So around eight years ago, I remember the night very well. It was about sunset, and it was a swampy and beautiful evening, and I was driving over the causeway into New Orleans. And I was getting just close enough to pick up the two lane campus radio station, and I remember clicking on over to it and in the meters. Where I was like, the funky meters.
It was like setting the tone up the windows down a little bit. I could kind of smell what was happening. And I was about 30, 45 minutes away from where I was going. And a good friend of mine rings, my phone rings, and my friend Joshua, and I answer, and he's like, well, hey, what are you doing?
I'm on this way to a week-long time of prayer and of training with some other people that are starting new churches. Mayor Thane and I had moved to Starlington, and about eight or nine days later, I get sent to this thing, kind of where everything is starting for what we stand and see right now. And I was talking with my buddy Joshua, and we talked a lot, and we were just kind of going through things back and forth thinking about stuff. And he was asking about what's going on, Jadak, what are you planning on doing?
What are you thinking right now? And so we're going back and forth and talking about what I'd experienced living here in the Monroe community for three years. And the people I had met that did not know Jesus that struggled with the idea of church. And what I kept coming back to was this idea of, you know, their experience with Jesus wasn't big enough for what life threw at them.
We talked about what it meant to grew up culturally Christian in the South, but also to deal with big, huge heartaches. Those things that happened as we turn into adults where how do we learn to deal with these things? We made a big joke that the little song we learned in vacation Bible school, Father Abraham, that a lot of times Father Abraham wasn't big enough for when real life hit. And so we're talking about this, and we're kind of going back and forth between conversation and prayer, and that sort of thing.
It was just as I was like coming into New Orleans that day as we were talking that I used four words for the first time, Jesus is big enough. I remember how thankful I was for that moment of clarity with my friend to talk about that night as I went into a whole week of prayer and planning. The first time I think I said that phrase, Jesus is big enough. Those are four words that probably have turned in to the most important phrase of my life so far.
In 42 years, Jesus is big enough. And there's so much wrapped up in those four words. We can't say that without acknowledging who God is. Jesus is big enough, we speak of omnipotence, the fancy word for him having unlimited and great power.
There's omnipotence, we know that Jesus is big enough, but what does that mean when we personalize it? It might sound great, it might look really good on a t-shirt. It almost sounds too simple to actually cut through things. Jesus is big enough.
It's big enough for what we learn about and what we move into, what we deal with in life. Over the last six months, I've learned a lot about him being big enough for major transitions. That whole thing is actually still growing. It's making me learn a lot about myself, making marathon, I learn a lot about ourselves, but it's also making me learn a lot about God and who he is.
Sometimes they're fun, but it's not always necessarily the good things and the fun things, but it's always the right things. And this morning, I wanna just read one single verse to you. I've thought about this for the last probably months. What is the thing to leave with?
To put there. What we wanna do is I wanna read the last verse of 1st John to you. And I wanna just think about it for a few moments. It's how the Apostle John chose to close out a letter to people who were learning how to live in a world that felt like it was in constant transition.
And you see it on the screen behind me already. 1st John 521, Dear Children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your heart. Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts. You know, throughout 1st John, he uses this phrase, Dear children, Dear children, Dear children.
And he also says, Dear friends, and it kinda just goes, it wouldn't be my last son's little bit of Bible nerd stuff, right? And every time John talks about deer fit each other. And every time he says, Dear children, what he's doing is he is stating a fact about who God is inside of his love and how we can find a foundation inside of that. So just go through, take a 20 minutes this afternoon, read 1st John and just see what he says, Dear friends, Dear children, Dear friends, Dear children, and see how John is both encouraging us together as people, but also pointing us towards God.
But Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in our hearts. And I think John makes this quick and strong statement to make us think about this, that when we are in moments of transition and change what decisions are we going to be making? I think that's really the quick and fast of it. When we move into unknown spaces in life, how are we walking together?
How are we walking with God? How are we walking with those closest to us? How are we walking in community? When we're confronted with difficult things, with different things, what are the ways that we respond?
That tells us a lot about our character. What is our unnatural reactions to things? You know, when we feel we might be not at our most composed, when things just happen, that really tells us a lot about who we are and how is the truth of who we are, not just what we say in a moment, but how does that help us understand revealed to us how we are able to build up this world of Jesus around our life and allow that to be the thing that props us up when we are leaning. The thing that keeps us moving forward, that tells us to rest all of that.
