Life Upgraded

We got Begin this new series, life Upgraded, and we're gonna talk about upgrading your vision, your vision for your life. Because the thing that probably you, you know, percentage wise, if you, if you broke your life down and thought, okay, where am I today? Am I satisfied? Am I content or am I just at a place where I feel beaten down in life? You know, you've got this point where it's like nothing seems to be working. You're so frustrated with things and you know you're tired. And in fact, I've used this phrase before, you're just sick and tired of being sick and tired. And you would love for something to change. And it could be, you know, life's okay, but you're just bored. You know, you're not beaten down, but you're bored. You find yourself in a rut. Things just kinda go on. They don't change. You don't feel a sense of challenge in your life. But there are those of you and you have this, you know, in you, because at least you're here, you're participating, you're watching. And that's the brave, uh, the brave of those that like, I'm not gonna just settle for being, okay. I'm not gonna settle for boredom. I'm not gonna stay in this sort of beaten down position. And you're looking for a way out. You're looking for a better path. And what we need is someone to lead us. We need to find a better voice, a better shepherd. And what I'm gonna challenge you to do in this series over these next few weeks, is to upgrade your vision. If you really want to change and be brave, what's required is faith. And that is, faith means I don't just believe it with my mind, but I'm willing to take a risk. I'm willing to act on it in some way. At least the beginning steps, the beginning phases. Now, I wanna read to you from John chapter 10. This is the Gospel of John in the New Testament and the gospels, they show us who Jesus is. It's a record of his ministry, his teaching. Uh, we learn about him up to the point of his resurrection here in John. He tells a story or a parable, and he's, he's, he, he's speaking to, you know, a a group of people that are antagonistic toward him. They're known as the Pharisees. These are these legalistic religious leaders that think they've got it all together. Uh, they've been very critical. He knows that a lot of times these guys are, are sort of, well wolves in sheep's clothing. But he says this in verse one. 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 he leads them out. When he is brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them. And his sheep follow him because they know his voice, but they will never follow a stranger. In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. Jesus uses figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore, Jesus said again, very truly, I tell you, I am 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. Jesus is saying what the Jewish people were waiting on is for God to send the Savior who would fulfill this Old Testament law, who would be the, the perfect sacrifice. He's saying, I am the way, the truth in the life. I'm the gate who enter. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. But in contrast, verse 10, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they have it to the full. So it's a beautiful passage. And what Jesus relates to us in this story, um, is something that we as, as Westerners, may not understand because it's based around the concept of herding sheep. And we, particularly as Texans, we think about cattle. You know, and what do you do with cattle? You drive them well with sheep, you don't drive them. What would happen is, is that the shepherd who knew his sheep, the sheep would be, uh, as we have names for our pets, the shepherd often had names for the sheep. He knew who his sheep were, and the sheep knew the shepherd because they recognize the voice. The shepherd would bring his sheep in to sort of a common stall, common area at night, to be more protected. And so it would be multiple herds, different shepherds, different times would bring their sheep in for the night. Well, there was a gatekeeper, and the gatekeeper regulated the sheep and the shepherds. And so when the shepherd would come, he would call for his sheep, and only his sheep would come out. And then they would go out and find better pasture. I thinking about sheep, you know, this is amazing. I saw this, this, this clip, and I want you to watch, um, here are sheep. And this is a modern shepherd trying to cross a busy, um, street with traffic. Take a look at this. I think that's pretty amazing. 