I Never Knew You | Foundations | Josh Leake

My name is Josh, I'm the lead pastor here, and we're continuing in our series called Foundations, where we're studying Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five through seven. And we've been taking it week by week to look at different parts of this teaching, because Jesus said, when you put these teachings into practice, you're like somebody who's building their house on a solid foundation, so that when the storms of life hit, you're solid. So we wanna put these teachings into practice in our individual lives, but then we also want to put them into practice as a community. Today's topic is the straight and narrow path. This is what Jesus is teaching on. And this phrase is now commonly used in everyday life to say, hey, stay on the straight and narrow. That means do the right thing, be a moral person, stand up for what's right, straight and narrow path. And I'll never forget my older brother's face, Dave, when I told him about how I spent the last semester of college. So growing up, we were a family where grades mattered, but maybe not as much as every family. So in my family, if you got A's and B's, you were pretty good. That was where you needed to land. If it went below that,

then your parents would come and talk to you and be like, what are you doing? So A's and B's. I know some families, it's different. It's all A's. You gotta get A's. And then some families, they're like, do your best, whatever, it doesn't matter. So our family's A's and B's. I remember in my last semester of college, I knew that I was leaving. And I knew that I wasn't gonna see a lot of my friends again that I had been hanging out with. So I had been a good student my whole life, A's and B's. I decided it was time for some mischief. It was decided, I was a little impish, time for some impropriety, where I said, I'm gonna maybe get a little worse grades so I can spend more time with friends. So I got my first C really in my life in college here, which by my brother's face, my older brother, when I told him, you would have thought that I stole a car because it was, he could not believe it. I should have just stolen a car, honestly, because I would have gotten the same reaction and then I would have gotten a car out of it. No, for Dave, I had left the straight and narrow path. I was doing something horrible. He was kind of disgusted with me. He's not here to argue with me about his reaction,

but it's the truth. The straight and narrow path, right? This is the idea. And Jesus is gonna teach on this. In Matthew chapter seven, verse 13, he gives guidance about the narrow path and then he gives a warning. So let's read this together here. Matthew chapter seven, verse 13. He says, enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. Here comes the warning. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ferocious wolves. By their fruit, you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them. Read that last part with me. Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them.

So Jesus, as he elaborates on guidance and a warning about the narrow road, he gives us two pictures. So the first picture is of the roads and the second picture is of the trees. This really helps us dive into the heart of what Jesus is saying. So let's talk about the roads. We have a narrow road, we have a wide road. The narrow road leads to life, the wide road leads to death. Often, people have misunderstood this, that the wide road is well-populated with people who are leading greedy, selfish, sensual lives, getting Cs in college, just the scum of the earth, right? Like bad people. And then the narrow road is well-behaved people, people that are good and generous and kind. But, and this is really how culture uses it too. So they say, stay on the straight and narrow path means do the right thing. But the narrow road and that small gate are not small and narrow because it's hard for people to be moral. The road is narrow and the gate is small because it's a specific path. Every other option is wrong. So Jesus is not saying it's narrow and it's hard to stay on this road because it's hard to be good.

He's saying the path to life is exclusive. It's like a math problem with one right answer. The road is narrow because Jesus Christ is the only way to true life. So he is saying, make sure you stay on this road, not by behaving, but by putting your faith in Jesus. And then there's a threat that's gonna try to steer you off. So he. warns about a threat. What's the threat? It's a wolf that's disguised in sheep's clothing. And I have to make sure I'm pronouncing that word right, wolf, because my family, especially my dad would always say, woof, woof. And people made fun of him, but they didn't tell him. So, a wolf in sheep's clothing. And he passed that on to us. Woof, a wolf in sheep's clothing. He warned about a wolf in sheep's clothing. So this is somebody who would appear good and right and harmless, but underneath they're predatory and dangerous and manipulative. And their goal is to influence you, not to be a bad person, but to influence you away from saving faith in Jesus Christ. So at this point, we get a decent idea of what Jesus is talking about, but I think the picture is still a little cloudy. So Jesus says, stay on the narrow road,

