Finding the Belonging You Were Made For | Crossroads Church

What's going on? My name is Miko, and I'm the prison director here at Crossroads Church. I'm glad you're with us because we're in the middle of a series called the Jesus Exhibit. Over the past several weeks we've been taking a closer look at some of the most bold and significant statements Jesus ever made about himself. And I want to be clear. These are not just inspirational sayings or nice ideas. These are identity statements. This is Jesus out of his own mouth telling us exactly who he is. Whether you've been following Jesus for years, or whether you're still figuring out what you believe, or maybe you're just curious and exploring faith all together. I believe you are exactly where you're supposed to be. As we jump into today's message, I want to invite you. I want to invite you to wrestle with something. Not just what did Jesus say, but what do his words reveal about who he is? And if these words are really true, what does that mean for me? Because Jesus didn't just come to give us information. He came to invite us into a relationship, a relationship with truth, and it's a completely different way of living. Let's jump in. Where are we in the Bible? We're in the New Testament, in the gospel according to John. This is a first-hand biography of Jesus by one of his closest friends. In it, John records seven iconic I am statements that Jesus made. Seven metaphors, seven self-portraits of the living God. This week, Jesus says, I am the door of the sheep. Here's how it goes in the book of John, chapter 10. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Well, good morning, everybody. My name is Christian Pulisic. I'm part of the men's national team. It's a real honor to be here. I'm just kidding. I'm Kyle, if we never met. This is just a jersey. Some of you were fooled a little bit. We're talking about this idea of the seven self-portraits of the Son of God. These images that Jesus himself created to tell us about who he is. And like you just heard in that video today,

we're talking about the door. Now, this is actually from John 10, and John 10 packages two I am statements together. I am the door and I am the good shepherd. Now, you've probably heard more about the good shepherd because it's kind of like more warm and cuddly, you know. You imagine Jesus as the shepherd and you're a little sheep and he picks you up and pats you on your little head. Just so precious, you know. There's precious moments figurines made of it. Remember precious moments figurines like this? A little shepherd. If you went to the Christian bookstore in the 90s or early 2000s, like 90% of the store was these figurines, basically. Now, this is the door precious moments figurine right here. I looked it up and that's a mouse in a dress and that's not in the Bible. So, we're kind of spitballing here in the precious moments factory. And the reason is because doors don't elicit natural warm fuzzy feelings from us. It's not like the good shepherd. And that's because when most of us think about a door, we don't imagine being let in. We imagine being left out on the outside. It sort of reminds us that the world has two groups in it, basically. There's the insiders and there's the outsiders. And for all of us, we feel like an outsider. That's kind of what Jesus taps into with this story. Now, that's a problem because you and I are actually hardwired to belong. That's not a religious case. Certainly, the Bible says that, but that's actually what science is showing. There was some research done recently at MIT where the researchers found out that your brain responds to the craving for food and the craving for belonging in the same exact way. Both are a necessity. There's actually more research done that showed that the same pain center that lights up when you feel physical pain in your brain is the same pain center that lights up when you lack belonging in your life. In other words, your body doesn't recognize the difference between pain, food, and belonging. All these things are necessities for life. You have to have it. That's why Jesus' claim of being the door may be, well, on the surface, not the one that you elicit this emotional, warm, fuzzy feelings for. It may be the one that's most personal and powerful for you. It's a message in which Jesus says he came for outsiders, you and I. There's this incredible gospel claim in it,

this gospel promise that you were born to belong. But there's also this really strict warning. Jesus says he is the only door that actually leads in to the life that you want. And today we're gonna take steps into that door. That's my hope and my prayer anyway. And so before we go any farther, let's invite God to be part of this conversation. Father, I'm asking that you would speak today, that you would open our ears to hear, that you'd open our eyes to see you as the door, and you'd give us the faith and the belief to walk through it. Amen. Amen. Now, this is my World Cup jersey. This is actually my Father's Day present. And dads, I hope you got what you wanted for Father's Day. I got what I wanted for Father's Day, mostly because I basically ordered it for myself. And so that's my pro tip. I got some other gifts. Gracie got me this hat. My daughter, awesome like my daughter. So if you're worried about her self-esteem, don't worry, she's fine. She's fine. She might have a little bit too much actually is the problem. Now I wanted this jersey because I love the World Cup

