Week 3 | “How do I move forward with confidence?”

As we enter our time together today, my family and I are coming up on 90 days at Willow Creek. It has been a great 90 days. I think all indications are a go that they're gonna keep me. I think things are gonna be pretty good. We are excited about it. We left our home in Raleigh, North Carolina in January, and we have moved here, and we have loved being a part of Willow Creek. Truly, God has blessed us to be here at a season where God is on the move, and we can see his hands all over the place at work, and we're very thankful to be here. Now, I'm the kind of pastor who likes to get out and get around and talk to people, right? I like to get outside my office. I actually used to have a sign on my office door that said, like, this pastor needs to get his sermon done, and he loves to talk, so just give him a minute, right? Because I do, I love talking to people. I love to get to know you. I love hanging out with you. I love hearing the questions that you have for me, and as I've been moving through Willow Creek, getting to know a lot of you, the questions seem to fall into about three categories. They're very familiar questions, and I have kind of coined some answers and responses to them.

Like, the first question I always get, without fail, everybody always asks me, how you doing with the weather, buddy? To which I always answer, I got here in January. You know how I'm doing with the weather. Like, it's frozen, and then it thaws, and then it freezes again, right? And so when you get here, you buy a coat, and then you quickly realize you need to buy a bigger coat. And so it's been fine. I bought a bigger coat. Everything's been great. I'm from upstate New York originally. I'm rolling with it, okay? It's been good. The second question I always get, it seems to have a little bit more intensity to it. You know, people look me square in the eye when they ask this, and it kind of goes like this. Dwayne, packers or bears? Cubs or socks? And I always say it this way. It depends on who bought the tickets, okay? Listen, I will cheer for your bear socks or your cub packers, whatever it is. Like, if you bought the tickets, I'm rolling. Like, that's all right. I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm from New York. Let's move on, okay?

But the third question is a little bit deeper, and it cuts at the core of my heart in a way that's a little bit different, because that question is always the same. Dwayne, what made you come and be a part of Willow Creek at this season in your life? You see, that's a little bit different. That dives down a layer into a process and a journey that my wife and I have taken over a long period of time. You see, we came to this place that I like to call an intersection of life. It's a moment where you dig a little bit deeper and you're trying to understand what might be next or where God might be leading, and for us, that happened about two years ago where my wife and I found ourselves at this intersection of life, and we were asking the question, the same question we've been asking as we've moved through this whole series, God, is that you? Are you guiding this? You see, we were experiencing a very fruitful season of ministry, and so when we started feeling God's prompting towards something different, we started asking a lot of questions. You know, I think that our story, sounds like maybe it's an uncommon story, but it's not, because the truth is is that we all come

to these kinds of intersections of our lives, excuse me, these moments where we try to answer questions and try to understand where God might be leading us or guiding us, and this whole series has been about hearing the voice of God and responding to that voice with a sense of confidence where we move forward by faith into whatever it is that God is calling us into, and that was true of my wife and I. Maybe you were at one of those moments where you were at the intersection of life. You know, you walked in here today into one of our campuses, or maybe if you're sitting in your living room and your family is working through some of these kinds of decisions, things like deciding who you will marry and build a life with, things like deciding how you are gonna raise your children if you've just had children, how you're gonna lead your family, responding to failure and disappointment or unanswered prayers in your life, deciding whether the pain that you experienced is gonna make you better, or if you're gonna allow it to make you better. These are the intersections of life. Choosing forgiveness when hurt seems to feel so justified. Deciding whether you can trust God in a moment of uncertainty.

Taking a step of faith when the outcome seems. It's unclear. These are the intersections of life. You know what I've learned is that when we're trying to develop spiritual confidence, we can't wait until we come to the major intersections of life. That's something we have to develop on the journey. It's something that comes through a relationship with Jesus and it comes over time as we begin to trust God in the small things and we watch him move in the big things. You see, spiritual confidence is not formed at the intersection. It's formed much before that. It's formed in the daily practices of walking with God. For the past few weeks, we've been talking about how to hear God's voice clearly and today, we're gonna be taking those next steps and learning how to hear God's voice but also how to respond with obedience and confidence towards whatever it is he is moving us into. We're gonna do that through the lens of one of the most comforting, one of the most powerful passages in all of the Bible and it's a passage that if we listen to it, if we really apply it to how we live our lives, it should give us great confidence to move forward by faith again into whatever God calls us to. So if you have your Bibles, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go ahead and open them up to John chapter 10.