faith in Jesus Christ. There's going to be a threat that will look harmless, that will blend in. It's gonna try to steer you off the road. The question is how? And I always, growing up, when I would see these verses, I don't know that I ever fully understood exactly what the warning was. Yes, that there's people who would try to steer you away, but how? How will we know? What will that look like? So Jesus gives us the second picture to figure this out. Two trees. One has good fruit and the other has bad fruit. But the point is the trees look identical. You want people to tell them apart just by looking at them. The only thing that will tell these trees apart is wait for the fruit. Be patient. Jesus isn't giving this warning because he's saying, eventually everybody will realize that it was a bad tree. He's saying most people are not gonna be able to tell the difference because they look the same. So he's giving a warning to say, watch out and be patient because the threat is gonna blend in. And the only way you'll see the true heart of the threat is waiting for the fruit to come out. A bad tree, though it's gonna look exactly like the good one, can only yield bad fruit.

So this next passage, we didn't read the whole thing. We're gonna read the last little bit here. The next part of this is the most intense part of the passage. And if you were here last week, you heard me mention either last week's subject matter or this week's is the most intense. So what we're about to read has caused people anxiety. But it's important for us to know the context getting into this. So let's just recap. The narrow road is salvation through Jesus Christ. It's exclusive. There are people that Jesus refers to as false prophets. They're predators that will blend in, but they're gonna try to steer people away from Jesus. And then Jesus elaborates on these predators in more verses here. Verse 21, look at this. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name, drive out demons. And in your name, perform many miracles. And then I will tell them plainly, here's the heavy part, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.

These verses, again, have caused a lot of people that I know, a lot of anxiety throughout their life. Because the feeling that is kind of always there is, what if I'm that person? What if I'm the person who thinks I'm good, and then I stand before Jesus and he says, sorry, got to see in college out of here and I have to move on. How do I know? I mean, these people, it seemed like they thought they were good and now they're standing before Jesus and he says, away from me. So how can I know? And there's an anxiety that's present there. For a lot of young kids, there is something called separation anxiety where in their early years, every time they're separated from their parents, they panic because object permanence hasn't set in yet. So at like one and two years old, when they're away from mom and dad, there's this feeling of, I'm never gonna see them again. Usually kids grow out of it around one and two. For me, I was a very anxious kid. You've heard me talk about this before. This went on for me, even up until six and seven. Every time I was away from my parents, I was panicked. So I remember moments when they would like go on dates and I was like, this is it.

I'm never gonna see them again. This is the moment. Like I'm gonna become an orphan while they're at Olive Garden. This is the moment right here. Just always, now's the time, right? I was always panicked and dreaming about that. So there was a book that I had to read that just fed this fear. And I was seven years old. I had to read a book that was assigned for school. The book was called, The Man Who Loved Clowns. It's not scary for the reason it sounds. That sounds like a horror movie. It wasn't scary for that reason. The Man Who Loved Clowns. In this book, very early. Early on in the book, the main character, her parents drop her off at an amusement park and then they leave and an hour later, they die in a car crash. And this book depicts the young girl sitting, I mean, in my exact fear, sitting and waiting. And it's like, wow, they haven't, they're not back yet. And it keeps going and then the police show up and they break it. I mean, it goes through all of this. I was seven and that was like my deepest fear. It's like feeding this so bad. So I learned a very important lesson from that book,

which is reading is bad for you and dumb. And so I never read another book. That was the last one, I swore it off. No, I'm just kidding, I love reading. It fed my fear though. It fed this fear that was deep there, which is I'm never gonna see them again if they leave. They're gonna leave me forever. This passage, I think feeds into an anxiety that is present into so many people. Which even as I've talked to people this weekend, they've said, yeah, I have felt that way. Which is, how do I know where I'm at with God? Like if eternity is on the line and maybe someday I'll stand before him and he might say, away from me, I never knew you. How do I make sure that I'm okay? There's an anxious feeling there. So we're gonna end the message with how do we have confidence and peace and assurance in Jesus. But remember this section that we just read, it was a follow-up to Jesus's warning about predators, about dangerous wolves. So remember, what he says is, there are wolves that are gonna blend in among Christians, so pay attention to their fruit because not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Sometimes those verses get separated