and I wanted to be in on the fan club of the World Club. You can actually, by the way, there's an official US soccer fan club, the American Outlaws. You can join it for $30 actually. You get a free t-shirt, you can be in on the club. Every nation has these fan clubs. Now the coolest one, sorry America, is not ours. It's just not. The coolest one I think is Norway. Have you seen these guys? They row in unison. Listen to this. Like how do they, how do you know how to do that? And some of you are like, you know the most amazing part of this is this is the most amount of white people I've ever seen on beat before. I didn't know that was, I didn't either. Frankly, I'm shocked too. I didn't know, I didn't know that was a thing. It's amazing. See, if you're in on the Norway club, you know when to go row. And if you're out, you don't. You're either in or you're out. This is actually how we define ourselves based on the circles that we're in and the circles that we're out. And it was the same thing back in Jesus's day,

same thing when he said the words that we're gonna look at today, four primary verses that we're gonna return to again and again. You heard him in that video, but I wanna go through them again. John 10, verse seven. Jesus said again to them, remember that, them, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.'" Now, door also translates as gate. And so you'll see it both ways, depending on the English translation that you look at, you might see door, you might see gate, same exact thing. But to understand this story, we actually have to go back to the first few words. It says, so Jesus said to them. Well, who is the them in this story? Well, the them is not his disciples. You might guess that. It's not a crowd of eager listeners. That's not who he's talking to. And you might assume because he talked about sheep and pastures and all those things,

maybe he's out like on a farm somewhere talking to people in rural area. No, actually he's in the middle of a city when he's saying these words. Who were the them? Well, to answer that question, we actually have to go one chapter backwards into John chapter nine. John is one of those books that's narrative. It's about stories. And many times a story actually starts in a chapter or even two chapters before and the same story carries through. And we can look at these chapter and verse markers and you have this false impression that these are separate stories. No, chapter and verse markers were added in much later just to help you and I find the same place in the Bible. But this is actually one story beginning in John nine. And if you go to John nine, it changes the entire scene, every word that Jesus says that we just read out of John 10. And if you want to understand John nine, you've actually got to start in John eight. If you want to understand John eight, you've got to start in John seven. Oh my gosh, you guys are geniuses. We're actually not gonna go to seven, we're gonna start in eight, cause that's too far. So let's start in John chapter eight.

So they picked up stones to throw at him. This is the moment that Jesus does the thing we've been talking about in this series, says, I am. That is using the name of God. He's saying, I am God. And when he does that, the crowd he's talking to pick up stones to throw at him. Well, who were those people? These are the Pharisees. These are the insiders of insiders in the God Club. These are the officers. This is the president, vice president, treasurer, secretary of the God Club, the most insider people. And they take up stones to throw at him because they think he's committing blasphemy. They're like, you're not God. You know what happens next? Next sentence. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. Next sentence, John 9, 1. As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. You glue those two sentences together. He leaves the temple. He went out of the temple. And as he passed by, he sees this man. Well, if you pay attention to context clues like this, you can actually learn a lot about the Bible. He's leaving the temple. What does that mean?