We're gonna be reading from verse 14 today and we're gonna zoom in on this passage. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them up and this is a passage where Jesus refers to himself as the good shepherd. So we're gonna start by reading from verses 14 through 16 and we're gonna move a little bit further down to verse 27 through 29. So put your finger on 27 through 29 as we read through 14 through 16. Here's what Jesus says. It's important to know the context. Jesus is speaking to some Jewish people, some religious leaders around him and he's describing himself again as the good shepherd who truly loves and leads his people and he explains to all of those who are there that he is good shepherd. You see in verse 14, he says these words. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me and just as the father knows me, I know the father and I laid out my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen and I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. And then you move a little bit further down and zone in on verse 27. He kind of reiterates what he says

but he says it in a different way. He says, my sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one will ever snatch them out of my hand. See, my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one can ever snatch them out of my father's hand. You know, the first truth that Jesus shares here is really essential and I think if we apply it to how we live, it should give us great confidence because in verse 14, Jesus says these words. I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and my sheep, they know me. You see, the first step in developing the kind of confidence that we need is that we need to understand that the sheep, excuse me, that the shepherd knows the sheep. He knows his sheep. You know, the language that is used there to describe that knowledge that he has of us, it's a language that is deep relationship. It's a language that talks about him knowing us fully and knowing us completely and this is not surface level knowledge. The shepherd knows his sheep. This is deep. This is personal. This is intimate. It's intentional and Jesus is saying,

I know them who belong to me. I know their name. I know their story. I know their struggles, their hurts, their habits, their hangups. I know their future. I know even the bad parts of their story that they may not wanna make public because I know them. And can I just say how comforting that is and how confident that should make us? Because in a world where most people often go unseen or we often go overlooked, it should give us great confidence and comfort to know that in the midst of that kind of life and that kind of world that we have a God who cares to fully know us and fully love us. Now, I said I was gonna do some amen training at Willow Creek. That's a moment where we should all say praise God. Yeah. Because the shepherd knows his sheep. Jesus is saying, I know who belongs to me. and not partially know them, are fully known. So we are not partially known, we're not vaguely known, we're fully known. And in being fully known, we're also fully loved. And see, the shepherd doesn't just watch the sheep from a distance, he knows them. Even when you watch shepherds at work

in everyday ordinary life, you watch them spend close time with the sheep. And Jesus has that kind of relationship with those who are his. If you find yourself in a place where you feel overlooked or unseen, can I recommend Jesus? Because he wants to know you, like he wants to be close to you, he wants to be intimate with you, and that kind of knowledge of you helps Jesus to guide us to exactly where he would have us to be. And if God truly knows us, then his guidance is never based on guesswork, it's never based on distance, it's never based on misunderstanding, it's complete, it's relational, it's perfect. And as he guides our steps, it should give us confidence. Confidence in the voice of God begins with understanding the fact that the shepherd knows the sheep. You know, when we come to these moments, these intersections of life, and we wonder, does God really see me? Does he understand all that I'm actually going through? Like, does he know what I'm actually walking through? Does he know all the things that I've done? Does he know what I did yesterday? Does he know that I struggle with forgiveness?

Does he know that I struggle with sin? Does he know that I've had a hard time walking this journey out? Because it hasn't been easy, and the answer is yes. He knows you fully, he knows you completely, and he still chooses to love you. Amen? And to do that, to understand that, we need to trust that the shepherd knows his sheep. You know, that's the kind of God that we should want to be close to. That's the kind of relationship that we should desire to have and that leads me to the second thing that the passage unpacks. You see, as you go a little bit deeper into John chapter 10, verse 27, Jesus says, my sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me. You see, the key of this is, is that while the shepherd knows the sheep, the sheep also need to know the shepherd. See, our confidence in God's voice, it's built through relationship. Because the more we know him, the more we begin to recognize and actually trust his voice with confidence. There's a relationship here between the sheep and the shepherd. And what Jesus is talking about, what he's speaking about,

is that we must learn to get close enough to actually listen and then follow God. And that depicts a relationship that is close and intimate. A relationship where the shepherd is always growing closer to the sheep and the sheep choose to grow closer to the shepherd. You see, knowing the shepherd, it's not just about awareness of God. It's about recognizing his voice in the middle of all the other voices that are competing for our attention. You know, as you look at our world every day, there are all kinds of things that are trying to drown out the voice of God. And the closer we get to him, the more we actually hear his voice more clearly. I mean, things like fear, drowning out the voice of God. There are culture, drowning out the voice of God. Pressure on us, drowning out the voice of God. Anxiety, ambition, these are all the things that compete with actually being able to hear God's voice and put what he's saying into practice. So our goal has always been the same. To grow closer to the shepherd. And recognition grows over time as we learn how to weed out the other voices and how to respond to the Savior's voice. You see, what I've learned is that the more time sheep spend near the shepherd, the more familiar his voice becomes.

