Friendsgiving 2024 Sermon: This is Real Life

Intro:

Titanic Illustration:

SHOW PICTURE ON SCREEN

Does anyone know what ship this is a picture of?

Early in the morning, on April 14, 1912 the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean. Many of us know the story, maybe you’ve even seen the movie. But this event was monumental in history. And even today, over 100 years later, people still know about and talk about this tragedy!

That’s because it was a big deal and had a lot of details that make us think about it! It was the largest ship ever made at that time in history. It was on its very first trip ever at sea. It held some of the wealthiest and most famous people in the world at that time. Like, you can look up lists and see that a majority of the passengers on board were famous, wealthy members of society worth millions of dollars back then, even more by todays economy.

But at the end of the day there are only two details of this story that really matter. Not how big and fancy the boat was. And not has famous and rich the people were. But who survived and who died in the tragedy. Towns would actually put up signs that listed Souls Saved and Souls Lost. They would update them as more news came in about who was found alive or dead. In the end there were about 2200 people on board the Titanic and over 1500 of them died. That is still the biggest lost in a single transportation accident in all of history.

When it comes to stories like this, that end in loss of life, many details may be shared, but what matters more than anything is the people who lived and who was lost.

Transition:

I realize that is a weird way to start a message for Friendsgiving. Especially, as teenagers and young adults, we don’t really think about the reality of dying one day. That’s the last thing I ever think about. But we need to realize that day is coming. But even more importantly, we need to realize that the way we live each and every day now is either marked by life or death, saved or lost.

See, at the end of the day, no matter what the details of our life are, we are either walking in life or death. Light or darkness.

Like the story of the Titanic, it is easy and even enjoyable for a moment to think about the details of life like fame, success, money, entertainment, popularity, but as God’s Word teaches us What does is matter if we gain the entire world in this life but lose our soul in the end?

Proverbs says there is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is death.

The life of this world leads to death.

We can spend this whole life searching for satisfaction, purpose, significance, love, and everything else to make our life feel worth it. But in the end all of the best that this world has to offer won’t be enough. It won’t be enough to satisfy us here and now, and when we die it will not matter at all! The life of this world leads to death.

It tells us to pursue our wildest dreams and we will be satisfied, happy, and have a great life. But in the end, we are left lonely, frustrated and confused what we missed.

So, where is real life found? Where is life that is eternal found, life of abundance, real life found?

In 1 John 5 the apostle John gives his reason for writing that entire letter. At the heart of his entire letter are these verses, 11-13 in chapter 5.

Look at these verses with me, 1 John 5:11-13:

1 John 5:11–13 CSB

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

The only way to have life now and for eternity is through Jesus Christ, God’s Son!

Jesus said He is the way, the truth, and the life! No one can come to God the Father, except through Jesus the son. No one can have LIFE and Life to the fullest apart from Jesus.

I don’t know each of your stories, but I know mine. And my story is marked by looking for life in all the wrong place, all the while calling myself a Christian but missing the Life of Christ.

Let me share my story with you.

I grew up in Tampa, FL in a great family. My parents took me to church every week, I was involved in Sunday School and VBS. My grandmother and Aunt and Uncle would lead bible studies with me. And when I was young in elementary school, my aunt shared the Gospel with me, and I prayed to receive Jesus as my Savior and Lord. Unfortunately, no one really taught me what that meant after making that decision.

So, like most kids, I grew up just trying to fit in, find my place in the world, figure out what I was good at and what I enjoyed and I hoped that sports, girls, friends, or something that I could find would satisfy me, make me feel better about myself, feel like it was ENOUGH in this life. I was good at sports and became very popular because of that. For my middle school years I thought my life was great. I went to church on sundays and wednesdays, knew all the church answers but then at school I didn’t act like a Christian at all. I used terrible language, chased after girls and did anything I could to stay popular. But in 9th grade everything changed, I was playing basketball for my HS and in a really big game, I tore my ACL and Lateral Meniscus- those are two very important parts of your knee. I had to have surgery and I couldn’t go to school for a while and couldn’t play sports for almost a year. It was during that time that I realized something was missing in my life. Turns out, the guy on crutches for 2 months wasn’t very popular. You don’t look that cool hopping up and down stairs with crutches and notebooks. None of the people I thought were my friends were hanging with me anymore. All my teammates carried on without me and I just felt like I didn’t even know who I was.

Thankfully, that summer I was able to go to camp with my church. Camp is always a powerful time and I really needed God to speak to me. One night at the worship service, during a song- probably Oceans for anyone who is old in the room- but it was a moment that I heard God speaking to me so clearly. He said, Evan, You have been calling yourself a Christian for a long time, but you need to actually start following Christ. I knew in that moment I had a choice, to go all in on the decision I made when I was young and repent of my sin for those years and start following Jesus, or turn away all together. But I prayed that night and told God I would go all in and He had my whole life from then on. IT was that moment that I will never forget, when I realized that I really had NOTHING without Jesus in my life. It was such an easy decision for me because I had tried to do life without Jesus for years and pretend like I was ok, like all those things in my life were enough.