into not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, so we gotta watch out. But it came after Jesus's warning to say, there's predators that are gonna blend in, so pay attention to their fruit because not everybody who says, Lord, Lord, actually means it. So there's a couple things that we can notice about these people from their conversation with Jesus. When they're at the gates of heaven and Jesus says, you can't come in, they say a couple things. First of all, they call Jesus their master. They say, Lord, Lord, they say it twice, which was a way of emphasizing, God, you're our master. We also know they did spectacular work, so they're prophesying, performing miracles, they're casting out demons, and they say it's in Jesus' name, so they're claiming the work of God. They talk and look the part, but Jesus says to them, I was never really your master. Jesus says, pay attention to the fruit of their lives because these predators are gonna blend in by performing miracles and casting out demons and calling Jesus their master, but they're not actually gonna live that last part out. So in this specific example that Jesus is giving, we'll put this on the screen, the sheep's clothing, the disguise of the wolf

was spiritual power and religious devotion, meaning the camouflage was actually the thing that most people would consider good fruit. The thing that they're hiding behind is the thing that most people would say, okay, miracles, prophecy, being deeply religiously devoted, casting out demons, that's not good fruit. Jesus is saying, that's not the fruit that you're looking for. In fact, some will do those things, but the rest of their life will not be obedient to God. You can be religiously passionate and perform miracles and still be greedy, selfish, prideful, manipulative, divisive, bitter, self-glorifying. When we see the conversation with these people that Jesus called wolves, they didn't get to heaven with that conversation and admit that they were wolves. They don't seem to think at all. Like they don't go to Jesus and say, gotcha, we're the wolves, suckers. We got you, we're going to hell now. No, they are shocked. They can't believe, we did all these things for you. They thought they were doing great because of religious passion and power. Why is this dangerous? Because you and I can say all the right things about God. We can accomplish amazing things for God,

but we can put our faith in ourself and still live on our terms. Let me say this another way. Jesus points out, you can have passion for God, power through God without submitting to him. Okay, this is good. I want to say this again. You can have passion for God and have power through the name of Jesus without actually submitting to and obeying him. Jesus warned about this trap, which is to shift our faith from Jesus to what we have to offer. How? You're living our morals, our behaviors, our results, our knowledge. And this is the exact conversation that Jesus has with these wolves. Their response to Jesus saying, you can't come in, it reveals where their faith is. Where was their faith? They say, we can't come in, but look at all these things we did. We cast out demons, we prophesied, we did miracles, and we did it for you. We did it in your name. And Jesus says, yes, but I was never really your master. You did all that for you. So Jesus says, you did all of these things and you said you did it for me,

but you were never actually obedient. So good fruit, the fruit that Jesus wants us to pay attention to, always comes from obedience to Jesus. It's loving difficult people and forgiving your enemies and giving to the needy and confessing sin and giving up idols, holding your tongue, speaking with kindness. These things are not the ticket to heaven. We don't do those things to earn salvation. They are the fruit of who you follow. When you follow Jesus and he's your master, he brings those things out of you. So Jesus' warning is, be careful of the people that will try to steer you away into doing the right things, but you stop following. Jesus wants obedience and surrender before passion and power. Obedience and surrender. Because we can be disobedient to God and convince ourselves that it's fine because we're doing great things or because we say the right things or because we stay devoted religiously, when what Jesus really wants is your heart and your faith and your trust, your dependence, your affection, your obedience. True life on the narrow road only comes through obedience and surrender to Jesus. We bring him our heart, he changes us, we follow. That's what he's asking for.