You know, as we get close to him, we start learning how to hear him more. And true confidence comes from knowing his voice well enough to trust him and to follow him, and that's the kind of existence we have to have. A real desire in our lives to actually please God with our lives. You know, even as I was coming to Willow, that was the kind of concerns that my wife and I had. Because I told you that we had had this fruitful ministry, and we were like, man, how are you leading us towards something different right now? And I can tell you what it looked like in my daily life, like it may look the same in yours, I hope it does, because I can tell you where I started at. I started at a place of actually desiring to please God. And in that, we had a desire for obedience to God. You know, when my wife and I said yes to Jesus a long time ago, that yes didn't come with an expiration date, amen? We said to ourselves, God, wherever you send us, whatever you have for us to do, we wanna do that. And so we had this deep desire to be obedient to whatever God would call us to. We had a desire for obedience. And in addition to that, we had this deep desire to see fruitful ministry weave in and through our lives. The Bible says that we are built up, we are built up in Him for a life of faithful service. That God, the goal was always to bear fruit

for the kingdom of God. Amen. And oftentimes when we're trying to discern, we're trying to discern through the lens of what's best for me, what's best for the culture, what's best for those around me. The question that we probably need to be asking is what will bear fruit for the kingdom of God? We found ourselves in this place. We knew we wanted God to get the most glory from how we lived our lives. We didn't wanna do that in a bubble. So we consulted the word of God. I mean, we went straight to the Bible. And I don't know how much you read the Bible, but as I was reading the New Testament in preparation for what God might be calling us to, over and over again, I just kept seeing this common theme, that God is building His church. And He's using faithful people to build it. And my wife and I wanted to be those kinds of faithful people, the kind of people that God can trust to build His church. Everything started being really clear, right? We still had questions. And so we consulted wise counsel. You know, we went to some friends who we've known for a long time. And it wasn't just any friends, right? Because some friends you go to,

they're not gonna point you in the direction of where God is leading. They're not gonna invite you to hear God's voice. They're gonna invite you to do what they think seems right. And these friends were people who knew God and who knew us. They were people who had taken similar steps of faith. And so we consulted wise counsel, and wise counsel said, you need to go to Willow Creek, amen? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You see, when the intersections of life come, we shouldn't have to start from scratch. It should be a part of a long journey of taking processes like that, of learning how to hear the word of God clearly and move out with confidence. But it gets even better than that. It gets even better when we recognize that certainly the shepherd knows the sheep, and the sheep needs to know the shepherd. But in that relationship, the shepherd actually holds on to the sheep. You know, one of the things that gives us confidence is to know that God doesn't give up on us.

You know, when you look at John chapter 10, verse 28 through 29, the Bible says, "'I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. "'No one will ever snatch them out of my hand.' "'Oh yes, the shepherd holds the sheep. "'He holds them, and he doesn't stumble in that holding.'" And I gotta tell you, like, that's good news for somebody like me, because I would love to stand up here as a pastor and tell you that when I decided to follow Jesus, that every decision was right, that every time God said to move or go or do or be something, that I was ready to respond with faith and confidence. The truth is, it's been a journey of learning. It's been a process of me trusting God in the little things and that giving me confidence to trust him in the big things. It's not been this easy moment, because sometimes, if I'm honest, I have taken some left turns or some right turns. I've had some moments where I've veered off course and done things that I probably shouldn't have done. And I love that God never dropped me, that he never gave up on me, that he kept, through his spirit and through his word, inviting me back into deep relationship with him. You know, I look at verse 28 and 29, and he says, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one will ever snatch them out of my hands.

