James Meehan - The Life You Long For Starts Here

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I have a question for you. Show of hands, how many of you have ever been asked the question, what do you wanna be when you grow up? Show of hands, anybody ever been asked the question? When I was a wee little lad, my favorite answer to give was Space Ninja because I wanted to do ninja things but in outer space. If you’re watching this message, you can probably tell that that dream did not come true. Instead, I am doing this. And I think that question’s kind of fun, like to imagine, what it is that you will spend your life doing. But you may have also experienced the sense of overwhelming anxiety that that question can bring. 'Cause that’s like a really big question. I don’t know what I wanna do for the rest of my life, I’m 12.

And sometimes, you can almost feel like if you don’t have an answer right now, then you’re gonna end up late to the party that you’re gonna miss out on something and there’s no way of getting back that thing that you missed out on. Recently, I was looking at this study where this organization asked a bunch of teenagers, what do you want to be when you grow up? And their answers probably will not surprise those of you that are in this room or watching this message. Most of them said some version of: «I wanna be a professional athlete». «I wanna be a YouTuber or a streamer». «I wanna be a doctor, » «an engineer or a lawyer, » «an actor or a musician».

Like all of the answers were kind of the answers that you would guess. There are these career paths that bring with them some level of money, power, and fame, which sound like really good things. But what I think was really interesting about this study is they asked another question, not just what do you want to be when you grow up? They asked the question, what do you value most in a future career? And the number one answer given was not power. It was not fame, it wasn’t happiness, it wasn’t the ability to work from home in your pajamas. It wasn’t a very flexible schedule so I can go on vacation whenever I want to. The number one answer was this: to feel good about what they do, to feel good about the job that they are investing so much time in.

And I think what’s interesting is that answer gives away what all of us are searching for. Not just money, power, or fame. Those things can be cool, they can be fun, but something deeper. What we’re looking for in life is to feel good about what we do, to feel good about who we are, to feel good about the direction that we are going. What we’re looking for in life is meaning. We are looking for fulfillment. We are looking for purpose. The problem is that most of us, and probably most of you, are looking in a lot of the wrong places. And that’s why I think this message is so important because what I wanna do is to, the best of my ability, help you find what it is that you are looking for. Not just the pretty stuff on the surface that’s shiny, but the stuff that actually satisfies that deep longing in your soul for something more.

And so where do we start? My suggestion would be we start with the smartest, wisest, and most capable human who ever lived. It’s a guy named Jesus. He walked on this earth 2,000 years ago. He said a whole lot of famous things. He did a whole lot of famous things and He gathered a group of people to follow Him. And after His life ended, a whole lot more people started to say that He was not just a human being, but He was God in the flesh, that He died and rose again empowered by the Holy Spirit, that He started something that wasn’t just some weird offshoot of Judaism, but He started a movement of God that brings life and freedom to everybody who joins it. And so what I wanna do is I wanna show you some Words from Jesus that I believe show us the path to a meaningful life. We’re gonna be reading from Matthew 16:24–27, where Jesus says to His disciples, His followers, «If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way».

If you want to follow Jesus, that means you have to go His way, not your way, right? Like it seems very obvious. But if Jesus is going right and you wanna go left, the only way you can follow Him is if you go right, you go the way that He is going. Then you gotta take up your cross, «take up your cross, » the thing that Jesus hung on when He sacrificed Himself for the sins of the world. He’s saying, if you wanna be His follower, you don’t just have to give up your own way. You have to be willing to sacrifice in a big way, «and follow me». You actually have to follow Him. Now, this right here is where I think the really interesting stuff comes when it comes to us finding meaning in our lives. He says, «If you try to hang onto your life, you will lose it».

So if you spend your life grasping for the things that you think matter, you will lose them in the end. But if you give up your life for His sake, if you give up your life for Jesus’s sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? Like this right here I think is so important because Jesus is saying what so many of us already know. Like He’s not coming up with some wild outlandish theory, that there is no evidence to back up like legitimately. Think about all of the celebrity drama that you can’t not be aware of. Like there is always something crazy happening in the lives of rich and famous people. And so they have all this stuff that we want, rich, fame, power, all of that jazz. But then, they’ve also got a whole lot of other mess that none of us want.

And so many of us think we could take the good and not experience the bad. And then, when people eventually get the good, they end up with the bad that comes with it. You see, what Jesus is telling us is that you can’t have it both ways. You cannot grasp after the things of this world and still hold onto your soul. That if you’re gonna chase after all the pretty shiny stuff, you’re gonna lose out on what really matters. You’re gonna lose out on what really satisfies. So if you want to chase the world, but there is a much better choice to be made, to give up your life for His sake. And then in Jesus ends by saying, «The Son of Man will come with His angels in the glory of His father, and He will judge all people according to their deeds».

