager, preteen, college student, all right, you guys dial in everybody and pretend like you're in a conversation, but this is for you too. Listen, at the end of someone's life and they say something, listen to them. That means it's really important and there's credibility behind what they say. So Solomon is at the end of his life and he's like, I want to drop some wisdom on you. I want to help you live life. And you know what wisdom also is?

Learning from other people's mistakes and not repeating them. Before we look at it, let's look at Solomon's Twitter bio real, real quick. Like who was he? First of all, he was the king of Jerusalem. It is good to be the king. I don't know about you, but that'd be cool if I could be king for like a day. And not only was he king, but he was also the son of Israel's greatest king, King David.

That's kind of like being, you know, Michael Jordan's son. You know, you walk down the street, man, I remember when your daddy just dunked on that dude's face. You know, can you imagine little Solomon walking down the street? I don't know how Solomon walked, but can you imagine him walking down the street? He's walking down the street.

You know, he's walking. And they're like, I was there when your daddy jacked up Goliath. By the way, that's Hebrew. Look for that in the deep in the text.

It's deep in the text. Like I was there when your daddy jacked up Goliath. So he was the son of Israel's greatest king. He was rich beyond measure.

He would make Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook and his billions look like pocket change. He was paid. Not only that, he had countless servants to do what he wanted when he wanted. And not only did he have some wives, but he also had a concubine. Of course, God doesn't endorse polygamy. Solomon was living in sin.

It was wrong. But not only did he have a bunch of wives, but he had a concubine. He had like more women. That brother had some energy.

So check this out. Whatever you want to imagine, Solomon did it. Whatever you wanted, Solomon had it.

In other words, Solomon had the American dream and then some. But Solomon also gave into idolatry. And I know here at the Summit Church you talk about idolatry.

That's not a word that we use very often. But idolatry is the worship of a false god and everybody's going to worship. The human heart is pre-wired for worship. Solomon gave into power, money, and sex. He was king. He was powerful.

He had money and then came the sex. Now let me make a point. Is power wrong? No. Unless you use it to oppress and suppress people. Then it's very wrong. Is money wrong? No. I miss my NFL checks, y'all. Pastoring does not pay the same amount of money.

Now I'm not as sore on Monday as I used to be, but man, my pockets are a lot lighter than they used to be. Is money wrong? No. Having money is not wrong, but when money has you, it's very wrong because we do wrong things to get it and keep it.

We become stingy. Is sex wrong? No. Sex is a gift from God. It is a beautiful act of worship between a husband and wife in a marital context. So Solomon writes Ecclesiastes as a book of repentance and regret. He's like, don't make my mistakes. Don't chase the wind. One of the themes that he says is it's all meaningless. Pursuing money, power, and sex, it's all meaningless. That's how we try to find meaning. Think about it.

When you meet someone, you ask them what they do, and then we begin to rank them based on what they do. Solomon's like, no, there is a better way. There's a way to make your life matter. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses 13 and 14, he summarizes it. He says this, not all has been heard. Here's the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.

Now let me pause here. Maybe you're not yet a follower of Christ. Maybe you're new to spiritual things, or maybe you are a follower of Christ. And this language of fearing God is very strange to 21st century people because who wants to follow a God that you fear? And that gives images like, oh, I'm afraid of God. Let's duck. He may be cranky today.

His coffee wasn't very good, right? He might yell at us. That's not what this means. In the ancient Jewish world, to fear God means to revere him, to honor him, to respect him, to be amazed by him, to be dazzled by him, that all of a sudden you begin to see all of light in high definition because the light himself now illuminates you. You begin to be in awe because you've seen how he's delivered you, how he's opened doors that were once closed, how you weren't even supposed to be here and you're still here, how you come from a jacked up, messed up, tore up from the flow up family, yet you're thriving, yet you're surviving. And all of a sudden you begin to see that there's none greater than God, that there's none greater than Jesus, that no one compares to him, that he's the pearl of great price, that he's matchless in his awesomeness, that he is absolutely mind blowing and incredible. That's what it means to fear God, that there's no one more beautiful, there's no one more excellent, there is no one more glorious, and you're overwhelmed that your heart explodes because you can't even imagine life without him.

That's what it means to fear God. Sadly, we often project that type of reverence to people who can dunk a basketball or catch a pass. Here's a little secret.

I got a little bit of experience in this. Some of the most jacked up, insecure people you will ever meet can dunk basketballs and catch passes. You have no idea how insecure and afraid I was.