He's exiting one of the four gates. We know from later context in the story, it was the southern steps of the temple. He exits the southern steps, which by the way, are still there today. This is a picture of the southern steps, what they look like right now. There is a door at the top of there. And so we know that the man was somewhere at the top of those steps in the doorway, not through the doorway, but in the doorway. Jesus walks past him and he sees him. Now the temple had these four exterior doors to get in. But once you got inside those doors, there were actually layers and layers and layers of more doors. And each door represented another group that was excluded from being an insider on the other side of the door. And so most people could go through the outer doors and they could get into the inside. But then there was another set of doors. And the only people who could go through those doors were the Jews. The Gentiles, non-Jewish people were excluded, left on the outside. But once you got through that door, there was another door. And the only people who could go through that door were men. Everybody else was excluded. And the only people who could go through the next door,

past that door, were the priests. And there's another door beyond that where only the high priest could go through and only once a year. See, the temple was like this onion. It was like this layers of these rings that only certain people who had access, who had pedigree, who had whatever, the right resume, the right background, the right anything could get through the next door. But this man that Jesus meets, the blind man, is in the outermost door. Why? Because he was considered blemished and not allowed inside. If you go back to Leviticus 21, there's a verse that talks about the blind being not allowed into the certain parts of the temple. But by the time that this guy was alive, the Pharisees actually added more on top of that law. There are written, they're actually found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as a matter of fact. These new regulations that made it so that this guy could not go through the door. He was allowed to stay there and beg, but that was it. And for us, that might seem like, man, how could you do that to somebody? But back then, we got to understand, this was just accepted. In fact, the disciples show that this was accepted.

They commit this thing that might feel like a faux pas to us, but this is what they say. This is disciples asked him, "'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, "'that he was born blind?' The baseline assumption at this moment was that this man's exclusion, this man's label as an outsider, this man who was forced to live in the doorway but not go through it, that was completely 100% justified. Disciples assume either he messed up or his parents messed up, which one is it? And the crazy part is that Jesus responds and he says, neither one. And then he does the most wild thing. He bends down to the ground. He scoops up some dust. He spits in it, rubs it together, makes mud, puts the mud on the guy's eyes and says, "'Go wash it off in the pool of Shilom.'" Now the pool of Shilom was a mile away. The blind guy has to make it down those steps, through the crowd, a mile to the pool. And he does. He gets to the pool. He kneels down, he scoops up water, he rubs his eyes, he washes all the mud out and then he blinks and he opens his eyes and the craziest things happen. For the first time in his life, he can see. He was born blind.

He's lived decades and he can see. Imagine being this man. Where would you go if you could suddenly see? He has heard his mother's voice. He's never seen her face. Would you run home to see mom? Would you run home to see dad? Would you run to the ocean? Maybe you've heard the crashing waves, but you'd never seen the expanse and the vastness of the waters themselves. You just heard the sound. Would you go see the ocean? Would you climb on top of the tallest mountain to see your first ever sunset? Where would you go? What would you see? What's fascinating is this man didn't do any of those things. Well, what did he do? John 9, 7. So he went and washed and came back. Seeing. The first thing the man born blind does when he can see is go back to the door. Why? Because the man thinks for the first time in his life he's finally going to get access. He's going to move from an outsider to an insider. Now he can see, now he's allowed inside the door. But when he gets there, these Pharisees, these religious excluders, they don't welcome him in. They're like, oh, awesome, you can see.

Welcome on in. Hey, let me get the door for you. Here you go. That doesn't happen. Instead they ask him questions. They're like, how could this happen? Who did this to you? They start putting the pieces together. And then they zero in on this detail of the law called the Sabbath. And you're not supposed to work on the Sabbath. And they go, well, Jesus healed you on the Sabbath. I mean, healing is work technically. And so that's not okay. And you, you walked a mile to the pool. I mean, that's also work. That's not okay. And so in fact, you are no longer allowed in the door. And they cast him out. It's hard for us to understand in modern circles what this means, cast him out. It is an official declaration over his life that now excludes him, now locks every single door in his face. He's immediately religiously excluded. Not only can he not be in the door anymore, now he can't go into the synagogue, the local congregation, not allowed there. And because he's cast out, now he's lost his entire economic status, gone. Economic door is locked. No one's going to hire him. No one's going to pay him. No one's going to give him money as a beggar anymore. Completely gone.