Staying on the narrow road is not about effort. It's not about doing the right things and being the most passionate and doing the most amazing things. It's not about trying. Staying on the narrow road is about who you're following. So Jesus, in a different part of the gospels, gives the analogy that he's like a shepherd, which ties into the wolf in sheep's clothing. In John chapter 10, verse 14, here's the complete image he gives. He says, I am the good shepherd. This is Jesus talking. I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. So our only responsibility, follow the shepherd. If I'm anxious, I'm confused, I'm worried, I'm not sure where I'm at with God, what's my responsibility? Follow the shepherd, keep your eyes on Jesus. So here's the main point, we'll put it on the screen. When I follow the shepherd, he's never gonna lead me, mislead me, or abandon me. Never mislead me, never abandon me. The shepherd is not out to trick you. Sometimes this is the fear of, I'm trying to follow Jesus, but how can I really know if maybe someday it will be a secret test and I've messed it up? This is the image that calms the anxiety,

is Jesus is a good shepherd who knows his sheep and cares about us more than we know. God is committed to you. Listen, God is more committed to guiding and leading you as his sheep than you could ever be to following. But the warning is don't get distracted into doing things for God, but stop following him. I've seen this over and over again in my life. People in the church and people in ministry, all over, people stay doing the things for God, but they take their eyes off the shepherd. It's all about keeping your eyes on Jesus, keep your eyes on the shepherd. So if you're worried, man, what if I get to heaven? He says, I never knew you. Remember, Jesus' point was the people who said that never were interested in following me. They were never interested in knowing me or obeying me. Their faith was always in their devotion, in their power, in their morality, in their ability. But if you come to the good shepherd and say, I need help, Jesus, I need you to lead me, I need you to teach me, bam, he's drawn to that like a magnet, he loves that. So you need to know that if you're following him, he's never going to mislead you. He's not trying to trick you. He's not gonna abandon you. What do we do? We keep our eyes on the shepherd. For some of us in this room,

we have drifted into doing religious things, but we've started to take our eyes off the shepherd. Maybe you're even passionate about doing church-related things or Bible-related things. things, being devoted to religious things, but the shepherd doesn't have your heart maybe like he once did. And he wants to call you back on the narrow path, not to give effort, but to keep your eyes on your shepherd, on who you're following. So a couple things we can remember to stay on this path, not to have effort, but to follow. Couple things we need to remember. First thing we need to remember is remember your spiritual poverty. What does this mean? This is how Jesus started the whole Sermon on the Mount. At the very beginning, there's a section called the Beatitudes where he says, blessed are these people for they blank, they will get blank. So he says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. His point is the posture that attracts God, the posture of how you can follow is not offering something to him, performing for him. What is it? It's saying, there's nothing I have to offer you, God. That posture is precious to him because we understand there is nothing that I can do

or say or perform that will ever earn me something from God. It's so easy for us to get off course here where we start to put faith in what we do, in our ability, in knowledge, in miracles, in our religious devotion, when the posture that's precious to Jesus, no matter how long we're following is saying, I've got nothing to offer except my heart. So Jesus, here I am, I wanna follow you. So we gotta remember that, that's the starting place, that posture to say, I've got nothing to offer you, God, but Lord, I wanna follow you. So here's the second one. Number one, we gotta remember the source of your hope. It is so easy to drift, like we've been saying, where you start to take your eyes off Jesus and you start to put it on yourself or your performance, your knowledge. We have to fight against our tendency in all of us to redirect the source of our confidence. That's a tendency in all of us. So what's the source? Romans chapter five, verse eight says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And since we've now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son,

how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life? So the source of our hope is Jesus's death and sacrifice and life and grace that he offers us for free. We have to resist the tendency to put our faith in other places because what we can do is get out of a position of spiritual poverty and without realizing it, we take our eyes off the shepherd, we stop following, and then the source of our hope is somewhere else. So we remember our spiritual poverty. Remember the source of your hope, which is Jesus Christ, his leadership, his grace, his mercy. And then here's the third one. Remember the voice of your master, of your shepherd. This is actually another part of Jesus's teaching about him being the shepherd. In John 10, verse three, he says, he calls his sheep, or he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them. And his sheep follow him because, look, they know his voice. So what's the encouragement? Learn to know the voice of God. Dig into his words. Surround yourself with godly people. Sometimes what happens is in the busyness of life, when we start to drift into doing the right things,

