Levi Lusko - Life Is A Highway
We're about to jump into a message from God's word. And if you're new and just coming along, you've never been to a message of Fresh Life, a worship experience in Fresh Life, you might notice that around you, as I teach the Bible, that there's random energy, like there's people around you who are excited, maybe they'll clap, maybe at some point someone will be like, what the heck, or that's amazing, or amen, or oh, or just like, if it's really nasty, they'll just be, oh, like, just like, oh, oh, like God's cutting to the quick like as he promises to do. And you might be weirded out by that, like at some point you may see people jump up to their feet, and clapping, and you're almost like, what's that all about? And that's because maybe, just maybe you've only been to a church background where people around you look like someone's holding a gun to their head making them be there, and waiting for it to end so they can rush away as quick as possible. But around here we believe that God's word is living and powerful and he's going to speak to us.
We don't have to be here. We get to be here. We get to open this book. We get to listen to God. We're excited about it. We don't think it's weird to show energy when we're excited. If our football team won, we'd stand up and raise up our hands. If we went to a Taylor Swift or a Coldplay concert, we'd get up and act a fool, we'd shake it off with Taytay. So up here in the house of God, when we're talking about life and death and blessing and our children and our marriage and the souls of the people that we live alongside, we don't think it's weird to show a little bit of energy. We don't think it's weird to act a fool because we are excited about this. That's how we roll up here at Fresh Life. But you feel free to listen to the message however you, with whatever polite or indifferent respect you can muster. I'm just warning you what you're going to see around you at some point in the service so it doesn't freak you out. We're just excited about this because we're really thankful that Jesus died on the cross to save our souls from hell. That, we think is a really big deal.
And just like we would raise up our hands if we won the lottery, we feel like we kind of already did, only better, because it lasts forever. And we don't have like money grubbing neighbors being like, Anyhow, thank you, worship team. We're going to jump in now. Amazing. So I have four daughters and one son. And now it's the surprise ending to our story. Four daughters and one son. We thought four daughters and then it was going to be grandkids eventually, but God gave us this surprise little gift in the fourth quarter named Linux Alexander, who's awesome, and we're thankful for him, and we're thankful for our daughters as well. But because I have all these children, because Jennie and I have so many little people running around. I love, some comedian somewhere, he said, that having little kids is like drunk midgets just running around all the time. It is so true.
So basically, because there's these little kids everywhere, we watch a lot of Disney movies. And part of me wants to like say that, oh, but the truth is I love Disney movies. I am not at all begrudging when one of them is like, hey, let's throw in Pocahontas, I'm like, let's do it, I've never seen a wolf cry to the blue corn moon. I never have and I love to, so put that on. And we will watch that little raccoon try and wash his hands in the waterfall. We will see it. And I haven't watched Pocahontas in a while, but that's what sticks out to me. And I love all things Disney, actually. I love the whole kind of thing. I love the Magic Kingdom. You have to respect and tip your hat to somebody who rolls up to California from Kansas City on a train with $40 and conquers the world. Hello. Right? Once he got Mortimer from being a rat to becoming a mouse named Mickey, because that's how Mickey started, as a rat named Mortimer, and once he got that tiny, it might be a tiny tweak that takes you to big peaks of destiny.
It may not be that you're wrong. It may just be that you need to shift something. It may not be that your business idea needs to be thrown out, maybe just altered. It could still be a rodent, just nobody likes a rat. You see what I'm saying? And Mortimer? No, Mickey. Mickey Mouse, Mortimer Rat, right? So everything changed. And, of course, he's taken over the world. First feature length film was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And Walt barely got this thing financed. I mean, $1.5 million, it was bootstrapped too, I mean, they barely got to the finish line, got this thing done, paying all their bills. Now, of course, we live in a day of computers, so it's difficult to think about the fact that when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was made, it was drawn by hand. Every picture in the film, drawn by hand, and then painted by hand. Ain't nobody got time for that. But they got it done. And it was very much disbelieved that this was going to be awesome, that anyone was going to go see it. Well, it turns out, in its original release it did almost $8 million. And for a few years it was the highest grossing picture with sound of all time.