Yeah, I could bench press 400 pounds, but I couldn't fix a broken, insecure heart. He goes on, for God will bring every deed into judgment including every hidden thing whether it is good or evil. So how do we make our lives matter? How do we fear God and keep his commandments? Number one, love God because he first loved you. Love God because he first loved you. Love God because he first loved you. I got a doctorate to teach you that.

Check this out. God's blessed me to write like four books in the last five years and tons of studying and all that stuff and I'm learning a lot of good stuff. I'm learning some deep stuff, but nothing deeper than this. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones, to him belong, for we are weak and he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. That is as deep as I get because there is nothing deeper than the deep love of God. As Paul says, may you be rooted and grounded in love. May you know together with all of God's people how wide, how long, how high, how deep is the love of Christ.

How do we make our lives matter? We fit into his story of love because he first loved us. So in the context when Solomon says, fear God and keep his commandments, as a Jewish man and also Jesus, like y'all know Jesus is Jewish, right?

He wasn't like this British dude, like real pasty. Hello, Peter. I see every deed you do, Peter.

Don't make me smote thee. He was a Jewish rabbi. And just like Jews today, he would have prayed the Hebrew Shema, Shema Israel. Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And so when Jesus is questioned, what's most important? He says this in Mark 12, 28 through 31, which would correspond with Solomon's word. Which commandment is the most important of all?

Jesus answered, the most important is hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There's no commandment greater than these. This is your vision statement here, Summit Church. This is the vision statement of Transformation Church. And I think it should be the vision statement of every church. Can you imagine a world where everybody loves God, loves themselves and loves their neighbor?

It would be due on earth as it is in heaven. But God woos us and draws us to love him. He doesn't go, love me.

And he does something to love us. So 1990, second semester, my freshman year at BYU, I was a football player. And I met a girl named Vicki. She's on a track team.

She threw the javelin. I seen her in the weight room and I really liked her triceps. And I was like, man, that girl is buff, man. And so anyway, we've been together ever since.

We've been married for 24 years. And so, but I had to win her. Like I had to woo her. I had to step up my game. I remember one day we were on campus and we were arguing about something.

And I mean, thousands of students walking by. I got on my knees, y'all, and I started singing to her. You've lost that loving feeling. Whoa, whoa, that loving feeling. Now it's gone, gone, gone. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Baby, baby, I'll get down. Okay, seriously, I did this. I was twisted up, man. I wasn't letting her go. It worked.

It worked, people. Well, guess what? God didn't get down on one knee and sing God on a cross and bled. He didn't get down on a knee and sing. He got on a cross and bled. That if you ever doubt that God loves you, look at the cross. Now please, here's something that we have to understand about God's love, right? The greatest need for human beings is not forgiveness. Don't throw any stones at me.

Let me work through this, okay? The greatest need for human beings is not forgiveness of sins. The greatest need for human beings is we need to be made spiritually alive because we're spiritually dead. What good is forgiveness to a dead person? God makes us alive in Christ so we can appreciate the forgiveness He gives us. You see, God didn't come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive.

That's called the doctrine of regeneration that through Christ we are made alive. Matter of fact, I love God's big butts in the Bible, big butts and He cannot lie. Satan may try to deny. I love God's big butts in the Bible. Ephesians 2, 4 says this, but God who has great love for us, great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, you know what that means? It means that His mercy account is so glorious that we can withdraw on it all eternity long and the next day it's new.

Levels don't deplete. God being rich in mercy means the recession did not affect His mercy account, that He's a merciful and glorious and great God. We can't out sin His mercy. The long arm of His love and mercy is unending and all pursuing. And not only is His great love for us and His great mercy, but it makes us alive together with Christ. When Jesus walked out of the tomb, supernaturally He now walks and lives and moves in you. That's what it means to be born again. Not only does God make us born again as we exercise faith in Him, but He also forgives our sins.

He rewrites our story. Now for those of you my age, you remember in elementary school we was trying to learn how to write in cursive and we would make a mistake and the teacher would give us a bottle of whiteout. Do you all remember that? For those of you who don't even know what it is, just Google it.

It was in the ancient days. And so the whiteout, you'd put over your mistake and it'd get all crusty and pasty and you can write over it, right? Well guess what? Jesus sees our mistakes and He doesn't use whiteout, He uses blood out. He uses blood out and He rewrites your story with His very own. Not only does He make us alive, not only does He forgive us, but He also makes us His friends. We are reconciled to God. The heartbeat of God, the Father, He's a good, good Father.