'cause again, they're not being driven. They're being guided, they're being led. And that's the picture of the way Jesus leads us. And I, I love this passage. And you know, ai I guess algorithms are really interesting. So in, you know, prepping for this, I guess hear me talking about it, I don't know, but my phone pops up on my social media feed. This piece of art that just man, it, it, I, I thought it was just incredible. A beautiful picture of the passage. Jesus knows us, loves us, leads us, guides us and protects us. And the reality is we live in a sinful, fallen world in which there are wolves that seek to, to devour, that they wanna threaten us, they wanna tear us apart, yet Jesus is the answer. Look, I want to challenge you that the fellowship of the parks, we want you to ask questions. We want to encourage you that you can begin to figure out what it means to follow Jesus, to start following. And you know, in time we hope that you'll believe that you'll fully understand that he is the good shepherd, that he does love you. And and here's the reality. Your life may not be where you want it to be. And and I know we always want God to change maybe the circumstances, but what if the upgrade that you're looking for has far less to do with your situation? And it has more to do with who you're following. Have you ever followed the wrong person? Yeah, I think most of us have, maybe to some level at some capacity. I remember, you know, just being in that, that place of being sort of beaten down early and, and pastoring earlier and starting our church. And, but I, I mean, I was brave enough to be willing, you know, and I met this guy that just seemed to have it all together. Incredible talent, man, really sharp and had been a pastor, seemed to understand. I thought, man, this is a godsend. This is, you know, a great answer for me personally. But I was listening to the wrong voice. In fact, this guy turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. And, you know, I just wanted to, I wanted to so believe it. I I didn't listen. One of the, uh, well he's, he's no longer with us, but my oldest, um, staff member, uh, ed Kirk, he said, Doug, he said, be careful here. I just, there's some, some flags. Ed Kirk's, one of the most merciful, you know, just incredible. My wife said, Doug, ed, just something doesn't feel right here about this. And I'm like, oh, ye of little faith, you know? Um, they were absolutely right. And, you know, I look back on that, it could have been so destructive because what the enemy wants to do is he, he, we, we make bad decisions. We believe it's the right thing, but we really gotta be careful and, and understand, you know, who is it we are listening to? And it starts, and again, I wanna encourage you stop, first of all, settling for a life that you don't even like. You know, if you're not happy with your life, then I'm gonna say, do something about it. Take action, but ultimately, let God do something about that. Now, I know you would never say this about yourself, but we all have family members, or you know, those people that just miserable. Like, man, my life's so, uh, bad and all this. And, and you're like, well, have you considered this? Why don't you try that? And they just don't wanna do anything. They're just, they're just stuck. And it's like, I, I, I'm miserable, but I'm not really willing to do anything to change it. Well, listen to who you're, you're, listen to the right voice and, and be willing to act again. Faith, uh, means risk. It means beginning to follow. And Jesus cares about you. He created you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life. And he wants you to know your purpose. He wants you to understand, um, what it truly means to live in significance. And he could do that. And here's the value. And that is, this begins with the end in mind. What Jesus really came to do for us is not just give us a better life from a health, wealth and prosperity perspective, alright? He wanted to give us something far beyond that, something far more valuable, the security of knowing that you are an eternal being, that God created you to be in relationship with him. And that means he wants you with him for eternity, so that when you die physically, you don't have to worry. You don't have to be in fear, because you have the security and assurance of knowing that everything will be right, you will be made perfect. You'll be in an environment in which there is no sin. Not even necessarily the temptation of sin. There's no crying, there's no pain, no disease, no death. But if you can understand and believe that Jesus loves you and died for you, when you come to that place of trusting him, that's going to impact your day to day. You start with the end in mind. And that means your day-to-day decisions can have significance. You don't have to just survive. You don't have to just exist. Secondly, start listening to the voice that's leading somewhere better. Um, here we have a picture of, I, I would say contrast instead of the shepherd's voice. We, we a lot of times listen to imposters. We listen to culture. We listen to voices that make us feel good in the moment. But the really, the voice of the wolf and the Bible portrays our enemy, our accuser as like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Here in verse 10, John 10 10, it says, the thief comes to do what? To still kill and destroy. And what we do is it's, it's easy. It's easy to just listen to what everybody else says. It's easy to take the path of less resistance. And do you ever find yourself saying to yourself, you know, well, I deserve blank. I deserve this form of pleasure. I deserve this form of escape. Uh, you know, I've earned this. And we give ourself justification and we feel like it's okay in the moment, but what it does, it just compounds our life and it leads us to destruction. Um, Satan is portrayed as an angel of