So that's the era we're talking about. Until it was knocked off that ledge by Gone With The Wind. This is the era. It held the distinction that Gone With The Wind would take and hold for some time. It's today, looking back, grossed $184 million. And, of course, it's just an iconoclastic film. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I mean, the Academy of Motion Pictures, when they recognized this film, they chose to depart from the normal gold man statue and give to Walt one large statue and seven small ones, right? This is so cute. That's the cutest thing you've ever heard. But what's particularly touching to me about what Walt did once he won, once there was a proof of concept, you made it, great, was that he immediately pushed all the success of that project into the next one. Into the next one. Into the next one. And now let's make Bambi. And now let's push to borders. Now Fantasia. Now this, now this, now this. He didn't rest on his laurels. He didn't celebrate and cash in. You want to know why? I've found in life, if you don't reinvest your miracles, you will reach the end of them.
And that's maybe a word for somebody today. Something great happened and you need to push it forward, God bless you. You need to bless somebody else. You need to pay up for it. You need to step out in faith again. As if you're always talking about the great old days and what happened way back when, maybe it's time to dust off your hands and get back in the game and do something again. And that's just so inseparably entwined to our calling and conviction here at Fresh Life Church, that we just perpetually value this dream and idea of risking the ocean. And that's why it's like, man, when is enough enough? And this campus, and 12 locations, and the TV broadcasting. My gosh, did you finish one building thing? Is it paid for? Barely. And then now another one, and trying to do this. And I read in the newspaper that.
Well, I'm just telling you, time is short, and lives are precious, and Jesus is coming. We've got work to do. We've got dreams in our heart. We're going to do something. I'm just telling you, we're going to fail trying, and maybe we'll die trying, but we're going to step out in faith, so help me and watch God move in power in our day. And we know that the muscles of faith atrophy due to misuse. And if you're going to lie there in your bed and not move, you'll get bedsores and your muscles will shrivel. And soon your imagination and dreams will die, and worse, you'll begin to be jaded and skeptical of anybody who steps out in faith, because once you've given up on your dreams, you'll always become critical of those who cling onto theirs, who cling to theirs. And so I love that about Walt. But one thing that I've read in a few of the biographies that just touch me, when I came across it was that he did take a small portion of the success of that day and bought his mom and his dad a home. Wouldn't you love to do that? Wouldn't you love at some point to be able to say, hey, mom, dad, you took care of me, let me just take care of you now in some way?
Large or small, a gesture to say, hey, here's a home. And, of course, we're not all Walt Disney, so we can't all say, hey, Flora, hey, Elias, move on down from Portland, Oregon. Shout out Portland love. Move on down from Portland to North Hollywood, where I live, I want you near me, I'm going to go ahead and buy you a house. I love that Walt did that. What a touching gesture. Thinking of mom, thinking of dad. And so he did. Not too long after they moved in, Flora called Walter at the studio complaining of a smell of, a funny odor, and she couldn't place. And so Walt sent a few studio handymen down to the house and said, figure out what the deal is, and they identified it as coming from the furnace, which had just been installed, but they said incorrectly. So they tinkered with it for a little bit and came back reporting they had fixed the problem. Tragically, the next morning, the maid, while cooking breakfast, went into the bedroom where Flora and Walt's father, Elias, were sleeping to find them both non-responsive. And she began to feel dizzy herself.
So going outside, she was able to get a couple breaths and clear her head momentarily long enough to come back in and drag them both out to the front lawn, where, of course, when they dispatched rescuers, they did everything they could, but tragically Walt's mother died and Walt's father was hospitalized and hurt by this, and as was the maid. Now, they are not alone in what happened to them that day as currently, in America, 430 people per year in this country, 430 a year die of carbon monoxide poisoning. And like Walt's father and the maid, upwards of 20,000 Americans every single year end up in the hospital, end up in emergency rooms because of this silent killer. Now, what's so appalling to me about that isn't that it happened back then, that's far more understandable because the year was 1939. But to think of it still happening today is almost unthinkable and so unnecessarily tragic, because in the 1990s someone invented a carbon monoxide detector.
