Closer | Vision Month Part 2

Come on, church. Are we ready for a great day? I pray that you are. If you were not here last week, we started off Vision Month with a bang. It was absolutely remarkable and powerful. I know for me personally, I feel like God pushed me forward. And I feel like this whole journey is helping me become who God is calling me to be. If you were not here last week, you didn't get a chance to hear this. But we have a word for the year. And this word for the year is not just some little catchphrase. This is something that I feel like God is downloading to us for such a time as this. In the past, our words for the year have been kind of explosive and they've like had a shaking to them. It's kind of rattled things. But this year, the word that God placed on my heart was not one that would necessarily shake. It was one that would pierce. This is one that was more like an arrow that will go directly to our hearts. Targeted, specific, pointed, intentional. And that word was closer. And this word closer is what God is inviting us all into. Go with me again to Revelation chapter 22. I got the dog pound behind me. We're going to talk about them in a second. Revelation chapter 22. If you don't know what the dog pound is, that means you never watched Arsenio Hall's show. Revelation chapter 22, verse number 17, it says, the spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come. Let the one who is thirsty come. And let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

You see the spirit saying, come. You see the bride saying, come. The bride being the church. You see all of the earth saying, come. There is this interchange, this dialogue, this hungering, this calling, this beckoning for all of us to come closer in a day and age where people are trying to put you in a bubble. People are trying to put you in a place of safety and comfort and convenience. And let's make sure everything just works for your life perfectly. God is saying to you, and he's saying to me. And he's saying to teenagers, and he's saying to young adults, and married people, and single people, and people that have newborns, and people that are empty nesters, he's saying to every single one of us, do not allow culture and convenience to keep you in some cage. Instead, I want you coming closer. I want you to be the man or woman that I destined for you to be. God is calling you, and this is spirit speaking to spirit. It's the Holy Spirit calling on the deep side of us, saying, come closer. And the reality is, you want this. I know you do. You wouldn't be online today. You wouldn't be at church today. You wouldn't be at any of these locations. You would not have taken the time to get ready if there wasn't something on the inside of you saying, I want more. And the good news is, God is offering you and I more today. Closer. Closer. Now, as we are on this journey, we're going to continue on this road, and that's why I've got all these beautiful people here. Because what we're going to do is...

Wait, I said beautiful people. Let me check. Yep, beautiful people here. You're beautiful too. We've got all these individuals up here because we're going to take some time today to dig into a passage of Scripture that I'm really excited about. Go with me to John chapter 13. John chapter 13, and in this passage of Scripture, we are about to see what some would call the Last Supper. The Last Supper. John chapter 13, we're going to begin reading in verse number 21. Okay, watch this here. After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, very truly, I tell you, one of you is going to betray me. His disciples stared at one another at a loss to which one of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ask him which one he means. I want to pause for a quick second here. I love that the Bible gives us a little detail. So Jesus says someone's going to betray, and all the people at the table are like, who is it? Who is it? Who is it? Who is it? And there's one that's really close to Jesus. He's right next to him. And he's reclining next to Jesus. Then Simon Peter, the Bible tells us, motions to the disciple to ask him which one. So he is going like this.

And then John's like, ask right now. We're eating. So he asks him. And then look, look, look. Leaning back against Jesus, he said, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, it's the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish. Then dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, what you're about to do, do quickly. But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Again, they're all in the moment. Since Judas has charged the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out and it was night. So Judas now leaves after this moment. I want you to skip down with me to verse number, I think I got 34. They're still in the room. Judas has left. A new command I give you. Love one another as I have loved you,

so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Simon Peter asked him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus replied, where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later. Peter asked, Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Do you see how definitive and strong he is? And then verse 38. Then Jesus answered, this is not what Peter is wanting to hear. You will really lay down your life for me? Well, very truly, I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. All the different gospels share about the Last Supper. And in Mark, I think it's in chapter 14. Matthew, I think it's in chapter 26. And we're gonna look a little bit later at Luke chapter 22. But all of them share about this table. All the disciples are there. They all share from different perspectives. All the different gospel writers have kind of their angle that they are looking at. It's kind of like when you, I don't know, you take a day off of work or something, you take a sick day and you go into work and you find out that somebody was fired or something happened at the office and four different people at the office

tell you what happened. And you kind of get like four different perspectives on the story. So it is with the gospels or parents. If you got more than one kid and you come home and you find out like the dog has been, the hair on the dog has been cut and one of your children is in the dishwasher and then there's ketchup all on the ceiling and you put all your kids together to kind of interrogate them what happened. You got one kid, you only got one perspective. If you got all the kids lined up, you get all the different perspectives. So it is with the gospels. It's the same thing that happened, but it's from these different angles. And John here is giving us his perspective and he maps out for us that everybody is there. So here are the 12. Now, I don't know who is Jesus. I don't know. One of them, I guess somebody is Judas too. I hope not. But they're just here to help us along today as we look at this table. Because at this table, you have Jesus. And the very first thing I wanna say is Jesus had a group, a connect group. Yes, yes, yes.