We’re gonna come back to that in just a little bit. If you are taking notes though, I want you to write this down because this is the main point of today’s message. It’s that a faithful life is the path to a meaningful life. A faithful life is the path to a meaningful life. A faithful life, that means a life devoted to Jesus. A life where you actually give up your own way, take up your cross and follow Him is the path to a meaningful life, a life that you can feel good about because you become the person that God created you to be, because you are living a life that is so much bigger than yourself. Not just chasing after what looks good, but actually becoming the kind of person who does good. That’s what Jesus is offering us.

Now, what I think is really cool is the wisdom that Jesus is saying in these words is not a new thing. Like it’s not new to Jesus 2,000 years ago. It’s not new to us today. It it’s actually wisdom that you can find in this Old Testament book called Ecclesiastes. This is a book written by a guy named Solomon who is considered the wisest man who ever lived. He’s one of the richest and most powerful kings the nation of Israel ever had. And in this book called Ecclesiastes, at the end of his life, he is reflecting on how he chased after everything the world offers. And at the end of it, he came up empty. He says, «I denied myself nothing my eyes desired». If it looked good, if I wanted it, I took it. «I refused my heart no pleasure».

If it brings pleasure, if it feels good, I’m not saying no. I’m only ever saying yes. «My heart took delight in all my labor, » all the stuff that I worked for, I made sure that I enjoyed it because «this was the reward for all my toil». I worked hard. I deserve to be proud of myself and the stuff that I put in. But then he says, «Yet when I surveyed, » when I thought about «all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind: nothing was gained under the sun». Solomon is saying, hey, like he had it all. He tried it all. He took it all. And at the end of it all, everything was meaningless. It was a chasing after the wind.

Now, what you may not know about Solomon is I mentioned he’s considered one of the wisest people who ever lived. He was one of the richest, most powerful kings the nation of Israel ever had. Another thing you need to know is the dude had 700 wives and 300 mistresses. So the dude had everything that a lot of young people, young gentlemen want: money, power, fame, women. He had it all and it was meaningless. And there are some of you that I really hope you’re paying attention and not just blowing this stuff off, but that you actually take seriously, that so much of what you spend your time thinking about, dreaming about, talking about is going to leave you where Solomon was left: meaningless, empty. And like, don’t just take my word for it. Take his word, take Jesus’s word, these people way smarter than me. But if you wanna hear my word, here’s what I would tell you.

When I was a young man, I wanted many of the things that I think Solomon wanted. Specifically, I really wanted to be the toughest dude and the best ladies man. Like that was what. I wanted to be a better fighter than every other dude in my school. And I wanted the attention of the pretty girls. And like, I’m not trying to brag or anything, but I was pretty tough and I was pretty smooth. And so all throughout my middle school and high school years, I would pick fights with other people and I would win because I was actually training to be a fighter. And I would oftentimes be dating a girl or looking for another girl to date. And I kept thinking that if I’m just tough enough, if I just date enough, then I will finally be satisfied. But those of you who have tried what I just described know that that’s not how it works. That there was still always something missing. And so I thought maybe it’s just that this girl isn’t the one for me or maybe it’s just that I haven’t actually achieved the level of respect from my peers that I want.

So I’ll just work harder, train more, become tougher, I’ll do whatever it takes. And after all of that, I wound up my senior of high school in a really, really unhealthy, dysfunctional relationship that ended in a very, very messy way. And that was kind of when I found myself at the place that I think Solomon described. I was like, «Dude, I’ve been chasing after the wind». Like I thought all of these things would bring me satisfaction, but that is not at all what I’m experiencing now. I found myself with no motivation, no direction. I didn’t have anybody who really knew me for who I was because I had just presenting a false version of myself to everybody because I wanted them to accept me. I wanted them to accept some version of me that wasn’t actually me. And so in the middle of that period of time, I ended up getting a phone call from my mom 'cause I was not living at home. And she called me and said, «James, I think it’s time for you to come home».

So I moved back into my parents' house in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I started working at my high school job, Freckles Frozen Custard, where I was an assistant manager making 9.25 an hour. I started going back to jiu-jitsu and working out in the gym. And you know, like some stuff was going well, but something was still missing. And so my mom, because of how much she loves me, she said, «Hey, if you’re gonna live in my house, you’re gonna go to church. If you don’t go to church, you cannot live in my house». Very clear, and she said it very kindly. And I said, «Okay, yes ma’am, I will go to church».