For $20 at Walmart, the home that your children sleep in, the shop where you work in, the garage where you fix cars in can have a tiny little plastic device made in China that can tell you if there is this silent killer, which most people say they can't smell when testing is done, cannot smell carbon monoxide at all. And it will give you a very clear message that there is the presence of this dangerous thing in the air and it'll let, OK, yes. Thank you. Yeah. OK. We know. We're awake now. OK, we got it. OK. That's the illustration. No. Thank you. All right, so just to think about that we would still. I'll take it from here. OK. It's so unnecessarily tragic for anybody today in a day where the technology does exist and is cheaply readily available for us to have in our lives to tell us when there is danger that is nearby. The point is and kind of the big idea that we're going to be camped out on for a few weeks here as a community is this, the best kind of protection is early detection. Come on, the best kind of protection you can have, isn't, well, if I get hurt, if something bad happens they'll take me to hospital, that's not the best kind of protection. Prevention is always preferable to cure.
Now, if something bad has happened. Yes, thank God for the paramedics, thank God for the hospitals, thank God for first responders. Is anybody with me? Thank God that there are people who get up in the morning. There are people called to be nurses. There are people called to be respiratory therapist. There are people who have a conviction from God that surgery is where I'm supposed to be. And they study, and they work hard, and they serve, and their hours, and the beepers go off, and they get up out of bed. Thank God that there are people who will go searching through wilderness areas to find people that have been lost. Thank God for that. And served them, and thanked them, and honored them. But let me tell you something, it's much better to have early detection. That's the best kind of protection you can have, is early detection. Something that will tell you when something dangerous is about to happen to you.
If you have a copy of the scriptures turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5. And if you didn't bring a Bible with you, no problem at all, we never like to single out anybody, make you feel weird, oh, like don't I don't have a Bible, I'm that guy I don't have a Bible. Listen, we have a giant Bible that we brought just for you. It's going to go up on the screen in just a moment. We're going to be looking at Ephesians chapter 5, verses 14 through 21. And we are going to stay there for four weeks in a row, we're just going to literally live in this passage for the next few weeks. And it's part of a beautiful book. The book of Ephesians is honestly amazing, it's one of my favorite books of the Bible. If you, at various points of my life, would have asked me like, what's your favorite book in the Bible? I would have been like, Ephesians. But there would always be conflict in my heart if I told you that, because I've got another love, The Gospel of John.
I love the Gospel of John. And at another point in my life, if you would have asked me consistently, this would be like Bible college era, you would have said, what's your favorite book of the Bible? I would have been like, bro, I love me some John, but there would have been conflict in my heart because I would have been like, yeah, but Ephesians is really good too. This week I got asked that question. Someone said to me, hey, what's your favorite book in the Bible? Super random, because I didn't know the guy, I didn't even know if the guy knew I was a Christian. But I was talking to my wife and he overheard me talking to her about speaking at a church and he said to me, hey, what's your favorite book of the Bible? He looked at me real weird too. It was uncomfortable, I didn't want to answer him at all. But I said to him, I said to him, John and Ephesians. Gotcha. Right? I finally found a way to just snake it on in there, pal. They're both my favorite. Right?
So anyhow, John and Ephesians. But Ephesians is particularly special. Here's why. Paul, he ministered there longer than he spent anywhere else in his ministry. And you're like, who's Paul? I'm getting a blank from you. Here's the deal, Paul, was this bad to the bone preacher who blazed a trail all over the entire Roman Empire, right after Jesus had risen from the dead, this guy got saved and got called and began preaching the gospel like crazy to people, expanding the reaches of the message of Jesus to virtually all corners of the Roman Empire, in a relatively short period of time. Why? Because his message was really good. He even admitted, I'm not the greatest preacher, I'm actually, I'm not a good people person, he even said, it's not because I'm so good looking, he said, it's because I'm preaching that Christ was dead but then rose, and if you believe in him, you can rise too.