And, and the social door was locked in his face. Even his closest relationships. If you read the story of the Pharisees, they go find his parents and they're like, you explain this to us. What happened here? And his parents throw up their hands out of fear of being excluded themselves. And they go, we don't know. He's an adult. Ask him. Like, good job, mom and dad. Thank you. What, what awesome parents. He is completely 100% locked out of everything that matters in his life. You ever had a moment of feeling like you finally arrived? Like you finally did the thing, accomplished the thing, got the thing that's going to unlock the door to you. Whatever the door is that you want to get in. And you go, I'm finally going to arrive. Only to go through the door and discover there's another one. And it's still shut to you. Like you ever got a promotion to that, that level that you wanted to get to? You worked at it for years and you finally get the promotion. And you get in that door. What do you discover? There's another door. And inside of that room, that's where the real decisions are made. And you're not allowed in. Maybe you're in college and you join the club. You finally get membership. You're accepted into the thing.

And what you discover is inside of that door, there are clicks. And you're not in them. You go to the mom's group. You meet some friends. And it's really awesome. What you discover inside the mom's group is there's like this unofficial group of moms who really matter, who really decide things, who really set the tone and the pace and the culture and all those things. And you're not included. It doesn't even matter what level of life you reach. The C-suite. You finally make the C-suite. And you discover that being the boss is maybe the most isolated, excluded position in the entire company. Because you know who doesn't get invited to the lunch table where friendships and alliances are actually formed? The boss. See, the dirty secret of life is that none of us, no matter who you are and what you accomplish, what it says on your resume, your office door, anything, none of us ever feel like we make it all the way in. Why? One of the greatest thinkers of the last hundred years, I don't think just Christian thinkers, I just think thinkers, period, is C.S. Lewis. He lived back in England and was kind of at his height in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, did lots of writing, lots of speaking. And he had this concept he called the inner ring. He said the inner ring is the unofficial group inside of every other group. Every church, every neighborhood, every business, every club has an inner ring. And Lewis said the phenomenon of the inner ring works like this. You get in and you discover the inner ring exists.

And if you can somehow get into that inner ring, what you discover is another inner ring inside of that one. It's like the temple. You want the life. You want to get close. But you discover after every door you get through, there's yet another one in the way. And therefore, you never feel like you make it all the way in. Now Lewis said the danger is not the existence of the ring itself. The ring is neutral. Fact of life. This is it. Doesn't matter if you like it or not. If you like it, if you don't like it, this is how stuff works. You know it's how it works. Can't change that. He said the real danger is what you and I will do in order to gain access. See, at a fundamental level, we know that every door we want to get through, whatever it is, there is a price to pay to get inside. And at some moment, the craving for belonging is so hardwired into us that if we don't feel like we belong, we're willing to pay the price, whatever it costs. Costs us our integrity, we'll blur the lines a little bit. Costs us turning a blind eye to something we know is wrong, we'll just kind of look the other way. And Lewis says over time, these micro compromises change who we are. In a speech called The Inner Ring, he said of all passions, the passion for the inner ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things. See, this hunger that all of us have for belonging, it can be the most destructive craving in our life. More destructive than the craving for money, more destructive than the craving for power, more destructive than the craving for sex, because we have to, have to, have to have this one filled. Nothing else in life creates competition, corruption, and compromise more efficiently and more effectively than this craving for belonging. And so for this blind man, the moment where he goes back to the door that he desperately wants to get inside