light. Alright? You may not, uh, even fully believe in the person of, of Satan that's talked about in the Bible, but, but just just hang with me a moment. A lot of times the best things in life seem like they're just really close to the truth. It's not just this scary adversary that jumps out, you know, at you. He, he's a attack. You know what that is, and you can recognize that, but it's the subtlety an angel of light. It appears to be good. So where I live, um, the behind our house is a, is a green space, a hundred year floodplain. And there are all kinds of creditors back there. Specifically. There's coyotes, uh, bobcats, we've seen them. And so we have two dogs. The little one is a, is a shihtzu, and, you know, kinda names appropriate. The, um, her name's Joy though. And we got those dogs out in the morning and see coyotes behind the fence. And the coyotes are not attacking no, they're, they're like playful and so forth. They're trying to bait that little dog to the fence, you know, wrought iron to pull it through. I mean, you know, Hey, let's be friends. And of course I see it and I'm like, Hey. And I run out there, joy, and I'm yelling, and joy comes back. The coyotes run away. And I'm just saying before we know it, we can find ourselves in a situation. We're listening to the wrong voice and we're being fooled. But it's important to recognize the voice of the enemy, the voice of the wolves, and the, the particular sweet sound of the voice of the good shepherd. Um, I, my, my voice I've been told is, um, unique. As a matter of fact, I've had two doctors, uh, tell me and offer to correct my voice. Yeah. And it's like, you know, we, you, you can get some help from that. I'm like, what do you mean? I mean, it's my voice. I mean, I, I'm, I'm good with it. And here's the reality. People will recognize me in public, not when they see me, but when they hear me talk. Just two weeks ago, I'm in academy and I'm asking a question, probably loudly, you know, a about something. And someone goes, they're looking and goes, pastor Doug, they come with our other campuses. I'm like, well, hey, how are you? She, I, I, I heard your voice. I knew it was you. And well, the doctor asked me, said, you're flat flaps are just way too involved with your vocal chords. I don't even know what that is, what flaps, you know, I had flaps, but I guess it's just way too involved. There's a way to crack that. And then, you know, said, would, would you like to do something about it? I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm good because it's distinctive. And, and Jesus speaks, God speaks to us, but we've gotta learn to recognize it. And I, I wanna encourage you, the way you do that is we know how he speaks his word, the Bible. And so the importance of, of being in the Bible and reading it on a daily basis, and I'll be more specific here later, is there is power in understanding who Jesus is, what he taught, what God tells us, and what leads to an upgraded life. And then there's real power when we stop listening to the negative soundtracks, the condemning soundtracks, the tempting soundtracks that the wolves give us through culture, social media, just, just within our own sinful nature. And we start trying to memorize maybe just one short verse of scripture a week. And we dwell and we start thinking on that. That's how you begin to recognize and know the voice of the good shepherd. God loves you. He is not gonna lead you astray. He wants you to have a life that he describes, in contrast to what the thief is trying to do. He wants you to have a full life, an abundant life, a life that is blessed beyond measure. And again, it's not because that the circumstances are, you know, all this different, but it's because you've changed. You live with the security of knowing that forever you're gonna be with Jesus. That impacts your day to day. That means you're willing to live in a way that is not fearful, but is, is based on faith, taking risks, helping people, seeing the hand of God at work. That is the life he wants to live. But that, that does come with a cost, alright? It means that you just say it. It's not just some philosophy you adopt, but you have to follow the discomfort that leads to growth. I mean, I, I'm not a super disciplined person. Um, I'm impulsive. I wanna do what's easy. But this just means you gotta do what's hard. You gotta do the hard things. And the hard things are not easy. And sometimes we get confused with some sort of just emotional idea that, you know, if God's really in this, I'm gonna be motivated and inspired. So I'll wake up in the morning, I'll he he'll, his Holy Spirit will anoint me, and I'm going to be in the word and everything's gonna become so real and amazing. I'm gonna have this vision from heaven. The light is gonna come down. I'm gonna hear an audible voice. And by the way, let me just say, I've not ever heard what I would call an audible voice, but I've heard it much louder. And, and we turn this into the experiential. And, and what God wants us to do is trust him. And here's what's gonna begin to really change our life. It's when we take something that's hard to do, we do it enough. We do it because we know we need to. We start acting in