That's who He is and He's so good. He says, I'm going to send my son not only to make you alive, not only to forgive you, but to make you my children, to make you my friends. And please understand this, God loves you as you are, not as you should be, because none of us are as we should be. That's why we need a Savior. And the more we focus on His unconditional love right where we are, the more that love transforms us. You see, that's what He's done to win our hearts. And so we love Him first because He first loved us. That's how we find meaning in His love story. Secondly, you love yourself because you're united to the Messiah.

You love yourself because you are united to the Messiah. Do any of you guys remember the first day of middle school and you're trying to find your locker? Remember how terrifying that was? Or you're like walking and you want to go sit down with the cool kids, but you're not sure if they're going to get up or not? So I've kind of figured out, and I totally could be wrong, I'm learning I'm wrong about a lot of things, but it seems like we never really get over that. We just learn how to cover it up. That the older I get, I realize, you know what, you're still that sixth grader in middle school and you need Jesus to help you find your locker. All of us have cracks and crevices and holes in our soul that we try to fill, but only Jesus can fill those cracks and those crevices.

One of the greatest tools the enemy uses is for you to mar the image of God that God has tattooed on you in Christ. If he can get you to doubt that you're loved, if he can get you to doubt not your self-esteem but your God-esteem, please don't have self-esteem because self-esteem is built on what you do. God-esteem is built upon the rock, what Jesus has done. So I'm not for self-esteem, I'm for God-esteem.

But if he can get you to doubt your God-esteem, that's going to affect everything. Have you ever walked into a room and you're like, no one here likes me? Matter of fact, some of you may be doing that now. You may be a guest going, I don't know if these people like me.

You haven't even met these people yet. So we like self-sabotage because we're projecting how we feel about ourselves. If you want to know how a person feels about themselves, look at how they treat other people, especially people who hurt them and people who can do nothing for them. So to love ourselves correctly means this. All that's true of Jesus is now true of me and you. The way God the Father loves Jesus is the way God the Father loves us. The way God the Father thinks about Jesus is the way God the Father thinks about us.

I don't know about you but that is so unfair. By the way, we don't want fair, we want grace. See that's what makes us love him and begin to love ourselves because we realize that our worth and our significance of who we are as people is not built on my accomplishments, it's not built on my failures, it's built upon the epic work of Jesus.

Check this out. Look what Romans 6, 4 through 7 says about us being united to Christ. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into his death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. That new life we live is Jesus' life.

For if we've been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his for we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin may be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Supernaturally somehow when Jesus died on the cross, we were with him. Somehow, supernaturally when Jesus was laid in the tomb, we were with him. Somehow, supernaturally when Jesus got up out of that tomb, we got up out with him.

So check this out. I don't know what tomb you're in right now, but go ahead and walk out. I'm not sure the tomb you're in, but go ahead and walk out.

It's free. The door is open. Just trust him. Walk out. I don't know what fear has your heart afraid, but Jesus is greater. I don't know what situation or circumstance has you in bondage, but Jesus is greater.

I don't know what you're going through, but I know the one who will get you through. His name is Jesus. You are united to him. He is your great God. He is your king. Somebody help me up in here.

Somebody need to get set free. You are more than a conqueror in him who loves you. That's who we serve, a conquering king, and you are united to him. Call upon his name.

Cry out to him. He'll deliver you. He is still a delivering God. He is still a great God. That's who he is. That's our Messiah. By the way, that was for me. People, I think, at times think that preachers don't go through stuff, that their kids don't have problems, that sickness don't hit them, that fear.

Oh, yeah. So I don't know if y'all got something out of that, but that encouraged me. Let's move on. So how do we find meaning? Fear God, keep his commandments. Love your neighbor, and I know that's your vision here, the neighbor is the world, but love your neighbor, but how do we do that?

How do we do that? And I'm going to look at a text of Scripture because what Jesus did is he took the Hebrew Shema in Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 through 6, love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Then he took Leviticus 19, 9 through 18, which is love your neighbor as you love yourself. So in the first century, second temple, Jewish context, when Jesus said, love your neighbor, when Solomon said, fear God and keep his commandments, what does that mean to love your neighbor? So we're going to look at, in that context, what it means to love your neighbor, and then we're going to apply it to our context today. So to love your neighbor, you do this by being generous financially. You do this by being honest, and you do this by being fair.

How do we know? Let's look at the text. Jesus quotes Leviticus 19, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. It says this, when you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen.

Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God. So I don't know if you farm, but you do have a job.