and is turned away, this is the most vulnerable moment of the man's entire life. More vulnerable than the decades he spent unable to see. Why? Because in this moment, think of what he was tempted to do. Think of what might have happened in his life. He would have had one of two reactions, the same two reactions that we have when we feel excluded. Some of us, when we feel excluded, we're like, you know what, I'm going to bust that door down. We have this fight response. I'm going to go to the door and I'm going to knock, I'm going to bang on it, I'm going to make my body the way it's supposed to be, make my bank account the way it's supposed to be, make my look the way it's supposed to be, and then I'm going to get inside of that door. We have this fight response. And then others of us, oftentimes because we've fought the fight and it didn't work, our response is to withdraw more and more and more over time. We just kind of give up. We stop trying to be the vibrant, connected, impactful person that God designed us to be. We just kind of, just kind of quit. And we end up isolated. This is many men. Many men fall into this trap. We give up. You ask us who our best friends are and we're like, my neighbor Tim. I forget his last name. And then Johnny's dad on my kid's baseball team. Don't know his name either, but he's one of my best friends. You know, like your best friend. What? It's because we've withdrawn. We've decided to give up on this thing called belonging. Now, no matter what, which place you find yourself in, whether you're the fighter still or whether the person who's withdrawn and found yourself isolated,

both of those responses are motivated by the same fear. The fear that I will never belong. And when Jesus comes, he says, I'm the door. He's coming against that fear. The one that's driving you nuts. The one that wants to corrupt your life. The one that wants you to believe a lie and to steal life from you. Now, amazingly, we'll never know what the blind man's response was, whether it was fight or whether it was withdrawal. Because in this most vulnerable moment of his life, Jesus, God himself, performs an unexpected miracle. One that I would actually argue is more powerful, more profound than him healing the man's blindness. Because in this moment where the man is cast out, God himself goes to find him. This is how the story picks up in John 9, 36. Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And having found him, he said, do you believe in the son of man? He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. He worshipped him. Now, what's incredible is that after the man was healed of blindness, the Pharisees come and they're like, what do you think about Jesus? Who is he? And the guy's like, I don't know. I mean, all I know is I could not see and then I can see. And so maybe he's a prophet. I'm not really sure. Gives us kind of safe answer. But after the door himself, after God himself goes and finds him when he's been cast out, that's the moment. That's the miracle that has more power in this man's life and unlocks him to see for the first time. This is God, because the kind of God I want is not the God who sits at the door and turns people away.

The God who grades report cards and sends you back down the stairs. The kind of God that I want is the kind of God who says, if you just come to me, I'll let you in. In fact, even when you get cast out, even when you're far away, I am the door who moves to you. This is the most beautiful part of the portrait. Jesus is the only door who moves, who goes to find you. When you've been locked out. You know, he'll find you when you're far away. He'll find you when you're withdrawn. He'll find you when you've given up. He'll find you in the bar. He'll find you in the wrong bed. He'll find you when you're putting together that tax return that doesn't match tax reality. He'll find you when everybody else has given up on you and turned you away. He will come and he will find you and say, why don't you come in with me? He'll find you. He'll find you when you're the only guy in Norway who doesn't know how to row on me. He'll find you. Doesn't matter. Everybody else looks at you weird. He's like, no, no, I am for you. I'm for you. He goes and finds the man and then, then we can understand John 10. Then, it says, Jesus again said to them, the Pharisees. He turns to them. He puts a finger out in their faces and in an angry voice, he says, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door.

I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep didn't listen to them. I am the door. He says, you're the thieves and you're the robbers. You're stealing life from people because you're keeping them away from God. You're inventing these systems of religious exclusion in which certain good people get in and everybody else, all the bad people, get out. He says, that's not the heart of God. He's mad at them. Later on, when he says the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. He's not talking about Satan. He's talking about these people, this group of Pharisees who have kept people on the outside, who steal, kill and destroy by excluding. This isn't the only time Jesus has this conversation with them. Matthew 23, you go in there, man, it is a read. Jesus does the seven woes to the Pharisees. Bad to be a Pharisee. He's like, seven problems I have with you guys, woe to you. One of them is this one, Matthew 23, 13. He says, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. The Greek word for shut is to completely bar and lock. It's 100% exclusion and Jesus hates it. He hates all systems of religious exclusion, completely hates it. And I know the bummer is that many churches can feel this way. Many churches have been this way. Maybe you've encountered them before in your life. Places where if you don't measure up, if you've done the wrong things,