Here he is with people eating, breaking bread, talking Bible, singing together. Jesus had a group. If Jesus thought it important to have a group, why do you think you can't? For every one of us, this is Connect Group Sunday and it is time for us to say, let's stop living on the sidelines and step in. Okay, so I'll dig into that a little bit more later. Let's continue to get into this text right here. Okay, so you've got everybody lined up and you've got everyone at the same table, but everyone is not at the same place. One table. One Savior, different spiritual realities. One church, one building that you're sitting in or home that you're in, but all of us, different spiritual places. To put it another way, you can look at this table and you can see physically they are gathered in one spot. But spiritually, they are scattered across many different places, and that's us today. And I wanna look at a few of the people that are at the table, and I wanna look at where they are, because where they are, I think it speaks to where we are. We're gonna look at Judas, look at John, and we're gonna look at Peter. Look at Judas, we'll look at John, and we're gonna look at Peter. Let's go to Judas first.

Judas here, you've heard about him before, one of the disciples, he's the one that betrayed Jesus. How can you be this close to Jesus and still betray him? How can you be at the table, one of the disciples, as a matter of fact, everyone thought that Jesus was, they didn't know what Jesus was saying when Jesus gave him the bread. They're thinking it doesn't make any sense. Judas is the one that handles the money. Judas is, he's one of us. There's no way that Judas is going to be somebody that is going to stab Jesus in the back. They had no understanding of what was happening in the moment, but Judas teaches us, you can be physically present, but spiritually disconnected. He teaches us that you can go to church, and you can even maybe sing the songs, and you might be warming a seat, but your heart can still be cold towards God. Judas shows us where some of us are today, and there is no guilt or shame that I have to throw at you, but let's go ahead and just confront the brutal facts that we are singing, and we are acting like everything is okay, but we know deep in our hearts, there's a disconnection. We're at the table, but we're really, really far from our Savior. This is Judas, and I'm not sure exactly how he got here. There's different scholars will say different things. Some will even say that maybe he was trying

to provoke Jesus because he wanted to see the kingdom come, so he thought he was gonna kind of betray him, but he wasn't really trying to betray him. I don't know if I'm down with that one. Since the disciples later just talk about him like he's a dog, I mean, you can read about him in other parts of the Bible. They're like, Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus got what he deserved. I don't think, I don't know if this was a positive. It's a massive negative. How did he get there? How do you go from being one of the 12 apostles to being the one that betrays Jesus? I don't know that there's just one answer, but one word does pop into my mind. It's a word called drift. Drift. Drift, you can look it up. You understand this word. This is the small, often unnoticed, moving of a position of closeness. In a relationship, in a purpose, it doesn't happen fast. It happens slow. There are some marriages right now, there's drift. Some of us in our walk with God, there's just been drift. Judas here is showing us drift. Did he grow numb? Did he get so used to it that did he say things like,

oh, my dad was a pastor, I don't have to go to church? Did he say things like, well, these people must be fake. Look at all these smiles, they must be fake. Look at all these smiles, they must be fake. I don't know what was happening in his heart, but his heart somehow began to grow cold. A while ago, I had this random basketball injury and this guy hit me in the face, actually on this side, and I actually lost feeling on this side of my face. So when my beautiful wife would go to kiss me on this side, I couldn't feel it. So I asked her to kiss me on this side, so I could feel. But it was kind of scary, and it took like six months for the feeling in my face to come back. What happened was my nerves in my face had gotten damaged, so I couldn't feel. And I think this might be some of us. We're saying things like, nobody loves me, nobody's reaching out to me, nobody cares about me, but it's actually because of the nerve damage. There are people reaching out, and there is a church that loves you, and there's a community that's on your side, but you can't feel it because there's been damage. So I'm praying and offering you an invitation today to come closer, closer to Christ, closer to His church, and closer to His mission. That's Judas. Let's go to John. Now this guy John, he's great. The Bible tells us in verse number 25, one of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, again he's talking about himself, which is great, was reclining next to him. So this is where you see Simon leaning, I mean John rather, leaning back on Jesus' chest. And there is a closeness that John has to Jesus. So I just want to celebrate, and I know we're kind of going to two different places here.