So check this out. Israel was an agricultural society, and Yahweh, the one true God, says, look, my people, when you glean your harvest, don't go to the edges, and when grapes fall down, leave them there, because the poor and the foreigner or immigrant is going to come through Israel, and they're going to be hungry. Can you imagine you're walking in the desert, you're hungry, your stomach grumbling, speaking in tongues to you, you know what I'm talking about? And you're walking, and you're like, oh my gosh, these people in this land leave food for people? I need to know about their God if they're this generous. So what does that mean for you and I?

It means that you have a job. One day you will have a job, and it means that a part of our generosity is in response to God's generous gift of Jesus to us, and so generosity to others, particularly the poor, and those in need, the mission and vision of the church, and also other Christ-centered things becomes an act of worship that the world goes, what kind of God is this that these people are so generous? Let me encourage some of you who've been following Jesus for a long time, please don't stop at 10 percent giving. Well, Lord Jesus, I done gave my 10 percent, the rest is mine.

Man, I'm so glad on the cross Jesus didn't go, well, y'all, I gave y'all 10 percent of blood and the rest is mine. What if your next raise is not to increase your standard of living but to increase your standard of giving? Part of loving our neighbor is generosity to the poor, generosity to the mission and vision of the church, generosity to those in need.

Loving your neighbor is also, don't steal, don't lie, don't deceive one another. Can you imagine just for 10 minutes if the whole world was generous, didn't steal, didn't lie, didn't deceive? Can you imagine how beautiful that would be?

Matter of fact, can you imagine how beautiful our homes would be if that were true? Then it goes on, don't swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God, I am the Lord. So I must admit, I have a pet peeve with this one, particularly here in the southeastern United States of America. Christians will get mad at non-Christians for going GD or Jesus Christ, like I played with guys playing golf and Christians would get mad at non-Christians for, you know, they hit a bad shot and the non-Christian would go, GD or Jesus Christ and the Christian would be like, how dare they say that? And in my mind I'm going, do they even know Jesus? Like, that's not what it means to swear falsely by his name. You want to know what it means to not swear falsely by his name?

Here it is, don't deceive one another. Don't lie. Don't steal.

Don't be stingy. That's what it means to dishonor and falsely swear by God's name. Not saying GD or Jesus Christ when you're playing golf. By the way, the name Jesus, Yeshua, is just Joshua.

There were a lot of people named Yeshua in Jesus' day, but a lot of people weren't the Messiah. Parents, I don't know if you do this, but do you remember when your mom and them, your daddy and them, some of y'all know what I'm talking about, your mom and them, your daddy and them. All y'all with the good tans know what I'm talking about, don't you? Your mom and them, daddy and them.

You remember when your mom and them and your daddy and them? When you leave the house, they'll be like, remember whose last name you represent. That's what it means to not swear falsely by God's name, that when we go into the world, God is saying, remember whose last name you have in your business dealings.

Remember when you take that exam not to cheat because my name and my honor and my glory is on the line. That's what that means. Not some foolishness of, wow, unbeliever said Jesus Christ and GD.

God's like, they don't even know me. You got to catch the fish before you can clean the fish. To love your neighbor means don't defraud or rob your neighbor. So if you sell cars, don't mark the car up. If you give loans, don't give loans to people with outrageous interest rates because they're poor.

Get fired before you do that. That's what sunk this nation. Oftentimes I'll have young people at my church and they'll be like, man, we need to, gosh, we got to reach the urban area. And I'll be like, we need to reach wall street because Pookie and Jose did not develop subprime loans. Like while we always, we need to go to wall street where economies are controlled and see some people come to love Jesus and have generosity and have fairness and justice. How about that?

Maybe the situation for Pookie and Tyrone in the hood might change if power structures are transformed by the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Can I get an amen from somebody? Man, I wish I'd have said that at the other services. That was really good.

All right, let's move on. Don't hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. Pay people fairly. Don't curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God, I am the Lord. How do we treat people that have special needs? How do we treat the families with children's special needs?

It's hard. Do not pervert justice. Do not show partiality to the poor, favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. What would happen if we treated everybody like Jesus died for them?

Rich, poor, black, white, Asian, Latino, male, female, upper class, middle class, all kind of classes. What if we treated everybody like Jesus tasted death for them as Hebrews 29 says? Do not go about spreading slander among your people. I think if Jesus were writing this today, he would say, please watch what you say on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram because some of y'all done lost y'all minds. I'm like, surely Jesus didn't tell you to write this because mean and nasty is definitely not a part of the fruit of the spirit. And be careful what y'all say about professional athletes too.