but our heart's not in it, we're not surrendering our heart to God, we stop listening to the voice of our master. The reminder that you need this morning, I've been praying about this, is God is not withholding his voice from you. The shepherd wants to speak to you. Sometimes we have a hard time believing that because of our feelings, but we need this reminder that God's heart doesn't change. What happens is the busyness and noise of life causes us to drown out his voice. Because God doesn't speak on our terms the way that we would like him to, or he doesn't speak like humans do, sometimes we start to feel like he's silent because we have not developed the discipline to tune in. I remember I went through one of the darkest seasons of my life years back. I was a young dad, my kids were real young, and I was working here, and I was just anxious all the time. Never felt like I was... Doing good enough at anything Didn't feel like I was doing well here you know I would go home and my kids are young and I was like I don't know what I'm doing which is how a Lot of parents feel and and you know anytime I wasn't doing one of those things I was drowning out the rest of my life with noise So it was work work work work work Try to find ways to earn a little extra income to provide for my family Work work work and then come home and drown out noise TV music podcasts

Anything to numb the rest of what was going on and that cycle just continued work work work noise noise noise. That's it And I had been doing the things that I grew up with I was working here at church coming to church Sometimes you know I'm still praying. I'm still reading the Bible, but my life was drowned out with noise and I stopped listening to the voice of God This is one of the most important moments of my life one of the most painful seasons I ever went through, but it took a couple of really hard conversations and moments that broke me to where I came on my knees Crying out to God. I said God. I need your help I'm not seeing clearly and God started to reveal to me You haven't been tuning into my voice So very gently he started to pick away at these things the noise the work the anxiety the frustration Insecurity and started to remind me listen you got to tune into the voice of your shepherd I still have so many things written in my journal from that period of time that I come back to to remind myself God is not withholding his voice from his sheep So if you feel like man, I but I haven't heard him God doesn't speak in the way that we want We have to learn to tune ourselves to the shepherds voice but doing that means We allow him to show where we've been drowning out his voice So that's part of what this message will be would just be to say come back to the voice of your shepherd Come back to your shepherd who loves you who wants to lead you the source of your hope So we got to remember our spiritual poverty. We have nothing to offer God. We remember that Jesus Christ His saving grace that's offered to us. That's our hope. We remember that God wants to speak to us We got to tune into his voice. And then here's the last one remember that obedience trumps power and religious devotion Who you follow matters more than what you're doing You can do all the right things and not follow Jesus You can come to church. You can pray you can read the Bible and still not obey and not follow not give him your heart

So Jesus reminds us how to have good fruit If you want to be the tree that bears good fruit rather than bad, how do you make that happen? John 15 for here's what he says remain in me as I also remain in you No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither. Can you bear fruit? Unless you remain in me How do we stay on the narrow road What do we do? It's not effort. It's not passion. It's not power run to your shepherd Run to Jesus give him your heart Tell him he's in charge surrender to him. Keep your eyes on him. Say whatever you tell me Lord Sometimes we get distracted by Doing things This has actually been my prayer for this weekend as I believe there's a group of us here that have been doing the same things maybe even doing the right religious things, but we've taken our eyes off Jesus and What Jesus wants is not more religious devotion and more power more passion. He wants your heart We've been so busy doing things that we've taken our eyes off of him We've stopped following and we haven't been giving him our heart So the reminder is come back to the shepherd Passion and power are not the fruit that he's after those will follow What's he after? Obedience? love surrender and Then he brings the fruit So as we get ready to close, would you just bow your heads close your eyes with me in this room There's several of you I believe that are here in this room that I've really been praying for you about this part Because you are where I was Busy busy busy so much noise anxious may be depressed. Sometimes you contemplate the state of your life the meaning of it, the fact that we're all gonna die,