you don't vote the right way, you don't talk the right way, you're not welcome in. Jesus goes, no, that's not my kingdom. That's slamming the door in people's faces. It's why we work very, very hard at Crossroads to be a place where you can truly belong before you believe it's a real place for real people. We say all these things and we mean all these things. We mean it. I've been going around to our sites, spending a lot of time with our site staff and our site volunteers and just experiencing Crossroads through their eyes. And it's been so incredibly encouraging. I just want you to know if you're at a site today or if you're watching online, this is true of the Anywhere team. Our teams exist at sites, our Anywhere team exists in order to help you belong. That's it. This church is a spiritual family and no one, no one, no one is excluded. If you've come and you want to be part of it, you might be overwhelmed. Like this is so big, how could I ever belong? Easy, go to the welcome center, find someone in a lanyard, they will help you. Nothing breaks our hearts more than to hear stories of people who come and they struggle to connect. We want to help you. We want to help you. In fact, your site team is full of people who could be making more money in a corporate job and have taken a pay cut. Why? Because they exist to help you belong. That's the point. The point of a church is to help people belong, create that sense. Jesus hates ungodly exclusion, hates it, hates it, hates it.

But we have to deal with something. You know that Jesus is also at the same time radically exclusive? Notice he says, I am the door, not I am a door. Many options come through. me or, you know, any other door that you kind of like the shape and the color of. It's not what he says. He says, I am the door, the only one that truly leads in. John 10, 9. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. See, he's exclusive, but there's a promise on the other side of it of being included and having access to the things you want most. In our modern world, we're trained to respond to the word exclusive negatively and inclusive positively. And that can cause problems because on the surface, some things present as inclusive and they're not. And some things present as exclusive and they're actually not. Many of us have seen groups all over the place in our culture, groups that present as inclusive. But we know our experience shows us when we get inside the groups, if we step out of line, you start talking the wrong way, start thinking the wrong way, start voting the wrong way, start dressing the wrong way, you are excluded. It's like we include you until you're not exactly like us. Then you're exclusive. You're excluded from us. But Jesus is the opposite. He's like, look, I'm the only way in. It's just me. I'm saying that to bum you out. I'm not saying that to be unkind to you. I'm saying that to give you clarity. Stop looking at everywhere else. I'm the way in. But when you come to me, there's no like resume check. There's no pedigree check.

There's no behavior check. It's just come to me. And when you do, he says, I will give you two things exclusively. Safety, salvation, freedom, and fulfillment. Jesus said you will be saved. See, he's the only door that offers salvation and safety. That's why you crave belonging in part. Because you want that sense of safety. One of the problems that we have in our modern world, imagining this scene of the sheep and the gates and the whole situation, the shepherd, the whole thing, is that we imagine farms. You know, you're in Lexington. You imagine a horse farm. You're up in Columbus, Dayton. You're around Cincinnati area. You probably imagine like other kinds of farms, maybe a pig farm. I don't know, in Porcopolis, Cincinnati. You got neat fences, barns with doors on them. And we think that that's shepherding. No, that's farming. Farmers farming, shepherds shepherding. Still to this day, if you go to the Middle East, what you'll find is not fences and structures. You'll find herds of sheep and goats off in the wilderness and a shepherd with them. And at night, what that shepherd does is he takes them to a natural enclosure. Caves work amazing. And that becomes the sheep pen for the night. One of the greatest Old Testament scholars of all time, George Adam Smith. He was in the Middle East and he saw this play out. And there's a book called The Good Shepherd.