I mean, hello. That's a good message. It's a really good message. It resonates everywhere it goes. And that is what explains the Church of Jesus advancing all over the world. There's nothing but that. Is that Jesus rose from the dead, and people who witnessed him and had their lives changed by him, they just couldn't keep it to themselves. It wasn't because they were intolerant and not respectful of other belief systems, it's because Jesus is alive. What do you want me to say? Jesus is alive. Oh, that's so narrow minded. Yeah, but he's alive, and if you believe in him, you can be alive too. You don't want that? It was like they're running through the cancer ward saying, there's a cure for cancer, there's a cure for cancer. Oh, that's so narrow minded, that you think that you're the only cure for cancer. Well, if you have a cure for cancer too, that's great. But here's the thing, there's a cure for cancer, right? I discovered it. And Jesus is alive. He's fixed me, he could fix you too.
So he's preaching like crazy all over the place, but he spent longer than anywhere at Ephesus, and I love that so very much because it was one of the most impressive cities of antiquity. In fact, the temple to the goddess Diana, the dominating deity of the day in that corner of the world, of Asia Minor, she had her temple there. And it was one of the, look, Google it, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The temple to the goddess Diana. And one of the big souvenirs, you had to get this souvenir. This is the souvenir you had to come back with if you visited Ephesus as you would doing business. It was a trade center. If you went to Ephesus, you've got to come back with a tiny silver bust of the goddess Diana. And those in the city, that was how they made their money. Diana tchotchkes, Diana tchotchkes, right? So once everyone started getting saved, no one was buying Diana tchotchkes anymore, the city turned on Paul. They got so mad at Paul. They did not like Paul. At all, ya'll, right?
And so, but he just kept preaching. He didn't really much care. He just kept preaching, kept preaching, kept preaching, kept preaching, kept preaching. Three years he preached in Ephesus. At one point he rented the lecture hall of Tyrannus. And I always want to read that. Think about a dinosaur. Every time. The lecture hall of Tyrannus. And I'm like, tiny arms. I just can't stop, won't stop. So Paul preaches there for three years. He builds the most impressive church that he and his team ever built. Hands down. I mean, it was just magnificent what God did through them in that city, unreal. All right, so Paul ministers and builds this great city. Spends longer there than anywhere else. He had a soft place in his heart for him for sure, but eventually he has to go. And he ends up, through time and craziness, in prison. What does he do in prison? He writes. You can't keep the word of God chained, was Paul's conviction. So you don't want me to go preach there, that's OK, give me my quill pen. You don't give me a quill pen, I'll preach to these bars and have someone else write it down who's out the window. I'm going to get me this thing written. I will fashion a shank pen out of whatever I can find. I will write me a letter in jail.
And so he does. And he keeps writing. He writes Galatians. He writes Ephesians. He writes Philippians. He writes Colossians. He writes 1 Timothy. He writes 2 Timothy. He writes Titus and then they cut his head off. And he's just gangster, he's like, kill me and you'll only make me stronger. Right? Darth Vader, Han Solo. Why do we keep playing churches and doing all we do? I just don't want Paul to give me a dirty look in heaven. He's like, really? You had the internet and airplanes, huh, right? Because he's just, I just know he's going to pimp slap me when I get there, if we don't get after it somebody. Right? So that's not going on YouTube. So Paul, he writes a letter to the Christians at Ephesus from prison and it ended up in our Bible by the Holy Spirit's guidance in the book that we call Ephesians. And I want us to live here, I want us to breathe it in deeply for the next four weeks from today. And it could be whatever you want it to be. You could read a chapter a day. And since it's only six chapters, you'll read the book four times in the next month of Sundays.
Or that can be intimidating to you, so you know what, slow down. Read a verse a day. You'll read the entire book half way through by the end, but you'll still be blessed. OK. Or it could be that you read five verses a day and that will take you through all 155 verses just at the end of the series. I don't care what it means. There's no pressure and there's no reward for reading it 50 times. So please don't tell me if you did. I read it more than anyone else. Good on you, mate, right? No one's going to be more excited than me if you do that. So, but all I want us is to live there. I want us to live as a church community in the book of Ephesians for the next four weeks. And I just think it's going to breathe life into our conversations, and what are you getting out of it? And what's blessing you? And what's touching your heart? And I just think it's going to be awesome. And we're going to be focused, hyper focused on five verses from the second section. There are two main sections, some would say three, they are wrong, I don't really care. Two main sections to the book of Ephesians. There's the blessing section. There's the behavior section. The blessing section is, let me paraphrase, is basically how wicked ridiculously awesome it is to be a Jesus follower. That's Paul. That's the first section.