They got families that read that stuff. You know, this is what I say to people all the time if they don't like the way their favorite professional athlete plays. I go, listen, man, they got tryouts every spring. I mean, like surely the way you talk, you must can do it better. So go ahead and try it out with your bad self. See how that works out for you. I've been there. It's pretty tough, but the way you talking and tweeting like Drake, so you got them Twitter fingers. Let's see if you can go out there and really actually catch a ball with a 250 pound linebacker hitting you in your grill.

That's what I thought. Shut up. Uh, do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord, your God. Do not hate your fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly, so you're not sharing their guilt. Speak the truth and love. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as your self.

I am the Lord. So now we go, what does this look like to love your neighbor? It looks like being generous, looks like being honest and it looks like being fair. People are attracted to Jesus's people when they do that by God's grace. So Solomon finishes up with Ecclesiastes 12 11. He says, the words of the wise are like goads. They're collected sayings like firmly embedded nails. In the ancient world, when you had an ox or something and it wouldn't go, you'd have these goads that you hit like that and it would make the animal go. Well, God's word, his wisdom hits us to make us go deeper into his heart. But notice what Solomon says here, firmly embedded nails one shepherd.

Does that sound familiar? I know a shepherd who had firmly embedded nails that hung him on a cross. Jesus says these words in John 10 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. If Jesus the good shepherd will lay down his life for you, don't you think you can trust his wisdom?

Not only is Jesus the shepherd, not only is Jesus our wisdom, but Jesus is also our satisfaction and meaning. Listen, I don't propose to know what you're experiencing at the various campuses. I don't know.

It's not my place to know. And even if I did know, I'm so limited, I can't really do nothing for you. But I do know one who is unlimited. I do know one who's limitless.

And if me giving you a hug would help, believe me, I would do it. But I do know one who says I will satisfy you regardless. Jesus says these words in John 6 verse 35, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never grow hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Would you feed on Jesus? Would you consume him by faith?

Would you drink his well of living water? Want to find meaning? You want to find purpose?

You want your life to matter? It's found in Jesus. He is our wisdom.

He is our satisfaction. It's not a job. It's not a spouse. It's not kids.

It's not accomplishing epic things. Solomon says all those things are meaningless. You know who gives meaning? The good shepherd. Hear his voice today.

Follow him. And you know, sometimes following the good shepherd, sometimes I don't like the journeys. Like the last two years, I have not liked the journey of where he's taken me. I ain't liked it at all. I've liked who I've become.

I just didn't like the process to get there. But he loves me enough. He loves my family enough to teach us how to trust him. Sometimes you don't know what faith really is until all you have is your next breath that says, Jesus, would you save me? Shepherd, would you come again to the rescue? Would you call on his name?

Would you trust him to do the impossible? Here's our soul tattoo. The big idea is what we say at Transformation Church.

Here it is. Make your life matter. Don't say I'll wait till next week. May not be next week.

Don't say, well, I'll wait till I get done with college. That may not happen. This afternoon may not happen. One thing that I know is right now is happening and there's no greater time than right now than to trust the great Shepherd. Call on his name. Call on his name.

Call on his name and you'll find that he's already there. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for Summit Church.

I thank you for your words of wisdom empowered by the Holy Spirit. May we be a wise people to love you with all of our hearts, minds, soul and strength and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We can't do that.

You have to do it for us. That's why you make us alive. That's why you inhabit us and indwell us. May we make our lives matter and having a life that matters doesn't mean that we're superstars. It just means that we choose to shine the light on the great morning star himself, the Lord Jesus, the brightest of the bright. Right now in this moment, perhaps you're saying, you know what, Pastor Derwin, I want to follow Jesus. Maybe you've never taken a step to follow Jesus.

Maybe, maybe something has tripped. The wire has tripped on the inside and you're saying, I'm ready to follow Jesus. I'm ready to exchange my old dead life for his new life. I'm ready to receive forgiveness. I'm ready to know his mercy. I'm ready to know his love. I'm ready to know his purpose for my life.

I'm ready for my life to matter. If that's you right now in the silence of your heart, say this to Jesus, Lord, I am ready. I believe by faith that upon the cross you took my place. You was disgraced to give me grace.

I'm forgiven. I'm loved and I believe that on the third day you defeated death and now you live your victorious life in me and through me. I am alive.

I am free. I choose this gift of life eternal in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. And Amen.