And in it, the author tells this story. It says the man showed him the fold into which the sheep were led at night. It consisted of four walls and a way in. Sir George said to him, that is where they go at night. Yes, said the shepherd. And when they are in there, they are perfectly safe. But there's no door, said Sir George. I am the door, said the shepherd. He was not a Christian man. He was not speaking the language of the New Testament. He was speaking from the Arab shepherd's standpoint. Sir George looked at him and said, what do you mean by the door? Said the shepherd, when the light has gone and all the sheep are inside, I lie in the open space. And no sheep ever goes out but across my body. And no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body. I am the door. This is Jesus. When he says, I am the door of the sheep, he's saying, I lay across the entrance. I am safety. I am security. I will protect you. No one will steal your sense of belonging. No one will steal your place at the table. No one can harm you. They have to cross me. But here's the kicker. The point isn't to live your life inside the sheep pen. It's not. Right now, if you're at a site, you're in a sheep pen.

This is a sheep pen. Welcome. Hope you get food. Hope you get water. Hope you get shelter. Hope you get recharged. The point is not to live inside. The point is to go out. See, what happens when you have your sense, you're craving for belonging satisfied by Jesus, is that you're supposed to then, as a satisfied, no more craving person, go create belonging for other people. You're supposed to be the outsider who became an insider and goes back out. That's the point of church. That's why we do Go Day. That's why we do Go Trips. That's why so many people give and serve here to help create this place, this family that anybody can belong to. Jesus actually says that's where you'll find power. John 10.10, he says the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly. That pasture kind of a life. It's where you find freedom and fulfillment. Jesus says, I'm the only door that actually leads to freedom and fulfillment. And when you start creating belonging for other people, when you go back out, that's when you'll be fulfilled. Listen, my life changed in my early 20s. I struggled to feel like I belong. I've told these stories before. I moved a lot as a kid. And so it was hard to feel like I was ever really in, because every group that I would join, I'd find the inner ring. I go, dang, now I got to get into that. And then, oh, now there's another one. It just, it just wore on me. But everything flipped when I finally believed that Jesus was the door,

that I was finally welcomed into the family of God. I had a place at the table no matter what I did and no judgment, all those things. It completely changed. And I started making my life about creating belonging for other people. I'm telling you, it's the most satisfying life you can possibly live. It is. It is. Pasture isn't found huddled up in the pen. It's found going out to reach other people. Now the door, the door does have a key. It's the last thing we need to talk about. The door has a key. See, there's one door and there's one way in. You don't get in by listing your accomplishments. You don't get in because your grandma was such an incredible Christian woman. There's no pedigree check. You only get in one way. You have to humble yourself. It's the only way. One of the most famous stories involving Jesus is the story of the rich young ruler. It comes from Mark 10. This guy walks up to Jesus. He's got all the money in the world. Money opens doors, right? So every door has opened to this guy. He just, he pays the price and he gets into the club. He's part of that exclusive group. He can pay the price. And he gets to Jesus and he goes, hey, there's one last door. I can't figure out how to get in called eternal life, the kingdom of heaven. How do I get into that door? This is Jesus' response. Mark 10, 21.

He says, you're missing something. And he tells him to give away all the stuff. Like, why would Jesus do that? You know, is Jesus out of money? Like you really kind of, he's like, man, we need more bread, need more wine. And I, you know, kind of, no, he made bread, made wine. It wasn't a cash grab. He says, you're lacking something. And the reason you lack it is because of what you're holding in your hand. All the money, all your accomplishments, and you got to empty all that stuff. Jesus is trying to free the man of trying to pay his way in and earn his way in. He's trying to empty his hand so that he would have the one thing he lacks, humility. See, all of us, rich, poor, young, old, all of us, Jesus says the only way in is to walk up to the door like a child. Nothing in your hands, nothing to offer. Matthew 18, 3, Jesus said, A child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Isn't it interesting that the God who came to us as a child demands we come to him the same way? To this day, you can go to Bethlehem, you can visit the Church of the Nativity, which is the place where Jesus was most likely born. If you go there, there's actually a hole in the ground marking the spot where the manger was. Doesn't look like it looked back then, but you can put your hand in this hole and feel the stone where the manger would have laid. And this is one of those sites that we can say, this is 99.9% certainty where the manger actually was. The historical record on this goes way, way back. The year 135 AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian had a temple to Adonis built over this site because people have been worshiping at this site since Jesus was crucified. They went back and they went, this is where it happened. And they started worshiping him right then and right there.