Here's all the blessings that come when you're Jesus' follower. He's basically trying to open your eyes, expand your horizons, broaden your mind when it comes to what you do in the Google search in your own head of what it means to be a Jesus follower. Someone says to you, why should I be a Jesus follower? That you would have a huge list of things to say that are ridiculously awesome perks and benefits of being a Jesus follower. That's why Paul wrote the first half of the book of Ephesians. He basically keeps saying, you're in Christ, guys, you're in Christ, you're in Christ, you're in Christ. And then he starts saying, you're seated in heavenly places, you're seated, you're seated in Christ, and you're seated in Christ, and you're seated, comes up a bunch of different times in the first half. Why? Because Paul wants you to know that when you are seated in Christ that everything changes. He wants you to understand the blessings upon blessings upon blessings. Whatever you think it is, it's better than that. However tall you think it is, it's bigger than that. However good you think God is, he's better than that. He's already gone into your tomorrow. He's already into your future. He's standing over you. He wants to bless you. He's fighting for you. He's giving grace to you. He's in love with you. He's entrusted his spirit to you. He's made something entirely different out of me and you. It's called the church. It's glorious. He wants to do exceedingly and abundantly beyond what you could ask or think or imagine.
Listen to this, the longest run on sentence in the Bible is in this section. Why? Because Paul refuses to end the sentence until he's out of air. Then he gulps in another breath and keeps going. Like you're just like superlative, upon superlative, upon superlative, upon superlative, upon superlative. I know my editor would never have allowed it. She wouldn't. She would have sent it back to me and rub with a sticky note saying, nah ah. And I would have been like, well, I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I declare war on me. That's the editing process basically real quickly if you've never gone through it. So Paul wants you to know how great it is to be a believer. Then, in the second half, he talks about the behavior of a believer. It's so important you understand the blessing section comes first not second. Because a lot of people are preachers, a lot of people would tell you if you just behave right, then God will be good to you.
If you just get your life sorted out a little bit, then God will start to bless you. If you just quit the drinking, get the addiction sorted, work on the marriage, get your temper in life, then God will start to bless you because God's keeping score, God's like Santa Claus, he's only good to those who are on the naughty list, so you better be good behavior, so then you can get you some of the blessings. But here's the thing about what Paul says in Ephesians, he says, the blessings come first and knowing you got the blessings even though you don't even deserve them, you can never lose them is why you change your behavior. When God says, here's my grace, but I don't deserve it. I know, here you go. But I'm the prodigal son. I've been with hookers. I've been in the mud. I know. Here's my grace. Here's a robe. Here's a ring. Here's the table. Here's heaven. Here's my spirit. I love you. But I don't deserve it. I don't even see you, you're in Christ, all I see is his goodness anyway. And that is what drives our behavior, is knowing we're not trying to earn anything. We already have what we can never lose. And that's why we want to change. That's what drives life change.
Listen to me, church, grace changes everything. Knowing that your behavior does not alter your standing before God, one iota is what makes you show up at work different. It's what makes you want to work on that temper. It's what makes how you treat that addiction matter. It's not fearful, slavish. If I don't do this God will do that. It's, he's already giving me his best in a feast. And I hear the music of the party he's planning for me even now. And that just sucks the desire out of you to sin, not like nothing on this planet. The revelation of God's grace will change your life to the very core and leave you a different person. If you've heard nothing I've preached in 11 years at Fresh Life, please understand that. The blessings is what determines the behavior. It's not the behavior that gets you God's blessings. That's Ephesians. You're welcome. All right.