faith. And then we in time believe this is a good thing. This is a necessary thing. And that thing that is hard to do in the beginning becomes a habit. It becomes something concrete and real in our life. And what we'll find is the more we do it, when we don't do it, the more we'll miss it. And it, it, it over time. See, cumulatively we always want the miracle right now. I mean, God give it to me. I mean, change me right now. And there's a sense of which God does that from the inside out. But over time the process is cumulative. And that's where you find fulfillment in real change. And you look back and think, wow, God. Well this is what I'm gonna ask you to do in this series today. We're only gonna focus on one. But doing what's not comfortable means that I've got a willing to stretch a little bit. Um, I'm gonna ask you to commit to attending regularly, at least through this series. Again, I understand you may not believe, but hopefully you're at a point where I, I just like to be. I I wanna figure it out enough and, and try to get my questions answered. 'cause here's, here's what I find. When you really look at the disciples, when Jesus calls them, they were amazed and they were willing to go and, and they made a significant act of faith in following Jesus. But they didn't have everything all figured out. It took time for them to believe and embrace and, and, and for them to get it together and be used. God loves you. You, you can just begin the process, attend, figure it out. We're gonna ask you to, to take a step and be uncomfortable and join a small group. Sign up for one semester based. And that's an opportunity for you to get to know people, to learn something new. Yeah, it may be difficult, you may not be completely wired for it, but just give it a shot. Take that risk. And we're also gonna give an opportunity and your campus pastor is going to talk more about it. But we're gonna do a three week class. Um, and that is, that is gonna be about how to really take where you want to go, what kind of legacy you leave in over three weeks, really develop a plan to hit those goals in life. And so you'll hear about that momentarily, but what I want to challenge you to do is in time we wanna get you serving, thinking outside of yourself, not becoming so self-obsessed and neurotic, but you start doing something for other people. Maybe consider serving somewhere in the church. But this week, this is all we're asking. Alright? Next step is this. Start engaging with God's word at least four times per week. I'll tell you why that's so important. Um, lifeway research showed that if you engage with God's word, one to three, I mean that's okay, but it has minimal really effect. But when you engage at least four times or more, um, look at these results. Negative behaviors, decrease feeling lonely drops by 30%. Anger issues drop by 32%. Bitterness in relationships drops by 40%. Alcoholism drops by 57%. Sexual misconduct drops by 68%. Feeling spiritual spiritually stagnant drops by 60%. Viewing pornography drops by 61%. I think we can probably find something in there, right? That we would like to see improved. Well, what does the research say? God's word will change your life. It's like, it's, it's like fresh bread that, that, that you're taking in. It's going to nourish you. It has the power to change you. I participate in this 100 man impact group. It's just online Bible app. Read your Bible. You can use an app. I use YouVersion and it's something that I can do with other men. And, and we send out, Hey, it takes 10 minutes at most. You read, you know, a devotional, you read the scripture and you give some feedback, but you're accountable with other people that's a part of that group. It's an awesome thing. And I find that, you know, when we, there's a gap between studies, I use it as a time to catch up. I miss that. I miss that. I've gotta the point where I, I so look forward to it, then I'll go back and pick up something else to make sure that I'm continuing to do it. Why? Because I've seen the progression of change over my life. I've seen the difference that it's made again. So I'm just asking you to jump in, jump in and start reading four times a week. Would you make that commitment? We do change stories here in a little bit. You're gonna hear from Gary Houston and just how God has helped him, uh, with anxiety and panic attacks, and what a difference God's word, who Jesus is, what He's done in his life. Would you bow your head with me? Close your eyes in these moments. I'm gonna just pray for you. And my, my prayer, God, is that, Lord you would give us, help us be brave enough to upgrade our life by beginning to seek you, by beginning to discern your voice. And so, God, I pray that we would make the commitment that we need to make however little it is. I pray that you would bless that, that you would honor that. And, and God, I pray that you would just work in our lives. May we commit to the process and God, help us become who you created us to be. Help us live in the fullness of that, to be the best version of ourselves and the the best version of what your vision is for our life. Lord, we thank you that you call us to purpose in you. Jesus, in your name we pray, amen.