This is really strong language from Jesus here. Because what he means, is that our security is not based on our perfect decisions. It's not based on our own strength at all. It's actually based on the strength of the shepherd. So we shouldn't do things intentionally to pull ourselves away from God. That's not what Jesus is saying here, but the truth is is that you can misunderstand, you can stumble, you can even take a wrong step, but you are still fully held, still fully loved by the good shepherd, even if you veered off course. Even if you wander, he doesn't stop being the shepherd, he pursues his sheep, and he finds us exactly where we are. You know, years ago, and I'm old enough, I'm gonna date myself here, I'm old enough to remember when GPS came out, okay? All right, let's move on, okay? But I remember when it started. Before that, you used to have to print out directions, and you would print this thing from MapQuest, I think it was called, and you would put it in your car, and you would try to drive down the road, and you would say, we need to turn here at Albuquerque, and your wife would say, no, we don't. I'd say, no, no, we need to turn here. No, no, we don't, no, we don't, right? And then we got these GPS things,

and one of the first ones that came out was called the TomTom. Anybody remember the TomTom? Yeah, it was really cool. Yeah, y'all are my age, praise God. If you are under my age, that's called an iPhone now, okay? But at the time, it was called a TomTom, and I can tell you what I love the most about TomTom. You could put in a destination, you could target your course, so where you needed to go, right? And the best part about it is it gave my wife somebody to argue with in the car. It was awesome, it was awesome. TomTom would say something, we need to go this way, and my wife would be like, no, we don't. I'd be like, y'all fight it out, it's great. I can just sit over here and drive, we're good. You know, from time to time, TomTom would give us directions, and we would veer off course. We would go the wrong way, we would take the wrong exit. And the thing that I loved about it is that it didn't start us back over from the beginning. I mean, we might be 300 or 400 miles away from where we were supposed to be. We would go off course, go the wrong direction, and this thing would say something that was really crucial. It would say, recalculating. And right where we were,

it would go about the work of taking us to where we needed to be. You know, I think this is the picture of God's grace in our lives. Because the truth is, is that when God speaks, he has a destination in mind. And that destination is to glorify God with how we live our lives. But the truth is, is that if we're honest, there are times where we go off course, and we choose our own pathway, and we go the direction that we want to go instead of the direction that he's coaching us to go. And when we go off course, maybe you're here and you're in this moment, you've come to some intersections in life, and you have seen the effects of going the wrong direction. You need to know that God is not done with you yet. Amen? He's not done with you. He doesn't throw you away. He doesn't need to start you from the beginning. He can redirect your path right where you are. He can love you where you are, and he has the power to encourage you to grow, to get you back on track and back on course. You know, this is where the sovereign will of God comes into effect that we talked about in the first week. And there's this interaction between the allowable will of God and sovereign will of God.

This is where God has the power to direct us to where he wants us to go, and he'll keep sending messages through the Holy Spirit and through his word to get our attention. And maybe you're sitting here, or you're sitting at one of our campuses, or you're watching online, or you're watching at Jefferson City, or maybe you're sitting in the balcony, and you're wondering, can I get back on course? Yes. Yes. You can get back on course. Because God loves you, and he desires a relationship with you. He wants to be the kind of shepherd that you as the sheep can get to know him. And he cares intimately and deeply about who you are personally. And he wants to guide you towards his perfect plan for your life. So you don't need to stay where you are. You can get back on course. on course right now. You know, I wanna give you some guidance that kinda helps us to do that. And this is some real practical advice in how to get back into that kind of relationship with God. Or maybe for the first time, if you've never trusted Jesus,

we'd love to talk to you about that at all of our Next Steps area at the end of service, about what it means to be a Christ follower. If you have already decided to follow Jesus and maybe you veered off course, I wanna give you some opportunity here with some practical information about how you can get back on track. Let me give you the first one. The first thing that we've been talking about through this whole series is really staying close to Jesus by reading his word. Can I just say that there is no substitute for reading and responding to the word of God. And I love our sermons, they're great, but I want you to dive into the word of God for yourself. To see what it says, to apply it to how you live your life. Staying close to the word of God reveals the character of God to us. We get to hear his voice more clearly and have confidence because we can see it right in his word. Let me give you the second one. I want you to talk to the Lord honestly in prayer, right? You know, when I was growing up, we had a song, have a little talk with Jesus. Tell him all about your troubles. Listen, he cares about the good parts and about the bad parts of your story. And you can talk honestly and openly through prayer