So in the walk section Paul gives us our five verses where we're going to camp out. And so let's read it together. It's going to go up on the screen like I said. This is Ephesians 5 starting in verse 14. Therefore he says, quoting God, awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. See then that you walk and circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. Rumble strip, that's the theme to the series. And what's going to happen for four weeks in a row is not a collection of talks within that theme, but one message that we're going to spread out across these Sundays.
And all I'm going to do now is just introduce the concept. You're not going to find out anything about it, how to do it, what to do about it. That's all going to come in the weeks to follow, so you want to keep tuning in on Fresh Live TV. You want to get the podcast that drops next week and the week after that and the week after that and keep showing up at church. Because really all I want to do is wet your appetite with kind of where we're going. This is me telling you about the specials. OK. I'm going to tell you about the fish. I'm going to tell you how you're not going to get any of it, I'm just going to tell you a little bit about it. It's got a macadamia crust, it's delicious, it's been reduced with honey drizzle and basal. OK. Don't you love when they're like, oh, yes, it's an oregano reduction with an afterbirth of pomegranate. You're like, afterbirth? That's disgusting. No, I'll have meatballs. That's what I'm going to have. Sir, this is a fish restaurant. Meatballs! A second to compose myself. Clear the pallet, and continue. All right.
So here's the big idea, answering your question, presumably, what is the rumble strip and why should I care about it? Well, it's a series of slits or bumps in the road to warn a driver of advancing danger. It's a warning sign to a car. It's slits or bumps in the road that tells the driver that something dangerous is impending. It's an advanced notification of impending devastation. Rumble strip. And there are both audible and tactile. Audible, you can hear it. Tactile, you can feel it. You can feel it in your fillings too, right? On the deep ones you're like, holy! I like them. I like them. Sometimes, if I'm with my kids in the car, I'll just purposely drive over the rumble strip. Sometimes, if I'm with myself in the car, I will purposely drive over the rumble strip. It's like a massage. I feel like, oh, it's like cheaper than therapy.
You know what I'm saying? It just shakes it all out. And the rumble strip, it's tactile, you can feel it, it's audible, you can hear it. It's a way for the road, it's so cool, it's a way for the road to send a text message to the driver telling you one thing, ready? You're moving in the wrong direction. Not subtle, all cap, not lower case, capital case. It's shouting. The car is like, Hey! You're moving in the wrong direction. Rumble strip doesn't change you, it just tells you you need to change. Rumble strip doesn't fix you, it just tells you of something that needs to be addressed. The rumble strip is an audible and tactile declaration to you that you're moving in the wrong direction. Why would we need this? First thing I want you to jot down. There's going to be three. Super fast and then we're done. Drifting happens.
That's why we need rumble strips on the road. And that's why we need rumble strips in life. By the way, the title of my message is this, this is awesome, I'm just telling you in advanced, it's really good. Life is a highway. That's my message. Could you turn to your neighbor and tell him, and I'm going to drive it all night long. Just tell him. And then send up a little prayer for Rascal Flatts because they're awesome. How do you know how awesome they are? I recently was preaching in Nashville and I said, what's happening before me? Because I thought it was one band, and they're like, no, no, Rascal Flatts is actually going to come out and sing How Great Thou Are. It was like, oh, that's normal, sure, why wouldn't they do that? Could they just throw in just a little bit of Life Is A Highway? I was writing this message that day.
So I was kind of thinking about it, but they didn't do it. Like the little car soundtrack wouldn't kill the moment at all, right? How great, life is a highway. Gary LeVox, that guy is amazing. By the way, his family came back and said hello and his kids were like thank you for the Fresh Live podcast. They love the ministry. Great people. Amazing. Anyhow. Life is a highway. And what I'm doing in comparing walking to driving is because driving to us is what walking was to Paul. Following me? We are so lazy, is what I'm trying to say. I am so lazy. I was in a juice shop the other day and I asked how far something was and the guy said to me, and I was like, well, is it an Uber or a walk? And he goes, oh, oh, definitely Uber. So I got on the phone thinking it would be far away, half a mile, half a mile. And so I got in an Uber. I'm joking, I'm joking. I walked. And I didn't even die.