the meaninglessness of life, and it hits you like a ton of bricks. And I believe this part of the message is for you, that God's been preparing your heart for this moment because your shepherd is saying, run to me. Not perform, not try to do a bunch of good things, come back to your shepherd. This is why Jesus came. It's what we were just reading about. God himself came down, human flesh, lived a sinless life, nailed to a cross, suffered a brutal death in our place, in your place, so that you can be forgiven. This life is not all there is. Nobody knows when our final breath will be. But what we do know is, whether or not you give your life to Jesus affects your eternity. This is what Jesus teaches. So some of you in the room, this is your moment to say, I want to come to the shepherd. I wanna give my life to him. I'm not gonna live life my way. Work, work, work, anxiety, noise, and keep that cycle going, come to the shepherd. If that's you this morning and you're saying, I wanna give my life to Jesus, when I count to three, I want you to raise your hand. Why do I do this?

When you're choosing to follow Jesus Christ who died for you, you're making a decision that affects your eternity. You can't just think it. It's gotta have an act of your will. If that's you, I want you to be bold. This is the most important thing ever. Ready? One, two, three. Just slip up your hand and say, I'm coming back to the shepherd. Beautiful, yeah. As you're stretching it up, you say, Jesus, I wanna come to you. I need your forgiveness. I need your leadership. That's so good. Put your hands down. Let's all pray together. Everybody in the room, just a prayer of commitment, of repentance, coming back to Jesus. Repeat after me. Me say, dear Jesus, thank you for dying on that cross. Thanks for taking my place. Jesus, I need your forgiveness. I need you to lead me. I'm done living life my way. I need you to be my shepherd. I wanna follow you.

I give my life to you now. And say this. Say, Jesus, I need your peace. I need your love. I need your forgiveness. I need to hear your voice. So I surrender to you, in Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen, amen. Give it up for those that made that decision. All right. Okay, let's all stand to our feet now. And we're gonna put this into practice. So first of all, if you gave your life to Jesus today, you raised your hand, that is the most important decision ever. It begins a life journey of following the shepherd. This should not be something that you do on your own. We want to walk alongside you. So we've got a team of pastors here that are ready to equip you. Whatever you need, walk with you. We have an area called the Salvation Center, which I think one of our pastors may or may not be back there, I can't tell. Wave at me if somebody's back there. I don't think anybody's back there right now, that's okay. I'm gonna go back there as we're worshiping. So if you raised your hand and you gave your life to Jesus, even as we're singing, meet me back there. I'd love to shake your hand.

We've got some resources that'll help you take some next steps. As we sing this, it's a song maybe you don't know, it's super easy, super easy song for us to put this into practice. Because some of you have been so busy that you've taken your eyes off Jesus. Maybe you're doing all the right things, but he doesn't have your heart. The purpose of this moment of worship is to say, before I rush out, sprint to get lunch, take care of the family, think about school, think about my busy week, give the shepherd your heart. That's what this is all about, building on this foundation. So just do this with me, close your eyes, tilt your face up like you're giving Jesus your attention. Lord, we take a breath in this moment to pause before you, to say, we wanna follow you, we love you, we give you our heart. Let's sing the song. I'll be out in just a minute to close us. ♪ Oh I wanna know you, I wanna know you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪ I'm gonna love you, give all my heart to you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you, I wanna know you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪ And be known by You ♪ ♪ I'm gonna love You ♪

♪ Give all my heart to You ♪ ♪ I'm gonna know You and be known by You ♪ ♪ And my devotion, my affection, oh my way of life ♪ ♪ If I pour it out, I pour it out on You ♪ ♪ My devotion, my affection, oh my worship ♪ ♪ If I pour it out, I pour it out on You ♪ ♪ My devotion, my affection, oh my worship ♪ ♪ If I pour it out, I pour it out on You ♪ ♪ My devotion, my affection, oh my worship ♪ ♪ If I pour it out, I pour it out on You, oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Yes, I wanna know You and be known by You ♪ ♪ Yes, I wanna know You, I wanna know You ♪ ♪ I wanna know You and be known by You ♪ ♪ I'm gonna love You, give all my heart to You ♪ ♪ I wanna know You and be known by You ♪ ♪ Oh, I wanna know You, I wanna know You ♪ ♪ I wanna know You and be known by You ♪ ♪ I'm gonna love You, give all my heart to You ♪ ♪ I wanna know You and be known by You ♪ Sing it one more time, I wanna know You. ♪ Oh, I wanna know You, I wanna know You ♪ ♪ I wanna know You and be known by You ♪ That's all I want. ♪ I'm gonna love You, give all my heart to You ♪ ♪ I wanna know You and be known by You ♪ Yeah, just keep your eyes closed for one second. For so many of you, this is a precious moment because it's one of the first moments in a long time you're just kind of coming back to put your eyes on Jesus. Maybe you've been doing all the things