to Jesus. Let me give you another one. I want you to pay attention to the voices that are shaping your decisions. You know, who's actually speaking into your life? If we spend 12 hours on the internet and one hour with people who give us wise counsel, who's actually speaking into our lives, right? Our decisions are being shaped by someone who doesn't necessarily know God. And I want to invite you to reverse that reality by paying attention to whose voices you listen to. Let me give you another one. I want to invite you to get wise, godly people to speak into your life. You know, I didn't have to go searching for folks who know God and who know us because over the years, we've developed that kind of relationship. And I want to be clear here that that does not happen without intentional steps towards it. Now, we just talked a little bit about groups. Can I just tell you that like groups ministry is one of the places where you develop these kind of godly, wise relationships. If you are not in a small group, take out your phone right now, sign up to be a part of a group. I have never met anybody who took it seriously, who jumped into a group,

who really prayed through it and prepared for it and thought, God, what might you be doing through me in this group? Who didn't come out of it on the other side, stronger in their faith and stronger in their ability to listen and respond to the word of God. And so I invite you to be a part of a small group. Let me give you one last one. We got to practice listening and responding with confidence and obedience. We got to do that in the small moments of life. You know, the big intersections take a while to get through. They're a journey that take us a while. And even when we get the green light, the honest truth is that when we get the green light, sometimes we put the red light on ourselves. And we do it because there's a lot of fear surrounding moving through that green light, right? And so oftentimes what we actually want to do is go back to the beginning because we knew that back in the beginning, things were safe and we had control and we understood what was coming. Or maybe we'd get to that moment where the green light, God's given us the green light to move through the intersection. And rather than move through the intersection, what we actually want to do is stand still. But when God's voice speaks and he gives the green light, it's time to go. And that's the moment where we need to move forward

by faith and we need to move forward with confidence. You see, there's an obedience that comes with that. And it's learned in the little moments of our lives. You know, our lives should resemble what Eugene Peterson calls a long obedience in the same direction. When we say yes to Jesus and we just keep on saying yes. This whole series has been about hearing and responding to the voice of God. And I want to encourage you because that kind of response. starts with our desire to live lives that are pleasing to God. I told you in the beginning, when we came to Willow Creek, we started with the thought of how do we live in a way where God gets the most glory from how we live, right? If I were to get all the way to the end of the journey and look back and say that was a life that was pleasing to God, I can tell you that that's my desire, that's my goal, on my deathbed, I want to be like what Rick Warren says his father was like. He gets to this place where he is on his deathbed and he starts whispering something and Rick leans into his father and he just hears his father whispering over and over again, one more for Jesus. One more for Jesus. One more for Jesus.

That's the kind of life we all want to have, right? A life that's pleasing to God. And what I know is that for those of you watching online or at all of our campuses, maybe some of you are at the intersection of life right now and you're trying to figure out the next step. You're wondering if you've heard God right. Maybe you're feeling unsure about past decisions. Well, Jesus is reminding you and I today that your confidence shouldn't be found in your ability to always get it right. It's in his ability to hold us even when we don't. So take the next step. Stay close to his voice. Trust him in what you can clearly see right now and even in what feels uncertain. You know, I want to close with a quote from Thomas Merton that talks about our desires to please God. Here's what he says, I have no idea where I'm going. I don't even always see the road ahead, but I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. You know, the truth is, is that you don't have to see the whole road. You just have to stay close to the shepherd. He wants to lead us. He wants to guide us. He wants to guide us to and through his plans, his plans for our lives. And we need to be ready to move forward with confidence,

not just at the major intersections, at the little intersections of life. We need to be ready to hear and to move forward with confidence to God's guidance. And I'm gonna take a moment and pray for us. And I believe that if we are to do this collectively as a church, if we get the habit down of hearing and responding to the voice of God, can you imagine the difference in our church? Can you imagine the difference in our homes? Can you imagine the difference in Chicagoland? There are six million people in Chicagoland who need to know Jesus and don't. And a lot of it, we get the opportunity to reach them. We have to be the kind of people who hear and respond with confidence to the voice of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your grace and mercy. We thank you for your love poured out on us. Father, as we leave this place, would you help us to be the kind of people who hear and respond with confidence to your word? To where you're leading and guiding, we live lives that are pleasing to you, that glorify you, that lift your name up high. Will we be the kind of people who trust you with the plans that you have for us?

We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. God bless you.