So Paul walked everywhere. And for us to compare this sermon walking, that's not as much for us because we really, most of us, maybe you're judging me right now, that's fine. Maybe you're unlike me, but I usually only walk when I'm paying to do it, at a gym, it's so stupid now that I think about it, because I'll circle the gym parking lot like four times to get a front row spot to go in and walk. I'm working up a sweat now, they gave me a towel. This is appropriate, right? Now, doing it in nature, no. So we're comparing life to a highway, and in life, and on highways drifting happens, doesn't it? What do you have to do to make it happen? Whoa, that's cool, how do you drift? Just take your hands off the wheel, drifting happens. And as it occurs on the road so occurs in life.
Drifting happens. When? When you're not paying attention. When? When you're drowsy. When? When you've fallen asleep at the wheel. Which is why we get a wake up call from the road, we get a wake up call from the scripture that says, verse 14, Awake, you who sleep. It's an alarm. It's telling you, you're drifting, you're drifting, wake up, are you sleeping in your finances? You're moving towards insolvency. Are you drifting in your diet? You're moving towards obesity. Are you drifting in your relationship? That's the funniest one to me. We just drifted apart. Of course you did. Your hands aren't on the wheel. Of course. And you'll drift from this one too. Go get married again. You'll drift from her. Go get married again. You'll drift from him. Move to a different church. You'll drift there too.
Drifting happens in your soul. Drifting happens in your life. Drifting happens in your health. And we never drift in the right direction. You have never once tuned out driving and then woken up inside your garage. What the heck, I took my hands off the wheel for a minute and I drove 400 miles and ended up at home. No, you may end up at Heaven. You're ultimate home. But you don't drift the right way, you drift the wrong way. Second thing. Jot it down. Driving takes work. Drifting happens on its own, anybody can drift, but it takes someone who's paying attention to drive. Why? Progress is expensive. It requires that you pay attention. You have to pay attention to make progress in your career. Pay attention to make progress in a relationship. It takes work to drive. This world is treacherous.
There's a hundred temptations and 1,000 ways to die. And some of us, we need this series so bad, because there are people in our church, if something doesn't change in 10 years, in 15 years, you're going to be in a casket or you're going to be in a prison cell. And that crew, and that activity, and that choice, it's one degree now, but that drift it's just going to get worse. Drifting is subtle. It's involuntary. It's automatic, but driving, constant fine tuning is needed to drive. Calculation, where is this going to take me? Am I going over a cliff? Am I going into oncoming traffic? Where is your life taking you? That's the question we want to ask in this series. And we want to have the Holy Spirit of God apply the rumble strip where needed. Why? Because, third point, jot it down. You can't correct what you don't detect. If you don't know what's coming. If you don't listen. You have ears to hear. If you've learned to tune out. If you've numbed and dulled, you'll crash right past it.
The rumble strip won't stop you, it just talks to you. It won't keep you out of the median an into a head on collision. It'll just tell you, stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop. And what I'm praying is that through our time together we would learn to lean into the rumble strip, to heed the rumble strip, to say, OK, and correct because of the rumble strip. You can't correct what you don't detect, and that's why you need a rumble strip. And my question that I'm going to ask and I'm going to ask and I'm going to ask and I'm going ask is, already, perhaps, do you sense and feel God guiding you? Right now. Is he already putting on your radar something that needs to change? Something that needs to fix? We're not going to talk about it for a few more weeks, but this is the chance for us all to say, you know what, throughout the weeks of this series, God, I want to have an open heart for you to speak to me. Because I believe you see what I don't, and I believe that you have my best in mind, so I want to listen to you.
Now, honesty in church, as we end, because now we're done, and the sermon is over, but honesty is needed here. I lied to you a moment ago when I told you that life is a highway. The truth is that life is actually two highways. Listen to what Jesus said, this is from Matthew's gospel. He put it this way. You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell, that's highway one, is broad. It's gate is wide for the many who choose that way. Listen to me, you have to choose to go to hell. No one can make you. But you also have to choose to go to Heaven, and that's a gateway to life. It's very narrow, and that road, that's highway number two, is very difficult, and only a few ever find it, meaning only a few ever choose it.