I read a story this week about a pastor who is serving a small country church, and almost every Sunday he asked, when the same older men to close the church in prayer, and every Sunday the older men said, Jesus props up on our leaning side. And he goes on and says, okay, after a while, he's okay, I'm kind of curious, I've never heard that phrase before. What does it mean to prop us up on our leaning side? He says, well, I've got an old barn.
My grandfather built it. It's an old barn and it's a piece of junk, but I need that barn. And I noticed one day I was out, bush-hogging, I noticed that the whole barn was leaning to one side and I got kind of nervous. So I went and I cut some pine staves and I shoved it up against that leaning side and I put four or five on there.
So I can't do anything about the fact that barn is already leaning, but I can prop it up in a way that I know it's not going to fall over. And I learned that was about my prayer life. I've been praying ever since, Lord Jesus, to prop me up on my leaning side. And I think when John says, dear children stay away from anything that might make you fall out of love with God, let's pray, or prop us up on our leaning side.
We move into the land of what ifs. We carry our leans with us, don't we? The more mature we grow with Jesus, the more aware we are, the more we ask them, we listen, we're aware of where those leaning sides are. Those places where we need to be propped up, but we realize that we're being propped up so we don't fall over.
We bear the marks of our growth, we bear the marks of our age, we bear the truth of who we are. Also, we're safe, we're stable. Instead of us living life that's just reacting and revealing, we find stability. And the fact that what Jesus offers to us is a bigger vision of who He is.
And that being the thing that's out in front leading us. Stays in our mind, calms us, stays in our heart and propels us forward. We also look at this verse, a simple verse, dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your heart. And then we realize just like, this is the magic word of today almost, that we take responsibility for this.
To see the things that might seek to slowly creep in, the things that might seek to come in and to replace Jesus. In fact, I think this is where this verse ends up fitting in really well. What might seem like a super abrupt ending, it falls along with the whole story John's been telling for these last five chapters really well. Because he goes on the entire book about the ways that the small, simple, and seemingly meaningless things have the ability to replace the power that Jesus has offered us.
To make this verse even simpler, it's John's way of saying to us, you deeply matter to God. So stay alert so you can enjoy this. As I've been thinking about what last words I might have today, I think that really, truly, this has to go forward what I've said almost every Sunday for eight years. Do you matter to God deeply?
And regardless of where he gives us the privilege to be next to him, as he changes us and changes the world, he is always inviting us into that. And that happens wherever we are, wherever we stand, wherever we step. That to see his kingdom grow around us is for us to say yes to the mission that he has given us. That nothing else might distract us from the power to do what he can do.
That Jesus is big enough, it's true, because he has all the power of heaven and earth, but how his power moves forward in our world, in our communities and our neighborhoods. It's because we say yes, and we willfully give him those spaces that are in our life, the spaces of influence that we have, those spaces of control that we have in our life. Those yeses that we say to him or the yeses that put him and the places we inhabit. And as Jesus does this, our world decreases, and his world increases around us.
Friends, it says that dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts for us just to realize that we have invited to the most expansive, beautiful and big thing in this world. And it's not just there because it's nice, it's there because it's powerful, that he invites us to come alongside of him, and what he is doing in this world. Friends, those four words Jesus is big enough have been important to me for the last eight years, but I also think I will never be able to get away from those words because of the last eight years. And weeding all of you, seeing what happens when we come together has been one of the greatest privileges, and joys and merit in our life.
And we are simply so proud to have had this time with each and every one of you. Let's pray, Father, now let your kingdom come. God, your kingdom has no boundaries. God, your kingdom grows.
Lord, in the way that we say yes, just leads to the uniquenesses of what you were doing. And so God, we want to simply experience you more. And Jesus, we realize that the level that we were able to say yes, there's a level that we will see and we will hear and we'll be able to do. God, those words of your son, Jesus Christ, and He said, you will do even greater things than me.
God, let us have minds to dream lavishly about your invitation. God, let us have stories of your faithfulness that we can lift high. Let us have experiences of your glory and power that just let us stand firm on every soft place to our foot sometimes lands. Lord, thank you for your son, Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith who's given us everything.
Let's hear me pray. Amen. Let us stand and continue singing together.