But it wasn’t, I was always left looking for more. Popularity wasn’t enough, success wasn’t enough, short bursts of fun and pleasure were not enough! At the end of every moment was still a confused, lonely kid looking for more in this world. Maybe you’re here tonight and you have been trying everything in the world around you to fill you up, hoping it would satisfy you, but you just keep chasing more, filling your life with other people and things to try to feel better about yourself and it just doesn’t work.

You’ve realized that the life of this world leads to death.

Here’s the good news:

The death of Jesus leads to real life.

The one real God created you for a personal relationship with Him! But we are born in sin, we rebel against God and we try to do life our own way instead of His way. This means we are separated from Him. We are spiritually dead and heading towards a physical death that death will be eternal. We were lost in our sin and struggle with no way to be saved! We couldn’t pay for our sins, we couldn’t earn the eternal life of God. But God loved us, He loves YOU, so much that he didn’t leave us hopelessly searching for life. He sent His one and only Son Jesus into this world to teach us how to find real life. Jesus lived a perfectly life so that He could be the perfect sacrifice for us! The cost of sin is death! SO Jesus went to the cross and died in YOUR place, the death that we deserved, the perfect Son of God took it for us! Then, he rose from the grave 3 days later, he conquered sin and death forever! And he says that anyone who will turn from their life of sin and follow Him will be forgiven for their sin, given a personal relationship with God, and eternal life with Him!

This is the Gospel, the Good news that offers eternal life, real life, now and forever, to anyone and everyone who trusts in Jesus as Lord!

John says, the one who has the Son has life. Anyone who has Jesus has life, anyone who does not is lost in their sin and the only end is death! Death in our daily life and eternal death one day separated from God forever.

We, as christians can thank God and praise Him for giving us life in Jesus! Even if you think you have nothing else to be thankful for in this life right now, if you have Jesus- that is LIFE itself! You have more than you could ever deserve through Jesus!

Whoever has the son has life! Thank God for that!

Bow your heads with me and lets respond together.

Christians in here, John says he has written these things to you so you, who believe in the Name of the Son of God- the name of Jesus, will KNOW that you have eternal life! Knowing with confidence you have been saved and given new life is the way that daily you can boldly and faithfully walk in that life- free from sin and victorious over death! This thanksgiving season, and every day after- thank God for your salvation and the life you have in Jesus. Walk in the new life you have and share it with others. Invite people to Church, invite people to One Night on Sunday. You have Eternal Life and your one purpose is to live out that eternal life by inviting others to join you in it! THIS IS REAL LIFE!

If you are here tonight and you do not have this life, maybe you’ve never heard this news, or you have never turned to Jesus to be saved, or you’re just not sure. Listen, this message was FOR YOU! God is calling you out of death and into life tonight. Do not wait, we are not promised tomorrow. Nothing in this world will satisfy you or save you from your sin. You know you are searching for more- what you are searching for is JESUS because in him is LIFE itself! If you need to step out of the struggle and sin and shame of death and receive the life of Jesus- you can do that tonight, here and now. No one is looking around right now. This moment is between you and God, is there anyone here tonight that needs to be saved and begin a new life with Jesus tonight? I want to pray with you if thats you! Raise your hand for me. You’re saying, I don’t want to keep struggling in my brokenness, I don’t want to keep trying to do life on my own, I want the LIFE of God to save me and change me and I want my eternity to be with God forever! Raise Your hand so I can pray for you. Ok, If you’re raising your hand, only if you are raising your hand, would you look up at me right now. I see you…You realize you have sinned and need Jesus to save you from that sin? You want to follow Him and walk in his eternal life? Praise God. I want you all to pray and tell God that decision you are making. Pray something like this, but it’s between you and God. It can’t be my words, it’s you and God.

Pray- God I realize tonight I am a sinner. I have been living for myself and I deserve death for my sin. But I believe you sent your Son Jesus to die in my place to pay for my sins, and raise from the dead so I could be saved. Tonight I want Jesus to save me from my sins and be my Lord. Fill me with your Spirit and help me to follow you in every area of my life from now on!

If you just prayed that, listen to me- you can’t do this life alone, you weren’t made to. You were meant to do it with others, this ministry, this church is your family now. We are here for you. So before you leave, I want you to tell me, or pastor Brandon that you made this decision and bring a friend with you so we can help you begin your new life with Jesus!

Let’s all pray together.

PRAY

Hey, Can we make some serious noise in here and thank God for those who were saved just now!? Praise GOD with me!

Wrap up - PUSH ONE NIGHT this sunday night 5-8, invite people, and dismiss to go hang out.