Going Places With Jesus LK 8
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While this sermon was written for me to use in conjunction with our 2005 VBS, none of the content or material including powerpoint slides are copyrighted or in any way Lifeway material.
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Our Vacation Bible School Theme is The Ramblin Road Trip
It takes us to interesting places such as Washington DC
Chicago, Lebanon Kansas, Yellowstone National Park,
and Knotts Berry Farm in California.
Those places are sort of different than the places Jesus went as He walked this earth.
But we can be certain as we look throughout the New Testament that Jesus was not a stay at home sort of person. He was not a homebody content to relax in one dwelling place.
Jesus traveled to places like
Nazareth, Samaria, Capernaum, Gennesaret , Sychar , Cana, just to name a few.
Jesus was on the move, He was going places.
Here’s what I want you to understand by the time you leave this place today.
With Jesus in your life YOU will be going places.
With Jesus in your life you can find an Exciting Place, an Inviting Place and a Deciding place.
Now those places we just saw in the film clip are a lot different from the places Jesus traveled Luke’s Gospel, chapter 8 in it’s introductory verses is just one of those many passages that gives insight into the fact Jesus was going places.
1After this, Jesus traveled from one city and village to another, preaching and spreading the good news about God’s kingdom. The twelve were with him,
2 as well as some women who had been healed of evil spirits and illnesses: Mary, also called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out;
3 Joanna, the wife of Herod’s household manager Chuza; Susanna; and many others. These women continued to support them out of their personal resources.
Jesus was going places!
He traveled verse one says…” from one city and village to another.”
He went to exciting places where exciting things were happening. The people who were there with Him experienced the excitement.
Think with me, about the traveling you have done in your lifetime.
If you travel to an exciting place usually you have a story about exciting things that happened at that place or places you traveled to.
You don’t just say
“ I went to Yellowstone National Park, It was exciting.”
No instead you say
“I went to Yellowstone’ and I saw Old Faithful that exciting geyser shoot 184 feet up into the air.
I saw.Yellowstone Falls,
I saw the great prismatic spring with its beautiful rainbow like colors.
When you go to an exciting place there is always an exciting story to tell of an exciting experience you had at that exciting place.
The things you saw... The things you did…The things you witnessed happening there at that exciting place.
As you walk through life trusting Jesus and as you get to know Him more and more in a personal sort of way. Your knowing Him, and experiencing Him at work in your life brings real excitement to the places you go.
Knowing Him personally in your life… takes you to places of excitement spiritually in your life.
It gives you experiences to share that are thrilling.
I remember the first time my wife and I set out to go on an overnight mission trip. We had done mission projects before but never anything overnight or more than a couple hours from where we lived.
We went there because we sensed Jesus was leading us to go there.
There was a sense of excitement before we even left.
We went to a place that was unfamiliar to us… and that added excitement to our lives.
We were doing a daily Bible Club with children from a group of Hispanic migrant workers.
My wife and I had never really been on a trip like this before.
This was a new place for us,… a new experience and it was filled with excitement.
I remember saying to her that night as we got ready to lie down on our air mattress and go to sleep…
I said to my wife…
”Dear did you ever imagine 10 years ago that you would be doing something like this?”
It was exciting!
Here’s what you need to understand…When you know Jesus and He is your guide, He takes you to places that are exciting and interesting. Places and experiences you’ve not encountered before.
If your here today and your thinking
“There’s just not a whole lot of excitement in my life”
I would ask you to answer this question,…
IS JESUS YOUR GUIDE?…is Jesus your guide?…
is He taking you places in your life?
Is He the author of your experiences?… or are you sort of just following the map of your own plans and your own day to day life?
As Jesus lead those 12 disciples and those women who were following with them that we just read about,
Jesus was leading them to exciting places where exciting things were taking place in their lives.
I want to encourage everyone here this morning…
Let Jesus be your guide… to Exciting places.
Grab some excitement from life as you let Jesus take you to some places you’ve never thought of and to some experiences you never imagined.
As we trust Jesus and seek to live our lives following Him. It’s not just where He takes us but the exciting things that happen there.
Exciting things that change our lives.
As Jesus and His followers went from place to place exciting things were happening.
Lives were being changed.
People were being given hope.
The heavy burdens that many had in their lives were being lifted away.
If you commit to follow Jesus with your life and seek to live for Him, He is going to take you to some exciting places and some exciting experiences.
He may not lead you to Yellowstone to see the Geyser, “Old Faithful” that raises water 180 ft in the air.