And it was a few months of attending church, week in and week out with my family, that led me to realize the thing that I was missing the whole time. It wasn’t being tougher. It wasn’t the approval of people. It wasn’t a relationship. It was a relationship with my heavenly Father. It was the grace of Jesus that covers over all of my sins. It was union with my creator, the one who made me, who made you, who made the universe, and gave meaning to everything in it. The reason I never found meaning is because I did not know my maker. It wasn’t until I met Jesus that I discovered the life that I was made for. And now I can tell you, 11 years into following Jesus, choosing to give up my own way, to take up my cross and follow Him, I have discovered that the life He offers really is life to the full, full of love, full of joy, full of peace, full of purpose, full of meaning.

What’s interesting is Solomon, at the end of this book, Ecclesiastes, he spends 12 whole chapters describing how no matter what he did, he kept coming up disappointed. And so he summarizes the whole thing with these words. He says, «Now that all has been heard, here is the conclusion of the matter: » Here’s the answer that you are looking for, «Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil». So the path to a meaningful life is a faithful life. What does a faithful life look like? According to Solomon, it looks like fearing God and keeping His commandments.

Now, I know that those words kind of sound a little bit weird to us because that’s not how we talk, that’s not how we communicate in this day and age. And so what I wanna do is I wanna kind of like translate it using more understandable terms. So here is what Solomon is trying to help us see. He’s trying to help us see that fearing God, it means pleasing, it means to make pleasing God your highest priority. It means that you make pleasing God your highest priority. That’s what it means to fear God. It means that you care more about what God cares about than what anybody else cares about. You care more about what God thinks of you than what that boy or girl in class thinks of you.

The thing that you are chasing after is not the approval of people but the love of your father. And here’s the beautiful news, is that when you chase after Him, you will find Him every single time, that He’s not hiding from you, He’s not running from you, He is waiting for you with arms open wide. First, you make pleasing God your highest priority. The next thing that you’ve gotta do is you’ve got to do what God says even when it costs you. That’s what it means to keep His commandments. You do what God says even when it costs you.

Jesus said, «Give up your own way. Take up your cross and follow me». You listen to Jesus. You obey Jesus. When He says to forgive someone who has sinned against you, you do it even if it’s really difficult. When He says to honor your father and your mother, you do it even if it’s difficult because that is what your King is commanding you to do. When He says to love your neighbor. But not only that, but also love your enemy and pray for the people who hurt you, persecute you, make fun of you, you actually do it even when it costs you because you care more about pleasing Him than making yourself feel good. And here’s what’s wild is when you actually make pleasing God your highest priority, when you do what He says even when it costs you, you will feel good about what you do because you’ll be filled with meaning, with purpose, with the joy and delight that comes from knowing you are standing right in God’s will and doing what your creator has called you to do.

And then, the last thing you make pleasing God, your highest priority, you do what He says even when it costs you because He is the one who will ultimately judge you. Solomon said it and Jesus said it, that it really sucks to be judged by people. It can be hurtful. They can criticize you. They can call you names. They can say things about you that are hurtful, that are hateful and that are not true and that sucks. But their criticism and their judgment is temporary. The judgment of God is different. The judgment of God is always true. It is always just, and the consequences of His judgment are eternal.

This is why it matters to care far more about what God thinks of you than anybody else. Because at the end of the day, He is the only one who can ultimately judge you. And that should concern some of you and comfort others of you, because God made it really clear that if you do not have a relationship with His son Jesus, then you are a sinner. And that the consequences of your sin are death, judgment. But that if you have received the grace of Jesus by in Him, calling Him your Lord, then what you get is not judgment, but you get grace. You get forgiveness that covers over every sin, that you are made right with God, not because of anything you did to earn it because of what He earned for you through His death on the cross. This is what we do.

If you’re chasing after meaning, purpose, a life that you can feel good about, then make pleasing God your highest priority. Do what He says even when it costs you, because He’s ultimately the only one who gets to judge you. And I promise you, when you throw your life, when you throw yourself on the mercy of God, you will always find mercy and you’ll get so much more than just that. You’ll get freedom. You’ll get forgiveness. You’ll get life and life eternal that begins here and now and goes on forever because you have a place in God’s eternal family. This is why Jesus came for you, to invite you, to give up your own way, to take up your cross, to follow Him. Because what good is it to gain the whole world if you lose your very soul? So trust in Jesus and find the freedom that He’s offering.

Lord Jesus, we come before You right now, so grateful for Your grace. I pray that every single one of us would take seriously what it is that You’ve called us to do, that we would make pleasing You our highest priority, that we would do what You ask us to even when it is difficult, and that we would throw ourselves on Your mercy saying, Jesus, we need You. Please forgive us of our sins and make us right with You. It’s in your name we pray, Amen and Amen.