You got Judas who was at the table physically, but spiritually disconnected. You got John who's at the table physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. This guy is locked in. Have you ever had anybody pray for you, and after they prayed for you, you were like, okay, you know God. Like they laid hands on you, grabbed hands, gave you a phone call, sent you a text, or you heard them sing, or you were serving next to them, and you're like, who are you? You're different. It's like you've been with God. I want to celebrate the people in our church right now that are walking with this type of closeness to God. I want to say thank you so much for allowing the Holy Spirit to shape you and mold you, for you being willing to go through the fire and not quitting, because you don't get close to God like that and not have been through some type of fire, some type of difficulty, some type of pain, but you still kept on trusting God anyway, and it does something with your relationship with Him. When you go on a mission trip with somebody and you got to go through some hard stuff, it kind of bonds you to the person. We talked so much today about trauma bonds. You know, it's like you fell in love with somebody that you probably shouldn't have. You guys were just going through a lot together, and you ended up falling in love with them. But there's something, there's a good version of that. It's that when I've gone through the valley of the shadow of death, but I have seen the gracious hand of God staying right by me, my entire side, but the entire time, I cannot help but say, God, you can have all of me because you've been this good to me. There's a closeness that comes. It's like when you read the Psalms, and there's so much honesty and so much vulnerability, but there's also so much passion and so much zeal. You know when you look at a couple and you can tell, oh man, they are in love. That's what John has with Jesus.

There's a connection with Jesus. There's a closeness to Jesus. There's an intimacy with Jesus. And I want to say thank you that we got people that are on the prayer team that walk with this kind of closeness. I want to say thank you to people that are on the kids team that have this kind of closeness. Thank you to Connect Group leaders that are walking with this type of closeness. And I know, I recognize some of us are like, oh man, that's not me. That's okay. We're going to talk about the rest of us in a second. But I want to celebrate that people are pursuing a passionate, authentic, intimate, life-giving, not sin-filled, not fear-filled, but a grace-filled relationship with Jesus Christ. You can have that. The table is open to everyone. It's open to all of us. So you're invited. You and I can have this type of closeness. What if at the end of 2026, you didn't feel like you had to ask somebody else for prayer to talk to God? You knew you could talk to God yourself. That you could put your head on the shoulder of Jesus. This is not for the spiritually elite. This is not for those who just don't Greek and Hebrew. This is not for those who have been in church forever, and it's definitely not for those who are perfect, because none of us are. All of us are sinners in need of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. But you're invited today, and I'm invited to have this type of closeness like John has. It's been a minute since... We've had a baby in our house. Our kids are now getting older.

But I see nowadays there's this beautiful thing, and I think we did it too with all of our kids, the whole skin to skin. Have you seen this as parents? Or maybe see it on Instagram and be like, dang, I wasn't wanting to see that picture. That was a little bit too much, okay? I didn't need you to share all that. No, actually, it's a beautiful thing. Go ahead and share. It's your body, and it's a beautiful moment. Share what you want to share. So you see the skin to skin, and I did a little bit of study. Why is this important? And at least what ChatGPT told me is babies can have a hard time regulating their own bodies. So when they touch skin to skin with the parent, it helps regulate them, regulates their breathing, their body temperature, or their heart rate. It regulates them. When they get close to mom or dad, whether it's biological mom or dad, or it's adopted mom and dad, their bodies regulate because they have a hard time regulating themselves. And I think we're a lot like babies. I think we have a hard time regulating ourselves. And we need that skin to skin contact with our Savior. I, before one of our Miracle Sundays, it's a special Sunday that we have every year at the church. Before one of them, our oldest son,

Parker, was in a car accident. And I won't go through all the details, but it was terrible and scary. And to get the phone call, and that was on Saturday night. So on Sunday morning, I was gonna stay home with him. Monique and I were gonna stay at home and just be by his side. But he was like, no, dad, go to church, go preach, get there. And obviously, I'm shaking up, but I go. I'm like, all right, I'll go for my son. He's telling me to go there and preach. When I got into the building, and I heard the worship songs, and I felt the faith in the room, and I saw the people, it regulated me. My soul was jumbled and scared. It was almost like I had been in the accident. But getting close to Christ and close to his church, it regulated me. It was the skin to skin. And sometimes you're like, I just gotta be in the building. I just gotta get to my connect group. I just gotta be with my servant. I just gotta be with my people, because when I'm with the people of God, it's like I'm touching the heart of God. So that's Judas, and you got John. And lastly, we got our boy, Peter. Oh, man, this guy, he's a fun one. Peter's somebody that talks a lot. Go with me to Mark chapter 10 real fast. Mark chapter 10.