but it's the first moment to say, Jesus, You have my heart. So just tell Him that now. Jesus, like a child to His Father, Lord, I give You my heart, tell Him that now. Take a breath, slow down. Jesus, You matter to me more than anything else. Everything else is gonna fade away, but I wanna follow You. Yeah, and now just think of whatever the thing is maybe that has been causing you anxiety, give that to the shepherd now. So whatever that is, think of it and just say, Jesus, I trust You with this. Just whisper that to Him. We can pray for solutions and we can pray for answers, but now just commit it to His hands. As you're following Him, we say, Jesus, I trust You as my shepherd. I trust You, Jesus. I wanna follow You. Yeah, and one last thing now before we go is taking a step of obedience, right, is what this is all about is we can do religious things but not listen to what He's asking us to do. So let's just have a moment to say, God, whatever You want me to do, Lord, help me to tune into Your voice. Help me to tune into what You're speaking.

I wanna take a step of obedience, no matter how hard it is, because I wanna follow You. Yeah, now just stretch forth your hand. Let me pray a prayer of blessing over you. Before we go, I just pray that as you keep your eyes on the shepherd, that peace that transcends understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That you'll begin to tune into the voice of your shepherd like never before on a daily basis. Not that you'll have to prove something with passion or power or devotion, but there will be a song in your heart that wakes up in the morning to say, Jesus, I trust You. Through frustration and pain, confusion, loss, I trust my shepherd. I pray that his grace will fill your life. Even when the world around you is in chaos, that the grace of God will make the inside of your life like the calm in a storm. I pray his grace and his favor would rest upon you and upon your family in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Team's gonna stick around and lead us. And for some of you, a good step of obedience is just, this is the first time in a while that you're calming everything just to worship.

Some of you just need to stick around, right? I'll dismiss officially now. Thanks for being here, but if you wanna just stick around and worship, the team's gonna lead us. Thanks for being here. Have a great weekend. ♪ Oh, I wanna know you ♪ ♪ Oh, I wanna know you ♪ ♪ Oh, I wanna know you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪ I'm gonna love you, give all my heart to you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you, I wanna know you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪ I'm gonna love you, give all my heart to you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪ It's my devotion, my affection, all my worship ♪ ♪ I pour it out, I pour it out on you, my devotion ♪ ♪ I pour it out, I pour it out on you, my devotion ♪ ♪ My affection, all my worship ♪ ♪ I pour it out, I pour it out on you, my devotion ♪ ♪ My affection, all my worship ♪ ♪ I pour it out, I pour it out on you, my devotion ♪ ♪ My affection, all my worship ♪ ♪ I pour it out, I pour it out on you, my devotion ♪ ♪ My devotion, all my worship ♪ ♪ My affection, all my worship ♪ ♪ I pour it out, I pour it out on you, my devotion ♪

♪ Cause I wanna know you, I wanna know you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪ I'm gonna love you, give all my heart to you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you, my devotion ♪ ♪ My devotion, my affection, all my worship ♪ ♪ My affection, all my worship ♪ ♪ I pour it out, I pour it out on you, my devotion ♪ ♪ My affection, all my worship ♪ ♪ I pour it out, I pour it out on you, my devotion ♪ ♪ I pour it out, I pour it out on you, my devotion ♪ ♪ Cause I wanna know you, I wanna know you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪ I'm gonna love you, give all my heart to you ♪ ♪ I wanna know you and be known by you ♪ ♪♪ Thanks for watching!