We're all, by nature, children of wrath. We're all, by our own sin and the sin in our blood, we are headed towards hell on that broad highway, it's easy to go to hell. But Jesus said, I am that door, I am the off ramp, I am that gate to eternal life. But so many people are so bent on following their own desire, they refuse to take that off-ramp. They see 10 miles to this city, nine miles, three miles, and they just keep thinking, I'll get off on the next one, I'll get off on the next one, I'll get out, there's going to be more options, there's going to be more exits, and then comes that final opportunity. I don't know where you are out in the spectrum. I don't know where you are on the journey. I know all of us are headed to hell on our own. But I know that Jesus loved us so much he was willing to come to this world and die on the cross to say, I am the on ramp, I am the off-ramp, I am the gate, I am the bridge, I'm the only way you can have access to eternal life.
But there has to come a moment in your life when you will yield, and I believe that even right now God is applying that rumble strip to you saying, you are moving in the wrong direction, you're on the highway to hell, but I want you to be saved. I want you to have life. I love you and have a plan for you. And I'm believing that many are going to respond to that voice and come to Jesus even now. Would you bow your head with me and pray. All of us, just having the space and time to get quiet before God, to consider our soul, to consider where we're at with him. I wanted to first ask, though we've only just begun, do you already start to sense exactly what God's going to be saying to you? Are you like, I don't need to hear any more. I know what's rumbling in my life. It's been rumbling for a while. And I've been turning up the radio, and I've been trying to act like it's not there, but God is rumbling my heart so crazy about this one thing, maybe it's a person, habit, decision, business interaction you're in.
You just don't have a good feeling about it. Your wife, some people who love you have already expressed concern about it. But you're just keeping on going. I can't hear that. La la la. Do you already even have that happening? And maybe just maybe you don't, but you would be bold enough in God's presence to say, I want to hear it. I'm willing for you to rumble something in my heart that needs to go. If either of those things are true of you, would you just slip up your hand and say that to God? Something is rumbling, or I'm open to you speaking to me, God. Look, both my hands are going up, I'm both actually. He's been rumbling me for a bit and I want to hear more. You could put your hands down. God, give these grace and strength to live out of that. Thank you in advance for what you're going to do in these weeks, for believing, for miracles. And we're going to believe in 20 years from now, 50 years from now, 100 years from now. There's going to be wrecks that never happened because of this series. Body bags that were never zipped, prison doors that were never shut, judges gavels that were never slammed.
Now, as we're praying and we're all just considering where we're at with God on this faith journey, are we trying to earn his blessings by our behavior? That's religion. It can't save you. It'll take you straight to hell. The religion is the highway to hell. Just like sin and wickedness. But Jesus is that narrow road to eternal life. And if you would say I want to get on that road, that narrow road, that winding road, that difficult road to Heaven. Because being a Christian is full of blessings, but it's hard. There will be ridicule. People won't like it. They want the old you. But you're here and you sense God's Holy Spirit so clear rumbling you to salvation, calling you, calling your name, trying to plead with you. Is that you I'm describing? Then I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. I'm going to pray a simple little prayer. I want you to pray it with me and I want you to make it yours. This is your vow to God as you give him your heart. I'm going to ask the church family to pray it with us to show that we're all standing with you in this decision. No one's any better than you, no one's any worse than you, we all just need Jesus. Pray this prayer, mean it in your heart. God will hear you.
Dear God. I know that I'm a sinner. I can't fix myself. I believe Jesus died for me to pay my bill. I believe he rose from the dead, because he is God. Come into my heart, make me new, thank you for new life. I give you mine. Now, as we're praying I want to give a moment in time for those of you who made that decision to nail it down. So here's what's going to happen, I'm going to count to three in just a second. And when I do and I get to three, I want you to raise your hand up in the air if you gave your heart to Christ or rededicated your life to Jesus, I want you to shoot it up as a way of nailing it down and making it real. It's an act of the will you're saying, this just happened. I am forever saved. One, two, three, shoot your hands up in the air, shoot your hands up in the air, every location on Fresh Live TV, the Church Online. Praise God for each of you.