Y'all still with me? Mark chapter 10, verse number 28. Then Peter spoke up. We have left everything to follow you. I just wanted to, I'm just gonna pull that one verse out right there. Peter speaks up, because Jesus is like, you know, it's impossible with man. Things are impossible with God. All things are possible. Talk about a rich man getting to heaven and all this kind of stuff. And Peter's like, hey, man, we left everything to follow you. I don't know if Peter was counting, but you can see over and over and over and over again in scripture, Peter is somebody that speaks up often. He speaks up often and even does it at the Last Supper. He speaks up and he says, Jesus, I'm not going anywhere. 10 toes down, I'm here. You can't get rid of me, Jesus. I'll die for you. And Jesus is like, okay, listen up. You're about to betray me before the rooster crows three times. Kind of brings him down to reality. Peter here, I like him. And I feel like there's a lot of us who are like Peter because we have the best of intentions.

But man, we keep falling short. Like I really want to, but I keep falling. I have the desire, but dang, I keep falling short. I'm trying to live for God's purpose and God's plan, but I find myself getting the muck and mire of the everyday and the mundane over and over and over again. I'm trying to make it on earth as it is in heaven, but I find myself building my own kingdom rather than building my own kingdom. building his kingdom up. I'm trying to live a life of purity, but I can't seem to get out of the cycle that I'm in of lusting and flirting and just being a little bit too out there. I'm trying to be somebody different, but I keep on falling short. I appreciate Peter, because I feel like this man is like so many of us, and yes, some of us are like Judas, and some of us are like John, but I think there's a gang of us that are just like Peter. It's like, Jesus, I'm with you. Okay, let me start over again next week, because I already fell in this Tuesday. Go with me to Luke chapter 22. We're just about done here, family. Matthew, Mark, Luke chapter 22. Here is, in Luke chapter 22, we see here Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper.

Oh, I gotta go to verse number 33. Okay, but he replied, Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death. Here's Peter talking. Jesus answered, I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me. So again, here is the same story, different perspective. So Peter said, I'm gonna be with you. Jesus says, man, you're gonna fall. I think you guys might know this. Did you know Steve Jobs actually was fired from Apple? Did you know this? I actually, I didn't know this. I think it was 1985 or 87 or something like that. But he was literally fired from the company that he started. He went to go to try to start some other things. Things didn't work out. About 12 years later or so, Apple was in a tough place and they were like, hey, can you come back and be the CEO? He came back to be the CEO and they say he had changed, different perspective, different way of operating, a different level of humility and wisdom. And that's actually where he began to simplify things. And that's where like the iPad and iMac and iPhone came from that time. This man loses. And he probably thought it was the end when he lost. He's fired. He thinks he's done.

But it's years later, he comes back. Here with Peter, you see that he is about to fall. It's some hard news that Jesus gives him. But I want you to see that before Jesus gave Peter this hard news, he gave him some hopeful news. Look at this. Before the hard news came the hopeful news. Luke chapter 22, verse 31. Simon, Simon, he's talking to Peter. Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, everybody say when. Everybody say when. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. Do you see here that before he ever tells him he's going to fall, he tells him that you're going to turn back. Before he tells him that you're gonna mess up, he tells him you're gonna have a comeback. Before he ever goes the wrong way, he tells him you're coming back home. And when you come back home, you're going to strengthen your brothers. I want you to know that greater than the Steve Jobs comeback was Peter's comeback. And greater than Steve Jobs' comeback will be your comeback too. That if you have fallen, I want you to know that it's not an if,

it's a when you come back. And can we say the when can be today. That today can be the day you get closer. Today can be the day that you begin to break the chains as you allow the grace of God to fill you in a way you never thought possible. That shame and guilt and condemnation and depression and anxiety will not have the last word in your life. I've already prayed for your faith, Peter, that when you come back, not if, but when, strengthen your brothers. Strengthen the people at the table. Strengthen your church family. Strengthen your community. I'm ending here and I want to tell you this. Judas ended up dying, Peter ended up being restored. One of the major differences, Judas went off in isolation, but Peter stayed in community. So the invitation to all of us today is to come closer. Come closer. I don't know about you, maybe you feel like you're a mix of Judas and John and Peter. Maybe you identify with one of the three more than others. But regardless of where you are, today is a day that God is calling you closer, closer to Christ, closer to his church, and closer to his mission. And it's an invitation that's open to all of us. At all of our locations, I want you to bow your head right now if you would not mind.