I can promise you however,… that if you follow Jesus, you will see the excitement of Jesus lifting people’s joy and their happiness and their motivation for living each day…including your own,...and that is exciting.
When we follow Jesus we have exciting experiences because Jesus takes us to an Exciting place.
II. Jesus also takes us to an INVITING PLACE.
FIND JOHN CHAPTER 8
As travel and visit some places, A lot of places you may go will have an area right at the front that is something like a welcoming center.
It is an inviting area that says “We’re glad you are here” it may say “Get aquatinted with us”, “Get To Know Us” Most places you visit such as a museum or a memorial, or a historic site, will begin with an inviting place.
This is the way in which Jesus wants us to experience Him in our lives.
When we reach the place in life where we begin to discover who Jesus is and that He has marvelous things for us to experience in life we find out just how
INVITING coming to know Jesus and having Him as our guide in life can be.
When I was much younger I remember visiting Carlsbad Caverns in Carlsbad New Mexico.
It was exciting!
Yet some might be a little reluctant at first of just how inviting a visit to these caves might be.
After all these caves go deep into the earth one of them in fact going over 1,500 feet deep into the earth.
The caves are a home for thousands and thousands of bats. There are deep pools of water throughout the caves that look like merely a large puddle after a storm but in fact some of them are far deeper than they appear…dangerously deep if someone where to step into them.
And when you are inside that cave it is DARK!
It is so Dark…
It is so dark in those caves that at one point when the tour guide removes every bit of light … you can hold your hand directly in front of your face and not even see a trace of it.
Some might begin to say
“well that sounds sort of dangerous, that sounds sort of frightening not exciting.”
Well, this is exactly how life can be as we go through life it takes us to various places, various experiences.
The difference between whether or not those places and experiences are INVITING or FRIGHTENING depends on our guide.
Jesus said in John 8 in verse 12
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”…
You see for me to have walked through areas of those caves unattended I would have been very apprehensive.
I would have been a bit frightened.
I would have been unsure.
The experience for me would not have been all that inviting.
HOWEVER, with the right guide… the experience became both inviting and exciting.
I knew that I had someone that was aquatinted with the area we would be traveling.
Isn’t it great when you travel or go somewhere to have someone who knows the way.
Jesus also said in John chapter 14 and verse 6
“I AM THE WAY”.
I assure you that wherever life takes us in our experiences, Jesus knows the way.
He provides for us a way that is inviting, because of the safety we are assured with Him.
He welcomes us to a life where we do not walk alone but He is there with us every step of the way if we believe in Him and place our trust in Him as our guide through life.
Having Jesus as our guide as life takes us places is the most important guide we can ever have.
Jesus not only takes us to that Exciting Place and That Inviting Place but Because He draws us to know Him and Trust Him
III. Jesus brings us to a DECIDING PLACE.
A place where we must truly believe that He is absolutely 100% who He says He is.
Then because we recognize and believe who He is…then we place 100% of our trust in Him.
This is the deciding place that God takes us and we cannot leave until a decision is made.
The decision of who Jesus is…This is a place that we all must travel.
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus’ followers had come to a place…a deciding place where they need to be clear in their decision about who Jesus was.
I believe that right now for many here today.
This is the place and now is the time for you.
This is the deciding place for you this morning.
Either Jesus is who He says He is…or He is not.
This is the decision you must make.
At Carsarea Philippi Jesus brought His followers to a deciding place.
Matthew Chapter 16
Tells us that
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some (people) say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked.
“Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
I want to ask you a most serious question this morning and I want you imagine that it was just you and I
(no one else)
but just you and I in this room together this morning and I want to ask you….
Have you reached that deciding place in your life?
Have you decided that the Bible is absolutely true and that you need Jesus?
Have you decided that His death on the cross, for you was sufficient… to take care of your sins… and to give you new life.
Have you decided today that Jesus is the answer for all you trials and troubles and that HE is THE WAY for you?
The way to an Exciting Place in your life
The Way to an Inviting Place in your life
The way to that decision to say I need Jesus.
If you are here today and you have never made that decision in your life where you said
“I need Jesus”
If you’ve never said that to Him…
I want you today in just a moment to come and take my hand and we’ll pray together and I will help you today as you come to that deciding place of trusting Jesus with your life.
Let’s Pray…
(The Lord helped me to develop this sermon for VBS. I have power point slides available for it on the church website. www.mtpbc.com