So we can say, this is where it happened. Now, interestingly, when you go to the Church of Nativity, there's only one door in. And it's this one on the outside. It's this tiny little child-sized door. The only way for an adult to enter is to bow in humility and walk through. It's called the door of humility. See, if you walk up to Jesus, if you make it to the door, he's not interested in you reading off your resume. He's not interested in you trying to earn your way in. He says the only way in the door, the only key is will you humble yourself? Will you humble yourself? Will you recognize there's a price to pay and you can never pay it? But he did. He's the door who says, I already paid your ticket. I already got your cover charge. It's taken care of. It's paid for. Will you come to him like a child? Will you humble yourself? Will you humble yourself? We're going to do a moment right now. You know, Jesus says the goal that he has for us is that we would conform to his image. And that includes this image, the image of the door. So I want you to close your eyes, wherever you are, close your eyes right now. And I want you to imagine a door. Now the question is, which side of the door are you picturing yourself on? Are you on the inside or are you on the outside? I want you to assume the image in your mind is from God, and it means something. If you're on the outside, I want you to stop and consider why. Is it because even after years and years of believing in Jesus, something in you still feels like you don't measure up?

Is it because you think he's gonna do a resume check and he knows that you say you've prayed for people, but you know, you haven't actually really prayed for people or... What is it? If it's that, just tell him how you feel. His response to you, by the way, is going to be, you know, there's no price. Come on in the door. Tell him you want to walk in. Maybe you're in a place in your life where you've never believed in him. You've struggled because God has seemed like those Pharisees, these excluders, these judges. But you've seen a different picture today. If that's you, you can say what the blind man said. You can just say, I believe. Just make that your simple prayer to God right now. Now, if you've imagined the door and you imagine yourself on the inside, ask God if there's anybody on the outside he wants you to go to, to create belonging for them. Ask him to put a picture of them in your mind right now. Maybe it's a neighbor, co-worker, family member you lost contact with. And commit to him right now that you'll go out, that you want to conform to his image, that you want to be the door that moves, that goes to them. Let me pray for you. God, thank you so much for these images that explain who you are. We can see, we can see you. God, help us to all walk through the door. Help us to find 100% of our need for belonging in you. And Lord, send us out. May we be the church who goes out, who creates places of belonging for the most outsiders of outsiders. People like us, Lord. Thank you for doing that work for us. We love you. Amen. And throughout this series, one thing has become very clear. Jesus did not leave us much room to make him into whoever we want him to be. He made bold claims, personal claims, claims that demand a response. The question isn't simply, who does Jesus say he is?

The question is, will I let him be that for me? The way that I see it, the way that I see it, the way that I see it, the way that I see it, the way that I see it, the way that I see it, the way that I see it, the way that I see it, the way that I see it, the way that I teach that He has made that for me, the way when you feel lost, the light when it's dark, the shepherd when you feel alone. My prayer is that this series hasn't just given you more information about Jesus, but that it's helped you to know him, to know him more deeply, trust him more fully, and to follow him more closely. We love to hear from you. What's standing out to you during this series? What questions are you still wrestling with? What has God been showing you? Maybe you even have a testimony to share, or a prayer request, or an idea for a future episode with Mornings with Miko. Whatever the case is, we love to hear from you. So shoot us an email.

You can reach us at prisonatcrossroads.net We genuinely love to hear from you. Y'all have a blessed one.